Some methods of teaching how to communicate in learning English effectively at Nga Nhan primary school 1 A INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THEMES As you know, English is an international language[.]
A INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THEMES: As you know, English is an international language It is spoken in many corners all over the world It is not only the first language of many countries but also the compulsary subject in the schools in all countries in the world So, it is becoming more and more important in modern life In Viet Nam, English is more popular nowaday and a lot of VietNamese people know how English is important Therefore, English became an important subjects It contributes to the overall development of students, moreover it also contributes to the integration of economy, society, culture, education Today, the purpose of education trains people a comprehensive way so the renewal of the content of teaching methods is indispensable Specially, the media has developed fast It created many opportunities for people with learning opportunities and learning facilities Nowadays, adults want to talk to foreigners fluently Young children also want to communicate in English with international friends Therefore, the education and training sector has made a comprehensive renovation of the curriculum and teaching methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning As for me, being an English teacher at a primary school, I not only take pride in my job but also assume responsibility for students’ improvement in learning English I wonder what teaching method is best for today’s students and how classroom diversity influences teacher In my opinion, The purpose of learning English is to communicate it with the speakers Speaking is the most difficult skill of all, especially for students living in the countryside or in the remote region, such as our school At Nga Nhan Primary School, we have been applying the English program according to the book of the Ministry of Education and Training, published under the program of periods per week Through the years of teaching English in elementary school, I found that the English communication skills of the students are still limited To overcome this situation, I have researched some measures to improve the speaking skill of primary students The primary environment is the fundamental place forming habits and communication capacities Frequent communication results in braveries for students without fears of making mistakes in public speaking As for students lacking proficiency in the mother tongue language, they had a lot of difficulties in getting access to a foreign language Their timidity makes oral communication limited greatly This is why I chose the theme of experience initiative: “Some methods of teaching how to communicate in learning English effectively at Nga Nhan primary school” to record the results in our school I hope I will get more and more my colleague’sideas which I can complete my knowledge and my subject It can help my students improve the communication SangKienKinhNghiem.net II RESEARCH PURPOSES: I am an English Teacher in a primary school, I constantly research, actively, actively innovate teaching methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning I wrote this topic to share my small experience with my colleagues to help students improve the knowledge and quality of English in communication - Find out the current status of teaching speaking skills - Building the basis of teaching English and the methods help students communicate - Evaluate empirical results and draw up useful pedagogical lessons III.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF RESEARCH: As a result of the fact teaching and learning English at Nga Nhan primary school, I only study my topic at Nga Nhan primary school IV RESEARCH METHODS: In order to implement my measures effectively, I have combined the following measures: - Research method: To get information effectively about teaching methods, I used books and materials especially through regular training courses of the Ministry of Education and Training, Department Provincial Education and Training organizations - Observation method: direct teaching hours in classes are assigned, combined with other classes not directly taught through the class time and class visits - Conversation method: Direct communication with students in class, outside class to find information - Product research methodology: Through the test and the results at the end of the semester and the double work process - student groups in classroom activities B CONTENT I IN THEORY: English is an international language It is very important in modern life now However, English is not compulsory in primary schools but it helps students communicate and get the knowledge about economy, society, culture, in the world, especially in the field of education It requires English teachers to equip the modern teaching methods Learning English will not only help students master the theory but also help students practice communicing For years, the teaching method for children has been similar to one for adults apart from supplementing some songs and games into lectures It’s clear that the receptive process of our mother tongue language and the next process in the school period are natural Language capacity is generated by imitating, unconscious learning through different forms such as communicating with relatives, reading stories, connecting with communicating, singing, reading poems, painting, etc The difference of children’s receptive process in SangKienKinhNghiem.net comparison with adults is that adults’ receptiveness is conscious and annalistic but children’s one is natural via intuition There are two kinds of material languages which almost every learner needs develop: Receptive language and productive language Receptive language is the language factor possibly realized and not produced by learners Productive language is the language factor possibly used in speaking or writing Students will become familiar with realizing new factors through situations if those are repeated many times To practice using the receptive language, students have to learn how to reflex with new words naturally In curriculums, grammars are sentences or questions and answers practiced more than once It is essential that samples are given clearly and fully for students to understand what they have to in some class activities II IN REALITY: As you know, learning and teaching English in Viet Nam are very difficult especially learning and teaching English in primary schools According to the regulation of Ministry of Education and Training, there are only two lessons per week that not have enough time for students to develop communication skills well Several qualified schools could have more lessons, four lessons per week Hence, the period for students to get access to English is obviously short in comparison with the total communicating hours every week Moreover, English environment is restricted in classroom hours and students use Vietnamese when lessons end Children don’t actually need to use English except for the requirement of studying and examination All the requirements using English are practical and there isn’t other natural English environment for children Moreover, English is a optional subject in primary schools English subject isn’t also used to select the result of the students in primary schools so some students not pay much attention to English Their vocabulary is not rich They are difficult to communicate Children are so unable to concentrate on what teachers are delivering in a long period Consequently, they should be engaged in different activities, to perform various tasks by themselves with exercise types always changed and diversified communication situations Children often obtain and imitate knowledge quickly and also forget what have learned quickly They are naturally curious, dynamic and creative Children always demand to discover outside environment and interact with others It cannot be denied that they are interested and creative in games Because of the above reasons that led to the quality of education is not high Through the survey on the quality of pupils at grade 3, and at Nga Nhan Primary School in the beginning of school year 2015-2016 achieved as follows: SangKienKinhNghiem.net Total No of Excellent Quite good Medium Bad students No % No % No % No % 39 (grade 3) 21 23 18 46 10 50 (grade 4) 12 24 15 30 20 40 57 (grade 5) 13 23 16 28 25 44 With the result above, from early school year, I always try to find the best methods to design interesting lectures inspiring students so that they could turn what they have learned into productive language via oral communication, integrate with the developing tendency of foreign language subject: learning a foreign language is learn how to communicate but not focusing on grammar as in the past III SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM: Solution 1: Improving the students’ awareness about learning how to communicate in English Propaganda is the first method chosen to raise awareness for students As you know, some primary students don’t pay more attention to learn and communicate English because it is only a optional subject in primary schools It is also a difficult subject at school Therefore I always persuade my students about the importance of communicating English If the students speak English well, they can communicate English with the speakers, they can travel over the world, they can be easy to make friends with the foreigners, they can chat with the foreigners on facebook or zalo, they can be easy to find a good job with the high salary in the foreign company in the future, they can read books, newspapers, stories or watch films in English Thank to my persuasion, my students can understand why they should communicate in English When they understand the important role of speaking, they will be hard-working to take part in communicating English effectively Solution 2: Teachers should communicate in English much more than Vietnamese in the classroom language: To help students speak English well, Teacher should encourage students to use English as much as possible Classes should provide opportunities for students to communicate in a variety of forms: T- Whole class, TS, S-S The teacher is the person who guides the children to make simple situations and subject-based conversations Beginning of lesson: *Good morning How are you? *Did you have a nice weekend? *Have you done your homework? *Let’s play a game now, shall we? *Are you ready? Ask for repetition: *Would you mind repeating…? *Could you say it again? SangKienKinhNghiem.net *Pardon? Asking for clarification: *What is it? Please tell me again *What you mean? *Could you explain more about ? Ask for ideas/opinions *What you think about that…(name)? *Do you have any ideas/opinions? *How about you? Checking: *Is that clear? *Okay so far? *Have you got it / that? During English lessons, Teacher should speak English much more than Vietnamese and use a mixture of the two languages English Vietnamese Both Introducing the lesson Checking attendance Organizing Classroom control / discipline Giving praise Presenting new language Introducing a new text Asking questions on the text Correcting errors Setting homework Solution 3: Improving communication through using pictures Nowadays, modern teaching methodology encourages the use of as many media, especially pictures as possible in classroom At the same time, the innovation in English teaching at general education level demands that the schools should provide students with a good communicative skill in English However, nowadays teaching English speaking at many Lower primary school as well as the using of pictures in English speaking classrooms to motivate learners haven’t been paid due attention to Therefore, this article aims at researching the use of pictures in English speaking classes at lower primary schools and put forward some practical suggestions to improve the quality of English speaking teaching and learning I usually use the pictures to help my students practice communicating in all of the lessons My students are very practical when I use the pictures, my students can be easy to talk and understand English –Unit 17 –Lesson 2( Point and say and Let’s talk ) To practise the structure: How many … you have ? - I have …… I ask my students to look the picture ask and answer about quantity SangKienKinhNghiem.net Example: picture a picture b S1: How many dogs you have ? S1: How many goldfish you have ? S2: I have two dogs S2: I have three goldfish English –Unit 16 –Lesson 2( Point and say ) To practise the structure: Why you want to go to the …?- Because… I ask my students to look the picture ask and give reasons for going somewhere Example: picture a S1: Why you want to go to the zoo? S2: Because I want to see the animals English –Unit 16 –Lesson 1( Point and say ) To practise the structure: Excuse me, Where’s the….? – It’s … I ask students to look the picture to ask and give directions SangKienKinhNghiem.net Example: picture a S1: Excuse me, Where’s the bus stop? S2: It’s next to the stadium English –Unit 16 –Lesson 1( Let’s talk ) To revise the structure: Excuse me, Where’s the….? Ask students look the picture, ask and answer questions about directions Example you are in the bus S1:Where’s the park? S2: Turn right It’s opposite the stadium S1: Where’s the stadium? S2: Turn right It’s on the corner of the street It’s opposite the park I always try to use the pictures to teach my students how to communicate in the part “pre and post” for reading, listening and writing skills This helps my students speak English everywhere and everytime Example: English –Unit 14 –Lesson 3( Read and write) - Pre-reading and writing: Ask students to look at this picture to answer my questions SangKienKinhNghiem.net Teacher: What room is it? Ss: It is a dining room T: How many tables are there? Ss: There is a table T: How many chairs are there? Ss: There are six chairs …………………… - Post- reading: “Chain game”: Students work in group of to talk about their dining room Examples: S1:This is a dining room It is not very big but nice There is a TV S2: This is a dining room It is not very big but nice There is a TV, a cupboard under the TV S3: This is a dining room It is not very big but nice There is a TV, a cupboard under the TV and many pictures on the wall Example: English –Unit 17 –Lesson 1(3.Listen and tick) - Pre-listening: Ask Ss to discuss in pairs to talk about the colour and guess the price of these clothes Students talk: The jacket is yellow It is 60,000 dong The T- shirt is red It is 75,000 dong The jumper is blue It is 60,000 dong SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Post -listening: Ask Ss to work in pairs to ask and answer the price of these clothes S1: How much is the yellow jacket? S2: It is 60,000 dong S1: How much is the red T- shirt ? S2: It is 75,000 dong S1: How much is the blue jumper ? S2: It is 60,000 dong To sum up, my students are primary students so they can’t think of complexly The pictures are easy for them to imagine They will be confident to communicate Solution 4: Improving communication through work in pairs and groups With this method, it is necessary for students to develop their ability to learn in a positive, active and creative way They have to show themselves, find out, find out and conquer the self And in my opinion, through group work in some activities, when students have learned how to work in groups, they have the conditions to cooperate, learn from each other and take responsibility Responsible for special group members who self-dominate knowledge if the teacher organizes and guides well Team teaching is an active method in which, the number of students is divided into groups in certain ways In each group, students have chances to boost listening and speaking skill and learn from one another They will be more confident in communicating in a foreign language Example: English –Unit 16 –Lesson 1(Point and say) + Teachers ask students to work in group in part “Point and say” to suggest some places to go and say why Then, a pair of representatives in each group go to the board, point to the picture, suggest + Each group understands what they have to is applying a sentence structure: “Let’s go to the ………….I want to ……… ” to practice suggesting some places to go and say why - Under the assignment of group leaders, each member in the groups have to understand what he/she has to perform and actively participate in group activities at the same time + According to the request of the above practicing exercise, a class is divided into some certain groups (6 students per group) and is organized as following: + The group leader assigns as: - Pair 1: suggest some places to go and say why in picture A: bakery/buy some bread - Pair 2: suggest some places to go and say why in picture B: pharmacy/buy some medicine - Pair 3: suggest some places to go and say why in picture C: pharmacy/buy some medicine SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Pair 4: suggest some places to go and say why in picture D: sweet shop/buy some chocolate + The group leader asks Pair to practice and the rest of groups to listen Then, take turn to group 2, 3, Therefore, every member could listen and practice the whole lesson If any member in one group is confused and unable to practice fluently, he/she will be supported by the group leaders and other members in the group Teacher should divide the class into groups with students’ relatively equal learning capacity In each team, communication skill of members has to cover all of levels: good, quite good, medium and weak Appointing students with very good English capacity to different groups for controlling the practicing process Teachers should care for, encourage students with weak learning capacity and give complements, reward ones with good performance Work in the group in class 3a at Nga Nhan primary school Solution 5: Improving communication through activities Nowadays, many students have a lot of good vocabularies and grammar but they can not speak English very well Teacher should spend many times for students communicating So I used lots of activities to help them listen and speak 1.Mapped Dialogue Example: English Unit 15 Lesson (Let’s talk) To revise how ask and answer questions about their future jobs I use this Mapped Dialogue You your friend What- like- be- future? Why – a writer? A writer Because- write stories Would- a writer No- a pilot Because- fly a plane Why – a pilot? 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net I ask my students to look the mapped dialogue ask and answer questions about their future jobs Example dialogue You: What would you like to be in the future ? Your friend: I’d like to be a writer You: Why would you like to be a writer? Your friend: Because I’d like to write stories for children Would you like to be a writer? You: No I’d like to be a pilot Your friend: A pilot? Why? You: Because I’d like to fly a plane Survey * Survey: English –Unit 14 –Lesson ( Let’s talk) To revise how ask and answer questions about the quantity I use the survey table fans mirrors doors windows I ask my students to ask and answer about the quantity Example exchanges S1: How many fans are there? S2: There are two *Survey: English –Unit 11 –Lesson (Let’s talk ) To revise how ask and answer questions about the time of the daily activities/routines I use the survey table Name get up have breakfast Have dinner Go to bed Mai 6.00 6.30 7.30 9.00 I ask my students to ask and answer about the time of the daily activities/routines S1: What time you get up ? S2: I get up at 6.00 Visuals English –Unit –Lesson 1( Point and say) To introduce about the school things I prepare some school things I call some students to go to the board pick up them and introduce * Students pick up a pencil, a pencil case, a school bag and introduce: This is my pencil This is my pencil case This is my school bag …… Noughts and Crosses : English Unit 12 Lesson (Let’s talk) To practice two structures:- Where does a……work? - A……works… - What does your …….do? - She’s/he’s…… 11 SangKienKinhNghiem.net I use “Noughts and Crosses” 1,Doctor/ in a hospital 2,Farmer/ in a field 3,Worker/ in a factory 4,Clerk/ in an office 5,Father/ farmer 6,Mother/ nurse 7, Friend/ pupil 8,Brother/factory worker 9,Sister/ student Where does a doctor work? - A doctor works in a hospital Where does a farmer work? - A farmer works / in a field ……………………………………………………………… What does your sister do? - She’s a student Brainstorming T gets Ss to think about their after shool activities T gets them to go to the board and write down the activities they think play soccer listen to music read after school activities Possible answers: Tidy room, read comics, watch TV, go to the circus Go to the movies theatre, go to the zoo, go shopping Play video games, go to the cafeteria Solution 6: Improving communication through games Besides teaching methods that promote the activeness and creativity of today, I it regularly and effectively I often apply some learning games during lessons to reduce cramming and to make the lesson more interesting, to help students active Learning games are a special kind of game, not only help the students to entertain, but also to help them acquire knowledge through the game or reinforce what they have learned A new teaching method could create an amount of inspiration and creativities for teachers Each teacher has his own unique creativities during teaching process If teachers repeat the same method in every lesson, students will get bored and even feel that lessons come as normally without inspiration and expectation Games are also considered to be an important entertainment form In fact, they could be used to consolidate material languages as shown above by the method attracting students In all every form, games could perform functions of exercises of practicing skills because we can review and introduce material languages in funny and wellorganized ways through games The method of skill practicing section often goes with repeating with teacher-centered The method takes effects when students learn new words and sentence structures On the contrary, games are often open-ended and student-centered There are various types of games Several ones focus on vocabularies or sentence structures And there are games promoting both vocabularies and sentence structure Here are several games that I usually apply into my lecture in my class: 12 SangKienKinhNghiem.net + Guessing Game - Class is divided into two teams Small learning tools (pencil, eraser, pen, ruler, and book) are put in a bag or put on the table and cover them tightly) Call a student from team A, ask him or her to thrust in the bag and take a thing (hand still in the bag) and question “is this a (pencil)?” One student in team B touches that thing, guesses without sight and answers Yes it is or No, it isn’t It is a (book) The team has correct answer will be added point The game will be end when all students are taken their turn + Whisper Class is classified into groups, each group sit vertically Teacher give students who sit in the beginning of ranks a word or sentence (S1) S1 whispers that word for the next student (S2) The activity is carried on until the last person of a rank takes his/her turn When receiving the word or the sentence, student stands up and speaks loudly then quickly runs to the board and writes in on Which team completes first will be the winner Play game “Whisper” in class 3a at Nga Nhan primary school Through the way organized the games, I feel my students exciting, confident while they play and their English-speaking ability has improved significantly This is said that we know how to change the content, form of teaching English, the quality of the course will be achieved than I expected + Lucky number Students select the 1-9 number you like If you choose the lucky number, you not have to answer the question but get points (2 points for one) If not the lucky box then the team must answer correctly to score points If the team chooses not to answer, the chances of scoring for the opposing team (If both teams not have the right answer, the chance will be for the audience) The winner is the team with more points (If two teams score points, the winner will be the more lucky) The sequence numbers of the crossword correspond to the question the teacher has prepared according to the content of the unit 13 SangKienKinhNghiem.net English Unit 10 Lesson (Let’s talk) To revise two structures: “What you at break time?- I… ” and “Do you like…….?- yes, I do/ No, I don’t” I hold my students to play game: “Lucky number” for them to ask and answer in the pairs 1.Look at the picture to answer the question: What you at break time? Look at the picture ask and answer the question: Do you like…….? Look at the picture to answer the question: What you at break time? 14 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Look at the picture to answer the question: What you at break time? Look at the picture ask and answer the question: Do you like…….? Look at the picture ask and answer the question: Do you like…….? 15 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Example: S1: What you at break time? S2: I play hide and seek Lucky number…… When I applied the "Lucky number" game during this period, I found the students to be very active, including the weak, shy students After the game students are very excited and they can remember how to ask and answer about the fun activities during the play Solution 7: Improving communication through songs and chants As you know, The students want to learn English well, the first thing we have to for children to love it Music is the comunication that will help them get closer to this subject When they sing or read chants, They will fell more comfortable They are easy to remember the structures * Perform: In addition to the songs and the chants on the program, I also collected some internet games, tapes for children's ages to teach them Primary students are very active and enjoy singing, fun songs and the chants that make them interested Through this, students will study English more Teachers need to explain the meaning and content of the song so students understand, appreciate the song Since then, they are more interested in singing better Students sing groups and groups and can let them choose their own songs When teaching new songs, I integrated into the class assignments to both reduce stress and provide more songs for students In addition to help students remember structure sentence quickly, I often repainted the structure according to the songs that they have belonged like: "that is a yellow butterfly" Exxample: To revise how ask and answer questions about the weather I use this song and this chant 16 SangKienKinhNghiem.net After the students learn this song and this chant by heart My students are easy to talk about the weather Learn to sing, sing to learn Solution 8: Encouraging the students to make dictionary themselves The students want to communicate in English well, they must have good vocabularies and structures The primary students often limit about reference books, newspapers, the internet, television so I encourage the students to make dictionary themselves to consolidate and remember the learned words longer * Perform: - On the second week of the beginning of the school year, I ask each student to prepare a pocketbook to rewrite all the words which they learned Ask students to organize and write thematically (subject, matter, animals, colors, weather, etc) I instruct students to the following: devide notebooks into multiple themes so they are more convenient to use Next, divide the page into two sections The one side writes English, and the other writes meaning of Vietnamese Example: TOPIC ABOUT THE SCHOOL THINGS English Vietnamese * a ruler thước * a pen bút mực * a desk bàn học * an eraser cục tẩy To make the dictionaries more atractively, I ask my students to draw or collect images illustrating Vietnamese meaning 17 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Example: TOPIC ABOUT THE NATURE English Vietnamese * a tree * trees * a cloud * clouds 18 SangKienKinhNghiem.net * a flower * flowers Solution 9: A smiling face and never stop students talking Teachers should encourage the students to practice English A smiling face and keep saying “Well done” makes them feel more self-confident to speak If the teachers say “No, you are wrong”, students will be afraid of making a dialogue The teachers are always interrupting students while they are speaking English That’s a very big mistake The teachers have to let them speak freely and fluently Even though they made a mistake or more, the teachers should keep silent until they finish the whole sentence or the whole dialogue After that, the teachers order the other students to correct the pronunciation and the grammar We give remarks and correct finally Teachers impress students; help students raise the creativity in communication and make the relation between teacher-student and student-student in class more close and encourage increasingly joyful atmosphere in class IV EFFICIENCY OF EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE: After a practical semester, “Some methods of teaching how to communicate in learning English at a primary school” We recorded the results of the final test of the school year: 2015- 2016 as follows: Total No of students 39 (grade 3) 50 (grade 4) Excellent No % 11 28 16 32 Quite good No % 11 28 18 36 Medium No % 17 44 16 32 Bad No % 0 0 19 SangKienKinhNghiem.net 57 (grade 5) 17 30 20 35 20 35 0 *The above results show that the percentage of students scoring good, relatively high and without weaknesses However, if not for the review questions and more topics, the results will be lower However, this is the encouraging result of my students and my school * Speaking skills are also assessed throughout the student's learning period in a semester We score points to encourage good ideas, actively discuss and actively respond to Teacher's open question Although my students and I tried very hard, the quality was not as expected C CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS: CONCLUSION The project not only helps me get familiar with science investigation but also penetrate, discover and present the methods conducted in the experience initiative Thus, the quality of teaching and learning is more and more enhanced; students’ foreign language learning capacity is increasingly improved Students are more and more interested in the subject, they are looking forward to the upcoming English lessons Students who are shy, lazy, mispronunciation are significantly reduced The above proposals, which must have included shortcomings are solutions drawn by the real investigation and examination I am very welcome to receive suggestions and supporting ideas from higher entities, school Board and colleagues in order that my solutions are more efficient In conclusion, I hope that students love studying English more and more If they want to speak English fluently and communicate well, they also have to improve their knowleage of other fields such as science, history, liturature and social knowleage They should explore the differences between Western and Eastern culture and customs SUGGESTIONS In order to enhance English communication capacity in school, I would like to make proposals as follow: - It is necessary for higher entities, bodies to help teachers stand the chance of being trained in terms of teaching primary school course of English Therefore, teachers can be further provided with knowledge and learn from colleagues in order for improving profession skill - It is needed for entities, school board and parents to develop learning facilities such as computers, projectors, photocopy machines, scanners, cameras so as to help student enhance English communication capacity - Evaluation and merit is needed strengthening, and teaching creativity is necessary to be encouraged in each lesson I am looking forwards to receiving a respond to my experience initiative from an expert opinion Thank you very much indeed 20 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... to understand what they have to in some class activities II IN REALITY: As you know, learning and teaching English in Viet Nam are very difficult especially learning and teaching English in primary. .. method: To get information effectively about teaching methods, I used books and materials especially through regular training courses of the Ministry of Education and Training, Department Provincial... generated by imitating, unconscious learning through different forms such as communicating with relatives, reading stories, connecting with communicating, singing, reading poems, painting, etc The