(SKKN 2022) Some ways to motivate students to practice speaking English

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reasons for choosing the study According to the Ethnologue.com the English language is the third largest in the world after Chinese and Spanish It is spoken in 112 countries by 328 million speakers The special phenomenon is that English is spoken all over the world and is not only restricted to one area, as is Chinese One thing that all linguists and researchers of languages are sure of is the role that English plays nowadays Anderman and Rogers point out that it has developed into a lingua franca which gives people the opportunity to communicate more easily and overcome borders That means, the language is not only mother tongue in many countries but is also present in other areas where it is either the official language or the language which is mostly taught to children, though it has no official status It is regarded as the global language Nowadays it seems almost impossible to escape the influence of the English language Especially in the field of education, English has become one of the most important and compulsory subjects at all levels of learning and teaching in Vietnam From elementary to university or even at higher level, all students find English an important subject In addition, in language learning, learners have to master all four skills, among which speaking is an essential skill for the aim of communication but it is also the skill that students face a lot of difficulties However, through many years of learning and teaching English, I have realized the fact that, in secondary school, teachers and students seem to pay more attention to grammar and reading or writing skill than to speaking skill Additionally, motivation is considered to be the key that leads to consecutive success in the learning process, especially in second language acquisition Therefore, maintaining the students’ interest during the lesson is very essential If students not have motivation, they cannot get the best result As a foreign language teacher, my greatest desire is to help students absorb the content’s lesson through the appealing and effective communication In order to this well, besides coordinating teaching methods, we must also know how to motivate students with the motto “Learning in playing, playing in learning” It raises a question for the teacher: “How to motivate students or how to some classroom, problems there will conditions the extent a communicator to be so Motivation is motivated isbe the extent drawn away from towards communicating or pushed competently in aor performed STUDENTS’ IN SPEAKING MOTIVATION ENGLISH Mas Universitas Darul Ihsan Gresik m 016; Approved: March 25, ABSTRACT 2016 need to will students see some are very of motivated, even feeling motivated or The learners who have contacted find that some with features English will extremely difficult One of the problems more complicated of second or foreign teaching and apply has the been construct to define of motivation in the concept reality, we without cannot physical see motivation; we see effort, For first speaking, it isthe important then performance given context then performe increase the students’ interest in speaking English?” In fact, at many schools in Viet Nam, the teaching of English has not really developed students’ ability, activeness and motivation This study, however, does not aim at measuring students’ motivation of learning speaking but helps increase their interests in speaking lessons in particular and their using English in daily life through some motivating ways Last but not least, teaching not only requires teachers to know how to “teach” but also how to “educate” and nurture the learners’ soul Hence, I am keen on finding out the way to increase students’ interest in practicing English Through a full, if not profound, knowledge about teaching speaking to students, I would like to know how to make the speaking activities or lessons more interesting for the students, and be a good and understanding teacher All of the above reasons and factors have inspired the author to choose the study entitled: “Some ways to motivate students in practicing speaking English” with the hope of providing teachers of English in general and teachers at Le Huu Lap secondary school in particular a better understanding about increasing students’ motivation in speaking Furthermore, the study was implemented with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skill at Le Huu Lap secondary school 1.2 The aims of study: For the reasons mentioned above, the study has been done with the aims to: • Provide an overview on the Communicative Language Teaching Approach and stages of a speaking lesson • Present some general knowledge about motivation, speaking activities and short activities • Help teachers and students be aware of some advantages of using motivating activities in the speaking lessons • Investigate the reality of teaching speaking skill at secondary schools, especially the reality of using motivating activities in the speaking lessons • Indicate the effects of motivating students in speaking lessons • Giving some suggestions and implications for the improvement of speaking skill teaching at Le Huu Lap secondary school by engaging and motivating students through activities 1.3 The subjects of study After several teaching years, I have realized that the students’ speaking difficulties cover linguistic and non linguistics problems The linguistic problems include lack of vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar knowledge, while non linguistic problems, namely inhibition, nothing to say, uneven participant, mother tounge interference, anxiety, shyness, lack of self confident and low motivation Therefore, a large number of students are afraid of speaking English and say that it is really difficult for them to think and express themselves in English To solve the problems, I have strategies such as drilling, brainstorming, role playing and giving the students motivation 3 Moreover, there is not a real language environment for them to expose, practice and using it every day In addition to this, speaking skill is not always assessed in the exam They only learn for the exam, not for the communication Some teachers also feel embarrassed in motivating their students in their lessons According to a recent survey, more than 70% of the students reported that they are worried about their speaking skill They said that they could hardly make a simple conversation in English or express what they thought even when they have interesting ideas Thus, if students not learn how to speak or not have any opportunities to speak in the classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning Because of these above situations, my theme tends to deal with how to improve the efficiency of teaching speaking skill for students in my secondary school through some personal experiences 1.4 The methods of study - My real teaching at my school - Surveys - Document research - Discussion THE CONTENT 2.1 Rationale of theory Nowadays, English plays an essential role and it is the common language in developing societies as well as economy of the world People use it in work, study, and entertainment According to statistics from December 24 th, 2013 of the General Statistics Office, there are more than 7.5 million foreign people who visited and worked in Viet Nam As a result, teaching English is not only a tendency but also a responsibility of each teacher of English Students learn English with communicative approach which has been popular, therefore, motivating students to practice speaking English is one of the most necessary parts of teaching English 2.2 The reality of the study Now I am teaching at a secondary school in my district It is said to be one of the best schools, however, most of the students said that they were not confident in speaking English Many of them have gone to English speaking clubs or classes in the English center, but the results are not as good as they expected Because students are not supplied with a suitable language environment, they can’t practice what they have learnt Another factor is that many parents not really care about their children’s English learning It is believed that students need to study well enough for their written exam They also said that learning speaking English was really necessary at university I made a survey to find out the ability of speaking English of students in class 7A, 7B, 7C According to the survey, I gained the following results: Class 7A 7B 7C Ss 41 40 39 Good SL % 12 29,3 14 35,0 10 25,6 Fair SL % 10 24,4 12 30,0 11 28,2 Medium SL % 22,0 15 23,1 Poor SL % 10 24,3 20 23,1 2.3 Solutions 2.3.1 Help students overcome their shyness and nervousness During the years of my teaching English in a secondary school, I have tried to build a language speaking environment, adopt many ways and encourage students to use English when communicating and they have made a lot of progress in speaking English Generally speaking, there are two factors that affect students' speaking English in class The first one is that they fail to find suitable words to express themselves and the other is that they are afraid of making mistakes Sometimes they make mistakes when they are speaking because they are shy and nervous Therefore, a good environment helps students to speak actively and correctly then fluently I try to ease the atmosphere and remove their nervousness, fear and anxiety with encouraging words to build a free and lighted-hearted environment Here are some ways that are recommended: Arrange the seats of students in a circle or in groups with students facing each other not in rows and lines Let students speak English sitting at their seats not standing, which helps them feel confident and comfortable At the first stage, allow students to play their tape recording they have prepared for a certain topic beforehand Let students talk in the sound lab or on telephone without seeing each other Try to divide students into pairs and groups according to different topics if you can and also you can let them prepare their "opinion", and then have a group spokesman deliver the opinion Set a day for no native language speaking Students prepare a certain number of cards and they can write down the words or expressions, which they cannot convey in English Later on we discuss those words and expressions in class Let the class have 5-10 minutes to free talk at the beginning of every class Students can talk about any interesting events, news or stories they have read, listened and watched recently Create English speaking environment out of classroom with such activities as a class barbecue, picnic and party Build an English corner at the school and let students talk freely with those who are interested in learning English 5 It is essential to build an atmosphere where students no longer feel shy, where they are eager to raise their hands to ask a question and where they will freely speak up their own opinions Teachers should remember to help students have confidence in speaking despite the fact that they are making mistakes However, feedbacks and corrections are necessary Teachers shouldn’t interrupt the flow of communication They can take notes while pairs or groups are working, then correct or ask other students to correct Teachers also need to help students have positive attitude toward their friends’ errors Students should be encouraged even if they make mistakes while speaking 2.3.2 Clear goals and instructions Students need to know exactly HOW an activity is done, otherwise they will be out of control when the activity starts If necessary, write the instructions on the board or model the activity with one of your best students so everyone can see what they need to For instance, in period 62 (Unit 8: Films - English P.17), when being asked to talk about the films which students have ever seen, I provided them some suggested ideas: + Type of film + Actors/Actress + The plot (The story) + Review (Ctitics’ opinion about the film) Besides, I also gave students some questions to ask about the film + What kind of film is it? +Who does it star? +What is it about? + What have critics said about it? With these instructions, students know how to talk about the film, prepare the information before talking in front of the class Students also need to know WHY an activity is being done Without understanding WHY, many students think an activity is not important and give up or practice half- heartedly Be sure to include goals and instructions That way helps students know what to and how to the activity 2.3.3 Pay much attention to warm –up activities Warm-up plays an important part in the success of the lesson Teachers should vary warm-up activities to attract students' attention and interest because if they feel excited about their lessons from the beginning, they will make a good contribution to it In order to give students exciting readiness for their speaking lesson, teachers can different things to arouse students’ interest by using various teaching techniques such as brainstorming, word web, chatting, etc Before a new lesson I often motivate my students by chatting with them about the topic of interest, giving them preparation tasks or quick warm-up to get them in the right mood for the new lesson Brainstorming is one of the simplest teaching techniques, but it is one of the most effective kinds of motivation because it takes a short time I can write key words on the blackboard and the class is encouraged to think of ideas, words, phrases associated with them For example, in period 60, English (Unit 7: Traffic, Lesson 6: Skills 2), to prepare for the writing activity, my students were divided into two teams The first team tried to put as many means of transport as they could around the key word “MEANS OF TRANSPORT” and the second team tried to find traffic problems with the key word “TRAFFIC PROBLEMS” When the time allowed was over, the team with more correct words was the winner After that, the class was required to write about the traffic problems of the town where they live, or in a town, or a city they know well The fact is that they were really interested in the topic “TRAFFIC PROBLEMS IN YOUR TOWN” The possible answer key for the warm-up activity For Period 36, English (Unit 5: Vietnamese food and drink, Lesson 5: Skills 1), I used the technique “word web” in order to warm up the speaking lesson This activity could help my students revise the food preparation verb they had learned and could help them get ready for the new lesson with more interest 8 The possible answer key for the warm-up activity Next, these pictures were shown so as to elicit the topic of the speaking lesson and my students could easily find out that the speaking topic was “making an omelette” 2.3.4 Reduce levels of difficulty Students already have less confidence when it comes down to a difficult topic There are too many challenging tasks, the learners feel too much pressure and tense Perhaps, they not want to be cooperative Therefore, the teachers reduce the levels slightly at the beginning, the students will feel less pressure and they will be more motivated to speak The teacher can reduce the levels of difficulty by making easy questions for students to understand it For example, when asking students talk about the topic “your home village”, the teacher should give them some suggested questions: + Where is your home village? + How far is it from your house to the city? + How you get there? +How people earn for their living? The teacher guides students the way to answer Basing on the questions, students can write about their home village on their own words, and then present in front of the class Moreover, if we teach weak students, we should ask them short and easy questions as much as possible to be sure that they also understanding what they have learnt Therefore, they are confident to talk about the topics they are asked about 2.3.5 Find relevant topics: Students will be more motivated to speak about something that they care about Tap into students’ passion by having classroom debates and discussing current topics so that students have a lot to say Has something important happened in the world this week? Then talk about it in English Is there a new song or movie that everyone is talking about? The teacher also asks students to write down a few themes that they would be interested in talking about and then build an activity based on those When students have something important to say, they find a way to say it in any language 2.3.6 Hold games in the class as often as possible Students love games Games play an important role in motivating students Games create an exciting atmosphere for all of the students to take part in I try to choose these games to have students take part in a) Twenty questions: One student has a word or some expressions in his mind Other students guess the word by asking only general questions and alternative questions The student answers them only with "yes" or "no" If the students can guess the word or the expression in less than twenty questions, they win, otherwise they lose b) Taboo word description: One student thinks of a certain word in his mind and describe it without mention some words which have something to with 10 the word For example, the word "book", you cannot mention the words: book, letter and paper Another student acts as a judge Other students listen If the student mentions those taboo words, he will lose c) Listen and guess: One student writes a word or a sentence or a job on the blackboard and the other student describes it with gestures but without mentioning the word itself Other students sit without facing the blackboard and guess the word by the student's description d) Repeat and add: First, one student says a sentence of an improvised story The next student repeats the sentence and adds another one Then next student repeats the sentences and adds one more sentence This will go on and see who will repeat without missing the sentences they have said Finally this will make a funny story The student who can say the story fully will win e) Speaking and guessing: First choose four students to come to the front or in the middle of the circle with their hands over their ears to prevent them from hearing anything and then show other students an expression or a sentence without letting the four students see it Finally the students try to tell the four students the meaning of the word or expression that they saw with gestures The student who guesses right or close right will win f) Right or wrong: First ask students to come to the front and other students ask them some alternative questions or tag questions concerning knowledge, such as, geography, history, music and arts, then the four students try to answer them The student who answers the biggest number of the questions correctly will win Teachers should invent more ways to let students practise.This will arouse their interest to speak and help them more easily to master this skill 2.4 The results in researching the reality After a period of time of conducting these solutions, to my expectation, I have gained satisfying results I've found that my students have become more confident and active in their speaking lessons Many of them said that they no longer feel their speaking lessons stressful and too difficult Most of them admitted that their speaking skill has been improved a lot day by day In fact, I usually encourage my students to feel excited and confident in their oral skill; therefore, I usually give them good grades when they their speaking tasks well or quite well and I not discourage them by giving them bad grades when they not fulfill their oral exercises Instead of that, I always give these students positive feedbacks so that they will try their best later However, my students are told that their speaking skill is always assessed during the school year and their constant progress is always positively taken into consideration I have gained the below results: 11 Class 7A 7B 7C Ss 41 40 39 Good SL % 15 36,6 18 45,0 14 35,9 Fair SL % 13 32,5 16 40,0 14 35,9 Medium SL % 15,0 5,0 12,8 Poor SL % 17,5 10,0 12,8 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: 3.1 Conclusion: Speaking is an important part of the second language learning to any learners The ability to communicate in English clearly and efficiently contributes to great success of the learner in school and to far better success later in his life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to helping students develop their speaking skill rather than leading students to pure memorization Teachers should provide students with a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place while teaching any other skill With this aim, various speaking activities can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them And remember the English proverb: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” 3.2 Recommendations: - To Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, I suggest that there should be some training courses or forums for the secondary school teachers of English each school year to share their useful teaching experience and techniques Each time, a target teaching or learning topic is given and discussed Some modeling is done so that the teachers can see the fact of teaching and how the techniques are carried out in the class As a result, they can adapt or adjust what they have learned - Teachers should take part in more professional meetings to update new trend of learning and teaching and exchange the documents, lesson plans or useful tips - Teachers have more chances to decide what to teach that is suitable for teaching conditions and their students - Technological facilities are equipped for teachers as well as students to help learning and teaching be carried out more effectively and easily - Evaluation criteria should be changed so that it fits the new learning and teaching focus - the communicative approach The evaluation should focus on the process more than the final results or marks Four skills are all assessed but speaking should be paid more attention - The class size is a big problem that affects the quality of learning and teaching in many classes The teachers cannot carry out the activities effectively if there 12 are too many students in a class.Therefore, when the students are divided into classes, the class size needs caring Above is my teaching experience in some ways to motivate students in practicing speaking English I hope that the colleagues will contribute ideas to my experience initiative so that it is more completed and useful Indeed, I know that I am not really full of experience in teaching because the number of years I have involved in this job is still far smaller than many of my colleagues Therefore, I would need useful comments and supplements from experienced teachers so that my initiative ideas would be much better Confirmation of the director Hau Loc, May 10th 2022 I assure that this innovation is written by me without any copying Written by: Nguyen Thi Nga 13 REFERENCES English: Bailey, M.K.& Savage, L (1994) New Ways to Teaching Speaking Illinois, USA Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z (1998) Motivation in Second and Foreign Language Learning Blackwell publishers Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation Harlowperson education Garder, R.c (1994) Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: the Role of Attitudes and Motivations London- Edward Arnold Richards, T & Rodgere, T (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Rixon, S (1981) How to Use Language Games in Language Teaching Macmillian Publishers Ltd Wright, D & Buck, M (1990) Activites for Language Learning Sidney Cambridge University Press Vietnamese: Hoang Van Van (Ed.) (2020) Tiếng Anh Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục Viet Nam Websites: Sachmem.vn http://ebook.com http://mrswilder.org http://www.uky.edu 14 Ý KIẾN NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ VÀ XẾP LOẠI CỦA HỘI ĐỒNG KHOA HỌC CƠ SƠ …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………… Ngày ……tháng năm 2022 Chủ tịch hội đồng (ký tên, đóng dấu) Ý KIẾN NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ VÀ XẾP LOẠI CỦA HỘI ĐỒNG KHOA HỌC CẤP TRÊN …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………….…… … Ngày ……tháng năm 2022 Chủ tịch hội đồng (ký tên, đóng dấu) ... encourage students to use English when communicating and they have made a lot of progress in speaking English Generally speaking, there are two factors that affect students' speaking English in... the students, and be a good and understanding teacher All of the above reasons and factors have inspired the author to choose the study entitled: ? ?Some ways to motivate students in practicing speaking. .. English Students learn English with communicative approach which has been popular, therefore, motivating students to practice speaking English is one of the most necessary parts of teaching English