SKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUON MA THUOT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

SKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLSKKN TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUÔN MA THUỘT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

DAKLAK DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BUON MA THUOT HIGH SCHOOL -o0o - TEACHING INITIATIVE Title: TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUON MA THUOT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL Institution: Buon Ma Thuot High School Teacher : Huynh Anh Hong Subject : English BUON MA THUOT, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS I RATIONALE ………………………………………………………… …….1 II CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE ………………… …….3 Theoretical Background ………………………………………… …… Research Method and Data Collection ………………………… …… Realities……………… ………………………………………… …… Procedures and Findings ……………………………………… ……… a Procedures …………………………………………………… …… b Findings ………………………………………………………… 12 Solutions………………… ………………………………………………13 a Commonly used phrasal verbs ………………………………… … 13 b Kinds of Exercises .20  Gap-filling …………………………………………….……….20  Multiple Choice ………………………………………… … 22  Sentence Completion ………………………………….………22  Synonyms ……………………………………………….…… 23  Matching ………………………………………………….… 24  Sentence Transformation ………………………… ……… 25 III CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………… 25 APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………27 REFERENCE BOOKS …………………………………………………… 28 TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUON MA THUOT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL I RATIONALE Special attention is always paid to education by the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government because education can give us a chance to get access to the civilizations of human races and the understanding of the world In addition, it helps improve the quality of life and brings various benefits to individuals, collectives and the society Via many sessions, the Communist Party of Vietnam stated: “We need to continue enhancing the total quality of education, innovating the contents and methods of teaching and learning, renewing the system of schools and classes and the system of educational management; implementing the standardization, modernization and socialization.” With the tendency of globalization and world integration, English is regarded as an extremely important means of communication to make all the people throughout the world get closer and understand one another regardless of geographical distances, politics, religions and races It plays an indispensable part in almost every aspect of the society: politics, commerce, diplomacy, tourism, economy, culture and education What’s more, the year 2015 is the first year when the general certificate of secondary education examination and the university entrance examination are combined and mixed into the national general certificate of secondary education examination (GCSE Examination) English is picked out as one of the three compulsory subjects for the provinces which meet the requirements of learning and teaching English in a good condition It is these changes that have made a wide range of notable challenges to high schools, especially teaching staff in equipping the learners with the language skills in order to meet the higher and higher demands of the society Hence, the teachers of foreign languages in general and the teachers of English in particular can’t cease improving their qualifications, innovating the methods of teaching and applying more modern teaching method of foreign languages in the communicative approach with a view to improving the language proficiency and communicative competence of students In order to meet the tendency and needs of the society, the teachers of English are required to come up with creative and impressive teaching methods Since then, the students can understand the lessons deeply and apply them into their real-life conversations naturally The Ministry of Education and Training has had many sets of textbooks composed in the communicative approach so that the learners can improve and develop their language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Of the four language skills, each skill is of a specific and equivalent importance The four skills have a close and reciprocal relationship and they help learners master their target language Thus, if the learner is not good at any skill, he/she will have to cope with some obstacles in the process of using the language After many years of teaching English, I realize that the students find it very difficult to remember English phrasal verbs They often ask me to show some ways to remember the phrasal verbs in different contexts More interestingly, the phrasal verbs often have quite distinct meanings when they are combined with different prepositions e,g: look up, look after, look for, look into, look at Such difficult questions raised by the students make me think of the topic: “Teaching phrasal verbs through English songs at Buon Ma Thuot upper secondary school” One of the most striking trends of the students nowadays, especially students at Buon Ma Thuot high school is that they are absorbed in listening to music very much Let me illustrate an example extracted from a song to help students understand the meanings of the phrasal verbs “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away Now it looks as though they’re here to stay Oh I believe in yesterday Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be There’s a shadow hanging over me …… Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say I said something wrong now I long for yesterday Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play Now I need a place to hide away Oh I believe in yesterday …… (extracted from the song YESTERDAY by the Beatles) Thanks to music, they can remember the meanings of the phrasal verbs included in the lyrics From the reality, it is very hard for students to remember and apply the phrasal verbs into real-life conversations; therefore, I decided to write this teaching initiative with the purpose of not only stimulating the students’ learning English but also improving their vocabulary Additionally, students can use these phrasal verbs flexibly in different contexts and situations and , more importantly, they can written tests well II CONTENTS OF THE TEACHING INITIATIVE Theoretical Background There exist a variety of definitions of phrasal verbs which are given in different sources as follows: A phrasal verb is the combination of a standard verb such as make or put with one or two particles In some cases the particle is an adverb such as away, together; in others it is a preposition such as through, in Here are a few examples of the many hundreds of English phrasal verbs: pass away, pull together, fall through, make with, put down to A phrasal verb is a phrase (as take off or look down on) that combines a verb with a preposition or adverb or both and that functions as a verb whose meaning is different from the combined meanings of the individual words A phrasal verb is a verb followed by a preposition or an adverb; the combination creates a meaning different from the original verb alone Example : To get = to obtain To get together = to meet I need to get a new battery for my camera Why don’t we all get together for lunch one day? Phrasal verbs are part of a large group of verbs called “multi-part” or "multiword” verbs The preposition or adverb that follows the verb is sometimes called a particle Phrasal verbs and other multi-word verbs are an important part of the English language However, they are mainly used in spoken English and informal texts They should be avoided in academic writing where it is preferable to use a formal verb such as “to postpone” rather than “to put off” Since the Ministry of Education and Training brought out the English textbook sets written in the communicative approach, many English teachers have made several investigations and some teaching initiatives into the difficulties and solutions in teaching and learning this subject so that students can understand the lessons better and improve their abilities Meanwhile, they hope that their creative methods of teaching can motivate and arouse learners’ enthusiasm and passion for English in particular as well as for foreign languages in general Besides the changes from traditional methods of teaching into learner-centered methods of teaching, the experienced teachers are required to find out the difficulties of the learners so that the learners will feel more absorbed in the subject and overcome their difficulties in the process of study After nearly fifteen years of teaching English, I have partly known the interests and psychology of high school students It seems to me that what makes them really excited can help them remember for so long A survey has been conducted to get to know what they often in their free time Most of the students reply that they like listening to music when they have spare time and they add that music helps relieve their stress and take it easy after hard days of study Being fully aware of the role music can play in entering the mind of the students, I make full use of the most effective way to aid the memory of the students by accompanying some phrasal verbs with the song It can be denied that phrasal verbs are really a big obstacle for high school students Students often have difficulty in making up their mind which answer is the best one when they multiple-choice tests Therefore, I have come up with a new idea as to how to help students remember the meanings of phrasal verbs easily and deeply I have chosen the English songs which contain phrasal verbs When I play the songs, I put a stop to the sentences with the phrasal verbs and then ask them to guess their meanings in the contexts Moreover, in the curriculum of the twelfth grade textbooks, phrasal verbs are in Language Focus of Units 14 and 15 E.g: Remember to ……… your shoes when you are in a Japanese house A take out B take after C take off D take over It proves that phrasal verbs play an extremely important part in English language Once students know how to use them effectively and flexibly, their writing style can move to a higher level of writing In recent years, it is obvious that most of the written tests contain a variety of phrasal verbs in various exercise forms This has made the learners, especially those who are going to take part in the important exams fall into trouble Up to now many English teachers have written a big circle of research papers which are mainly related to the language practice skills In few research papers is the method of teaching phrasal verbs via English songs employed This initiative is expected to create a more interesting and more impressive learning atmosphere It is this teaching method that gives students a great pleasure and helps them memorize as many phrasal verbs as possible Research Method and Data Collection Two research methods applied to conduct this study are quantitative and qualitative The objects for this research are the twelfth graders at Buon Ma Thuot high school because phrasal verbs are included in Language Focus of Units 14 and 15 and their needs are getting greater and greater when they have to take the national GCSE examination Let me illustrate the steps of this research paper Firstly, I have read hundreds of English songs, categorized and picked up the songs containing phrasal verbs Secondly, I have had these English songs recorded in the high quality disk and played the tape recorder for the students Finally, the sentences with phrasal verbs are picked out and analysed the meanings of the phrasal verbs in pragmatic contexts In addition, some kinds of exercises and tests are suitably designed in order to check whether they understand and remember the meanings of these phrasal verbs or not Different sorts of questions including information and yes/no questions related to the contents of the topic have been delivered to more than 100 twelfth graders so as to find out how effective this teaching method is Since then, more efforts need to be made to improve it Realities Based on several sources of information such as test results and feedback from students, it is a fact that students often cope with too much difficulty in doing the tests with phrasal verbs They say that phrasal verbs are confusing and they can’t distinguish their meanings What are phrasal verbs? Why are phrasal verbs one of the most difficult aspects for the learners of the English language? It is the thought-provoking questions that make English teachers think a lot to find out more creative and more effective teaching methods Phrasal verbs are difficult for learners of the English language for the following reasons: The first reason is that in many cases the meaning of the phrasal verb can’t be deduced from their elements It means that is used idiomatically; therefore, learners have difficulty in understanding the sentence Let me show an example Ex: The teacher ticked off the student for being late, in which the phrasal verb to tick off means to reprimand or to express disapproval The second reason is that many phrasal verbs are polysemous; i.e., they have more than one meaning The phrasal verb to put down has the literal meaning of putting something down on the table or floor But it also has the idiomatic meanings: o to make someone feel small, to criticize and humiliate them o to kill as in the sentence I had to have my cat put down o to stop, quash, put an end to as in the sentence The police put down the riots with unnecessary brutality In order to meet the requirements of the current English teaching and learning, teachers of English have to find out the most effective teaching methods to apply them into the lessons and lectures flexibly and creatively so that their students can understand the contents of the lessons profoundly As the communicative goal is presently an integral part of teaching and learning foreign languages at school, it is very necessary for the students in general and for the twelfth graders in particular to master both grammatical points and language competence in different contexts and situations From the realities and the difficulties of the students in general and the twelfth students in particular when they are on the point of facing plenty of important exams in their life, something should be done to help them overcome these difficulties A survey has been conducted to collect more reliable and veridical information from the students After a list of questions has been distributed to more than 100 twelfth students, the results are sorted and analysed to get to know the reasons why they have chosen wrong answers when doing multiple choice tests containing phrasal verbs Procedures and Findings a Procedures More than one hundred English songs which contain phrasal verbs are selected and then analyzed to give suitable meanings for each phrasal verb according to pragmatic contexts and situations I would really like to illustrate how to teach phrasal verbs through the five English songs: Yesterday Once More, Last Thing On My Mind, If We Hold On Together, We Are The World and Papa To begin with, the song Yesterday Once More written by the Carpenters is played twice and the teacher asks his/her students to identify which phrasal verbs are used in this song When I was young, I’d listen to the radio Waiting for my favourite songs When they played I’d sing along, it made me smile Those were such happy times and not so long ago run away leave unexpectedly, escape The child ran away from home and has been missing for three days run out have none left We ran out of shampoo so I had to wash my hair with soap send something back return (usually by mail) My letter got sent back to me because I used the wrong stamp set something up arrange, organize Our boss set a meeting up with the president of the company set someone up trick, trap The police set up the car thief by using a hidden camera shop around compare prices I want to shop around a little before I decide on these boots show off act extra special for people watching (usually boastfully) He always shows off on his skateboard sleep over stay somewhere for the night (informal) You should sleep over tonight if the weather is too bad to drive home sort something out organize, resolve a problem We need to sort the bills out before the first of the month stick to something continue doing something, limit yourself to one particular thing You will lose weight if you stick to the diet switch something off stop the energy flow, turn off The light's too bright Could you switch it off switch something on start the energy flow, turn on We heard the news as soon as we switched on the car radio take after someone resemble a family member I take after my mother We are both impatient take something apart purposely break into pieces He took the car brakes apart and found the problem take something back return an item I have to take our new TV back because it doesn't work take off start to fly My plane takes off in five minutes take something off remove something (usually clothing) Take off your socks and shoes and come in the lake! take something out remove from a place or thing Can you take the garbage out to the street for me? take someone out pay for someone to go somewhere My grandparents took us out for dinner and a movie with you tear something up rip into pieces I tore up my ex-boyfriend's letters and gave them back to him think back remember (often + to, sometimes + on) When I think back on my youth, I wish I had studied harder think something over consider I'll have to think this job offer over before I make my final decision throw something away dispose of We threw our old furniture away when we won the 19 go on = continue  Sentence transformation Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first Use the words in brackets You’re too young to stop working (GIVE) This bag is Janet’s (BELONGS) We’re trying to arrange a holiday together (UP) I always like to enter quiz competitions (GO) I found this film quite disappointing (LET) The fire suddenly started in the early hours of the morning (BROKE) If you don’t know the number, you can find it in the phone book (UP) I’m bored with waiting for her to telephone (FED) I visited some old friends while I was in Manchester (CALLED) 10 We got some money from the insurance company, but nothing could compensate for losing me wedding ring (MAKE) Answer key 1.You’re too young to GIVE UP working This bag BELONGS TO Janet We’re trying to FIX UP a holiday together I always like to GO IN FOR quiz competitions This film LET me DOWN The fire BROKE OUT in the early hours of the morning If you don’t know the number, you can LOOK it UP in the phone book I’m FED UP WITH waiting for her to telephone I CALLED ON some old friends while I was in Manchester 10 We got some money from the insurance company, but nothing could MAKE UP FOR losing me wedding ring III CONCLUSION In a view to meeting the requirements set by the Ministry of Education and Training, as a teacher of English at a high school with numerous accomplishments 25 and high prestige in the community, I myself have to make more efforts to equip future generations with the knowledge of foreign languages as well as the language competence From the realities of the survey and the collected results, many solutions are proposed to improve the language competence of the students, particularly the twelfth graders These solutions are useful not only for their coming examination but also for their everlasting process of study Hopefully, these measures will bring plenty of benefits to the students and they will get higher and higher results in the coming exams In the process of writing this research paper, I personally think that some shortcomings and mistakes can’t help being made Therefore, any comments on this paper are highly appreciated so that this paper can become more and more perfect and valuable More interestingly, in this teaching initiative I also enclose a compact disk with twenty English songs which contain phrasal verbs Additionally, a glossary of phrasal verbs as well as a big circle of task types are listed and suggested so that students can look them up whenever they want There is a famous saying: “Practice makes perfect” This means that the more exercises they do, the better their knowledge of English is Last but not least, I hope that teaching phrasal verbs through English songs will be applied positively and flexibly into the lessons Buon Ma Thuot, March 15th, 2015 Huynh Anh Hong 26 APPENDIX During the process of writing this research paper, I have read and selected more than one hundred songs However, not all of the English songs contain phrasal verbs and not all of the songs containing phrasal verbs have arousing and exciting melodies and beats Therefore, I would like to list twenty songs with lovely lyrics and fantastic beats so that they can be applied to teach phrasal verbs Yesterday Once More _ The Carpenters Last Thing On My Mind _ Steps We Are The World _ All stars of USA and Africa If We Hold On Together _ Diana Ross Papa _ Paul Alka Take Me To Your Heart _ Michael Learns to Rock If You Go Away _ Terry Jacks I Wish I Could Fly _ Roxette Because I Love You _ Shakin’ Stevens 10 A Love Before Time _ Coco Lee 11 Yesterday _ The Beatles 12 My Love _ Westlife 13 Carry You Home _ James Blunt 14 I Miss You _ Westlife 15 Everytime You Go Away _ Paul Young 16 Nobody Wants To Be Lonely _ Ricky Martin 17 Nothing To Lose _ Michael Learns to Rock 18 Rhythm of The Rain _ The Cascades 19 Sad Movies _ Sue Thomson 20 Shape of My Heart _ Backstreet Boys 27 REFERENCES [1] Betty Schrampfer Azar (1989), Understanding And Using English Grammar, Prentice Hall Regents [2] Hoàng Tuấn – Nguyễn Văn Vững (2008), Cụm Động Từ Tiếng Anh Thông Dụng, Nhà xuất giáo dục Đà Nẵng [3] Hoàng Văn Vân– Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa(2012), Tiếng Anh 12, Nhà xuất giáo dục Việt Nam [4] Mai Lan Hương, Ngô Hà Diễm Trang (2007), Bài Tập Tiếng Anh 10 Nâng Cao, NXB Đà Nẵng [5] Mai Lan Hương, Ngô Hà Diễm Trang (2007), Bài Tập Tiếng Anh 11 Nâng Cao, NXB Đà Nẵng [6] Mai Lan Hương, Ngô Hà Diễm Trang (2007), Bài Tập Tiếng Anh 12 Nâng Cao, NXB Đà Nẵng [7] Mai Lan Hương, Ngơ Hà Diễm Trang (2006), Giải Thích Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Anh, Nhà xuất Đà Nẵng [8] Nguyễn Văn Phước- Mỹ Trang (2007), The Best Songbook Of All Time, Nhà xuất trẻ [9]Nguyễn Hòa (2004), Understanding English Semantics, Vietnam National University [10] Levinson, Stephen.C.(1983), Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press [11] Raymond Murphy(1993), English Grammar In Use, Nhà xuất trẻ [12] Tiếng Anh 10, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo [13] Tiếng Anh 10 Nâng Cao, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo [14] Tiếng Anh 11, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo [15] Tiếng Anh 11 Nâng Cao, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo [16] Tiếng Anh 12, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo [17] Tiếng Anh 12 Nâng Cao, Nxb Giáo dục, Bộ giáo dục Đào tạo 28 ... BOOKS …………………………………………………… 28 TEACHING PHRASAL VERBS THROUGH ENGLISH SONGS AT BUON MA THUOT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL I RATIONALE Special attention is always paid to education by the Communist Party... difficult questions raised by the students make me think of the topic: Teaching phrasal verbs through English songs at Buon Ma Thuot upper secondary school One of the most striking trends of... English is Last but not least, I hope that teaching phrasal verbs through English songs will be applied positively and flexibly into the lessons Buon Ma Thuot, March 15th, 2015 Huynh Anh Hong 26 APPENDIX