Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS the use of warm up activities in motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -*** - NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG THE USE OF WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN MOTIVATING 10TH FORM STUDENTS TO LEARN READING SKILL (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG KHỞI ĐỘNG TRONG BÀI DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU NHẰM NÂNG CAO HỨNG THÚ HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 HA NOI, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -*** - NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG THE USE OF WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN MOTIVATING 10TH FORM STUDENTS TO LEARN READING SKILL (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG KHỞI ĐỘNG TRONG BÀI DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU NHẰM NÂNG CAO HỨNG THÚ HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 Supervisor: Prof Hoàng Văn Vân HA NOI, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “The use of warm-up activities in motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, 2015 Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Nhung i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Prof Dr Hoang Van Van for his restless and sympathetic encouragement, valuable advice and patient guidance until the completion of this study I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to the two 10th form classes for their enthusiastic participation in the project Finally, I am deeply indebted to my beloved parents, my husband, my daughter, my siblings, and my post-graduate friends for their sacrifice, encouragement and care ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT How to teach and learn English effectively is a big concern of most teachers and language students Many students at Kien An High School find it boring to study reading lessons This study is intended to investigate the use of warm-up activities and their effects on the 10th form students at Kien An High School and to make some suggestions to improve the quality of learning reading lessons The study was conducted to answer the questions: What are warm-up activities? Are warm-up activities an effective technique for motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill? The author took a sample of 94 students at Kien An High School Data from the questionnaires was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………iv LIST OF CHARTS……………………………………………………………… vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Aims of the study Research questions Method of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.WARM-UP ACTIVITES IN A LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING 1.1 Definitions 1.2 The importance of warm-up activities 1.3 Common warm-up activities in a reading lesson 1.4 Summary 10 MOTIVATION 10 2.1 Definition 10 2.2 Types of motivation 11 2.3 The importance of motivation 14 2.4 Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17 DESCRIPTION OF SITUATION 17 1.1 Subjects 17 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1.2 Materials 17 1.3 Teaching – learning strategies 18 DESCRIPTION OF DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 18 2.1 Questionnaire I 18 2.2 Questionnaire II 19 PROCEDURE 19 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 21 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE I 21 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE II 25 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 29 3.1 Active effects 29 3.2 Limitations 29 RECOMMENDATIONS 30 PART C: CONCLUSION 33 RECAPITULATION 33 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 34 REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Frequency level of teachers’ using warm-up 21 Chart 2: Careful guiding level of teachers 22 Chart 3: The diversity of warm-up activities used 22 Chart 4: How often warm-up activities should be used 23 Chart 5: The importance of warm-up activities in reading lessons 23 Chart 6: The necessary level of improving warm-up activities 24 Chart 7: Students’ involvement in learning reading lessons 25 Chart 8: Level of students’ concentration during the reading lessons 26 Chart 9: Level of interest 26 Chart 10: Level of appropriateness 27 Chart 11: Level of challenge 27 Chart 12: The role of warm-ups in creating a more interesting learning atmosphere 28 Chart 13: The interaction among students in class when warm-ups are applied 28 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This chapter aims at providing the readers with an overview of the study It consists of the rationale for the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the method of the study, the scope and the design of the study Rationale for the study There is a common belief that people will be successful more easily if they want to their duties For example, to please her husband, a wife will try to cook delicious meals A student can concentrate on learning English to communicate with an English, an American or a foreign speaking English, to listen to English songs or to get better jobs, etc In other words, if people are motivated, they will their best to achieve their goals faster Motivation is some kind of internal drives which pushes someone to things in order to achieve something Student motivation refers to a student’s interest, desire, compulsion, and need to participate in and be successful in the learning process It is generally accepted that student motivation plays a key role in academic learning Motivated students have a positive impact on learning They take advantage of a given opportunity and show intense effort and concentration in the implementation of learning process Also, they reveal positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, interest, and optimism during learning Besides, a teacher or an instructor has a significant role in guiding less motivated students It means that the teacher has to consider students as the centre in teaching process To make an English teaching period effective, bring into play maximally student’s ability to grasp, the teacher has to find suitable teaching method for each teaching period, each student and necessarily, to create the learning motivation of students from the start It is very important not only for English but also other subjects Creating the motivation of students for the lessons and their enthusiasm in learning is the art of the teacher There are many ways to increase the learning motivation of students but a large number of teachers consider warm-up activities as one of the most effective ways LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com English is undeniably an international language that serves as the most effective and popular communicative tool between different nations Therefore English is one of the major subjects for Vietnamese students to acquire at schools so that they are qualified with a useful tool to get access to the knowledge of mankind as well as to develop international communication, especially in the trend of integration and globalization The introduction of Tiếng Anh 10 is thus hopefully to improve learners’ communicative competence as the traditional method mainly focuses on English grammar In the context of teaching and learning English in Vietnam, where the number of students in each class is up to 40-50, the use of warm-up activities is also a useful tool in class management by involving learners’ participation However, this method still leaves much room to develop in Vietnam For the reasons mentioned above, the researcher wishes to conduct the research on “The use of warm-up activities in motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill.” Aims of the study The study is targeted at investigating the use of warm-up activities and their effects on motivating the 10th graders in reading lessons Research questions To achieve the above aim, the following questions are raised for exploration: What are warm-up activities commonly employed for motivating to improve reading skill? To what extent can warm-up activities be used as effective technique to improve reading skill? Method of the study In order to answer the research questions as raised above, the thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative research method The qualitative method is used to study the notion of “warm-up activities” and that of “motivation” as conceptualized by different researchers Quantitative method is used to collect data that for LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chart 10: Level of appropriateness Chart 11: Level of challenge Three criteria to evaluate warm-up activities are the interest, appropriateness and challenge It can be seen that after the warm-up activities are improved, a large number of students choose the first two options assessed highly to the interesting, appropriate and challenging levels Total of them occupy half of the students 27 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Questions from and gathered information about advantages of warm-up activities used to the whole class Chart 12: The role of warm-ups in creating a more interesting learning atmosphere Chart 13: The interaction among students in class when warm-ups are applied Apart from advantages in each student, warm-up activities also have influence on the whole class 28 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Active effects From the results above, it is clear that warm-up activities used by the teachers at Kien An High School had active effects on students at a certain degree In class periods, there were students who paid attention to reading lessons after warm-up activities were used They also contributed to create interesting learning atmosphere and interaction among students in class to some extent 3.2 Limitations Using warm-up activities has not entirely motivated students The number of students being not interested in the reading lessons is still a lot The following limitations are pointed out from analyzing the data collected  The teachers did not use warm-ups frequently As we know, warm-ups are not the central part of a lesson and the use of them only aims to motivate students for the main lesson, but an effective warm-up activity takes rather much time and effort to prepare It can be the reason why teachers mind using them and not use them frequently In reality, teachers prepare warm-ups in their lesson plans, but sometimes, they forget to carry it out, which is the shortcoming of teachers  Warm-up activities used are not various Most students assumed that their teachers not usually use different warmup activities If so, the teachers cannot have suitable warm-ups for each lesson as well as students’ ability  Warm-up activities used are not very interesting, appropriate or challenging A simple and boring warm-up activity cannot create students’ learning motivation from the beginning in order that they make good use of class time 29 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings mentioned above, the researcher draws out several recommendations to increase students’ motivation through warm-up activities  Using warm-up activities frequently, especially games No one can deny the important role of warm-up activities in creating students’ learning motivation A warm-up often helps create a conductive atmosphere for learning and gets students ready for active and fruitful learning We know that teacher’s success of teaching a lesson depends very much on the learning interest of students to the lesson “Mostly, we feel that the bad effect of a class period doesn’t depend on the technique and enthusiasm on the class of the teacher but mainly, the learning attitude of students.” (Nguyen Quoc Hung, 2004) Therefore, to increase the learning motivation of students, it is very necessary for teachers to use warm-ups frequently In addition, because warm-ups can help students be involved in learning the lesson and then concentrate more on it, using warm-ups frequently will create students’ learning for a long time Therefore, it makes students who not like learning English and think it is a boring and difficult subject will change their mind Gradually, students will not be afraid of heavy reading class periods Students always like playing games Most games are interesting and challenging and most of them are team games Hence, they attract most of students to participate, both weak and good students To become the winner, every student takes part in enthusiastically and tries his/ her best So games can help create a more interesting learning atmosphere and the interaction among students in class  Using warm-up activities plentifully and variously It is obvious that using warm-ups can make students become more interested in the lesson However, only using a few warm-ups for most lessons or using one 30 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com warm-up again and again can easily make students bored As a result, it lessens the effectiveness of the warm-ups In addition, students usually prefer new activities to old ones which are used too many times So, teachers should use multiform warm-ups and use them alternatively in order not to create student’s boredom When teachers use various warm-ups, they will know which ones their students like and don’t like most Then they will find out the suitable activities for each type of lesson  Warm-up activities should be interesting Normally, warm-ups occupy short amount of time Moreover, a good warmup requires careful preparation To this, it takes rather much time, mind and even money Consequently, many teachers mind using warm-ups They rarely use them and if they use, they only use some simple activities like chatting which are rather boring So they cannot create students’ learning interest to the later lesson Warmups set the tone of the lesson because they are the first activities of the lesson Therefore, they must be interesting enough to attract students from the beginning  Warm-up activities should be appropriate Warm-ups should be suitable with students’ learning ability They can be discouraged if the warm-ups are too complicated because they cannot However, an activity which is so easy to explore the answers also lessons the effectiveness of warm-ups There are good classes as well as weak classes, so depending on the feature of each class teachers should choose appropriate warm-ups Besides, they should suit the content and the purpose of the later lesson It means that warm-up should relate to the lesson at a certain degree Teachers should search carefully the lesson to find out appropriate activities  Warm-up activities should be challenging enough 31 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The challenge can make students join to explore the answers positively and actively Moreover, if warm-ups are games students will try their best to be the winner The challenge for students means that they need to use knowledge as well as think thoroughly to find out the answer The challenge can make learning atmosphere more exciting and interesting However, it should be suitable with students’ ability The better the students’ learning ability is, the higher the challenge should be 32 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART C: CONCLUSION RECAPITULATION How to teach and learn a foreign language effectively is still a big concern of most teachers and language learners The researcher realizes that a lot of students at Kien An high school are not really involved in class and lack enthusiasm in English lessons, especially in reading ones which are quite boring and contain a large amount of knowledge and vocabulary Therefore, the aim to this research is to investigate the use of warm-up activities and their effects on the 10th graders at Kien An High School and to make some suggestions to improve the quality of studying reading lessons The subjects of the study is 10th form students at Kien An High School Warm-up activities are those used before starting a new lesson to raise students’ learning motivation from the beginning They are really of great importance They set the tone of the lesson because they happen first They get students to brainstorm and focus on the lesson They provide a transition into the topic or target language and finally, they give teachers important opportunities to understand students’ ability and character In addition, warm-ups are plentiful and diverse Depending on each type of lesson, there are different warm-up activities An important factor to teach successfully is students’ motivation, in this thesis, there are two kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic They share some same features but they are different Motivation plays an important role in teaching and learning language It directs behavior toward particular goals It helps to increase effort and energy It raises initiation of and persistence in activities It affects cognitive processes and finally, it often enhances performance A survey with two stages was carried out to perform this thesis In the first stage, the author delivered all the questionnaires to students After analyzing the data, the situation was found out Then the researcher began to apply and improve 33 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com the warm-up activities for six weeks After that, Questionnaires II were delivered to get information To conclude, it is much hopeful that the study will be of interest to those who share the same problems and are interested in using and improving warm-up activities in reading lessons LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY The study has offered some insightful findings, yet, like many other studies, there are still limitations There are four skills in English: listening, reading, speaking and writing However, due to the constraint of time this study only focused on the use of warm-up activities and their effects on the tenth graders’ reading skill at Kien An High School Hopefully, there will be further studies about the other skills Moreover, in terms of methodology, only survey questionnaires were given out, no interview or observation was carried out This could be a reason for not thoroughly comparing the improvements on using warm-ups activities 34 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com REFERENCES Nguyễn Ngọc Thao (2001), Từ điển tiếng Việt Hà Nội NXB Giáo Dục Nguyễn Quốc Hùng (2004), Classroom techniques in teaching English in Viet Nam Hà Nội NXB Giáo Dục Lê Văn Sự (2005), English Methodology Hà Nội NXB Văn hóa thơng tin Bandura A (1997), Self-effically: the exercise of control New York The Guiford Press Baker L (2006), Engaging Young Readers New York The Guiford Press Biehle S (1997), Psychology Applied to Teaching New Zealand Houghton Mifflin Company Broughton G (1978), Teaching English as a foreign language New York Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd Calumn P (1980), 101 Word Games for Students of English as a Second or Foreign Language Oxford Oxford University Press Crookes G (1991), Motivation Cambridge Cambridge University Press 10 Deacon B (2002), Activate with ease Cambridge Cambridge University Press 11 Jonell H.K (1985), Practice and practitioner Cambridge Social Science 12 Kleinginna P (1981), A categorized list of motivation definitions with suggestions for a consensual definition Oxford Oxford University Press 13 Lee W.R (1991), Language Teaching Games and Contests Oxford Oxford University Press 35 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 14 Lyn L (1999), Ethnic Group Differences in the Academic Motivation of University Students, Student Learning Center New Zealand University of Auckland 15 Roberto S (2009), Self Help Motivation – Boost Your Own Morale London Oxford University Press 36 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Websites Cynthia, http://educatekids.com Chris, http://www.betterlanguageteaching.com Chris, http://ezinearticles.com David, http://www.Questia.com James, http://www.ezinearticles.com Kristina, http://writing.colostate.edu Glen, http://www.eslteachersboard.com Roger, http://www.engines4ed.org Tomoko, http://en.wekibooks.org 37 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX BẢNG CÂU HỎI PHÁT CHO HỌC SINH I BẢNG CÂU HỎI I Trong bảng câu hỏi này, có thông tin việc sử dụng hoạt động khởi động học đọc trường phổ thông Khoanh tròn đáp án A, B, C D mà em thấy Thầy giáo em có thường xuyên sử dụng hoạt động khởi động dạy đọc không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Hiếm Thầy cô giáo em có hướng dẫn học sinh cẩn thận sử dụng hoạt động khởi động không? A Rất cẩn thận C Không cẩn thận B Khá cẩn thận D Khơng cẩn thận Thầy giáo em có thường xuyên sử dụng đa dạng hoạt động khởi động không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Hiếm Theo em, hoạt động khởi động có nên sử dụng thường xuyên đọc không? A Luôn B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Hiếm Em đánh tầm quan trọng hoạt động khởi động đọc? A Rất quan trọng C Không quan trọng B Khá quan D Không quan trọng Em có nghĩ việc cải thiện thường xuyên hoạt động khởi động đọc cần thiết? A Rất cần thiết C Không cần thiết B Khà cần thiết D Không cần thiết I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com II BẢNG CÂU HỎI II Trong bảng câu hỏi này, có thơng tin hứng thú học tập học sinh sau hoạt động khởi động sử dụng đọc Khoanh tròn đáp án A, B, C D mà em thấy Em có hứng thú học đọc sau hoạt động khởi động dược sử dụng không? A Rất hứng thú C Không hứng thú B Khá hứng thú D Không hứng thú Mức độ tập trung học đọc em sau hoạt động khởi đông sử dụng? A Cao B Khá cao C Không cao D Thấp Em có nghĩ hoạt động khởi động mà thầy cô giáo em sử dụng thú vị? A Rất thú vị C Không thú vị B Khá thú vị D Khơng thú vị Em có nghĩ hoạt động khởi động mà thầy cô giáo em sử dụng thích hợp? A Rất thích hợp C Khơng thích hợp B Khá thích hợp D Khơng thích hợp Em có nghĩ hoạt động khởi động mà thầy giáo em sử dụng có tính thử thách? A Rất thử thách C Không thử thách B Khá thử thách D Không thử thách Em có nghĩ hoạt động khởi động mà thầy cô giáo em sử dụng giúp nhiều việc tạo khơng khí học thêm hào hứng? A Rất nhiều C Không nhiều B Khá nhiều D Không Em có nghĩ hoạt động khởi động mà thầy giáo em sử dụng giúp nhiều việc tạo liên kết, tác động lẫn học sinh lớp không? A Rất nhiều C Không nhiều B Khá nhiều D Không Rất cảm ơn hợp tác em! II LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com I QUESTIONAIRES I In this questionnaire, I would like to get information about using warm-up activities in a reading lesson at high school Please circle the letter which is suitable for you How often your teachers use warm-up activities in reading lessons? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely When using warm-up activities, your teachers guide students carefully? A Very carefully C Not very carefully B Quite carefully D Not carefully at all How often your teachers use different warm-up activities? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely In your opinion, how often should warm-up activities be used in reading lesson? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely How you assess the importance of warm-up activities in reading lessons? A Very important C Not very important B Quite important D Not important at all Do you think that improving warm-up activities frequently in reading lessons is necessary? A Very necessary C Not very necessary B Quite necessary D Not necessary at all III LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com II QUESTIONAIRES II How are you involved in learning reading lessons after warm-up activities are used? A Very involved C Not very involved B Quite involved D Not involved at all How you concentrate on learning reading lessons after warm-up activities are used? A High C Not very high B Quite high D Low Do you think warm-up activities used are interesting? A Very interesting C Not very interesting B Quite interesting D Not interesting at all Do you think warm-up activities used are appropriate? A Very appropriate C Not very appropriate B Quite appropriate D Not appropriate at all Do you think warm-up activities used challenging? A Very challenging B Quite challenging C Not very challenging D Not challenging at all Do you think warm-up activities used help much in creating a more interesting learning atmosphere? A Very much C Not much B Quite much D Nothing Do you think warm-up activities used help much in interaction among students in class? A Very much C Not much B Quite much D Nothing Thank you very much for your cooperation! IV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ... CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ? ?The use of warm- up activities in motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill? ?? is my own study in the fulfillment of the. .. in Vietnam For the reasons mentioned above, the researcher wishes to conduct the research on ? ?The use of warm- up activities in motivating 10th form students to learn reading skill. ” Aims of the. .. from to collected information about the use of warming up activities of teachers in a reading lesson Question collected information about the frequent level of the teacher’s using warming up activities