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Some ways to enhance ha van mao high school''''s 10 th form students'''' activeness in leaning english 0 THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE SOME WAYS[.]
THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE SOME WAYS TO ENHANCE HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL'S 10 TH FORM STUDENTS' ACTIVENESS IN LEANING ENGLISH Researcher: Vu Phuong Mai Occupation : Teacher Organization : Ha Van Mao High School THANH HOA, 2016 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English CONTENTS PAGE PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reasons for choosing the research 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Scope, object and researching methods PART II CONTENT Chapter Theoretical background 1.1 Active Learning 1.2 Promoting student's activeness in learning activities Chapter Practical background 2.1 Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English 2.2 The learning activities developed in the English 10th textbook 2.3 Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language Learning Chapter Solutions to the problems 11 3.1 Textbook Renovation 11 3.2 Making Writing Activities much more Meaningful and Interesting 14 3.3 Improving the Teacher's Classroom Management 15 3.4 Other Suggestions 17 Chapter Effectiveness of the teaching experience 18 PART III CONCLUSION 18 REFERENCES 20 SangKienKinhNghiem.net PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English nowadays has become more and more popular and has been widely used in Viet Nam It is one of the major subjects in many schools and an indispensable means of communication at present With such a trend of development, learning English is, therefore, more important than ever before All learning is active in a certain sense, but some kinds of learning are more active than others Here, active learning is defined in one sense to mean that the learner uses opportunities to decide about aspects of the learning process The stimulation of learning activities and regulation processes, or teaching students how to learn, is likely to lead to the best performance in the long run It is of great importance that we should take students' English language learning into consideration However, at Ha Van Mao High school, many students are not fully interested in learning English in class On the one hand, they seem to be shy and fearful of making mistakes On the other hand, we lack a language environment and sufficient learning activities In that reality, there have many problems catching pedagogues' attention, i.e, how to organize learning activities effectively, how to develop interesting study atmosphere in the classroom in order to enhance students' activeness in English language learning Being aware of this urgent problem, I have a great desire to study the current activeness of students especially the 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school and to investigate the learning activities in the English textbook which contribute an important role in enhancing students' activeness in learning English That is the reason why I choose the topic "Some ways to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English" for my experience initiative I wish friends and colleagues would refer to additional comments SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims at studying on how to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English through some learning activities in the English textbook This paper is intended to: - Investigate the activeness of 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school - Suggest some learning activities in the English 10 textbook for enhancing students' activeness in learning English 1.3 Scope, object and researching methods - Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Ha Van Mao high school - Object: This subject is concerned with ways of enhancing students' activeness in learning English - Researching methods: Reading reference books , discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, classroom observation, questionnaire and drawing out experiences SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English PART II CONTENT Chapter Theoretical background 1.1 Active Learning Like many terms used to describe teaching or learning, active learning is defined in many different ways This notion has developed over the last dozen years or so "Learning is conceived of us something a learner does, not something that is done to a learner" [Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991, P7] "Learning is an action in which students act on object and interact with others' ideas and events to construct new understanding"[Luckner and Nadle, 1997, P13] According to Meyers and Jones (1993), active learning has been defined as providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk, listen, write, read and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject There are two basic assumptions of active learning: * That learning is by nature an active endeavor * That different people learn in different ways This definition was modified by Silberman(1996): - What I hear, I forget - What I hear and see, remember a little - What I hear, see and ask questions about or discuss with someone, I begin to understand - What I teach another, I master To learn something well, it helps to hear it, see it, ask questions about it and discuss it with others Above all, students need to it by themselves, try out skills and assignments that depend on knowledge they already have or must acquire SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Silberman also states that "When learning is active, students most of the work They use their brain to study ideas, solve problems and apply what they learn Active learning is fast - faced, fun, supportive and personally engaging" In addition, in an active learning environment, students are individually encouraged to engage in the process of building their own mental models from the information they are acquiring In such an environment students become active participants who engage in a dialogue with their teacher Moreover, active learning is an approach to learning that involves the student as his/her own teacher and involves putting students in situations which force them to read, speak, listen, think and write In an active learning, knowledge is directly experienced, constructed, acted, tested or revised by the learner working together in and outside of class Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in higher - order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, evaluation of information within the context, students also are expected to things and think about what they are doing In short, in order to help learners participate in the learning process actively, the role of the teacher is of paramount importance to organize learning activities appropriately since it is a great opportunity for students to practice English effectively 1.2 Promoting student's activeness in learning activities a Climate variables: creating a motivation environment As students spend time in classroom, they get feelings about whether they are safe and welcome and whether the classroom is a desirable place to learn Classroom climate refers to "teacher and classroom characteristics that promote student's feelings of safety and security, together with a sense of success, challenge and understanding Raviv and Riesel (1990) stated that climate is important because it creates an environment that encourages both motivation and SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English achievement Students learn best in a safe and orderly environment that promotes success on meaningful task According to Brophy (1987) and Clifford (1990), in a healthy climate, students are treated as competent people They understand the requirements and learning tasks and perceive them as challenging and believe they will succeed if they make reasonable efforts b Instructional variables: Developing interest in learning activities In learning activities, interest is very important According to Krapp, Hidi and Renninger (1992) quoted by Eggen and Kauchak, the Interest like engagement, has been linked to learner attention, comprehension, elaboration and the seeking of additional information From an instructional perspective, Stipek (1996) stated that a motivated student can be viewed as " someone who is actively engaged in the learning process" But how to promote and maintain active engagement? Eggen and Kauchak suggested that teachers have to think about engagement using the concept of Interest In order to increase learners' interest, our goal is to initially capture learners' attention and then maintain their involvement in the learning activity c Teacher characteristics: Personal qualities that increase motivation According to Eggen and Kauchak (1999) teachers create learning environments, implement instruction and establish learning _ oriented or performance _ oriented classrooms Moreover, Eggen and Kauchak indicate four personal qualities including: teacher's modeling, teacher's enthusiasm, teacher's caring and teacher's expectation Hence, teachers have an important positive effect on students SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Chapter Practical background 2.1 Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English Classroom observation is carried out at classes in two school- years during my weeks of teaching time It can be easily realized from table 2.3 (appendix 3) that students now are quite active Half of the teachers (40%) agree with this According to the teachers, many students now tend to be more active in the lesson because of their awareness of the importance of learning English and its benefits With this extrinsic motivation, the students seem to learn English better Also from the table 2.3, it can be seen that among 76% of the students who show their activeness in learning English, 26% of them are highly active They always show their interest in the lesson during the learning process They pay much attention to the teacher's lesson and are enthusiastic to raise their hands to answer the teacher's questions or contribute their ideas to the lesson They also tend to work in pairs or small groups and really want to interact with other students However, there are still some students who are a little active or not active at all Those students are often passive in the classroom They rarely take part in classroom activities and prefer to work individually Moreover, these students often show their unwillingness and shyness when being asked to the tasks or answer the questions; they just what are required, listen and write down They not want to cooperate with others 2.2 The learning activities developed in the English 10th textbook * Learning activities: The learning activities in the categories: controlled activities English textbook are divided into three (lead- in, setting situation, role- play SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English demonstration, question- answer ); partly controlled activities (brainstorming, story- telling, cued narrative/ dialogue, information exchange ); free activities (role- play, game, problem- solving, simulation, discussion ) Among these activities, asking and answering questions, lead- in, language skill activities are the most frequently designed learning activities since they focus on four main language skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) and initiate interaction between teacher and students and among students as well Following these, small group discussion, cued dialogue, matching and gap- filling exercises are also designed at the high frequency, and then come to information exchange and roleplay Language games, problem- solving, interview, and story- telling are also designed, though not much because they are quite new and difficult for students to * Skill focus: Different from the old textbook, this English textbook mainly focuses on four main language skills Speaking, listening, reading, writing activities are designed in all the lessons Speaking skills are developed through some learning tasks such as discussion, interview, role- play, etc Listening tasks are designed based on theme/ topic One of the most important strategies of listening in this textbook is selective listening Students often listen to a text or dialogue, sometimes a song for relaxation Reading and writing tasks also appear frequently in the book Activities for reading are varied such as brainstorming, answering questions, discussing, etc Writing is paid much attention in this textbook This kind of activity is rather new to students Many kinds of writing activities are designed, for example writing a letter (letter of invitation, letter of requirement, etc), writing a report, an announcement, etc However, these activities seem to be difficult for students at grade 10th, thus they are not very effective SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English * Interaction patterns: Pairwork and groupwork are designed frequently in almost every lesson In this way, students have a chance to interact with each other and with teacher as well Individual work and whole- class work are also designed, though not much 2.3 Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language Learning The first and most important characteristic that students expect their teacher to show is "having an interesting and flexible method" It can not be denied that the teaching method of the teacher is extremely important Students will be motivated or demotivated depending on the teacher's ways of teaching and organizing the activities in the class If students find the method boring they will probably become demotivated But what is a good teaching method ?, what can teacher to enhance motivation and activeness in the learners? See the values from the Miller's statement, we see that an effective method consists of such four criteria: arouse students' interest, explain the tasks clearly, encourage patience and let students be themselves They are very necessary and indispensable for a good language teacher Hence, the teacher should take these criteria into consideration The second expected characteristic is that teacher cares students' learning It means that teacher should pay attention to students' needs, interests,expectations, etc and listen to their concerns so that students have a feeling of comfort and friendliness between teacher and students and their studying will be more effective What is more, students expect their teacher to have a rich source of knowledge It can be easily seen that, knowledge is very necessary for making the lesson more interesting and understandable This will create an active and productive class that makes students learn more actively Thus, teachers should build up not only specific knowledge but social knowledge as well SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Last but not least, teacher is expected to help students to become more independent This reveals that teacher plays an important role in helping students the work by themselves Some students, who are active in learning, have a consciousness of independence in order to learn better Hence, teacher should be flexible in teaching to the mobile activeness of students With regard to the teacher's management, teacher plays an important role in enhancing the students' activeness One of the most expected roles that the teacher takes over in the class is "organizer" This role seems to be widely played by most of the teachers because the success of many activities depends on a good organization and such a good class organization plays an important part in creating an active class Students cannot perform the tasks satisfactorily if the tasks are not well- organized or they not know what and how to Students need help and clear instructions from the teacher so that they can the tasks easier Thus, a good organizer is very important to increase the students' activeness Another expected role of the teacher to enhance the students' activeness is facilitator Students need teacher to help them to develop a positive self- concept and teach them how to work with themselves This means that as a facilitator, the teacher maintains a low profile in order to make the students' own achievement of a task possible Other functions like learner, counselor, prompter, manager and an assessor are also expected However, these roles seem less important than the roles mentioned above in enhancing the students' activeness However, the information from classroom observation about the teachers' activities shows that the teachers just sometimes give clear instructions or feedback to students This makes students feel confused and demotivated because they not understand the tasks clearly and they are not very satisfied if their teachers not give any feedback Moreover, although the teachers often organize pair works SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English and group works, they are not active when the activity is going They not move often As the result, some students not their task; they take time to chat and make jokes or exercises of the other subjects What is more, the teachers still talk a lot In other words, they still dominate class This does not create interest in the learners Obviously, the role of teachers is very important to students' language learning Hence, teachers should be flexible to play the roles that stimulate the interest in students and enhance the students' activeness in learning English language 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Chapter Solutions to the problems In this part, I would like to suggest some solutions that I have applied in the teaching different units in the textbook " Tieng Anh 10" at Ha Van Mao High school 3.1 Textbook renovation The English 10th textbook is applied for 10th form students in high schools This textbook is designed on the basis of a task-based syllabus for the purpose of developing students' communicative competence and language skills The communicative approach and learner- centered approach are dominant Students are supposed to play an active role in the learning process They are often put in pairs or small groups to the tasks and to practise communicative activities In addition, the textbook consists of a variety of contents of culture, history, geography, etc to aim at expanding and improving the knowledge of the high school students However, 10th form students still keep in their mind an old method of learning - teacher - dominated Furthermore, the old syllabus in previous school years mainly focuses on Grammar, vocabulary rather than on language skills and its language content is at low level What is more, some learning activities in the English textbook need much time to carry out, so a 45- minute period is not long enough for those activities to be implemented successfully Consequently, this English textbook seems to be new, difficult and "overloaded" to students at grade 10th Following are some things that need to be taken into consideration to improve the English textbook The first thing is time allocation In high schools, the learning time is not sufficient for teachers to carry out the learning activities effectively and satisfactorily It should thus be allocated appropriately for each kind of learning activities so that teachers can implement these activities more effectively 11 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Secondly, most students are fond of listening to English songs; it is recommended that more English songs should be taught in listening periods This not only creates a relaxed class but helps students learn English language through these songs as well What is more, since some learning activities in the English textbook are new and at the high level while 10th form students' knowledge of English language is insufficient; it is suggested that the learning activities in this textbook should be designed at the right level and be more varied to meet learners' need, abilities and learning styles Furthermore, the textbook should include meaningful real- life dialogues which allow students to be familiar with different situations outside the learning situation rather than mechanical ones so that students can express their ideas and their thoughts better with their personal experience and they will feel more interested in language learning The last thing to take into account is that Games which have learning value should be added and should be employed frequently to enhance students' activeness * Suggested Games; Due to the fact that Game is one of the activities which makes students learn more actively If properly organized, game helps and encourages many students to sustain their interest and provides the key feature "drill" with the opportunity to sense the working of language as living communication However, game now is used as a supplementary activity for relaxation rather than for language learning in class It is neither designed much in the textbook nor used frequently in the class It is recommended that more good and appropriate language games should be applied to the lesson and implemented more often in the class However, sometimes students may make use of games to talk nonsense, to make jokes and chaos 12 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Therefore, teachers should organize games in pairs or in whole- class rather than in groups because it is believed that pairwork is better for discipline problems And if games are organized in groups, teachers should go from group to group listening to, contributing and controlling What is more, it is necessary to use the mother tongue to explain the aims and rules of games clearly so that students can understand fully the meaningfullness of the games In addition, teachers should write key language/ instructions on the board in order that students can follow easily Here I would like to introduce some of the games that I applied from the "game show" on TV that students responded very positively Game "face to face": This game can be applied to Unit 13: part E.Language focus The purpose of this role is to review the adjectives of attitude they studied Teachers select students to play games and ask them to stand in a circle They will be the order of the draw and start playing Who does not have an answer or answered repetition will be excluded from the game The rest will eventually win amused-amusing bored-boring depressed-depressing excited-exciting disappointed-disappointing tired-tiring embarrassed-embarrassing exhausted-exhausting 13 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English The game "Who is a millionaire ?" This game may be as follows: Teachers ask questions and offer possible answers to four students selected The teacher can divide the students into two small teams and ask them to compete between the two teams Each correct answer is 10 points The team with the highest points will be the winner The game "magic hat" This game is to guess the word, either the topic of discussion Example: Unit 5: Computers Teachers for crossword to pair up, "computers" 3.2 Making writing activities much more meaningful and interesting From the findings in the discussion, we see that although writing activities are frequently designed in the English textbook, they not enhance students' activeness at all One reason is that writing activity is quite new and difficult for students at grade 10th because in the secondary school, students are hardly taught to write Besides, writing activity takes a lot of time, a 45- minute period is only enough for teachers to explain and make an outline for a writing task so students are often asked to write at home Moreover, the way of organizing a writing task of some teachers is not effective enough They often read a model, explain new vocabulary and give some structures for writing task, then ask students to write as the given model Consequently, students feel bored and embarrassed; they not know how to write a task successfully It is the teachers that should guide students to write They are as follows: - On the basis of the given task, the teacher should encourage students to work orally to give their ideas and suggestions for the task In this way, students have to think and brainstorm to contribute the ideas to the task This will stimulate the 14 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English interests in the learners However, it is not always good for shy and passive students These students not want to say and they will their private work Therefore, the teacher should put these students in pairs or in small groups to discuss with other students - After collecting the ideas for the writing task, the teacher should make an outline or a list of key expressions so that students can follow easily, then put the class in pairs or small groups for peer writing or cooperative writing - When students finish the task, the teacher should organize correction in pairs In other words, peer correction is a good way for students to transfer information and learn from each other This creates an active class because all students have to work at the same time The teacher then should give feedback so that students know at which level they are - After giving feedback, writing activity should be integrated with other activities such as role- play or discussion In this way, the writing task is more meaningful and interesting All in all, teaching writing is in large part directed to the new approach to writing Therefore, writing work needs to follow some certain techniques of notetaking, open- ended frame work in order to develop writing skills and make students to be more active 3.3 Improving the teacher's classroom management In classroom, besides active students some of them are still passive in the learning process It is the teachers' duty to evoke these students' interests, encourage their involvement in classroom activities To lessen the students' fear of making mistakes and shyness, teachers should increase students' confidence by encouraging them to contribute their ideas to the lesson Teachers may give them some cues for the answers and express satisfaction and excitement about their ideas even silly answers It is essential that 15 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English teachers should use open- ended questions as much as possible that many answers are acceptable This makes students to be more confident and less afraid of making mistakes Flexibility in method is essential to stimulate students to get fully involved in the learning process Teachers should be more active and creative to arouse interest in learners They need to explain the tasks clearly and give concise instructions for the tasks so that students can understand and know what they are going to If necessary, teachers may explain the tasks in mother tongue but try to use English as much as possible Also, they should teach the students the language necessary for the tasks While the activity is in progress, teachers should walk around the class and listen to discreetly in order to find out how the students are getting on Sometimes, teachers may join in and give advice or suggestions The attitude and behavior of the teachers have great impact on classroom atmosphere In order to create a comfortable environment, teachers should be fair, fun and understand their students Moreover, they should show sincere and friendly attitude towards the students during the learning process Teachers are expected to care students' learning They should listen to students' concerns, expectations, difficulties, etc and should be available in the class so that students will feel more motivated This also creates a close relationship between teachers and students Teachers are expected to help students become more independent in learning Teachers should give students authority to choose and decide what they are going to learn and let them be free to contribute their ideas to the lesson Teachers should not dominate the class Teachers also should spend time on giving students feedback effectively Giving feedback helps students to learn how their efforts are evaluated and at what 16 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English level they are Without feedback, students will be easy to be demotivated because they not know they are right or wrong 3.4 Other suggestions: On the basis of what are found, the following are some suggestions that the study attempts to offer It is important for teachers to use more interesting and useful topics to evoke students' interest in the lesson Teachers should adapt the learning activities in the English textbook to students' level, needs and interest Teachers should teach students strategies for effective learning Teachers should help students challenge themselves There should be much time for learning activities Students need to become active participants in the classroom Role- play should be more interesting and meaningful Role- play may be conducted in front of the entire class and should be evaluated Students should be told the situation or problem and instructed as to the various roles Lead- in should be varied and used more effectively and frequently to attract students' attention and stimulate their interest Brainstorming should be more applied in the lesson especially for reading a text Story- telling should be implemented in the class in order to maintain students' attention or arouse interest in learners 17 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning English Chapter Effectiveness of the teaching experience These suggested measures have been applied in my teaching to 10th form students at Ha Van Mao High shool and they seem to be useful to the students Most of the students become more active and creative in learning English This is shown through their high motivation and interest in learning English lessons, their active participation in activities and many students at low levels can cary out tasks by themselves RESULT: Class T Before applying the research After applying the research t Excellent- Excellent- a good l Am (school o year) Average Weak Average Weak Amou Am good % ount Amo % unt Amou % nt Amou % nt % nt % oun t 10A3 36 22.2 20 55.6 22.2 21 58.3 14 38.9 2.8 33 0 25 75.8 22.2 14 42.4 18 54.5 3.1 (2014-2015) 10A8 (2015-2016) (The data collected from Ha Van Mao High school's learning outcomes.) PART III: CONCLUSION Students' activeness in learning English has become one of the most concerned issues of methodologists and linguists Especially, in recent years, there have been many changes in learning and teaching method with the purpose of enhancing students' activeness, creativity and self- study in English language learning Learner- centered approach and communicative approach are more and more emphasized and appreciated Realizing the importance of this issue, the English textbook for 10th form students has been designed in order to meet the 18 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... studying on how to enhance Ha Van Mao High School'' s 10th form students'' activeness in learning English through some learning activities in the English textbook This paper is intended to: - Investigate... 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school - Suggest some learning activities in the English 10 textbook for enhancing students'' activeness in learning English 1.3 Scope, object and researching... stimulate the interest in students and enhance the students'' activeness in learning English language 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Some ways to enhance the 10th form students'' activeness in learning English