Predarea Vocabularului Limbii Engleze Prin Intermediul Jocurilor Si a Povestilor la Ciclul Primar Si Gimnazialdoc

=== Predarea vocabularului limbii engleze prin intermediul jocurilor si a povestilor la ciclul primar si gimnazial ===

UNIVERSITATEA BABEȘ-BOLYAI CLUJ-NAPOCA

DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ

pentru obținerea gradului didactic I

Coordonator științific,

Conf. Univ. Dr. CARMEN BORBELY

Candidat,

SABAU DANIELA- GABRIELA

(căsătorită MURESAN)

Cluj-Napoca

Seria 2017

UNIVERSITATEA BABEȘ-BOLYAI CLUJ-NAPOCA

DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ

pentru obținerea gradului didactic I

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES AND STORIES IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL

(PREDAREA VOCABULARULUI LIMBII ENGLEZE PRIN INTERMEDIUL JOCURILOR SI A POVESTILOR LA CICLUL PRIMAR SI GINMAZIAL)

Coordonator științific,

Conf. Univ. Dr. CARMEN BORBELY

Candidat,

SABAU DANIELA- GABRIELA

(căsătorită MURESAN)

Cluj-Napoca

Seria 2017

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES AND STORIES IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL

CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………………………………. p. 3

FOREWORD ……………………………………………………………………………. p. 5

CHAPTER I – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ………………………….. p. 8

1.1. Describing young learners ………………….…………… …….p. 8

1.2. Why teaching English to students ………………………………………. p. 10

1.3. Vocabulary and its role in the classroom ……………….……..p.

1.4. Approaches in teaching vocabulary ………………………………p.

1.5. The role of memory in vocabulary acquisition …………………p.

CHAPTER II- VOCABULARY ACQUISITION THROUGH GAMES 2.1. The Principles of teaching vocabulary …………………………….

2.1.1. Techniques for presenting the new vocabulary …………………….

2.1.2. Various types of games in language teaching ……………………..

2.1.3. Listening games……………………………………………………

2.1.4. Speaking games ……………………………………………………….

2.1.5. Reading games ……………………………………………………….

2.1.6. Writing games ………………………………………………………..

2.1.7. Vocabulary games …………………………………………………….

2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of using games in language teaching ………..

2.2.1. Advantages of using games …………………………………………

2.2.2. Disadvantages of using games and some practical considerations …

CHAPTER III –VOCABULARY ACQUISITION THROUGH STORIES

3.1. What is storytelling ……………………………………………….. p. 54

3.2. The advantages of storytelling……………………………………….. p. 55

3.3. Choosing stories ……………….….……………………………… p. 55

3.4. Vocabulary acquisition through stories ……………………… p.

CHAPTER IV – THE RESEARCH …………………………………………………………. p. 76

4.1. Experimental objectives and hypotheses …………………………… p. 76

4.2. Research methodology …………………………………………………………. p. 76

4.3. The subjects of the research ………………………………………………. p. 76

5.4. The experimental design ………………………………………………. p. 76

5.6. Pre-testing …………………………………………………………………… p. 77

5.5. The experimental step …………………………………………………………. p. 77

5.6. The research tools …………………………………………………………. p. 77

5.7. The results of the research ……………………………………………….. p. 98

5.7.1. Data analysis …………………………………………………………. p. 98

5.8. Post-testing …………………………………………………………………… p. 100

5.8.1. Post-testing presentation …………………………………….. p. 100

5.8.2. Post-testing analysis of experiment data ………………… p. 106

5.9. The conclusions of the research …………………………………….. p. 110

CONCLUSIONS …………………………………………………………………………….. p. 111

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………….. p. 115

APPENDIXES …………………………………………………………………………….. p. 118

FOREWORD

I have chosen this subject matter for my research work first, because I’ve always been interested in the process of acquiring vocabulary, the process that go on after the introduction and explanation of new vocabulary. How do we remember new words? How do we expect our students to remember them? How can a new word or a set of words become integrated into our existing word store? What is the best way of introducing and practicing vocabulary? How can I, as a teacher, help my primary and secondary school students remember and use the new words? All students have difficulty in memorizing vocabulary. In view of the fact, to improve my students’ English skill, I used language games and stories.

Second, another reason for this research is to study and analyse alternative ways for teachers to help students enhance their vocabulary by using language games and stories in the classroom, since students feel more comfortable, more secure and self-confident about these types of activities, less stress out or frustrated and more actively involved and receptive to them. In addition to it, using language games and storytelling techniques provides various ways to promote the students’ creativity, cooperation and interaction and, finally, help them remember new words easily and develop their communication skills in English in general.

Thirdly, I acknowledge that this piece of work is a great opportunity and a real challenge for me to implement to class

As regards its construction, this piece of work consists of an Introduction, five chapters, Conclusions and Appendixes.

Chapter I provides a theoretical overview on vocabulary and its importance in language learning. The first chapter also explains what games and stories are and focuses on advantages and disadvantages in using games and stories in language teaching in general.

Chapter II describes diverse types of games used in lessons and investigates the differences in appropriate use of various types of games in different language level classes, from beginners to advanced learners, presents the differences in using games in language teaching according to students’ age explaining the approach differences. This chapter also addresses the learning situations in which it is recommended to use or not use games.

Chapter III attempts to give definitions of storytelling and deals with characteristics of o good story. Other issues this chapter deals with are the advantages of storytelling and the educational value of using stories.

Chapter IV introduces different activities based on stories dealing with pre- , while- and post- storytelling activities. When we create a story- based lesson plan or syllabus, we need to know what aim we want to achieve and think about activities that will be used not only during the students work with the story but about activities that begin and activities that end the work with the story. And because we can use many sources when we look for stories to be used in lessons, this chapter also try to show how we can mingle personal stories with fictional or original texts. Chapter four ends with a conclusion on how stories can be an ideal tool in language learning as they guide us through our whole life.

Chapter V provides the practical part of this paper, as suggested in the title. The experimental final analysis clearly indicates that games and stories are the perfect tools for teachers and students in their effort to memorize vocabulary in a funny but motivating and creative way.

To conclude with, I consider that my choice of this theme has been well- inspired since nowadays we, as teachers, need to find suitable activities for our students, giving them the opportunity to absorb language in a familiar and creative ways. All skills, functions and structures may be taught by using games and stories. Through them vocabulary, pronunciation and creativity may be developed.

CHAPTER I- THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Describing young learners

Since this piece of work concentrates on primary and secondary school children I think that it is necessary to discuss some of the characteristics of young learners, before going on to examine the ways of teaching them and the activities we can use in this respect. One of the most important factors in our decisions about what and how to teach is definitely the age of the students. It is well- known that students of different ages have different needs, skills and motivation. A young learner in primary or secondary school will probably learn English through play rather than reading intensively in the foreign language. Moreover, it is a common belief that the younger the student is the faster he will learn a new language.

Lynne Cameron (2003:111, qtd. in Harmer, p.81) suggests that children “reproduce the accent of their teachers with deadly accuracy.” In this respect, young learners seem to have a facility with pronunciation that older children do not have. However, it is also clear that older children learn abstract words more rapidly than younger children, and that is probably, because their cognitive abilities allow them to understand those words better.

When teaching English we need to understand the differences between a five or six years old student and teenagers or adults.

Young children learn differently according to their age. Gul Keskil and Pasa Tevfik Cephe, (2001:61, qtd.in Harmer, p.82) note that “while pupils who are 10 or 11 years old like games, puzzles and songs most, those who are 12 or 13 years old like activities built around dialogues, question-and- answer activities and matching exercises most.”

Following these ideas we can underline some of the most important characteristics of young learners, or children:

Children are able to draw on many of the abilities which they have made use of in learning their first language. One of this is the ability of make sense of what is happening in a situation in which words are presented to them rather than the language used. They do this through using their knowledge of everyday life; they work out the meaning first and try not to pay attention to the words that are used to express the meaning. This ability is a very useful one in language learning as it allows students to work out what is happening in a situation, a story, a game, a video or a conversation and this then helps them to attach meaning to the words used. The use of communication games, drama, storytelling, project work, and practical activities in teaching, all allow children to make use of this ability to catch the meaning.

Children use a variety of strategies to learn a foreign language. Harmer believes that at this age children learn indirectly rather than directly –that refers to the fact that they rely on spoken words and on everything that surrounds them. This means that sometimes, children use complete phrases of language they have picked up from someone else. This are called chunks of language because they are learn and used in speech as whole phrases. Children may not have been taught these chunks formally, but they help them to communicate when they have very little language. Teaching children chunks of language may be very useful in the early stages of language learning to enable them to take part in conversations. The use of songs, drama, rhymes, poems and classroom routines all help to give children access to ready –made bits of language so they can begin to communicate.

Children don’t understand abstract concepts but they are willing to learn and show great enthusiasm and curiosity about the world around them. They are eager to explore the environment around them and interact with people which help them to understand the world they live in. An important way in which they do this is through physical activity and experiencing things at first hand. Physical activities such as, games, making things, action songs, drama, provide excellent contexts for language learning. The language is closely related to what is happening in the situation and so children can get clues about the meaning from the activity that accompanies the language. The listen and do activities, or learning through doing activities, are particularly useful for beginners, as children’s listening abilities may be far better than their speaking abilities. These activities allow children to be actively learning and participating, but do not force them to speak or produce language till they are ready.

Young learners are logical, eager to play and respond well to the activities in which they have to talk about themselves. A primary school child enjoys talking about himself or asking someone questions without any prompting.

They don’t always understand the adult world and sometimes it is difficult for them to say what is real and what is fiction

What’s more, they cannot concentrate long periods of time, therefore they need variety in the activities otherwise they get bored and refuse to continue the activities.

Children have a great capacity to enjoy themselves. When they are doing that they are usually absorbed by the activity and want to continue with it. They are not always aware that they are learning language. This is very positive for language learning, because if children want to continue with an activity for some time, it will give them more exposure to language input and more chance to practise the language. They will also develop positive attitudes towards English as they will associate it with something enjoyable and pleasing.

Furthermore, they are creative and inventive and they can use their vivid imaginations.

Children can work alone but most of the times they prefer the company of their classmates, this makes them feel more secure and confident.

All these show that we need to be really careful and take into account the children age and their special development. It is also important to take into consideration that each child is unique in his nature and that he learn in his own way and rhythm. Harmer’s point of view is that “good teachers at this level need to provide a rich diet of learning experiences which encourage their students to get information from a variety of sources. They need to work with their students individually and in groups, developing good and effective relationships. They need to plan a range of activities for a given time period, and be flexible enough to move on to the next exercise when they see their students getting bored.” Harmer acknowledges that even though working with young children is very difficult, that it need a lot of time planning and dedication, it still can be rewarding seeing how they learn and speak in the new language. In his opinion a special attention should be given to the organisation of the classroom. Harmer points out that “the classroom has to be bright and colourful, with enough room for different activities to be taking place”. And since the young learners’ concentration and attention are short they need variety, variety of activities, variety of voice and variety of pace. Teachers should not be afraid of using games and stories in teaching children because these two are part of being a child and they should be exploited at any time in a lesson, not only because games and stories are fun, at this age, but also because they are a valuable tool in the acquisition of the language.

1.2. Vocabulary and its role in the classroom

Harmer acknowledges that “if language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. An ability to manipulate grammatical structure does not have any potential for expressing meaning unless words are used.” In Harmer’s opinion vocabulary occupies a special place in language teaching and learning, even though, “for many years vocabulary was seen as incidental to the main purpose of language teaching—namely the acquisition of grammatical knowledge”. The status of vocabulary seems to be changing nowadays. Jack C. Richards, Willy A. Renandya sustain that “for one thing, the notion of a word has been “broadened” to include lexical phrases and routines, and it has been suggested that in the initial stages of learning these play a primary role in communication and acquisition. In addition, access to lexical corpora has made it possible for applied linguists to access huge samples of language in order to find out how words are used, both by native speakers and by second language learners. Such research has enabled applied linguists to identify common patterns of collocation, word formation, metaphor, and lexical phrases that are part of a speaker’s lexical competence.” In order to be able to speak, write, listen and read, students need to acquire an extensive vocabulary which is a core component of language proficiency. In Richards and Renandya’s opinion “without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve less than their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to native speakers, using the language in different contexts, reading, or watching television.”

Children learn thousands of words in their first language without much effort but the acquisition of words in another language is not so smooth and easy. Besides, the contexts in which they are exposed to the second language may not be as helpful as the ones in which they learn words in the first language. Harmer considers that “one of the problems of vocabulary teaching is how to select what words to teach.” In his opinion at lower levels concrete words are selected because they are easier to explain, then as children grow older, the teachers can introduce abstract words that are more difficult to physically represent or explained. But this is not the only way to introduce words; the frequency with which the word is heard, seen and understood is one of the factors that facilitate the teaching process. Furthermore, we should not forget that nowadays, children are playing a lot on their computer or tables, and they may be surprised to see how many words they already know.

Teaching vocabulary is quite a difficult task. More than once, students complain about the fact that they have learnt the words but they keep forgetting them. This is why Harmer makes a clear distinction between “active and passive vocabulary”. Harmer says that active vocabulary “refers to vocabulary that students have been taught or learnt- and which they are expected to be able to use” while passive vocabulary “refers to words which the students will recognize when they meet them but which they probably not be able to produce.” Harmer believes that as far as primary school children are concerned “it is a good idea to provide sets of vocabulary which students can learn. Most of these early words will be constantly practiced and so can, presumably, be considered as ‘active’.” What’s more students need to learn not only single words but they need to be able to know what they mean and how to use them. Harmer view is obviously clear in this respect “some words are more likely to be taught at lower levels than others, and some uses of words may be more sophisticated than others- and, therefore, more appropriate for advanced students.” Everything depends on how can a teacher introduces the new words in the classroom and how those words are practiced in order to be memorized in children’s mind. We must always remember that young learners need variety in the classroom and also they need to play with the language, because they can’t concentrate for long periods of time, like older students.

All four skills in English learning – Writing, Reading, Listening and Speaking – are involved with vocabulary. Therefore, for English learners, it is compulsory to know a certain amount of English words before practicing the above skills. Moreover, in their learning process, widening and sharpening their vocabulary are also important as all kinds of knowledge are expressed by one of the most basic component of language: words. To know the form of a word means to know the pronunciation and spelling of a word. The other aspect is grammar if it is necessary, for example, when teaching irregular verbs we should present the other two forms, as well. Similarly, when teaching a noun with irregular plural form such as child, we should teach the plural form immediately. Another important thing is teaching collocations, so that students know in what context they can use the word, for instance, verbs do and make can be used with different situations, we can say make money but not do money.

The next aspect is meaning which can be divided into several categories. The most used are synonyms (pretty – cute), antonyms (black-white) and hyponyms(red, yellow, blue – colours).

More advanced learners will probably deal with word formation in which we create new words by modifying the old ones; there are several ways of forming a new word such as compounding (forget-me-not), adding a prefix (in/direct) or a suffix(build/ing) etc.

The last basic thing is to know the word class, we usually distinguish eight word classes:

1. nouns (town, mother) 5. verbs (speak, write)

2. adjectives (long, happy) 6. adverbs (always, never)

3. pronouns (she, her) 7. prepositions (up, down)

4. numerals (second, one) 8. conjunctions (or, and)

In brief, all the statements above lead to a conclusion that vocabulary is the first and foremost factor that needs to be approached in order to master a language. Without vocabulary – the most significant one, every other factor cannot be achieved.

1.3. Approaches in teaching vocabulary

The process of learning languages is quite difficult to describe as there are no specific explanations although a great deal of research has been done into the subject. Certain theories have strongly influenced the practice of language teaching and continue to do so.

Therefore, this first part will focus on some of the main theories which were dominant in recent centuries and the role of vocabulary in each one of them.

The first predominant teaching methodology from the beginning of the nineteenth century was the Grammar-Translation Method. Grammar-Translation Method was developed based on a procedure for teaching Latin and evolved out of the need to standardize foreign language teaching for students. Students were given extensive grammatical explanation in their L1 (first language), lists of bilingual vocabulary, and some practice exercises to translate from L1 into L2 (second language) or vice versa. In this method, the content focused more on reading and writing skills. Vocabulary was only used as a way of illustrating grammar rules. Students were expected to learn new vocabulary themselves by using bilingual word lists; thus, the bilingual dictionaries became an important reference tool. As Carter indicated “for many years vocabulary has been the victim of discrimination by researchers who claimed syntax to be a more significant issue in the language development process”. And Numan theorized that vocabulary “plays a non-important role in interpreting a text than that of syntax or background knowledge as a result, vocabulary teaching and learning has not received enough attention in English language teaching context.”

One of the main problems with Grammar- Translation Method was that it focused on language analysis instead of language use. It also focused on reading and writing skills which did not help to develop the ability to communicate orally in the target language

As the Grammar-Translation Method became increasingly sophisticated, a new pedagogical direction was needed. By the end of the 19th century, a new movement emphasizing listening and pronunciation appeared. This movement was known as the Reform Movement and one of its great achievements was the development of phonetics and the recognition of it as a science. Another use-based method emphasizing listening skill was also developed by the end of the nineteenth century. This new method was known as the Direct Method. In this method, explicit grammar teaching and translation were set aside. Students were supposed to learn English through the same process as native speakers do, with listening first, then speaking, and only in later stages they would learn to read and write. Direct Method focused only on the use of the second language and students would be punished if they used their L1 in the classroom. Researchers started to point out the importance of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary instruction.

The Direct Method, on the other hand, was indeed in favour of teaching vocabulary, but it claims that the vocabulary should be learnt in context and without much explanation or translation. According to Rivers, the proponents of the Direct Method believed that “predicting what vocabulary learners might need is difficult”. Second if vocabulary was involved too much in teaching, the students would regard languages as an accumulation of words. The third reason was based on the assumption that in our first language we acquire a little amount of vocabulary at the beginning but this increased eventually in later stages. They believed that this assumption could also be applied to second language vocabulary acquisition.

Vocabulary was thought to be generally acquired through interaction in the classroom by asking and answering questions. Vocabulary was chosen to illustrate and practice the sentence pattern and was presented as lists in substitution tables. Concrete words were taught by using pictures, mimics, and realia (real objects), while association of ideas was used to teach abstract words. However, like all other approaches, the Direct Method has its weakness as well.

One of the main differences is that L1 learners have abundant exposure to language, while learners of a second language have a limited exposure to the target language.

During World War II, it became clear that the Grammar-Translation Method and the Direct Method did not manage to form fluent users of the target language. The American military lacked people who are fluent in foreign languages and good teaching programs that could train soldiers quickly in oral and aural skills. Structural American linguistics developed a program based on behaviorist principles and on the Direct Method. This method was first called the Army Method and then it was known as Audiolingualism. According to the Audio – lingual Method, it was essential to keep vocabulary teaching at minimum in the first stages of the learning of an L2. In the Audio – lingual Method teaching structural patterns and drills had priority, not vocabulary.

The vocabulary items are read and the drills were selected according to their appropriateness to the topic and according to their simplicity in understanding the patterns and drills to be taught. As a result of this approach, Marianne Celce – Murcia suggested that “EFL students had a poor comprehension of natural speech and poor writing ability”.

Students were expected to learn the language through drills rather than through an analysis of the target language. A similar method was used in Britain from 1940s to 1960s and it was called the Situational Approach. The name came from the idea of teaching language in sentence patterns replicating real situations. Vocabulary was chosen to illustrate and practice the sentence pattern and was presented as lists in substitution tables.

During the course of language teaching history, before the 1970s, vocabulary was not regarded as an important component of language teaching. Because of the effect of structuralism and the Chomkyan School of linguistics, which did not regard vocabulary as an area to focus on, the issue of vocabulary remained avoided. For instance, Coady stated that “students would infer the meaning of words from context was a dominant belief and because of this, it was assumed that no direct vocabulary instruction was needed”.

In the 1980s, Terrell developed the Natural Approach. Later, Terrell and Krashen worked together to elaborate the approach and provided it with a theoretical base. The Natural Approach applies Krashen’s five hypotheses to the communicative language learning in the classroom. It emphasizes the use of comprehensible and meaningful input rather than grammar correction. Terrell and Krashen claim that ‘’there is no need for direct instruction and practice for grammar and vocabulary because students acquire them naturally’’.

Although grammar and vocabulary are treated separately in most teaching method, recent evidence from large corpora (language database) shows that grammar and vocabulary are fundamentally linked. Thus, it is difficult to think of them as separate entities. On the other hand, one should think of them as one entity without discrete boundaries, which is referred to as lexicogrammar .

Wallance, for example stated that since “vocabulary teaching is a rather complex area, methods and techniques of teaching vocabulary should be handled in a more systematic way”. He also stated that “learning a second language requires learning its vocabulary in an effective way”. He argued that the immobility of a learner to find a word, to express himself or herself could be a frustrating and demotivating experience on behalf of the students.

In communication, the appropriate choice of vocabulary plays an important role in converting the meaning as much as grammar. Insufficient vocabulary hinders the comprehension of the meaning in a text.

In conclusion, teachers should teach vocabulary by using different methods instead of focusing on one single method.

1.4. The role of memory in vocabulary acquisition

Students do not necessarily learn what teachers teach them because memory has a great influence on language learning. Teachers should recognize that teaching does not necessarily cause learning. They should know that teaching can be a linear and step-by-step; however, learning is not necessarily linear, with only incremental advancement without rehearsal. Students might learn a word many weeks, months, or even years later, after he or she has met it a great number of times. Therefore, teachers should provide opportunities in which the students can frequently meet the target words. Researchers state that students forget most of the new words after the end of the learning session, so it is important to have a review session soon after the learning session. The expanding of rehearsal could help to transfer the new words from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.

There are two different types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory is used to hold a small amount of information while it is being processed. Long-term memory stores unlimited amount of information to be used in the future. Thus, the goal of learning vocabulary is to transfer the lexical information from short-term memory to long-term memory during the process of learning. This can be done by various ways, such as the Keyword Approach and grouping the new words with already known words that are similar. Because the known words are already fixed in the mind, relating the new words to them provides a hook to remember them, so they do not forget them easily. New words that do not have this connection are easily forgotten.

Words can be also forgotten even if a word is well known, as when a learner does not use a second language for a long time or stops a course of language study. In this case, it is called attrition. Studies have shown that lexical knowledge is more apt to attrition that other linguistic aspects, such as phonology and grammar. This is because vocabulary is made up of individual units rather than a series of rules, such as grammar. Studies have also shown that receptive knowledge does not decline dramatically, and when it does, it is usually affects unimportant words, such as low-frequency non cognates. On the other hand, productive knowledge is more apt to be forgotten. The rate of attrition is also independent of proficiency level; that is, students who are high proficiency level will lose about the same amount of knowledge as those who are low proficiency level. Several studies have found that attrition usually occurred within the first two years, and then it decreased.

This long-term attrition is similar to short-term forgetting. For instance, when students learn new information, they forget most of this information immediately at the end of the learning session. After the major loss, the rate of forgetting decreases. By understanding the nature of forgetting, teachers can organize better review sessions that will help their students. They can also indicate the importance of having a review session soon after the learning session.

Students can also understand how important it is to review new material soon after the initial exposure.

CHAPTER II- VOCABULARY ACQUISITION THROUGH GAMES

2.1. Building vocabulary.

Vocabulary development is essential for any English learner, without adequate vocabulary knowledge, students cannot fully understand what they read; write and they will have difficulty with content instruction. Students with good vocabulary knowledge will comprehend texts more easily which will leads them to more extensive reading, and therefore, more vocabulary growth. Vocabulary is better learnt within the context of interesting activities that promote students active involvement and provide varied opportunities for them to practice and apply knowledge of new words.

Wallance stated that “learning a foreign language is basically a matter of learning the vocabulary of that language”. Moreover McCarty acknowledged that, “the best way of teaching vocabulary is not teaching students to memorize without context of sentences, to pronounce words, but learning of its grammar”.

There are several principles for successful teaching, which are valid for any method.

According to Wallance the principles are:

a. Aim

A teacher has to decide which word should be mastered by his/her students. A teacher should select high- frequency words or sentences.

b. Quantity

Teacher may have to decide the number of vocabulary items to be learnt, how many words in the lesson can be achieved by the learners. Students would be confused, discouraged and frustrated if they found too many words.

c. Need

In teaching vocabulary, a teacher has to choose high- frequency words. Students should be put in a situation where they have to communicate and get the words they need.

d. Frequent exposure and repetitions.

In teaching vocabulary of a foreign language teachers should teach new words. They have to repeat them to make sure the students have already remembered and understood them.

There must be a certain amount of repetition until the students know for sure the meaning of the words or sentences they learn.

e. Meaningful presentation

The learner must have a clear picture and understand what they learn. So, a teacher should know for sure the words or sentences clearly and perfectly presented to students.

f. Situation presentation

The choice of words can be various to the situation in which we are speaking and according to how well we know the person whom we are talking to (from formal to informal). Therefore students should learn words in situation that appropriate to the situation.

Learning the vocabulary of a language is a more complex process than it might appear at first sight.

The students` aim to be reached in learning vocabulary process is primarily their ability to recall the word at will and to recognize it in its spoken and written form.

According to Harmer “knowing a word involves knowing its form and its meaning at the basic level. In deeper aspects it means the abilities to know it.

a.) meaning, i.e relate the word to an appropriate object or context

b.) usage, i.e. knowledge of its collocations, metaphors and idioms, as well as style and register, to be aware of any connotations and associations the word might have.

c.) word formation, i.e. ability to spell and pronounce the word correctly, to know any derivations (acceptable prefixes and suffixes)

d.) grammar, i.e. to use it in the appropriate grammatical form.”

2.1.1. Techniques for presenting the new vocabulary

Vocabulary is a necessary ingredient for any kind of communication. There are two main categories of words usually presented in a language classroom: incidental (thrown up unfamiliar vocabulary from mini-talk, discussion) and intentional (pre-selected and in text) vocabulary.

Many factors need to be taken into consideration when deciding what vocabulary to teach and know. For example, Thornbury, makes five suggestions on what vocabulary to teach and know:

1. “learner`s level (whether beginners, intermediate or advanced)

2. learner`s level of familiarity with the words (learners may have met the words before even though they are not part of their active vocabulary)

3. difficulty of the words (whether they express abstract rather than concrete meanings or whether they are difficult to pronounce)

4. teachability – they can be easily explained or demonstrated

5. words to be used for production (in speaking and writing) or for recognition only (as in listening and reading).”

Before presenting vocabulary in class, it is helpful to remember what Nation emphasized that ”learning vocabulary is a cumulative process and that it must be deliberate by taught, learned and recycled”.

Teachers can choose from several ways of presenting vocabulary and making clear its meanings.

The two most common ways in which the meaning of new items is conveyed are as follows:

1. Traditional approaches and techniques, which are teacher – centered and

2. Student – centered learning

1. Traditional approaches and techniques are divided into three main types: visual techniques, verbal techniques and translation.

A. Visual techniques

In teaching the meaning of words, we should try to establish a link between the word and the meaning by using one of the following means or techniques depending on the word to be taught.

a.) realia for example objects in the class, including the students, themselves and others brought to class.

b.) pictures, photos, blackboard drawings, flashcards, slides, transparencies and wallcharts.

c.) mime, gestures, actions, facial expressions

Doff suggested that “vocabulary should only be presented visually if it can be done quickly, easily and clearly”. However, this technique is a very effective one: it is direct, interesting and makes an impression on the class.

a.Using realia

An alternative to translation and an obvious choice of presenting a set of concrete objects. This is the way learners have learnt their mother tongue.

They simply saw an object, touched it and heard its name. Realia should be used whenever possible. Firstly, it saves time when the teacher just points to an object instead of drawing a picture or thinking of a suitable definition.

Secondly, the best way to learn the foreign language is the way we have learnt our mother tongue.

A minor disadvantage is that as realia can be used only concrete nouns.

b.Using pictures

Pictures are very worth materials of language, teachers` visual aids which may take many forms: flashcards (published and home-made) wall charts, transparencies projected onto the board or wall, using the overhead projector and board drawings.

Many teachers collect their own sets of flashcards from magazines or calendars. Especially useful are pictures of items belonging to the following sets: food and drinks, clothing, forms of transports plus a wide selection of pictures of people, sub-divided into sets such as nationalities, sports activities and appearance (tall, strong, healthy, old).

Not only can such pictures be used to present new vocabulary items, but they can be used to practise them.

The use of realia, pictures and demonstration was a defining technique of the Direct Method.

c. Using mime

Teachers use their own action and facial expressions to illustrate the words. Their way is applied mostly for verbs and adjectives, when pictures and real objects are not available.

In general, the advantages of showing the meaning of words visually are the directness, attractiveness and quickness. Nevertheless, this way cannot be applied to teach every word by mostly used when illustrating non-abstract words.

B. Verbal techniques

There are certainly other techniques which can be used to present vocabulary as follows:

by using illustrative situations, to explain abstract words;

with synonyms / antonyms

by using scales for gradable items

Using synonyms or/and antonyms

If the students have already known the synonym, antonym of the new word, this will be a quick way to explain the meaning. This way can helps learners revise old words and study new words simultaneously. Moreover, when learners can see a relation in meaning between the new knowledge and the one that they have known, memorizing the new words becomes easier. Once learners have been familiarized with some rules to create antonyms such as using prefixes, they can easily get the meaning of a new word or can even predict the form of an unknown antonym. For instances, when learners have known about pains of words like happy-unhappy, they can guess the meaning of “uninteresting” or guess that there can be words like “unkind, unnecessary”. However, this technique is not applicable if the students do not know the words from which they have to infer the opposite or similar meaning.

One more disadvantage of this technique is that antonym can hardly be applied with nouns, and not all adjectives, adverbs or verbs have a true synonym or antonym.

Because each technique has its own benefit and limitation, the combination of different technique is applied frequently in order to support each other and reinforce the effectiveness of the presentation. The way to combine techniques depends on the purpose and the creativeness of each teacher.

C. Translations

Translations are a traditional way of explaining the meaning of words. It could be done by the teacher or with the help of a dictionary. The advantage of translating the word by the teacher is that this method saves time.

On the other hand, this is not very effective way of acquiring new words because learners are just passive recipients.

Wallance stated that “the problem with students who have been taught through translation technique is that they often give up if the exact lexeme does not come to mind, while those who are accustomed to operating in the target language will often fall back on some type of alternative communicative strategy”.

Using bilingual dictionaries could be another route to a word`s meaning. Dictionaries are useful tools for learners, giving students independence from the teacher.

2. Student -centered learning

Student – centered learning can also take place in different ways such as by allowing them to ask other students in the classroom, by using a dictionary or through contextual guesswork.

As regards the proper and efficient use of a dictionary, it is something that students certainly ought to be trained in, if only as a way of helping the students to be independent of the teacher and the classroom. On the other hand, many of the students’ errors derive from its wrong usage.

Wallance added that: “recourse to the dictionary should not be typical of every reading session as:

It may encourage the tendency to concentrate on individual words rather than on overall meaning;

The learner may not attempt to use context to decode meaning and

Over – frequent use of dictionary slows up the flow of reading and makes the passage more boring to read and perhaps even more difficult to understand since concentration is interrupt.”

Showing words in context

As for abstract words, when visually techniques, cannot be used, showing word in context using examples, situations and explanations can take effect. This technique is probably the most efficient. As the teacher will only be able to teach the student a small percentage of the words that he or she will later need. This seems to be a good idea to promote extensive reading so that the students’ vocabulary can grow naturally.

However it should be remembered that the examples, situations or explanations do not have to be too complicated (simple sentences like “Houses are buildings. This school is also a building” are enough to clarify the meaning of “building”). As Penny Ur described this is the way teacher “uses simple English to show meanings of words”. He also emphasized that it is not easy to use simple English to describe one English word; even with native speakers this technique requires considerable experience in teaching English to speakers of other languages and also preparation in order to create appropriate contexts which are brief and comprehensible enough for learners.

Moreover, Grellet stated that “students must be taught to use sentence structure to establish the grammatical category of the new item, word structure to find out the type of word it is and its meaning, as well as contextual, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning”.

Students certainly do require specific training in using this skill for different reasons: because most students are not aware that it possible to understand new words without being told what they mean and because L2 students, “have less exposure to the language than L1 students and therefore have to make more conscious effort to learn words”.

2.1.2. Various types of games in language teaching

The role of vocabulary is to avoid forgetting words already known. Revising vocabulary is very important as students tend to forget it if they are not exposed to these words in different contexts. One way to faster their learning is using games.

Games should not be regarded as a “warmer” or a “filler” of a lesson; they can be used at any stage of the lesson to revise a massive amount of vocabulary in a few minutes.

Secondly, games usually involve friendly competition; they can maintain students’ motivation in vocabulary learning because they are amusing and interesting.

And thirdly, games can provide students with intense and meaningful practice of language, an opportunity for real communication.

There are many types of games the teacher may make use of. They are aimed to train different kinds of skills desired for students to be acquired. Over the time, it is profitable to keep changing the types of games to ensure the novelty and a surprise effect for the students. This way it is ensured that the outcome will have the highest possible impact.

An experienced teacher is also able to recognize situation when a game is needed to be introduced to change the classroom atmosphere, therefore has several games on hand at all times.

There are many types of games the teacher can make use of. In the following part, some of the types will be introduced, coupled with examples of games, using the particular type of activity. However, it needs to be mentioned that no game uses only one type of activity or practices only one skill. Therefore the games in this chapter are filed under a type of an activity and skill which benefits most.

2.1.3. Listening games

Listening is usually seen as a passive part of the lesson, which, in fact, it is quite the opposite. It is obvious that listening is the skill that children acquire first, especially if they have not learnt to read. When students first learn a foreign language, it is going in mainly through their ears, and what they hear is their main source of the language. The teacher can also help them by giving them as much with visual back- up as possible, through mine, through facial expression, movement or through pictures. We should not forget that once something has been said then it disappears. When we read, we can go back and re-read it to fully understand it, but this isn’t possible when we are listening, so, it is absolutely necessary for teachers to say things clearly and also repeat them. Because the listeners can’t re- listen in the same way that they can re- read, it means that the listener can’t decide how fast he works. Therefore, the listeners have to concentrate very hard when they are listening. Young learners have a very short attention span. This is something which develops with age for most students, and, since young children can sit still and listen for longer periods, it is important not to overload children when we are working on listening tasks. If we want our students to enjoy listening we must bring it closer to them and we must choose a topic they are familiar with, or a song they would like to hear. We can use many activities using listening not as an aim of lesson, which makes it always more stressful, but as a means to accomplish a different task, be it completing the lyrics of a song, getting correct instructions for playing a computer game or obtaining information about interesting people or places. In a similar way, listening games can be used in order to maintain the students’ attention and interest. To ensure the effort put into the listening is exploited in full, the teacher can partner the listening game with consequent post-activities.

Some listening activities will wake our students up, make them move about, create movement or noise. Others will calm them down, make them concentrate on what is in front of them, and create a peaceful atmosphere.

There are many listening games that can be used in a lesson but here I will only concentrate on those listening games that are suitable for primary and secondary school pupils.

“Listen and do” activities

Most classroom language is a type of “listen and do” activity. Communication is two- way, and you can see very easily if our students have understood the message or not.

Moving about

The younger the students, the more physical activities they need. Children cannot concentrate a long periods of time, therefore they need exercise and movement, and the teacher should make use of this wherever possible. This kind of games is good because it gives the teacher the opportunity to know at once if the children have understood, to check

classroom vocabulary, movement words, counting, spelling and so on. Students learn from each other and if they have not understood the first time, they’ll still be able to do the activity by watching the others. The teacher can ask children to do all sorts of crazy things- “stand on your head by the door”; “hop on your left foot five times”; “count to ten and then walk to the blackboard and back”.

Mime stories

In a mine story the teacher tells the story and the pupils and the teacher do the actions. This game provides physical movement and gives the teacher a chance to play along with the pupils. The teacher tells a story in which actions play a major part, and encourages the learners to act it out. For example:

Teacher : “You’ve got a little cat in a box. Put the box on your desk.

Say, ‘Sit still. Don’t move.’ Now stroke the little cat and

say, ‘You’re a nice cat.’ Take the cat out of the box, very

carefully and slowly. Put it down. Give it some milk in a

saucer. Don’t spill it! Say, ‘Do you like the milk?’ Stroke

the cat again. Now say, ‘Come on, little cat. Let me put

you in the box.’ Pick up the cat carefully and put it back

in the box. Say, ‘Stay there. Go to sleep. Go to sleep, little

cat.’

Show your friend your little cat. Tell her what it’s like and

what it is doing.”

Listen and draw

This is a favourite type of listening activity in all classes. In these games the teacher or a student, tells the other students what to draw. This activity is useful for checking object vocabulary, prepositions, colours, and numbers. The children may describe a picture, an animal or a place, but we must take under consideration that drawing can sometimes be difficult, so we need to be careful to keep the pictures simple.

Listening for information

These activities can motivate our students to look for specific information or for detail, and are often used to check what the students know, but they can also be used to give them new information. Here we can include activities like identifying exercises, listening for mistakes, putting things in order, questionnaires, listen and colour, filling in missing information etc.

“Listen and repeat”

Listen and repeat activities are great fun and give the pupils the chance to get to feel the language. When these activities are combined with movement and pictures, they also help to establish the link between words and meaning. Young learners of English love rhyme and like to repeat them again and again.” Rhymes are repetitive, they have natural rhythm and they have an element of fun, of playing with the language. Children play with the language in their mother tongue, so this is a familiar part of their world, and it has an important part to play in their learning process.” We can also make use of songs since children love to sing and drills are a great way to make students repeat and learn words.

Listening to stories

Children like stories and listening to stories should be part of growing up for every child. Stories have a crucial role in the child’s development, and, therefore, in the development of language. Listening to stories allows children to form their own inner pictures. There are many ways in which teacher can make use of stories. They can tell them themselves, they can use traditional fairy tales, they can create stories with the students, or they can simply read stories aloud from a book.

2.1.4. Speaking games

Speaking is perhaps the most demanding skill for teacher to teach. If it is easy for children to express themselves in their mother tongue, then they expect to be able to do the same in English. The authors of “Teaching English to children” make it perfectly clear that” part of the magic of teaching young children a foreign language is their unspoken assumption that the foreign language is just another way of expressing what they want to express, but there are limitations because of their lack of actual language.” When children start learning English, they need to be given language before they can produce it themselves. Therefore, at this stage some games give the learners considerable support in the language needed for the game, and other games offer a stimulus and context, but no specific language focus or support. In these games the learners might make mistakes in their use of the language. As a general principle it is better not to interrupt the speaker but to wait until he or she has finished before first responding to the content, and only then pointing out a mistake in the formal use of the language, if you think it necessary to do so. A better way might be for you to note the mistake and to give focussed practice on that point at another time.

For little children it is important to use sentences that are true and accompanied by the appropriate actions and sounds. One way of presenting language to young learners is through puppets or a class mascot. The authors suggest that “having someone familiar constantly at hand with whom you can have conversations about anything and everything is a wonderful way of introducing new subjects and new language to young children. For example, if you use a Teddy as your mascot, to can use Teddy to ask questions. Pupils can ask through Teddy: ‘Teddy wants to know….’ You can present dialogues with Teddy as your partner.” Once the teacher has given the model, students can ask the mascot all sorts of questions and the mascot can provide all sorts of answers.

Describe and draw

This type of activity can vary according to the student’s age, for young learners the teacher can use simple drawings or pictures, and the instructions must be clear and simple.

The game can be played in pairs; one student can see the picture and he has to describe it

for the other student. The artist must not see the original. The describer can see both the original and the copy being made. Or, to make the game more challenging, have the learners sit back to back so that the describer cannot see the copy being made. This is a classic ‘information gap’ game of the communicative approach in which one person has the information which the other hasn’t got and needs. Language is used to bridge the gap. This game represents a communal effort and there is absolutely no reason why the artist should feel humiliated if their drawing does not turn out well. Indeed much of the success or otherwise of the artist’s drawing is the result of the quality of communicative competence of the describers.

Describe and identify

The game can be played in many different ways. The teacher can start the game by describing something and then asking the class to identify what has been described. The subject and language the teacher uses should be appropriate to the learners’ level of proficiency and the language he or she wants to practise with them. Rather than allowing the learners to call out, ask them first to tell their neighbours what they think you have described. Then ask for suggestions from the class. Ask one of the more confident learners to take one of the word cards at random from your hand. He or she must describe the meaning of the word on the card so well that others can identify what it is. Give each learner a card and instruct them to prepare a written description of the word on the card. This task is ideal for homework.

Compare, match and group

These games are fun because students can take part in a conversation and learn language even though they are not aware of that. They can compare two or more pictures, talk about differences or similitudes in two or more pictures. The teacher can write or show three words and ask the children to find as many things as possible which might connect them.

Remember

In these games students must describe things they have seen or heard. There are many ways to play this sort of game. The students can be asked to describe the objects in their classroom or a place they see every day. They can describe what his or her classmates are wearing or what they were wearing yesterday. The teacher can show a picture and they have to describe it from memory.

Role play

Another way of presenting dialogues is through role play. In this game the students are pretending to be someone else like the teacher, or a shop assistant, or a parent. For young learners role play is more difficult so, at first, they need practice before being able to produce dialogues themselves. In real role play, the language used comes from the students themselves, so they need to be familiar with the language needed before doing the role play. The roles which the students play can be given to them orally, but if they can read, then it is easier to give them written cue cards.

Dialogues and role play are useful speaking activities because the students learn to ask as well as answer, they learn to use short complete bits of language and to respond appropriately, they don’t just use words, but also all the other parts of speaking a language- tone of voice, stress, intonation, facial expressions, and so on.

2.1.4. Reading games

Just as listening is the main source of language when students start to learn a language, print is the second main source. As students become better and better in the foreign language, the printed word becomes the main source of expending and strengthening the language. Reading is also the language skill which is easiest to keep up- many of us can still read in a foreign language that we used to be able to speak as well. Books open up other words to young children, and making reading an enjoyable activity is a very important part of the language experience.

We normally read in order to get information that is relevant to us. Our practical reading skills are sponsored and developed by this aim. The games in this section involve the learners in looking for and responding to meaning rather than responding to a text in a formal way. The games call for a manifested response, that is to say, a response in which the learners do something to communicate to others their understanding, their feelings and their ideas, rather than just a response that is private. Two important skills are concentrated on, namely skimming for gist, when the learners find out at speed what content a text contains, and scanning, when they search a text for some particular item in it.

Do –move, mime, draw, and obey

What’s my mime – in this game the students show understanding of a text by miming it. This game involves skimming and scanning a series of texts to find one corresponding to actions being mimed. This game can also be played in pairs. There is a musical chairs version of this game, where learners walk around a line of chairs (one chair for each person) listening to music. One chair is removed and then the music stops and all the learners try to sit down. The one learner who cannot sit down not only loses his seat, but must also mime one of the sentences before being out of the game.

Compare, match and group

These games involve skimming for gist in order to match pairs of cards. Make a set of 10 pairs of cards for each group of three to four players. Alternatively, ask the learners to make the cards themselves. The latter is both time-saving for you and more involving for the learners. The pairs of cards can relate to each other in a range of ways, according to the language needs of the learners. Invite the learners to form groups of three or four. Give each group a set of cards, and help them become familiar with the pairs. A simple way to do this is to invite them to muddle all the cards face up and then see how quickly they can pair them together. Ask the learners to shuffle the cards and lay them face down so that the pictures and/or writing on the cards cannot be seen. It doesn’t matter if the players see the cards being put down and if they try to remember where the pairs were placed. The first players in all the pairs then pick up two of the cards. If they think their cards match, they make some appropriate comment to the others, before picking them up.

Jumbled texts

These games involve cooperatively sequencing pieces of a jumbled text, first skimming for meaning to establish a quick order, then scanning for detail to confirm its accuracy.

Preparation You will need a short text cut into pieces and reproduced enough times for each group of learners to have a copy; one complete copy of the text for the teacher; an envelope for each jumbled copy of the text. When choosing and cutting up your text, keep the following in mind:

1 Your text may be an article, a story, a joke, a poem, a letter, an essay, an argument, etc.

2 You may wish to cut the text into paragraphs, verses, sentences or even half sentences.

3 Interest is added if you choose illustrated texts.

4 The game can be graded in difficulty by (a) the text you choose; (b) the number of pieces you cut the text into; (c) the degree to which pictures (if there are any) help to give the meaning of the text

Running dictation

Depending on the size of the class, display one or more copies of the text on the classroom wall or on a table. Divide the learners into pairs and have each pair decide who will be Learner A and who will be Learner B. Explain the rules of the game as follows: Learner A must run to the text, read it, and try to memorise as much of it as possible before running back to Learner B. Learner A should then dictate what they remember of the text to Learner B, who should record it in writing. Learner A can run to the text as often as is necessary to complete dictating the whole text. Applaud the first pair to finish with no mistakes. Many students tend to speak very quietly as they are shy, feeling their English is not enough or they are not sure about the right expression or pronunciation. They have no choice but to speak loud enough during this game and therefore it helps them build the confidence. It is also beneficial that it is not the teacher telling them to speak up; it is their colleague student they need to communicate with.

2.1.6. Writing activities

Although the writing and the oral skill are combined in the classroom and the one clearly benefits from the other, writing has certain characteristics which seem to make it difficult for students to get to grips with, especially for younger learners. Many children take a long time to master the skill of writing. Very little of what we write is concerned with the here and now, which is where many young children exist for a lot of the time. Even if there are difficulties in writing in the foreign language, it is still a useful, essential, integral and enjoyable part of the foreign language lesson.

Writing activities help to consolidate learning in the other skill areas. Balanced activities train the language and help aid memory. Practice in speaking freely helps when doing free writing activities. Moreover, as students progress in the language, writing activities allow for conscious development if language. “Lots of structures in the language appear more frequently in writing, and, perhaps most important of all, when we write we have the time to go back and think about what we have written. Writing activities, like oral activities, go from being tightly controlled to being completely free. In general, controlled and guided activities are being done to practise the language and concentration is on the language itself. Free activities should allow for self-expression at however low a level, and content is what matters most.”

With young learners copying is fairly obvious starting point for writing. It is an activity which gives the teacher the chance to reinforce language that has been presented orally or through reading. Moreover, we can vary copying by asking students to match pictures and texts, or to choose which sentence they want to write about the text. We can play a game in which we write a short, familiar sentence on the board, give the children a few seconds to look at it, and then rub it out and see if the children can write it down.

Dictation

Dictation is a very safe type of exercise when the language is elementary and simple. Dictations at this level should be short, have a purpose and be connected to the work which has gone before or comes after; it should be read or said at normal speed.

Story circle

The students sit in a story circle and each has a blank sheet of paper. We dictate a sentence, and then ask them to write the next sentence in the story. When they have written the sentence, they all pass their papers to the person next to them. Each student now writes a sentence for the story they have in front of them. For each new sentence, they pass the papers to the person next to them again. When the papers get back to the original writers, they have to write a conclusion.

The students can rewrite a fairy tale and make it as funny as possible.

With secondary school students we can play the island game. We can ask them to create an island and imagine that there is a treasure on it, and they have to write the directions for others to find the treasure. Or they can write letters to famous people or fictional characters.

Even through writing at this level is quite difficult we should try to encourage our students to write, to express themselves on paper because it is a good way for us to see what language items the learners can use correctly and what mistakes they make. Many who are visual learners need to write in order to engage their way of learning … they need to see the language. Writing with this purpose means that it is relevant even for learners who take no written examinations. Learners can be made aware of the many different purposes for writing in society: describing, narrating, advising, etc.

Writing, like speaking, is normally intended to communicate something to somebody. It is thus an advantage if writing activities in the classroom result in someone reading the texts that the learners write and then responding to them in an appropriate way, rather than just you, the teacher, marking the texts for errors of form. If there is a response from a reader, then the writer finds out if the reader was engaged, was able to follow the ideas, and was able to appreciate the points made in the text. You can then help the writer to reflect on his or her communicative success, or lack of success, deriving from the form, i.e. the choice of words and the arrangement of them. In this way form can be related to communication.

2.1.7. Vocabulary games

We can communicate with vocabulary more readily than with grammar. Extending the learners’ vocabulary is important, right from the earliest stages. Learning vocabulary must be based on attaching meaning to the word, rather than just remembering the form of the word. Meaning can be brought to the new word through translation, but the aim in this section is to help the learners experience the meanings of the words in context by using them for purposes which matter to them.

Ice –breaker and warmer games

It is important for learners to feel comfortable with each other, confident in themselves and focussed on the language lesson rather than on other distractions. We would also like them to be creative, risk-taking, thoughtful, communicative, and happy to work together with other learners. To help this situation to develop, the teacher can do ‘icebreaker’ games with a new class and ‘warmers’ at the beginning of a lesson with a class where the learners already know each other. Games and ‘playfulness’ as a way of warming people and helping them to focus their minds are complemented by the way the classroom looks and how you greet them. Music playing, pictures on the walls, the furniture arranged attractively, curious objects, coloured cloths and smiling faces drawn on the board can all help to get the lesson off to a good start.

Learning names

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to mill about, nodding and smiling, in a space in the classroom. It is an advantage if you can have some cheerful music playing and stop it when you want them to stop.

2 Ask them to stop in front of another learner and introduce themselves. You can demonstrate this.

Learner 1: Hello, I am Jack.

Learner 2: Hello, I am Mary

3 Let the learners mill again until you stop them and ask them to introduce themselves again.

4 You can add to the challenge by asking them to point at and name the other people they have already met. They can help each other to do this, if necessary. This is a very effective way of practising the paradigm of the present simple:

I am, he/she is.

Learner 1: She’s Mary and she’s Jenny and he’s Harry.

I’m Tom.

Find someone who …

Procedure

1 Write three or four instructions on the board. The conventional way of doing this is to use the phrase Find someone who…, for example, Find someone who lives in the same neighbourhood as you. However, you may prefer also to provide the learners with the actual questions they should use, for example, Where do you live? Alternatively, let the learners themselves choose the topics and formulate their own questions. Examples might be:

Find someone who lives near you.

Find someone who likes the same food as you.

Find someone who likes the same music as you.

Find someone who likes the same hobbies and pastimes as you.

Find someone who has the same reasons for, or anxieties about, learning English as you.

Find someone who has a pet.

Find someone who has been to another country.

2 Ask the learners to walk about the room talking to each other and finding out the information you have specified.

Questions and questionnaires

Procedure

1 Explain to the learners that all of the games in the variations (below) are based on questions which are used to find out more about other people in the class.

2 Help the learners to brainstorm on to the board questions which they might ask a person whom they would like to get to know. For example:

What’s your name?

Where do you live?

What’s your job?

Have you got children?

What’s your hobby?

What’s your favourite food/music, etc?

Examples of more personal and demanding questions

Are you married?

What worries you?

What is your greatest fear?

What is your favourite type of holiday?

What would you do if you found a lot of money in a park?

3 Tell the learners to leave their seats, mill about, and put questions to at least three other people.

4 Finally, invite the class to sit in a circle, and ask each learner to describe a classmate using all the information gathered. The rest of the class should try to guess the person referred to.

Identify guessing games

Asking questions, and naming objects:

What is it? It’s a …

Expressing uncertainty:

I don’t know. It could be a …

I’m not sure. I think it’s a …

I know what it is, but I don’t know what it’s called.

I know what it’s called in (Swedish), but I don’t know what it’s called in English.

Variation 1 Describing objects and speculating about them

Variation 2 Asking questions about objects and their owners

Variation 3 Speaking whole sentences, e.g. lines from a song, and identifying the speakers

Preparation: You will need about ten small objects of different shapes and sizes and a piece of cloth, a thin towel, or a headscarf, which must be large enough to cover four or five of the objects. For pair work, you should provide enough objects and pieces of cloth, etc., to keep all the learners occupied. If the objects are very different, then it is not really a challenge to identify them by touch, so choose some which are similar to feel, e.g. pens/pencils, coins of different denominations, plastic bags/paper bags, screws/nails. (optional) You could provide some pairs of gloves, to make feeling more of a challenge.

Note: Instead of a covering cloth, you may choose to conceal the objects for touching in a box or bag.

Procedure

1 Make sure that the learners know the names of the majority of the objects which you have collected.

2 Put four or five of the objects under the cloth on a table without the class seeing which ones you have chosen.

3 Ask a learner to feel one of the objects through the cloth and to tell you what they think it is. Let the learner remove the object to see if they were correct.

4 Repeat with other learners

The learners may touch the objects and then describe it or they can hear a voice and they have to guess who is talking and so on.

I spy game

Procedure

1 Begin by choosing an object to refer to in the classroom and then say, I spy with my little eye something beginning with … (the initial letter of the word for the object you have chosen). Explain, if necessary, that I spy means I can see.

2 Invite the learners to try to guess what it is.

Teacher: I spy with my little eye something beginning with B.

Learner 1: Book?

Teacher: No.

Learner 2: Board?

Teacher: Yes.

3 The winner takes over your role.

Learner 2: I spy with my little eye something beginning with …

You could widen the scope of this game by asking learners to imagine that they are somewhere else; for example, imagine that we are in a supermarket. I spy with my little eye something beginning with…

Stories in ten words

Procedure

1 Ask the learners to guess the name of a familiar story by listing key words and phrases for them. For example:

Teacher: I am going to tell you a story. Tell me what the story is.Girl, mother, grandmother, basket, forest, wolf.

Learner 1: Little Red Riding Hood.

2 Ask learners to repeat this activity in pairs. One learner lists five to ten key words from a familiar story, and the other identifies the story. Then they switch roles.

Re-telling a story, using key words, is a good way of building confidence. The learners feel they have achieved something by identifiably representing an extended text. As a basic technique, in the earlier years, the volunteering of single words naturally leads to the volunteering of longer phrases and eventually of complete sentences.

Bingo games

In this game you’ll need to do a little preparation, but it is well worth it. Make bingo sheets with a 4×4 grid and add words to each square. Hand these out (each one should be unique) and have students mark the correct word when you call it out. The first person to finish marking their entire page wins.

There are some fun variations to Word Bingo.

Picture Bingo: Use pictures on the Bingo card and call out the words that relate.

Synonym Bingo: Get those brains working by giving students a word that means the same thing as a word on their card.

Antonym Bingo: This is just as it sounds. Call out the antonyms of words on their cards and see how many students get it.

Hot music ball game

Children pass a ball around the class. Play some music. When you play the music you can't look at the children. Suddenly stop the music and turn around. The child who has the ball has to read a sentence or tell you what a flash card is. I usually have the child say the previous words or sentences that were said during the game. So the fifth child has to say the fifth sentence and sentences one to four. If you are practicing questions and answers give the students one small ball and one big ball to pass around the circle. The small one is passed clockwise and the big ball anti-clockwise. When you turn around the child that has the small ball has to ask the child with the big ball the questions on the whiteboard. Having the right music for this game can really give it a boost. I like to play, "We will, we will Rock You!"

Word webs

Demonstrate, on the board, how to make a word web centering on a topic, shown by a word or short phrase. The web of associated words can be general associations or personal associations.

Brainstorming with the learners, make a list of about 20 topics on the board. Ask each learner to choose three topics from the list and make webs of words they associate with each one, being careful not to identify the topic on their word webs. In other words, the central circle should be left empty. Tell the learners to circulate, showing their webs to at least three other learners, who must try to identify the topic of each web.

Mine and guess

To play this game as a class activity, ask one learner to mime an adjective. The rest of the learners should try to guess what he or she is miming. Alternatively, divide the class into two teams. Write one of the adjectives on a piece of paper and hand it to one player from the first team. That player must mime the word and his or her team should try to guess it within a set time limit (say, two minutes). If they guess right, the team wins a point.

There are variations for this game; the students can mine a verb, an adverb or even a sentence for the more advanced learners.

Odd one out

Tell the learners to identify the word from the first group that they think is the ‘odd-one-out’. Ask individuals to say which word they chose as the ‘odd-one-out’ and to say why. The other learners should be asked if they agree; or, if they disagree, to say why. You should not say which answer you think is correct until this discussion is finished – partly because this would inhibit discussion and partly because there may be no one correct answers. Each of the groups of words can be discussed in turn in this way.

Hangman spelling

http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/games/k/words.php?f=classroom_1

Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word, phrase or sentence and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters or numbers, within a certain number of guesses. The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, representing each letter of the word. In most variants, proper nouns, such as names, places, and brands, are not allowed. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter or number does not occur in the word, the other player draws one element of a hanged man stick figure as a tally mark.

The player guessing the word may, at any time, attempt to guess the whole word. If the word is correct, the game is over and the guesser wins. Otherwise, the other player may choose to penalize the guesser by adding an element to the diagram. On the other hand, if the other player makes enough incorrect guesses to allow his opponent to complete the diagram, the game is also over, this time with the guesser losing. However, the guesser can also win by guessing all the letters or numbers that appears in the word, thereby completing the word, before the diagram is completed.

Would you make a good witness?

Ask the learners if they think they would make good witnesses. Are they good at remembering the details of what they see? Tell them you are going to test them. Show the picture to the class for twenty seconds, and then turn the picture away. If the picture is not very big, walk through the class making sure that all the learners see it properly. Tell the learners, working in pairs, to ask each other questions about what they remember about the picture. For example:

“What did you see?

How many people were there?

What were they doing?

What did they look like?

How old were they?

What were they wearing?

What do you think they might have been saying or thinking?

What colour, shape, size, etc. was the …?

Interrogate the learners to discover what they can remember about the picture.

Teacher: What can you remember? What was in the picture?

Learner 1: There were some people.

Teacher: How many people? Can you remember?

Learner 2: I think there were five or six people.

Teacher: What were they wearing?”

Tic – Tac – Toe

This is a great game which can be used with any level. Teacher draws a nine square grid (it could be larger depending on the time and number of students) on the board and write a word in each box. Divide the class in half and allocate one half as “X” and the other half as “O”. Give students time to use the words in meaningful sentences. Then each team comes up to the board and writes their sentences. When they use a word in correct sentences, mark either “X” or “O” over the word. Three in a row wins!

This game is good to review general vocabulary.

Vocabulary ladder puzzle

In this activity, the teacher constructs a ladder of five words that all have the same number of letters. Within the ladder of five words, each word differs from the immediately above or immediately below by only one letter, for example:

Use the information and the clues to solve the puzzle:

1. My first pet was a …………………..

2. When I was shaving this morning, I ……………. myself.

3. Would you like a ………….of coffee?

4. A baby dog is called a puppy or a ……………

5. Let’s ………..some popcorn! I’m hungry!

(Answers: cat, cut, cup, pup, pop)

If students do not know one word, they should skip that clue and go to the words above and below the unknown word.

When doing this activity, learners frequently talk about encounters with several times, thus producing multiple encounters with the word.

Such activities can help students focus their attention on key vocabulary; require students to retrieve the forms and meanings of the new words. Our ultimate goal is to help our students be active vocabulary learners after they leave our classrooms. All in all, games can provide an opportunity for real communication and bridge the gap between the classroom and the real word.

2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of using games in language teaching

What is a game? The word game is mostly regarded as an activity which is entertaining and engaging, often challenging, and an activity in which the learners play and usually interact with others following certain rules. Jill Hadfield defines games as “an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.” Therefore games involve many factors: rules, competition, fun, relaxation but also learning. The main reason for using games in a language class is to help students learn and have fun. In playing games, competition is very important because it can stimulate and encourage students to participate in the activity since naturally they want to beat the other teams. We should also keep in mind that competition may be stimulating for some, but it can also be destructive, making players anxious, with losers categorising themselves as ‘no good’ and the winners categorising themselves as ‘very good’. Neither of these things may be true, and neither helps learning.

While playing, students have fun, relax, exercise, and tease their friends. Apart from having fun, students learn at the same time. They acquire new vocabulary along with its spelling and pronunciation. Students begin to realize that they have to speak or pronounce the words clearly if they want others to understand what they are saying.

2.1.2 Advantages of using games

Even though games are considered amusing and fun, we should not forget that they also have a pedagogical value, especially in second language learning. Games are important because they bring about motivation, they lower students’ stress and gives students the opportunity for a real communication.

There are many advantages for using games in language teaching. Probably one of the main reasons for using them is that if students enjoy the learning activities, they will be more involved and this may increase their desire to continue. This is very positive for language learning, because if children want to continue with an activity for some time, it will give them more exposure to language input and more chance to practise the language. They will also develop more positive attitudes towards English as they will associate it with something enjoyable and pleasing. Another reason for using games in the classroom is that they lower students' stress in the classroom. Students are sometimes frightened, embarrassed or insecure about learning a new language. As teachers, we need to be very sensitive to pupils’ feelings as this may affect their motivation and attitude to learning the language. If they feel “at home” in the classroom, they are more likely to participate and take risks. Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. 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. Games provide one way of helping the learners to experience language rather than merely study it.

Furthermore, games help increasing students' proficiency. Playing games in the classroom can enormously increase students' ability in using language because students have a chance to use language with a purpose in the situations provided. As Hadfield suggests “the emphasis in the game is on successful communication rather than on correctness of language… They can provide as much concentrated controlled practice as a traditional drill or an opportunity for real communication at the freer end of the spectrum and thus constitute a bridge between the classroom and the real world.” As suggested, children need opportunities for repetition, but it needs to be done in an interesting and meaningful way. Mechanical repetition, as in a chorus drill, where children do not need to pay attention to the meaning, has limited value for language learning.

And we should not forget that the games make use of a variety of techniques. Variety is important in language teaching. In playing a game students have fun, but they also learn even though they are not aware of this fact. Apart from having fun, students do not worry about errors and punishment; moreover, they will learn a grammatical rule and have a chance to use it. Thus, they learn unconsciously-learn without realizing they are learning. Students stop thinking about language and begin using it in a spontaneous and natural manner within the classroom.

If it is accepted that games can provide intense and meaningful practice of language, then they must be regarded as central to a language teacher’s repertoire and not merely a way of passing the time.

2.2.2. Disadvantages of using games and some practical suggestions

Using games in language teaching is not appropriate at all the times. Some games require a large working surface which is not always available. Sometimes the children get too excited and there is a lot of noise. One of the golden rules for using games successfully with children is that they all know exactly what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to do it and when. They should know what the aim of the game is right from the start. One of the easiest ways of avoiding chaos in a class is to ask a pair or group of learners to come up to the front to demonstrate the game so that the other children listen to the instructions before they look at the materials.

Another disadvantage could be the fact that there are too many children in one class and the teacher can’t control the language they are using. Children who have a limited amount of English will find it difficult to carry out the whole activity in English. It is therefore important for the teacher to be sure what the aim of the activity is. If the children use their mother tongue then they have failed in the aim of the game. Moreover, the instructions of the games must to be clear and simple, and if there is no cooperation among students then the game may fail to succeed.

However, even though games sometimes do not work since student have different learning styles and preferences, and some other factors such as being used in an inappropriate time, the nature of games themselves, and even the nature of teachers, it is still worth trying to use them in class because they offer several good advantages to students. Language games used in the classroom are very effective and supportive activities in contributing to students' language skills and proficiency. Unfortunately, because of limitations of time and curriculum, teachers normally have to cover all the content and materials, which students will be tested on, and it is not always easy to incorporate games into the class.

CHAPTER III –VOCABULARY ACQUISITION THROUGH STORIES

Everybody loves stories. Good teachers have always known the power of stories in the classroom. Stories hold a strange and magical quality that can interest and engage learners in a way that few other materials and methods have. While the telling of stories in class is often associated with primary age children, the attraction of the story remains throughout life. Through stories, children develop understanding of themselves and the world around them. The distance afforded by characters and events which are not real also helps children to explore significant issues which are relevant to their daily lives in a way that is safe and enjoyable.

In storytelling and drama, the usual norms of time, place and identity are temporarily suspended, as for example, in a story which spans a hundred years yet takes three minutes to tell, or a drama activity which transforms the classroom into a jungle and all the children in is into “hungry lions”. Storytelling and drama are above all shared, communal classroom events which engage children’s interest, attention and imagination and develop their language skills in a holistic way. They also appeal to children with different intelligences and learning styles and provide a framework for fostering social skills and attitudes, such as active listening, collaborating, turn taking and respect for others, in a positive way.

3.1. What is storytelling?

Storytelling is a method of explaining a series of events through narrative. The events can be real, fictional or some combination of the two. We can read stories from a book, we can orally tell them to an audience or we can even tell anecdotes or jokes. The challenge of any storyteller is to maintain the listener’s interest and attention.

In other words we can say that storytelling is an essential part of human nature. Man is the only creature that tells stories. Man has been telling stories and listening to them since the time he learnt to speak. The storytelling began with oral traditions and in forms of myths, legends, fables, anecdotes, ballads etc. These were told and retold and were passed down from generation to generation and they show the knowledge and wisdom of early people.

3.2. The advantages of storytelling

Most children start school familiar with stories and narrative conventions in their mother tongue and quickly transfer this familiarity into a willingness to listen to and participate in stories in English. Therefore it is important to introduce stories in the language acquisition as soon as possible. Stories provide a natural, relevant and enjoyable context for exposure to language and an opportunity to familiarize children with the sounds, rhythm and intonation of English. The discovery and construction of meaning is supported through things such as visual, mime, gesture, voice and characterization, and children also develop learning strategies and thinking skills, such as, predicting, hypothesizing, guessing and inferring meaning. Stories help young children to develop concentration skills and also aspects of emotional intelligence, such as empathy and relating to other people. Stories also provide a springboard for a wide range of activities which develop language, thinking skills, positive attitudes and citizenship, as well as, appreciation of other cultures, or understanding of content from other areas of the curriculum. As children develop their ability to understand, retell, act out, or create their own stories in English, this also has a positive effect on their motivation, confidence and self- esteem.

Ellis and Brewster sustain that “listening to stories in class is a shared social experience. Storytelling provokes a shared response of laughter, sadness, excitement and anticipation which is not only enjoyable but can help build up the child’s confidence and encourage social and emotional development.” Moreover stories are perfect tools for revising vocabulary and sentence structures, providing a type of pattern practice in a meaningful context.

Primary and secondary school students like stories. It is obvious that we should choose different types of stories and different topics for secondary school students. Also the sources of stories are different. Students are able to create their own stories if they have the right input.

3.3. Choosing stories

Stories can be selected from a range of sources, including graded readers, story websites on the internet or picture books originally written for children whose first language is English. Whatever the source, the most important thing is that the story the teacher chooses is suitable for the children it is intended for. The teachers need to check that the content is relevant, interesting, appealing and memorable and, if the story is illustrated, that the visuals are clear and attractive and will support children's understanding. The language level of the story also needs to be appropriate and to fit in at least partially with the syllabus. Other features, such as whether the discourse pattern of the story is repetitive, cumulative or includes a rhythmic refrain (and therefore promotes participation, aids memory and practises a particular language pattern) will also influence the choice. Over time, it is important to vary the kinds of stories we use, including, for example, traditional stories or, with older children, spoof or modern versions of these, fables or stories with a moral, myths, legends, funny stories, rhyming stories, stories with flaps or pop-ups, biographical stories, stories which help children understand their own feelings, stories from other cultures and stories which are linked to content from other areas of the curriculum.

3.4. Vocabulary acquisition through stories

Young are usually full of enthusiasm and energy, and the language lessons will be full of variety and changes of activity. We need to have an idea of what we hope the students will achieve in a lesson. We need to think of the best ways to help them do this. Lesson plans are like maps; they tell us where we are going and help us to get the best route to get there. When we create a story –based lesson plan we need to decide what our precise learning aims are and also what activities can be used in order to achieve those aims. It is very important to know how to work with the story we choose, how to adapt the tasks according to input, output and the resources that are used within an activity. As with many listening or reading activities it could be helpful to plan a story –based lesson that includes a pre –storytelling preparation activities, while story –telling activities and post story –telling activities.

Secondly, it is also important to give clear instructions and to communicate to the children what is expected of them. If necessary we can modify the story to make it easier for the children to understand. We can also help them understand the story with the support of visual and audio materials, speech bubbles, masks, puppets, real objects, flashcards, and drawings.

Thirdly, the teacher can decide not only when and how to use the story, but also how much follow –up work needs to be done. The teacher must check that each lesson provides variety and the opportunity for recycling language previously introduced. It is also important to develop students’ awareness of how stories are constructed and to give them opportunities to create stories themselves.

Vocabulary in stories is usually presented in a vivid and clear context and the illustrations helps to convey meaning. Therefore, the context and the situations must be carefully chosen to make vocabulary easy to remember. Words are often remembered if they are introduced in lexical sets, rhyming sets, colour sets or grammatical sets. Grouping words in this way can help pupils associate new words with words they already know and can aid retention and recall.

New vocabulary can be introduced using different techniques:

Using objects: sometimes the use of a real object helps pupils memorise the word through visualization.

Pictures and books cover: seeing a picture of a word or a group of words is also a good way of helping pupils remembering the words more easily.

Drawings: the teacher can draw the object on the blackboard or she can ask the pupils to draw it.

Using opposites: this can be helpful in case of adjectives slim/fat, big/small etc.

Miming and guessing from the context: pupils are creative and they can enjoy doing these activities, they can also help them build up self –confidence so that they can work out the meanings of words when they are on their own and will help them remember a word.

Eliciting: once the context is established, pupils can be asked questions about a situation in order to elicit vocabulary.

Translating: sometimes we may need to translate some words and save time.

As soon as a new word has been introduced we will want to provide opportunities for pupils to practise it and also to make sure that they have understood it. There are a variety of activities teachers can use to practise and check vocabulary, such as:

Matching words with pictures. Pupils match words with the correct picture.

Guessing games. Here we can include games like ‘Hide -and -seek’, or Mime games, in which pupils have to guess the words that are mimed or hided by the other pupils. These games are not only amusing but they can help pupils revise questions too, since in order to guess the words they must ask questions, for example, ‘Is it under the desk?’, ‘Is it a …?’.

What’s missing or Sort the odd one out. This game can be played by sticking a maximum of ten illustrations or words on the board. The pupils must close their eyes. Remove an item from the board and then ask the pupils to open their eyes and say what is missing. If the pupil is correct she or he wins a point. In sort the odd one out, pupils must choose which out of four words doesn’t fit with the rest.

Picture dictation. First of all explain to the students that they are going to do a picture dictation, that you are going to describe a picture to them and that all they have to do is simply listen and draw what they hear you describe. You then describe a simple and easy-to-draw picture to them and they draw it.

Word search or word chains. Pupils have to find words or separate out words from a string of unseparated letters. This help to train pupils to recognise English spelling patterns.

Memory games. You give one pupil in a team a list of words or a sentence that he/she must remember and then whisper to the next child. This child whispers it to the next child and so on until the last child is reached. This pupil compares the list of words or sentence with the original one to see if it has changed.

Classifying/sorting. Pupils sort words into categories.

Bingo! This game can be played with words or pictures. As words are called out, pupils put pictures cover cards or word cover cards on the board on the item that has been called.

Pupils learn new words quickly but they also need to recycle them regularly to aid

retention. We often, as teachers, hear our pupils say that they have learnt a word but they can’t remember it anymore. Therefore, once a new word has been introduced and practised, it is important to help our students to find ways to consolidate and revise vocabulary. In this regard they can use:

Vocabulary cards. Pupils can make their own sets of vocabulary cards for self –testing. On one side they can draw a picture and on the other side they can write the word in English. In this way they can use the cards to see if by looking at the picture they draw they can guess the word in English too.

Word families or sets. Pupils can be encouraged to make their own word sets as an alternative to a picture dictionary. Pictures can be copied from stories and labelled, and kept in envelopes with headings such as Fruit, Toys, Animals, etc.

Picture dictionaries/vocabulary books. The whole class can create a picture dictionary for everyone to use during the English classes. Pupils can collect or draw pictures to illustrate the meaning of a word and write the word alongside.

Collages. Pupils collect pictures around a particular theme and stick these, together with labels, onto a large sheet of coloured paper to make a display. This is a useful way of revising vocabulary.

Creating stories from given words. Pupils can be encouraged as they grow older to create their own short stories. This can help them not only revise vocabulary but also develop their imagination and creativity.

To conclude with, I can strongly say that there are so many reasons to use games and stories in teaching English. They combine the four skills, speaking, listening, reading and writing in a meaningful context; they stimulate children curiosity and encourage them to learn more, not only about English language, but about the world in general.

CHAPTER IV – THE RESEARCH

4.1. Experimental objectives and hypotheses

The hypotheses of the research:

Using games and stories as a means for acquiring vocabulary can help pupils to enhance their vocabulary and help to memorize it when needed.

Using games and stories by teachers in classroom brings out significant difference in language learning as compared to a situation where no games or stories are used. So, there is significant difference between the control group and the experimental group in acquiring vocabulary correctly by using games and storytelling as a means of learning.

This research deals with two important questions:

Does the use of language games have a positive effect on vocabulary development of primary and secondary school pupils?

Does the use of stories help pupils acquire and enhance their vocabulary knowledge and retrieve when needed?

The objective of the research is improving pupils’ vocabulary learning by using language games and storytelling techniques.

4.2. Research methodology

The methods used in gathering the data were: systematic observation when I used games and stories in the classroom, interviews and self- reflection form.

In the analysis sections the focus will also be on the SWOT analysis method which tries to explain the advantages and disadvantages of using games and stories in primary and secondary school.

4.3. The subjects of the research

Taking into consideration that I teach both primary and secondary pupils who have the approximate same level of language and the difference of age is not so big, I have decided to focus my research on forty pupils from two different classes, IIIrd B and Vth A from “Secondary School Tureac”, Bistrița. They were divided in two groups: an experimental group and a witness group. The participants of the experimental group were taught vocabulary using language games and stories and the participants of the witness group were taught by the traditional way. A pre- observation questionnaire was given before the application of the treatment to both groups to make sure they are equivalent and the same questionnaire was administered as a post- observation questionnaire after applying the treatment to see whether the using of games and stories for teaching English vocabulary had any influence on the experimental groups and which strategy have more influence on the subjects than the other.

4.4. The experimental design

This research attempts to identify and understand how children in the third and fifth grade of an elementary and secondary school respond to different vocabulary teaching techniques. In order to do this, I have introduced different kinds of games and stories in my lessons so that I could observe how children react to this method of learning vocabulary. I also wanted to find out if there were any problems that occurred during the process of teaching.

To achieve my goal, I used two strategies for teaching English vocabulary: a strategy of using language games and stories and a traditional strategy. Owing to the fact that the participants’ level of English is A2 (elementary level), some of the questions from the observation questionnaire they had to answer to at the beginning of the semester and at the end of it, were translated to them in Romanian, so that I could be sure that all of them understood the questions and the information I sought were correct. (Appendix 1)

Moreover, during a period of four months I tried to apply as many games and stories as possible in the two classes to learn from learners’ reaction whether they liked games and stories or not and if games and stories could improve their existing vocabulary.

Finally, the language learning games and the stories used will be assessed here, for example by their various uses of creativity, imagination and social learning, in addition to how the pupils learn to ask questions and access different data. A popular method used in schools all over the world is the SWOT analysis, and that kind of analysis was also used in this paper as well. The SWOT is an abbreviation for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.