(SKKN 2022) Improving the efficiency of teaching English reading skill for grade 8 at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school

CATEGORY INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic 1.2 The purpose of research 1.3 Study subjects 1.4 Research Methodology 2 CONTENTS OF THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE 2.1 Rationale of the initiative experience …………………………… 2.2 Status of the problem before applying the initiative experience 2.3 The solutions were used to solve the problem…………………… 2.4 The effect of initiative experience for educational activities, with myself, the colleagues and the school……………………………………… CONCLUSION AND REQUESTS ……………………………………….10 3.1 Conclusion…………………………………………………… … 10 3.2.Requests…………………………………………………………… 10 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………… 11 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic In learning English, listening is an important skill Students can not develop English speaking skill if they not develop listening skill To succeed their conversation, students must understand what other people say The ability to hear and understand the natives’ words in the actual conversations, on tapes or disks is also important for students in learning English as well as communicating The fact that students have difficulties in hearing English, most of them originally are not very interested in listening lessons because it is difficult to hear, especially listening to the tapes Through research and practical teaching, I have realized the obstacles in their English listening as follows: - Students lack background knowledge and linguistic knowledge which help them guess and understand the content of the listening - Obstacles to recognize sounds: pronunciation, stress and intonation taught by teachers seems to differ from what the natives say - Students tend to try to understand each word of the listening: they try to hear every word in the listening because they think all of them are important, but in fact they can’t hear every word If they not have the ability to hear important words or key words, it will be difficult to achieve the listening This has made students feel frustrated and bored with listening comprehension skills - While listening, students cannot catch up with quick and natural speaking speed of natives and often impatient in fostering listening skills Listening lessons are often found difficult and tedious Creating the excitement for students in these lessons is essential Teachers must know how to apply flexible approaches, listening teaching tips to increase the efficiency of teaching English listening skill to help students improve their English listening skill Through practice teaching, I have tried to apply the methods and techniques as well as listening activities that I have accumulated to teach listening Besides, I have gradually strengthened and edit the mispronunciations and language structures for students to help them listen more easily In this writing, I would like to present a few experiences on "improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City 1.2 The purpose of research To improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City 1.3 Study subjects Method of teaching English listening skill to improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City – shool year 2020-2021 1.4 Research Methodology -Researching through the documents: textbooks 8, teacher book, exercise book and related documents -Observing colleagues' teaching lessons -Researching from the actual teaching and learning of each student object -Researching Methodology of actual survey, gathering information and data processing CONTENTS OF THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE 2.1 Rationale of the initiative experience Nowadays, when the economies of the countries in the world are developing more and more, the cultural, political, and social exchanges between countries are increasingly expanding To communicate with each other requires different countries in the world, to know how to use a common language in addition to their native language Among the most common languages of communication in the world, English is considered the most popular common language For many years, learning foreign languages, especially English subject is increasingly popular and this subject is becoming a compulsory subject in schools Therefore, the requirement is how to make the English lessons succeed with high quality and efficiency, especially English listening skill, which helps to communicate successfully This requires teachers to always perfect themselves not only in terms of expertise but also in teaching methods and teaching tips 2.2 Status of the problem before applying the initiative experience - In fact, students not have conditions to listen to English around them in everyday life Moreover, listening skill is the most difficult to achieve and requires students to practice a lot Teachers should give students the opportunity to listen to as much English as possible through cassettes Therefore, in the process of teaching English, I often use the tapes so that the students can hear the voice of indigenous people and ensure that they become familiar with pronunciation, intonation in communication which help them promote good listening skills in English Besides, I try to seak English as much as possible during the lesson However, the result is not as I expected * Survey results at the beginning of the school year 2020-2021: Number of Class students Percentage of Students have good listening skill Percentage of Students don’t pay attention to practise listening 8A5 45 25 students = 55,56% 20 students = 44,44% 8A6 47 27 students = 57,45% 24 students = 42,55% With the above situation, I have decided to apply the following measures to improve the effectiveness of teaching English listening skills to 8th grade students at Nguyen Van Troi Thanh Secondary School in Thanh Hoa 2.3 The solutions were used to solve the problem First, teachers need to understand the nature and importance of the English listening comprehension skill Listening - receiving skill (receptive skill) is an important skill It is the dynamic skill of the spoken words because it includes many different knowledge such as phonics, vocabulary, grammar, culture, the experiences of students about the listening topics, the ability to predict and respond to the words of the speaker, etc Listening is divided into two categories: Real-life listening and Classroom listening Listening in classroom is divided into deep listening (intensive listening) and extensive listening In classroom, students practice listening under the organization of teachers In fact, listening is still a difficult skill for students To overcome these difficulties while listening and to ensure the good result of a listening lesson within a limited time, I often take the following procedure: - Introduce the topic, things involving listening, the concept will be heard in the listening, ect - Introduce the new words or revise and consolidate the vocabulary needed for the listening - Pose questions to help students predict the content of the listening - Pose guiding questions for the listening - Divide the process into steps : first listening ( listening for main ideas, answering the general questions Second listening ( listening for details, addressing specific exercises ) - If the listening is long, I divide it into short terms with the specific requirements for the students to listen - After completing the listening exercise, I get students to listen to it again to check and consolidate the content of the listening The above process is manipulated flexibly on the structure of teaching listening involving the following steps: + Warm up + Pre - listening + While -listening + Post-listening * EXPERIMENTAL METHODS: 2.3.1 Warm up: The first task when entering the classroom teacher has to is the general pedagogical purpose to stabilize class, psychological preparation, knowledge of subjects With Foreign Language subject, too Warm up ( Part boot) has a very important significance, without it will make the next step less vivid These activities often take a role in the situation, set out the purpose of teaching activities - this is the necessary condition for effective lessons Depending on the purpose and characteristics of each post, I choose the form and appropriate tips to focus their attention, create the excitement For example, after greeting and asking questions about health, weather, etc, I talk about things relating to the topic of listening (for new/old English textbooks) or I create excitement by some short games such as: bingo, pelmanism, brainstorming, guessing game, Kim’s game, chain game, crossword puzzle, In short: I can apply multiple tips, a variety of methods in the REVISION / WARM UP efficiently, and perform many different tasks in order to draw students’ attention and create class stability, at the same time to check the previous leson This also helps students prepare their psychology for the lesson 2.3.2 Pre – listening a Purpose : Help students become familiar with the topic and introduce them some new words, new terms which may appear in the listening b Steps : - Help students to have their state of mind by attracting them to the content or theme of the listening: inspiring students, suggesting to mobilize available knowledge of students about the topic and listening, this can help students base on that knowledge to understand the content of the listening more easily - Introduce the topic of the listening briefly to draw students’ attention Students prepare for the listening and guess what will be listened and while listening, students will check the accuracy of prediction This helps students listen in a focused way - Preresolve some difficulties that students may encounter in listening such as knowledge of cultural background, language knowledge such as words and grammar structures, difficult sounds, etc to help students understand the listening easily - Give one or two guiding questions to students to lead them to the main idea of listening before they listen Ex: You will listen to a passage/text about Listen and try to answer these questions: Question 1: ? Question 2: What about: or ? - Teacher sets tasks for students to hear when listening: Listen for what ? Listen to and conduct any kind of exercise? c The tips + Open prediction: Teachers help students guess by giving some suggesting questions Let students watch the pictures Teacher can tell a story and stop at some of the content for students to guess what will happen then, or make students visualize the story to which they are about to listen, etc Teachers just raise the topic of the listening and let students guess what the contents of the listening will be like To inspire students, teachers can introduce the topic of listening by using pictorial, or real objects, etc + True/False statements prediction: Teachers make some comments on the main content of the listening or give out some sentences for students to guess true/ false ones + Ordering: Teachers let students observe some Pictures or teachers read some sentences and ask students to sort them in the correct order + Pre- questions: The teacher gives a few questions about the topic of the listening, the students based on the available knowledge to answer these questions + Wordstorm: Remind students of the vocabulary relating to the topic to which they are about to listen Inspire students to build "the network" vocabulary relating to the topic of listening, including new words and difficult words that students will encounter in the listening To inspire students, teachers should use some tips to refresher vocabulary such as “ Word Square” or “ Noughts and Crosses”, etc Attention: Avoid lecturing or providing right knowledge for students Teachers should have some suggestive questions to help students to think and find out the answers - To create a live atmosphere at the beginning of the lesson, students should work in groups / pairs - Use pictures to introduce key vocabulary to reduce the use of Vietnamese in classroom - In all the activities before listening, teachers only encourage, inspire students to speculate and perform required assignments, not give the right answers Students will have to find out the answers while listening 2.3.3 While – listening a Purpose : Students perform the tasks of listening to develop listening comprehension skills b Steps : - First listening: Students listen to the whole tape script for the main idea basing on leading questions that the teacher has made After the first listening, the teacher can ask: What did you hear ? or What is the listening about ? - Second listening: No pause Students listen and complete the tasks while listening This section aims to test the ability and listening speed of students and ask the students to give the answer after listening - Third listening (Check and consolidation): Check and consolidate the content of the listening, occasionally the teacher can pause at the highlights to see if students can keep up, and to give students time to finish the rest of task Check students listening comprehension level by offering them a number of questions about the content of the listening Check out how students have made the task of listening c The tips + Listening is different from reading: while reading, students can adjust their reading speed If they not understand any sections, the students may slow down reading or go back to read again But in listening, students depend entirely on the speed of the tape So listening skill is considered more difficult In first listening or second listening the teacher lets the students listen to the whole tape to get the main ideas or the layout and exercises If students find it difficult to listen, the teacher can stopping at some difficult places However, this should be limited Don’t often let students listen to each sentence, as this will make bad listening habits when listening to understand every word or every sentence This also slows down students’ listening speed + Teachers should give students determined time to complete the exercises Then ask the students to compare their answers Teachers observe if the majority of students answer correctly, call a few students to examine and determine the correct answers; if the majority are unanswered, guide students to listen again, focusing on passages or sentences that contain the answers and suggest students find the right answers Attention: - Ensure that students understand the messages without listening through out each word - Ensure that students understand the messages without listening through out each word - Teachers should focus on teaching listening skill for students rather than checking students' listening skill - Teachers should give students strategies to recognize sounds like a repetition, restated, judge, make use intonation, stress and stopping distances - If the listening is long to hear, teachers need to split the parts and check students' comprehension levels partially 2.3.4 Post-listening a Purpose : Consolidate listening comprehension skill through such summary form, including the form of listening, oral or written, or by contacting the topic with real life (Students use the information they heard to practice) With the experimented English textbooks, after the listening is part writing Students can rely on the results of the listening or use the target language from listening to cater to writing b Steps : - Requirements: Students must understand the listening and language production Language production focusing on fluency ( fluency = producing what has been listened, retelling the story, giving comments, role-play, ending the story, ect ) - To implement: + Teachers recommend students to speak or write (using production techniques) to summarize and review the information they have heard + Ask the students to give their opinion or comment on some details of the listening + Teacher helps students discuss in pairs / groups about the problems in the listening + Teachers make a similar problem for students to solve + If the listening is a conversation, teachers can recommend students to act out the conversations they have just heard Attention: The activities in this phase are varied and plentiful, it requires teachers to apply properly for each post Depending on the level of English of students, teachers can build or diversify the activities in this period c The tips + Summarize the listening: This is the common operation after hearing all the tapescript It both reinforces students’ understanding and helps them practice using the knowledge and language they have learnt in the listening Do not just make a general request but need meticulous guidance Teachers can give some suggestive words which students can use to write the briefs, or write the beginnings of sentences and students just complete them; or teachers can give some questions about the gist of all, students write a brief by answering those questions, etc Summary activities can also be made through talking + Students write or talk about a similar problem on themselves or those in similar situations in the listening + Group discussion, exchange of feelings, opinions and comments on the problem they have heard + Role-play: the teacher gives a few hints, the students work in pairs / groups playing the role in the listening or asking and answering about the problems they have just heard, etc * SAMPLE LESSON PLAN: UNIT 2: LIFE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE Lesson A Skills I Objectives: By the end of the lesson Ss will be able to: - Listen for specific information about changes in the countryside - Write a short paragraph about changes in the countryside Knowledge: a Vocabulary: brick houses, earthen b.Grammar: Comparative forms of adj/adv 10 Competences : Linguistic competence, cooperative learning and communicative competence Qualities: Students love talking about some nomadic activities II Teaching aids: Materials: Text book, plan, extra-board Equipment: computer accessed to the Internet, projector, loudspeaker III Procedures: Checkup attendance Checkup the old lesson New lesson Teacher and students’ activities The main contents Activit y Warm- up Aim: Help S s attend to the lesson * Groupwork - Divided the class into two groups In the past Now - Put the phrases into the corect - use oil lamp - Use electric light column - ride a horse - travel by - Call each group go to the - walk to work motobikes board and write - live in earthern - live in a brick - The group which write right house house sentence is the winner - live far from - Use electric fan, - T: In the past, means of school air-conditioner transports is animal such as: - play with the - live near school horse, buffaloes… Now they nature - play video games travel by motobikes and cars - have TV Now, we don’t use oil lamps any more We have electric lights - T introduces the lesson Activity Presentation Aim: Help Ss listen to the information about changes in the countryside and exercises - T asks students to listen to the 1- LISTENING tape and tick the changes he Ex Listen and tick(v) the change he mentions mentions - T calls one to read all of the sentences before the class - T plays the tape twice - Ss it then answer the question in speaking - T gives the key 11 A the roads in the village - T asks them to read the sentences B electrical appliances in the homes C means of transport and guess: True or False D entertainment - T plays the tape again - Ss listen and exercise E school - T gives the key F visitors Ex2 Listen again and say if the sentences are true (T) or false (F) –F;2–T;3–F;4–T;5–T - T asks students to listen again and answer the questions - Ss listen and answer v v v v Ex3 Listen again and answer the questions no more than Four words His parents 2.Life outside their village 3.Nearby the village / Near the village 4.A nomadic life Activi ty Practice Aim: Ss can write ab out the changes in their village WRITING - T asks Ss to write some changes Eg: My hometown has some changes in the village - They have a better life because they have - Ss write electricity, TV, hospital, school supply - T corrects the mistakes - There are good places for children to play Eg:a park, stadium, entertainment center - They travel to work by car… - The roads are widened Activity Further practice Aim: Ss can talk about the changes in their village T asks some students to talk some Eg: I am going to tell you about the changes in their village changes in the village Ss talk some changes in the village T corrects the mistakes * Homework - Talk and write about the changes in their village - Prepare for the next lesson: Looking back & Project 12 UNIT 4: OUR CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS Period 31: Skills I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to: - Listen to get specific information about a traditional dance of an ethnic group in Viet Nam - Write a description of a traditional Japanese dance Knowledge : - Vocabulary: spiritual, private, reunion, conical hat, reflect Competences: Linguistic competence, cooperative learning and communicative competence Qualities:- Students are aware of protecting “custom and traditions” - Students love talking about our customs and traditions II Teaching aids: Materials: Text book, plan Equipment: computer accessed to the Internet, projector, loudspeaker III Procedures: Checkup attendance Checkup the old lesson New lesson Teacher's and students’ The main contents activities Activity Warm- up Goal: Help Ss to pay at tention in the lesson T lets Ss watch a video about Questions traditional song and answer the What tradition you think it is? question Ss watch and answer Share their ideas with a partner T introduces the listening Activity Pr esentation Goal: Ss can listen to get specific informati on about a traditional dance of an ethnic group in Viet nam T introduces the new words Ss *New words take notes Spiritual: thuộc tinh thần, tôn giáo Private: riêng tư cá nhân Reunion: sum họp Conical hat: có dạng hình nón T asks the Ss to listen to the tape Reflect: hành động phản xạ tự nhiên twice Listen and complete the sentences Ss listen * Keys 13 T asks the Ss to listen and happy and wealthy complete the table private gatherings Ss it 30 T asks them to compare their the circle dance answers with their friends social Ss it fire T asks some to read the answers music Some Ss read culture and lifestyle T checks and corrects T asks the Ss to task 3 Listen to the passage and tick(v) true Ss it or false T asks them to compare their answers in groups * Keys Ss it –T ;2–F ;3–F ; T asks some Ss to read the –T ;5- T answers Some Ss read T checks and corrects Activity Practice Goal: Ss can ask and answer about the Ob on dance is a traditional Japanese dance T asks the Ss to task in pairs Make complete the sentences Example: Ss it A: What’s the tradition? T asks them to compare with B: The Obon dance is a traditional their answers Japanese dance Ss compare T asks some Ss to talk in front A: What does the dance express? B: People have the honour of their ancestors of the class A: When does people perform the Obon Some Ss read dance? T checks and corrects B: The Obon festival takes place in midAugust in many regions of Japan and in mid-July in other regions -There are many forms in different regions -The most typical form is circle dance -People make a circle around a yagura, a high wooden stage; some dancers move clockwise, and some counter-clockwise -This is one of most important tradition A lot of people come back to reunite with their families during the Obon festival 14 Activity Fur ther practice Goal: Ss can write a description of a traditi onal Japanese dance Write about the Obon dance T asks Ss to work individually Example: There is a traditional in Japanese that to write about the Obon dance Ss it people perform the Obon dance during T asks them to compare with the Obon festival The festival happens in their answers mid-August in many Ss compare regions of Japan There are many T asks some Ss to talk in front different forms of Obon dance in different of the class regions In order to perform it, people Some Ss read make a circle around a yagura, a high T checks and corrects wooden stage; some dancers move clockwise, and some counter-clockwise I really like this dance * Homework: - Rewrite the descriptions about the Obon dance - Do the exercises in workbook - Prepare for the next lesson: Looking back- Project 2.4 The effect of initiative experience for educational activities, with myself, the colleagues and the school After testing the above methods in classes 8A5 and 8A6, I found the topic really workable On the basis of the results of the 2021 - 2020 school year and the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year, I see a marked improvement in the quality of teaching * survey results at the end of the school year 2020-2021: Number of Class students Percentage of Students have good listening skill Percentage of Students don’t pay attention to practise listening 8A5 45 42 students = 93,3% students = 6,7% 8A6 47 43 students = 91,5% students = 8,5% With this result, I boldly bring this topic to discuss, share and draw experiences to contribute to improving the quality of teaching English listening skill 15 CONCLUSION AND REQUESTS 3.1 Conclusion Listening is one of four key skills in order to develop thinking language ability for students in the process of teaching and learning English This is a difficult skill and very boring for students Therefore, to have an effective method of teaching listening which inspires students and promotes their diligence in listening lessons, teachers should always research, study new methods and have a flexible and creative process of employing new methods as well as the skills and techniques in order to accumulate experiences for themselves During the renovation process in general teaching methods, teaching English in particular, there are many methods, skills and techniques of subject teaching was introduced to help the quality of teaching is increasingly high Through teaching, accessing new teaching methods with many skills, tricks , I myself have concluded the English teaching listening skills in secondary school to help me take the time to teach effectively high We can see, with new methods available today, there are many ways to conduct a listening leson, but the method I described in this writing, in my opinion it not only meets the requirements of a listening lesson but is also simple to apply Above is a small share of myself to my colleagues I sincerely hope you read it, references and comments so that I get the better method 3.2 Requests 3.2.1 For students: - The learning attitude should be positive - Be skillful and fluent to creatively apply the learned knowledge to life 3.2.2 For teachers: - Need to learn age psychology to have methods of educating students - Choosing the method of education in class and demonstrated in many different ways - Need to explore and create practical teaching aids 16 Confirmation of the head of Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa, April 5th, 2022 I certify that this is my initiatives and experiences Trần Thanh Sơn CONFIRMATION OF THE HEAD OF THANH HOA CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING REFERENCES A training course for teachers – Adrian Doff ( Cambridge University Press) A Practical English Grammar – A J Thomson – A V Martinet ( Oxford University Press) English Book – Education Publish House English Book – Education Publish House 17 18 ... "improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City 1.2 The purpose of research To improving the efficiency of teaching English. .. listening skill for grade at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City 1.3 Study subjects Method of teaching English listening skill to improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill. .. much English as possible through cassettes Therefore, in the process of teaching English, I often use the tapes so that the students can hear the voice of indigenous people and ensure that they