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Enhancing students ‘vocabulary in writing through games

in grade 10 in Dao Son Tay high school

Statement of the Research Problem

There is no doubt that writing is the necessary skill in our daily life. We use

writing to transfer information and knowledge. More importantly, for students,

good at writing in English helps them a lot in using vocabulary and grammar

effectively or even better in using language. In addition, it also helps students to

improve other skills such as speaking or listening... Thus, being good at writing is

the primary element leading to succeed.

Although students acknowledge the importance of writing skill, many students still

get difficulty in learning how to write or acquiring this critical skill, due to the

lacking of their vocabulary. This issue happens in my English class grade 10 at

Dao Son Tay high school. I found that whenever coming to writing lesson, my

students become sleepy, boring, yawning and looking at their watch. Usually, it

just happens when I let them write a paragraph. If I give them doing some exercise

practices like multiple choice tasks, rewriting sentence, they will be willing to do.

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More precisely, they good at structure, grammar but they do not know enough

words to express their feeling. In writing, a good and wide range of vocabulary is

an indispensable tool. If we have a range of synonym or antonym words, we will

be able to choose the best word to describe. The more quality words you use, the

more quality writing you have. It also means that whenever learning any words,

students need to learn not only the word but also how to use them accurately.

Playing vocabulary games is one of the activities which help students more active

in writing in the class by using their own writing style

Research question

The present study extends previous research to study the lack of vocabulary in

writing through games by asking the following question:

How and why do my students engage with using games to enhance

vocabulary in writing?

Research paradigm and research methods

To achieve the goal, I would like to use qualitative research by observing how

students will react to this method for learning vocabulary. Then, I would like to

find out whether there will be any problems or unexpected situation which can

happen during the process. Besides observing method, I will use two kind of

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interviewing: individual and group interviews to find more information that I can

not see in the class e.g. some stories behind a student‟s experiences. However, each

kind of the interview will have their own advantages. When I have a group

interview, I can discover or explore of new ideas, concepts. In addition, I will have

an overview about the result in using games to improve students „writing. More

importantly, I will avoid “pleasing the interviewer” effects which might be happen

on some students. On the other hand, getting individual interview will help me

study different kind of respondents (more in depth). Sometimes, it is a good chance

to explore some sensitive through personal topics.

Word count: 496 words

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