Some suggested listening tasks designed basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for...

Some suggested listening tasks designed basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students i TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT i 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 1 Rationale of the theme 1 1[.]

TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT……………………….……………………… INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale of the theme………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the theme…………………………………………… … 1.3 Scope of the theme………………………………………… …… 1.4 Methods of the theme…………………………………………… CONTENT ………………………………………………… 2.1 Theoretical basis……………………………………………… 2.1.1 Definition of listening……………………………………….… 2.1.2 A framework for planning a listening skills lesson………… 2.2 Practical basis…………………………………………………… 2.3 Some rules of desinging listening tasks for weak students……… 2.4 Some suggested listening tasks designed basing on English textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students………………… 2.5 Results of applying suggested listening tasks designed basing on English text book 11 to teach listening skills for weak students……… CONCLUSION ……………………… …………………………… 3.1 Conclusion…………………………………………………… … 3.2 Suggestions……………………………………………………… REFERRENCES……………………………………………………… LIST OF GRADED STUDIES……………………………………… LIST OF ABBRIVIATION…………………………………………… APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………………… i 1 1 3 3 8 10 10 10 I II III IV i SangKienKinhNghiem.net INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is common knowledge that English plays an important part in the development of Vietnam firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries Therefore, English is being taught as a compulsory subject in all classes of schools all over our country with a view to helping students use it not only as a mean of communication but also as a key to science and technology Of the four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing, listening is always considered to be the most difficult for teachers to teach and for students to improve themselves, which leads to the fact that most listeners have low level of proficiency in their listening skill In fact, in the process of teaching and learning English, listening not only provides them with a wide range of knowledge but also has great influence on other skills, especially speaking skills as While, G (1998) pointed out that “being good listener involves collaborating with speakers and taking an active role in asking for clarification when you not understand” [5] However there still exist many difficulties facing English teachers, especially in teaching listening skills for low level students who cannot finish the task required in the Textbooks Gradually these pupils will lose their motivation in learning English Eventually, it is impossible for them to catch up with the others in school All of the reasons have inspired the author to the study “Some suggested listening tasks designed basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students” with the purpose of helping many teachers to deal with teaching listening skills for these leaners 1.2 Aims of the study The study only aims at providing teachers some suggested tasks designed basing on the Textbook “English 11” that can be applied to overcome the difficulties arising during the process of teaching listening skills to low-level students in grade 11 Thus, this study is expected to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching listening skills for those who are not good at English 1.3 Objectives of the study Learning a second language as a scholar once said “is a long and complex undertaking” Therefore, teachers of a second language certainly have to apply a lot of techniques In the scope of this study, however, the author only has ambition to propose some suggested listening tasks designed basing on the material provided in the Textbook “English 11” with a view to improving the qualities of teaching listening skills for low-level students SangKienKinhNghiem.net 1.4 Methods of the study To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods were used, but the author used mainly quantity and quality methods such as: class observations, data collections, interviews, consultancy from colleagues, references from the internet, books, magazines…etc SangKienKinhNghiem.net CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical basis 2.1.1 Definition of listening There are many different viewpoints on the definition of listening: According to Underwood (1989, p.1): “Listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something you hear” [4] As a matter of fact, to succeed in listening, the duty of listeners is not only to understand of the words given, but also to find out the real meaning hidden in words Another notion of listening was given by Buck (2001, p.3): “Listening comprehension is the result of an interaction between a number of information sources, including the acoustic input, different types of linguistic knowledge, detail of the context, and general world knowledge, and so forth, and listeners use whatever information they have available, or whatever information seems relevant to help them interpret what the speaker is saying” [6] In this definition, Buck aims at highlighting the active role of the learners who act as the negotiators and integrators in the process of learning listening, in which learners activate both linguistic cues and nonlinguistic knowledge to achieve the meaning In other words, listening is the active combination of new input gained by what the listeners get and their prior knowledge and experience This view is valuable and worth considering in setting up listening syllabus in the sense in order to build communicative competence to the learners in listening lessons In conclusion, listening demands many supportive skills It is an active process in which learners have to use their prior knowledge to understand the message of the listening text 2.1.2 A framework for planning a listening skills lesson It is stated that a common way of dividing up a listening lesson is into three stages: pre-listening stage, while-listening stage and post-listening stage  Pre-listening stage: In general, it is difficult for students to have ideas of what they are going to hear if the teachers just says “listen to this” then switches on the cassette recorder or begin to read out loud Even if the sounds and words are familiar, they may still be unable to comprehend because of the lack of background knowledge of the topic, setting or the relationship between the speakers Therefore, pre-listening stage is carried out to provide them with everything necessary for listening and understanding the text such as the topic, related vocabulary and additional information This stage also helps the teachers to arouse their interest and curiosity to listen There are some techniques that teachers can apply to teach at the prelistening stage such as: - Discuss a relevant picture SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Discuss relevant experiences - Associate ideas with the topic - Predict information about the topic - Vocabulary teaching - Checking/ understanding the listening task  While-listening stage: While-listening activities are what students are asked to during the time that they are listening to the text The purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners understand the text and to develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language Teachers should not expect them to try to understand every word They had better help them understand rather than testing their understanding the whole time There are some techniques that are suggested being used in this stage: - Identifying the exact topic, or an aspect of it - Answering the questions - Deciding the statements are True/false - Choosing the best answer - Gap-filling - Completing a table, map or picture - Ordering picture, name or event  Post- listening stage: This stage is to help the learners connect what they have heard with their own ideas and experiences, just as people often in real life It also allow teachers to move easily from listening to another language skill For instance, they may practice speaking by role-playing interviews similar to one they have heard The purposes of post-listening activities are: - Checking whether the students have understood what they need to or not - Reflecting on why some members of the class have failed to understand or miss parts of the message - Giving them the opportunity to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers of the listening text - Expanding on the topic or language of the message and transferring learned things to another context - Making introduction for the planned work Some possible post-listening activities are: - Giving opinion - Relating similar experiences - Role-playing a similar interaction - Writing a brief report SangKienKinhNghiem.net - Writing a similar text - Debating the topic To sum up, in order to help students to communicate in English successfully, teachers should raise their awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement Moreover, they should assist them develop both the skill and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom Only by this way, can the teachers give their leaners the foundation for communicative competence in the new language 2.2 Practical basis Teaching listening as well as learning Listening skills is so complex and difficult that both teachers and students meet many challenges The problems deprive not only from the listening material, the teachers themselves but also from students themselves, especially weak-ability ones Generally, English Textbook 11 Published by Education Publishing House is designed for all students from pre-intermediate to advanced level in grade 11 Therefore, it is quite difficult for low-level ones to meet all the demand of all the tasks in the textbook Once they cannot the task, they will feel demotivated and easily be distracted from the lesson Some even possibly pretend to listen to the tape when it is playing In fact, they are doing something irrelevant or thinking of something outside the lesson Gradually, their decrease in the involvement in the activities will lead to bad results Sometimes the problem originates from the teachers themselves Many teachers think that if they teach in a class with many weak-ability learners, they cannot spend a lot of time teaching listening They not use all of activities they had designed when writing lesson plans because if they do, these ones will not keep up Some other teachers may be aware of the causes of the problems, however they are either too busy or not patient enough to redesign some tasks in the Textbook to teach the weak students Hence, the quality of teaching listening skills for this type of leaners still failed up to our expectation When it comes to the students, normally teaching listening to intermediate and advanced ones is difficult, and for the beginners, the case is more complex because they not gain themselves a lot of experiences with listening, plus their lack of linguistic and cultural knowledge of the language Therefore, it is not easy to understand the provided input to infer the meaning of the listening text That’s why low-level students hardly finish all the task in the textbooks To make it more clearly, I conducted an experiment in class 11A1 and 11A2 school year 2016-2017 These two classes had the same numbers of students at nearly the same level When teaching listening lesson of Unit 1, I gave them the copy of the listening tasks then asked them doing the tasks on the photocopied papers At the end of the lesson I collected their works and got the result that: SangKienKinhNghiem.net The level of finishing Class A1 Class A2 (Students) Good Average 12 14 Poor 31 26 Total 42 42 As can be seen, the number of students who could not the task accounts for more than half of the total and remarkably outnumbers the students who finished the task at average and good level Taking more details into consideration, I also found out that almost all students could not task in the textbook, while task seems to be easier to be completed All of these things are indicated in the following table: Level (students) Class A1 A2 good Task average poor good Task Total average poor 15 18 10 23 27 35 30 42 42 When interviewing them about the reasons why they could not task Many students said that they could not hear long sentences, some others shared that they were able to hear words related to the requirement but they did not know how to use them to make sentences to answer the questions The others indicated that they could not infer from what they heard to the answers However, almost all the listening lessons in the English Textbook 11 normally ask students to practice listening for gist or inferring meaning from what they hear Obviously, these two listening skills prove to be too difficult to be enhanced by weak students From the above given facts, so as to teach incompetent students effectively, teachers should invest more time and effort in desinging eligible listening tasks based on the Textbook so that they can them then be more motivated to study, which will create more successful and effective lesson 2.3 Some rules of designing listening task for weak students When designing listening task it’s difficult for the teachers to decide what should be taught, what techniques are better or simply what words should be introduced To deal with the problems, they should follow some rules for each stages * Pre-listening: SangKienKinhNghiem.net Pre-listening step is normally considered very important to a listening lesson It helps students to know the topic, recall the background knowledge and understand the related word Hence, in this stage, teachers should: - Try to be as well-prepared as possible because once they understand what should be required in the lesson they will choose the best things to be taught for their learners - Try to design the most simple task but gain the class’s much involvement as possible to introduce the topic or recall the background knowledge Because this is the first part of the lesson therefore the teacher should create a positive atmosphere of the class so that the students will be motivated to be ready for the next part - Decide what are the key words in the listening text, and what are the key words in the listening task to teach In the textbook there are some new words given in the “listen and repeat” part; nevertheless, these ones are usually not enough for incompetent students Thus, teachers should provide some more key words in the text or in the listening tasks to make them understand the text and the task more easily * While-listening: This stage is the main part of the lesson, through which students can improve their listening skills In this part teachers should: - Have pre-task step to help them understand carefully what they have to to complete the task, and what are the key words they should pay attention to find the answers - Ask them to guess before they listen to the tape And not say what they guess is wrong or right, ask why they guess so if necessary This step will make learners more curious and hence eager to listen and the task - Write a very easy question so that they can answer after the first listening The purpose of the question is to encourage them to listen, to make them have a feeling of success - Write more additional questions to the listening tasks to make them easy to understand the content of the tape scripts - Be flexible when getting the pupils to listen to the tape Read the listening text if it is helpful to them When teaching weak students, sometimes the different accents or speed of speech pose obstacles for them to listen In this case, the teachers can support them by reading the tape scripts - Instruct students how to make the answers while listening (short answers or main ideas) This will help them develop note-taking skills, which are very essential in listening * Post-listening: SangKienKinhNghiem.net This is the last process of a listening lesson in order to help them recall and construct the information they get from listening and practicing new words and phrases from the listening in speaking or writing When designing this stage teachers should pay attention to these following factors: - The time which is allowed to post-listening work If there still are a lot of time teachers can ask pupils to use the words or phrases learned to speak or write But if there is not much time left, they should only be summarized the main point of the listening text - The amount of language work which the teacher wishes to in relation to the particular listening text Base on this, the teachers will decide whether this work should consist of speaking, reading or writing They also have to decide whether the class should work in pairs, in groups or individually - The chosen activity should be motivating Whatever are required, the teachers should make it as simple as possible so that the low level students can it For example, gap-filling is always one of the best suggestions for this step 2.4 Some suggested way to design listening task basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students Below are some redesigned listening tasks of some units in the English Textbook 11 (Appendix 1) which I personally think is rather difficult to teach for weak students 2.5 Results of applying redesigned tasks in teaching Listening skills In order to assess the effectiveness of applying this method to teaching listening for weak students I have compared my work with two classes 11 A1 and A2 (school year 2016 -2017) At first, The level of members in these two class is relatively the same In class A1 I teach them all the things designed in the English Textbook 11 And in class A2 I designed some listening tasks based on the English Textbook 11 After a term I’ve got some following results: First of all, The result of listening test in class A2 is better than in class A1, which is demonstrated by the following statistic: LISTENING TEST RESULT (students) Good Average Poor Total CLASS A1 14 27 42 CLASS A2 22 11 42 Secondly, it is a matter of fact that after applying some listening tasks I designed base on English Textbook11, my students in class A2 and I felt it more motivated to learn and to teach listening skills, they seemed to be very eager for SangKienKinhNghiem.net Listening lessons During the lessons, all of them were involved in trying to finish the tasks , they worked excitingly to find out the answers to the question After each listening lesson, they could improve their listening skills more or less Besides, they had many chances to practice many other skills like writing and speaking, especially speaking in pairs, in groups or in individually in front of the whole class Thirdly, these listening tasks brought a more positive atmosphere to class which motivated each member to learn and get higher result because they give the feeling of understanding the lesson and the sense of “I can it” to students To sum up, all the results indicate that to deal with low-level students, applying the listening tasks I designed basing on the English Textbook 11 makes teaching and listening skills more effectively SangKienKinhNghiem.net CONCLUSION 3.1 Conclusion Listening is one the receptive skills, through which students can gain more vocabulary, grammar structures and knowledge about the world Besides, listening helps them learn other skill Therefore, the importance of listening is undeniable In the process of teaching listening skills to weak learners teachers have to cope with a lot of problems Thus, they should be flexible to decide which can be used in the Textbook, and what should be redesigned When desinging task teachers should follow some rules so that the task they give can get highest result In effort to give a support to teachers, this study have some suggested listening tasks designed basing on the English Textbook 11 in order that the teachers can save time by using them to teach low-level students And in order to raise the quality of teaching English to low-level pupils, the author personally hope that there will be more other suggested ways to design listening tasks by other teachers to support teaching and learning process Similarly, the other author can also propose other tasks for teaching other skills aiming at teaching English more effectively 3.2 Suggestion In order to apply this method effectively, teachers should apply these tasks flexibly basing on the level of students they are in charge of Moreover, because the tasks are not in the Textbook, teachers had better print the handouts for students so that they can follow and the task more easily Teaching listening is rather difficult, hence, to make it easier, schools can give a hand with this process by providing some useful and modern teaching aids such as computers, speakers and if possible a lab This is my little experience in finding methods to help weak students find learning listening skills more interesting and effectively I hope to receive your reading and comments as well as contribution to make this study more perfect so that it can be applied widely Thanks for your reading! XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày10 tháng5 năm2017 Tơi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Trịnh Hồng Vân 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net REFERENCES [1] http://baigiang.violet.vn/ [2] Hoang Van Van, (2015), English 11, Education Publishing House* [3] Nguyen Thi Minh Huong, (2007), Hoc tot Tieng Anh 11, Thanh Hoa Publishing House* [4] Underwood, M (1989) Teaching Listening London: Longman [5] While, G (1998) Listening, Oxford University express [6] Buck, (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge University * These two materials are continually used to design the listening tasks I SangKienKinhNghiem.net DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP PHÒNG GD&ĐT, CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: Trịnh Hồng Vân Chức vụ đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên trường THPT Hậu Lộc TT Tên đề tài SKKN Các kỹ nhằm nâng cao hiệu dạy từ vựng Tiếng Anh khối 10 11 Kết Cấp đánh Năm học đánh giá giá xếp loại xếp loại đánh giá xếp (Phòng, Sở, loại (A, B, Tỉnh ) C) Cấp sở Loại C 2010-2011 II SangKienKinhNghiem.net LIST OF ABBRIVIATION T: teachers Ss: students v: Verb n: noun vphr: Verb phrase nphr: Noun phrase adj: adjective III SangKienKinhNghiem.net APPENDIX Unit 1: FRIENDSHIP I Warm-up Alternative: Bingo - Ask Students (ss) to list the characteristics that they expect in their best friends - Let Ss down all their vocabulary on the board - Let Ss take out a piece of paper and copy down characteristics that they like best - Read out characteristics that Teacher (T) like best - Any Ss who have or more choices the same as the T will shout “Bingo” and they are the winners - Expected answers: caring, supportive, helpful, honest, good-nature, quickwitted, humorous, friendly [1] II Pre- listening Pre-teaching vocabulary: Teachers can use the part “Listen and repeat” and add some more words: introduce somebody to somebody (vphr) have…in common = have the same thing (vphr) Rough time (n) (synoym) = difficult time (n) give S.O a ring = call S.O happen to know (vphr) help S.O through = help S.O out of difficulties (vphr) III While listening - Have Ss read and predict the answers for Task before listening T write the answers on the board - Ask the students to listen to the tape twice and answer the following questions - Compare their answers with their guess at first Task 1: (Multiple choice) Listen and circle the correct answer: Ha’s family moved to Hai Phong in…………………………… a 1983 b 1995 c 1985 People think that Hai Phong people are………., but Ha is ………… a cold/friendly b friendly/cold c good/bad When Lan first went on a trip to Do Son, Lan ………… anybody there a didn’t know b didn’t meet c didn’t see Lan gave Ha a ring and she was so ……………… a friendly b sociably c funny Ha rode on her motorbike to Do Son and …… minutes later she was there a twenty b twelve c thirty *Answers: c a a a a IV SangKienKinhNghiem.net Task 2: (True/false statement) Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false (Before the task T should guide students to find the key words and ask them to pay attention to them) Statement True False Minh and Long have been friends since school Long was a guitarist Minh has a sense of humor They have a lot of things in common Minh always helped Long out of difficulties *Answers: F (schoolcollege) F (Long Minh) T T T Task 3: (Gap-filling) Listen and filling in the gaps to complete the table How and where did they meet ? What they like about their friends ? Lan - They used to live in the same - Ha’s very friendly and helpful - Ha’s sociable She’s got many (1)……… building in Ha Noi - Lan went on a holiday to Do Son friends in Do Son and she (2)………… Lan around and Ha went there to help her Long - They met in college - Minh has a sense of humor - Ming played the guitar Long was - Minh and Long like to go to a singer (4)………… - They worked (3)……………… - Ming is a good listener - Minh always helps Long (5)…………… *Answer: Apartment building Introduce together plays and movies through IV After listening Work in pairs to talk about how Ha has been Lan’s best friend and how Minh has been Long’s best friend Teachers can give suggested questions: Where did Ha and Lan used to live? How long have they been friends? How is Ha? Where did Long and Minh meet? Was Long a singer? What is Minh’s good quality? V SangKienKinhNghiem.net Unit 3: A PARTY I Warm-up: Kim’s game “ WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU SEE THESE THING?” Gifts Cards Candles Cake Flowers * Answer: “ A BIRTHDAY PARTY” II Pre- listening Teachers can use the part before you listen in the text book III While listening Task 1: Teachers can use the part “Task 1”in the text book Task 2: (Multiple choices) Listen and choose the best answer to complete the blank Mai was ……… years old a 16 b 26 c.6 d 18 She didn’t like having her party at the restaurant because………………… a It’s noisy but cheap b It is far from her house c It’s noisy and expensive d it is not beautiful Mai’s mother served them soft………….and biscuits a food b drinks c flowers d.fruits the birthday cake was brought out at about……………… a 3:00 p.m b 4:00 p.m c 3:30 p.m d 4:30 p.m The cake was decorated with ………….icing a red and yellow b pink and white c white and red d pink and brown All the guests ………… their hands eagerly and sang………… while Mai was cutting the cake a raising/ “Happy birthday” b clapping/ “Happy New Year” c clapped/ “Happy birthday” c stood/ “Happy New Year” The birthday party finished at ………… a 7:00 p.m b 6:00 p.m c 7:30 p.m d 6:30 p.m VI SangKienKinhNghiem.net *Answer: a c b 4.d b c b IV After listening Fill in the blank with the given words then practice talking about Mai’s party served birthday party restaurant twenty blew out end presents Mai was 16 years old and her parents held a(1)…………… for her She invited about (2)…………of guess gathering in Mai’s house She didn’t like having the party at a(3)……… because it is noisy and expensive They gave(4)……… to Mai and she happily opened them After that Mai’s mother(5)……… them soft drinks and biscuits then they listened to music and played cards At about four thirty Mai’s mother brought out the birthday cake They all clapped our hands eagerly and sang “Happy Birthday” as she(6)……… the candles and cut the cake Finally at about six in the evening the party came to an (7)…… They were all tired but happy * Answers: birthday party twenty restaurant presents served blew out end UNIT 4: VOLUNTEER WORK I Warm-up: Match the pictures with the activities [1] A Teaching the poor children B Building road E Repairing house C Directing traffic D Donating blood VII SangKienKinhNghiem.net * Answers: E D A B C II Pre- listening : Teachers can use the part before you listen in the textbook But in the part “listen and repeat” I suggest that they should teach the low-level students some more words May be these words they’ve learned but not all of them remember; however, the words are helpful to the following tasks - provide (v) = supply (v) - informal (adj) - contact (v) - sponsor (n) III While listening Task 1: Teachers can use this part in the textbook Task 2: Listen and decide whether the statements are true or false (Before the task T should guide students to find the key words and ask them to pay attention to them) Statement True False Spring school provides classes to disadvantaged children in Ha Noi Dance, theater, singing and circus classes were set up in 1998 Children raise money to continue their English and Performance Art class Children dance, sing and play music at one of the largest stadiums in Ho Chi Minh City Foreign volunteer are needed to invite sponsors and help to expand the school activities *Answers: F ( Ha Noi  Ho Chi Minh City) F (1998 1999) T F (stadiums  Hotels) F ( invite contact) IV After listening Work in pairs to use the given words to make sentence then practice talking about Spring School Spring School/ informal school/ Ho Chi Minh City It/ provide/ classes/ disadvantaged children English class/ be set up/ 1998 Dance, theater, singing and circus classes/ be set up/ a year later Children/ raise money/ continue/ their English and Performance Art class Spring School/ require/ Volunteers/ help/ organize/ their fundraising dinner * Answers: Spring School is an informal school in Ho Chi Minh City It provides classes to disadvantaged children VIII SangKienKinhNghiem.net English class was set up in1998 Dance, theater, singing and circus classes were set up a year later Children raise money to continue their English and Performance Art class Spring School requires volunteers to help organize their fundraising dinner UNIT 7: WORLD POPULATION I Warm-up: Match the pictures with the words a Water pollution b homelessness c hunger d lack of school d unemployment e poverty II Pre- listening : Teachers can use the part before you listen in the textbook III While listening Task 1: Teachers can use this part in the textbook Task 2: Listen again and answer the questions by completing the sentences [1] According to experts, what will the population of the world be by the year 2015?  According to experts, the population of the world will be over ……… billion people by the year 2015 What did the expert say about the population growth rates in some parts of the world? IX SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... author to the study ? ?Some suggested listening tasks designed basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students” with the purpose of helping many teachers to deal with teaching... way to design listening task basing on English Textbook 11 to teach listening skills for weak students Below are some redesigned listening tasks of some units in the English Textbook 11 (Appendix... author only has ambition to propose some suggested listening tasks designed basing on the material provided in the Textbook ? ?English 11? ?? with a view to improving the qualities of teaching listening