How to prepare and organize a successful speaking lesson for high school students

Trang 1

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, M.A, without whose valuable comments and guidance, my thesis would not have been accomplished

My special thanks go to all teachers of Foreign Languages Faculty and English major students from Course 35 at Hanoi Pedagogical University Nồ.2 in the academic year of 2012-2013 They helped me to complete my graduation

Trang 2

ABSTRACT

Many researchers have done many studies on speaking in general and speaking lesson in particularly They give principles, problems, and characteristics of a speaking lesson In addition, they mention many other factors in a speaking lesson, i.e teacher and studentsỖ role, effective ways of organizing a speaking lesson It is obvious that students together with the teacher are the most important ones Modern teaching methods of foreign languages count on involving the use of different forms of organizing activities and activities used in a speaking lesson

The thesis focuses on finding the most common ways of preparing and organizing a good speaking lesson Primary data was collected from fifty trainee teachers from K35A of Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hanoi Pedagogical University Nồ.2 Some limitations and directions have been indicated for future research

Trang 3

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title:

HOW TO PREPARE AND ORGANIZE A SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING LESSON FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

(Submitted in partial fulfillment for Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English)

I certify that all the materials in this study which are not my own work have been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a degree has been conferred upon me

Date submitted: May 2013

Student Supervisor

Pham Thi Thu Trang Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, M.A

Trang 4

TABLE OF CONTENT

[.\9.4901405)9.65)).05)1151010107577 i L1): a0 ự STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP 0111 iii IV :)0559) 099) 6050ĐSS iv

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

cu ốố 1

IL 6000-1100) 000010087 2 II; u00 4i, 1< 2 I2 vụ) 1 2 Con 2 VI Research methOdSs .- Ề- 6 6 E61 3E E111 51 1 21 TH HT TH TH Hệ 2 VII Significance of the proposed research 6 6xx k9 21 1 cư 2 VII Design of the research WOLK 3

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Trang 5

IL.1 Characteristics of a successful speaking actiVity 00 cceeceeeceeeeceeeeeeteceeeeneeee 5

II v00) 9004000039145 1 6

IENSđr Tuể 0.) ả on nh 7

IESSNN/46 0 7

IS 0n 8

II.3.3 PresẠntafIOTI 6 1S kh TH TH TH HT TH HT TH TH TH Hà như 8 IEX 0 8

IS 9

IL.4 Forms of organizing activities in a speaking lesSOH - 5 +5 ề<+s<+<<<< + 9 IEDRA2005 15 4 9

II C000 10

IS cố 11

TI.4.4 Individual WOFÍ - ề<< SE TH HT TH TH TH TH TH He 13 IIS TeacherỢs roles during a speaking ỳesSOH - 6< + +23 ặ<ặseặseesx 13 I6 StudentsỢ roles in a speaking ỳẠSSOH - 5 <6 S513 <6 2E SkEskrsexse 14 II.7 Tips for teachers on preparing and organizing a speaking lesson 15

IL.7.1 i21.) ả on 15

IUANNSi2ii 100 ) 0 15

Trang 6

II ăn on 21

II VZZ ác a 21

IS 22

Iđỏa 3 24

I.1 Rationale for the use of survey quẠsfIOTII417G Ư5< 5+ +e + ++* + +++e sex 24 I Purpose of the 0i 24

IE X00: 00a, 24

I N69) 300000003 24

R10 25

1.6 Steps of the data analysis IL Results of the SUrVeY ce 25

IL.1 i21) ả on 25 II 6v nv20 38.0) -Ề 0 nh 26 TE.2.1 Warm-Up 26 T1.2.2 InfTOdUCfIOTI G5 SE 225222 2% E313 E1 51 1125 11 712 101171 1g ng 27 IV No on nh - .- 28 II 3 29 IV 5 30

Trang 7

IL Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study ;3235:99)I05001 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE . c2

Trang 8

PART ONE INTRODUCTION I Rationale

In the globalization age today, English assumes as a more and more important part as a means of international communication than ever Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to the studentsỖ needs for effective communication

However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come up to the study aims Despite teachersỖ efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many high schools in Vietnam

English teaching program for high school students in Vietnam has been changed since the academic year 2006- 2007 Therefore, there are many unprecedented things in the textbook in which a unit is divided into five lessons, i.e reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus

Speaking is one of new skills in teaching program It is said that speaking is the skill students have a lot of difficulties in learning Students seem to be reluctant, and reluctance to speak is seen as the biggest challenge Moreover, a speaking lesson depends on both teacher and learners While a teacher is trying to organize a speaking lesson, his students do not pay attention to the lesson or in other words, they do not take part in speaking activities at class As a result, the lessonỖs objectives could not be achieved

Through the process of teaching practice at Nguyen Van Huyen High School and discussion with English teachers there, I realize that it is necessary to give some ways to prepare and organize more successful speaking lessons

Trang 9

II Research presupposition

This study is about speaking lesson and I am making an analysis in preparing and organizing a speaking lesson so that the question is raised:

What are the effective ways to prepare and organize a speaking lesson? III Research objectives

The study is carried out to find out effective ways of preparing and organizing a speaking lesson at high schools

IV Research scope

The general research scope of this study is methodology

The population involved in the study is 50 students from K35 English major of Foreign Language Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University Nồ.2

V Research tasks

The paper studies reality of preparing and organizing speaking lessons at high schools and documents that gives tips of preparing and organizing a speaking lesson to finish the research objective

VI Research methods

To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied:

- Documents collection - Analysis

- Survey questionnaire

VII Significance of the proposed research

Trang 10

teaching practice Therefore, hopefully, the thesis is beneficial to both students and teachers in preparing and organizing a speaking lesson

VIII Design of the research work

The study has three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

Part one is the Introduction In this part, the rational, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are presented

The next part, Development consists of two chapters Chapter one is entitled ỘTheoretical BackgroundỢ dealing with literature review, overview of speaking lesson (characteristic of a successful speaking lesson, problems with speaking activity, stages of a speaking lesson, forms of organizing speaking activities, teachersỖ and studentsỖ roles in a speaking lesson, tips for preparing and organizing a successful speaking lesson) Chapter two is named ỘThe ResultsỢ including overall of survey and the result of survey

The last part is the Conclusion which includes the summary of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

Trang 11

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I Literature review

Many researchers, i.e Terry (2008), Richards (2011), Harmer (2001) and Byrne (1991), have done many studies on speaking in general and speaking lesson in particularly

Terry (2008) presented that a speaking lesson consists of three main stages Specifically, in the pre-communicative stage, teachers are supposed to introduce the communicative function, highlight the fixed expression, point out the target structure and provide students with the necessary vocabulary and the language of interaction In the practice stage, teachers prompt and correct students if necessary In the last stage of communicative interaction, teachers encourage language negotiation among students, take notes of any aspects that may hinder communication such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc After this stage, teachers give students feedback on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and ask students to repeat the task if necessary

In the book ỘCreating effective language lessonsỢ, Richards and Bohlke (2011) introduce four possible ways to arrange a class: whole class teaching, individual work, group works, and pair works These four forms of organizing activities at class depend on the type of lesson and on the particular stage of the lesson Whole-class involves teaching all students together, and when carefully carried out, it can lead to the quick and effective achievement of lesson objectives Individual work allows students to work at their own pace and to work on activities suited to their level or interest Whereas, pair works can take into consideration between two students, and students who are not familiar with this learning arrangement may need careful orientation and preparation for pair-work

Trang 12

activities Lastly, group works are said that they increase studentsỖ talking time and can increase studentsỖ motivation by providing a risk-free environment for language practice

Teachers play important roles in a speaking lesson Byrne (1991) divides the roles of the teacher according to the type of interaction activity (fluency and accuracy activities) In addition, Harmer (2001) mentions three basic roles that teachers take on including: prompter, participant, and feedback provider

In short, many researchers have done many research on speaking lesson, however they have not paid much attention to how to prepare and organize a speaking lesson for high schools students Therefore, it is essential to carry out this study on how to prepare and organize a successful speaking lesson for high school students

II Overview of the speaking lesson

II.1 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Successful speaking activities are highly motivating, have a real purpose to prompt communication and can use almost any type of language

There are many characteristics of a successful speaking activity which are introduced by Ur (1996) as follows:

ồ Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses

ồ Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

Trang 13

ồ Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the criteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned- above criteria

II.2 Problems with speaking activities

According to Ur (1996), there still exists some problems with speaking activities as follows:

ồ Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

ồ Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking ồ Low or uneven participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard, and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little time talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all

Trang 14

classes-particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones- to keep to the target language

In order for the learners to develop their communicative skills, it is advised that the language teachers should help the learners to overcome these problems with speaking activities

11.3 Stages of a speaking lesson

It is advised that a successful speaking lesson often includes five stages: warm- up, introduction, presentation, practice, and the last, review

11.3.1 Warm-up

According to Kerns (2006), warm-up is defined as an activity to focus learnerỖs attention on the lesson objective

Having a good warm-up activity is important to an English language lesson, as it sets the student up for success on many different levels

The warm up of a lesson often receives less attention than it should Teachers spend a lot of time preparing explanations and worksheets to introduce and practice the target language, for example They then enter the classroom without preparation or not well for the first five minutes

Because it's the first activity of the lesson, the warm up sets the tone for the next forty-five minutes A fun warm up, therefore, raises energy levels Fun activities help students relaxed, comfortable and even confident With the right warm up, teacher will create a positive atmosphere to practice and experiment with the language

A warm up should generally last about five minutes Without enough time to get warmed up, though, students will continue to make mistakes during the early stages of the lesson - important time needed to present and drill the new material Students may be slow to understand, too, because those wheels aren't

Trang 15

time gets lost from the main focus of the lesson Students have less time to acquire the new material

11.3.2 Introduction

The introduction of an effective lesson plan will set up the activities to follow This part of the lesson plan will introduce students to the concepts and goals of the lesson It will also help students understand how the lesson plan relates to previous lessons and future lessons (Burden & Byrd, 2003) Giving students a guideline of what they will gather from the plan will help the class achieve the goals

The introduction also provides interest and motivation to the students It focuses students' attention on the lesson and its purposes It also convinces students that they will benefit from the lesson

11.3.3 Presentation

The presentation part of the lesson is when teacher presents new information and checks for comprehension In order to help students actually digest the new information rather than just swallow it, this portion of the lesson must be paired with clear explanations of the grammar, new words along with examples It is highly recommended to show several clear and concise examples, in context Before moving on to next part of the lesson, make sure students have some understanding of the material they just learned, as well as an understanding of its meaning and proper use

11.3.4 Practice

The practice is defined as when learners are provided opportunities to practice the new knowledge that has been presented

The practice stage of the lesson is where the student gets involved The goal of the practice stage is that students use the material teacher presented in context This is where the teacher provides activities/exercises for students The teacherỖs role in this part of the lesson is to manage students, and encourage them to use

Trang 16

the new language by working in groups or pairs The activities or exercises teacher can prepare for this stage may vary: a short role-play, games, fill-in-the blanks, guided dialogue, information gaps, and problem solving activities are all some great ideas The practice in a speaking lesson should focus on oral Upon termination, the teacher can collect these activities to grade and return, or review the answers in class together This part of the lesson will take up the bulk of class time It will serve to ensure students have a solid grasp on the material teacher had just presented It's best to use a large range of practice activities to keep students intrigued and excited

11.3.5 Review

Review is the stage teacher provides an activity that assesses learners on their attainment of the lesson objective

Teacher should aim to leave about 5 minutes at the end of a 45-minute lesson to this stage Not only does it signify to the students that the lesson is coming to an end, but it also allows the instructor to address any problems and clarify what the students learned

IL.4 Forms of organizing activities in a speaking lesson

A successful lesson obviously depends on the kinds of interaction you provide for during the lesson This will include opportunities for interactions between you and the students as well as interactions among the students themselves There are four possible ways to arrange a class: whole-class teaching, individual work, group work, and pair work

11.4.1 Whole-class

Trang 17

with the teacher, where all the students are Ổlocked intoỖ the same rhythm and pace, the same activity.Ợ

This mode of teaching involves teaching all the students together; the use of whole-class teaching depends on the type of lesson you are teaching and on the particular stage of the lesson Whole-class teaching is most common used for the beginning of lesson (Richards, Lockhart 1999)

Whole-class teaching can aim at focusing studentsỖ attention quickly on a learning task And it enables teaching large numbers of learners at the same time and can serve as a preparation for the subsequent activities However, the unavoidable disadvantage is the little opportunity for learnersỖ oral practice To conclude, when planning your teaching, you need to consider when whole-

class teaching is appropriate in order to promote lessonỖs efficiency 11.4.2 Group work

In Adrian Doff (1991), group work is described as follows: ỘIn group work, the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group).Ợ

Group work has not only great advantages but also considerable disadvantages Advantages of group work

By dividing the class into groups, students get more opportunities to talk than in full class organization, and each student can say something Penny Ur (1996) recommends that teachers working with a large class should divide them into small groups which are the most effective organization for practicing speaking Working in a group, children are more engaged not only intellectually but emotionally as well They have to think, contribute to the group, evaluate what other members of the group say, share information, and prepare a presentation together They also use information previously given by the teacher or

Trang 18

contributed by the members of the group to express themselves more fully and improve the quality of their performance

In the long run, group work develops learners' independence At first preparing a group presentation may requires more effort from the student However, using this technique regularly students become more efficient and skilled at practicing the language Students learn how to learn and gradually take responsibility for their own learning

Disadvantages of group work

In the process of working, there would be unavoidable problems which might occur with the students Because there are usually four or five students in each group, they can make noise while working on the task, and do not concentrate on the task if the task is not clear and goes for too long

When learners work in groups, it is impossible for the teacher to listen and correct all the mistakes they make and this is not the purpose of the activity However, the teacher can reduce the number of mistakes before the students start working by demonstrating the activity to the class first and by asking groups to perform in front of the class afterwards and discussing what they said and pointing out the most common mistakes (Doff, 1988:141)

To sum it up, group work tends to support cooperative learning, and may give confidence and encourage shy students when handling the target language 11.4.3 Pair works

To begin with, Bryne (1991) divides pair work into three kinds: open pairs, fixed pairs, and flexible ones During open pair work, a student talks to another across the class under the teacherỖs control While learners work with the same partner in order to complete a task in fixed pairs Finally, working in the flexible pairs presupposes that students keep changing their partner (for example, interviewing other classmates)

Trang 19

On the other hand, Doff (1991) defines pair work as follows: Ộin pair work, the teacher divides the whole class into pairs Every student works with his or her partner, and all the pairs work at the same time.Ợ

Similarly as group work, pair work has its own advantages and disadvantages Advantages of pair work

Harmer (2001) describes five advantages of pair work in a speaking lesson as follows:

It increases the amount of speaking time when students get in class It also allows students to work and interact independently without the guidance of the teacher, thus promoting studentsỖ independence It allows teacher time to work with one or two pairs while others continue working It helps promoting cooperation in the class because Ộtwo head are betters than oneỢ If the teacher gets students make decisions in pairs, they would share responsibility rather than having to face up to the task themselves Finally, it is relatively quick and easy to organize

Disadvantages of pair work

Harmer (2001) also states disadvantages of pair work beside its advantages Pair work is very noisy and some teachers and students dislike this Teachers worry that they will lose control of their class

Students in pairs can have different point of an exercise, so the chance of ỔmisbehaviorỖ can take place in the class

It is not always popular with students, many of whom want to relate to the teacher and do not interact with another learner who may be just as weak as they

are

The actual choice of paired partner can be problematic especially if students have to work with someone who they are not keen on

Trang 20

11.4.4 Individual work

Harmer (2001) calls it with other name Ổstudents on their ownỖ At the opposite of the spectrum of whole-class grouping, students work with the pattern of individualized learning Students must do exercises in their own in class while teachers are able to spend time working with other students And Harmer (2001) also states that ỘSuch individualized learning is a vital step in the development of learner autonomy.Ợ

Advantages of individual work

Students work at their own pace, they are confident about what they know and what they need to send more time on, they can use their preferred learning styles and strategies

ỘIt can develop learner autonomy and promote skills of self-reliance and investigation over teacher-dependence.Ợ (Harmer, 2001)

It can be a way for teachers to control class in peace and avoid a Ổnoisy and chaotic situationỖ (Harmer, 2001)

Disadvantages of individual work

Students donỖt get the benefit of learning from and working with their peers When giving individual students different tasks, it means that teachers have a great preparation of thought and materials than whole-class teaching When teachers work with individual students, it takes much more time than interacting with the whole class (Harmer, 2001)

11.5 TeacherỖs roles during a speaking lesson

Caroline Terry (2008) describes teacher roles during a speaking lesson A teacher can act as an organizer, a prompter, an observer, a participant, an assessor, a feedback provider, and the last, a resource

>Ừ Teachers can act as an organizer means that the teachers can do the task of getting students engaged and getting the activity

Trang 21

Ừ When teachers act as a prompter, it means that the teachers can provide students with chunks not words

Ừ Teachers act as an observer means that the teachers can analyze what causes communication breakdown

>Ừ Teachers can act as a participant means that the teachers do not monopolize or initiate the conservation

> Teachers can act as an assessor when they can record mental or written samples of language produced by students

Ừ Teachers can act as a feedback provider means that they can tell students hoe proficient their performance was

>Ừ The teachers can act as a resource because they can provide students with tools to improve their oral performance

Based on the reflection of the studentsỖ behavior in the classroom, Nunan and Lamp (1996) grade the roles of the teacher from the most problematic, in terms of participantsỖ roles and behavior They include the roles of: controller, entertainer, disciplinarian, and a developer of a sense of independence and responsibility The teacher establishing control, giving directions, threats and punishment, is labeled as ỔcontrollerỖ The teacher acts as an ỔentertainerỖ? when the teacher introduces games and recreational activities, or reading stories and classroom atmosphere is noisy but positive The ỔdisciplinarianỖ establishes rules to be followed and is quick to notice any misbehavior; while the teacher who spends time teaching lesson, not requiring a close supervision, he/she shows as Ổdeveloper of a sense of independence and responsibilityỖ

11.6 StudentsỖ roles in a speaking lesson

Riddell (2010) summarizes that our students usually have different favored learning styles, influenced by their previous learning experiences Most prefer, or accept the advantages of, a mostly communicative approach to their learning Students have to accept some responsibility for their own learning and not rely only on the teacher Learning has to include authentic practice, and has to

Trang 22

continue outside the classroom Students need motivation and commitment Students prefer Ở and expect Ở English to be the only language spoken in the lessons, except with very low-level classes Everything which has been mentioned inevitably affects the role of the teacher and how she plans her teaching

IL.7 Tips for teachers on preparing and organizing a speaking lesson IL.7.1 Preparing a speaking lesson

II.7.1.1 Preparing the lesson plan

Most teachers engage in yearly, term, unit, weekly, and daily lesson planning Therefore, before they enter a classroom, it means that teachers need to plan to lecture, outline of content of the lectures and the way he/she will get students involved (Svinicki and McKeachie, 2006)

Maybe many teachers may ask themselves why they should write plans for every lesson And there is a fact that not many teachers enter a classroom without some kind of plan Lesson plan are methodical records of a teacherỖs thought about what will be covered during a lesson Richards (1998) suggests that lesson plans help the teachers Ộresolve problems and difficulties, to provide a structure for a lesson, to provide a ỔmapỖ for teacher to follow and to provide a record of what has been taughtỢ

Also according to Richards and Renandya (2002), daily lesson planning can benefit English teachers in the following ways:

A plan can help the teachers think about content, materials, timing and activities, provides security in the unpredictable atmosphere of a classroom, and a plan is a log of what has been taught

Because every teacher has different style of teaching, therefore they must Ộallow themselves flexibilityỢ (Richards and Renandya, 2002) to plan in their own ways A clear lesson plan will maintain the attention of students, generate their interest, and save time

Trang 23

II.7.1.2 Planning for out-of-class learning

It is easy for teachers to imagine that what happens in class is important to studentsỖ learning, but they can see what happens after the lesson finishes because it is often visible Therefore when they do their planning , most teachers give their attention to covering content in class rather than to what happens out of class, according to Starks and Lattuca (1997) (as cited in Svinicki and McKeachie, 2006)

In fact, students may spend more time studying out of class than they do in class Thus teachers need to focus on what they expect students to do outside class

IL.7.1.3 Choosing appropriate teaching methods

As any good teacher knows, all students do not learn in the same way In addition, it is common for a class of students to be at a variety of levels in English subject With so many different approaches and methods available, many teachers are unsure of which to choose and how to make choice (Harmer, 2001) It is extremely difficult to give conclusions about which approaches and methods are best or most appropriate for every teaching situation Teachers need to use different teaching methods in order to reach all students effectively A variety of teaching strategies, knowledge of student levels, and an implementation of which strategies are best for particular students can help teachers to know which teaching methods will be most effective for their class II.7.1.4 Selecting appropriate teaching aids

It is quite possible to teach an effective speaking lesson without any teaching aids because students can become bored sitting in a classroom for hours Teachers can use various teaching aids besides textbooks to generate studentsỖ interest and demonstrate how things work Visual aids, such as whiteboards or chalkboards, charts, maps, flash cards, and calendars are commonly used in a

Trang 24

speaking lesson Multimedia displays and computers have become popular teaching aids in speaking lessons

When used appropriately, teaching aids can provide opportunities for students to interact with the content of the lesson (Svinicki and McKeachie, 2006)

II.7.2 Organizing a speaking lesson TI.7.2.1 Warm-up

In section | in this chapter, the Warm Up is shown to be the first stage of the lesson In short, the purpose of this stage is primarily to get students' brains into English mode, to make them feel comfortable with the lessons What should a teacher do to organize an effective warm-up?

How long should the warm up be?

It depends on the length of the lesson In a 45- minute lesson, 5 minutes would be appropriate If it is longer, it will take time away from one of the other stages meaning that the target language won't be practiced enough or there won't be enough time for students to use it enough in the next stages

How to do the warm up

Of course there is no unique way to conduct the warm up However, in order to achieve the goals of the warm up, the teacher should greet the class at first And surely, when making the lesson plan, the teacher prepares the activity he/she will use in the classroom By what way does he/she set up an activity effectively? Choosing a warm-up activity

Depending on the level and lesson plan, you may choose any kind of activity as long as it's easy, fun, student-centered, and it involves all the students

Also, it's best not to do a warm-up activity that requires the use of the lesson's target language The reason is that the students have yet to learn it It's effective to have an activity where they can use their own target language or activate

Trang 25

knowledge on the topic Consider the following warm-up activity for a lesson on the present perfect

Students tell each other about their travel experiences and ask each other follow- up questions

In this activity, the students will be talking about travel which is related to the lesson's topic If students know the present perfect they will use it on their own accord If they don't, they can simply use the simple past Either way, they can concentrate on the task at hand rather than trying to navigate new target language This is also a good opportunity for teacher to see how strong the students are

How to set up an activity effectively

The key to setting up an activity is to do it clearly and simply To do this, you need to walk into the classroom prepared with a clear idea of what you want them to do

However, even the best warm-up activity can fail if it's poorly set up Here are some suggestions for setting up the warm up

Firstly, teacher should speak simply Teachers need to speak simply For example, in beginner's classes, avoid using phrases like "What I want you to do is open your bookỖ This is a high-level grammatical structure Instead, use imperatives such as 'Open your bookỖ Also, teachers need to avoid large, difficult vocabulary There is no need to say 'immense' or 'massive' when you can say 'big' or ỔlargeỖ

Secondly, teacher should speak at a speed suitable

Thirdly, teacher should use the same phrases each lesson Use the same phrases every time you set up activities Here are some useful phrases: - In pairs, (do this)

- Find a partner

Trang 26

- Change partners - Begin

- Stop

- Listen and Repeat - For example

Next, teacher should use gestures Gestures are extremely useful for setting up activities For example, use your hands to indicate how they should pair up Then, he/she could use the whiteboard Many students are visual learners Being able to see the activity on the board helps them to understand It also means they don't have to remember instructions as well as the questions

Furthermore, teacher should provide examples If you are teaching a lower-level class, it may be best to provide or elicit examples for the class to starting the activity This also gives the weaker students some ideas

Finally, teacher should check comprehension of difficult vocabulary Although teachers should always try to use simple vocabulary when setting up activities, sometimes difficult words can't be avoided To deal with this, simply ask the class if they understand If they do, ask them give an example If not, give a brief description

What should and should not teacher do?

During the warm-up stage, the teachers should be as low as possible and students talk time should be high This is easily achieved if the teacher can follow these

Firstly, teachers are not advised correct students during the warm up as they are just warming up, it may affect their confidence, and they havenỖt learned

anything yet

Secondly, teachers monitor the students' performances and interactions: You can see how they interact with one another and if there are any personality clashes; determine who the stronger/weaker students are (this can make pair

Trang 27

work more effective); and, assess what they know (depending on this initial assessment, the lesson plan may have to be adapted)

Thirdly, teachers are not suggested to join in activities, set up activities that are unrelated to the lesson and do not simply tell students to chat to a partner but give them a reason for speaking

IL.7.2.2 Introduction

There are many ways to present an introduction Here are some examples: asking questions to get the students thinking about the topic of the lesson, showing pictures that relate to the lesson topic, telling a story to show the importance of the topic, bringing in real objects related to the lesson

Above all, when teaching English to people whose English skills are limited, it is essential to ensure that students understand the introduction by keeping the language simple, illustrating the introduction, checking students' comprehension periodically

In addition, teachers should keep the language of your introduction understandable by using short, uncomplicated sentences, using simple, basic vocabulary, speaking slowly and distinctly and pausing briefly between

sentences

You will have to be sensitive to your particular students (watch their faces, ask them for feedback, check their actual comprehension) in order to adjust all these factors to the right level for them

When checking studentsỖ comprehension, it is not enough to ask, "Do you understand?" They will usually nod their heads or say, "Yes," even when they are lost Teachers are advised to ask them to do something to show that they understand

Trang 28

II.7.2.3 Presentation

The presentation phase of the lesson is when the teacher introduces new information Therefore, to have an effective presentation, teachers are advised to speak up to 75% of the time, as they are presenting information The teachers should set a natural context in which the language is hidden, in order to convey the meaning of the new language and show the form Ở how the grammar is formed

The teachers also should demonstrate and work on correct pronunciation and highlight stress and intonation patterns Moreover, he/she highlights spelling and any irregularities with the new language The teacher focuses on accuracy when correcting students at this stage, and asks concept check questions to see if students have understood The teacher illustrates the presentation with pictures, real objects, gestures, or anything else that can helps make the meaning clear II.7.2.4 Practice

The practice is when learners are provided opportunities to practice the new knowledge that has been presented Which suggestions are good for this stage? Firstly, the teachers let students speak up to 90% of the time

In this stage, teachers should approach to learner-centered environment because it is more effective than other models of teaching for several reasons, for example, it encourages students to take more personal responsibility for their learning, and it generates more studentsỖ participation and target language output

Secondly, the teachers use activities for students to practice the task orally It is obvious that teachers should motivate students take part in activities in which they can practice orally This is the biggest objective in a speaking lesson Next, the teachers encourage lots of pair work and group work during this

Stage

Trang 29

As been mentioned before, pair work and group work give the students far more chances to speak English in the classroom Students participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in talking to their friends exchanging opinions, practicing new structures more than listening to their teachers talking This is important when English lessons usually take place three times a week, teachers have to practice, develop all the language skills and it happens that there is no time left for speaking So if a teacher has ten minutes left during the lesson it is better to divide the class into groups and pairs and to give the learners opportunity to really use the language to communicate with each other

Then teachers monitor the class but does not correct until the end

It is necessary to monitor the class because teachers need to check studentsỖ understanding, circulate around the classroom seatwork and make sure that all of students take part in the task

Finally, the teachers focus on fluency rather than accuracy II.7.2.5 Review

The review is the complement to the lesson's warm up You should aim to leave 5 minutes at the end of the lesson (depending on the length) to this stage Not only does it signify to the students that the lesson is coming to an end, but it also allows the instructor to address any problems and clarify what the students learned

During this stage, teachers should do at least one of the following: Firstly, correct any mistakes that were heard during the practice

Why should teachers correct mistakes in this stage? In the practice stage, if the teachers correct every student every time he/she makes a mistake, he/she will always be thinking about mistakes and that will slow down their speaking Speaking very slowly and correcting all the time will make it hard for students to talk to their teachers without getting bored and impatient

Trang 30

Secondly, review the lesson's target language Thirdly, give feedback on their performance

Feedback on studentsỖ spoken language not only lets students know how well they have performance but also increases motivation and build a motivate attitude

Next, manage classroom and manage time

Managing classroom and managing time in this stage are paid attention to because this stage is the signal for the ending of lesson, therefore, students can neglect their duties and not listen to what teacher is saying

Trang 31

CHAPTER TWO THE RESULTS

In chapter one, the theoretical background has been given for the study This chapter describes the research methods It is divided into two parts The first part offers the survey questionnaire planned to investigate some tips of preparing and organizing a speaking lesson The second part introduces the results got from the survey

I Survey

1.1 Rationale for the use of survey questionnaire

Survey is a method of gathering information by giving the participants a prepared questionnaire Survey questionnaires were chosen because they allowed collecting a large amount of data in a relatively short time

1.2 Purpose of the survey

The overall objective of the questionnaire survey is to find out effective way of preparing and organizing a speaking lesson at high school

1.3 Population of the survey

The population of the survey is 50 fourth-year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University Nồ.2 They have learned how to prepare a speaking lesson plan, how to organize a speaking lesson at the class And one more important thing, they have had opportunities to have one-month teaching practice at high schools in the first term of the school year 2012-2013 In fact, they prepared lesson plans and organized speaking lesson at the classes

1.4 Construction of the survey

The survey is for the forth-year English students at Hanoi Pedagogical University Nồ.2 It consists of two parts Part I has main purpose to seek out the general information about the participants (questions 1, 2) and studentsỖ opinion on ways they used to prepare and organize a speaking lesson (questions 3, 4, 5, 6,

Trang 32

7, 8) Part II is about studentsỖ reaction after the lessons in which they applied some suggestions in part I

1.5 Try-out

The survey was conducted on March 27, 2013 It was carried out after the students of K35A were carefully taught about how to prepare a lesson plan and organize a speaking lesson in the class The students were asked to do the questionnaire with their own experience after a month of teaching practice 1.6 Steps of the data analysis

The data was analyzed in four steps In the first step, the studentsỖ self- assessment was analyzed The mostly ways of preparing and organizing a speaking lesson were found out in step two In the next step, the average percentage of these two findings was calculated Then, the levels of these suggestions were ranked from the highest to the lowest

II Results of the survey

II.1 Preparing a speaking lesson plan

In the data collected from the survey questionnaire, three of four suggestions of the question, i.e preparing lesson plan, choosing appropriate teaching methods, and selecting appropriate teaching aids were chosen by many students Preparing a lesson plan reaches the highest rate with 98% of the students It is followed by choosing the appropriate teaching methods with 94% The next position is selecting appropriate teaching aids for the lesson with 88% It is not surprising when the data are like this However, the rest choice, planning for out-of-class learning, was only chosen by 10% students In addition, the K35A students did not provide any idea for this

This is certainly a predictable result As said in the background knowledge and as seen in the reality, the three tips, preparing lesson plan, choosing appropriate teaching methods, and selecting appropriate teaching aids, are paid much attention to because these are initial and prerequisite factors to ensure for

Trang 33

successful speaking lessons For the rest tip given by Svinicki and McKeachie (2006), planning for out-of-class, in my opinion is towards a further purpose, for example, the coming speaking lesson or studentsỖ speaking skills

II.2 Organizing a speaking lesson

To find out suggestions for organizing a speaking lesson, in the questionnaire survey, I give five questions to collect the tips used by the teachers at the high schools in speaking lessons

11.2.1 Warm-up

The warm up plays an important role in any speaking lesson However, through the survey, it was recognized that the warm up was not paid as much attention to as I had thought

Table 1: Data collected from question 4 part I in the survey questionnaire

Định dạng
Số trang	47
Dung lượng	5,4 MB