SKKN sáng kiến kinh ngiệm “improving english speaking skills through extracurrials activities – a pilot care with 10th graders at trieu son high school n0 2”

ABBREVIATIONS TEFL: CLT: EFL: M.A: ECAs: ECA: MC: Teaching English as a Foreign Language Communicative Language Teaching English as a Foreign Language Master of Arts Extracurricular activities Extracurricular activity Master of Ceremony i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale PART 2: PROBLEM SOLVING .2 CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY 1.1 Research setting 1.1.1 An overview of Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.1.2 The teachers of English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.1.3 The students in Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.2 Research methods 1.2.1 Description of the participants 1.2.2 Procedures 1.2.3 Instruments CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .11 2.1 Findings from the students 11 2.1.1 From the evaluation forms 11 2.1.2 From interviews 12 2.2 Findings from the teachers 13 2.2.1 From their observation 13 2.2.2 From the discussion 13 2.3 Discussion 14 2.3.1 The organization of extracurricular activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities in class 14 2.3.2 The effectiveness of extracurricular activities experimented at school 14 2.3.3 The students’ response on the organization of extracurricular activities 15 PART 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 16 Conclusion 16 Recommendations on how to organize extracurricular activities 16 2.1 For the students 16 2.2 For the teachers 17 2.3 For the administrators 17 Limitations of the study 18 Suggestions for further study 19 REFERENCES 20 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX III ii APPENDIX IV APPENDIX V iii PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale In learning English at high schools, English speaking skill is one of the four skills that students must be taught as separately and equally as the others However, due to some different objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning of this skill is often integrated with other skills such as listening skill, or is even neglected Therefore, students not often enjoy speaking period as well as find it difficult to participate in speaking activities Furthermore, there are a lot of elements of speaking affecting the ability to speak fluently such as language features (connected speech, expressive device, lexis and grammar, negotiation language) and the ability to process information and language “on the spot” such as language processing, interacting with others… However, in a period of 45minutes, it seems to be impossible for both teachers and students to control them Therefore, if teaching and learning speaking skill takes place within 45 minutes every week and only in classroom settings, its effect is limited In terms of my experiences of teaching English and teaching speaking skill at Triệu Sơn High School No2, I found that most of my students are unwilling to participate in oral activities Most of them only passively sit and take notes, rarely contribute to the lesson and even not ask for the teacher’s help when they have any problems Reasons for this are varied, including large classes, psychological or cultural differences, teaching methods, teacher’s knowledge, student’s lack of idea or language devices, such as grammatical structures or vocabulary, etc Whatever reasons they may be, it is the first target of the teachers to help their learners speak up in class, and thereby, improve their speaking skills Another reason why the study was carried out is that I am the head of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union at the school During the school year I organize many extracurricular activities for students, so I believe that using extracurricular activities for English practice is a good way to enhance students’ English skills, primarily speaking skills The above reasons have inspired me to conduct an action research on “Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a pilot case with 10th graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for 10th graders at this school PART 2: PROBLEM SOLVING CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY 1.1 Research setting 1.1.1 An overview of Triệu Sơn High School No2 Triệu Sơn High School No2 is located in the West of Thanh Hoa Founded in 1968, Triệu Sơn High School No2 is one of the oldest as well as the biggest schools in the area At present, there are 21 classes with over 900 students placed into three different grades: grade 10, 11 and 12 The teaching staff composes of more than 60 teachers of 12 compulsory subjects, of whom two-thirds are young, creative and well trained whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic In recent years Triệu Sơn High School No2 is one of the schools which has high percentages of high school graduate and gifted students 1.1.2 The teachers of English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 There are six teachers of English currently working at Triệu Sơn High School No2, four of them have participated in this research for discussion Their ages range from late twenties to forty years old, three of them are female The years of teaching English are also different, minimum level of eight years and maximum nearly fifteen years Most of them have University Bachelor’s Degree, one Master Degree, and the others have taken the inservice training courses Without doubt, all the teachers at Triệu Sơn High School No2 are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching They are willing to help their students overcome their difficulties in learning English generally and in speaking particularly 1.1.3 The students in Triệu Sơn High School No2 The majority of students in the study at Triệu Sơn High School No2 are aged from 15 to 18 Most of them come from rural areas and they have learnt English since lower secondary schools Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English In contrast, the other part of students is low in motivation They tend to regard English as less important than other subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations 1.1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.1.4.1 The syllabus of teaching and learning English At Triệu Sơn High School No2, English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training The English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 105 periods, periods per week Each period is 45 minutes long The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Triệu Sơn High School No2 is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following communicative approach The textbook consists of 16 units with parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every units The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units 1.1.4.2 The teaching and learning English speaking skills It has been accepted that students’ communicative ability is the proper aim for language teaching This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an important part in any English course Like many other high schools in Vietnam, teaching and learning speaking skills at Triệu Sơn High School are affected by some constraints such as large class sizes, students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency, students’ low participation in class time Normally, in a class at Triệu Sơn High School, a number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the class while a majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive Besides, lack of training in teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access to new approach, which makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging 1.2 Research methods 1.2.1 Description of the participants There are two reasons why this research aimed at 10th form students at Triệu Sơn High School No2 Firstly, the 10th form students are the newcomers to the new kind of textbooks for high schools in which speaking is stressed equally to other three skills However, their speaking abilities are limited and they are sometimes too shy to speak They have difficulty in expressing their ideas Secondly, the students are at pre-intermediate level for which the organization of extracurricular activities is of great help for them to overcome speaking abilites limitations The students here were restricted to two 10th form classes (among seven 10th form classes at Triệu Sơn High School No2) These two classes, which were chosen randomly, account for 90 students They are aged from 15 to 16 and all of them have had at least four years of learning English at lower-secondary schools They are not the same at English speaking competence Some of them are really good and active while a lot of them are quite passive and unmotivated in learning English There are four out of six teachers of English at Triệu Sơn High Shool No2 participating in this study These four teachers include two males and two females Their ages range from 34 to 38 with at least nine years of teaching English One of them has finished an M.A course at Vietnam National University, Hanoi The reason for this choice of participants is that they are all in charge of 10th form classes at Triệu Sơn High School No2 1.2.2 Procedures The study strictly followed the steps First, possible extracurricular activities were designed based on the students’ level of English and the requirements of their English program in Grade 10, particularly the expected outcomes of their speaking ability when they finish Grade 10 Then, the designed activities were piloted with the selected groups of students Following are the activities piloted To overcome the problem, the researcher with collegues in English group organized three extracurricular activities for students in the school year in order to improve their speaking skills The researcher planned three extracurricular activities as follows The first extracurricular activity Theme: Let’s explore English/ Explore English Aims - Push up the emulation movement of learning and teaching as well as increase the quality of education within the school - Create a friendly and dynamic environment with various forms of study that attracts students and brings them with interest in learning English - Enhance English skills, especially speaking skill for students Contents 2.1 Content of the competition There are parts Part 1: Greeting - Three teams take part in the first part respectively - The maximum point is 10 given by the judge ( not decimal points) + scores max for fluency + scores max for impressiveness Part 2: Start - Each team takes turn to answer 10 questions - Time allowed: 15 seconds per question - 10 scores for each correct answer - If time is up with no answer, no score is gained and subtracted Part 3: Overcome the Obstacle - There is a crossword that consists of rolls - The obstacle that contains letters is hidden behind a vertical line This is a missing piece of a saying - 120 scores will be given for the correct answer before the first roll is opened - 30 scores added for an excellent expression for the saying - 20 scores respectively deducted after roll - The team has the wrong answer for the obstacle will have to stop its turn in this part - 30 scores for each correct answer (for the team selecting the roll), other teams will have right to answer (in circle) and can gain 10 up to 20 scores Part 4: Speed up - Three teams answer questions at the same time Each question has smaller parts ranging in fields and skills, including phonetics, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing - Time allowed: 90 seconds per question + 45 scores for the correct answer at the first 30 seconds + 30 scores for the correct answer at the next 30 seconds + 15 scores for the correct answer at the last 30 seconds - Team with no answer or wrong answer will not be given scores - Teams write down and show answers then the judge gives them scores Part 5: Finish - There are packages of questions: 40, 60 and 80 scores - Each package has questions The level of difficulty is equal to scores - Time allowed: 15 seconds per question + Package 40: questions of 10 scores + Package 60: questions of 10 scores, questions of 20 scores + Package 80: question of 10 scores, questions of 20 scores, question of 30 scores - The content of the competition will be presented on PowerPoint - There are also competitions for the audience - Aside from the competition, there are English singing performances from school’s team 2.2 Organizational Formality - Dramatization - Three teams partake in a competition Each team has members 2.3 Participants - Students from class 10C1 and 10C7 2.4 Place and time - Place: the schoolyard - Time: February 17th, 2015 2.5 Attendants - The Board of School Management - All teachers of English group ( English Department) - All head teachers of 10th grade - All students of the school (The content of the competition will be planned and presented on powerpoint) The second extracurricular activity Theme: English singing and retelling stories contest Aims: - Push up the emulation movement of learning and teaching as well as increase the quality of education within the school - Create a friendly and dynamic environment with various forms of study that attracts students and brings them with interest in learning English - Enhance English skills, especially speaking skill for students Contents 2.1 Contents of the competition - In order to take part in this competition, participants must undergo the preliminary round The best 10 performances, including singing and storytelling repertories will be selected for the final round - To prepare for the final round, contestants will be strongly supported by their English teachers in phonetics and the way of performing 2.2.Organizational formality - Dramatization - The contestants perform following their orders taken before the competition - Three examiners will process their judgments separately and pick out the best performances - Prizes will be sorted out according to types of performances 2.3 Participants - Students from class 10C1 and 10C7 2.4 Place and time - Place: the schoolyard - Time: March 24th, 2015 2.5 Attendants - The Board of School Management - All teachers of English group ( English Department) - All head teachers of 10th grade - All students of the school The third extracurricular activity Theme: English speaking club Aims: - Push up the emulation movement of learning and teaching as well as increase the quality of education within the school - Create a friendly and dynamic environment with various forms of study that attracts students and brings them with interest in learning English - Enhance English skills, especially speaking skill for students Contents 2.1 Content of the competition There are parts Part 1: Greeting - Three teams take part in the first part respectively - Each team participates in the greeting part by short plays from 10 to 15 minutes - The maximum point is 10 given by the judge ( not decimal points) + scores max for fluency + scores max for impressiveness Part 2: Answer the questions - Each team takes turn to answer 10 questions given by the MC - Time allowed: 15 seconds per question - 20 scores for each correct answer - If time is up with no answer, no score is gained and subtracted Other teams will have right to answer (in circle) and can gain 10 scores Part 3: Rhetorics - Each team assigns a member to partake in the Rhetoric contest that lasts for 10 minutes Scores will be deducted when exceeding the time allowed Gettysburg Address Recitation Contest (The activity is aimed to improve students’ ability in expression and the skills in tone and intonation), English Conundrum Contest (The contest is aimed to improve the students’ expressive and reactive abilities about life in English The seven question types are as follows: general knowledge, English, news, history and festival, slang and usage, American Culture University The entries draw lots to pick the question types The one who answers the most correctly wins) 2.1.2 From interviews After three extracurricular activities were organized, the researcher interviewed the students The interview was done after school time, in order not to disturb the teaching learning process The researcher took ten students to be interviewed He asked them what they felt and their feedback toward extracurricular activities The focused group interview was done on Saturday, April 26th, 2015 at 05.00 pm Questions for the interview are provided in Annex From the interview with the students, the researcher could see that all students have been learning English for at least years Some of them felt very confident in their English For them speaking skill is one of the most important skills in English learning because if they can speak English well, they can communicate with foreigners, they can use English for their work Every day they spend about twenty minutes practising speaking English They all think that speaking skill is not difficult if they practise speaking it everyday and participate in extracurricular activities at school They all liked the extracurricular activities They participated in all of the extracurricular activities that had been organized at school Some of them are interested in “English song singing contests” most because they can perform the English songs that they like and they can hear favourite English songs singing by their friends Others are fond of “English rhetoric” because they can present the subjects that they are interested in They can express the skill of presenting in front of large audience Some others are interested in “retelling stories in English” because they can tell and hear the favourite stories in English They all admit that by participating in the extracurricular activities at school, They can see that their English skills improved, especially speaking skills Besides that their teamwork skills and the skill of presenting in front of large audience were better 12 2.2 Findings from the teachers 2.2.1 From their observation As it was explained in the previous section, observation was done to get the data from the students’ progress during extracurricular activities process occurred In the first extracurricular activity, students had much difficulty in expressing the ideas in English They still made mistakes in pronunciation They sometimes did not understand what the MC was saying, so the MC had to sometimes use Vietnamese to explain for the students But in the afterward extracurricular activities, the observers and the researcher found that students were more confident in using English to express their ideas There were few mistakes in their pronunciation Their teamwork skills were improved Based on the result of the observation, the researcher evaluated the students’ speaking as well as the action procedures of teaching learning process that he carried out The result implied that the students got more significant progress in teaching speaking by organizing extracurricular activities They were more confident in expressing their ideas, they talked more, they spoke English more fluently, and especially their teamwork skills were better 2.2.2 From the discussion After three extracurricular activities were organized, besides the students, the reseacher also discussed with the teachers/observers The discussion focused on the following questions, apart from other relevant issues Questions for the discussion are provided in Annex All of the teachers in the English group agreed that speaking skill is one of the most important skills in learning English so we must teach it with great care In teaching duration, there are many ways to enhance the speaking skills for the students Organizing extracurricular activities is one of the best ways to enhance English skills, especially speaking skills Extracurricular activities should be organized regularly, may be once every two months or once a month The organization of ECAs should be prepared carefully in order to get the best result After each extracurricular activity was organized, teachers in the English group should have a meeting to evaluate and plan for the next ECAs After observing three extracurricular activities, they saw that extracurricular activities had been prepared carefully and organized scientifically Most of the students were very excited about participating the 13 activities while small number of other students felt that it was difficult to understand all activities that was happening on the stage All of the students who participated in ECAs had remarked improvement in speaking ability because the observer could see that students were more confident in using English to expess the ideas, they made fewer mistakes in pronunciation, they can speak English more fluently The reasons for such improvement were that students have participated in the ECAs that had been organized at school They have chance to share the ideas with each other, use English more frequently Besides the students’ speaking ability was improved The observer realized that their teamwork skills and the skill of presenting in front of large audience were better In order for the extracurricular activites to be organized better, teachers in the English group suggested some solutions: Extracurricular should be led by the students in order to enhance the students’creation The contents of the extracurricular activities should be designed suitable for the students’interest and levels In order to organize extracurricular activities successfully The reacher should combine with the organizations in the school 2.3 Discussion 2.3.1 The organization of extracurricular activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities in class By organizing extracurricular activities for the students, they had a chance to be active and cooperative in speaking activities so that the speaking skills of 10th graders would be improved The participation in extracurricular activities made the speaking and learning activity more enjoyable and interesting, so in class students were more interested in speaking activities 2.3.2 The effectiveness of extracurricular activities experimented at school The organization of extracurricular activities could make the students’ speaking skills improve Extracurricular activities were designed carefully on PowerPoint The designs on PowerPoint required the aestheticism so as to enhance the attention of the students The activities had brought a new wind to refresh the teaching of speaking, making the teaching procedures more effective and interesting to some extents They encouraged students to improve and develop their speaking skills and help students to practice for their real life communication 14 The researcher had organized three extracurricular activities The problems found in an annual survey have been solved in three extracurricular activities After three extracurricular activities had been organized, the researcher conducted an evaluation form It aimed to know the students’ feedback and the effectiveness of extracurricular activities Through the above results taken from the evaluation forms, it was effectively to organize extracurricular activities regularly as a motivator for students to speak It was clear that the number of students who were willing to join the speaking lessons increase considerably It proved that the speaking lessons were surely more interesting and enjoyable with the students In this case, extracurricular activities played a role as an inspirer to appeal students to speak Now, students were confident and willing to use English in speaking lessons It showed that students’speaking skills were improved 2.3.3 The students’ response on the organization of extracurricular activities The students admitted that they liked these activities They did not feel bored, but more enthusiastic to follow the process of extracurricular activities organization The students looked braver and more confident to speak and expressed their feeling They also admitted that they became active and full of concentration in the activities They were also motivated to speak English Considering the explanation above, the researcher concluded that the study was successful and the organization of extracurricular activities could improve the students’ speaking skills The organization of extracurricular activities could overcome the researchers’ problem that was how to make students motivated in speaking activity The students also had a positive response to speaking lesson after having participated in extracurricular activities The students’speaking ability could be improved through extracurricular activities because in extracurricular activities they could share information, practise each other which made it easy to understand And if they got difficulty of vocabulary and low confidence; of course through participating in extracurricular activities they could reduce those problems They could help each other So, it was fun and interesting They could be motivated and more easily in learning English speaking 15 PART 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion Upon the examination of the data, several conclusions were drawn based on research questions: Holding extracurricular activities systematically can guarantee that students get enough opportunities to practicing using language in a large of contexts likely to be encountered in the target culture Since extracurricular activities are closely knitted into students’ daily life, it provides good reasons for them to share ideas and information, thus adds great authenticity to the language use in terms of both audience and task The richness of extracurricular activities ensures that students get adequate input and are prompted to create language of their own So their English has been improved The extracurricular activities should be organized regularly in order for the students to have chance to use their English as well as exposure their abilities In order to inspire students’ motivation to participate in ECAs and study foreign languages more, ECAs need to be organized according to students’ current interests and needs, and follow other basic principles like voluntary basis and students’ initiative Extracurricular activities have helped the students alot in improving their English skills, especially speaking skills Recommendations on how to organize extracurricular activities Having concluded the research, the success in teaching doesn’t depend on the lesson program only, but more important is how the teacher presents the lesson and uses various techniques to enhance students’skills, especially speaking skills Regarding to the improvement students’ speaking skills through extracurricular activities The writer would like to propose some recommendations that hopefully will be useful for the student, and other English teacher or as well as the administrator as follows: 2.1 For the students - Being aware that speaking is important in English communication, the students should be trained or practiced to speaking individually or in group - The students are hoped not to be shy - The students are hoped to be active and creative in enriching their vocabularies - The students are hoped to use English when they take part in extracurricualr activities although it is hard for them 16 2.2 For the teachers - The teacher should learn and be creative to find the way of how to organize extracurricular activities effectively She must also give motivation and explanation about the importance of speaking in English communication or universal communication - The teacher should choose the materials that are appropriate and not too difficult for the students - Before organizing the extracurricular activities for the students, the teacher should make sure that the students have fully understood and have the information they need - To motivate students, activities should be varied, suitable to their levels and interests - The teacher should assign work to students and encourage them to take part in the activities by giving bonus marks - The teacher should keep control the students’ activities - The teacher should present the language in an enjoyable, relaxed and understandable way - The teacher should create and maintain a friendly relationship with students is also of great importance Students would feel much more self-confident to communicate if they find their teachers are supportive Thus, teachers should always be available to help students when they are in difficulties Especially, for reluctant and shy students, teachers should show more care and encouragement than others Also, frequent praises from teachers can be seen as a special gift that motivates students to speak more 2.3 For the administrators It is said that to get teacher and learner difficulties solves, it involves not only the teacher, the learners and the textbook but also the School Management Board, the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Education and Training The School Management Board should equip more built-in teaching facilities such as overhead projector, Television and the like so that the teacher could save time to have it installed and removed before and after each class When all teaching facilities are available, the teacher may feel free to apply new teaching ideas related to his/her lesson plan The School Management Board should provide time and Money in order for foreign language group to organize extracurricular activities regularly for students 17 The Department of Education and Training should take into consideration the effectiveness of evaluation as a teaching tool to boost the education quality The examinations and test should pay attention to checking learners’ communicative competence but not only linguistic competence To encourage students to speak English, examinations should test students’ ability to speak English rather than always students’ ability to write English I think we should change our traditional method of assessing Instead of testing just grammar and readings, other skills, especially speaking and listening should also be tested Continual assessment during each semester should be appreciated as well so that students not have to worry too much about the final exams but keep trying and learning during the long terms This change will help create a better motivation for students to study because they no longer have to focus on doing grammar exercises and reading tests By including the assessment of speaking, listening and writing skills in the exams, students will be more involved in the class activities Whether the assessment of speaking skills should be included in a formal test (45 minute test, end of semester, end of year or graduation exam) or it should be assessed independently If we all apply CLT in teaching and learning a foreign language and consider the communicative ability as the goal, why don’t we try to test learners’ communicative ability? Therefore, I believe a change in the assessment system can help make a change in the students' attitude and motivation of learning so that they can achieve better outcome I hope Vietnamese education in general and Vietnamese English proficiency in particular will develop more soon Besides, it is suggested that administrators should frequently organize training courses for teachers to improve their English proficiency, teaching methodology and management skills In these courses, teachers can exchange knowledge and experience with each other I believe that if all of these above matters are well addressed, English learners at Triệu Sơn High School No2 in particular and through out the country in general will benefit from the innovation in teaching methods and the teaching materials Limitations of the study Although the study is carefully and clearly designed and based on reliable data, it has the major limitations Due to the limitation of knowledge, teaching experience and time, lack of resources and the researcher’s ability Errors and shortcomings are inevitable 18 - Firstly, not all the 10th students at Triệu Sơn High School No2 were involved in the interview, to some extent; the results might not be generalized to all students of the school - Secondly, only some suggested solutions have been proposed to deal with improving students’speaking skills Suggestions for further study This study has only focused on the Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities Moreover, the study has only mentioned a pilot case with 10th graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2 Hopefully, therefore, there will be further research on extracurricular activities During the study, the author had come up with some points, which can be suggestions for further study: As mentioned above, there are some types of extracurricular activities, so a comparison should be made between the students’ speaking performance in different kinds of extracurricular activities Another study with a larger scope should be done (not only with the students in the 10th form but also with the students in the 11th form and the 12th form at Triệu Sơn High School No2.) XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƢỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày 29 tháng năm 2015 CAM KẾT KHÔNG COPY Lê Đình Thắng 19 REFERENCES Cohen, A.D (1998) Strategies in learning and using a second language Essex, U.K.: Longman Extracurricular-activities Retrieved May 4th, 2014 https://sites.google.com/a/pccu.edu.tw/english-web/extracurricular-activities Harmer, J (1983) The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Thu Phƣơng, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Hanoi: Educational Publishing House Holloway, J.H 1999 Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success for Educational Leadership, Princeton Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for the Teacher E.L.T Prentice Hall Richard, J.C & Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom Council of Europe Press Wilcox, M.L “The impact of extracurricular activities on academic performance for rural secondary students in Indiana” Retrieved May 4th, 2014 from scholars.indstate.edu/bitstream/ /Michael%20Wilcox.pdf 20 APPENDICES APPENDIX EVALUATION FORM FOR STUDENTS This evaluation form is designed for my study “Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a pilot case with 10th graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you Please write down some information about yourself Your age: ………………………………… Sex: ……………………………………… Years of learning English: ………………… Please tick (√) where appropriate or write in brief where necessary (You can choose more than one answer to some questions) Do you like extracurricular activities? Have you ever participated in any extra curricular activities at school? a yes b no Which of our extracurricular activities you have participated in interests you most? a English speaking clubs b English singing contests c English rhetorics d Retelling stories c Drama Do you find the activities you mentioned above useful for your language learning? a yes b no Do you think the extracurricular activities that you experienced had any impact on your language learning? a yes - what kind of impact ? b no Which among these you feel you have made evident progress while participating in those activities: a confidence b.communicative competence c speaking fluency d team work skills e.others (please specify)! Who in your opinion would be in the best position to take the leading role in organizing extracurricular activities (check what applies in your case): a Teacher b Students I c Others (specify) Is there anything you would like to change or suggest in regards of extracurriculars at school that you experienced? ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Can you suggest any new language extracurricular activities? ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your co-operation! II APPENDIX QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW (For the students) Do you like extracurricular activities? What specific activities you enjoy: English speaking clubs, English singing contests, English rhetoric, drama, retelling stories in English or others (please specify)? Which of our extracurricular activities you have participated in interests you most? Why? Which among these you feel you have made evident progress while participating in those activities: confidence; communicative competence; speaking fluency; team work skills; others (please specify)! What could be done better, in your opinion? III APPENDIX QUESTIONS FOR THE DISCUSSION (For the teachers) You have observed the extracurricular activities we organized for 10th graders at our school What you think worked and what not? Why? Did you observe that students’ speaking ability improved? What helps you conclude that their speaking got better? What you think are the reasons for such improvement? Any other aspects also got better? What is your advice to us so that we can better with regards to extracurricular activities? IV APPENDIX OBSERVATION SHEET (for the teachers) Date: Kind of activity: Number of students: Materials: Observer:……………………………… * Observation Students’ level of participation in Very low Very high speaking activities Students’ interaction with each other Very bad Very good Students’ attitudes towards speaking Not interested Very activities interested Students’improvement in speaking Reduce Increase skills Students’improvement in presenting in Not confident confident front of large audience Students’s pronuciation improvement learning atmosphere in Reduce Increase Not active Very active *Comment: …………………………………………………………………………………………… V THANH HOA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TRIEU SON HIGH SCHOOL No EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES – A PILOT CASE WITH 10TH GRADERS AT TRIỆU SƠN HIGH SCHOOL No Researcher : Lê Đình Thắng Post : the leader of the foreign language group Speciality : English THANH HOA, 2015 VI [...]... if they practise speaking it everyday and participate in extracurricular activities at school They all liked the extracurricular activities They participated in all of the extracurricular activities that had been organized at school Some of them are interested in English song singing contests” most because they can perform the English songs that they like and they can hear favourite English songs singing... that had been organized at school They thought that all the activities that had been organized at school were very useful for their language learning Extracurricular activites had many impact on their language learning such as: knowledge of grammar, English proficency, communication abilities, social skills, teamwork skills When they participated in the extracurricular activities, they made evident progress... organize extracurricular activities successfully The reacher should combine with the organizations in the school 2.3 Discussion 2.3.1 The organization of extracurricular activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities in class By organizing extracurricular activities for the students, they had a chance to be active and cooperative in speaking activities so that the speaking skills. .. Organizational Formality - Dramatization - Three teams partake in a competition Each team has 5 members 2.3 Participants - Students from class 10C1 and 10C7 2.4 Place and time - Place: the schoolyard - Time: April 21th, 2015 2.5 Attendants - The Board of School Management - All teachers of English group ( English Department) - All head teachers of 10th grade - All students of the school After the activities, ... The organization of extracurricular activities could overcome the researchers’ problem that was how to make students motivated in speaking activity The students also had a positive response to speaking lesson after having participated in extracurricular activities The students speaking ability could be improved through extracurricular activities because in extracurricular activities they could share information,... 2014 from scholars.indstate.edu/bitstream/ /Michael%20Wilcox.pdf 20 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 EVALUATION FORM FOR STUDENTS This evaluation form is designed for my study “Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a pilot case with 10th graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not... in Annex 3 All of the teachers in the English group agreed that speaking skill is one of the most important skills in learning English so we must teach it with great care In teaching duration, there are many ways to enhance the speaking skills for the students Organizing extracurricular activities is one of the best ways to enhance English skills, especially speaking skills Extracurricular activities. .. the evaluation forms Ninety students had to answer eight questions in the evaluation form to express their feedback toward extracurricular activities From ninety evaluation forms of the students, the researcher can see that all students like extracurricular activities All of them participated in at least two extracurricular activities They were all interested in the extracurricuar activities that had... organized regularly, may be once every two months or once a month The organization of ECAs should be prepared carefully in order to get the best result After each extracurricular activity was organized, teachers in the English group should have a meeting to evaluate and plan for the next ECAs After observing three extracurricular activities, they saw that extracurricular activities had been prepared carefully... skills of 10th graders would be improved The participation in extracurricular activities made the speaking and learning activity more enjoyable and interesting, so in class students were more interested in speaking activities 2.3.2 The effectiveness of extracurricular activities experimented at school The organization of extracurricular activities could make the students’ speaking skills improve Extracurricular ... that had been organized at school They thought that all the activities that had been organized at school were very useful for their language learning Extracurricular activites had many impact... They all admit that by participating in the extracurricular activities at school, They can see that their English skills improved, especially speaking skills Besides that their teamwork skills and... participation in speaking activities in class By organizing extracurricular activities for the students, they had a chance to be active and cooperative in speaking activities so that the speaking