MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Teaching vocabulary to young learners

Bachelor work

Brno 2006

Author: Lenka Přibilová Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková

Bibliografický záznam
Lenka Přibilová, Teaching vocabulary to young learners: Bakalářská
práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra
anglického jazyka a literatury, 2006, 43 stran a 5 příloh. Vedoucí
bakalářské práce: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková

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Anotace
Bakalářská práce Výuka slovní zásoby u mladších žáků pojednává
o potřebe učitele poznat své žáky a rozumět jejich potřebám a
problémům.
Dalším bodem, o kterém tato práce pojednává, je otázka
motivace a zapojení her a zábavy do výuky.
Posledním bodem, kterým se tato práce zaobírá, je využití
různých metod a přístupů ve výuce u mladších žáků.

Annotation
The thesis Teaching vocabulary to young learners deals with
the need of a teacher to know his or her learners and to
understand their needs and problems.
Other issue mentioned in the thesis is the question of
motivation and icluding fun and games into the teaching
process.
The last issue the thesis deals with is the usage of different
methods and approaches for teaching young learners.

Klíčová slova
Mladší žák, motivace, slovní zásoba, přístup, metoda, hra,
zábava

Key words
Young learner, motivation, vocabulary, approach, method, game,
fun

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Prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci zpracovala samostatně
pod vedením Mgr. N. Vojtkové. Dále prohlašuji, že jsem uvedla
všechny literární prameny, z nichž jsem čerpala.

Souhlasím s uložením práce v archivu Masarykovy univerzity

a se zpřístupněním ke studijním účelům.

V Brně dne 30. července 2006 Lenka Přibilová

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Acknowledgements
I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor Mgr.
Naděžda Vojtková for her valuable advice and help.

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 CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION 8

2. THEORETICAL PART 10

2. 1. YOUNG LEARNER-WHO IS A YOUNG LEARNER? 10

2. 2. VOCABULARY 13

2. 2. 1. WHAT IS VOCABULARY? 13

2. 2. 2. HOW ARE WORDS LEARNED? 15

2. 2. 3. WHICH WORDS AND WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT? 17

2. 3. VOCABULARY PRESENTATION 19

2. 4. BE REALISTIC 21

2. 4. 1. CHOOSING ACTIVITIES 22

2. 4. 2. THE ROLE OF FUN AND GAMES IN THE LESSONS 24

3. PRACTICAL PART 26

3. 1. LESSON PLAN # 1 27

3. 2. LESSON PLAN # 2 29

3. 3. LESSON PLAN # 3 31

3. 4. LESSON PLAN # 4 33

3. 5. LESSON PLAN # 5 35

3. 6. LESSON PLAN # 6 37

3. 7. LESSON PLAN # 7 39

4. CONCLUSION 41

5. RESUMÉ 42

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 43

7. APPENDICES 45
APPENDIX I 45

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APPENDIX II 47
APPENDIX III 48
APPENDIX IV 49
APPENDIX V 50

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1. Introduction

“Why? What is it good for ? Is it good for them at all? Do they really need it? Is it not only
a useless worry? Why do we have to make them learn something more than what they really
need and have to? How much hope shall we place in it? “

These are the most frequent questions I have been thinking about. I have discussed them
with many pupils, teachers and parents. Reactions and opininons were, of course, different. I
have been teaching English for eleven years now – seven years at a language school here in
Brno, the rest at two primary schools also in Brno. I have to admit that at the beginning I
doubted about any acquisition for young learners and many arguments seemed cogent to me.
During the time I began to realize chances and occasions that English language can offer to
children and I started to be a big fan of teaching English to young learners.

I ran against a lot of troubles that I would like to share in my final thesis and also I would
like to share some ideas for teaching vocabulary to young learners. At the begining during the
discussions with my colleagues we found out that some kind of conception was needed, next
we pointed out that there were missing good textbooks or materials, also didactic aids and
methodology books. Frequent complain of many teachers is that it is extremely difficult to
teach children that seem to lack the basic talent for learning languages. Therefore I would like
to refer to the possibilities which teaching a foreign language to young learners brings.

The aim of this work is to show several ways that can be used for teaching vocabulary to
young learners. I would like to show why and how teaching vocabulary to young learners can
be more efficient.

I divided my thesis into the theoretical and the practical part – the practical part follows the
theoretical part. In the theoretical part I will introduce the aim of this thesis, then I will try to
describe who is a young learner. In the next chapter I will focus on what is vocabulary and
how it is learned and also the ways how vocabulary can be presented..

In the second part of my thesis I would like to present my system of work and also
different methods I use while teaching. I will enclose some materials and games that I use in

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my lesssons. In conclusion I will briefly summarize my thesis. After that follows the list of
sources - books (used literature) which I used for my thesis and the appendices where I
included some materials and exercises with the keys.

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2. Theoretical part
2.1. Young learner - who is a young learner?

A young learner – who is he or she? This term covers a wide age range, this can be
anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen. There is a big difference between what
a –three-year-old child can do and what a child of fifteen can do. We should consider their
development too. Some children develop faster, others need more time. Teaching young
learners requires the knowledge of knowing all the development differences. Understanding
these differences can help me as a teacher to develop methods and a system of work that I
will use in the process of teaching. Of course, it is not possible to say that every child of six
will know this and that. But it is possible to pick out some chracteristics which I as a teacher
should know and should be aware of.

I have decided to focus on young learners – age group 7-11. I have chosen this age group
because I like working with young learners. From my own personal experience I have to
admit that learners at this age are grateful when someone invest time in them. The results are
seen quite easily and of course teachers demand this kind of satisfaction. These children still
want to learn something new. When they know it, they are happy to present it and they feel
more important. I remember a girl - 5th grade - who was able to “communicate” with a native
speaker. Her joy was the best reward for me.

It is generally known that the Czech system officially allows children to start learning a
foreign language in the 4th grade. In the Czech Republic children have started learning a
foreign language in the 4th grade so far. However, according to the new school curricula,
which is starting to be adopted from September 2006, the children will start a year earlier and
in some schools the foreign language will be introduced from the 1st grade. In the 7th grade
they will have to start learning a second foreign language. In my opinion, the sooner they
start, the better for them. Their brain and memory is ready for learning and most of them can
learn quite well. There have been many disputes and discussions over this. I think these
debates will be run over and over because nobody is able to say the exact time for beginning
to learn foreign languages. From my personal experience, I achieved quite good results with
kindergarten children so I do not see any problems for older learners. I think if
very young learners are able to achieve good results, I think the older ones can do it too.

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I would like to point out some characteristics about this age group.

They are happy when they can play.

They love to share their experiences, they love when people pay attention to them and
their talking.

They are able to talk about what they are doing.

They use imagination a lot.

They can think, argue, discuss and they are able to interact with both children and
adults. They are able to concentrate for certain time.

They understand situations and through situations – they use several senses.

They are able to use language skills not even realizing them.

They do not realize what is fact and what is fiction sometimes.

They want to learn and are happy when they learn something, then they have to share
it with somebody and they are proud that they learnt something, they can show off a
little bit.

Often they “teach” each other.

They love to be praised for what they have done and learnt, this is very important fact
to keep their motivation.

Very often they pretend they understand everything and they know everything.

Halliwell states that:

young children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily
understanding the individual words

already have great skill in using limited language creatively

frequently learn indirectly rather than directly

take great pleasure in creating fun in what they do

their imagination is ready

“above all take great delight in talking” (Halliwell, 1992, p 3)

I do agree with Halliwell and her observations. My observations are the same as hers.
These examples of characteristics I have mentioned above are great hints how to teach young
learners and what kind of methods we should use. It is very important to choose the right way
of teaching for these little children. The teacher definitely has to be very sensitive to the
children´s needs and has to prepare the lessons well.. We should avoid a stereotype, the

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lessons have to be creative and lively. Otherwise this could have really bad consequences for
the learners´ further improvement in the language.

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2. 2. Vocabulary
2. 2. 1. What is vocabulary?

“Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language.
However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single word: for example, post
office, and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. A
useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary „items“ rather than
„words“. (Ur, 2003, p 60)

All languages consist of words. Languages emerge first as words, both historically, and in
terms of the way each of us learned our first and any subsequent languages. Moreover,
vocabulary is still widening. Even in our native language we are continually learning new
words and meanings of old words. For example, Czech word pošta. This used to mean just the
post office or simple letters but nowadays it also means emails. Some words can be entirely
new to us. We come across completely new words that are made up according to new
technologies and according to the needs of real life. For example, a verb to google is used
frequently a lot. Learners of a second language experience something similar. Thornbury
states that they can be confronted by words that are totally unfamiliar, or being used in ways
that for them are novel and possibly obscure. To find the right word to fit the meaning can be
very frustrating, especially if the store of words is limited.

To summarize this, the learner while learning the vocabulary of a second language can
come across several challenges:

“making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between
the form and meaning of words

when producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended (
i.e. nose not noise)

To meet these challenges the learner needs to:

acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the
language

remember words over time, be able to recall them readily

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develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with
unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words

have to take responsibility themselves for vocabulary expansion” (Thornbury, 2002, p
31)

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2. 2. 2. How are words learned?
“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”
David Wilkins, linguist

To know a word is one thing but we have to pause on the fact how this knowledge is
acquired. Thinking about little children who learn to speak, then they always start with words
used for labelling, so that the concept, for example, of a cat has a name cat. But of course not
every animal is a cat. The child needs to learn how far to extend the concept of a cat. “In other
words, acquiring a vocabulary requires not only labelling but also categorising skills.”
(Thornbury, 2002, p 18) The child has to realise that these common words like cat can be
replaced by superordinate terms like animals. And to this category also belongs other animals,
not just cats. Thornbury states that the children have to develop some kind of network
building – constructing some complex idea. Than during this process they will realise there
also exist words like synonyms, homonyms etc.

There are many different methods and approaches how to teach a foreign language,
including vocabulary. I will mention just some of them that can be used for teaching young
learners.

To help the learners understand it is important to visualize the item and get the pupils
to repeat or use the item actively. One good way of doing this is to let them see or
perhaps touch the vocabulary item, for instance a house. We need to let them repeat it
in different ways and they should be given a chance to listen to the teacher talking
about it.

A little bit of shocking method is the direct method or the direct approach. The mother
tongue is never used, there are no translations. Only target language is used in the
calssrooms and only complete sentences are used. Culture is considered an important
aspect.

Suggestopedia is a very successful method in helping learners to memorize words.
This method stimulates the learner´s brain by music while learning but nowadays
teachers seem to be leaving this method.

What really works especially for young learners is the Total Physical Response
method - TPR. Very many children are nowadays very hyper and physically active

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 and to concentrate for a long time can be very difficult for them. Using this method,
games, changing topics and using a variety of activities is very appreeciated by them.
This method is used a lot by teachers.

Communicative Language Approach (Teaching) – CLT – stresses the meaning of a
language in context. Communicative competence is highly developed here and
learners are encouraged to communicate.

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2. 2. 3. Which words and what should be taught?

The significant point in teaching vocabulary is the selection of words we as teachers want
to teach. It is quite easy to teach concrete words at lower level and then become more abstract.
Thus, we need to consider the frequency too. There is a choice for us, we can decide which
words to teach on the basis of frequency, how often the words are used by the speaker of the
language. Especially with young learners words that they are familiar with and they can stick
to them should be taught. Very often words are taught according to themes and topics.
Nowadays all the course books are organised into themes and they provide vocabulary
according to it. If there is a theme “Animals”, then we can expect words like naming animals,
also where they live, what they eat etc. Words that have quite specific meaning should be
avoided with young learners.

Ur states the learners need to be taught the form of the word, then grammar, collocations,
meaning and word formation.
In the form pronunciation and spelling should be mentioned. “The learner has to know what a
word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling).” (Ur, 1996, p 60)
The grammar of a new item also needs to be taught. Again, depending what level the learners
are they should be taught to follow some grammatical rules. For example when teaching
nouns, we would like to present their plural forms, also regular and irregular ( girl-girls,
mouse-mice). When teaching verbs, maybe we would like to present their past forms,
especially if the verb is irregular (forget-forgot).
Collocations – I do not think these are important for young learners.
“The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation”. (Ur,
1996, p 61) In my opinion it is important to inform learners about the meaning of the word as
well as their form and grammar. Learners find this sometimes very difficult and discouraging
because some words do not have just one meaning. Context helps them to find the right
meaning. Thus, it is good when the learners know the synonyms (smart – intelligent) or
antonyms (rich – poor). We can relate items together – for example words like “a school, a
teacher, a blackboard and a break” are all associated with education.
Word formation – using prefixes and suffixes, using hyphenated words etc. is too difficult for
young learners.

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 To summarize this, firstly I think that knowing the word and understanding its meaning go
hand in hand. Secondly, it is easier to remember concrete words like a chair or a dog than
abstract words. Young learners often put words together with what they can see, hear or with
whar they can touch. But as said above they also need to know other aspects of the words they
learn. In my opinion, it is important to teach them all these aspects. Of course, we will not
teach them, for example the irregular plural form right away, but they need to know it. I think
that if we keep repeating the plural form “mice”, after some time most of them will not say
“mouses”.

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2. 3. Vocabulary presentation

“By presentation we mean those pre-planned lesson stages in which learners are taught
pre-selected vocabulary items.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 75)

Firstly, we should consider how many words should be presented during the lesson. This
is closely connected with several factors:

the level of the pupils – beginners, intermediate etc.

their familiarity with the words – have they come across these words or are they
completely new?

words difficulty – are the words abstract, are they easily pronounced, can we find
similar words in the learner´s native language etc.?

can the words be easily demonstrated ?

shall we use realia or anything that the pupils can become familiar with?

can pictures be used to elicit vocabulary?

After the teacher chooses what items to teach, he or she should follow certain guidelines.
In my opinion, this includes teaching the vocabulary "in spoken form first" to prevent students
from pronouncing the words in the form they are written, placing the new items in context,
and revising them.

A number of techniques can be adopted to present new vocabulary items. Some techniques
are more popular and more often used than others. Also it is up to the teacher which
techniques he or she decides to use but always the effectiveness of teaching should be
considered. I think every teacher tends to use and prefers some technique that he or she finds
interesting. And of course there are techniques that we as teachers try to avoid. There are
techniques that are particularly appropriate for certain types of words – for example actions
can be explained through pantomime. Another factor that is worth considering is the age of
the learners. Younger ones react quite well when we show them concrete illustrations, the
older ones can manage pretty well abstract explanations or even definitions.
The presentation of new vocabulary can be classified for example according to verbal and
visual techniques. Among visual techniques we can find pictures - flashcards, photographs
and magazine pictures, wall charts, posters, blackboard drawings, word pictures, several realia

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that teachers can hold up or point to. Mime, action and gestures can be used especially for
explaining actions and times. Learners can label pictures or objects or perform an action.
Verbal techniques consist of using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms and
antonyms, collocations, scales, and using various forms of definition: for example, definition
by demonstration (visual definition), definition by abstraction, contextual definitions, and
definition by translation. Explanation can become extremely difficult especially with beginner
levels.
Another way that can be used is translation. This technique is not used much recently, even
though it is quick and easy but can be very discouraging for learners. They cannot interact
with the words. Words can be organised into sets, subclasses and subcategories often aided by
visual presentation. Translation is one of the traditional ways of explaining the meaning of
words. It could be done by the teacher or with using a dictionary. It has its advantages but also
disadvantages. Using this technique, learners can learn how to use dictionaries. Most of the
young learners have never used a dictionary before so it is a need to teach them to use
dicitonaries first. They have to be told there are two parts – English-Czech and Czech-
English. Then they have to be told about the alphabetical order and about other things they
can find there. In my opinion it is good to use both picture dictionaries and classical
dictionaries where they find the meaning with young learners. Teachers can prepare quite
interesting lesson where the learners learn how to use dictionaries.

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2. 4. Be realistic

Nowadays, teachers can come across many language teaching ideas and techinques. There
are many of them in circulation that it is quite easy to get carried away. We draw pictures, cut
paper into small pieces, draw flashcards, make crosswords etc. and we do it even at midnight.
We want to be flexible, creative, sensible, we want to praise the children as much as possible
but on the other hand we want to be realistic and, very honestly, our expectations are
sometimes very high. And we hope it will be worthwile. But sometimes something goes
wrong. Language classrooms are noisy, there are at least fifteen pupils – usually even more.
The classes with high number of students put exceptional demands on teacher`s preparation
for the lesson and there is obviously a requirement of larger classrooms too. Quite often the
children are not “angels”. We encourage them to interact, be active, creative, independent.
This of course leads to the fact the children will become silly and they will really enjoy it.
There are teachers who would never do such activities again. And their lessons then turn to be
boring. “We need to be realistic in our expectations of ourselves and the learners. ... It does
not mean, for example, we should reject the idea of pairwork because our clasess are big, or
not very able, or poorly motivated. On the contrary, being realistic should mean taking
realities into account in such a way that good things can still happen.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 19)
After every lesson we should ask ourselves whether the lesson was productive or
unproductive and we should go back to our objectives and aims. We should evaluate the
lesson ourselves. Or if we have an observer in the lesson, we should discuss it with him/her.

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2. 4. 1. Choosing activities

It is up to the teacher mostly to choose the right activity. This is not easy and teachers
should spend really quality time to think about this. It needs to be considered well. Some
language activities can stir a class. Thinking about the positive way of the word “stir”, it
means these activities will wake up the class, warm them up. Of course, there are activities
that have the opposite effect. They may seem to settle the pupils. Before the lesson is planned,
there should be considered what kind of activities should be choosen knowing the effect of
them. Activities that can stir the class are, for example, oral work, games, competitions.
Another aspect we should think about are activities which engage children´s minds and
which keep them physically occupied.

We should not forget context developing activities. “If we are to help the learners acquire
independent second language lexicons, we need to highlight the importance of the context in
which the language naturally occurs. Once the idea of context playing a decisive role in the
choice of language is firmly established, we can begin to introduce varieties of the language
used in different contexts. Many coursebooks provide learners with plenty of opportunities to
develop their own context for the language presented, for example activities like “odd one
out, filling-in exercises, dialogues” etc”. [1]

Another factor that teachers should bear in their minds is to keep the lessons simple. We
often try to make our lessons varied. This is good but can lead to misunderstanding. The
lesson can be varied by doing lots of activities on different topics. But this can mean we may
produce a lesson which is a disaster, too many activities and changing the activities all the
time can destroy the lesson well. The children´s minds have to jump from one topic to another
with not much time to let things sink in effectively. We should realise some important things.

“We will not help the children to develop their capacity to concentrate if we jump
inconsequentially from one topic to the next.

There are ways of varying the oral work so that it is making different demands on the
children and therefore feels different even when the topic remains the same.” (Halliwell,
1992, p 27)

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 Variation does not only mean changing the topics and materials but also the change of
work we do. Variation comes in the forms of activity as Halliwell states. Using different
methods and ways of teaching should become a regular part of our lessons. We can reuse
materials all the time, we can come up with new things but always the activities should be
simple in principle. Then they can transfer to different topics and situations. “Because you use
them regularly you will quickly get to know the best way to set them up with your classes.
Because the classes know them, they will take to them easily when they appear.... They can
become truly the core of your language teaching.” (Halliwell,1992, p 38 )

[1] http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/vocabulary/context_developing.shtml

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2. 4. 2. The role of fun and games in the lessons

“By ´fun and games´ I mean all those activities that we loosely think of as involving play
and enjoyment. Singing, clapping hands, chanting rhymes, solving puzzles, drawing,
colouring, model-making, games.” (Rixon, 1995, p 33)

It is evident that young learners learn through play much easier and they enjoy it more.
This is quite a natural way for them to learn. They play and love to play. In playing together
we can see elements of interaction and during interacting the learners develop language skills.
Learning can be absorbed really well. Quite often the learners do not realize they are learning.
Fun and games should have an important role in the children´s education. The language learnt
by heart can often be a part of the activities. For example, commands for the games can be
remembered quite easily. Many games can be looked at as drill exercises but they have an
added fun and competition element. For example, a game that works like this is well-known
game “Simon says”.
What is a game? “A game is played when one or moreplayers compete or co-operate for play-
offs according to a set of rules.” (Jones, 1986) (Jones in Teaching English to Children) “A
true game is one that frees the spirit. It allows of no cares but those fictitious ones engendered
by the game itself...” (Opie, I. And J., 1969) (Opie, I and J. in Teaching English to Chidren)
Games are activities with rules and goals. Khan states that the achievement of these goals
signals the end of the game. Children are very often concerned with controlling whether
everybody follows the rules and whether they are not broken. Piaget (1967) (Piaget in
Teaching English to Children) saw chidlren´s games as, ´the most admirable social
institutions´. (Khan, 1995, p 143)
It is obvious that the games need to be motivating. “ For young learners, motivation deriving
from the factors outside the classroom, such as parental and social attitudes, is likely to be
weaker than that created by events in the classroom itself. Children need to be involved and
even excited in order to learn effectively.” (Khan,1995) Games may focus on oral or written
part of the language, they offer a vast selection of activities.
Language can also be picked as a result of an enjoyable activity. “Telling stories to students
can result in natural language acquisition on their part.” (Rixon, 1995, p 37) Teachers can tell
stories the learners are familiar with in their own language. Then the learners are able to
follow it better. Again, the stories need to be picked carefully, the level of the learners need to
be considered and the teacher has to investigate time into preparation. Teachers can come up

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with a simple version of the story. Appreciated story can be The Story of the Big Enormous
Turnip.
Several activities can allow and involve more creative use of the language. New sentences
and activities can be produced by the children themselves. Songs are most grateful way for
this. The learners can make up new verses, then they can be extended. Example - a song “This
is the way, I ...” or “If you are happy and you know it...”.

As said above games and fun are important parts of the lesson. A play is in the essential
nature of the child. There are many possibilities for adapting games we can find. The teachers
should not forget the values of games and fun activities in the lessons. All this can be applied
to teaching vocabulary too. Teachers can “play” with vocabulary while teaching it. It is very
appreciated by the learners.

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3. Practical part

In my final thesis I have decided to focus on teaching English vocabulary to young

learners - age group 7-11. I would like to enclose several lesson plans and also reflect on
some observations from the theoretical part. I tried out all the activities described here during
my teacher´s career.

It is evident that some learners have been learning the English language for several years,
some have just started. Most of the classes use the course book Cambridge English for
Schools by A. Littlejohn and D. Hicks. The younger ones do not use any course books, we
work with handouts that they get from me and place them into a folder. These handouts are
given to them so that their parents know what we learned in the lesson and can practice during
the week. The activities have been piloted in at least 10 classes, most of them consisted of 10
- 15 pupils at the age of 5 – 11. Most of the pupils only started with learning English in the
4th grade, some started in the kindergarten.

All the activities reflect the level of the learners, their age and their abilities. I always have
to consider that in each class there are more children and some with learning disabilities. I try
to use English in the classes as much as possible and I want their reactions in English too, of
course if possible. I have to admit that it is a lot of fun to teach these children, they do not
have almost any troubles with motivation and as I have said in the theoretical part, they still
want to learn.

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3. 1. Lesson plan # 1

Topic = My family

Aims:
- to get to know the learners´ families, the learners know them well so I suppose they will
be very active and will want to share
- the learners get to know my family
- to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- after the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words

Aids:
- pictures and photos, a family poster, pieces of paper, a story book, colour pencils, handouts

Assumptions:
- learners know each other and their families
- they are ready to share and are ready to play

1. Talking about families: Today we are going to talk about families. Do you live in a
family? Who belongs to your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters? What is
your brother´s / sister´s name? How often do you see your grandmother and
grandfather?... Ok, now I will talk about my family. (On the black board there is a
family poster all the time, so that I can point to it anytime. While talking, I use
pictures of my family and point to the right person and repeat who he/she is. For
example, “this is my daughter Kristyna”. I repeat the word “daughter”. And so on.)

2. Working with their pictures: (The learners were supposed to bring to the class
pictures of their family members. I have to count on the fact, they forgot, so I
distribute either my pictures or pictures from magazines.) Now, it is your time to show
me who is who. Is this your mother? Is this your sister? Is this your grandfather?
After some time we will play a game. Now, we are going to play a game and the
winner gets a reward! I will say a sentence, for example:” Show me your mother!”
And you have to show me your mother´s picture. After each sentence I make the
learners say whose picture they are showing me. So I ask. Who is this? Your... mother,
father, sister etc.

3. Reading and colouring: I distribute the handouts (Appendix I) that I have prepared
for them and the colour pencils and the learners will colour the people. While doing
this I read a story about a family from a book. At the end we sum up the lesson and I
tell them that next lesson we will play a family pexeso. Before they leave the
classroom, they all have to tell me a “password” to leave. I stand behind the door and
as they leave I ask them for example for the word “maminka”. They have to say
“mother” and can leave.

27
Evaluation:

This lesson is designed for 1st grade learners or even kindergarten children. In this lesson I
decided to use one of the visual methods that I talked about in the theoretical part. Learners
have a chance to hear and see. In this lesson I decided to use the TPR method too, the children
can come to black board and point to the right person on the poster. I let them jump while
showing me their family members, they put their hands above their heads etc. This lesson can
be varied in many ways, again according to the age and level of the learners and also
depending on the fact how long the lesson is – 40, 45 or 60 minutes. But as I have said in the
theoretical part, too much variety can spoil the lesson so this is very important factor that
should be considered.

What needs to be said here is that during this activity the children are able to learn a phrase
“This is my mother/father etc.” Because this phrase is repeated in the lesson many times, the
children are able to remember it without any explanation and real “learning”. It is very natural
for them to learn this phrase.

28
3. 2. Lesson plan # 2
Topic = Colours

Aims:
- to get to know the learners´ favourite colours, to get to know how they feel about colours
- the learners get to know the names of the colours
- to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- after the lesson the learners will know at least 7 new words including the word rainbow

Aids:
- pictures, a colour poster, pieces of paper, a story book, colour pencils, picture of
rainbow, colour chalk

Assumptions:
- learners probably already know the colours
- they are ready to play
- colour dictation should be easy and fun for them

1. Talking about colours: I will say several words and you tell me what I am speaking
about. We will do it as a game called “silent post”. The very first person who knows
will tell me and then we will send it to others and the last person says that outloud.
Ok, listen up! Black, white, green, blue... Well done! Now you know we will talk about
colours today. Do you any colours? Which one is your favourite? What does black
mena for you? How do you feel about yellow? What does it evoke?I will tell you a
story about rainbow... (While we are talking, I put the poster on the wall. Every time I
call out some colour, I take a colour chalk and draw a big circle on the board. I also
point out to the right colour on the poster.)

2. Working with “colours”: Let´s take your exercise books now and you can see what I
draw on the board. I want you to do the same. But to each colour you will write down
the name. You need to be careful about the spelling!... Now when you have finished, I
will pick up different colour pencils and you can shout out the name of the colour.
Let´s start now... (After each shout I repeat the colour after them so that they have a
chance to hear the pronunciation well.) Well done, now we will write a “dictation”. I
know you do not like dictations but this one is going to be different. I say:´Vezmi si
yellow a nakresli sun. Potom si vezmi black a nakresli three birds.´Well, are you
ready?I do not want you to shout or look to your friend´s paper. Let´s start now...

3. Finishing up the topic: (After the learners finished their drawings, they swap the
drawings with their partners and we check it together. Usually they do really well and
are happy they were succesfull with their “dictation”.) Well, now exchange your
drawings with your partner and let´s check it... Well done, children! Now you know
the English names for colours. Since we stil lhave time left, I have a special reward for
you. We will play a game. You can see this classroom is full of colours. I willshout out
a name of the colour and you must run to touch this colour. You can touch a chair, a
blackboard, your friend´s trousers, anything. So, are you ready? Let´s start... After
some minutes the learners get back to their seats and we repeat all the colours once
more.

29
Evaluation:

This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade learners. I have to count on the fact most of the
learners already know the colours from previous classes. Therefore this lesson cannot be
boring so that even these children would be able to be active.Again, in this lesson I used one
of the visual methods and also TPR. The learners can hear, see and touch and later they can
run in the classrooms. I think using TPR is very productive and learners can learn and
remember it better. I have to be careful because the learners try to write down the names of
the colours. After they have finished that, I usually check the spelling in their exercise books.
This topic is quite easy and children have a lot of fun with this. This lesson can be varied in
many ways again, as I have mentioned in lesson plan # 1.

30
4. 3. Lesson plan # 3
Topic = Adjectives, Verbs

Aims:
- the learners get to know the the basic verbs and adjectives
- to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- after the lesson the learners will know at least 8 new words

Aids:
- colour pencils, handouts

Assumptions:
- learners know some basic commands
- they are ready to play
- they want to express their feelings

1. Revision of some basic commands and adjectives: Well, today we are going to
practice some verbs and adjectives. What are verbs and adjectives? Can you tell me
an example? Is the word ´sit´a verb? Is theword ˇhappy´an adjective? So, now I will
say some basic commands and you will do what I say. Are you reday? Stand up! Sit
down! Close your books!...Smile! Be happy! Be sad!... (This activity can last as long as
the learners are not bored. The teacher also needs to know how many words the
learners know.)

2. Learning new vocabulary: I want to teach the learners new vocabulary, for example,
I am asleep, I am bored, I am blind, I am deaf, I am drinking, I ma dancing, I am
writing etc. While explaining all these actions, I am showing them the motions.
Together we repeat the words and do the actions. Then we will play a game. Now, it is
time for a game. We will play the game “Simon says.” Does anybody know this game?
I will explain the rules to you. I will say Simon says Stand up! and you will stand up.
Simon says Sit down! and you will sit down. BUT if I don’t say Simon says you mustn’t
do anything. If you do, you’ll get a point. A pupil with the less points is the winner.
(As I was explaining the rules, I was doing what I was saying. I always start with the
easier and already known ones, then I go on with the newer ones.) Now I need a
volunteer who will say the sentence instead of me, you can be the teacher now. Of
course during this acitvity we will practice the adjectives too.

Evaluation:

This activity is designed for 4th grade. I decided to show another way of teaching
vocabulary to young learners - using gestures, mimes and actions. For this activity I decided
to choose the well-known commands as a warm-up, it can be used as a revision of what the
learners have already known. I always use the English language for explaining the actions and
adjectives because the motion help the children to understand. At the end of the lesson I
always check whether they undrestand all the practised commands and adjectives. The game

31
Simon says practises the language in reality. Very important aspect of this game is discipline.
The learners need to pay attention to what I say. The learners are very competitive and active
because everybody wants to be the winner. Very often I play this game in groups where more
children can practise the phrase Simon says. When I get feedback from the children, they
usually tell me they like it more when they can give the commands. This activity can be used
as a warm-up or we can fill in some part of the lesson if minutes are left.

32
3. 4. Lesson plan # 4

Topic = Animals

Aims:
- to get to know the basic animals in English
- to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- after the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words

Aids:
- pictures, an animal poster, colour pencils, handouts, a tape recorder

Assumptions:
- learners like animals
- learners will probably know some English names of animals
- they are ready to share and lsiten

1. Talking about animals, brainstorming: Well, children, I will start up the

lesson in a little bit different way than usually. I will write something on the
blackboard and you have to find out a hidden word in it. You cannot talk, the
winner gets a price! If you think you know, just put your hand above your
head.
WHAT
SONG
P ICTURE
MOTHER
CARD
LOVE
CH R I S T M A S

In these words you can find 1 word, the topic of today´s lesson... Well done!
The word is ANIMALS! And the winner is Honza? Here is your price! What is
it? Yes, it is a toy dog. So as you can see, we are going to talk about animals
today. What animals do you know? What is your favourite animal? Have you
ever been to the zoo? Do you like big animals? Areyou scared of any? Do you
know any exotic animals? Do you have an animal at home?… (During this
talking I write down on the blackboard all the animals the learners name and
distribute pictures of animals among the children. I get ready the tape
recorder.)

2. Listening: Now, we will listen to a tape recorder. You are going to hear
several sounds of animals and I want you to write their names on a piece of
paper. You will hear 5 sounds and I think you will know all of them. To make
it easier I distributed a set of pictures among you and you will hear all these
animals. So, you can just write down number to each picture. Do you
understand? ( The learners are ready to listen now.) Well done, you are very
good! Now we will listen again but this time you do not have the pictures. You

33
 must guess which animals you hear. (This is a little bit more difficult but the
sounds are of well-known animals so the chidlren will not have any troubles
with it.)

3. Project: Now, imagine you are going to take a friend of yours to the zoo soon
and you want to give him/her a tour. So you need to know some animals and
also something about them. So now, make groups of 4 and each group has to
prepare a poster. You can either draw or glue animals, you can write about
them – what they eat, where they live, anything you like. If you need help, you
can either ask me or, because you can work with dictionaries, you can use
them. (Usually the learners want to be creative and work on their own, they
do not need my help. Also usually this activity takes longer time, so I let them
work in the next lesson too.

Evaluation:

This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade. Right at the beginning of the lesson the learners
have a chance to brainstorm. Again, everybody is included, each child can talk and I pay
attetnion to this. If somebody remains quiet, I ask questions – Honzo, do you know any
animals?, Jano, what is your favourite animal? etc. Through brainstorming, the learners
usually remember at least 1 new word. Then they have to guess the hidden word, which is not
as easy for them. Of course, if nobody is able to guess this word, I help them. This is very
active time, therefore after this activity I need to calm them down and we listen to the sounds
of animals. All the sounds are of known animals, so the children do not usually have any
troubles with this. Then I let them be creative and let them work on the project. I do not tell
them which animals they have to choose or what exactly needs to be written there or how
exactly it has to be done. I usually have examples with me in the lesson, so I can show them
so that they get ideas.

This lesson can be varied in many ways and can be done with younger learners too.
Probably the hidden word would be too difficult for them, so the teacher would have to come
up with a different activity. The topic is also very grateful and from my personal experience
the children always have a lot of fun with it.

34
3. 5. Lesson plan # 5

Topic = Fruit

Aims:
- to teach and practise using dicitonaries
- to find out the odd words
- to revise some basic terminology
- after the lesson the learners will know 5 new words

Aids:
- various kinds of dicitonaries, handouts, flashcards

Assumptions:
- learners know the alphabet so this should not be that difficult
- but even this fact the learners need their time to get used to working with the dictionaries

1. Introducing dictionaries: This mornig as I was getting ready for your

lesson I realised I would need helpers. So thank you for coming and
helping me to bring the dictionaries. So, distribute these dictionaries, one
into each desk. Thses books are called dictionaries. If you open them, you
can see there are two parts, English-Czech and Czech-English. So if you
do not understand some word, you can find it here. It is orgaized
according to the alphabetwhich you already know. Let´s quickly revise the
aplhabet. Each child says one letter from the aplhabet...Well done! At the
end of the lesson we can sing the alpabet song if you want to.

2. Working with the dictionaries: Now it is time to start “working” with

the dicitonaries. I will say an English word and you can find the Czech
equivalent in the dicitonary. If I say an English word, which part will you
be looking in?Yes, the English one. So the word is a lemon. If you find id,
put your hands above. I will go on like this for a while. I need to be sure
they are familier with working with the dictionaries.

3. Practise: I usually ask the children to find out three vocabulary items to
practise the finding. Now check these three items - “apple, pear,
window”. Which one is the odd one? Yes, the window is the odd one. If
their answer is right, I distribute the handouts (Appendix II) and the
learners work on the handout. Now, I will give you the handouts and you
have to work on them. You can work in pairs and you must circle the odd
ones. Do you understand it? Well, you can start working... At the end we
check the exercixe together. As homework they have to prepare similar
exercise.

35
Evaluation:

I talk about using dictionaries as a way for teaching vocabulary in the theoretical part. I
said that it is very traditional and maybe an old way but I wanted to show that translation can
be used and sometimes should not be avoided.This activity is designed for learners in the 4th
grade. This is probably their first time using and working with dictionaries. I have to admit
that when I first taught this topic and was teaching how to use dicitonaries, I did not manage
to do everything that I planned for the lesson. Now I have to make sure that children know
the alphabet really well. Every time there is a child who has troubles with it but it is normal.
From my own personal experience I have to say that children usually like working with
dictionaries and like the exercises. But it cannot be long because the learners easily get bored
with it.

36
3. 6. Lesson plan # 6

Topic = The Weather

Aims:
- to understand the text about weather
- to find out the odd words
- to revise some basic terminology
- after the lesson the learners will know 5 new words

Aids:
- reading texts, flashcards, a poem

Assumptions:
- learners already know some weather terminology
- the learners usually are not as willing to talk so I have to ask right and direct questions

1. Talking about weather: Good morning, children! ( I look very tired and I am
not happy. I assume the children will ask me what is wrong with me. If not, I
have to say it myself.) I am not happy today, I am tired and I would like to be
at home in my bed with a hot cup of tea and my favourite book. This is all
because of the weather. Do you like this kind of weather? What do you like to
do in this kind of weather? What is your favourite season? Why? Do you prefer
hot weather to cold weather? etc.

2. Reading: Now, we will read a short text about the weather and then we will
talk about it. You will have to answer some questions too. I wil lwrite the
questions on the blackboard. (Appendix III) I distribute the texts and I read
first. The children just listen. After that, each child reads a line. We talk about
the text and after that they answer the questions all by themselves.

3. Poem: (Appendix IV) Well, because you have been working hard, now it is
time to learn a short poem. I will write it on the blackboard. When this is done,
we start learning the poem. The learners can see the whole poem on the
blackboard, I read it outloud and then we read it together. Every time we read
it, I erase 1 word, so that the children would have to memorize it.

4. Odd one out: (Appendix V) Thank you very much for your work today and so
that you can practise these new words at home, I have to give you a homework.
You all know this type of exercise, so all you have to do is to find the odd word
out. This won´t take you long. So, enjoy it and see you next lesson. Bye bye!

37
Evaluation:

This activity is designed for 5th grade. In the theoretical part I talk about CLT as a way of
teaching vocabulary to young learners. This lesson makes use of it. This lesson is done
completely in English and the communicative competence is highly encouraged and used
here. I have to admit this is not easy but I as a teacher have to adjust my vocabulary and
talking to the learners´ level. I have to be really well prepared for this lesson.

The lesson does not have to seem interesting to the learners at first but later they start to
like it. Working with a text is important for them, looking for information is another way to
learn the language. At the end they memorize the poem by heart and I have to confess that
99% of the class always remember the poem. Usually next lesson I go on in this topic, I work
with the learned vocabulary and I build on it.

38
3. 7. Lesson plan # 7

Topic = A Story telling

Aims:
- to come up with a story focusing on prepositions
- to revise some basic prepositions

Aids:
- none

Assumptions:
- learners already know some prepositions
- to come up with own story is not always easy

1. The brainstorming: Today, I decided we will not learn anything new and we
will have kind of relaxing lesson. Are you happy? But don´t worry, we will
have regular English lesson. I heardthat in the lessons of Czech language you
are talking about prepositions, right? Can you tell me any examples of Czech
prepositions? …Well done! And now, the English equivalents. Tell me some
English prepositions! …Well done again! Since you know the English
prepositions, let´s use them in reality. ( I tell the learners we will come up with
a story. I tell them they have to focus on the prepositions and each of them has
to say a sentence.)

2. The story time: So, are you ready? Do you still think it is difficult? Ok, I will
start so that you have some more time to think. Don´t forget it has to be a
story and not just several sentences put together. It has to make sense. So, I
will start now. Once upon a time, I met a man IN a town. Now it is your turn!
(Now each child has to say a sentence and we go on as long as needed. If they
come up with the story after the first round, then we finish and I usually let
them mime it or do the actions. If not, we go on.)

3. Revision: Well, did you learn anything new today? You could see that we can
have fun and play with prepositions in English too. Maybe, you can suggest
this kind of activity to your Czech language teacher. I bet she will like it. And
it is not just prepositions you can use in a story, maybe you can use nouns,
numerals etc. It is only up to you. Maybe next time we could try adjectives.

Evaluation:

This activity is designed for 5th grade but can be adopted for any grade, only the level and
age of the learners have to be considered. As you can see, another way of using CLT in the
lesson. The only time the learners are allowed to speak Czech is when I ask them about the
Czech prepositions. Then it is only English and again the communicative competence is
encouraged here. I usually do not correct grammar mistakes, I only focus on the prepositions.
All the children are curious about the story so they pay attetnion to it. Discipline is not usually

39
a problem even though it is always just 1 person speaking. If they are allowed to act it out
later, they are even happier. I have really good experience with this kind of activity
eventhough when I started to teach it was hard for me. I tried it usually with older learners and
there was a problem with discipline and the learners tried to use words they are not allowed to
use in the classes.

40
 4. Conclusion

In my final thesis, as the title prompts, I deal with the subject of teaching vocabulary to
young learners. When teaching young learners, the teacher has to be strong at the knowledge
but also needs to connect with the children. They need to feel the teacher likes them and
wants to teach them something new. As said in the theoretical part, the results are seen easily
and the learners at this age are very grateful when someone invest time in them. The teacher
has to know his or her pupils. It is important to understand their needs, their expectations with
which each child comes to the lessons, also ways how to motivate them and last but not least
their learning style. All this the teacher is learning while working with the learners. The
teachers get to know their families, their hobbies and interests and just basic information
about the learners. Also, especially nowadays, we as teachers have to consider the learning
disabilities too. There are more and more chidlren with these problems and we as teachers
need to help them to enjoy the lessons and help them to learn too. The teacher needs to
understand their differences, their cultural and family background etc.

In the Theoretical Part I have mentioned some characteristics of young learners. I wanted
to show that working with them offers many possibilities and we can use many methods and
approaches. During my teacher´s training I have learned that it is important to learn about
their personalities and also to get to know them. Every learner is different and we need to
view each person individually. I also talk about vocabulary – what it is, how it can be taught,
which words should be taught and ways that vocabulary can be presented.

In the Practical Part, there are several lesson plans. From the theory, I tried to show how
some methods and approaches can be used in the lessons while teaching young learners. I also
tried to show that variety is important because young learners get bored if they do the same
activities in the same way all the time. The Practical Part proved what I mentioned in the
theory.

I have to admit that in practice I tried out all the lesson plans and it worked well.
Sometimes, some activity took longer time so the learners were assigned a homework.

The focus of this thesis is the personality of young learners and teaching vocabulary to
them. Testing and assessment will be the theme of my next future research.

41
5. Resumé

Understanding the personality of a young learner plays an important role in effective

teaching. One of the subjects of this thesis is to show the characteristics of a young learner.

Another subject of this thesis is the vocabulary itself – how it can be presented, taught, also
what should be taught. There are mentioned some methods and approaches that can be used in
the lessons.

In the Practical Part, several lesson plans are presented. These lesson plans focus on using
different methods while teaching vocabulary to young learners. Every activity mentioned in
the lesson plans was tried out during my teacher´s profession.

Resumé

Poznání osobnosti mladšího žáka hraje důležitou roli při efektivní výuce. Jedním
z předmětů této bakalářské práce je ukázat charakteristiku mladšího žáka.

Dalším předmětem této práce je slovní zásoba – jak může být prezentována, vyučována a
také co by se vlastně mělo vyučovat. Jsou zde zmíněny i metody a přístupy, které mohou být
v hodinách využívány.

V praktické části jsou prezentovány přípravy na hodiny. Tyto přípravy jsou zaměřeny na
využití různých výukových metod vhodných k výuce slovní zásoby u mladších žáků. Každá
aktivity zmíněná v přípravě byla vyzkoušena během mé učitelské praxe.

42
 Bibliography

1. BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray: Teaching English to

Children. From Practice to Principle. Longman Group Essex, 1995. 309 s. ISBN-
0-17-556889-8.
2. DOFF, Adrian. Teach English: A training course for teachers. Cambridge
University Press, 1988. 345 s. ISBN 0- 18-34232-9.
3. HALLIWELL, Susan: Teaching English in the Primary Classrooms. UK:
Longman Group Essex, 1992. 169 s. ISBN-0-582-07109-7.
4. HARMER, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. UK: Longman,
2005, 370 s. ISBN 0-582-40385-5.
5. KHAN, Julia: Using games in teaching English to young learners. In: BRUMFIT,
Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray (edd.). Teaching English to Children.
Longman Group Essex, 1995, s. 142-157.
6. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for
Learners of English.Book 2. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0-
521-35919-8.
7. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for
Learners of English. Book 3. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0-
521-35921-X.
8. RIXON, Shelagh: Young Learners of English: Some Research Perspectives.
Longman Essex, 1999. 110 s. ISBN-0-582-42082-2.
9. SCOTT, Wendy A.; YTREBERG, Lisbeth H: Teaching English to Children.
Essex: Longman, 1991
10. THORNBURY, Scott: How to teach vocabulary. Longman Essex, 2002. 185 s.
ISBN-0-582-42966-8.
11. UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory.UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2005. 375 s. ISBN-0521-44994-4.
12. WRIGHT, Tony. Roles of Teachers & Learners.UK: Oxford University Press,
1996. 160 s. ISBN 0-19-437133-6.

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Other resources
1. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
2. http://www.longman.com/young_learners
3. http://www.eslkidstuff.com/

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