Speakers
Description
Vocabulary taught in isolation often fails to stick. In our teaching across public secondary schools and English centres, we have observed that students, especially teenagers, struggle to retain and apply new vocabulary when learning from disconnected word lists. They need engaging and sustainable ways to develop lexical competence for both academic and everyday communication.
This interactive workshop introduces two powerful, classroom-tested strategies that foster long-term vocabulary retention by embedding new words in meaningful contexts: Story-Based Input and Collocation Clusters. These approaches are grounded in research on contextualized and meaningful vocabulary learning (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2008), which shows that words are better retained when taught within rich, communicative contexts.
With Story-Based Input, vocabulary is brought to life through engaging narratives, helping students infer meaning, strengthen memory through imagery, and use new words naturally. Meanwhile, Collocation Clusters enable students to internalize natural word combinations—an essential skill for fluent speaking and writing.
We implemented these strategies over a full academic year with secondary-level learners at Hoa Hieu 1 Secondary School and Olympia English Center. Results showed a 35% improvement in vocabulary retention and 82% of students reporting greater confidence in vocabulary use.
Workshop participants will experience both techniques through hands-on activities, analyze authentic student work, and leave with practical tools for immediate classroom application.
Keywords: vocabulary retention, collocation clusters, story-based learning, contextual learning, communicative language teaching, secondary students, student engagement
Biography
Nguyễn Thị Thanh Phúc is an experienced English teacher at Hoa Hieu 1 Lower Secondary School and the Academic Manager at Olympia English Center. She holds a Master’s degree in English Language Teaching Methodology. With 19 years of experience teaching secondary-level learners, she focuses on innovative, engaging, and student-centered approaches, particularly in contextualized vocabulary teaching and communicative language learning. She actively integrates story-based learning and interactive classroom strategies into her teaching. She has presented at CamTESOL 2025 and participated in VinhTESOL 2024, contributing to professional dialogues in the ELT community.
Phạm Thị Huế holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education. After working in multicultural corporate environments in Ho Chi Minh City, she returned to Nghe An in 2023 to pursue her passion for teaching. Currently, she teaches English at a language center, focusing on secondary and high school learners, with an emphasis on communicative skills and IELTS preparation.
Together, the presenters share a strong interest in designing creative, interactive, and student-centered lessons that foster long-term vocabulary retention. Drawing from their practical experiences in public schools and private language centers, they aim to provide fellow educators with adaptable strategies to enhance vocabulary instruction and communicative competence across various teaching contexts.
