Applying warm Up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the 10th form students at Nhu Xuan High School 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction 2 3 1 1 Rational of the study 2 1 2 Aims of the stud[.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 2- 1.1 Rational of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 2- 1.3 Scope of the study .3 1.4 Method of the study .3 Contents 2.1 Theoretical background .3- 2.2 Some problems before applying this experience initative 5- 2.3 Some solutions to the problem 6-15 2.4 The effect of experience initative .15-16 Conclusion and proposal 3.1 Conclusion 16 3.2 Proposal .16-17 4.References 18 SangKienKinhNghiem.net INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reasons of the study English is one of the most dominating laguage of the world which is having its impact on every field of work It not only provides us an access to world scholarship and world trade but also gives the youth a chance to get a good job and join the international activities Undoubtedly, English plays a much greater role in the world that it is evitable for people to ignore it fully Nowadays, with the development of economy and relationship between nations English becomes an effective means of international communication It is used as the official language in many fields of life such as economics, politics, science, technology, sports and many others This leads to an increasing demand for English learning, especially speaking skill People need oral communication in daily life more than written words Therefore, the teaching of speaking has recently been paid more attention to learners It can’t be deniable that the ability to use verbal communication in a second language effectively contributes to the success of learners at school time as well as in their lives However, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many gigh school despite teachers’s efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills Nhu xuan high school is situated in a moutainous district where students not have many opportunities to communicate with foreign people Therefore, Their English is not good, especially English speaking skill A great number of students are afraid of learning to speak English and say that it is difficult for them to be good at this skill and there is not a real language environment for them to their practice every day Many students find it very difficult to express their ideas in English due to nervousness and lack confidence in front of the class As a result, they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and passive because students don’t want to say out their thought All the aboved mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a research titled : “ applying warm-up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the 10th form students at Nhu Xuan High School” 1.2 The aims of the sudy The major aims of the study are : - To emphasize the role of warm- up activities in teaching speaking skill - To investigate the present situation of teaching and learning speaking of the 10th form at Nhu Xuan high school - To provide some useful warm-up activities to get students in the right mood for seaking and help them feel more confident and eager to speak English in speaking lessons SangKienKinhNghiem.net - To investigate the effectiveness of using warm-up activities in teaching speaking lesson at the three classes 10 A3, 10 A4, 10 A5 of Nhu Xuan high school 1.3 The scope of the study The study focuses specifically on some warm- up activities applied in teaching speaking lessons to the 10th grade students at Nhu Xuan high school, namely, three classes 10 A3, 10 A4, 10A5 1.4 The methods of study - Studying materials : I have read some books and materials on internet about how to motiavte students to speaking effectively by using warm- up activities - Delivering survey questionaire and observing speaking lessons: To fulfill this study, I have delived some survey questionaires to students and teachers and observed some speaking classes to find out the teachers’s and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning speaking - My real teaching at three 10th form classes at my school CONTENTS 2.1 Theoretical background a Definition of speaking skill Speaking is “ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” ( Chaney, 1998, p.13 ) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today’s world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance Speaking is being capable of speech, expressing or exchanging thoughts through using language “Speaking is a productive aural/oral skill and it consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (Nunan, 2003, p.48).” (Harmer, 2001) notes down that from the communicative point of view, speaking has many different aspects including two major categories – accuracy, involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practised through controlled and guided activities; and, fluency, considered to be ‘the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously’ Bygate (1991, p.3), also emphasizes knowledge of the language, and skill in using this knowledge for an effective communication Language knowledge and skill in using it, are considered two fundamental elements of an effective communication Speaking is the most important skill, corroborates: “ of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important People who know a language are reffered to as “ speakers” of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds of SangKienKinhNghiem.net knowing, and many of not knowing, and many of not most foreign language learners are primary interested to speak” (Ur, 1996, p 120) Speaking skill is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and processing information The peaking skill involves a communication ability to use language to chat and transmit messages in different and appropriate situations It is to interact with participants and carry a message Petrie ( 1987 ) citied that : “ speaking is an activity which most of us spend a great deal of time engaged in apparently without any effort and with not very much thought” People around the world produce a lot of words without making great efforts, Brown in his turn ( 2000 )(Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997 ) defines speaking as “ an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes of speaking It is often spontaneous, open- ended and involving Being skillful in speaking means to be able to decide what to say in the situation, saying it clearly and being flexible during a conversation when a difficult situation comes out, for that reason, speaking requires that learners not only how to produce specific aspects of language such as grammar, pronunciation and vocaulary but aslo that they nderstand when, why, and what ways to produce language? Finally, speaking has its own skills, structures and conversations that the speaker should be aware(Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996) b The importance of speaking skill People express their ideas and interact with each other to give or ask for informatiom through speaking which is so much part of daily life” ( Thornburry, 2005, p.01 ) Concerning the importance of speaking skill ( Cambridge, p.07 ) claimed that “ speaking is a highly channenging yet essential skill for most learners to acquire”, in additio, ( Renandya and Richards, 2002, p.201) state that “a large percentage of the world’s language study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking” Many English foreign language students consider the mastery of speaking skill a priority Besides, they evaluate their success according to their spoken language proficiency ( Richard, 2008,p.19) For many teachers, teaching speaking is so important.( Burn and Goh, 1012, p.1-2) claim that “ teachers much effort to help their students develop their spaeking abilities For them speaking skill is important of three reasons First, all language learners should be able to communicate well with the foreign language speakers Second, many students are good at reading and writing, but thay have poor speaking and listening abilities Third, many students memorize words from dictionaries, but they could not use them to speak English or to communictae in formal situations Therefore, teaching speaking is a very important part in English language teaching and learning SangKienKinhNghiem.net c The role of warm-up activities in speaking lessons As we know, warm- up is an important part which contributes to the success of a speaking lesson Warm- up helps learners put aside their daily distractions and focus on English Warm-ups also encourage whole gropu participant which can build a sense of community within the group and warm-ups can help to arouse students’s interest in sppeaking Warming up activities can foster motivation and this is, in turn, an essential component when planning warming up activities According to Dornyei (2001), teachers need to try and actively generate positive students' attitudes toward learning He also claims that the key issue in generating interest is to widen the student's appetite; that is, to arouse the students' curiosity and attention and to create an attractive image for the class so that they will get more involved with it and a better learning process will take place The importance of having warming up activities was mentioned above, but a question remains: What is a warming up activity? Allwright (1984) considers that warm up activities are designed to attract students' attention, to help them put aside distracting thoughts, and to get them ready to focus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow They will cause people to stop whatever they are doing or thinking and refocus their attention We could say a warming up activity is a motivating starting point that will lead students to become animated to work efficiently in the language class For the purpose of our study, it was the activity used to encourage students' involvement and permeate the development of the whole lesson, so we avoided looking at them as isolated activities These kinds of activities might also be called zealous, enthusiastic or suggestive activities How we can include these activities in the process of a class will be the next focus in our discussion Warm- up is an effective way to help the students begin to think in English and to review previously introduced material Different types of warm ups help provide variety and interest in the lesson A warm up to prepare students for a period of concentration may involve physical movement with activities that keep them active by standing up, walking, jumping, matching pictures with sentences or vocabulary, drawing or writing personal experiences or stories, and singing or listening to familiar songs and chants These are, among others, enjoyable and motivating warms up 2.2 Current status of the problem before applying innitiate experience To begin with, Nhu Xuan district is considered a poor, mountainous district of Thanh Hoa province Although my school is located in the centre of district, SangKienKinhNghiem.net Students’s English is in bad quality There is not a real language environment for them to their practice every day Students don’t have many chances to communicate with native speakers Secondly, there are too many students in a class Normally, each class has about 40 students In addition, all of the classes are fixed with rows of desks This makes it difficult for teachers for teachers to oraganize communicative tasks and keep control of the class Thirdly, most of the students are not good at the language, especially their communicative competences are poor although they have been exposed to the new curriculum since they were in secondary school Normally, most of them don’t know how to talk about the topic about the topic given They can’t make up the ideas to express in English because their vocabularies, structures are still limited Many students find it very difficult to show their ideas in English due to nervousness and lack confidence in front of the class They feel shy, they are afraid of being laughed at, being lost face with their friends when they have mistakes As a result, they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and passive because students don’t want to express their thought A large number of students are afraid of learning to speak English and say that it is difficult for them to be good at this skill Moreover, their awareness of importance of being good at this skill is not really made clear because speaking skill is not usually included in their exams, so they often learn English only for their written exams, not for communication According to the survey carried out at the beginning of last school year at my school, more than 70% of the students reported that they are worried about their English speaking skill They said that they could hardly make a simple conversation in English or express what they thought Importantly, most of them assumed that speaking is very difficult for them to master Therefore, if students not learn how to speak or not get many opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom fun and dynamic 2.3 Some solutions to the problem UNIT : A day in the life of Warm-up: (4mn) : Matching - Ask sts to close their books - Deliver the handout A B SangKienKinhNghiem.net Civic education a Tin học Technology b Vật lí Maths c Sinh học Literature d Thể dục Physics e Địa lí Biology f Giáo dục cơng dân Chemistry g Văn học Physical education h Lịch sử Geography i Cơng nghệ 10 History j Tốn 11 Informatics k Hóa học - Ask them to match one item in column A with one item in column B - Ask them to work in groups in minutes, then check this exercise in chorus - Ask sts to read aloud the names of these subjects in chorus - Asks the class : when you have English lesson? - Gets the aswer from the class and lead in the new lesson: Today, we are going to talk about timetable Unit : School talks - Warm-up ( 4mn ) : Completing the dialogue - Introduce the situation and write a short dialogue on board: "Suppose that you meet a friend at the supermarket You are very busy What will you say to open and end the conversation." A: ( 1) B: Hi Lan How are you? A: I’m fine Thank you And you? B: I’m very well Thanks I haven’t seen you for a long time Let’s go somewhere for a drink A: Sorry, ( 2) - Ask sts to complete the dialogue in pairs - Ask some pairs to report - Ok, that’s a short conversation between A and B (1) & (2) are two ways to start and close a conversation Today, we will practice speaking conversation having stating and dosing sentences Unit : People’s background Warm-up (4mn): Game : Giving questions about people's background - Divides the class into four teams SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Aks students to discuss and give questions to know some information of a person’s background in two minutes + family + education + experience - The team has more correct and faster questions will win the game - Elicits the answers from four teams - Gives feedback and declares the winner Suggested answer: Family: - How many people are there in your family? - What does your father/ mother do? Education: - Where did you study at primary school/ junior secondary school? - What subject you like best? - What degree you have? Experience: - How long have you been a member of our school's speaking club? - Have you ever won any prizes? Unit 4: Special education Warm-up (4mn) Game : Network - Asks sts to work in groups and make a list of words relating to school The words must be correctly spelled and related to the topic subjects School - Ask some groups to report - The group with the longest list will be the winner - Suggested words: Subjects: English, maths, literature, Tests, breaks, homework, teacher, students, Secondary school , high school OK, today, we will go to Lesson: Speaking to talk about school life of a student SangKienKinhNghiem.net UNIT : Technology and you Warm-up( 5mn): GAME: Write down the name of some modern inventions - Show Ss the pictures of a radio/ TV / computer / electric cooker / air-conditioner / cell phone - - Divide the class into teams - Stick all the pictures and ask Ss to look at and remember within minute, then go to the board, write down the name of each picture - The team winner is the one that has more correct answers - calls on two presentative of two teams to go to the board to write the answer SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Checks and declare the winner - Leads in the new lesson : In our lesson today, we are talking about the uses of some mordern inventions and information technology UNIT 6: An excursion Warm-up (5 mn) : Answering the questions - Ask some questions: Have you ever gone on a boat trip? When? Is it interesting? Which seat you think the most suitable for you? - Gets the answer from students Suggested answer: Yes, I have Last summer Yes, it is The seat on the sundeck… - Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson by saying: “Ok, there are many nice seats Today, we study part B: Speaking to know how to choose the best seat then we go on a boat trip” UNIT 8: The story of my village Warm-up (5 mn) : completing words - Write the incomplete words on the board,ask sts to give complete words RO_DS M_DIC_L C_NT_E CR_PS SCH_OL FO_TB_LL GRO_ND - Divides the class into four groups to complete the words - The group having more correct and faster words will win the game - Calls on the presentatives of four groups to go to the board to write their words - Checks and declare the winner Answer key : ROADS MEDICAL CENTRE 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net CROPS SCHOOL FOOTBALL GROUND - Leads in : to make life in the country better, what should be done with things mentioned above ? Unit : Undersea world Warm-up: (4mn) : watching a video and answer the questions - Plays a video of some polluted rivers/ beaches , then asked sts what you can see in the video ( link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VgSMrZP9rk ) - Elicits the aswers from the students - Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson by saying : “ In our lesson today, we are going to discuss the measures to protect polluted rivers/ beaches” Unit 10 : conservation Warm-up :(5mn) - Plays a video of a new kind of zoo ( link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWYqRcLaAhM ) - Asks sts what animals they can see in the video and list some features of a zoo of the new kind - Elicits the answer from the students - Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson : “ Today we are going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of zoos of the new kind “ Unit 11 : National parks Warm –up(3 mn): - Ask sts some questions to lead in 1.Have you ever gone on an excursion? 2.where? When? How did you go there? Tell me what you prepared for that trip? Was it interesting? - Gets the answers from students and gives feedback Suggested answer 1.Yes, we have We went to SAM SON beach last summer We went there by coach We prepared food, drinks, tents, cameras … 11 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Yes, it was Unit 12 : Music Warm- up ( ms): Saying aloud the name of singer/ band - Give sts some pictures of singers/ bands and ask sts about their names Gets the aswers from students and gives feedback Asks students some question to lead in the new lesson: Do you like music ? What kind of music you like ? when you like music? Unit 13 : Film and cinema Warm up : (4mn) : Write down the kind of film for each film in the picture 12 SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Stick some pictures of some famous films on the board - Divides the class into four teams - Asks students to look at the pictures and write down kind of film for each picture in two minutes - The team having more correct and faster answer will be the winner - Calls on the leaders of four teams to go to the board to write down their answers - Checks and declares the winner - Leads in : “ In our lesson today, we are talking about the kind of film you like and find out what your partners feel about each kind of film Unit 14: The world cup Warm- up ( ms): Jumble words - Divide the class into small groups of or and introduce the games: Sts are to rearrange the letters into meaning words WERNNI SERCO RURENN– UP CHOPAMIN 13 SangKienKinhNghiem.net HOTS COUYRT - Write some groups of letters on the board - Ask sts to work in groups - Ask some goups to give answers - Gives feedback Answers: winner, score, runner-up,host country, champion - Introduces the new lesson: Today we will talk about the World Cups Unit 16 :Hisorical places Warm- up: (5 minutes) Saying the name of some historical palces in Viet Nam - sticks some pictures of some historical places in Viet Namon the board 14 SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Asks students to give the name of each historical place in each picture - Each correct answer will get marks - Gets the answers from students and gives feedback and marks Suggested answer President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum Van Mieu- Quoc Tu Giam Thong Nhat Conference Hall One pillar pagoda Hue imperial city Flag Tower of Hanoi - Leads in the new lesson : In our lesson today, we are going to talk about some historical places in Viet Nam 2.4 Effects of the study After a period of time of applying warm- up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the tenth grade students at my school, to my expectation, I have gained some satisfying results I've found that my students’ attitudes towards speaking lessons have changed Instead of being afraid of and bored with speaking skills, my students have become more confident ,active and interested 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 The result before implementing new method Total students tested: 105 Total Class students 10A3 38 10A4 35 10A5 42 9-10 marks Total 0 7-8 marks % total % 10 26.3 22.8 16.7 Under marks total % total % total 15 39,4 21,1 10 28.6 25.8 16 38.1 12 28.6 5-6 marks 4-5 marks % 13.2 22.8 16.6 The result after implementing new method Total students tested: 105 15 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Total Class students 10A3 38 10A4 35 10A5 42 7-8 marks Total % total % 7.9 15 39.4 2.85 10 28.5 4.76 12 28.6 9-10 marks Under marks total % Total % total 15 39.4 10.5 16 45.7 17.1 20 47.6 15.6 5-6 marks 4-5 marks % 2.8 5.85 3.44 It can be seen from the above tables that the application of warm- up activities in teaching speaking lesson in my real teaching has been effective.I’m so happy and satisfactory when seeing my students become interested in speaking skills, which can help students develop their communicative skills in English The atmosphere of my speaking class has been more active My students were eager to express their thoughts although they still made a lot of mistakes I believe I have made the right choice when using the new method to stimulate my students to learn English, specially speaking skill CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL 1.1 Conclusion: Speaking is an important part of 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 skills With this aim, various warm- up activities can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life These activities stimulate students to be more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them 3.2 Proposal: 3.2 Recommendations to the education and training committee division and my school: - I recommend that the education and training committee division hold more sample teaching lessons, using various useful teaching techniques in an artistic way in order to attract students’ enthusiasm in communication tasks - I suggest that the managing board of my school buy more and more materials of methodology for the teachers of the school As a result, the teachers will have a better chance to develop teaching quality 3.2 Recommendations to other teachers: - Indeed, I know that I am not really full of experience in teaching because the 16 SangKienKinhNghiem.net 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 Sincerely! CONFIRMATION OF THE HEAD MASTER Nhu Xuan, May 10th , 2018 I swear this is my initiative experience, not make the copy of the others Author Le Thi Chung 17 SangKienKinhNghiem.net REFERENCES Brown, H, Douglas, (2000) Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed) Longman: library of congress Brown, H D (2004) Language assessment principles and classroom practice Pearson education Burns, A, and, Goh,C, J (2012) Teaching speaking, Cambridge university press Bygate, M., swain, M., skeham, P (2001) Researching pedagogic tasks second language learning: teaching and testing Longman Pearson Education Fedler Richard Reaching the second tier: learning and teaching styles in college science and education, J College science teaching, 23 (5) 286-290 2003 Grammidge, M (2004) Speaking extra Cambridge university press Harmer, J, (2001) Teaching and learning in the language classroom Ailey, K.M., & Savage, L (1994) New ways in teaching speaking Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Zoltan Dornyei ( 2001 ) Motivational strategies in the language classroomCambridge language teaching library http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S165707902008000200002 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VgSMrZP9rk 10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWYqRcLaAhM ) 11 https://giaoan.violet.vn 12 Thiết kế giảng tiếng Anh 10- Nguyễn Thùy Minh- Lương Quỳnh Trang 18 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... warm- up activities in teaching speaking skill - To investigate the present situation of teaching and learning speaking of the 10th form at Nhu Xuan high school - To provide some useful warm- up. .. : “ applying warm- up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the 10th form students at Nhu Xuan High School” 1.2 The aims of the sudy The major aims of the study are : - To emphasize the. .. communictae in formal situations Therefore, teaching speaking is a very important part in English language teaching and learning SangKienKinhNghiem.net c The role of warm- up activities in speaking lessons