Listening skill practice through English songs for grade 5 1 PART I INTRODUCTION 1 The reason for choosing the subject With the general growth of society, English is becoming popular for all of people[.]
PART I: INTRODUCTION The reason for choosing the subject: With the general growth of society, English is becoming popular for all of people in over the world Teaching and learning English is a problem that the Vietnam educations care about Learning to communicate a foreign language is a very complex process which involves the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading The aim of this article is to focus on teaching of two skills: listening and speaking to young learners of Viet Nam Of the four skills, listening is naturally the first skill young learners need to develop before they feel ready to speak, read and write However, listening skill is one of the most difficult language skills for students learning English In a recent survey of individuals, I noticed that: "More than 60% of my students think that listening skill is one of the biggest obstacles in learning English." In particular, many of them practiced listening in many different ways, but all failed When being asked, "How you practice listening?", most of them answered that: listen every day, listen whenever they have free time, watch movies, listen to music, listen to the news, listen to the audio clip in English books And the overall result received, "I practice listening too much but can’t improve it” Causes include both objective and subjective ones The objective reason is that: Listening skills is relatively difficult in comparison with the three remaining skills, requiring high accuracy in pronunciation (Pronunciation) and intonation (intonation) Furthermore, listening is a passive activity that listeners have received information from other people, who may have different pronunciation, intonation, and expression, which also leads to state mentality to the listener (passive character) Besides the objective reasons, we cannot fail to mention the subjective reasons such as: listening activities are much less accessible and less diverse, the pronunciation or vocabulary practice, structures should not be mastered during listening comprehension and the ways children use vocabulary are inaccurate This leads to low self-esteem, lack of interest in participating in the listening activities of underdeveloped students So, as a teacher, what we need to to help students pronounce correctly - listen vocabulary, sentences, structures exactly in the listening activities, practice listening skills well, apply to real life in a funny and entertaining way This is the reason why I have studied, applied and written the initiative: "Listening skill practice through English songs for grade 5" In this paper, I choose some English special, effective English songs, which I have applied in some lessons with the desirousness of practicing and developing students' listening skills better SangKienKinhNghiem.net Research purposes : By successfully researching the subject, the initiative will help teachers get the following experience: How to design listening exercises through English songs The steps to teach listening effectively through English songs Instruct students to train themselves to have the skills and techniques of listening through English songs Research objects : Elementary students in general and students in grade in particular Research methods: 4.1 Observation Method: self-researching, conducting class attendance of colleagues 4.2 Method of exchange and discussion: After attending the writer and other colleagues’ teaching lessons, the colleagues and the writer will carry out the subject, discuss to get the experience for the lessons 4.3 Experimental Methods: Teachers conduct experiential instruction that requires specific lessons of instruction 4.4 Method of investigation: Teacher interviews students The new points of experience initiative In this experience initiative, in addition to continuing to apply some songs to classroom lessons as I did in the previous experience initiative, I have incorporated a number of songs for the new 5th grade program and for some of the outdoor activities of the school English club PART II: THE CONTENT OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE The theoretical basis Listening skill is foundation for other skills Students should develop their listening skill when learn foreign language By listening, students are preparing to imitate the sounds when they speak In addition, listening skills can lay foundation for reading instruction by developing good listening skill, students match the sounds with corresponding symbols The teaching of listening plays an important role in every English teachers The important question that should be answered is : how I teach listening? Actually the activity of teaching listening must not rely on tape recorder A teacher`s speech will be a teaching material, somehow the teacher must have good pronunciation In addition, teacher must set the teaching and learning well (pre listening-while listening - post listening) The creative teacher should be able to have motivational and stimulation technique that found to be effective in classroom Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school SangKienKinhNghiem.net information through listening to instructors and to one another Often, however, language learners not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text Not all listening is the same; casual greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening capability than academic lectures Language learning requires intentional listening that employs strategies for identifying sounds and making meaning from them Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a message, and a receiver (the listener) Listeners often must process messages as they come, even if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead In addition, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language English in elementary school is an important step for the secondary school So they play an important role during the children’s learning process Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners In the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom The situation of problem Achieving the best results for the quality of students’ courses is not an easy thing In the process of learning English, students often encounter difficulties in the skill lessons , especially for students in grades 3, and because these are the first years for students to get acquainted with the subject, with vocabulary and structures, so their knowledge of the subject is meager Moreover, students are new to the lessons of skills, including listening I noticed that during the listening lessons, apart from students who understand the requirements and perform activities well, there are many students with basic mistakes For example, in the listening activities to connect the concepts, the equivalent sentences (Matching) sometimes they match by their emotion or airiness (without base), so the results of the exercise are not correct Or in listening activities to fill in the blanks with the appropriate words, their common mistakes are misspelling words or being confused with other words such as: “one” and “want”; “five” and “fine” SangKienKinhNghiem.net In a small number of cases, although teachers explained clearly about the requirements of the listening activities, the results still not satisfy all requirements for activities that teachers have given Thus the effectiveness of listening lessons are not high and uneven among pupils Listening is one of the four key skills, not outside communication purposes, it goes through all the parts of the lessons from grade to 5, is coordinated smoothly, inseparably with other skills In communication we speak to convey our opinions, but we also need to listen and understand the others’ opinion to see what they say or what is new It is offered to ensure the meaning and achieve the purpose of communication This is very important and is also the destination of learning listening skills in particular and of the subject in general Besides the above reasons, there are some other reasons that students are not interested in listening lessons They are: Some topics in the textbook are not really close to the students because the students’ knowledge of nature - society is limited Besides, the material base as well as support for the subject is poor The school does not have a standard room for English, some students also find it difficult to purchase books, especially the children who not have a dictionary, not equip themselves with listening books or tapes, discs, radio Especially, the students’ efforts are too little Their efforts to improve refresher vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation… are not regular, continuous So their listening ability is limited Having seen many objective and subjective causes of listening teaching in primary schools, I tried to collect and write some songs with short and funny rhythm which integrate into a number of questions, some words students have learned to teach them sing and listen Surprisedly, the children enjoyed singing and sing very boldly They are more open-hearted, not shy anymore, they also participate actively in listening activities Recently, students have been improved in English subject Although the results are not really high but the first step makes me excited about my work After class, one interesting thing is that I have encountered my students singing the songs that I have taught them in listening lessons Indeed, it was a success At the beginning time of the first semester in the school year 2016 – 2017, I decided to examine the quality of English subjects for both grades 5: 5A, 5E by a listening test to make foundation and goal setting for my initiatives Table 1: Quality survey RESULTS CLASS QUANTI TY WEAK STUDENT FAIR STUDENT GOOD STUDENT EXCELLE NT SangKienKinhNghiem.net quantit % y 5A quantit y % quantit y 38 13 34 % 17 45 % 5E 41 12 29 % 17 41 % TOTA L 79 25 32 % 34 43 % 14 % 16 % 20 % 18 % STUDENT quantit % y 5% 10 % 8% The implemented solutions Here are some of the songs for students of grade that I collect or selfdesigned and applied in my teaching process 3.1 The song: This is the time we everything *Used for Unit – I always get up early (English 5) This is the time I get up, six thirty, six thirty This is the time I get up, six thirty in the morning This is the time I have breakfast, at seven, at seven This is the time I have breakfast, at seven in the morning This is the time I go to school, seven thirty, seven thirty This is the time I go to school, seven thirty in the morning This is the time I have lunch, eleven, eleven This is the time I have lunch, eleven in the morning This is the time I my homework, three o’clock, three o’clock This is the time I my homework, three o’clock in the afternoon This is the time I have dinner, seven o’clock, seven o’clock This is the time I have dinner, seven o’clock in the evening This is the time I watch TV, watch TV, eight o’clock This is the time I watch TV, eight o’clock in the evening This is the time I go to bed, go to bed, ten o’clock This is the time I go to bed, ten o’clock in the evening Activity 1: Listen and tick * The objective of the activity: This activity helps students listen to understand, select and tick in the best picture After introducing some new words, teachers hang the paintings, which was prepared on the extra-board Each painting has two or three options A, B or C The teacher explains the task of the exercise, then open the tape times Teachers ask students to Listen - tick * Active Content : Listen and tick a SangKienKinhNghiem.net b c d Key: 1) 11.00 2) 3.00 3) 7.00 4) 8.00 Activity 2: Listen and answer * The objective of the activity: This activity helps students understand the song and write the answers After introducing some new words, teachers give the questions, which are prepared in extra-board Teachers explain the task of the exercise Teachers play the recorder times then ask students to listen and answer * Active Content: Listen and answer a What time you get up? b What you at o’clock? c Do you go to school at 7.30? c Do you go to bed at 10.15 p.m? *Key: a I get up at six thirty b I have breakfast at o’clock c Yes, I d No, I don’t I go to bed at 10 p.m 3.2 The song: What I want to be *Used for Unit 15 – What would you like to be in the future? (English 5) What I want to be, what I want to be When I grow up to be big me What I want to be, what I want to be Is a doctor or a mail carrier Each day I work, what fun it would be I'll always my responsibility.I'll what I so carefully When I grow up to be big me What I want to be, what I want to be When I grow up to be big me What I want to be, what I want to be Is a farmer or a firefighter? Each day I work, what fun it would be I'll always my responsibility.I'll what I so carefully SangKienKinhNghiem.net When I grow up to be big me Doctor Mail carrier Farmer Firefighter When I grow up to be big me * Active Content : Listen and tick the job you hear Key: √ √ √ √ 3.3 The song: Let’s go to the zoo *Used for Unit – What did you see at the zoo? (English 5) Let's go to the zoo And jump like the kangaroos [Kangaroo gesture.] Let's go to the zoo And jump like the kangaroos do.[Jump around the room like kangaroos.] Let's go to the zoo And swing like the monkeys [Pretend to swing from a tree Monkey gesture.] Let's go to the zoo And swing like the monkeys do.[Swing around the room like monkeys.] Let's go to the zoo And waddle like the penguins [Penguin gesture.] Let's go to the zoo And waddle like the penguins do.[Waddle around the room like penguins.] Let's go to the zoo And slither like the snakes [Snake gesture.] Let's go to the zoo And slither like the snakes do.[Slither around the room like snakes.] Let's go to the zoo And swim like the polar bears [Polar bear gesture.] Let's go to the zoo And swim like the polar bears do.[Swim around the room like polar bears.] Let's go to the zoo And dance like the animals [Do a silly dance!] Let's go to the zoo And dance like the animals ♫ * Active Content: Listen and write the animals you hear Then read aloud and actions: Keys: elephants penguins kangaroos snakes monkeys polar bears The song: What’s the matter? *Used for Unit 11– What’s the matter with you? (English 5) SangKienKinhNghiem.net (What’s the matter?)3 – I am sick What’s the matter? Are you OK? –I am sick today Oh, no (What’s the matter?)3 - I am sad What’s the matter? Are you OK? –I am sad today Oh, no (What’s the matter?)3 - I am tired What’s the matter? Are you OK? –I am tired today Oh, no (What’s the matter?)3 - I am hot What’s the matter? Are you OK? –I am hot today Oh, no (What’s the matter?)3 - I am cold What’s the matter? Are you OK? –I am cold today Oh, no Activity: Listen and write Listen and write: * The objective of the activity: This activity helps students listen - to understand and write in the blank to complete the sentence and help them reinforce the pronunciation of words through listening to their sounds After the introduction of the new words, the teacher gives the extra-board, which contains the content of the song with the blanks and some pictures Teacher asks students to skim the contents to predict vocabulary Teacher opens the tape - Students listen to the song and write * Active Content: Students listen to the song and write 1, What’s the matter? –I am ………… today 2, What’s the matter? –I am ………… today 3, What’s the matter? –I am ………… today 4, What’s the matter? –I am ………… today 5, What’s the matter? –I am ………… today Key: sick 2.sad Tired hot cold 3.5 The song: Wake up! (Daily routines song) *Used for Unit – I always get up early How about you? (English 5) I wake up, I wake up, I wake up, I wake up, I wash my face, I wash my face, I wash my face, I wash my face This is what I do, when I wake up in the morning Yeah This is what I do, when I wake up Yeah I brush my teeth I brush my teeth I brush my teeth I brush my teeth I comb my hair I comb my hair I comb my hair I comb my hair This is what I do, when I wake up in the morning Yeah SangKienKinhNghiem.net This is what I do, when I wake up Yeah I eat breakfast I eat breakfast I eat breakfast I eat breakfast I go to school I go to school I go to school I go to school This is what I do, when I wake up in the morning Yeah This is what I do, when I wake up Yeah I wake up, I wake up I wash my face, I wash my face I brush my teeth I brush my teeth I comb my hair I comb my hair I eat breakfast I eat breakfast I go to school I go to school (Alright)10 Activity: Listen and match half of sentence in column A with suitable one in column B * The objective of the activity: By activities, teachers add vocabulary for students More importantly, teachers help them to pronounce, understand and connect corresponding phrases (clauses) to make up right sentences * Active mode: + The teacher writes the parts of sentences in two columns on the extra-board, explains the request + Students and perform the task + Students read and sing in chorus * Active Content: Listen and match half of sentence in column A with column B A B I wake a my face I comb b up I wash c my hair I eat d to school I go e breakfast * Key: 1- b 3-a 2-c 4–e 5.d While introducing a number of new words or phrases, teachers not need to insist on presenting form of the verb as for students in grade The important thing in Listening - Matching activity is that students can listen to the pronunciation of words and phrases to match the equivalent clauses 3.6 The song: Making comparisons *Used for Unit 20 – Which is more exciting, life in the city or life in the countryside? (English 5) (Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower)2 Which one is faster? A cheetah or a snail? snail SangKienKinhNghiem.net Which one is taller? Louise or the Eiffel Tower? Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower Which one is bigger? The USA or Thailand? Which river is longer? The Missisippi or the Nile? Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower Which one is hotter? Singapore or Norway? Which one is colder? Moscow or Bombay? (Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower)2 Activity: Listen and the gap – filling * The objective of the activity: This activity helps students listen - understand and fill in the blanks and helps them reinforce the pronunciation of words by listening to their sounds to practise listening skill After the introduction of the new words, the teacher hang the extra-board, which contains the song with blanks, ask students to skim the contents of the song to have initial prediction in order to complete the blanks Teachers play the tape - Students listen and fill * Active Content 1: Listen and fill in the gaps with words you hear (Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower)2 Which one is (1) _ _ _ _ _ _ ? A (2) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ or a snail? Which one is taller? Louise of the (3) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _? Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower Which one is (4) _ _ _ _ _ _? The USA or (5) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _? Which (6) _ _ _ _ _ is longer? The Missisippi or the Nile? Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower Which one is (7) _ _ _ _ _ _ _? Singapore or Norway? Which one is (8) _ _ _ _ _ _? Moscow or Bombay? (Bigger, smaller, higher, lower Shorter, taller, faster, slower)2 * Key: – faster - Thailand - cheetah - river - Eiffel Tower - shorter – bigger – colder * Active Content 2: Answer the questions: 1.Which one is faster? A cheetah or a snail? Which one is taller? Louise or the Eiffel Tower? Which one is bigger? The USA or Thailand? Which river is longer? The Missisippi or the Nile? Which one is hotter? Singapore or Norway? Which one is colder? Moscow or Bombay? *Key: A cheetah is faster than a snail 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net The Eiffel Tower is taller than Louise The USA is bigger than Thailand? The Nile is longer than Mississippi Singapore is hotter than Norway Moscow is colder than Bombay 3.7 The song: Food song *Used for Unit 17 – What would you like to eat? (English 5) Hello, friends - Hi I’m hungry - Me too How about you? Let’s go get something to eat - Good idea Let’s read the menu Hamburger, chicken sandwich, pizza, egg, onion ice cream, cup of soup, hot dog, salad, bowl of rice, broccoli cake, juice, milk, water, lemonade, fish juice (Can I take your order? )3 What would you like to eat? (I would like a hamburger )2 (I would like a chicken sandwich)2 (I would like a pizza)2 (I would like an egg)2 And I would like an onion ice cream Ewwww! Yucky (I would like a cup of soup)2 (I would like a hot dog)2 (I would like a salad)2 (I would like a bowl of rice)2 And I would like a broccoli cake Ewwww! Yucky (Can I take your order? )3 What would you like to drink? (I would like a juice )2 (I would like a milk )2 (I would like a water)2 (I would like a lemonade )2 And I would like a fish juice Ewwww! Yucky One more time! Faster Activity: Listen and tick T or F * The objective of the activity:This activity is often used for paragraphs, texts, dialogues, or songs It helps students listen - understand and tick True or False column It also helps them reinforce the pronunciation of words by listening to their sounds to practise listening skill After the introduction of the new words, the teacher hangs the extra-board, which contains the sentences of the song in the table, some are true but some are false Teacher asks students to skim the contents to have initial prediction in order to tick in the columns Teachers play the tape - Students listen and tick True or False Sentence T F I would like a chicken hamburger 11 SangKienKinhNghiem.net I would like a lemonade I would like a meat juice I would like a honey ice cream I would like a bowl of rice Key: Sentence T F I would like a chicken hamburger v I would like a lemonade V I would like a meat juice v I would like a honey ice cream v I would like a bowl of rice V 3.8 The other songs for outdoor activities: Listen - sing, and practice the alphabet, ordinal numbers, The weather, days of the week, months of the year,… * The objective of the activity: This activity helps students to reinforce the pronunciation of letters in the English alphabet, syllables and sentence intonation Besides, students also practice the numbers, names of the weekdays and learned structures Teachers both reinforce the lesson content (in 5th grade program they have learned) and create a comfortable, cheerful, lively atmosphere by the melody of the songs Teachers record the songs on the computer, show them on the projector, then sing and model their rhythm for students Teachers incorporate singing test in groups - encourage individuals, attract the students’attention, and select English songs or games for school English clubs to create playgrounds and English communication environment for students, help them understand more about the country and people of Vietnam in particular and other countries in the world in general In this article, I would like to offer some songs and outdoor activities that teachers and students in the school English club have done That is the English Festival with the topic: “Traditional Tet and festivals” The teachers and students of grade perform the song: Happy New Year The students of grade sing and dance the song: Tet in our country The students of grade with the Halloween festival The students of grade with the song: Christmas 12 SangKienKinhNghiem.net The students of grade with the Lion Dances The headmistress also takes part in the English Festivals Our teacher, Mr.Tony joins the games with young students The headmistress praises the excellent students of English club The practical test I applied the initiative: "Listening skill practice through English songs for grade 5" to teach in the class 5E in review lessons or after teaching the new words, new sentence patterns during the school year 2016 - 2017 I tracked, observed, inspected and obtained positive results During the listening lessons, students are no longer timid, afraid of making mistakes Instead, they become more confident, and active They join activities effectively They listening tasks better After a nearly year of application to practical initiatives at school, I had the following results: For excellent and good students, they not only listen and write exactly the words they hear, but can also hear the phrases, can explain to prove the chosen options, give the specific evidence, distinguish correctly the pronunciation of the words Students the test quickly and get good results They are familiar with many multiform listening activities For fair students and weak students, they master the objectives of listening activities to the exercises, reinforce pronunciation, and distinguish the difference when listening to the pronunciation of words In class 5A, I didn’t apply listening activities through English songs They have accessed to the basic activities in the textbook Even after nearly a year, students can progress, but the result is not high * Survey results after applying listening activities through English songs (class 5E) in comparison with not using this method (class 5A) are illustrated as follow: Table 2: Results RESULTS CLASS QUANTITY WEAK STUDENT FAIR STUDENT GOOD STUDENT EXCELLEN T STUDENT quantit y quantit y quantit y Quanti ty % % % 13 SangKienKinhNghiem.net % 5A 38 5E 41 TOTAL 79 10.5 % 4.9 % 7.6% 15 21.1 % 17.1 % 19% 16 18 34 42.1 % 43.9 % 43 % 26.3 % 34.1 % 30.4 % 10 14 24 With the achieved results, I will use this topic for the next school year, and hope to achieve better results PART III: GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS General conclusions English and other languages such as French, Chinese, Japanese help students form development and ultimately achieve the purpose of communication Listening is one of the important skills to help students achieve that communication purpose So teachers need to establish, train and develop good listening skills for students In my opinion, we not just apply each of the listening in textbooks, as this is not enough Listening activities are not really rich, but sometimes confined to students So in one way or another, teachers can expand the listening activities more diversely, these activities are easy to understand and implement Under the teachers’control, the students are more confident and excited about learning to promote their thinking ability and develop their listening skills in a natural way with great results To achieve this requirement, teachers must be often self creative in teaching, search reference material to synthesize knowledge, recognize the nature of skills correctly in order to have the suitable methods and the ways to give appropriate supporting activities for each skill, each student in each unit as well as the characteristics of students’knowledge of the subject so that they can receive this subject in general and skills in particular openly, funnily, and effectively With my thinking and work, this initiative may also have drawbacks I hope to receive the valuable feedbacks from my colleagues, peers in order to complete my initiative better I sincerely thank you! Recommendations English has become popular and necessary in modern life Therefore it is a very important subject for students at all levels including elementary level Thus I wish the competent leaders to pay more attention to infrastructure as well as the necessary equipment for English subject such as standard rooms, teaching aids, pictures so that the schools will have a suitable teaching condition and students will be excited to learn the subject better 14 SangKienKinhNghiem.net HEADMISTRESS’ CONFIRMATION Thanh Hoa, April 12th , 2017 I assure this is my initiative, I not copy the other’s contents Written by Le Thi Thuy Hang REFERENCES English song for children - Internet explorer Dictionary - Oxford University Press Regular refresher Documentation courses for English teachers Textbooks English - Publishing Education 15 SangKienKinhNghiem.net 16 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... listening exercises through English songs The steps to teach listening effectively through English songs Instruct students to train themselves to have the skills and techniques of listening through. .. the excellent students of English club The practical test I applied the initiative: "Listening skill practice through English songs for grade 5" to teach in the class 5E in review lessons or after... school English club PART II: THE CONTENT OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE The theoretical basis Listening skill is foundation for other skills Students should develop their listening skill when learn foreign