(SKKN 2022) USING VILLAGE FESTIVALS AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THANH HOA PROVINCE TO IMPROVE ỬITING SKILL FOR GRADE 11 STUDENT OF HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL ***** INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE HELPING GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL IMPROVE WRITING SKILL BY EXPLORING VILLAGE FESTIVALS AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THANH HOA PROVINCE Author: Phan Thi Hang Nga Position: Teacher Research field: English THANH HOA 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART II: CONTENT I DESCRIBE THE PROJECT The topic Name of the project Objectives of the project 3.1.Target languages and skills 3.2.Cultural knowledge 3.3.Interpersonal skills 3.4 Educational aims 3.5 Scope of the project The students taking part in the project Significance of the project Teaching aids Teaching methods Student Products 8.1 Written Reports 8.2 Presentation II DEVELOPING THE PROJECT Time Procedures Project plan Teacher's plan and preparations for the project 4.1 Deciding on the topics for the project 4.2 Time for the project 4.3 Authorities, teaching staff and parents 4.4 Financial matters 4.5 Language and genre 4.6 Criteria for assessing the products 4.7 Disscussion and experience sharing III LESSONS FROM THE PROJECT Lesson on the topic of projects Lesson on the making plan for projects Other lessons PART III: CONCLUSION I Research results II Proposals REFERENCES APPENDIXES PART I: INTRODUCTION PAGES 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 8 8 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 12 13 14 Experiential learning refers to the organization of the learning process on the basis of the pedagogical principle of "learning by doing", that is, learners' acquisition of knowledge is conducted through the process of experiencing, or doing something new Experiential learning is defined as the exploitation and processing of experience, aiming not only at acquiring knowledge, but also at transforming the way of thinking and changing attitudes This is based on the assumption that "learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience" Task-based learning is an instructional method with the center on the learner Instead of following a rigid lesson plan that instructs learners down a specific path of learning outcomes and objectives, task-based learning (henceforth TBL) allows in-depth investigation of a topic under discussion Through TBL, learners have more autonomy over what they learn, maintaining interest and motivating learners to take greater responsibilitty for their learning TBL enables the expression of diversity in learners, such as interest, abilities and learning styles Thus, TBL is a teaching method aimed at solving problems in a collaborative environment over an extended period of time TBL is a hands-on experience which starts from driving questions and problems that creates activities and leads to the meaningful product in the end Since the school year 2021, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has encouraged TBL in schools nationwide, hoping that students have chance to be active learners and learning does actually exist In the case of English, TBL can be applied and the final product is an English report on a particular topic Being a teacher of English at a high school I know the advantages of TBL over traditional learning Namely, with TBL - learners are more active - learners are more creative - learners everything by themselves, thus, are more responsible for their learning - learning process actually exists - all learning styles are appreciated - learners something new in collaboration with their friends - learners and learning are centered - learners produce a real product During the school year 2021-2022, I applied TBL in my teaching The students participated in the project with great enthusiasm and the products were satisfying I am convinced that TBL can be applied to the teaching and learning of English at high schools Therefore, I am writing the document named: “ HELPING GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL IMPROVE WRITING SKILL BY EXPLORING VILLAGE FESTIVALS AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THANH HOA PROVINCE” to share my teaching experience with other teachers of English who wish to create a more favourable learning environment for their students The document has three parts: - part 1: desribes the project - part 2: describes how the teacher and students developed the project - part :presents the lessons gained from the project PART II: CONTENT I DESCRIBE THE PROJECT Topics In the textbook Tieng Anh 11, basic curriculum, unit and unit 16 are about celebrations and wonders of the world The requirements set by the MOET are that, after finishing unit students will be able to talk and/or write about a celebration or a festival they know or witnessed; after unit 16 they will be able to write and/or talk about a tourist attraction using suitable vocabulary and structures I feel that it would be better if students could talk about the festivals or celebrations in their home villages Similarly, it would be more practical if they could write a report on a tourist attraction in their neighbourhood or in Thanh Hoa province In order to have such derised aims, I combine two topics into one project I ask students to work in groups of or 5, explore festivals or visit famous places in Thanh Hoa province and write about them Name of the project The project conducted is entitled: "Using Village Festivals And Tourist Attractions in Thanh Hoa Province To improve writing Skill For Grade 11 students Of Ham Rong High School" Objectives of the project 3.1 Target languages and skills -Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to topic 'celebrations' and festivals - Grammar: To describe a festival, the present simple tense and/or the past simple tense are mostly used -Skills: Writing and speaking - Genre of the writing: Writing about a celebration; Writing about a tourist attraction (a report of about 300 words) + Textbook requirements: Describing a celebration + Details that should be included in description are:  name of the festival  time of the festival  purpose of the festival  main activities of the festival  your feeling about the festival (whether you like it or not and the reason(s)) Describing a famous place: A piece of writing about a place sholud cover three parts  an introduction in which you give the name and the location of the place and/or reasons for choosing to write about it (e.g what it is famous for, what makes it so special, etc )  a main body giving both general and specific details about the place usually moving from the general features to specific ones You should give the overall impression by referring to landscape, buildings, landmarks, etc , and particular details (sights to see, places to go, things to do)  a conclusion in which you express your feelings or opinion concerning the subject or give a recommendation Besides the requirements and guidelines of the textbook, I provided the students with a model description of Mid-Autumn festival (see Appendix 1) 3.2 Cultural knowledge - Students will learn a lot about the history of the village festivals they explore - Students have a thorough knowledge of the tourist attractions they visit and write about 3.3 Interpersonal skills: To conduct the project, students have to go to village festivals, meet people who have a good knowledge of the festivals, give them questions and take notes Therefore they are expected to develop interpersonal skills Meanwhile, they have to take photos, film the activities happening during the festivals and prepare power points for their presentations As a result, they develop their "technology" skills as well 3.4 Educational aims - Students explore village festivals, therefore, gaining a deep insight into the traditions and customs of their homeland - Students have deeper love for their homeland, feel proud of their villages, thus are more likely to become good citizens 3.5 Scope of the project Students attend village festivals, visit spots of scenic beauty in Thanh Hoa province and write about them The students taking part in the project - The students taking part in the project are 46 students of class 11B10, Ham Rong Upper Secondary School - The students are the boys and girls, living in the northern communes of Dong Cuong District In their villages, festivals are held annually and they often attend the festivals However, they rarely explore the festivals thoroughly, not knowing much about the history and significance of the festivals Never before have they talked about the festivals in front of a large audience Significance of the project - The project aims to develop cutural knowledge, interpersonal skills, technology skills, enhance love and pride for their homeland in the students - The project helps to develop language competence, English competence, writing and speaking skills as well as presentation skills in students Teaching aids - Textbook English 11, basic curriculum - Pictures, photos of festivals and celebrations, wonders of the world - Technology: Power points Teaching methods - task-based learning: - teacher organizes learning activities, students are involved, find out the answers and present the products in writing and speaking - Assess the products according to criteria appropriate with TBL method The basis of language competence is based on the standards set by MOET Student Products 8.1 Written Reports I divided the class into 10 groups Each group had to write a report in English and a report in Vietnamese Meanwhile the groups were also asked to present the diary of groupwork, photos, pictures they took during the project Therefore, the products of the project were ten reports in English and ten reports in Vietnamese along with photos, films and groupwork diaries The students were very creative and the products were varied Of the ten reports, two were about Phú Khê village festival, one about Phúc Tiên village festival, one about Thanh Nga village festival, one about Trinh Nga village festival, one about Bà Triệu Temple, two about Hàm Rồng bridge, one about Tiên Sơn Cave, and one about Lam Kinh Relic site.The students wrote about the history, the main activities and the significance of the festival The report was very detailed Photos, pictures were printed to illustrate the information of the report, which made the products pleasant to read and look at However, most of the reports were longer than expected That is because Students write all the information they had about the festivals or the spots of beauty The second drawback was that the reports had grammar, spelling and word use mistakes It is easily understood as it is not easy for the students to transform the information into English ( see Appendix 2) 8.2 Presentation On May 21st, 2021 five groups presented their reports and showed photos, videoclips and films The other five groups, due to the limit of time, could not present All the presentations were filmed ( see Appendix 3) II DEVELOPING THE PROJECT Time The project was expected to be completed in one month and a half, from March 1st to April 15th The spring time was chosen as during the time, festivals were held Moreover, the weather was favourable for the students to make trips or visits to the spots of beauty and attend festivals Procedures The procedures of the project were as follows - Introducing the project - Grouping - Selecting topics - Guiding how to collect information - Guiding how to synthesise the information - Guiding how to write a report - Guiding how to present the reports - Presenting products and assessment - Discussion, experience sharing Project plan Stages Time Teacher's activities Students' activities Introducing the day project and preparing to the project - introduce the purpose of the project, divide the students into 10 groups,guide students how to make a timetable, assign the tasks to the members, choose the group leader - ask for permission of authorities at school -know about the project, decide on the topics, choose the group leader, write timetable, assign tasks - write timetable, details of assignment, work plan of the group, estimated time for project completion - hand in the timetable and task assignments Tackling project the day - notify the principal, - prepare to the form teacher and assignments parents about the project Doing project the month - help students with technology skills (power point, take photos,use camera to film festivals, etc - obeserve the process - the project: collect information, attend festivals, log into the Internet, meet villagers to ask for information about the - provide necessary finalising products the days help if festivals or tourist attractions, gather the information and prepare to write reports - ask teacher for help if necessary - help students to present collected information in a logical way - help students present photos, pictures and video clips - help students prepare power point to present - gather information, order the ideas, write reports - illustrate the reports by photos, video clips, films in a creative and logical way presenting the 60 - order the groups to products minutes present - remind the students of the content give rules for presenters and audience - ask a cameraman to film the students' presentations - present the reports in English - show photos, video clips listen to the classmates' reports assessing the days products and presentations assess poducts according to the criteria the teacher produced - know how good their products are - prepare for final products - read the reports, listen to the presentation, watch photos, video clips and remark - produce criteria to assess the products - inform the students of how good their products are correcting days mistakes and writing the products again half discussion and day experience sharing -help students to recognise the mistakes in the reports - help students correct the mistakes - guide students to write the reports again and finalise all their products recognise the mistakes - work in groups, correct the mistakes in the reports - finalise the products and produce final products a - ask students to give feedback on the project - guide students to share experience they gained during the project - prepare for the next project - give feedback on the project -share experience with classmate -prepare for the next project Teacher's plan and preparations for the project 4.1 Deciding on the topics for the project Textbook English 11 has 16 units covering more than ten different topics However, I felt that the two topics "celebrations" and "tourist attractions" are suitable for the students as in their home villages, festivals are held annually Moreover, in the local, many spots of scenic beauty such as Ba Trieu Temple, Ham Rong Bridge, Tien Son Cave, are located Hoang Hoa District in particular and Thanh Hoa province in general are rich in culture, festivals, celebrations and spots of scenic beauty Therefore, it is ideal to tackle a project on the topics related to culture, festivals and tourism 4.2 Time for the project As it is the first time students a project, they lack experience and skills The students are village boys and girls, so they not have adequate technology skills for the project Most of them not have a computer at home, a mobile phone, a camera and the access to the Internet is not always convenient to them Moreover, the time at which festivals take place is in March and April Taking all these facts into consideration, I was convinced that a month and a half was the minimum amount of time for the project to be completed 4.3 Authorities, teaching staff and parents This is the first time a project has been tackled at my school, so it is a must to inform the principle, the teaching staff, the form teacher of class 11B10 and all the parents of the students about the project I notified all the concerned of the project on March 1st Luckily, no one opposed and the project received an enthusiastic participation from the students, parents and the teaching staff 4.4 Financial matters The students need money for their travel, video clips, photos and Internet access Money is also needed for hiring a cameraman to film the students' presentations I assumed that the total costs for the projects is up to one million VND (1,000,000 VND) The resource was raised from the fund of parents 4.5 Language and genre As students have to write or speaking an English report on festivals and spots of scenic beauty, they need vocabulary to describe celebrations Further more, they may need a considerable vocabulary to describe festivals in their home villages that the textbook does not cover Therefore, the teacher should prepare enough vocabulary to help students write the reports on village festivals which are typical of Vietnam The genre of the writing is another problem If students riridly follow the outline provided in the texbook, they may not transfer the typical characteristics of the Vietnamese village festivals Therefore, I did not ask them to follow the outline in the textbook On the other hand, they may present the information about the festival in the way they find most suitable and logical However, they have to cover the essential details of a piece of writing to describe a celebration To help them with the genre and style, I provided them with a model writing on the Mid- Autumn festival ( see Appendix 1) 10 4.6 Criteria for assessing the products In order to assess the students' products and their participation in the project, I drawed several criteria The most important matter is the sudent involvement and participation in the project, their creativity and responsibility The final products, especially the reports in English not play a crucial role as the level of English of the students is not good enough to transfer all the information about a festival and a toutist attraction from their mother tongue into English I appreciated the students' efforts to write the reports in English I pointed out all the mistakes in grammar and word use to them and asked them to correct by themselves In this way, I hope the students learn from mistakes The criteria for assessment are as follows - Task completion (reports in English and Vietnamese, groupwork diaries, timetable, task assignments, video clips as evidence of the group member involvement and participation in the project) - Group members involvement and partipation - Creativity in presenting information and images - Coherence and cohesion of the reports - Language (grammar, spelling, word use mistakes) 4.7 Disscussion and experience sharing To guide the students what to on the final stage of the project (discussion and experience sharing) I prepared a set of questions to get students' feedback on the project and discussion This was done with the aim of exploring the drawbacks of the current project and avoiding them if another project is conducted Questions for feedback Did you enjoy the topics? Did you enjoy the groupwork? What did you during the time of the project? Did you enjoy the task and have a pleasant time? What was the thing you like most about the project? What was the thing you hate most about the project? Did you learn anything from the project? 11 Would you like to another project in future? Questions for experience sharing What experience did you gain from the project? What experience in doing project would you like to share with your classmates? Did you meet any difficulties during the time of the project? If you did, how did you over come the problems? III LESSONS FROM THE PROJECT After doing the project I have learned a number of lessons in the teaching of English at secondary schools Lesson on the topic of projects The topic of the project is very important The first condition is that the topic of the project must be one of the topics of the syllabus The second condition is the topic should be easy for students to explore in the neighbourhood In the case of my students, they are village boys and girls, in their home villages, festivals and celebrations are held annually, so it is convenient and feasible for them to get information If they are asked to reports with another topic, such as music show or a famous musician, they will meet a lot of difficulties and will not have any information as music shows and musicians are rare in their neighbourhood Lesson on the making plan for projects To conduct a project, a careful and detailed plan and timetable should be made The teacher in charge should identify the aim, objectives, final products and the requirements of the project clearly The teacher should also prepare necessary language and technology skills to assist students during the project The more skillful the teacher is, the more successful the project will be Other lessons To conduct a project, a number of people are involved, not merely the teacher and students Therefore, the teacher in charge should work in collaboration with the headmaster, form teacher, parents of the students and 12 all the teaching staff at school When a project requires knowledge of other subjects, all the teachers teaching the subjects should be involved However, students need traditional learning inside the classroom I am convinced that it would be ideal if in a school year, students two projects This frequency is appropriate Going projects all the year round takes a lot of time and may affect the timetable of the school and teacher and students may fail to fulfill the curriculum required 13 PART III: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSALS I Research results Task-based learning is of great benefit if applied appropriately in the teaching and learning of English It helps to enhance students' creativity and responsibility With TBL, learning process does actually exist, students are actively involved in the process of learning They experience something new, something by themselves and create a real product of their own TBL should be applied in the teaching and learning of English at secondary schools along with traditional lessons taking place inside classrooms Task-based learning should be tackled in collaboration among teachers of different subjects, with parents of the students The authorities at schools should encourage this type of learning as it helps both students and teachers become more active, creative and all-side developed Students doing projects learn useful lessons about English and other subjects, widen their knowledge, develop many important skilss such as interpersonal skills, collaborative skills, technology skills, presentation skills Therefore they should be actively involved in task -based learning After a long time applying this teaching method in two classes 11B5, 11B10, I realized that students, regardless of their study level are all more interested in the lesson and experience some amazing progress in their academic performance Moreover, thanks to the application of this project, students can improve their soft skills such as team work, leadership and communication skills which can greatly benefit them in their later life Statistically writing, before the implementation of this teaching method, only around 40% of students from two above classes understand the lesson However, with this project applied, 80% of students are able to perceive the lesson deeply The lesson plan is applied with class 11B10 With class 11B5, I did not apply TBL The results of the two writing lessons conducted in classes 11B5 and 11B10 were as follows: Class 11B5 11B10 Number of students 48 46 Satisfactory reports 19 36 Unsatisfactory reports 29 10 14 As can be seen from the table with the help of TBL, teacher can provide a better lesson for his students If teacher does not prepare more materials, pictures of village festivals and tourist attractions using only sources available in the textbook, his students are not given adequate instruction on how to understand a particular piece of writing Task-based learning has brought a lot of positive changes in the learning environment in my classes Therefore, I would like to share this method with all of my colleagues and welcome the reviews and comments in order to perfect this method of teaching II Proposals Because English is a very important language in the modern society, students are encouraged to study this subject for the sake of their own future and teachers are supposed to support their study in all the possible ways Therefore, so as for students to have better English studying conditions, I would like to make some proposals: There should be a classroom used specifically for teaching and studying English so that other classes would not be interfered In addition, in the reading lesson, teachers also should be able to let students listen to some English audios in order to improve their English listening skill Since visual aids such as pictures, slides are advised to be used in the English class, classrooms should be equipped with computers and digital projects so as to attract students’ attention and improve their understanding of the lesson With classrooms well equipped with those teaching equipment, students’ study will be surely enhanced thanks to the application of PowerPoint into curriculum 15 Headmaster's confirmation Thanh Hóa, ngày 23 tháng năm 2022 I strongly declare that this is my own initiative experience writing, not copy other people's content Author: Phan Thi Hang Nga 16 REFERENCES English 11, Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Thu Phương, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn, Nhà xuất Giáo dục, 2008 English 11, Sách giáo viên, Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Thu Phương, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn, Nhà xuất Giáo dục, 2008 Tài liệu tập huấn dạy học kiểm tra, đánh giá kết học tập theo định hướng phát triển lự học sinh môn tiếng Anh, 2014 Successful Writing Proficiency, Virginia Evans, Espress Publishing, 2000 Bài tập bổ trợ nâng cao tiếng anh 11- Nguyễn Thị Chi, Nguyễn Hữu Cương, Nhà xuất giáo dục, 2007 Teaching training materials- Education publishing house- 2006 Hoang Van Van (chief editor) Prepartion for high school graduation and university entrance exam Education publishing house- 2006 - Nguyen Hai Chau (chief editor) Multiple choices English tests– Education publishing house Do Tuan Minh (chief editor) A course in language teaching – Penny Ur 17 APPENDIXES Appendix Model writing Describing a celebration The Mid-Autumn Festival is an important traditional holiday MidAutumn festival is celebrated not only in Vietnam but also in some other parts of Asia as well, such as China, Japan or Korea And it is often celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with full moon at night In the past, on this day the moon was brightest and roundest which represented the family reunion or gatherings Therefore, families and friends often came together or harvested crops for the festival Nowadays, Mid Autumn Festival is mainly for young children in Vietnam to enjoy the best time of the year But not only can children celebrate this day but also adults can, adults who wish to have a chance to remind their their childhood and feel young again During this exciting Autumn festival, making masks and lanterns is probably one of many activities that take place A lot of groups of young Vietnamese have created unique and trendy lanterns yet can still preserve the traditional beauty So this reminds me back to the time when I was a little kid and living in the countryside where I could contemplate the most oriental feature of this festival, which is the dragon dancing Our little alley was teeming with different teams of dragon dancers Dragon dancers dance to every household in their village, it is like “treat or trick” in western culture, they will not stop until you give them some lucky money And when speaking of Mid-Autumn, we can’t help but to mention the Moon cake The round shape of the moon cake signifies completeness and reunion of families Making and sharing mooncake is probably one of the hallmark traditions of this festival But nowadays, in modern time, making mooncakes has given way to the more popular custom of giving mooncakes to family members Many people enjoy Mid- Autumn as an excuse to dress up and have fun It is unique in that its theme is essentially not a pleasant one However, it remains popular and is eagerly anticipated every year by people, especially for children Appendix Students' Products (the first vesions) These are some photographs which students have taken when exploring many tourist attractions in Thanh Hoa Province 18 PHU KHE VILLAGE FESTIVAL NHA HO CITADEL 19 HAM RONG BRIDGE LAM KINH RELIC SITE 20 DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: PHAN THỊ HẰNG NGA Chức vụ đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên tiếng anh trường THPT Hàm Rồng Kết Cấp đánh đánh giá giá xếp loại TT Tên đề tài SKKN xếp loại (Phòng, Sở, (A, B, Tỉnh ) C) Using discourse capability to Cấp sở C improve writing skill to grade 10 students Using handouts to evaluate Cấp sở C the efficiency of the reading skill in unit to grade 10 students Năm học đánh giá xếp loại 2015 - 2016 2018 - 2019 * Liệt kê tên đề tài theo thứ tự năm học, kể từ tác giả tuyển dụng vào Ngành thời điểm 21 ... Thanh Hoa Province To improve writing Skill For Grade 11 students Of Ham Rong High School" Objectives of the project 3.1 Target languages and skills -Vocabulary: Vocabulary related to topic 'celebrations'... Tỉnh ) C) Using discourse capability to Cấp sở C improve writing skill to grade 10 students Using handouts to evaluate Cấp sở C the efficiency of the reading skill in unit to grade 10 students... explore festivals or visit famous places in Thanh Hoa province and write about them Name of the project The project conducted is entitled: "Using Village Festivals And Tourist Attractions in Thanh Hoa