Some pre listening techniques to motivate 10th students at nong cong II school to improve the listening skills’

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ TABLE CONTENT TRƯỜNG THPT NÔNG CỐNG II Page Part I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aims of the study III Research methodology Part II: DEVELOPMENT Factors in teaching and learning listening skills The role of pre-listening techniques The importance of motivation in second language learning Part III – DATA ANALYSIS SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM I Situation analysis Tenth-form NHỮNG THỦ students: THUẬT DẠY Ở GIAI ĐOẠN TIỀN NGHE The teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school HIỂU NHẰM THÚC II Data analysis resultĐẨY HỌC SINH LỚP 10 THPT NÔNG Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the role of pre-listening CỐNG PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE techniques 1.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques 1.2 Students’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques The situation of using pre-listening techniques 4.Data analysis of the class experience teaching Part IV – SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPLOYING PRE-LISTENING TECHNIQUES Người thực hiện: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng Using pre-listening techniques at Nong Chức vụ: Giáo viênCong II appropriately and flexibly Encouraging the stuents’ internal factors SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực: Tiếng Anh Improving the pre-listening activities in the Textbook English 10 Part V: CONCLUSION 10 REFERENCES 11 APPENDICES 12 THANH HOÁ NĂM 2016 Part I: INTRODUCTION Rationale English is, nowadays, needed in every field of our lives and for such a long time it has been not only a compulsory subject in schools in Vietnam but one of three major subjects in the entrance exam to some Universities and Colleges as well Of all four skills: listening, speaking , reading and writing, listening is always considered to be most difficult for teachers to teach and for students to improve themselves, which leads to the fact that learners are afraid to learn listening skills The ablity to understand the native speakers in direct conservations, on the radio or tape may be important for learners to further study the language and communicate in it This is also true to students at Nong Cong II high school, especially to 10th grade students, who little or even never practice listening skill at lower secondary school It is known that a good pre-listening stage can arouse the students’ interest in listening as well as provide them language preparation which can be helpful clues to their listening comprehension In order to make prelistening techniques effective, the author applied a number of pre-listening techniques helping students improve their listening skills All the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study about exprerience initiative in teaching ‘Some pre-listening techniques to motivate 10th students at Nong Cong II school to improve the listening skills’ Aims of the study The aims of the study are: - to investigate the teachers and students’ attitudes towards the pre-listening techniques And examine the students’ preference for the pre-listening techniques - to give some suggestions for using pre-listening techniques (based on listening lessons of “Tieng Anh 10”) to motivate 10th grade students’ listening skills at Nong Cong high school Research methodology Questionaire are designed as a means to make the researcher’s evaluayion more objective The questionnaires are given to tenth-form students and teachers of English at Nong Cong II with the hope to find out their attitudes towards pre-listening techniques as well as suggestions for these techniques Part II: DEVELOPMENT Factors in teaching and learning listening skill 1.1 The listening texts A listening text may be a short story, dialogue, a piece of news, a reading passage, ect written or read by native speakers in authentic English Therefore, learners are supposed to understand the text as much and correctly as possible According to Buck, G (2001): ‘Providing suitable texts is not a simple matter It take times, effort and some expertise’ 1.2 Teacher’s role As many students feel afraid of listening, teachers should be a guide to help them, to courage them Rost, M (1994) states that ‘language teachers need to provide various types of support to their learners to help them to develop listening skills’ 1.3 Students’ role Obviously, students themselves play an important role in improving their own listening skills They not only should take an active part in learning but also have to take the risk of making mistakes because a mistake is an opportunity to learn 1.4 Task difficulty It will be good for both teachers and students to know about the factors which makes listening difficult, because this can help them find the way to overcome the problems they have in teaching and learing listening In second language teaching and learning, most of researchers focus on three following factors: Textual factors, the types of classroom tasks and inferences The role of pre-listening techniques This stage is carried out before students begin listening to the listening text It plays an essential part in the whole process of a listening lesson The pre activites are aimed at preparing learners with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text Normally, pre-listening stage often lasts from five to twelve minutes depending on each lesson The importance of motivation in second language learning Motivation is essential to success in most field of learning We will almost certainly fail to make the necessary effort without motivation Obvious, there has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second language learning However, researchers to indicate precisely how motivation is related to learning, especially for most Vietnamese learners, who are often driven by social and institutional factors such as finding better job opportunities as well as pressure on exams Part III – DATA ANALYSIS I Situation analysis This experience report is carried out with the participation of over 120 tenth-form students in 10A1, 10A3 and 10A6 and teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school Tenth-form students: Tenth-form students at Nong Cong II high school, aged 16, all have learned at least years (from grade to grade 9) However, it can be assured that their knowlegde of English is not the same Most of them come from Northern communes of Nong Cong district The teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school Of all teachers of English of Nong Cong II high school, Five teachers taking part in this study have been teaching ‘Tieng Anh 10’ textbook for over years Without doubt, they are experienced and enthusiastic teachers Morever, they are willing to help their students overcome the difficulties in learning English II Data analysis result Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the role of pre-listening techniques 1.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques All the teachers at Nong Cong high school are aware of the importance of pre-listening techniques While 60% of the teachers admits they always use pre-listening techniques , and these techniques are often used by the rest of the teachers And the author herself recognizes their purposes in using pre-listening techniques , which to help students to predict the content of the text, provide background knowledge about the topic of the text, teach new or difficult vocabulary in the text, increasing the students’ motivation in listening to the text and get them involved in the text 1.2 Students’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques The pre-listening techniques are beneficial to students in any way, so it is not suprising to find out majority of the students think these techniques play an importance part in motivating them to listen because they will feel more confident when they are guided by teachers before listening Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques A large number of the students enjoy such techniques as using games, preteaching new words and using pre-listening questions, which the teacher often uses This will make teachers’ activities more effective The situation of using pre-listening techniques In each listening lesson, I have managed to one of these techniques before listening to motivate the students: * Using games to introduce the topic of the text * Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text * Giving a brief introduction of the text * Explaining the introduction of the text * Pre – teaching new vocabulary in the listening text * Making students brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text * Using pre-listening questions * Using group discussion about the topic of the text * Giving listening tasks to students Data analysis of the class experience teaching The reseacher taught three classes (10A1, 10A3 and 10A6) with different pre-listening techniques when lead in at the pre-listening stage The first experience took place in class 10A1 with unit The listening text is about Vang Trang Khuyet Club, an art club, organized for mentally retarded children This listening text is quite long and includes lots of new words The teacher employed the techniques for teaching vocabulary First, she asked students to work in groups to guess the words deriving from the roots: sorry, photo… In fact, some of these words will appear in the text Then she used pre-listening questions ‘Do you know how to take photo?’, ‘Would you like to join a photographic club?’ to introduce the topic Last, she pre-taught new words by giving definition or explanation These activities lasted in 15 minutes The reseacher’s experience, the students were willing to take part in teacher’s activities and eager to listen to the text The second experience was taken from class 10A3 with unit In the text, an old man is talking about his learning how to use a computer The text also includes new words which belong to informatics The teacher prepared the pre-listening activities very carefully and spent 15 minutes employing them She used the pictures of the items (radio, cell phone, computer, …) and asked students to discuss the uses of these items This is the good way for students to revise the words they learnet in the reading and speaking lessons Then she introduced the topic briefly Before asking the students to listen, she elicited new words Most of the students took an active part in these activities For unit 8, the author of the study taught class 10A6 The listening text is about the changes of Poffero, a small town on the south coast of England First, the teacher hang up two pictures of the same town at two different point of time (in the past/ now), then asked students to discuss the differences between them Clearly, this attracted energetic students more than shy ones From the discussion, students were asked to predict the topic of the listening text Many students pu up their hands, which means that they could guess the topic of the coming text Last, the teacher pre-taught new words The students listened attentively and took notes carefully All in all, the teaching experiences help the reseacher confirm the fact that pre-listening techniques applied by the teacher have great impact to students’ motivation before they start listening And this is the result compared by the previous years 2014 -2015 Listening Skills Class Rank Before using prelistening techniques(2014-2015) After (2015-2016) Class Excellent 6.81% 23.68% 10A1 Good 40.90% 62.27% (43 students Medium 50% 4.05% 2.27% 0% 0% 0% Weak Bad Class Excellent 2.27% 4.54% 10A3 Good 34.1% 69,99% (50 sts) Medium 56.81% 25.45% Weak 4.54% 0% Bad 0% 0% Class Excellent 3% 6% 10A6 Good 25% 30% (44 sts) Medium 57% 62% Weak 15% 2% Bad 0% 0% Part IV – SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPLOYING PRE-LISTENING TECHNIQUES Using pre-listening techniques at Nong Cong II appropriately and flexibly It is obvious that motivating students to get actively involve in listening lessons depends on several factors However, in the experience study, the author’s invention is to investigate into the impact of teachers’ techniques on the students’ motivation at the very first stage of the lesson: pre-listening stage The techniques used at this stage are: * Using games to introduce the topic of the text * Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text * Giving a brief introduction of the text * Explaining the introduction of the text * Pre – teaching new vocabulary in the listening text * Making students brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text * Using pre-listening questions * Using group discussion about the topic of the text * Giving listening tasks to students Teachers should also take the flexbility of applying pre-listening techniques into account This work is affected by the students’ level of proficiency and their familiarity to the topic Let us take the listening in Unit as an example If at the beginning of the lesson, teacher asks “What you know about Vang Trang Khuyet club and its activities?” students will feel confused because many of them may know nothing about this club Thus, it is advisable for the teacher to make sure that students are clear about the topic and to ask more specific questions Encouraging the students’ internal factors Besides the teachers’ techniques or the ways they carry on the activities, the students’ personal things: Their feelings, their needs, their interests or their innate characteristics have a great impact on the success of the lesson Thus, it is essential to assist the students to build up their strong motivation for listening by raising their awareness of the importance of motivation to their understanding as well as to their skill development Moreover, students should be encouraged to build up confidence in learning Last but not least, teacchers’ techniques or activities should meet the demands of the students To help students sustain long-term motivation, teachers should consider the students’ needs and interests while designing and and employing any kind of techniques Improving the pre-listening activities in the Textbook English 10 A large number of teachers and students are in favor of pre – listening available in each lesson of English book 10 However, 16% of the students suppose that these activities are boring or can not motivate them Therefore, it may be a good idea to add more activities that are of students’ interests, such as games or visual aids at the pre-listening stage PART V: CONCLUSION As teachers of English at a rural school, we have faced many obstacles in developing students’ listening skill, and the desire of how to improve the effectiveness of listening lessons is really the strong motivation This study was conducted with the hope to find out the role of pre-listening techniques to students’ motivation in listening at Nong Cong II high school In fact, teachers often find it hard to get students actively involved in their listening activities, meanwhile, the students are not always highly motivated by the techniques their teachers apply in the lesson To better the listening lesson, the teachers should take such things as teaching ang learning conditions, the listening texts, listening strategies and students’ preference into account In more details, some suggestions (Using pre-listening techniques appropriately and flexibly; Encouraging the students’ interal factors; Improving the pre-listening activities in the material) are provided above, which, hopefully, are useful for the teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school Due to the limitation of time, experience and resources, short-comings and mistakes are inevitable Therefore, all comments and corrections are hightly appreciated Thanh Hoa March 20th, 2015 Confirmation of the Head Master of Nong Cong II High School I declare that the work contained in this initiative is result of my own research Nguyễn Thị Thu Hang (M.A) REFERENCES Anderson A& Lynch T, (1988) Listening, Oxford, Oxford University Press Field J (1998) Skills and Strategies; towards a new methodology for listening Oxford University Press Linggzhu, J (2003) Listening activities for Effective to-down processing The Internet Journal, Vol IX, November, http: iteslj.org/ 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 Rost, M (1990) Listening in language learning, London, Longman Ellis, M (1986: 47) Making and shaping games How to adapt University of Technology, Loughborough Ur P, J.D (1989) Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambrigde University Press Van, H.V., et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Education Publishing House of Vietnam Websites: - https://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/listening/ - http://www.esl-library.com - Englishpost.org/2013/03/16/pre-listening-activities/ - http:iteslj.org/techniques/Lingzhu-listening.html APPENDICES I Appendix 1: OBSERVATIONAL PROTOCOL Observational Protocol 1: Unit – Van Trang Khuyet club Class: 10A1 (Period 3from 9.20 to 10.05) Date: Monday, 23/10/2015 Teacher’s activities Students’attitu des toward T’s activities Students’ involvement -At 9.20 a.m, teacher comes in 10 Students’interacti on with each other and greets the students - Teacher warms up by asking students to work in groups of or to find the different words that derive from the following roots: sorry, second… -Students show their interests in the activity In groups, they discuss and find words -All students get actively involved in groups -Exchange the ideas willingly - Teacher calls some presentatives of the groups to perform - Teacher asks studnts questions: “Do you know to take photo?”; “Would you like to join a photographic club?” -They are willing to answer the questions -All students have the same opportunities to answer the questions - Teacher introduces new words by giving definition and explanation -Listening attentively to those who answer teacher’s questions Summary: Teacher employed lots of pre-listening techniques, e.g making students brainstorm words related to the topic of the text; using pre-listening questions and teaching new words, which aroused students’ interests in learning These activities take place in 15 minutes Observational Protocol 2: Unit – Learning how to use a computer Class: 10A3 (Period from 8.30 to 9.15) Date: Wednesday, 8/11/2015 Teacher’s activities Students’attitud es toward T’s activities -At 8.30 a.m, teacher comes in 11 Students’ involvement Students’interac tion with each other and greets the students - Teacher ticks some pictures of the items (radio, cell phone…) on board and asks students: “How often you use this items? - Then teacher asks students to work in pairs to discuss the uses of these items - Teacher introduces briefly the topic - Teacher elicits new words by giving definitions and delivers handouts to the students to works in groups (15 minutes) -Students are eager to answer teacher’s questions individually -All students have the same opportunity to answer teacher’s question -They are willing to work with their partners -They are interested in taking part in this activity -They listen to attentively to the teacher -Listen to others attentively -Listening attentively to others and express their ideas -They take an active part in groups to fill in the gaps with the words they have learnt -All students have the same opportunities to answer the questio Summary: Teacher used some pre-listening techniques, which attracteds’ attention and made them more interested in listening to the text The pelistening activities emploed in this lesson were: using visual aids to introduce the words related the topic; using brief introdution of the text and teaching new words by giving explanation Observational Protocol 3: Unit – The changes of a small town Class: 10A6 (Period from 10.15 to 11.00) Date: Saturday, 2/12/2015 12 Teacher’s activities Students’attitu des toward T’s activities Students’ involvement Students’interact ion with each other -All students take an active part in this activity -Listen to others attentively, correct mistakes and give their own ideas -At 10.15 a.m, teacher comes in and greets the students - Teacher ticks two pictures of the same town (in the past/ now) on board - Teacher asks students to work in groups to discuss the differences between them -They are willing to work in groups - Teacher calls some groups of perform - Teacher asks students to predict the topic of the text - Teacher elicits new words by giving definitions, their symnonyms and antonyms -They are eager to give their predictation -Listen attentively to others (15 minutes) Summary: In the lesson, teacher aroused students’ interests in listening by using some techniques at the pre-listening stage, such as using visual aids to introduce the topic, teaching new words by giving definition, their synonyms and antonyms II Appendix 2: TOPICS OF THE LISTENING TEXTS IN ENGLISH BOOK 10 Unit 1: Monologue about a cyclo driver Unit 2: Some small talks at school 13 Unit 3: An interview with the olympic Champion Unit 4:Monologue about Vang Trang Khuyet Club Unit 5: Monologue – An old man talks about his learning how to use a computer Unit 6: Monologue – Weekend picnics Unit 7: Radio news Unit 8: The changes of a village Unit 9: Monologue about whales Unit 10:Destroying forests Unit 11: Cuc Phuong National Park Unit 12: Van Cao – a great musician Unit 13: Arrangement to see a film Unit 14: Pele – an internationally famous footballer Unit 16: The ancient town of Hoi An 14 TABLE CONTENT Page Part I: INTRODUCTION IV Rationale V Aims of the study VI Research methodology Part II: DEVELOPMENT Factors in teaching and learning listening skills The role of pre-listening techniques The importance of motivation in second language learning Part III – DATA ANALYSIS III Situation analysis Tenth-form students: The teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school IV Data analysis result Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the role of pre-listening techniques 2.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques 2.2 Students’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques The situation of using pre-listening techniques 4.Data analysis of the class experience teaching Part IV – SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPLOYING PRE-LISTENING TECHNIQUES Using pre-listening techniques at Nong Cong II appropriately and flexibly Encouraging the stuents’ internal factors Improving the pre-listening activities in the Textbook English 10 Part V: CONCLUSION 10 REFERENCES 11 APPENDICES 12 15 ... lead to the choice of the study about exprerience initiative in teaching Some pre- listening techniques to motivate 10th students at Nong Cong II school to improve the listening skills’ Aims of the. .. The aims of the study are: - to investigate the teachers and students attitudes towards the pre- listening techniques And examine the students preference for the pre- listening techniques - to. .. English at Nong Cong II high school IV Data analysis result Teachers and students attitudes towards the role of pre- listening techniques 2.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre- listening techniques