a) Explain briefly with suitable examples the following ways of learning vocabulary:
i) Incidental learning
ii)Intentional learning
b) You have been assigned by the headmaster of SK Bukit Awan to teach a group of Year Three students who are weak in vocabulary. Select any one Year Three topic and describe with suitable examples TWO teaching techniques that you would like to employ to enhance the pupils’ vocabulary development.
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a) i. Incidental vocabulary learning can be defined as a process where learning takes place through contextual deduction in the target language. It is also known as a process of “picking up” a language. According to Zielinski (1998), learners would encounter certain terms together with syntactic information and this would help the learners to use the accurate words in an idiomatic way. Vocabulary in context usually appears repeatedly under different aspects. He also mentioned that unfortunately, it would take quite some time before the incidental vocabulary is acquired for fluent conversations. Incidental vocabulary learning can occur in many ways. For example, when a learner reads a thriller novel in the target language, he or she would encounter new terms such as “lethal”, “military” and “surveillance”. These terms would be best acquired if it is surrounded by familiar vocabulary and this is where contextual deduction occurs.
ii. Intentional vocabulary learning can be defined as a process where the learning process occurs through memorization each term along with their translations. This way of learning vocabulary is preferred because learning new vocabulary is quicker. However, learners usually would be having difficulty in putting the new vocabulary into context due to the fact that it is encountered in an isolated and infinitive form. Furthermore, vocabulary acquired through this process is not retainable and easily forgotten by the learners. For example, in an English Language classroom, the teacher asks the students to read an article entitled “The Computer”. After the reading, the teacher would explain the article and certain terms used in the article. The students would continue asking the teacher for explanation for each term and this is how intentional vocabulary learning occurs.
b) Weak in vocabulary is a common problem among students both in the primary and secondary level. This problem occurs in a country where English Language is taught as a second language and the native language is used widely for every purpose. It is sad to say that this problem happens in our country, Malaysia.
As an English teacher, I have been assigned by the headmaster of SK Bukit Awan to teach a group of Year Three students who are weak in vocabulary. It is a great responsibility as I have to choose teaching techniques that would be able to help these students in enhancing their vocabulary. The first technique that I have chosen is The Direct Method. I feel that this method is a good method since those students that I am going to teach have already been exposed to English Language. Basically, this method aims to promote communication skills to students so that they would be able to converse well in the target language. I feel that this is true because one of the main reasons learning a language is to be able to use the language in a spoken form as this will help to build confidence. Other than that, I also have chosen one Year Three topic entitled “My Animal Friends” under the theme “Animals”.
One of the reasons why this method has been chosen is because my objective is to enhance the student’s vocabulary and this method emphasizes on vocabulary rather than grammar. Furthermore, learning grammar would consume a longer time compared to learning vocabulary. Due to that, I feel what the students really need is drilling so that they would be able to remember the linguistics structure of the target language. Besides that, this method proposes that grammar should be learnt inductively. In other words, they make the generalization or decide from the example given by the teacher. I strongly believe that this method is a highly effective method to enhance the students’ vocabulary.
Since this method emphasizes on communication skills, for the first part of the lesson in class, I would ask the students to tell me which animal do they like to have as their pet. Usually, primary school students at this level would be excited to share what they have in mind. Furthermore, it is a good start for me to communicate with my students and to make them to feel comfortable talking in class. This activity would involve all students in the class and the conversation would be carried out like this:
Teacher: Rajoo, which animal do you like to have as your pet?
Rajoo: I like to have a rabbit as my pet.
Teacher: Sara, which animal do you like to have as your pet?
Sara: I like to have a cat as my pet.
This question and answer session will be going on until everyone has answered the question given. From the dialogue, we can see that each student answer the question in full sentences. According to Larsen-Freeman (1986), one of the main principles in Direct Method is that the students are expected to think in the target language. By answering the question in full sentences, the students would acquire the vocabulary naturally compared to memorizing word lists. If the students could not answer the question, the teacher would help the students. Besides that, the teacher would also correct the students’ pronunciation. Usually, the teacher would address the students’ mispronunciation immediately. Correct pronunciation is a must in Direct Method. I feel that this is a good way for the students to practice pronouncing words in a correct way. Furthermore, correct pronunciation helps the students to converse well later when they have acquired enough vocabulary and gained enough confidence to speak without feeling any hesitation.
The next part of the lesson would take place where I would give my students a piece of paper containing sentences along with a few animal pictures on it. I would ask all my students to read the sentences as loud as possible. This is example of the text:
I have a tortoise.
My tortoise has a brown shell.
Nani has a parrot.
Her parrot eats fruit.
The students would be asked to read up the text loudly. This is one of the important techniques used in the Direct Method. Sometimes, the students would be asked to take turns in reading the text given by the teacher. Reading aloud technique helps the students to pronounce each word from the text clearly and it also helps them to practice their listening skills. Right after the reading aloud session, there would be another question and answer session between the teacher and the students. The teacher would initiate the session by asking the students the question based on the text. After that the student would ask the teacher any word that they do not understand.
In this method, there is a direct association between meaning and the target language. When the students ask the teacher on certain term for example the meaning of a shell, the teacher would point to one body part of the tortoise. In Direct Method, the teachers are encouraged to use realia (authentic materials), pictures or pantomime so that the students would have a better understanding on the vocabulary.
The last part of the lesson would take place by giving the students fill-in-the-blank worksheets. The worksheet contains sentences along with the picture of the animals that function as the answers. I would ask them to read the sentences out loud and also instruct them to supply the answers as they are reading. The fill-in-the-blank worksheet will be as the following:
What is this?
This is a ________.
This is a ________.
The ________ has soft fur.
This is a ________.
The _____ eats fish.
The fill-in-the-blank activity is one way to know whether the students have understood and remember the vocabulary that they have learnt. It is also another way for them to practice pronouncing the vocabulary correctly by reading it out loud with their friends. Through this way, it would help the teacher to identify whether they method used is effective or otherwise.
I feel that the most interesting aspect of Direct Method is it emphasizes on all four different skills that are reading, writing, listening and speaking. These skills are very important to prepare the students in their examination. Furthermore, Malaysian education system is examination-oriented. Due to that, I feel that this method is applicable in Malaysian classroom. However, the reason why I feel that this method is the best method to be applied in our education system is the fact that it only allows target language to be used in the classroom. Any translation or use of native language is strictly forbidden. From my perspective, this is one way to prevent the problem that we called “Manglish” or “Malaysian English”. The sole usage of target language would prevent the students from mixing up both native and target language and this would definitely enhance the proficiency of English Language. I hope that by applying this method, my Year Three students would be proficient speakers of English Language.
The second technique that I have chosen is Total Physical Response Method. This method was founded by James Asher in 1960s but become well-known only in the 1970s. According to Asher, Total Physical Response Method is the fastest and the least stressful way of understanding any target language. Due to that, the students must know how to follow the instructions given by the teacher. Asher introduces the right brain learning theory to support this method. He believes when language is taught actively through movement, the right brain will retain the information and the information will last for a long time. I found that Total Physical Response Method to be a very interesting method because it involves a great deal of movements and for Year Three students, they would definitely enjoy doing all the movements instructed by the teacher. Due to that, I have chosen the topic of “My Animal Friends” under the theme “Animals”
In actual fact, the main reason why I choose this method is because it emphasizes on learning vocabulary and grammatical structure and this emphasis goes along with my objective that is to enhance the vocabulary of the Year Three students. For the first part of the lesson, I would write on the board the list of certain sound and action of animals. Then based on the action and sound, I would demonstrate the action as well as the sound to the students. After that, the students will have to follow my demonstration as well as guess what animal that they are demonstrating. The example of sound and action will be as the following:
Animals Sound Action
chatter swing
hiss glide
bleat run
neigh gallop
The demonstration of sound and action are essential in Total Physical Response Method. This is because it is how this method is carried out in a classroom. The learning and teaching process occur in two phases. The first phase is called modeling. The teacher would model or demonstrate the action or the sound and after that, it will be done by the students without the help of the teachers. From my point of view, this way of starting a class is actually a good way. This is because the students enjoy doing the activity and it would definitely help to reduce stress. Furthermore, it promotes good interaction between the teacher and the students.
The second part of the lesson will take place with an activity called “Animal Hand Shadow”. I would make sure that the room is in a dark environment by switching off the lights. Then, I would call for two volunteers to help me with the demonstration. This time I would repeat the same two phases similar to the previous activity. However, at the end of the lesson, the students will be asked to write down all the animals taught. The example of hand shadows as the following:
This hand shadowing activity is a very useful for the students’ creative development. I feel that it is because it helps the students to think creatively on how to make the animal’s shadow using their hands. Besides that, through this animal shadow activity, the teacher would be able to attract the attention of the students as this is a very interesting activity. In this method as well, speaking is emphasized over writing. However, students are not expected to speak until they feel comfortable to do so. Due to that, listening skill plays a crucial role in this method. In actual fact, writing skill would come later after the students manage to acquire enough vocabulary.
I feel that both Direct Method and Total Physical Response are suitable in enhancing the vocabulary of the Year Three students. In fact, if both methods are combined, it will become a powerful tool for the teachers to teach their students. However, I feel that it is a must for the teacher to modify any of the two methods before applying it in the classroom. This is because both methods have their own strengths and weaknesses. By manipulating the strengths and weaknesses, the learning process will be an effective process. Hopefully, I would be able to apply these methods as a teacher in the future and make a difference out of it.
BIBLIOGRAPY
BOOK
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lim, P.C. Gurnam, K.S. Azman, A.A. Teoh, C.Y. (2004) English Year Three Textbook. Kuala Lumpur. Utusan Publications & Distributors SDN. BHD.
WEBSITE
Yongqi Gu, P. (2003) Vocabulary Learning in a Second Language: Person, Task, Context and Strategies.
Retrieved from www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej26/toc.htm
Zielenski, D. (1998) Bridging The Gap of Incidental and Intentional Learning. Retrieved from www.mx.unixarland.org/vocabulary.
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