论文修改稿

Project Title:

How to Train Students’ Ability of Memorizing Words

Investigator

Lu Zhaonan

Dindxi Branch,

Gansu Radio & TV University

Submitted on May 31st, 2013 In fulfillment of the Course Practical Project Design

Acknowledgment

I am mostly grateful to my supervisor Miss Wang Yanhong, without her support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.

No amount of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper.

Last but not the least, big thanks go to my parents and my sister who have shared with me my worries, frustration, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this project.

Abstract

The study presents a detailed report of a project implemented to solve the problem that most of my students often complain that they can’t remember words efficiently and effectively, and that the words they’ve learned are easily forgotten. It is hypothesized that proper methods, good techniques and well-designed exercises will improve the learners' ability of memorizing words. This hypothesis is verified by four well-designed activities.

In the report, I used several scientific methods such as cause analysis, questionnaire survey and observation.

Main Headings of the Project Report

1. Introduction 2. Problem 3. Problem analysis 4. Project objective 5. Project hypothesis 6. Project design

6.1 Using blackboard drawings

6.2 Grouping words & Using Word fields 6.3 Chinese word classification 6.4 Song memory method

7. Project implementation 8. Project evaluation 9. Conclusion

References

Appendix A The timetable of the project Appendix B Diaries

1. Introduction

I have been an English teacher for three years, now I am teaching the students who are in their five year in a rural primary school. In my teaching, I have met some problems that have troubled me for a long time. Now I will finish my study in Gansu Radio and TV University. I hope I can apply my knowledge which I learned from the university to solve my problems. 2. Problem

My problem is that many of my students often complain that they spent a lot of time memorizing words, but the next day, they nearly forgot all about them, which was really frustrating. So gradually they think English is too difficult, they cannot learn it well. As an English teacher, I know how important it is for a learner to master enough words on order to use English freely, so I made up my mind to solve the problem. 3. Problem analysis

In my teaching, the problem has troubled me for a long time. Now, I was determined to find a solution to the problem. In my study, I used two methods of analysis. 3.1 The analytic method

I find that a few of my students are interested in remembering English words and can finish most of exercises I designed for them. In contrast, many students never remember English words. But what about some of

my colleagues’ students? Is it also the case? If all of my colleagues’ students are good at remembering English words after class, then my problem is actually caused by myself, not by my students. Maybe I have not helped my students recognize the importance of remembering English words, or I made the students feel that English is really boring. 3.2 Cause analysis

In this situation, I decided to do cause analysis. I made a list of factors that may contribute to the cause of my problem. Now, I work on each of the factors and try to find any potential causes. 3.2.1 The teacher’s side — that is myself  Maybe I am not enthusiastic myself.

 Is it because the boring teaching method that made my students lose interest?

 Is it because I didn't pay attentation to the individual differences of my students?

 Is it because the teaching step is poorly designed?  Is it because I do not give them proper method?

 Is it because I only use traditional word presentation method?  Is it because I didn’t give them enough examples related to the words?

 Is it because I didn’t praise my students when they made any progress?

3.2.2 The students’ side

 Students’ personality may have some influence.  Students’ memory method is not scientific,unreasonable.

 Still some students are accustomed to the traditional pattern of remembering words, just memorize mechanically.

 Students to recite the words always the back side edge forget.  Some weak students lack confidence in memorizing English words. They are afraid of making mistakes.

 Most of them remember the form of the word but not the meaning of it.

3.2.3 The class size

There are 40-50 students in one class, and I cannot give each student one- one guidance. And usually the students are afraid of being asked to write down the words they learned at previous lessons. 3.2.4 The classroom management

 Some students are always talking about something unimportant or unrelated to the class so that the classroom gets too noisy, disrupting the classroom order.

 Students can not concentrate their attentation very well.

Of all cause, I think both the students and I am responsible for the problem. 3.3 Observation

In my teaching, it is common that these problems occurred in the

course of learning words. How to deal with them? How to instruct the students’ proper methods and good techniques is the key to the problem. For a long time, I watched the behavior of the students' learning, especially in the morning. The majority of them read the words I taught loudly. Sometimes I would interrupt them and asked them to tell me the meaning of the words they were reading. Disappointedly, most of them couldn't. I was very surprised at this. Why? Later, I continued to observe their behavior for a long time. They read the words aloud and repeatedly, but they couldn't remember the meaning of each word at all. Even some of them read the words wrong and some dare not read aloud because they thought that they would make mistakes in pronunciation. Others would pronounce them correctly, but didn't spell them correctly. I thought that I should have instructed them to use proper methods and good techniques to learn words.

4. Project objective

My objective is to train rural students’ ability of memorizing words. 5. Project hypothesis

It is hypothesized that if some effective strategies are taken, then the students’ remembering English words ability can be improved accordingly.

6. Project design

In rural primary schools, it is hard to train students’ ability of memorizing words. I know it is impossible for students to do words practice in pairs at home.Because the family members of most students did not know or hardly knew English. When students met difficulties or had words, they could not get any help. And if they made mistakes in pronunciation, they could not be corrected in time. So many students were not interested in memorizing English words by themselves and even gave up. In this case, I must reach my object in classroom teaching. I planed to reach my objective in the following ways as follows: 6.1 Using blackboard drawings

Blackboard drawing can be lively and vivid organization with the actual content of language communicative activities, vocabulary memory, the intuitive dull as ditch water specific image, will brief strokes skillfully, freely combined with primary school English teaching, improve teaching quality, cultivate the children English interest in learning, inspire imagination thinking, enhance students' memory ability. For example, when I teach the fruits, I can use this picture, in order to give students a profound impression.

6.2 Grouping words & Using Word fields

It is certainly very difficult to memorize a long list of unconnected words. When we come across a new word we need to put it in a context and relate to the other words that we already know, for example, if we learn a group of words from one word field, it is easier to relate them to each other. Relating the words to a word field might make it easier for the students. So look through the list of words beforehand and try to group them as much as possible. In the course of this practice, there are some other methods to use comprehensively.

·Arranging words on a cline, or degrees of the same quality for instance.

always usualloften frequently quite often sometimes occasionally rarely/seldom never almost always ·Grouping words around a headword

Especially in the junior middle school, grouping words around a headword is very useful and important for students to summarize a group of words. In this way, the learners could memorize a lot of words at a time, meanwhile, it is to recollect these words after class or when they review them.

food drink junk food green food wine beer coke … vegetables fruit others cabbage greens carrot … pear banana apple … chocolate toufu peanut … Thus, when the learners know the word 'food', they can connect the other words related to it.

·Word categories

We can make a spider diagram to put some words into categories, it can be a way of eliciting known vocabulary items from the students, and can also be a way of recording the names of new ones for them. Here is an example of a diagram that outs different professions into categories. So every time the students learn the word for a new profession they can add it to the list. Maybe they can also add different categories, or change the categories altogether.

manual farmer builder mechanic … professional/ intellectual doctor lawyer teacher … profeesions service waiter travel agent waitress … …? … 6.3 Chinese word classification

Sometime I teach my students word according to Chinese translation of the word classification, and then ask the students to remember. Such as: 课程（Subject）: English, Chinese, maths, politics...... 食物（Food）: food, milk, bread, egg, rice, fish, meat...... 交通工具（Traffic tools）: plane, train, bus, car, ship... 身体部分（Body parts）: head, face, eye, nose, leg, mouth...

6.4 Song memory method

Rhyme is a form that the students like, in the memory of words, it can also give students a great help. As students in the \"be\" the verb Am, Are, Is, can be used: I used am, you use are, Is for he, she, it,

If they appear, All use are.

In have, has: Have available for you and me, Has for he, she, it, If the subject is plural, Have have to entire package. Such as: Apple, apple is the apple, Apple's apple Park and garden. Orange, orange is an orange, Sour and sweet orange orange. Peach, peach peach, Peach red and fresh peach. Pear, pear is a pear. Pear crisp and sweet pear. 7. Project implementation

My hypothesis is that if some effective strategies are taken, then the students’ English words memory ability can be improved in rural primary

schools. To make it true, I designed four activities to be tried out in four weeks, and these activities are reported as follows.

Week 1 Activity 1 Fathers Mothers Brothers and Sisters This activity is based on as primary English, Student Book 5, Lesson 3, “Fathers Mothers Brothers and Sisters.”

Purpose: Ask the children to understand and make full use of the words of family members to make short dialogues as possible as they can, train the student to have family's feelings, to increase their feeling of love for their parents.

Teaching tools: the radio, cards

Instructions: Practice the key sentences: I have... I don't have... She is younger than me. Procedure: Step 1: Class begin

Greet the students with the familiar phrases. Sing the song \"I love you, you love me\" Step 2: New presentation

1. Show the new vocabulary in this class

grandfather,grandmother,father,mother,sister,brother, husband, wife,son,daughter,grandchildren,grandson ,granddaughter,great-grandfather, great-grandmother

2. Vocabulary Teaching

A. Made the corresponding words together

Such as: grandfather and grandmother, father and mother, sister and brother, husband and wife, son and daughter, grandson and granddaughter, great-grandfather and great-grandmother B. Through the structure of memory words Methods a, affix + root

Such as: grand is the prefix, coupled with a different root, is comprised of many present related words.

For example, grandfather，grandmother, grandson，granddaughter. Such as: step is the prefix, coupled with a different root, is comprised of many present related words.

For example, stepfather, stepmother ,stepson ,stepdaughter ,stepbrother, stepsister

3.The game

Let the students play different members of the family

Students speak different family members words by the sequence of words.

Week 2 Activity 2 How many months are there in a year?

This activity based as Primary English, Student Book 5, Lesson 8, “ How many months are there in a year ?”

Purpose: Ask the children to understand and use the words of twelve months in daily life.

Instructions: Ask the students to spell the months correctly. Procedure: Step 1: Present words

January,Februar,March,April,May,June,July,,August,September,October,November,December Step2: Memory

January sound similar \"arrow\

February: February is the beginning of spring, the Spring Festival is also the month, this month, students are on holiday, to \"fly\play. Can also associate Yinianzhiji is spring, at the beginning of the new year, and began to \"fly\".

March: memory: three eight is the mother’s and wife’s festival. March is women's day, for children, it is the \"mother\" of the festival, for a child his dad, that is \"wife\" festival. April: \"April memory: Apple\".

Memory: beginning prefix Ap and apple Apple, the pronunciation is

similar to April, imagination is to eat \"apple\". May: memory: Labor \"beauty\".

Memory: May is pronounced like the \"beauty\". In May, labor day, labor is the most glorious, the \"beauty of labor\". In addition, May is also the \"can\" meaning, associative labor \"can\" make the person becomes \"beauty\".

June: memory: Children's day together \"\".

Memory: June and Chinese \"poly\" (Ju NE) is the same. June is children's day, children must be in the festival happy holiday, poly poly. \"\". July: memory: Summer \"to\".

Memory: July sounds like \"come\". Students of this month to the summer vacation, the long-awaited summer \"to\".

August memory: August prefix and Autumn at the beginning of Au are the same. In August, \"autumn\" fall, so in August and autumn is similar to an Autumn.

September: September memory: \"Student\

Memory: September is beginning with the letter S, students and school (Student, School) is S. The end of the summer vacation, September is Student to School.

October: memory: National Day Play \"balloon\" -- \"I can vote\"!

Memory shows: October is O at the beginning, middle and a O letter words. October is national day, the balloons exist everywhere, balloon

shaped like \"O\". And, October is pronounced like \"I can cast it\further association with a \"balloon\" throw play, \"I can vote\"! November: memory: \"No temperature of winter\".

Memory: the sound head November similar \"No temperature\". In November the beginning of winter, winter comes, of course, no temperature Step3: Game Who knows?

The teacher let students familiar with year all those festivals (show the festival name by forms), then ask the students to twelve months of the word card number. The International Festival (The New Year)January (The Spring Festival)February (The Woman's Day)March (The Mothers' Day)April (The Labour Day)May (The Children's Day)June

(The Party's Birthday)July (The Army Day)August (Teachers' Day）September (The National Day)October (The Thanksgiving Day)November (The Christmas Day)December

Week 3 Activity 3 How is the weather?

This activity is based as in Junior English, Student Book 5, Lesson 1,”How is the weather?”

Purpose: This activity is based on the words of the weather, by learning the students can master the words better. Preparation: picture, card, a map

Instructions: I would give some pictures about the weather to the students, then they worked in groups, made up new dialogues to describe the diffferent weather. Procedure:

Step1: show the picture of the weather to students, then the students look at the picture carefully. From the picture, we can see:

sunny, rainy, snowy, cloudy, windy, warm, hot, cool, cold . Step2: Use the blackboard drawing to memorize words

Such as teaching the adjective \"hot\" or“sunny”, draw a sun , teach “rainy”, showing the pictures of raindrops to the students, teach “windy” or “cool”, draw the tree was blown over by the wind, teach \"snowy\" or “cold”, pictures of snowflakes. This paper is focused on how to draw, clever, and freely combined with primary school English teaching, improve teaching quality, to cultivate children's interest in learning English, inspire imagination thinking, enhance memory, to talk about their experiences.

Step3: Practice by using suffix method

When we remember: sunny, rainy, snowy, cloudy, windy, we can see they have same suffix –y , they are adjective. Step4: Using TPR

Example 1: Teach touch, catch, stretch and other sports words: (clap) One two three, touch. One two three, catch. One two three, stretch. (action) Touch, catch, stretch. Touch, catch, stretch. Touch, catch, stretch, yeah!

Example 2: Ball games vocabulary teaching:

Pat basketball (CAST), stamp Baseball (click) Pat tennis (connected), pingpang ball (spin) stamp Pat Badminton (hair), stamp football (play) Pat Hockey (into), stamp Volleyball (button)

Week 4 Activity 4 What day is it today?

This activity is based as in Junior English, Student Book 5, Lesson 8

“What day is it today?”

Purpose: Contact the specific week and ask the students to learn about time words, to improve the students' ability of using language

Instructions: Students work in groups, listen to the tape and try to speak the words correctly and fluently. Procedure:

Step1: I asked the students to say the words of time we have already learned, for example, year, month, day.

Step2: though differences exist with the same method

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Monday to cave (n) picking matsutake mushroom (Mo).

Tuesday found the cave near a rabbit (Tu) children starve to death (ES). On Wednesday we (We) of the computer (DN) too (ES). Thursday night sky has a milky way (Th) were (o) urs see.

Friday night, no electric lady (Fr) bought a candle (I). On Saturday, S (H) a sand dust storm blows to the soil (TUR). On Sunday the sun (sun) is very good, we go swimming together. For students: from teaching the students can grasp these words Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday well.

7. Project evaluation

good at memory 90.00% weak at memory 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00%

37.25% 62.75% 82.35% 17.65% before implementation after implementation The result of project evaluation

During my project, some students always worked hard and were interested in my activities, they could help me finish my project. However, some students were active for several days and were bored for some days, they could not keep from first to last. That contributes to my results of the project.

Comparison the two results of before and after implementation shows that 45.1% of the students’ English spoken has been improved.

I have fifty-one students, before the project, only nineteen students, just 37.25% of the students thought English words was important and worked hard in English memory procedure. After the project, there were forty-two students, 82.35% of the students recognized the importance and necessity of memorizing English words, and tried their best to improve their memory words ability. Although, it is a low number, it implies that my strategies were not very efficient. I will not lose confidence , I believe I can find out some other reasons to account for this fact, and try to solve the problem more thoroughly, so that improve my students’ memory English words ability.

8. Conclusion

After I thought seriously and had exchanged of views on the project with my workmates and my students, I found out that if would practise

more proper methods and more good techniques, they had much progress in the aspects of memorizing and summarizing vocabulary. For there is not enough time, I only adopted several methods and techniques in the project. The most frequently mentioned problems can be categorized into to aspects:

Firstly, the way of learning---some students are lacking interest in studies. They have some wrong ideas about their studies. Some primary students enjoy playing, so they couldn't hand in the assignment which I asked or designed, even some did not complete the assignment or homework. Some are lazy and sleep in class. Others students are weak in English. They cannot complete their homework according to what I asked.

Secondly, the way of teaching---I should explain and guide them to practise more interesting, useful and practical methods and techniques. I should also supply them with more materials that pre-summarized by myself. At the same time, I should learn the students' attitudes, feelings, emotional factors in order to know about what they want.

From March 27th, 2013 to May 31st, 2013, I have been working on this project to improve my students’ ability of memorizing English words. I know it is difficult to improve students’ English words ability in rural primary schools, but I must be responsible for my students. So I determined to solve the problem. In my project, I used analytic method,

cause analysis. I also formulated a specific objective and a research hypothesis. Then I designed four strategies: the use of blackboard drawings, classification memory method, song memory method and so on. When implemented my project, I organized four activities in four weeks based on description, discussion, dialogue and singing. From the result, I think the methods used in problem analysis are suitable, the project objective is realistic, the hypothesis is provable and the project has a sound basis. I am happy that some students’ English spoken have been improved. Of course, I also feel sad because still there are nine students who have problems in English words memory.

This project has improved my students’ ability, so have I. After this project, most of the students like learning English words and joining our study actively in class. In my teaching, there are many problems I must solve, but I believe that every problem can be solved well. This project encourages me so much. Of course, I will work harder to improve my students’ English memory words ability thoroughly, because it is only a beginning.

References

Appendix:

1. Gu Yueguo, 1999, Practical Project Design, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

2. Gu Yueguo, 1999, English Language Teaching Methodology, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

3. Hu Chundong, 2001, Psychological Fundamental, Beijing University Press

4. Zhang Zhengdong, 2000, Comment on English Teaching, High Education Press

Appendix A: The timetable of the project Stage Ⅰ Week 1 Calendar dates March 27-April 2 Task Identify a problem Analyze the problem using scientific methods: Ⅱ 2 April 3-April 9  analyzing some of my students and others, my students and my colleagues students.  analyzing the possible causes of the identified problem. Design a problem-solving project: Ⅲ 3 April 10- April 16  formulating the project objectives and hypothesis.  find effective strategies 1. the use of audio-visual

materials 2. oral report 3. role playing 4. carrying out various activities 4 Ⅳ 5 6 7 Ⅴ Ⅵ

8 9 April 17-May 14 Implement the project  report of the implementation of the lesson plan.  organizing four activities. May 15-May 21 Evaluate the project May 22-May 31 Write the project report Appendix B: Diaries

Week 1

Date: Friday, April 19th, 2013

When I told students that we would do an experiment this class, they were all excited. I know they were interested in science. But when I said” After my performance, you will do the experiment by yourself in front of class, and describe it in English.” Some students frownded and were sad. I told them it was easy, only five simple sentences. They tried their best to speak and perform. Most students had a good job in groups together. Week 2

Date: Friday, April 26th, 2013

I asked one girl what her favorite subject was and why. She told me that was English .”Why?” “Because English is different from Chinese, if

I learn English well, others can not understand me, then I will be confident.” She made me happy. But I asked a boy, ”Do you like English?” “No, I don’ t . It is really difficult for me.” I encouraged him that he could learn English well if he could make an effort. I did not how he felt, but I decided to help him. Week 3

Date: Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

Today I brought many things into the classroom, there were different pictures about the weather. When saw these pictures , the students were so excited, but they were confused. I smiled and said,” I want to sell them to you.” They laughed. I knew they understood me and became interested in this class. With my instructions, they worked hard together and had a excellent job. I was surprised at their performance. They used many expressions and structures about weather. That made me more confident to implement my project. Week 4

Date: Thursday, May 9th, 2013

During these days, I always heard students speak, so today I would like to listen to their beautiful song. They were good at singing. I found my students were changing with my activities of description, discussion, dialogue and singing. That is great! Some students began to speak loudly in class and say more and more English. I will work much harder to help

my students with their English spoken. It is possible to improve students’ memory English words in rural primary schools.