skkn tiếng anh 11 using lexical bundles and gambits to improve high school

SỞ GIÁO DỤC- ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI TRƯỜNG THPT LONG PHƯỚC …b & a… SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Using Lexical Bundles and Gambits to Improve High school Students Conversation Competence GV thực hiện: TRỊNH THỊ KIM NGÂN Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu - Quản lí giáo dục - Phương pháp dạy học mơn: Anh Văn Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm khác in sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Mơ hình Phần mềm Phim ảnh Hiện vật khác Năm học 2014-2015 SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI Đơn vị: THPT LONG PHƯỚC _ Mã số: ………………… SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Using Lexical Bundles and Gambits to Improve High School Students Conversation Competence Người thực hiện: Trịnh Thị Kim Ngân Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác: Có đính kèm: Mơ hình Phần mềm Phim ảnh Năm học: 2014-2015 Hiện vật khác SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN Họ tên: Trịnh Thị Kim Ngân Ngày tháng năm sinh : 10/05/1980 Nam/Nữ: Nữ Địa chỉ: Tổ 4, Ấp 1C, Xã Phước Thái – Huyện Long Thành –Tỉnh Đồng Nai Điện thoại: 0913803522 Fax: E-mail: ttkngan105@yahoo.com Chức vụ: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh Đơn vị công tác: THPT Long Phước –Long Thành - Đồng Nai II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chun mơn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Cử nhân Tiếng Anh - Năm nhận bằng: 2004 - Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Cử nhân chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng Anh III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC: - Lĩnh vực chun mơn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh - Số năm có kinh nghiệm: năm - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm có năm gần đây: + Xây dựng trường học than thiện, học sinh tích cực + Đổi phương pháp kiểm tra miệng + Increasing Grade 11 student’s Reading Comprehension by Using Different Types of Questions Sở Giáo Dục & Đào Tạo Đồng Nai CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Đơn vị: THPT Long Phước Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc Long Phước ngày … tháng … năm… PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Năm học: 2014-2015 Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Using Lexical Bundles and Gambits to Improve High School Students Conversation Competence Họ tên tác giả: Trịnh Thị Kim Ngân Đơn vị (Tổ): Tiếng Anh Lĩnh vực: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác Tính mới: - Có giải pháp hồn tồn - Có giải pháp cải tiến, đổi từ giải pháp có Hiệu quả: - Hồn toàn triển khai áp dụng toàn ngành có hiệu cao - Có tính cải tiến đổi từ giải pháp có triển khai áp dụng tồn ngành có hiệu cao - Hoàn toàn triển khai áp dụng đơn vị có hiệu cao - Có tính cải tiến đổi từ giải pháp có triển khai áp dụng đơn vị có hiệu Khả áp dụng: - Cung cấp luận khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, sách: Tốt Khá Đạt - Đưa giải pháp khuyến nghị có khả ứng dụng thực tiễn, dễ thực dễ vào sống: - Tốt Khá Đạt Được áp dụng thực tế đạt hiệu có khả áp dụng đạt hiệu phạm vi rộng Tốt XÁC NHẬN CỦA TỔ CHUYÊN MÔN (Ký tên ghi rõ họ tên) Khá Đạt THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ (Ký tên, ghi rõ họ tên đóng dấu) Research Title: Using Lexical Bundles and Gambits to Improve High School Students Conversation Competence CONTENTS Introduction Description of school Students’ learning style and course books with limitation Literature Review Application: using conversation gambits/ lexical bundles in conversation Conclusion References Introduction The role of English in this century is incredibly powerful in all spheres of life It is also true that in Vietnam English plays an important role in many fields including education, business, technology, banking, medicine, and tourism It is the official language in a number of countries in Asia and it is also the dominant business language In fact, it is necessary for young people to use it if they are to enter a global workforce Research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most often conducted in English In business environments, English is a useful tool for exchanging information among people from different cultures We try to improve our conversational ability in order to express our thoughts, our feelings and we can get ideas from others In conversation, native English speakers make use of lexical bundles and conversation gambits, so their spoken communication becomes natural As teachers of English, we should focus on the effectiveness of conversations by increasing the use of bundles and conversation gambits In my own experience of teaching, I am aware that the main focus of learning English as a foreign language is students’ communicative competence The more opportunities they are given to practice conversations in the classroom, the more effectively and fluently they can converse in real-life situations As an attempt to improve the teaching and learning of English for communication, especially teaching and learning speaking skills, I will look at the effectiveness of using lexical bundles and conversation gambits in teaching high school students Description of School Long Phuoc High school which has thirty classes with over 1300 students each year, is one of the biggest schools in Long Thanh District This district has many industrial zones where there are many foreign corporations and factories Therefore, people in the district need to use English to communicate with the foreigners and to find well-paid jobs In my school, each class has about forty students who are at different levels, some with quite competent English, some whose English is not very good, while others whose English is just getting started Students’ learning types and course books with limitations We have used English 10, English 11 and English 12 as compulsory course books in the curriculum, and we also know that the three books above have many good points and certain limitations The course aims, according to the curriculum, are to help the students develop the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In daily discussion with the students, I know that they want to use English communicatively However, in my own experience of teaching, I have known that they have very few conversational strategies for using the language, especially speaking skill What they in a speaking lesson is to copy what the teacher already writes on the board and provided structures in the textbooks They find it difficult to produce their own sentences In reality, speaking skill is one of the most complex but crucial skill of the four language skills for students learning English as a second or foreign language Just think of the different conversation you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you in one day In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write However, most of English teachers still spend the majority of class time on teaching reading and grammar practice and almost ignore speaking and listening skills This is also true for the teachers of English at Long Phuoc High School, but the way in which they conduct the teaching of speaking skills to students should be taken into consideration Although they know the importance of speaking, they’ve focused so much on grammar and correctness of the sentences as it is a national examination for university entrance whose main focus is on reading and writing As a result, curricula and classroom teaching practices in academic high schools tend to be organized or adjusted to improve those two skills and subsequently teaching speaking or conversation skills has been considered secondary or relatively neglected although it figures prominently in the national curriculum In addition, one of the most common ways for teachers to check students speaking is to repeat the given structures in their text books, not produce sentences in their own words or their own way based on these structures It is usually very easy for students, so it doesn’t get students motivated to speak out what they are thinking., however, they forgot to teach important skills like getting a conversation starts, keeping it going, and ending it Typical examples are: you know, to begin with, I mean, right? Got it? Wait a minute……… It is believed that, if the goal of your language course is enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom It is therefore very important that teachers be aware of the strategies and encourages students to make use of these conversational strategies so that the students can enhance spoken discourse Moreover, dialogues are among the most materials used by language teachers Scripted dialogues in the three English textbooks used at high school usually consist of several short exchanges between two people as follows A: when was NewYork founded? B: It was founded in 1624 And what about London? A: It was founded in 43 A.D (E10, P159) A: What kind of music you like? B: I like classical music A: Why you like it? B: Because it is relaxing (E10,Page 127) A When and where were the 1st Asian Games held? B they were held in 1951 in India A How many countries took part in the Games? B eleven A How many sports were there at the Games? B Six (E 11, page 139) These kinds of dialogues are especially useful for introducing common expressions to beginners It helps them to develop some particular expressions and vocabulary that they can use immediately You may find, however, that these dialogues are not appropriate for the reasons such as: the content of these dialogues aren’t real to life then students will not be motivated to learn and the language used is not natural and authentic The analysis of the textbook dialogues shows that they fail to present learners with the way people actually speak Therefore, teachers and material developers should pay more attention to ways of providing students with meaningful materials and content that allows them to engage in “real” communication As a teacher, I would like to deal with common arguments against teaching speaking skills in the classroom by using given dialogues This study try to find out the answer to a key question: “In what way teachers can provide Long Phuoc students with an opportunity to be exposed to authentic conversation to develop their conversational proficiency where sufficient amount of natural language input is not available from the context” It is my expectation that the research findings will help teachers in other schools makes an innovation in English teaching for the communicative purposes The first thing I would like to in my study is to review literature for the terms: lexical bundles and conversation gambits Literature Review Lexical Bundles While Conklin and Schmitt (2007) define that lexical bundles are groups of words that occur repeatedly together within the same register This definition depends on what constitutes a group, how often these ‘groups’ recur and what exactly is a ‘register’ There is not universal agreement on these points and so far, the perception of just what is a lexical bundle is open to the individual’s own interpretation The term itself, lexical bundle, hasn’t met with broad acceptance It is also called a recurrentor fixed-word combination, a multiword lexical chunk, a formulaic sequence, a lexical phrase The identification of lexical bundles is a relatively new field of study Understanding lexical bundles and using them is especially important to the English language learners because it places the individual words within a larger context When individual words are embedded within different contextual environments they can take on different meanings Being aware of the broader potential of the individual word's meanings helps the language learners to integrate and be creative when familiar words are used When lexical bundles are incorporated into regular language use, they can be called up together rather than as individual words The knowledge and use of these bundles saves on processing time and space and also can encourage the use of the individual words included in the bundle While Conklin and Schmitt (2007) have dealt with what they call 'formulaic sequences' whose definition is different from what is named a lexical bundle, they recognize the value of these groups of words to language learners As they note, "Non-natives rely on formulaic language a great deal in their efforts to produce fluent speech" The following box describes common lexical bundles native English speakers often use: go on of course in terms of in fact at all deal with make sure look for end up make sense in other words you know by the way in some way so far as in general as well as and then right away I would say after all I don’t know in case or whatever you’re gonna more or less in order to/that in a/any sense of/that I mean for sure/certain on the other hand as well Conversation Gambits Richards (1993) points out that gambit is a remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point In conversational analysis, gambit is sometimes used to describe a word or phrase in conversation which signals the function of the speaker’s next turn in the conversation Gambits can be used to show whether the speaker’s contribution adds new information, develops something said by a previous speaker, and expresses an opinion and agreement The lack of mastery of using gambits in maintaining the conversation leads to breakdowns in speaking Keller (1981) stated that gambits make the conversation sound more natural, more confident, and also make it possible to talk easier It is obvious that conversation involves people taking turn while speaking Based on turn-taking rules- any listener might be selected to speak next In this case, the speaker need time to formulate his/her thoughts that react to what the previous speaker has said at the same time Hence, gambits can influence the process of turn-taking in the conversation For example, gambits which signal that the speaker is going to express an opinion include: The way I look at it…… To my mind…… In my opinion…… Other conversation gambits are used for hesitation, clarification, interruption, making suggestion, asking for suggestions/advice, giving an opinion, expressing agreement and disagreement As teachers, we need to help students make good use of the following conversation gambits as language functions in every speaking lesson so that they can find it easy to start a conversation, negotiate ideas, meanings and finish a conversation in a natural and effective way Hesitation: Uh Well, um Let's see Let me think How should I put it? That's a good question I'll have to think about that Clarification: Sorry, but I don't see what you mean Could you be more specific? Could you explain that in more detail? Do you mean ? What you mean by ? What I mean is What I meant was Let me put it (say it) another way What I'm saying is Interruption: Pardon/excuse me, but Sorry/Excuse me for interrupting, but May I ask a question? I'd like to comment on that Making Suggestion: May I make a suggestion? Don't you think ? Wouldn't you say (agree or think) ? Asking for Suggestions/Advice: Do you have any suggestions? What you think? What would you do? What should I do? Giving an Opinion I think I believe In my opinion, As far as I'm concerned Personally, I think It seems to me that Expressing Agreement and Disagreement That's a good point I (completely) agree (with you) That's true That makes sense I think so, too I couldn't agree more That's not how I see it I don't really agree with you I'm afraid I can't agree with you I'm not sure I quite agree with you Application: using conversation gambits/ lexical bundles in conversation Original conversation A: Hi,Minh Did you have a nice weekend? B: Hello, Quan Yes, I did It’s great A: What did you do? B: I went to Lan’s birthday party The food was good and the people were interesting What’s did you do, Quan? A: Oh, I stayed at home and did my homework Nothing special B: Where are you going now? A: I’m going to the library to borrow some books Sorry, I’ve got to go B: Bye See you later ( English 10-page 25) Newly-designed conversation A: Hi,Minh Did you have a nice weekend? B: Hello, Quan Yes, I did It’s great A: Well,what did you do? B: Uh, I went to Lan’s birthday party You know, The food was good and the people were interesting What’s did you do, Quan? A: Oh, I stayed at home and did my homework Nothing special B: Do you mean you stayed at home all day? Oh, by the way,where are you going now? A: Let me think I’m going to the library to borrow some books Sorry, I’ve got to go B: Bye See you later Original conversation 2 A: when was NewYork founded? B: Well, It was founded in 1624 And what about London? A:As far as I’m concerned It was founded in 43 A.D B Well, thanks for bringing these to me A You’re welcome (E10, P159) Newly-designed conversation: A: Uhm May I ask a question? when was NewYork founded? B: Let see, It was founded in 1624 And what about London? A: Well in actual fact I guess, It was founded in 43 A.D B Well, thanks for bringing these to me Original conversation 3 A I believe that wind power can be an alternative source of energy B Why you think so? A it seems to me that our major sources of energy are running out while the wind is abundant and unlimited B I know it is also clean and safe to the environment However, it is not available when there is no wind (E11, page 128) Newly-designed conversation: A Though I believe that wind power can be the most suitable alternative source of energy B Could you be more specific? Why you think so? A It seems to me that our major sources of energy are running out while the wind is abundant and unlimited What you think? B You know it is also clean and safe to the environment However, it is not available when there is no wind A Oh, I see! B So, Do you have any suggestions? ……………………………………… (E11, page 128) Original conversation 4 A: What kind of volunteer work are you participating in? B: We’re helping people in mountainous areas A: What exactly are you doing? B: We’re teaching the children to read and write A: Do you enjoy work? B: Yes, I like helping people ( E 11, Page 50) Newly-designed conversation: A: I don’t know if I should ask what kind of volunteer work you are participating in? B: In fact, we’re helping people in mountainous areas A: I see, then what exactly are you doing? B: Actually, we’re teaching the children to read and write A: Do you enjoy work? B: Yes, I'm quite enthusiastic about helping people Original conversation 5 A: What kind of music you like? B: I like classical music A: Why you like it? B: Because it is relaxing (E10,Page 127) Newly-designed conversation: A: Could you tell me what kind of music you like? B: Actually, I like classical music A: Oh, Why you like it? B: Well erm it is you know very relaxing of course Original conversation 6: Mai: Do you know that Tet holiday is next month? Anna: What is Tet? Mai: It’s the time when Vietnamese people celebrate the beginning of spring It’s also the start of the lunar new year Anna: When is it exactly? Mai: Well, this year it’s on the 9th of February Anna: What you usually at Tet? Mai: Well, we eat a lot of special foods, we dress up and visit friends and relatives, and we also play some trditional games Anna: Oh, that sounds really interesting (E11, P93) Newly-designed conversation: 6: Mai: Do you know that Tet holiday is next month? Anna: I wonder what Tet is? Mai:Uhm, It’s the time when Vietnamese people celebrate the beginning of spring It’s also the start of the lunar new year Anna: Please let me know When it is exactly? Mai: Well, this year it’s on the 9th of February Anna: I see, what you usually at Tet? Mai: Well, we eat a lot of special foods, we dress up and visit friends and relatives, and we also play some trditional games as well Anna: Oh, that sounds really interesting,isn’t it? Original conversation 7 A When and where were the 1st Asian Games held? B they were held in 1951 in India A How many countries took part in the Games? B Eleven A How many sports were there at the Games? B Six (E 11, page 139) Newly-designed conversation: A Could you please let me know When and where the 1st Asian Games were held? B Uhm, They were held in 1951 in India A How many countries took part in the Games? B Eleven, I guess A Great, How many sports were there at the Games? B Well, I think six Original conversation A: Hoa How you like it here? B: It’s nice The hotel is big and my room is comfortable A: Are you travelling with your friends? B: No, I’m travelling alone A: Would you like to go somewhere for a drink? B: That’s great! ( Teacher’s book, Grade 10, page 31) Newly-designed conversation: A: Hoa How you like it here? B: Well, It’s nice The hotel is big and you see my room is comfortable A: Are you travelling with your friends? B: No, I mean I’m travelling alone A: Anyway, would you like to go somewhere for a drink? B: That’s great! Conclusion In conclusion, it is a particularly important responsibility of teachers for providing students with the means to develop and the opportunities to communicate It is recognized that our ultimate goal of teaching English at high schools is to promote students ‘communicative competence and conversational ability to a higher level By using lexical bundles and conversation gambits helps students to acquire useful conversational strategies in practicing speaking such as turn taking, interruption, and negotiation, starting a conversation, circumlocution and ending a conversation When our students get familiar with these learning strategies, they will be able to improve their speaking skill to discourse levels I believe that conversations with gambits and lexical bundles play a very crucial part in teaching English to non-native English learners Teachers and practitioners can focus on the use of lexical bundles and conversation gambits during discussion and role play situations at all level of instructions and proficiency References - Bibber, D., S Johansson, G Leech, S Conrad, and E Finnegan 1999 The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English London: Longman -Keller, E(1981) Gambits: Conversational strategy signals In F(Ed.), Conversational routine The Hague, Netherlands; Mouton .- Longman , Grammar of spoken and written English Edinburgh: Longman - Richards, J C., Platt, J., & Weber, H (1985) Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics London: Longman - Schmitt, N.2ed.) 2007 Formulaic Sequences Amsterdam: John Benjamin