The effects of warm up activitives on motivating students to participate in speaking lesson at grade 10 nonmajor students at thuan thanh high school

I am also very grateful to teachers of English at English Department of Thuan Thanh 3 High School, Bac Ninh, who have been willing to answer my questions and have given me invaluable adv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

Statement of authorship iii

Table of contents vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I Rationale 1

II Research presupposition 2

III Research objectives 2

IV Research scope 2

V Research methods 2

VI Significance of the proposed research 2

VII Design of the research work 3

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORICAL BACKGROUND I Literature review 4

II The nature of speaking 5

II.1.What is speaking? 5

II.2 The role of speaking skills 6

II.3 Speaking activities 7

II.3.1 A successful speaking activity 7

II.3.2 Problems with speaking activities 8

II.3.3 Principles to teach speaking skills 9

III Factors affecting students’ performance in speaking lessons 10

III.1 Student factors 11

III.1.1 Students’ learning styles 11

III.1.2 Students’ motivation 11

III.1.3 Students’ language levels 12

III.2 Teacher factors 13

III.2.1 Teachers’ teaching methods 13

III.2.2 Teachers’ knowledge 13

III.2.3 Teachers’ instructions 14

III.3.External factors 15

III.3.1.Time limitations 15

III.3.2 Classroom and materials restraints 15

IV Stages of a speaking lesson 15

IV.1 Warm-up 16

IV.2 Introduction 17

IV.3 Presentation 18

IV.4 Practice 18

IV.5 Review 19

V Warm up 19

V.1 Definition of warm up activities 19

V.2 The importance of warm up 19

V.3 The functions of warm up stage 20

V.4 Principles of using warm up activities in speaking class in high school 20

V.5 The need of using warm up activities in speaking class 22

V.6 Some common activities used in warm up stage in class 24

V.6.1 Music 24

V.6.1.1 Ways to use music in classroom 24

V.6.1.1.1 Set the scene: 24

V.6.1.1.2 Change the tempo 24

V.6.1.1.3 Musical drawings 24

V.6.1.2 Tips for using music in classroom 25

V.6.1.2.1.Time limits 25

V.6.1.2.2 Feelings of students 25

V.6.1.2.3 Trying to use music which students like as much as possible 2

V.6.2 Games 25

V.6.2.1 Tips for using games 26

V.6.2.1.1 Well- prepared 2

V.6.2.1.2 Easy to play 2

V.6.2.1.3 Time limits 26

V.6.3.Story 27

V.6.3.1 Reasons for using story 27

V.6.3.1.1 Stories are very motivating, challenging and great fun for students 27

V.6.3.1.2 Students can share social experience when they listen to stories in class 27

V.6.3.1.3 Students exercise their imagination through stories 28

V.6.3.1.4 Stories also “develop the different types of ‘intelligences’ that contribute to language learning, including emotional intelligence” 28

V.6.3.2 Sources of stories 28

V.6.3.2.1 Experiences 28

V.6.3.2.2.Folktales 28

V.6.3.2.3 Books 28

V.6.3.3 Tips for using story 2

V.6.3.3.1 Short and simple story 29

V.6.3.3.2 Using pictures or a short video extract to

illustrate the topic 29

V.6.3.3.3 Deciding what words to choose and how to move body and use voice for expression 29

V.6.4 Interview questions 29

V.6.4.1 Tips for using interview questions 29

V.6.4.1.1 Simple questions 29

V.6.4.1.2 Number questions and participants limits 30

VI Overview of action research 30

VI.1 What is action research? 30

VI.2 How does a teacher carry out action research in a language classroom? 31

VI.3 Summary 33

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY I Pre – Improvement stage 34

I.1.Step 1: Identifying the problem 34

I.1.1 Identifying the problem 34

I.1.1.1.Description of the participants of the study 34

I.1.1.1.1 The students 34

I.1.1.1.2 The teacher 34

I.1.1.1.3 The textbook 35

I.1.2 Observing a lesson that illustrated the problem 35

I.1.3 Conducting a survey to get information from students 35

I 2 Step 2: Finding causes of the problem 37

I.2.1 Consulting with colleagues 37

I.2.2 Reading professional books or journals for ideas and suggestions42 II Try – out stage 42

II.1 Step 3: Designing strategies for improvement 42

II.2 Step 4: Trying out strategies and making notes on what happened in the class 43

II.2.1 Teaching Plan 43

II.2.2 Students’ reports 44

III Post – Improvement 44

III.1 Step 5: Evaluating the try – out 44

III.1 Post – improvement class observation 44

III.2 Post – improvement questionnaire for students 46

III.3 Summary 50

PART THREE: CONCLUSION I Summary of the main findings 51

II Implications for more effective writing lessons 51

II.1 To the teachers 51

II.2 To the classroom facilities 52

III Limitations and suggestions for further study 52

IV Conclusion 53

REFERENCES 54

APPENDICES 56

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support of a number of people who all deserve my sincere gratitude and appreciation

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, my respectful supervisor, who has given me the great help to

my study

I am also very grateful to teachers of English at English Department of Thuan Thanh 3 High School, Bac Ninh, who have been willing to answer my questions and have given me invaluable advice and suggestions on the research

of how warm up activities affect to students’ speaking performance and on the completion of my research

I also owe my sincere thanks to all of the students of the classes 10A9 of Thuan Thanh 3 High School, who have been the enthusiastic participants in my action research Without them, my action research could not been completed and successful

I would like to send my thanks to my lecturers, my friends and my classmates for their sincere comments and criticism

In the end, I would like to show my big gratitude to my beloved people,

my husband and my parents, who have constantly inspired and encouraged me

to overcome difficulties to complete this study

Finally, a special word of thanks goes to my readers for their interest and comments on this study

ABSTRACT

Warm up activities in language class has been discussed for a long time and are still on debate Speaking skills are on the same boat It is one of the most outstanding topics in methodology and is a controversial topic as well Acknowledge this fact and the importance of two above aspects, the thesis with the title “The effects of warm up activities on motivating students to participate in speaking lesson at grade 10 non-major students at Thuan Thanh 3 High School” has been done with hope to have a small contribution to language teaching method and to provide some useful know ledges about them

It is hard for the author to deal with everything about them but hopefully, the thesis has introduced something new, creative and advantageous for foreign language teaching

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Title: THE EFFECTS OF WARM UP ACTIVITIES ON MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN SPEAKING LESSON AT GRADE 10 NON- MAJOR STUDENTS AT THUAN THANH 3 HIGH SCHOOL

I certify that no part of this report has been copied and reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgements and the report is originally written by me under strict guidance from my supervisor

Data submitted: May, 2013

NGUYEN THI QUY NGUYEN THI PHUONG LAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

Statement of authorship iii

Table of contents vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I Rationale 1

II Research presupposition 2

III Research objectives 2

IV Research scope 2

V Research methods 2

VI Significance of the proposed research 2

VII Design of the research work 3

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORICAL BACKGROUND I Literature review 4

II The nature of speaking 5

II.1.What is speaking? 5

II.2 The role of speaking skills 6

II.3 Speaking activities 7

II.3.1 A successful speaking activity 7

II.3.2 Problems with speaking activities 8

II.3.3 Principles to teach speaking skills 9

III Factors affecting students’ performance in speaking lessons 10

III.1 Student factors 11

III.1.1 Students’ learning styles 11

III.1.2 Students’ motivation 11

III.1.3 Students’ language levels 12

III.2 Teacher factors 13

III.2.1 Teachers’ teaching methods 13

III.2.2 Teachers’ knowledge 13

III.2.3 Teachers’ instructions 14

III.3.External factors 15

III.3.1.Time limitations 15

III.3.2 Classroom and materials restraints 15

IV Stages of a speaking lesson 15

IV.1 Warm-up 16

IV.2 Introduction 17

IV.4 Practice 18

IV.5 Review 19

V Warm up 19

V.1 Definition of warm up activities 19

V.2 The importance of warm up 19

V.3 The functions of warm up stage 20

V.4 Principles of using warm up activities in speaking class in high school 20

V.5 The need of using warm up activities in speaking class 22

V.6 Some common activities used in warm up stage in class 24

V.6.1 Music 24

V.6.1.1 Ways to use music in classroom 24

V.6.1.1.1 Set the scene: 24

V.6.1.1.2 Change the tempo 24

V.6.1.1.3 Musical drawings 24

V.6.1.2 Tips for using music in classroom 25

V.6.1.2.1.Time limits 25

V.6.1.2.2 Feelings of students 25

V.6.1.2.3 Trying to use music which students like as much as possible 2

V.6.2 Games 25

V.6.2.1 Tips for using games 26

V.6.2.1.1 Well- prepared 2

V.6.2.1.2 Easy to play 2

V.6.2.1.3 Time limits 26

V.6.3.Story 27

V.6.3.1 Reasons for using story 27

V.6.3.1.1 Stories are very motivating, challenging and great fun for students 27

V.6.3.1.2 Students can share social experience when they listen to stories in class 27

V.6.3.1.3 Students exercise their imagination through stories 28

V.6.3.1.4 Stories also “develop the different types of ‘intelligences’ that contribute to language learning, including emotional intelligence” 28

V.6.3.2 Sources of stories 28

V.6.3.2.1 Experiences 28

V.6.3.2.2.Folktales 28

V.6.3.2.3 Books 28

V.6.3.3 Tips for using story 2

V.6.3.3.1 Short and simple story 29

V.6.3.3.2 Using pictures or a short video extract to illustrate the topic 29

V.6.3.3.3 Deciding what words to choose and how to move body and use voice for expression 29

V.6.4 Interview questions 29

V.6.4.1 Tips for using interview questions 29

V.6.4.1.1 Simple questions 29

V.6.4.1.2 Number questions and participants limits 30

VI Overview of action research 30

VI.1 What is action research? 30

VI.2 How does a teacher carry out action research in a language classroom? 31

VI.3 Summary 33

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY I Pre – Improvement stage 34

I.1.Step 1: Identifying the problem 34

I.1.1 Identifying the problem 34

I.1.1.1.Description of the participants of the study 34

I.1.1.1.1 The students 34

I.1.1.1.2 The teacher 34

I.1.1.1.3 The textbook 35

I.1.2 Observing a lesson that illustrated the problem 35

I.1.3 Conducting a survey to get information from students 35

I 2 Step 2: Finding causes of the problem 37

I.2.1 Consulting with colleagues 37

I.2.2 Reading professional books or journals for ideas and suggestions42

II Try – out stage 42

II.1 Step 3: Designing strategies for improvement 42

II.2 Step 4: Trying out strategies and making notes on what happened in the class 43

II.2.1 Teaching Plan 43

II.2.2 Students’ reports 44

III Post – Improvement 44

III.1 Step 5: Evaluating the try – out 44

III.1 Post – improvement class observation 44

III.2 Post – improvement questionnaire for students 46

III.3 Summary 50

PART THREE: CONCLUSION I Summary of the main findings 51

II Implications for more effective writing lessons 51

II.1 To the teachers 51

II.2 To the classroom facilities 52

III Limitations and suggestions for further study 52

IV Conclusion 53

REFERENCES 54

APPENDICES 56

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

At present, English is a compulsory subject in high schools The textbook’s contents are quite good because it consists of four basic skills such as reading, speaking, writing and listening It not only helps students learn grammar structures, new words but also practices English immediately

In fact, there are 6 high schools in my Thuan Thanh district All students

in these schools are taught the same textbook and examed the same tests These tests are only written tests not oral tests Therefore, most students focus on learning grammar structures and new words but ignore speaking As discussion with non-majored students in these high schools about why students have 9 years to learn English but their ability to speak English is very limitation They consider the first reason is that most teachers start a speaking lesson by checking homework which causes students nervous Then instead of applying some activities to raise students’ interest, teachers go straight on a new lesson Sometimes, teachers’ guides are not clear enough for students to understand, so they say nothing in speaking lesson It’s time for them to do other works For long time, students have lost their chances to speak and felt ashamed when speaking According to some teachers, they have applied some activities at the beginning of speaking lessons but time for warm up stage is short, only 5 minutes, however, in 5 minutes they have to check homework as well as do activities so they have not used activities effectively, or sometimes no activities

I am totally disappointed with this fact in my district So in my research, I would like to give some activities used in warm up stage of speaking lesson and some useful tips to apply them effectively in order to raise students’ interest and enhance the effectiveness of speaking lessons in Thuan Thanh 3 High School

II Research presupposition

With regard to suggest some useful activities used in warm up stage in speaking lessons, some questions are raised:

- Do teachers highly appreciate the warm up activities in a speaking lesson?

- How do warm up activities affect the students’ speaking performance?

III Research objectives

Giving activities which can be used in warm up stage in order to enhance effectiveness of the speaking lesson and students’ interest

IV Research scope

The study focus on activities used in warm up stage and how to apply these effectively in speaking lesson

The population involved 50 students in grade 10 and 15 teachers of English in Thuan Thanh 3 High School

V Research methods

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

- Action research is the first method used in this study

- Questionnaire surveys are the second method used in this study The analysis is mainly based on the data collected through the survey questionnaires Besides, the consultation with the supervisor and discussion with friends are also the main supporting methods

VI Significance of the proposed research

Speaking, one of the two productive skills has always a significant position in language teaching Nevertheless, how to teach and learn speaking effectively often poses great problems to both teachers and students For the

teachers of English at high school, speaking is considered a difficult skill to teach Some of them even ignore teaching speaking skill and focus only on grammar exercises for the exams However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier Hopefully, with a range of suggestions

of how to make warm up activities effectively in speaking lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching speaking Therefore, their students will be interested in speaking lessons

VII Design of the research work

The research consists of three parts:

Part I entitled “Introduction” outlines the background of the research In this part, information about the rationale, presupposition, objectives, scope, methods, design and significance of the proposed research are provided

Part II with the title “Development” comprises 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 entitled “The Theoretical Background” provides all necessary information related to speaking skills, speaking activities, warm up activities and action research

Chapter 2 is about the “Action Research Procedure” which shows the steps to conduct the research at Thuan Thanh 3 High School in Bac Ninh

Part III is the “Conclusion” which gives a brief overview on the achievement of the thesis and suggests some extensive topics relating to the thesis

“Reference” is coming next with a list of sources of materials are presented in detail

The thesis ends with “Appendix” part in which the questionnaires of the surveys are also given

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORICAL BACKGROUND

Activities for speaking class are a topic which has been interested and studied

by a lot of writers In “ Warm up activities for speaking class in high school”,

Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A (2005) confirms that speaking skill is one of the most outstanding topics in methodology and is a controversial topic as well Her thesis mentioned to things related to warm up activities in general; all necessary theoretical concepts concerned with the topic such as the Communicative Approach (C.A), the nature of speaking and warm up activities; especially, some useful activities used in warm up stage in speaking lessons

In “Games to teach”, Diana Mungai, Dianne Jones and Lorna Wong (2005)

considered that the use of games that teach can be traced back many thousands

of years The goals of the article are the theoretical foundations behind the use

of games in teaching and training in both college and corporate settings, various uses of games in learning, tools and techniques that help bridge the gap between experiencing the game and tying it to the learning objectives and the value of games as tools that support different learning styles

Veronika Rosova (2007) deals with the use of music in teaching English The attention is paid to songs, mainly focusing on their importance in language teaching both from theoretical and practical point of view It is supported by the research that main subject of which is to find out if music helps to acquire and remember vocabulary

And Carol Read (2010) defines that stories are central to our lives For this reason, the author also believes that it is vital to create a ‘narrative sensibility’ in children in their own language(s) through giving them access to and familiarity

with conventional stories, myths, fables, histories, fairy tales and folk tales that are part of their own culture(s) It is these stories combined with the child’s evolving powers of comprehension, analysis, discussion and imagination that can play an instrumental role in developing children’s sense of who they are

In fact, there have been many people writing about warm up activities and some graduation thesises about these as well However, these materials are too general and difficult to apply in Vietnam Moreover, teachers and students in high schools, actually, are not aware much about the importance of warm up activities These problems have been tossed in the sleep of the author So the thesis with the title “The effects of warm up activities on motivating students to participate in speaking lesson at grade 10 non-major students at Thuan Thanh 3 High School” has been conducted

II The nature of speaking

II.1 What is speaking?

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994, Burn and Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment and the purposes for speaking

It is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions that tend to recur in certain discourses situations can be identified and charted (Burn and Joyce, 1997) Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also those they understand why, when, and in what ways to produce language

Finally, speech has its own skills, structures and conventions different from written language

II.2 The role of speaking skills

Of all four language skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred as “speaker” of that language as if speaking included all others kind of knowing and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak The people who are good at speaking are ones who master not only grammar, pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary but also the social contexts in which language is used In other words, speaking, in real sense, included both producing language and applying it in different circumstances in life In short, in methodological sense, speaking skills are closely related to all other language skills

Nowadays, English is the international language, so the ability of using English in communication is very necessary Admittedly, speaking is the fastest way to exchange information; therefore, more and more people are trying to learn English speaking skills on the purpose of communicating in the modern world This tendency puts speaking in the highest position among all four language skills

It cannot be denied that speaking has its own outstanding forces The fact

is that besides speaking, writing, a productive skill, is also a very useful device

in social communication However, it is quite different from speaking which is a spontaneous activity and we have to spend less time on preparing the content of

a speech than composing an essay

In biological sense, talking is the first ability that one person possesses This also helps us be sure that producing an utterance is easier than giving a composition

What is more, when we speak, we not only produce language items but also express our attitude by using body language such as facial expression, gestures, and by the rhythm of the utterances These extral factors contribute much to the success of an interactional talk That is the typical force of speaking that no other skills have It is this characteristic that makes speaking to be appreciated higher and higher

Teaching speaking skills, therefore, is forces to be developed much to meet the demand of learners

II.3 Speaking activities

II.3.1 A successful speaking activity

It is not easy to carry out successful a speaking activity in classroom if we are not sure about the characteristics of a model of it There have been many arguments about what a successful speaking activity is These following characteristics are accepted the:

The first characteristic is that learners talk a lot Teacher should know that how to get students talk in the target language as much as possible in the time of the activity is the most important If most of the class time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses and very few chances are for students’ talk when carrying out an activity, it cannot be considered to be successful Most of the class time is allotted to the students Teachers only play the role of guiders, so they should let students be free to express their understanding in their own ways

The second one is high motivation It is one of the most important criteria

to evaluate a speaking activity How to create high motivation to students in class and to make the classroom dynamic is the matter that teachers should care when conducting an activity because it is these factors that lead students to study effectively To achieve these, activities used in class must be interesting, they are in favor of the students, right for students’ interests, and they must be carried out in group work, pair work or class work Teacher of English, therefore, should be more careful and wholehearted when planning lessons

The third one is even participation It means that classroom discussion attracts equal contribution of all students If class time is dominated by a minority of talkative participants and no chance of talking is used by the worse during the time of activities, of course, these cannot be seen as successful speaking activities Indeed, uneven participation may badly affect the improvement of speaking ability of the students because some worse students have few practices and day by day they may lose their confidence

Last but not least, it is necessary for teachers to remember that language

of speaking activities must be at the acceptable level In other words, their language should be relevant to students’ degree, easily comprehensible to students and of an acceptable level of language accuracy Obviously, if the language is too difficult, students will be afraid and pressed when they try to speak English or they may not enjoy these activities That is why before deciding which activity is the suitable one; teachers should pay attention to its language’s requirement

I.3.2 Problems with speaking activities

Admittedly, it is quite difficult to talk in the target language even though you are the teachers of foreign languages, how to carry out a speaking activity as well as to get students involved in them is the concern of teachers when teaching English as a second language

There are many problems in teaching and learning English speaking skills faced by teachers and learners The author is going to discuss some popular ones with the hope of helping teachers avoid or overcome those

The first matter is the inhibition feeling of students 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: they are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply of the attention that their speech attracts Teachers should be able to help students to overcome this feeling in the speaking class

The second problem that learners may get into is that they have nothing to say Even if they are not inhibited but 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 This may happen because of the complex of the topics used or the language of activities which are above the degree of learners

In speaking class, students sometime use their mother tongue much more than the target language That is one problem that teachers should care about In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier and because it feels unusual to speak

to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel less “ exposed” if they are speaking in their mother tongue If they are working in small groups, it can be quite difficult to have some classes-particularly; the less disciplined or less motivated ones keep talking in target language This is one of the disadvantages of using group work

One more difficulty occurs in speaking class that is low or uneven participation Only one participant can talk at a time of he or she is be heard, and only in a large group, this means each one will have only very little talking time This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate while others speak very little or not at all The task of teachers is to monitor the class time in order to provide chances of talking to all students in the class fairly When preparing activities for speaking class, teachers of English should pay much attention to the above problems, so that the class time will be successful and useful to students

II.3.3 Principles to teach speaking skills

How to teach speaking skills the most effectively is a big controversial topic Different authors give different opinions about the principles of teaching speaking skills It is important to remember that that the goal in language uses is natural communication, which is why the principles to teach speaking are divided into groups basing on level of students

Forseth Et al (1994) presents principles in teaching speaking for the beginning level (students in high school) as follows:

Teacher should limit the objectives to avoid overwhelming the learners Teachers should provide students with enough structure practice so they can begin interacting at the basic level This will reduce students’ fear and encourage more speaking and later, more free production can come after the

structured practice If the objective are not limited, learners may confused and difficult for them to understand the lesson

Teacher should mix speaking activities with comprehension work: that is, have students listen to the teachers or each other before they speak When students listen before they speak, it leads to more natural speech Comprehension work involve first listening task as well

Teacher should provide activities which involved dialogues and functional use of language That is, activities carried out in classroom should focus on language use rather than knowledge about language, and students are supplied with not only the form but also its meaning What is more, activities should evolve dialogues because dialogues are more concrete and less controlled than structured drills This makes students more communicatively competent

Teacher doesn’t too emphasize the significance of mistakes Students are often afraid of being corrected by teachers and their classmates when they speak English and this prevents the students much from making speech Teachers should remember this principle and apply it in class to avoid stop students’ talking and encourage them to express their ideas without the fear of being corrected This principle follows an important feature that is the focus on meaning and communication rather than grammatical accuracy (though such structural errors can also hinder communication)

Teacher must state the purpose of the activity to the students This may provide a direction for the students’ work They are provide with context or focus to help comprehension and this also allows the learners to concentrate on the task and understand why they are doing it This is a good guide for students

to start working

III Factors affecting students’ performance in speaking lessons

Students’ performance in speaking lesson can be affected by a variety of factors originating from students, teachers and other external factors In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed

III.1 Student factors

III.1.1 Students’ learning styles

Harmer (2001) emphasizes the importance of understanding that there are different individuals in our class if we are to plan appropriate kinds of activities for them Different individuals may have different learning styles, prefer different kinds of work, and expect different degrees of care and attention from the teacher This can be seen clearly that there are different reactions from students toward the warm up stage We can conclude with certainty that if teacher realizes the differences among the individuals in the class when an activity is in progress, the students will participate in the lesson actively

III.1.2 Students’ motivation

Regarding the issue, there are sample definitions of motivation Lightbown and Spada (1999) consider motivation a complex phenomenon and define it in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community while Harmer (2001) defines motivation simply as “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” No one can deny the importance of motivation towards the success in learning a foreign language so we have to understand the sources of motivation According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified They may derive from the society we live in, significant others like parents or old siblings, the teacher and the method Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance For the teacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere For the method, it means involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning If either loses this confident motivation, the chance of success in learning a language will

be very small

Downs (2000) also points out some conditions that help increase students’ motivation He says that motivation increases when students feel acknowledged and understood, when students are confident they can succeed, when language

has a communicative purpose, and when students take responsibility for their own learning

Clearly, motivation plays an important role in the success of language learning in general but we may wonder how much or to what extent motivation accounts for students’ participation in warm up stage We may not give the exact answer but we can conclude with certainty that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level of involvement in warm up stage in common and particularly in students’ performance in speaking lesson To be more concrete, the more motivated students are, the more actively they will participate

in the lesson

III.1.3 Students’ language levels

According to Harmer (2001), in a class where students’ language levels are different, teacher may have some difficulties choosing a suitable teaching method, language and activities used in class Harmer claims that some techniques and exercises are suitable for some students but less appropriate for others The language we use in classroom and in the materials we expose to students must be carefully chosen concerning the complexity, length and genre

With regard to Topic and Genre Harmer says that if students are not interested

in the topics we are asking them to talk about, they are unlikely to invest their language production with the same amount of effort as they would if they were excited by the subject matter If they are unfamiliar with the type of activity we are asking them to talk about, they may find it hard to engage themselves with

the task we have given to them Concerning the Topic and Genre Harmer (2001)

suggests that teachers should take some issues into consideration such as choosing interesting topics, creating interest in the topic, activating schemata, varying topics and genre and providing necessary information In speaking lesson, we do not have the chance to choose the topic However, teacher should choose the suitable genre or activities to motivate students

In brief, the limitation in the students’ language levels can directly affect their participation however much they like the activities We, therefore, should

choose the topics as well as the kinds of activities of their levels to encourage their participation

In conclusion, those are the main factors originating from students’ side that may affect students’ participation in classroom activities For each student, the degrees of effect of those factors may vary and within one factor the degrees

of effect on each student are different First, a class exist different learning styles The teacher should identify which group a student belongs to, this may help students overcome the difficulty getting involved in the activities Second, students’ knowledge including both knowledge of English proficiency and knowledge of field expertise seems directly proportional to their level of involvement in the tasks To be more concrete, the more knowledge students have, the higher degree of participation is In addition, if students are motivated, they will engage themselves more in classroom activities

III.2 Teacher factors

III.2.1 Teachers’ teaching methods

Through the history we have experienced the existence and development

of many teaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher – centered and learner – centered methods In warm up stage, teachers’ teaching methods are focused on the ways teacher design appropriate activities to motivate students to speak as well as the ways that the teacher elicits warm up activities

In order to have a suitable method, the teacher should take some of the following factors into consideration including learners, teaching purposes and other available classroom conditions Choosing an inappropriate or not being flexible in applying methods to a certain class may have negative effects on students’ participation

III.2.2 Teachers’ knowledge

In the study What makes a good teacher, Breach (2005) points out that

most students believe that the teacher is a fountain of knowledge and their main responsibility is to pass on that knowledge to students Breach compares the teacher as a teapot and the students with empty cups waiting for the knowledge

from the teacher to be poured down in In the warm up stage of speaking lesson,

we are going to focus on language ability and general knowledge

Language: According to Underwood (1987), being a fluent, accurate English speaker is a great help, but this alone does not make us a successful teacher Indeed, many teachers whose command of English is limited still are good teachers as they understand the difficulties their students often face According to Underwood the secrete lies in being confident about the language

we use and we should not feel embarrassed due to the lack of greater knowledge

General knowledge: In order to conduct a useful warm up activity, a teacher needs not only knowledge of the language but also knowledge of content which means the knowledge of the topic they are going to talk According to Underwood, the more knowledge of the lesson a teacher can apply to his lesson, the more interested his students will feel in because the students can experience language being used

III.2.3 Teachers’ instructions

Complicated instructions are another major problem that often makes giving instructions very time – consuming In the class, if the students do not understand the teachers’ instructions, they do not react anything Therefore, the teacher has to try at least twice to explain to them before resorting to Vietnamese Much has been written on how to give effective instructions Ur (1996) provides several very useful recommendations: the first step is to prepare what you are going to say, and if possible, even to write it down Then the teacher needs to ensure the class’s attention Next, he should give the information more than once Make sure that the language is brief and clear, and then follow it up with demonstrations Giving effective instructions is not as easy as some teachers may think It is a skill that we can gain only with proper learning and frequent practice

In conclusion, students’ speaking performance can be affected by teachers’ factors including teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge and teachers’

instructions in warm up stage Teaching methods may play a decisive part in obtaining teaching goals in warm up stage Beside teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge also plays an important part as the former makes the activities interesting in term of the content Additionally, the fact those teachers’ instructions properly may help students be sure that they can understand what they need to do in the lesson Thus, with a view to improve the warm up stage in speaking lesson, teachers should renovate their teaching methods, in this case that is the way teachers elicit the warm up activities At the same time, teachers should improve their knowledge including both knowledge of language and knowledge of the field expertise Finally, teachers should give clear and brief instructions in this stage so that students can produce good speech

III.3 External factors

III.3.1.Time limitation

Normally, in warm up stage, only 5 to 10 minutes are used to conduct the activities However, if teachers, for some reasons, do not prepare the materials well enough, they will realize the failure of having warm up activities immediately Moreover, in some large classes with a number of students whose English knowledge are limited, it often takes time to conduct these activities This leads to the confirmation of the teachers’ role in designing appropriate materials in warm up activities

III.3.2 Classroom and materials restraints

According to Williams and Burden (1997), we can not underestimate the importance of appropriate environmental conditions for learning to take place as

an understanding of the ways in which aspects of the environment affect learning is vitally important for language teachers and learners

Underwood (1987) points out some factors related to the classroom physical conditions that can affect the learning process such as: the lightness, the temperature and fresh air, the acoustics, the lines of vision, the layout of the desks/ tables, the possibility of moving desks/ tables, the other furniture, the facilities for displaying pictures, charts

It is common that in Vietnamese high school, visual aids are not available

so that teachers have to prepare the materials by themselves and this leads to the fact that Vietnamese English teachers do not use the materials regularly and effectively In some cases, teachers do not use the visual aids effectively such as they use the pictures in small sizes so that students cannot see what exactly are shown on the board or they use the visual aids which do not match with the topics of the lessons

No one can deny the role of classroom atmosphere in the success of language learning According to Underwood (1987), both the teacher and students are responsible for creating a good atmosphere and a good learning atmosphere consists of some characteristics such as giving a sense of purpose or the teachers should ensure that English is spoken Balancing fluency and accuracy or using appropriate language are the two necessary elements in creating a good classroom atmosphere Underwood also mentioned the effects of encouragement as well as students’ involvement on the improvement of students’ English learning Last but not least, tests and extracurricular activities are also considered as important parts of increasing learning atmosphere in the classroom

IV Stages of a speaking lesson

It is advised that, a successful speaking lesson often include 5 stages: warm-up, introduction, presentation, practice and review

IV.1 Warm-up

According to Kerns (2006), warm-up is defined as activity to focus learner 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 turning yet As a final comment, if the warm up takes too long, then valuable time gets lost from the main focus of the lesson Students have less time to acquire the new material

You can also access who will partner well together, and who won't Strong students may not want to work with weak students Although you won't

be able to fully determine abilities or personalities for later pair and group work

IV.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

IV.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

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

In short, because the warm up of a lesson often receives less attention than

it should and it plays an important role in setting the tone for the next forty-five minutes, raising energy levels, helping students relaxed, comfortable and even confident So warm up stage is paid more attention in this thesis

V Warm up

V.1 Definition of warm up activities

Warm up activity is a kind of short activities which is used to beak the

“ice” in classroom and makes it “hot” from the beginning of each period of language class They are short, simple and interesting enough to motivate students to learn a foreign language better

V.2 The importance of warm up

As you know warm up stage is the first activity of the lesson, the warm up sets the tone for the next minutes An activity that students find too difficult, or even confusing, results in a class of disinterested zombies

A fun warm up, on the other hand, raises energy levels Fun activities also produce relaxed, less inhibited students With the right warm up, you'll have created a positive atmosphere to practice and experiment with the language 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, again because those wheels aren't turning yet As a final comment, if the warm

up takes too long, say fifteen minutes, then valuable time gets lost from the main focus of the lesson Students have less time to acquire the new material

V.3 The functions of warm up stage

V.3.1 Preparing the Student's Ear

Learning a new language involves training mind, mouth and ear Whether it's at work or at home, most students will spend the majority of their day listening and speaking in their own language Whether it's asking and answering simple questions, listening to music or watching a cartoon, warm-up activities tune the student's ear to English nuances Getting the student used to the English language is the first step in language acquisition

V.3.2 Focusing students

When students step into the classroom, they are coming from a wide range

of busy lives Warm-up activities will help them to turn off the outside world and focus on the task at hand By the end of your warm-up activity, every student will be ready to learn Being able to focus on their language lesson instead of their shopping list will have your students ready to learn

V.3.3 Engaging every student

Structured warm-up activities, such as a question-and-answer session or a simple student-led activity gets everyone involved in the lesson In any classroom, there always are students who are more reticent and are willing to let others do all the participating By engaging students to take part in a low-risk, warm-up activity, and teacher will reach every student and will help their students achieve their language goals

V.4 Principles of using warm up activities in speaking class in high school

As mentioned above, we cannot delay the necessity of using warm up activities in speaking class in particular, in language class in general However,

it may causes bad effects on lessons if teacher do not understand the principles

of using warm up activities in speaking class in high school

The first and the most important principle is good preparation Teacher cannot bring into play the role of warm up activities if they are not well prepared

before class All things relating to the activities used in class should be ready and in good condition in advance If not, it will waste class time and make students bored

To have a good preparation, teacher should know for sure the purpose of using this activities ( to get students talk, to start class or to introduce the content

of the coming lesson), how to carry out it and how it is carried the most effectively and what are necessary for the activities Acknowledge these factors helps teachers be clear and correct in choosing an activity

The second principle is that activities must be short and simple That is these activities take only about five to ten minutes at the maximum, and these are easy for the comprehension of the students They help students to relax and loose pressure - a good preparation before beginning a new lesson If they are too difficult, they will ask students to work a lot, make them tired and they cannot be motivated to study well in the coming class time If the warm up activities is too long to finish, teachers may not complete the compulsory lesson

as planned, because warm up activities only play the role of bringing inspiration

to students before they start new lesson

Another principle is that chosen activities should be as interesting as possible As already mentioned, warm up activities acts as ice break in few first minutes of the class and give students motivation It is this feature that is the force of warm up activities, without it, warm up activities become useless That

is why it must be exciting enough to stimulate students, help them be in good mood during class time Therefore, teachers should be able to know what the students like, what they are interested in and what are suitable for the psychological characteristics of the students

One more principle is that warm up activities must be at the suitable level

of students As we know, only little time spends on it, and it is simple, so the language level that the activities require must be simple as well Students will find eager to join the activities if the language used is easy and popular with

what they are taught They may lose their keen if they have to work hard to find the vocabulary to use in this activity

What is more, warm up activities must be varied Do not carry out the same type of activity for all class time Teachers should think of different type

of warm up activities and use them alternatively and flexibly Taking this principle in a special consideration will take the boring and monotony atmosphere of the class away and make students excited about warm up activities

Last but not least, for speaking class, warm up activities must be mainly oral That is, it requires much of learners’ talking time, so that they will not find hard to get involved in the new speaking period Teacher had better be careful in selecting the type of warm up activity in order to take advantages of them the most

To sum up, to bring into play the effectiveness of warm up activities in speaking class as well as in language class, teachers should take these above principles into consideration before making decision on which activities is the best Surely, it is impossible for teachers to cover all principles at the same time, this task can be well done if teacher is very skillful in planning lessons

V.5 The need of using warm up activities in speaking class

It is hard to overestimate the importance of a “warm up” Musician tune their instruments up, athletes never sprint until their body is prepared and people

in a choir do vocal exercises before singing Our students, too, need to warm up into both the target language and being in their groups Warm up activities, therefore, are necessary to make students relaxed, anxiety clamed and ready to

go

In speaking class, they seem to be more important because it is difficult for students to start talking in the target language at the beginning of the class The necessity of using warm up activities is obvious

As we know, students in high school are at the period of “critical age”, their psychological state is changeable and they are often fond of doing what

they like, not what they should do The matter posed to teachers is how to limit the bad effects of this psychological characteristic Facing with the fact, teachers are demanded to use interesting activities, especially at the beginning of the class time Actually, in most of high school in Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject but only a little number of learners is good at English, especially at speaking skills What is more, there is a tendency that students only learn seriously the subjects required in the university entrance exam How to make the change in students’ mind that English is a favorable subject and it is very wonderful to master it and to use it fluently in daily life’s interaction is the task

of warm up activities, to some extent Admittedly, sooner or later, students have

to join speaking activities in class but it will be not successful if they learn to speak reluctantly The starting point - warm up activities, therefore, are essential for speaking class indeed

Moreover, among all four basic skills, speaking requires a lot of skills You are good at speaking means you are good at many other language fields such as grammar, vocabulary, phonetics, pronunciation, ect Thus, it is more difficult for students to speak English well Warm up activities with their own forces, can help students overcome this obstacle As discussed in the previous parts, warm up activity brings motivation, we can do everything better Our students, too, study more effectively with the help of warm up activities These activities are fun, rather simple and in favor of students, so they can easily get learners engaged in and make students want to express, to share their ideas with others Furthermore, there are some action activities which can “awake” students and make them both active and dynamic Of course, warm up activities in speaking class are oral, it is good preparation for students These activities also change the class atmosphere; bring some innovative thing to language class

In conclusion, teachers of English should be aware of the importance of warm up activities in speaking class and try to create varied warm up activities

to use frequently in class time