Create apositive environment for primary students to acquire english

EDUCATION AND TRAINING THANH HOA THACH THANH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE CREATE A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS TO ACQUIRE ENGLISH Performed by: Do Thi Ha Job title: Teacher Unit of work: Thanh Truc Primary School Initiatives in the field of (subject): English THANH HOA, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENT Number Content Page 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Reasons for choosing topic 1.2 Research purposes 1.3 Research subjects 1.4 Research Methods The content of the experience initiative 2.1 Theoretical foundations of the experience 2.2 The real situation before applying the experience initiative 2.3 The solution used to solve the problem 10 2.4 The effectiveness of experience initiatives 13 11 Conclusion 14 12 3.1 Conclusions 14 13 3.2 Recommendations, suggestions 14 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reasons for choosing topic According to the perspective of Party and State, education is aimed at fully developing people to satisfy the common demand of industrialization and modernization Foreign languages in general and English in particular play an important role as an active means supporting for our country’s integrating process most effectively Therefore, improving the education quality in general and the English in particular are considered as one of the most concern of the current education English has been taught in primary schools with the guidance document of Ministry of Education and Training since 1996 In 2003, the Ministry issued the English teaching program of primary education guiding targets and contents in nationwide However, there have been lots of existed shortages of facilities in classrooms, teaching materials such as books, tapes, CDs, Cassettes, etc Especially, almost all teachers are only trained for “Introduction and guidance to use the set of books” in one day without being trained on primary education professionally Hence, there is still a range of difficulties in teaching skills for students at primary school The primary environment is the fundamental place forming habits and communication capacities Frequent communication results in braveries for students without fears of making mistakes in public speaking As for students lacking proficiency in the mother tongue language, they had a lot of difficulties in getting access to a foreign language Their timidity makes oral communication limited greatly From my own teaching experiences, I’m pleased to introduce: “Create a positive environment for Primary students to acquire English”, and I expect to contribute a part to English teaching more effectiveness and attract more students in loving this subject 1.2 Research purposes For years, the teaching method for kids has been similar to one for adults apart from supplementing some songs and games into lectures It’s clear that the receptive process of our mother tongue language and the next process in the school period are natural Language capacity is generated by imitating, unconscious learning through different forms such as communicating with relatives, reading stories, connecting with communities, singing, reading poems, painting, etc The difference of children’s receptive process in comparison with adults is that adults’ receptiveness is conscious and annalistic but children’s one is natural via intuition There are two kinds of material languages which almost every learner needs develop: receptive language and productive language Receptive language is the language factor possibly realized and not produced by learners Productive language is the language factor possibly used in speaking or writing Students will become familiar with realizing new factors through situations if those are repeated many times To practice using the receptive language, students have to learn how to reflex with new words naturally In curriculums, grammars are sentences or questions and answers practiced more than once It is essential that samples are given clearly and fully for students to understand what they have to in some class activities 1.3 Research subjects To learn English well, the learning environment in general is very important Studying and practising in the friendly and positive arts center will held students to practise and apply their knowlegge while enhancing their confident in using English Hence, my research in this subject is the most exciting environment to engage in language communication in the English language 1.4 Research methods The methods I use in my experience include: - Method of study through research - Methods of analysis and aggregation of reference documents - The method is very strict through teaching in my lessons - Interactive methods of communication THE CONTENT OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE 2.1 Theoretical foundations of the experience initiative Today the party and the state are very interested in learning English, especially in the primary school, foreign language projects have been proposed to teachers in primary school And to make good progress in that project, the major learning environment of English is even more important For students of primary school children learn through play, play to learn, the more complex environment they are attracted to participate in their interaction to help children learn more effectively In fact, during the lecture, students will remember words and phrases faster when they are communicated in a positive environment 2.2 The real situation before applying the experience initiative According to the regulation of Ministry of Education and Training, every child is permitted to study two lessons with 40 minutes per lesson Several qualified schools could have more lessons, four lessons per week Hence, the period for students to get access to English is obviously short in comparison with the total communicating hours every week Moreover, English environment is restricted in classroom hours and students use Vietnamese when lessons end Children don’t actually need to use English except for the requirement of studying and examination All the requirements using English are practical and there isn’t other natural English environment for children Children are unable to concentrate on what teachers are delivering in a long period Consequently, they should be engaged in different activities, to perform various tasks by themselves with exercise types always changed and diversified communication situations Children often obtain and imitate knowledge quickly and also forget what have learned quickly They are naturally curious, dynamic and creative Children always demand to discover outside environment and interact with others It cannot be denied that they are interested and creative in games In fact, even native children run into difficulties in pronouncing several English sounds like r, l, sh, and th and their pronunciation could be fully correct when they grow up The importance of the initial stage is developing simple communication capacity in a new language without creating fears of making mistakes, which significantly affect on students’ motivations for studies There is one factor basically impacting on language studying process: children will not study without motivation - Almost all students pronounce word stress incorrectly Example: ‘wonderful, ‘Sunday, No‘vember, etc - In addition, they haven’t been able to pronounce words with s, z, p, k Example: /s/ -> its, excuse… /z/ -> please, she’s… /p/ -> puzzle, people, puppet… /k/ -> clock, book, like… - Students also read incorrectly Most of them not remember vocabulary, especially long words Example: good afternoon, school library, bathroom, interesting, difficult… - Students’ communication is not fluently due to fears of making mistakes Their ability to form a completed sentence is not still good They still confuse with the position of word class (verbs, preposition, adjectives, nouns and questioning words, etc.) Example: My brother’s name’s Peter That is my friend There’s a bed in the room When’s Children’s Day? The statistic result at the beginning of this school year through directly interviewing students at grade 3, and at Thanh Truc Primary School Total Number Good of students No % Quite good No % Medium No % Weak No % 107 (grade 3) 4.7 20 18.7 63 58.9 19 17.7 110 (grade 4) 81 (grade 5) 5.5 4.9 18 15 16.3 18.5 61 48 55.5 59.3 25 14 22.7 17.3 With the result above, from this early school year, I always try to find the best methods to design interesting lectures inspiring students so that they could turn what they have learned into productive language via oral communication, integrate with the developing tendency of foreign language subject: learning a foreign language is learn how to communicate but not focusing on grammar as in the past 2.3 The solutions used to solve the problem 2.3.1 Chant to learn: Chants can be really useful, and the primary students enjoy them A chant is simply vocabulary spoken over a background of music or rhythm They are useful because something about the music energizes the students, and they have to pronounce the word in a rhythm Also, if we are not comfortable with singing in front of our students, chants are great For children, teachers need to have the right method, to develop learning styles so that the class is more lively fun, the more excited the students are, the higher the efficiency.Teaching the integration of subject knowledge into games, chant lessons will help students become more active, remember vocabulary and sentence structure, more excitement with the lesson Each language lesson can create a chant corresponding to the content of the unit So in the process of teaching, I always create a chant to help them review the class just to create a comfortable atmosphere for children ready to acquire knowledge Example: English - Unit 19: Lesson When finished teaching weather words and practice the sample questions and answers about the weather I designed the following chant: What's the weather like? It's sunny It's sunny What's the weather like? It's rainy It's rainy What's the weather like? It's cloudy It's cloudy What's the weather like? It's a lift It's a lift What's the weather like? It's snowy It's snowy What's the weather like? It's stormy It's stormy By guiding the children to learn chant, I noticed that my students remember the vocabulary, remember the pattern in the classroom Also remember the tone of the chant as well as the intonation of the sentence The most important point is to create excitement in language lessons The children are attracted to the paper, learn more and more self-conscious 2.3.1.1 Vocabulary chants: Example: Unit : This is my pen – grade ( ruler, sharpener, pen…) Ru/ler - sounds, shar/pe/ner - sounds, pen/ - sound Ruler, sharpener, pen Ruler, sharpener, pen Ruler, sharpener Ruler, sharpener Ruler, sharpener, pen The teacher claps to the rhythm of the word, asks the students to follow, the teacher claps to the rhythm - the students read the word Follow up for the students to practice the whole class, pair With the use of "vocabulary chant" to help students excite more when learning and remember faster 2.3.1.2 Grammar chants: Example: English 3: Unit 15: Do you have any toys? - Team A: Do you have any puzzles? - Team B: Yes, I (looking at the pictures hanging down on the board) - Team A: Do you have any dolls? - Team B: No, I don’t (looking at the pictures hanging upside down on the board) 2.3.2 Sing to learn: The use of songs in English classes has been suggested since it is believed that these will make young learners get more benefits There are many types of songs and one of these is action song type A fun and joyful class atmosphere is a situation that is beneficial for learners, but only fun is not enough Teachers should be able to create a fun but educating English class Action songs are songs which are completed with particular body movements that support the meaning of the song English songs often have simple, repetitive, playful, healthy lyrics Songs are often easy to learn and can quickly become your fa Example: Action song Sing with me! Na Na Na I’m so happy! Oh, so happy! Sing with me! Clap, clap, clap your hands Clap, clap, clap your hands Stomp, stomp, stomp your feet Stomp, stomp, stomp your feet Swing, Swing, Swing your arms Swing, Swing, Swing your arms Dance everybody and sing with me! Besides, the songs are also a bridge to make our students more sociable in class When the melody is heard, all can join together, including those who are shy or afraid to communicate and can sing along or can participate in a song performance in front of the class Especially if we know how to be skilful, give our students confidence in expressing yourself in English singing, or even in communication Many English songs for children also contain simple cultural content Or many other songs increase their ability to develop memory and concentration, or have physical connections: they can play characters, or mimic the actions of the characters in the song sing This helps them to memorize her language longer and to act flexibly, avoiding her sitting or listening in English Certainly, if we can start our students' lesson with an English-themed song with the right topic, we will be engaging in a faster and more effective lesson 2.3.3 Play games to learn: A new teaching method could create an amount of inspiration and creativities for teachers Each teacher has his own unique creativities during teaching process If teachers repeat the same method in every lesson, students will get bored and even feel that lessons come as normally without inspiration and expectation Games are also considered to be an important entertainment form In fact, they could be used to consolidate material languages as shown above by the method attracting students In all every form, games could perform functions of exercises of practicing skills because we can review and introduce material languages in funny and well-organized ways through games The method of skill practicing section often goes with repeating with teacher-centered The method takes effects when students learn new words and sentence structures On the contrary, games are often open-ended and student-centered There are various types of games Several ones focus on vocabularies or sentence structures And there are games promoting both vocabularies and sentence structure Here are several games that I usually apply into my lecture in my class: 2.3.3.1 Word - practicing Requirements: At least two players and if need a dictionary In the classroom teachers can be divided into two groups and the teacher or student is the referee How to play: Take any English word (this teacher can do), eg yesterday Use the letters that make up the word, specifically: y, e, s, t, e, r, d, a, y to create other words, who make more words than win In the example above we can generate words like: yes, trader, year, steady-state Encourage integration With this game, students have to try to remember all the words in their minds, while helping to forget words can learn new words among the words that the player creates Teachers think and find words with letters that can form other words within the content they have learned or to test the student's vocabulary 2.3.3.2 Guessing - word This game is basically the same as the "Hidden Hats" game on TV The master (teacher or student) chooses a name or a word for a subject, then draws the number of squares corresponding to the number of letters of that name or word From the given hint, the player will guess one letter at a time, if the letter is in the letter, then the character will write the letter in the correct place Anyone who finds out the name wins In contrast, after wrong guesses (the number of times determined by the host and the player) but not found, the player will lose There may be two or more students in charge of the game Whoever wins multiple times wins These games help students to play and learn not only in class, but also in every place, and at the same time, while studying vocabulary effectively The games attract students to take lessons, especially reading comprehension, conversation to introduce the topic The games also train the children to be able to judge, to create, to train the quick reflexes, decisiveness, confidence, create a happy atmosphere.The reality is that with teacher classes organizing English games, students are very excited to come to class, understand deeper and more natural, less shy of inherent With some classes, teachers not put the game in the classroom, students may be afraid to speak, knowledge is not deep, afraid to attend school, not really interested in the subject However, in order for the game to be effective, teachers need to be well-prepared and flexible to schedule the time, and choose a game that matches the content of the lesson Teachers also need to be prepared for the necessary equipment In the process of organizing the game must go from easy to difficult, should not reverse it When the student loses a penalties should be gentle, delicate, encouraging students to try more next time When playing, not be biased or discriminated against sexually, or try to punish you While playing an English game, the clutter in the classroom is unavoidable This is likely to affect other classes, so the teacher must really be a dynamic host, solving every situation Surprisingly, it can happen that the game can be performed effectively 2.3.3.3 Matching game: Two students run to the board, and match the pictures to the words on the board The faster is the winner Example: English 4: Unit 17: How much is the T- shirt? 2.3.3.4 Acting game: This activity could be implemented in different forms but all the forms are aimed at expressing meaning through gestures The simplest way to play the game is that word cards or pictures are upside down in a pile One student takes a card at the top of the pile without reavealing what the word is to the classmates and the rest of the students guess the words In another more simple method without using word cards or pictures, the teacher will whisper the word to a student Then, the student continues to the same steps above Example: English 5: Unit 11: What’s the matter with you? a headache a stomachache a sore eye 10 a backache a sore throat 2.3.3.5 Simple actions Simple actions are great way to get children to be ready for learning English by doing some actions like this: Brush your teeth, brush, brush, brush Wash your face, wash, wash, wash Wash your hands, wash, wash, wash Clap our hands, clap, clap, clap Shake our hands, shake, shake, shake In order to get the students’ attention, I say: If you hear me, clap twice If you hear me, clap once If you hear me, clap three times… Students keep quiet to listen if clap twice, once or three times happily together 2.3.3.6 The ballgame: This is a great icebreaker, especially for young students All I need is a ball Passing the ball round saying a word or a full sentence Example: Bedroom Living room Garden Dining room My house Bathroom Kitchen Step 1: Get the students to a form a circle Step 2: Hold the ball up and the model 11 Step 3: Pick a student at random and throw the ball to him or her The student that catches the ball must then 2.3.3.7 “Back to the board” game: The game “Back to the Board” is a good way for student to understand and consolidate new vocabulary This game engages students and activates them into using their wider vocabulary to describe key words Step 1: Split students into two teams Step 2: One person from each team must sit on a chair with their back to the board Step 3: The teacher write or stick a word on the board The players on the chairs cannot see this but the rest of the team can Step 4: Both teams must try and describe the word on the board to the person from their team without using the actual word Step 5: The first team to guess the word gets one point and then I switch the person on the chair so that evevryone gets a go at guessing The team with the most points at the end of the game wins And most importantly… have fun! 2.3.4 Creating attraction during the lesson by using , flashcards: When teaching primary students, flashcards are practical and useful resources for teaching vocabulary Here are some activities I have been used Activity 1: Flash When introducing or revising a set of flashcards with the children, use the technique flash Get the children’s attention: “Everyone, look in this way, please Are you ready?” And then show them the flashcard very fast, children identify what is on the flashcard: “House.” Be ready to remodel if they respond in their first language Activity 2: Slowly, slowly In this case, cover the flashcard that you choose to use (about toys, pets, action verbs, family members, house, rooms,…) and then slowly reveal the picture orthe word Children identify what is on the flashcard as soon as they can recognize this: “Green.” Activity 3: What’s missing? Stick the flashcards on the board, get the children to repeat the words, then ask children to close their eyes and cover their eyes with their hands demonstrate this, remove one of the flashcards from the board and hide it behind my back Ask the children to open their eyes and say what’s missing Activity 4: Magic eyes Play magic eyes, stick the flashcards in a row on the board Four is a good number to use This is a number that children can retain in their short time memory Get the children to repeat the words in a rhythmic way When I think children are doing this comfidently, remove the first flashcard, and continue in the same way Remove the second flashcard in the same way and repeat all the words again And then remove the next one and repeat all the words again In a simple activity like that I am helping to chase children’s memory Children are 12 encoraging children to have a visual representation of the image and to associated with the word Activity 5: Lip - reading Do a “lip – reading” activity, stick the flashcards on the board, get the children’s attention: “Everybody look in this way, please I’m going to say one of the words, and I want you to tell me what it is Are you ready ?” Students: “ doll” With a little activity like that, I’m actually giving children a strategy which is very helpful when they are learning a foreing languge Because we look at people’s lips when they speak, it can help us understand what they say Activity 6: Words on hands In this activity, divide the class into groups Stick the flashcards in two columns on the board Each groups draw three or more different flashcards The activity works in the following way: Children listen out for the words that belong to their groups and respond by drawing their words on their hands Example: English 3: Unit 11: Family members Groups1: She (grandmother, mother, sister) Groups 2: He (grandfather, father, brother) As children confidently in responding, I can speed up how fast I say the words This activity gives children an opportunity for moving Activity 7: Flashcard groups Use the flashcards to play an action game, divide the class into groups of three to five pupils, assign each group a flashcard Example: (colours) Group 1: yellow Group 2: green Group 3: red and so on 13 Give the groups instructions in the following way: Example: Wave your hand, yellow! Sit down, pink! Stand up, green! And so on When I give instructions, it is important to say the instructions first and the flashcards second In this way, the students will keep listening until they know what are the instructions applied to their group I can also increase or decrease the level of challenge depending on whether I the actions myself as well or not For example, if I touch my nose It is much easier for the students to follow than when I don’t 2.4 The effectiveness of experience initiatives for educational activities, with self, colleagues and the school - On the teacher side: * Create the learning inspiration * Impress students; help students raise the creativity in communication - On student’s side: * To be interested in practicing and seeing classmate practicing * Enhance listening and speaking skills * Draw inspiration in the lesson and create the feeling of looking forward to the forthcoming lesson * Help students to remember well each sentence and vocabulary in the lesson * Make the relation between teacher-student and student-student in class more close and encourage increasingly joyful atmosphere in class * Like the investigation in the beginning of the first term, I used direct interview investigation method for the second mid-term THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SECOND MID- TERM TO MARCH 2018 Total number of students 107 (grade 3) 110 (grade 4) 81 (grade 5) Good No 39 39 29 % 36.5 35.5 35.8 Quite good No % 44 41.1 48 43.6 34 42.0 Medium No % 24 22.4 23 20.9 18 22.2 Weak No 0 % 0 During the teaching time in collaboration with positive factors, thanks to the assistance and steering of Thanh Truc school Board as well as colleagues in school, I am very happy to creating close relation between teachers and students, encourage student’s learning passion, enhance the student’s fond of learning Teaching activity therefore achieves encouraging outcomes CONCLUSION 3.1 Conclusions: The project not only helps me get familiar with science investigation but also penetrate, discover and present the methods conducted in the experience 14 initiative Thus, the quality of teaching and learning is more and more enhanced; students’ foreign language learning capacity is increasingly improved Students are more and more interested in the subject, they are looking forward to the upcoming English lessons Students who are shy, lazy, mispronunciation are significantly reduced 3.2 Recommendations, suggestions In order to enhance English communication capacity in school, I would like to make proposals as follow: - It is necessary for higher entities, bodies to help teachers stand the chance of being trained in terms of teaching primary school course of English Therefore, teachers can be further provided with knowledge and learn from colleagues in order for improving profession skill - It is needed for entities, school board and parents to develop learning facilities such as computers, projectors, photocopy machines, scanners, cameras so as to help student enhance English communication capacity - Evaluation and merit is needed strengthening, and teaching creativity is necessary to be encouraged in each lesson The above proposals, which must have included shortcomings are solutions drawn by the real investigation and examination I am very welcome to receive suggestions and supporting ideas from higher entities, school Board and colleagues in order that my solutions are more efficient I hope that the experience initiative will play a small part in improving teaching-learning quality as well as the capacity of English communication in Primary level Thank you very much! CONFIRM OF UNIT LEADER Thach Thanh, April15th 2018 I guarantee that the experience initiative is written by myself without copying Do Thi Ha 15 16 ... pleased to introduce: Create a positive environment for Primary students to acquire English , and I expect to contribute a part to English teaching more effectiveness and attract more students. .. period for students to get access to English is obviously short in comparison with the total communicating hours every week Moreover, English environment is restricted in classroom hours and students. .. games attract students to take lessons, especially reading comprehension, conversation to introduce the topic The games also train the children to be able to judge, to create, to train the quick