Some activities to stimulate students’ speaking in speaking lessons (tiếng anh 10)

Table of contents Contents Name of the theme A.Introduction Page 2-3 I Reasons of choosing the theme II.Purposes of the study III Scopes of the study IV Research methodology B- Contents of the theme I.Theoretical basis II.Practical basis 3-14 III.Applying some activities to stimulate students' speaking IV.Results C.conclusion Conclusion 2.Suggestion Reference books Appendix 14-15 16 17-21 A INTRODUCTION I.THE REASONS OF CHOOSING THE THEME According to my teaching experience, four language skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be fully stimulated during the course of study to help the students communicate in the target language since the lack of any skills will spoil the effectiveness of communication However, learning quality is still far from being satisfactory Learners have faced many difficulties in English learning, especially in the learning of speaking skills In fact, it is undeniable that many Vietnamese students after seven years learning English at schools still feel confused when communicating with foreigners or they even could not say a simple utterance like an offer Obviously, the ability to communicate in a foreign language clearly and effectively contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life Like many high schools in Vietnam,at Quang Xuong high school, English has been a compulsory subject in its curriculum for many years and the English speaking skill is one of five official parts in a unit However, due to the demand of the high school graduation exam, which means little attention has been paid to the speaking skill Sometimes, they feel bored with the difficult and uninteresting topics in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ With year – experience in Quang Xuong school.HS,I find that the English lessons with speaking activities designed by teachers always motivate students and get them involved in speaking effectively The effort of this thesis is trying to encourage teachers to apply innovative methods in teaching speaking skill for learners and to help students to learn speaking subject more effectively Having students work in groups not only makes them more involved in learning but also gives the m opportunities to practise the foreign language being learned There are many reasons but above are the main drivers for us to engage in this study entitled Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) II Purposes of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to 10th Graders in Quang Xuong High School, Quang Xuong, Thanh Hoa; - Investigating the effectiveness in Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) III.Scope of the study This study is implemented to find answers to the following research questions: What are students’ difficulties in learning the current English speaking activities in ‘Tieng Anh 10’? 2 Which speaking lessons (in 16 units of Tieng Anh 10) are difficult for the students at QX3HS? What speaking activities in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”should be adapted to reduce students’ difficulties? IV.Research methodology To achieve the aims mentioned above, the study employed survey questionnaire for students, interview for teachers and classroom observations to collect information on the the students’ difficulties and seeks a way to reduce those difficulties by adapting some unsuitable textbook pre-designed English speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10” • • • • • • B CONTENTS OF THE THEME I Theoretical basis In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety Thus, I favor Madsen and Bowen’s (1978) and Tice’s (1991) view that is the purpose of material adaptation is to compensate for those deficiencies This is important to all teachers of English because it can activate learners and stimulate their motivation, and increased motivation, in turn, is likely to create a more conductive classroom atmosphere II.Practical basis Problems with English speaking Everything has bad and good sides Speaking also has its own problems According to Brown (1994: 256), the characteristics of spoken language can make oral performance easy as well as in soe cases difficult There are following problems with speaking: Clustering * Redundancy Reduced forms * Colloquial language Stress, rhythm and intonation * Affective factors Interaction Problems with English speaking activities It is more difficult to design and adminster such activities than to so for listening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996:121) lists out: Inhibition * Nothing to say: Lows or uneven participation * Mother-tongue use: Basing on these views, an action research is to caried out on adapting some English speaking activities for the ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to reduce these difficulties 3.Applying some activities to stimulate students'speaking 3.1 ROLE PLAY a.Activities Application: Task - Unit 6: An excursion Aims: Giving opinions, expressing agreement and disagreement Class time: 20 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 66 Source: Section cards and role cards (See Appendix 1) Procedure: Copy and cut the role cards of each people and the section cards Divide the class into group of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of role cards and one set of situation cards (for group of three, leave out role card D) Ask the students to sit round the table with the situations cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table The cards should be in order from to Each student should have a role card 1, 2, or 4 Tell the students that it is Sunday morning and Tim’s class is going on a boat on Lake Michigan in Chicago Read the seat plan You suggest the best seat in each section for each person The object of the game is using structures ‘… think …‘should’ or should not… because’ Or giving opinions via answers ‘Yes’, ‘No’ basing on the content of textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ The game is finished when they have successfully decided on each people’s seat Ask groups their decision on some sections and check with the whole class b Activities Application: Task – Unit 3: People’s background 4 Aims: to encourage students to find out information related to their friends’ background for their presentation next task Level: Elementary Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 35 Source: English Textbook 10, Education Press, 2006 (See Appendix 2) Procedure: The teacher elicits situation and ask students to make questions basing on given information, for example: The teacher introduce some special expression for students to the natural conversation Students work in pairs to the interview Teacher walks around to encourage and help students if necessary Teacher calls some pairs to the interview before class After doing this task, students can collect information to talk about the friend they have interviewed for reporting at the end of the lesson Most students are eager to the task because they can it in role of the interviewers 3.2 INFORMATION GAP a Activities Application: Task – Unit 1: A day in the life of … Aims: Talking about daily activities Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 14 Source: Role cards Role Cards Student A In the At 10 In the Before At the morning a.m evenings bed weekends ? ? ? ? ? In the morning At 10 a.m In the evenings Before bed At the weekends ? ? ? ? ? Tom James Sara Partn er Student B Tom James Sara Partn er The pictures are adapted from http://www.esl-library.com Procedure: Copy the two role cards They are the same but some information is missing from each Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the role cards Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’s questions e.g A: What does Tom after school? B: He often does exercise Tell the students to write the answers in the boxes or draw the picture Ask the students to write his/ her partner’s name in the last box and ask him/ her the same questions to complete the boxes The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing information Tell students to stand up and make full sentences about the characters in the cards b Activities Application: Task – Unit 15: Cities Aims: Comparing two cities Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 159 Source: Role cards – Cities (See Appendix 3) Procedure: Copy the two role cards - cities They are the same but some information is missing from each Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the role cards Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’s questions e.g When was New York founded? What is population of New York? How many national holidays are there in New York? The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing information in their cards Ask some students to stand up and talk about the person they have asked their partners to get the information about their cities 3.3 CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING a Activity Application: Task – Unit 5: Technology and You Aims: Asking for and giving information about the uses of modern inventions Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 56 Source: Modern inventions Cards Modern inventions Cards Computer Mouse Memory card Printer Disk drive Laptop Answering machine CD player Computer Fax machine Camera Cell phone Digital Camera Microwave Cassette tape Clock radio Dishwasher Remote Control The pictures are adapted from: http: www.esl-library.com Procedure: Copy and cut out the 18 modern invention cards above Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each group one set of job cards Tell the students to put cards face down on the table Ask students to take it turn to pick up a card and ask and answer about the uses of modern inventions Put some helpful language on the board for them to refer to: A: Can/ Could you tell me what ……………………… is used for? B: It is used to …………………………………………………… The activity is finished when each student has said at least one thing about each of the cards Ask one group to stand up and say about one of the modern inventions in the cards Ask the other groups to add more information b Activity Application: Task – Unit 11: National Parks Aims: Expressing regrets (using the conditional sentence type 3) Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 115 Source: Situation cards - List of wishes (See Appendix 4) Procedure: Copy the list of wishes and the situation cards, cut out the situation cards Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student a list of wishes and two situation cards Tell the students to complete their list of wishes by saying according to model others in their group: e.g If we had not …., we wouldn’t have … When students have completed all the missing information in their list of wishes, ask them to tell their group the most interesting or surprising wisher they have known 3.4 DISCUSSION a Activity Application: Task – Unit 8: The story of my village 10 Aims: Talking about plans and possible results (in the village) Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 85 Source: Question Cards (See Appendix 5) Procedure: Copy, cut out and shuffle question cards Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of question cards Ask students to sit round the table with the question cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table One student starts by turning up the top card, reading it out to the group and discussing their plans and possible results The next student now picks up a card, reads it out … and the activity continues Stop the students at the end of the time limit Ask each group in turn which question card gave rise to most discussion b Activity Application: Task – Unit 9: Undersea World Aims: Reporting on discussion results Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 97 Source: Situation Cards (See Appendix 6) Procedure: Copy and cut out the situation cards Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of situation cards Ask students to turn up the first card and compare four situations on the card to find out solutions Encourage them use ‘should’ and ask groups exchange situations, then discuss again 11 4 When the time is over, find out the best solutions c Activity Application: Task – Unit 14: The World Cup Aims: Asking and answering questions about the World Cups Class time: 20 minutes Source: Handouts (See Appendix 7) Procedure: Copy handouts Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each group two handouts Tell students to complete their handouts by asking and answering the others in their group such as: A: Where was the first World Cup held? B: It was held in Uruguay A: Which teams played in the final match? B: Uraguay and Argentina A: Which team became the champion? B: Uraguay A: What was the score of the match? B: - When students have completed all the missing information in their handouts, ask them add more information about famous football team if they know 12 3.5 INTERVIEWS Application: Task – Unit 4: Special Education Aims: Making an interview Class time: 20 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 48 Source: Handouts (See Appendix 8) Procedure: Copy and cut out the six handouts Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student one of the six handouts Explain that each student has some questions in their handout, ask them to interview four other people in their group and make a note of answer they get Stop the students at the end of the time limit whether they have finished or not Ask some students to stand up and present their work Results In order to assess the effectiveness of applying this method to teaching reading, I have compared my work with many classes (10D, 10A5, 10 A2 school year 2013-2014, 10 D, 10 A2, 10A3 school year 2014-2015) for many years Before using this method, most of my students find it difficult to complete all the taks in the text book It is a matter of fact that after applying Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) , my students and I felt it very interesting , they seemed to be very eager for speaking lessons During the lessons, all the students were involved in the activities After each speaking 13 lesson, students remember the speaking situation more thoroughly Besides, they had many chances to practice many other skills like writing and listening, especially speaking in pairs, in groups or in individually in front of the whole class Chart Students’ feedback towards applying changing or adding English speaking activities and their effectiveness Most children love to speak English with the following results: Good Quite good Medium Quite bad Beginning of the year 10% 12% 40% 28% After 1st term 20% 28% 32% 20% After 2nd term 34% 32% 20% 14% C- CONCLUSION Conclusion Teaching method is a product connecting theory and practice in order to help students get knowledge, practice their skills and solve the problems Changing teaching method, according to me, is changing the role of the teacher from the provider into a consultant; students will fulfil the demand of knowledge themselves It is clearly that in my class, with some activities desiged by me, the atmosphere of learing is getting more and more exciting, students are voluntary participants in teaching process, I myself find it is relaxing to be a guide instead of being a translator, for all the activities in the classroom Suggestion Basing on practical teaching English text book 10, 11, 12 Education Publishing House, I suggest : First, the communicative activities presented in some tasks in speaking lesson in ‘Tieng Anh 10’ are not effective because they are not varied and interesting enough to attract the students’ concentration or some topics are not familiar to them due to the low background knowledge of rural students, generally Therefore, to motivate students in speaking lessons, it is vitally necessary to adapt these speaking activities Secondly, the students’ favorite speaking activities except for games are also highly appreciated by the teachers Moreover, these activities get them not bored and make them more confident However, games are not always profitable and very time-consuming though they are very interesting and attract students’ attention 14 This is my little experience in finding methods to help students find speaking lesson more interesting I hope to receive your reading and comments as well as contribution to make this theme more perfect so that it can be applied widely Validation, evaludation,classification Of the school ………………………………………… ………………………………………… ………………………………………… ………………………………………… ………………………………………… HEAD MASTER (sign,affix) Sam Son,April 17th,2016 I assure that the writing above is mine,not copying ( sign and write your full name) Nguyen Thi Khue 15 REFERENCE BOOKS Bailey, K.M and Savage, L (1994) New Ways in Teaching Speaking.USA Byrne, D (1991) Teaching Oral English Longman Hadfield, J (1985) Elementary Communication Games Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd Hoa, H.X., et al (2004) Tài Liệu Bồi Dưỡng Giáo Viên Dạy Sách Khoa Lớp 10 – Môn Tiếng Anh The Ministry of Education and Training Jones, L (2002) Let’s Talk 2: Teacher Support Site Cambrigde University Press Ellis, M (1986: 47) Making and shaping games How to adapt University of Technology, Loughborough Madsen, K.S., &Bowen, J.D (1978) Adaptation in Language Teaching Rowley, MA: Newbury House Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambrigde University Press Van, H.V., et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Education Publishing House of Vietnam 10.Wallwork, A (1994) Discussions A-Z Advanced: A Resourse Book of Speaking Activities Cambrigde University Press 11 Watcyn-Jones, P (1995) Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers Penguin Books Websites: http://www.bogglesworldesl.com http://www.esl-library.com http://www.onetopenglish.com APPENDIX 16 APPENDIX Section cards: Tim’s class is going on a boat on Lake Michigan in Chicago Read the seat plan You suggest the best seat in each section for each person Mrs Andrew Which section? Why? Tim Which section? Why? Susan Which section? Why? John Which section? Why? Mary Which section? Why? Sam Which section? Why? Role – cards Mrs Andrews would like to Susan would like to near Mary see all the students She don’t want to get sunburst She doesn’t want to sit on the sun deck Mary would like to plenty of Tim would like to sit in the sun fresh air and he wants to be himself She doesn’t want to suffer from traffic sickness John would like to take photographs He doesn’t like air- conditioning Susan would like to have a good view Adapted from ‘Elementary Communication Games’ by Jill Hadfield (1985) APPENDIX Role cards - Questions: When were you born? Where were you born? What is your address? Could you tell me about your parents? What does your father/mother do? How many brother you have?/What you do?/ How old are Expression to the natural conversation: school? Hello I’m Lan Hello Nice to meet you! How nice to see you! Since when have you studied at this Could you tell me something about your parents? 17 Let me see … Which primary school did Oh, good! Oh, yes! Oh, come on! you go to? I think it’s time to stop Thanks a lot Which secondary school Thank you for giving me time did you go to? Thank you very much That was How you work at very interesting school? Do you join all school activities? What is your favorite subject?/ What subject you like best? - they? Role cards - Cities Student A APPENDIX New York Found Population Area National holidays High buildings Park People Transport 1624 million 946 square km days many One friendly, open convenient London 43 AD million Student B New York Found Population Area National holidays High buildings Park People Transport 1624 million London 43 AD million 1610 square km 14 days Few Five Formal, reserved Convenient APPENDIX4 Situation cards They went by coach, most of people got car sick They did not bring enough food and drinks; they had to spend a lot of money eating in expensive restaurant Some had food poisoning, they didn’t enjoy their visit They had no rain coats, they got wet and some got a cold Some left their luggage on the coach when they arrived; they had no 18 clothes or money with them Some were not careful when walking in Huong pagoda, they got lot Some threw waste in the forest, they got fine They stayed there only one day, they couldn’t visit all the pagodas List of wishes Name: ………………………………… If they hadn’t … They wouldn’t have … gone by coach brought enough food and drinks had food poisoning had no rain coats left their luggage on the coach when they arrived been not careful when walking in Huong pagoda thrown waste in the forest stayed there only one day Adapted from ‘Let’s talk 2: Teacher support Site’ by Leo Jones (2002) APPENDIX Question cards In your school, there will be a new library What should you then? If there were a new supermarket in their neighborhood, would you buy anything you want without bargaining? Would you if there were a new cinema in their neighborhood? In their neighborhood, there will be a new hospital What should you then? Discuss this problem Question Cards are adapted from ‘Discussion A-Z Advanced’ by Adrian Wallwork (1994) APPENDIX6 Situation Cards Sam Son beach is filled with plastic bags, pieces of class and cigarette butts Whales and sharks are still hunted for food, medicine, and other products Explosives are used to catch and other sea animals Oil is spilled from tankers Your village is dirty with rubbish Question Cards are adapted from ‘Discussion A-Z Advanced’ by Adrian Wallwork (1994) APPENDIX 19 Handout A Time Years s 1930 1938 1950 1954 1966 11 13 1978 1986 15 16 17 1994 1998 2002 Handout B Time Years s 1930 1938 1950 1954 11 1966 1978 13 1986 15 16 17 1994 1998 2002 Winner Score Uruguay Uruguay Runnerup Argentina England Score Host country France West Germany England Argentina Argentin a Brazil France Brazil 0 Winner Score Brazil Germany Runnerup The USA Score Host country Uraguay Italy West Germany Argentin a Brazil Switzerlan d Hungary West Germany Italy Mexico 0 France Korea & Japan Adapted from ‘Discussion A-Z Advanced’ by Adrian Wallwork (1994) APPENDIX Handouts Interview four other people in your group about their subjects, timetable, lower-secondary school, tests… What Name Name Name Name …… …… …… …… were your subjects then? was your timetable? about your homework? lower-secondary school didn’t you like then? 20 part of the school life didn’t you like then? you think about your tests and exams at your school then? did you like best about your school then? Adapted from ‘Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers’ by Peter WatcynJones (1995) 21 ... the main drivers for us to engage in this study entitled Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) II Purposes of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating... English speaking activities in ‘Tieng Anh 10’? 2 Which speaking lessons (in 16 units of Tieng Anh 10) are difficult for the students at QX3HS? What speaking activities in the textbook “Tieng Anh. .. in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) , my students and I felt it very interesting , they seemed to be very eager for speaking lessons During the lessons, all the students were involved in the activities