Designing Idiom and Proverb Crossword Puzzles for Primary School Students in Vietnam

Le Thi Lan Anh^1,

¹Primary Education Faculty, Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, Xuan Hoa, Phuc Yen, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

Cite this paper:
Le Thi Lan Anh. Designing Idiom and Proverb Crossword Puzzles for Primary School Students in Vietnam. American Journal of Educational Research. 2019; 7(5):369-375. doi: 10.12691/education-7-5-5

Abstract

Originated from the customs, practices, habits and events of a society, idioms and proverbs are special features and the beauty of that culture. They characterize the language of each nation so they must be preserved by every ethnic group and country. This study is conducted to clarify primary school students’ knowledge of idioms and proverbs (300 students in three provinces of Vinh Phuc, Hai Duong and Bac Ninh); the reality of teachers’ designing and using crosswords to develop their knowledge of idioms and proverbs (592 teachers in Vinh Phuc, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Bac Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Ha Giang). Firstly, the research shows that students’ knowledge of idioms and proverbs is limited. Secondly, teachers are well aware of the role and effect of crosswords, but they fail to actively design crosswords and to use them effectively. In order that teachers can create highly appealing and effective crosswords, it is essential for them to have a clear and explicit procedure of designing crosswords. The procedure is proposed in this article with an end goal of enriching the national language for students when they enter primary school.

Keywords:
crossword puzzles idioms proverbs primary schools

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Trieu Nguyen, 2006, Discussion on Vietnamese proverbs, Vietnam Education Publishing House Limited Company.
[2]	Pham Van Tinh, 2007, Vietnamese journey through the crossword, Volumne 1, Tri Thuc Publishing House, Vietnam.
[3]	Nguyen Thi Thuy, Le Thi Minh Thu, 2006, Having fun learning Vietnamese, University of Education Publishing House.
[4]	Huynh Kim Tuong Vi, 2015, Designing Idiom and Proverb Crosswords to Teach Vocabulary Extensively at Primary Schools, Vietnam Journal of Educational Equipment’s, 113, P20, 21 and 36.
[5]	W. Orawiwatnakul, 2013, Crossword puzzles as a learning tool, for vocabulary development, Electronic Journal of Research in Education Psychology, 30, 413-428.
[6]	Feliciano dos Santos, Jose Antonio Sarmento, Agostinho dos Santos Gonçalves, 2019, Developing vocabulary through crossword puzzles, Journal of Innovative Studies on Character and Education, 3(1), 106-125.
[7]	M Alemi, 2010, Educational games as a vehicle to teaching vocabulary, The Modern Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2010. P. 425-438.
[8]	Nitin Gaikwad, Suresh Tankhiwale, 2012, Perspectives on Medical Education.
[9]	RA Tambun, 2014, The Influence of Using Crossword Puzzle Towards the Students' Vocabulary Mastery, International Conference on Education and Language, P. 416-421.
[10]	Tricia M. Davis, Brooke Shepherd, Tara Zwiefelhofer, 2009, The Journal of Effective Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2009, 4-10.
[11]	CMZ Jaramillo, BM Losada, 2012, Developments in Business, Designing and solving crossword puzzles: Examining efficacy in a classroom exercise, P.213-222.
[12]	A Syarif, F Fitrawati, 2016, The Use of Half a Crossword Puzzle in Teaching Vocabulary to Elementary School Students Journal of English Language Teaching, Volume 5 No. 1 Serie F, p.383-389.
[13]	M Annisa, L Marlina, 2014, Teaching Writing Descriptive Text by Using Crossword Puzzle for Second Grade of Junior High School Students, Journal of English Language Teaching, P.170-177.
[14]	A. Maududi, E. Purwanto, A. Awalya, 2018, Influence of Pictorial Crossword Puzzle Media Toward Vocabulary Mastery and Initial Writing Skills of Elementary School Students, Journal of Primary Education, 7 (3), 318-323.
[15]	Nguyen Lan, 2003, Vietnamese idioms and proverbs dictionary, Literature Publishing House, Vietnam.