Perceptions and practices of warm up activities by english teachers in thai nguyen

This research aims at investigating the perception and practice of warm-up activities by English teachers in Thai Nguyen.. Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to clarify

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI CHANG

PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF WARM-UP

ACTIVITIES BY ENGLISH TEACHERS

IN THAI NGUYEN

M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN – 2022

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI CHANG

PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF WARM-UP

ACTIVITIES BY ENGLISH TEACHERS

IN THAI NGUYEN

M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Le Thi Thu Huong, Ph.D

THAI NGUYEN – 2022

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN

THÁI NGUYÊN – 2022

DECLARATION The writer fully declares that the research entitled “ Perceptions and practices

of warm-up activities by English teachers in Thai Nguyen” is carried out by herself with the purpose of fulfilling the requirement for the Master Degree of English language at the School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University under the guidance of Dr LE THI THU HUONG The results of this research have not been submitted to any other universities for any other Degree or Diplomas before

Additionally, I also want to express my profound gratitude to all the lecturers from Thai Nguyen University, School of Foreign Languages, and Postgraduate Department Who have brought me so many meaningful lessons and advice, to help

me have a proper orientation to do this research as well as a deeper understanding of the English language

Also, I want to send my thanks to the school board of Son Cam 1, Son Cam

2, Cao Ngan, Tan Long, and Hoang Van Thu secondary schools, all my colleagues, and students at these schools for their support and participation during the process

of doing and collecting data for my research

Besides, I also want to express my gratitude to my family and friends who

always motivate, support, and love me during the time of doing this research

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES v

LIST OF FIGURES vi

Figure 2.1: Principles of warm-up activities 9 vi

ABSTRACT viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 The scope and limitation of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Thesis outline 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Some definitions 5

2.1.1 Definitions of “warm-up” 5

2.1.2 Definitions of perception 6

2.1.3 Definition of practice 6

2.2 Warm-up 7

2.2.1 The benefits of warm-up activities 7

2.2.2 Principles of a warm-up activity 8

2.2.3 Examples of warm-up activities 10

2.3 Teachers’ Perception 12

2.4 Previous studies 13

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Research methodology 16

3.2 The study setting 16

3.3 Participants 17

3.4 Data collection instrument 18

3.4.1 Questionnaires 18

3.4.2 Observation 18

3.4.3 Interviews 19

3.5 Data collection procedure 20

3.5.1 Preparation 20

3.5.2 Implementation 21

3.5.3 Planning for data analysis 21

3.6 Data analysis 21

CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Findings 23

4.1.1 Result of the questionnaires 23

4.1.2 Results of observation 26

4.1.3 Result of the interviews 30

4.2 Discussions 37

4.2.1 What are English teachers’ perceptions on the use of warm-up activities in English classes? 37

4.2.2 How do the English teachers implement warm-up activities in their classes? 37

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS 39

5.1 Conclusion 39

5.2 Limitations and recommendations 40

5.2.1 Limitations 40

5.2.2 Recommendations 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I I APPENDIX II II APPENDIX III IV

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Detailed participants 17

Table 3.2: Main information of the teacher’s questionnaires 18

Table 3.3: Details of the class observation 19

Table 3.4: Main information of the teachers’ interview 20

Table 4.1: The perceptions and practice of using warm-up activities in English classes 23

Table 4.2: The types of warm-up activities 27

Table 4.3: The average time of the warm-up part 27

Table 4.4: The participation of students in warm-up activities 28

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Principles of warm-up activities 9 Figure 4.1: Types of frequently-used warm-up activities 26

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

ABSTRACT

English is the most widely used language in the world, which has a great influence on students’ future job opportunities That is the reason why this subject has been put into the curriculum of Vietnamese students at an early age with the purpose of helping them master this language There are many factors that affect students’ ability and teaching method is one of the most important factors Although warm-up activities are not the key things in the teaching and learning method, it has contributed to creating an effective learning environment and inspiring them to learn In this way, students can feel more relaxed before learning This research aims at investigating the perception and practice of warm-up activities by English teachers in Thai Nguyen A sample of 20 teachers from five different secondary schools in Thai Nguyen city participated in this study There were several data collection instruments used, including teachers’ interviews, observation, and questionnaires The results of this research showed that all teachers have a positive opinion towards using warm-up activities in their classes They also applied different warm-up activities with the purpose of drawing students’ interest In addition, all of the participants gave the idea that those activities should not last for long Besides, during implementation process, they had to face to some problems which were illustrated in this study and steps that they took to deal with Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to clarify the perception as well as the practice of teachers in using warm-up activities in English classes

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In today's modern world, English has become a crucial part of our daily life

It plays an extremely important role in all fields, especially in the context of industrialization and modernization English is now considered an international language, which can be used as the main means of communication to communicate with people from countries around the world It has made a great contribution in eliminating the language boundaries among countries Being aware of its importance, many countries have decided to consider it as a second language aside from their mother tongue Until now, English has become the most studied and used foreign language in the world To keep up with changes as well as find more opportunities for Viet Nam’s develop, English has been put in the curriculum and has become one of the most important school subjects at all school levels In this way, the important role of English has been shown clearly in our education system

Vietnamese students start learning English quite early Most Vietnamese students are obliged to learn English from grade 3; however, this can be different in regions In some areas, pupils can start learning English earlier from kindergarten, while others start learning at the secondary school level Being exposed to English early is beneficial for learners since it can be a concrete foundation to build up their skills in the future The earlier they start, the better their English skills are

Vietnamese education has developed much compared to the past and there are numerous effective teaching methods come out To bring a proper learning environment to students instead of boring and stressful lessons as before, different methods have been applied in teaching English in Viet Nam English is not the mother tongue of the Vietnamese, so it is not easy for students to conquer this language When learning English, they may face numerous difficulties Many students are shy and get stressed, so they can’t learn well The biggest challenge for English teachers is how to get students involved in every lesson It is clear that each teacher will have their own way to catch students’ attention Apart from having a

suitable teaching method, the first impression is very important, which plays as an icebreaker to help learners feel more comfortable and interested in learning To attract students from the beginning, warm-up activities have been used in English classes in Viet Nam in general and in Thai Nguyen in particular Warm-up activities can be games, songs, dances, watching videos, and so on

A good start can bring energy, motivation, and joy instead of negative feelings According to Kay (1995), warm-up activities “are different activities which are used to help students get involved into learning, start thinking in English and review previous lessons” It means warm-up activity is significant in creating a positive learning environment and refreshing their brain to get ready for new knowledge Although warm-up is not the key part of the teaching process, it can make the lesson more interesting and enjoyable However, not all teachers can take the best advantage of those activities in their class since they have different opinions Some teachers like to organize warm-up activities, but the others do not as they want to focus on learning the lesson content only Furthermore, implementing this step is different in types, frequency, and steps

The writer is also an English teacher in Thai Nguyen and has some experience in teaching this foreign language Throughout the writer personal’s experience, the writer has seen that warm-up activities have been applied in almost English classes in Thai Nguyen regardless of level In addition to this, as an English teacher, the writer also wants to gain a clear insight into effective techniques to make them eager to learn Furthermore, this is also a good way to learn more about the opinion of her colleagues as well as their implementation

All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a study entitled “Perceptions and practices of warm-up activities by English teachers

in Thai Nguyen”

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aimed at exploring the perception by English teachers in Thai Nguyen towards using warm–up activities and investigating the practice of warm-

up activities by English teachers

1.3 Research questions

This study aimed at investigating the following two research questions: 1) What are English teachers’ perceptions on the use of warm–up activities

in English classes?

2) How do the English teachers implement warm–up activities in their classes?

1.4 The scope and limitation of the study

In Thai Nguyen province, there are many schools and English teachers; however, due to time limitations, this study could mainly focus on using warm-up activities of 20 English teachers in Son Cam 1, Son Cam 2, Cao Ngan, Tan Long, and Hoang Van Thu secondary schools The study only looked into teachers’ perceptions and practices in using warm-up activities The other teachers, students,

and components of a lesson were not considered within this study

1.5 Significance of the study

“Perceptions and practices of warm-up activities by English teachers in Thai Nguyen” is the research that was expected to bring benefits to readers, learners, and teachers

For teachers, this study is a good resource for providing a deeper knowledge and

a closer look at warm-up activities to have more ideas to design creative lessons

For learners, this study can help them understand more about the effects of warm-up activities on their learning

For readers, this study can be a reference source for those who want to learn more about warm-up activities and who are looking for a reference source to conduct research related to this topic

1.6 Thesis outline

This study consists of 5 chapters as follows:

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION - consists of the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, and the research design

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW - covers the theoretical basis of, including some definitions, the benefits of warm-up activities, examples, teachers’ perceptions, and some previous studies

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY - presents the methods used to collect and analyze the data It includes the participants, instruments for data collection, and data analysis

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION illustrates the findings of this research and then, discusses them

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION - provides a summary of the research findings and suggestions for further research

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the related theoretical background to support this study There are five sections, including some definitions, warm – up activities, examples, teacher perceptions and some previous studies

2.1 Some definitions

2.1.1 Definitions of “warm-up”

Warm-up is considered as one of the most important stages in teaching English as a second language (ESL), which contributes to the creation of a more comfortable environment for learners There remains a large number of ways to define the term “warm-up”

Depending on the field that we are learning about, the phrase “warm-up” can

be understood differently In Oxford dictionary, warm-up is a phrasal verb, which is used to talk about the preparation process for a performance or a physical exercise

by doing gentle activities In the educational field, warm-up is also commonly used

to describe the first step of the teaching process in every lesson In 2000, two researchers whose names are Robertson and Acklam stated that “warm-up is a short activity for the beginning of lesson” Although a warm-up activity is short, it still plays an integral part Without it, a lesson can be bored and students may get stressed To add more information to the definition of the phrase “warm-up”, Kay (1995) defined a warm-up activity as different activities which are used to help student get involved in learning, start thinking in English and review previous lessons In Lassche’s opinion, warm-up acts as an “initial orientation” It means that

a warm-up activity holds an important part in teaching and learning English, which

is organized at the beginning and orientates learners

In short, a warm-up activity can be understood as using different activities before starting a lesson to catch learners’ attention and help them prepare well for the next stages of a lesson

2.1.2 Definitions of perception

Perception is also defined by many researchers in the world In Rundell’s opinion (2007), a perception is what we think of, or how we understand something based on our own assessment In a similar way to Rundell, Hornby (2005) demonstrated that perception is the result of seeing or understanding a process, however, Hornby illustrated clearly how perception is expressed as images, ideas or beliefs In general, perception in the opinion of both Rundell and Hornby is our understanding on which we base our judgments on specific things

Through perception, the inner capacity of a person, including their attitudes, feelings, and points of view can be determined (Baron-Cohen, 1995) According to Robbin (2005), perception can be understood as a process in which people can be engaged in organizing and deliver their sensory impressions with the purpose of bringing meaning to the environment Jalilah (2010) described perception as

“someone understanding, beliefs, feelings about persons, situations, and events as his or her learning experience which will be the major determiner of his or her stimuli to which the person responds” In general, emotions, attitudes and understanding are ways of perception expression By these ways, we can show other people our reaction to different issues

To sum up, perception is simply understood as a sensory experience about what a person becomes aware of

2.1.3 Definition of practice

There are many different ways to define the word “practice” In the Oxford dictionary, practice means “doing an activity or training regularly so that you can improve your skill” or “the time you spend doing this” In this research, practice can be understood as how teachers do warm-up activities in their classes

to help students develop their English skills and create a good atmosphere for the next steps

2.2 Warm-up

2.2.1 The benefits of warm-up activities

Warm-up has been studied by many researchers and they also figured out the important roles of using warm-up activities in teaching English It can be said that warm-up activities bring numerous benefits to both educators and learners, such as establishing a good relationship between teachers and learners, creating motivation and catching attention

Firstly, a warm-up activity is a bridge to establish a relationship between the teachers and students The learning process is different from any others, which needs to be positive and motivation to help students learn more effectively To have

a good relationship with students, it is necessary for teachers to break the ice by using warm-up activities Joshi (2006) suggested a list of warm-up activities, such

as a joke, a puzzle or games to create a positive environment for students as well as make them feel more comfortable to learn Hansen and Liu (2005) considered a warm-up activity as an icebreaker activity which contributes to bring a relaxed and comfortable environment and to generate peer trust for students These activities can bring success, which can help students make friends more easily, become more opened and help teachers understand about their students’ level

Secondly, warm-up activities inspire learners Motivation is a very important thing that can help students feel more interested in learning According to Nseendi (1984), “students will be motivated to learn when the activities and exercises for language learning are interesting to them.” As Nseendi said, if a teacher wants to catch their students’ attention, they need to have interesting activities Without those activities, students may lose their interest in learning Wisniewska (2012) also agreed with Nseendi by saying that interest is a fundamental factor that affects students’ comprehension Interest can be created by motivation and encouragement, and warm-up activities are the most effective ones in raising students’ interest Without warm-up activities at the beginning, creating a good environment becomes more difficult for teachers

Finally, warm-up activities can be used to catch students’ attention Aside from motivation, and relationship building, using a warm-up activity is one of the best ways to make students concentrated on lessons It is really hard for students to maintain their attention in all day learning, which is the reason why they need an activity to relax them and to avoid lack of attention and notice Dornyei (2001) said that “teachers can play a vital role to create a positive learning attitude among students” As Dornyei (2001) said in his research, teachers play an integral part in creating positive learning environment and to do that, they will need activities to inspire students to help them feel free to discover By this way, learners can have a good preparation for new lessons and focus more on what teachers are going to teach Similarly, Allwright (1984) indicated the significance of using warm-up activities in language classes He said that those activities are very useful in catching students’ attention and help them eliminate distracting thoughts to fully attend the class In this day and age, everything has changed and teaching has been subject to significant innovation, which has become learner – centered instead Teaching needs to focus on students, so it is essential to care about students’ attention in class, if the teachers want to have a successful lesson

In short, warm-up activities are beneficial for both learners and educators They make a great contribution to narrow the gap between students and teachers in the first period of any lesson as well as make them feel relaxed and comfortable to start a new lesson

2.2.2 Principles of a warm-up activity

Aside with the viewpoint of Velandia (2008), both Robertson and Acklam (2000) also indicated the most important features of warm-up activities In their opinion, a warm-up activity is not the main part of a lesson, so it does not need to last for long They consider short activities to be a better idea Similarly, they also pointed out the importance of having interesting activities to motivate students since this is the first step of a lesson In the case, of it being boring, the students will have

a lack of interest in it and it will have bad effects on their learning in later stages

Be related to the topic

Be useful to

continue the

class

Be interesting and enjoyable activitiy

Prepare students for a period of concentration

Help students begin to work

Focus on students’

attention

Go at the beginning

Be short

Principles of warm up activities

There is only one thing that Robertson and Acklam did not agree with Velandia about, was the relationship between the topic used in the lesson and warm-up activity They stated that the activity used for the warm-up does not need to match with the topic that the students are going to learn because the main purpose of this step is to get students ready at all times and become eager to learn English

According to Velandia (2008), there are some principles that the teacher should follow when designing a warm-up activity

Figure 2.1: Principles of warm-up activities

As Velandia suggested, it is important to organize short warm-up activities to help learners focus If it’s either too short or too long, it will distract them from learning In addition, warm-up activities need to be at the beginning instead of the middle or end since they are important in attracting and inspiring in helping learners have a good start and to aid concentration Besides, when organizing, teachers have

to observe students to know whether they like it or not because these activities are designed for students Furthermore, activities used to warm-up need to be interesting to avoid making learners bored or stressed It is also important for the teachers to choose useful activities, which relate to either the old lessons with the purpose of revision or the new lesson an introduction

Although each researcher will have their own way to set the principles for warm-up activities, they will still have some similarities to what is listed above To sum up, to have an effective warm-up activity, there are some particular principles that teachers should follow such as being short, interesting, student-centered activities, topic related, useful and set at the beginning of the session

2.2.3 Examples of warm-up activities

Andy and Cortnie Brooks (2017) figured out a number of warm-up activities such as: role play, question time, games, pictures and video, sing and dance, storytelling and others These are the most popular warm-up activities that are used

by English teachers at all school levels Each activity brings different benefits for both teachers and learners Therefore, teacher should depend on their purpose to choose the most suitable one

2.2.3.1 Games

Games are one of the most often used warm-up activities This kind of activity is very helpful in that it can create a fun environment for the students and help them feel more relaxed for having a good start Besides, this activity helps them feel that learning is playing and they will not get stressed during learning

“Back-to-back”, “what are they talking about?” and “jigsaw reading” are the best examples for this

2.2.3.2 Back-to-back

Kippen (1985) listed “back-to-back” as one of his favorite games when teaching English He also gave the instructions for doing this activity In this game, the teacher will turn the music on and students move around the classroom to observe their classmates’ hairstyles or clothes, but when the music stops, they have

to stand back to back with one of their nearest friends and then, describe their appearance For each turn, they need to change their pairs

2.2.3.3 What are they talking about?

In this activity, there is neither correct nor incorrect answers and the students’ duty is to try to guess what they are talking about This activity was suggested by Robertson and Acklam (2000) To do this, teachers need to write a conversational sentence on the board, and students will guess This activity will contribute to motivate students to speak English as much as possible

2.2.3.4 Jigsaw reading

Another game that can be used for the warm-up part is jigsaw reading This activity enables involving the students in discussions A short text will be cut into pieces and students have to rearrange these pieces in the right order (Treko,2013)

2.2.3.5 Question time

This is a familiar activity which provides suggestions about the topic of the lesson Teachers will give several questions to help student review prior knowledge and draw the learners’ attention (Jun, 2000) In this way, teachers can stimulate students’ curiosity and lead them into the new lesson naturally

2.2.3.7 Storytelling

In the book “Fun activities for teaching English” by Andy and Cortnie Brooks (2017) introduced storytelling as an activity that students will continue telling the story told by their teachers suddenly

2.2.3.8 Singing and dancing

These are popular warm-up activities where students will sing along or do dance movements under the teachers’ guidance The teachers can use those to start their classes more interestingly Furthermore, singing and dancing activities are very simple, but extremely effective since the teachers do not need to spend much time on preparing

2.2.3.9 Brainstorming

Mohammed Rhalmi (2010) recommends that brainstorming is the combination of a relaxed, informal approach to problem-solving and thinking Learners are asked to find ideas and thoughts that relate to the topic The idea is to use some of these ideas to form original and creative solutions to problems The goal of brainstorming is to encourage learners to have new thoughts and to break out of the usual reasons After that, learners will learn vocabulary faster and remember the lesson for longer

As Andy and Cortnie Brooks (2017) presented in their work, pictures and videos have the same activities The teacher will show a picture or let their students watch a video and then the students have to answer the question “what is going on

in that video or picture?” In addition to this, the teacher can also ask their students

to describe what they see This activity can have different effects on the students depending on the pictures or videos that the teacher uses It can help the students review past lessons or develop their English skills By answering related questions, the students can build up their confidence as well

2.3 Teachers’ Perception

According to Richardson (1996), there are three factors affecting the teachers’ perception Firstly, the educational background of a teacher will have an

effect on their opinion Secondly, their experience also is a factor that affects their perception Finally, the teaching background such as learners, teaching places, content of teaching will also have an influence

Each person will have their own understanding about different things and warm-up activities are not exception Teachers have different perception about using warm-up activities The term “perception” was defined by many researchers For example, Kotler (2000) indicated perception as a process including 3 steps as selecting, organizing and interpreting the input information to create the overall conception, which is meaningful Aside with Kotler, Gibson et al (1996) stated that

it was a process of cognition about decoding and understanding about the world around it Additionally, they also considered perception as interpreting meaning process of each individual to the environment

To sum up, teachers’ perception act as a primary factor that affects their decision of choosing and applying warm-up activities

The next study is from Hasan, whose study was “The efficacy of warm-up activities used in EFL classrooms” Their research instrument was questionnaires with 32 participants in listening and speaking classes The finding of this study showed that the warm-up activities were beneficial for the students in some topics and helped maintain the relationship between the teachers and the students

Kathleen et al also investigated this topic and the title of their research is

“The influence of warm-up activities in fourth grade students’ listening Comprehension” 26 students from a public school were observed in their listening activity and 3 teachers from a university also joined in This aimed at finding out the reaction of teachers and learners about activities used in class The result of his study showed the positive effects of using warm-up activities in improving students’ listening skills and how it also contributed to relieving stress when doing listening tasks

Rosalba Velandia (2004), used journals, students' surveys and field notes to collect data to investigate on the role of warming up activities in adolescent students' involvement during the English class This author proposed some kinds of activities which can promote students' involvement in the English class She also recommended some important aspects to be considered for the warm up development, which consist of the classroom conditions and the clarity of the activity rules, particularly if they are games or competitions to avoid confusion among students

In 2019, Nailil Mukarromah also carried out a research study which has the same topic entitled “Teacher’s perception on the role of warm-up activities in developing students’ metacognitive knowledge at EFL classrooms in Surabaya” The participants in this study were 6 English teachers who are teaching SMP Kemala Bhayangkary 1 Surabaya, Miftahul Ulim Surabaya, MTs A1-Fatich Surabaya, MAN Surabaya, MA A1-Fatich Surabaya, and SMA Taruna Surabaya The results show that warm-up activities enable the development of students’ metacognitive knowledge

Zahra Pakdel Estalkhbijari (2011) investigated the effects of warm up tasks

as classroom activities on foreign language written production She concluded that the role of warm ups is an attention injector for students, which can facilitate their involvement in the class work by sharing answers, trying to participate, paying attention, giving the answers, encouraging to take part in the lesson, participating as

volunteers, working on the exercises, drawing, and writing the exercises The findings also revealed that participants in the experimental group significantly enhanced better performance in a writing test

This topic on using warm-up activities in teaching English was carried out by many researchers and their studies focused on different English skills The participants were also at different ranges of ages Almost all of them studied the effects of using those activities in helping students comprehend skills Regardless of the difference in skills and participants, all of their studies indicated the efficiency

of using warm-up activities in English classes However, there was no one who investigated the perceptions and practices of warm-up activities by English teachers

in general and English teachers at Thai Nguyen in particular Therefore, this study is aimed at finding out the perception of English teachers in Thai Nguyen City and how they applied the warm-up activities in their classes

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter will discuss the research methodology, the study setting, the participants, data collection, data collection procedure, and data analysis

3.1 Research methodology

Kerlinger (1973) defined research design as “research in the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain the answers to research questions and to control variance.” In this study, exploratory research was chosen to find out the perception of the teachers and how they apply the warm-up activities in their class

3.2 The study setting

The study was carried out to investigate the perceptions and practices of English teachers in Thai Nguyen on using warm-up activities in their classes Thai Nguyen is a mountainous province, which is located in the North of Viet Nam Due

to the difference in economic growth among the parts of the province, the language ability of Thai Nguyen is, therefore, different In some parts, students have chances

to expose to English early since kindergarten; however, in other areas, they start learning English later since primary level

In the chosen schools, students started learning English at the same level (primary level) Generally, they can understand simple conversations, words, and phrases They can use English to introduce their name, hometown, and class Many

of them can ask and answer questions related to popular topics Some can understand and deal with less familiar topics

The students have 3 English classes per week and each lesson lasts 45 minutes All classrooms at these schools were equipped with full of facilities for teaching and studying The teachers have enough equipment to organize their warm-up activities, such as blackboards, whiteboards, posters, speakers, projectors, tables, and chairs In addition, all of these teachers have their own laptops to serve their teaching job

This study was conducted from May 2021 to February 2022

3.3 Participants

Due to the time limit, the author only focused on teachers at secondary schools in Thai Nguyen The participants of this study were teachers from secondary schools in Thai Nguyen city However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the writer could focus mostly on teachers in Son Cam 1, Son Cam 2, Cao Ngan, Tan Long, and Hoang Van Thu secondary schools

There are several reasons for the writer to choose these schools to conduct the study The first reason is that they are not gifted schools, which means that the students in each school are at the same level Besides, based on the results of the exams taken annually, it can be concluded that the students in these schools have similar language abilities Moreover, the five schools are equipped with enough facilities for organizing warm-up activities for students, which is a favorable condition for the study Finally, these schools are located in convenient locations for the writer as I have to travel a lot to ask for the permission of their school boards and make observations

This study involved 20 teachers from different secondary schools in Thai Nguyen city The selected teachers need to meet these two requirements Firstly, they must have over two years of experience in teaching English to secondary students Secondly, these teachers have used warm-up activities in their classes These criteria play an integral part in collecting comprehensive data As stated above, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the writer could focus on 6 teachers with 6 classes at Son Cam 1, Tan Long, and Hoang Van Thu secondary schools Therefore, the table below only describes the detailed information of the observations at these schools

Table 3.1: Detailed participants

Son Cam 1 secondary

3.4 Data collection instrument

This study aims at finding out the teachers’ perceptions and practices on warm-up activities, so some data collection instruments were used

3.4.1 Questionnaires

Babbie (1990) defined questionnaires as a document that consists of kinds of questions to collect appropriate information for analysis Acharya (2010) also illustrated the definition of questionnaires as well as gave the importance of having suitable questionnaires since it can cause misleading the research A questionnaire has been considered as one of the most common ways to gather data with a large number of participants Therefore, to collect data from 20 teachers to learn about their perceptions and practices, this instrument is completely suitable for this study Table 3.2 below gives main information of the questionnaire

Table 3.2: Main information of the teacher’s questionnaires

Type Number of questions Number of respondents

The questionnaire consists of 8 questions, which can take the respondents no more than 10 minutes to complete Questions 1 to 7 are close-ended questions, which were designed to collect teachers’ opinions on the importance of warm-up activities, how they organize the warm-up part, and the types they often use In question 8, teachers selected the five types of warm-up activities they use frequently and provide information on other types which were not listed Also in question 8, the teachers are asked to number each of the five types that they selected in the order of the least to the most frequency

3.4.2 Observation

In the Oxford dictionary, observation is defined as "the act of watching somebody or something carefully in a period of time, especially to learn something" The writer also observed the lessons of each teacher to find out how those participants organized warm-up activities in their classes Aside from

questionnaires and teachers’ interviews, the writer chose different lessons to observe as listed below:

Table 3.3: Details of the class observation

Son Cam 1 secondary

The information needed to be collected and analyze includes the types and time duration of warm-up activities, the participation of students and how teachers

deal with problems (if any) when organizing these activities

3.4.3 Interviews

Besides questionnaires and observations, the writer decided to choose interviews as another chosen data collection instrument This type is one of the most commonly used instruments in studies A group of authors whose names are Mathers Fox N, and Hunn A stated that "there are a range of approaches to interviewing, from completely unstructured in which the subject is allowed to talk freely about what they wish, and highly structured in which the subject responses