Some stimulating activities to improve english speaking skill for the 10th form students at quangxuong 1 upper secondary school

I am interested in applying these activities to improve the speaking skills of Quang Xuong 1Upper Secondary school students in English classes based on the syllabus of MOET so that Iwill

ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE 10 th FORM

STUDENTS AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG 1 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

( Một số hoạt động khích lệ để nâng cao kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Quảng Xương 1)

Teacher: Nguyễn Thúy Hằng

Group: Foreign Language

Thanh Hoa, May 2018

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for choosing the topic

As a teacher of English at Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School in Thanh Hoa, I alsohave the same difficulties I find the new textbooks more effective than the old ones that wereused years ago However, my teaching seems to encounter a significant problem:

The first reason, which is a basic one for every high school student, is the motivationfor studying It is undeniable that passing examinations is one of the most importantmotivations in studying However, according to the policy from MOET, the semester andfinal examinations only focus on reading skills through the multiple-choice format Thegraduating student often has five other subjects in the examination, therefore they only payattention to practising reading skills and grammatical points as well as vocabularies andstructures Teachers of English themselves take advantage of the little time they have toprovide reading practice and help with solving problems in grammar exercises in order toachieve the short-term goal of passing the final examination

The lack of background knowledge is also a basic reason for students having poorspeaking skills Most students at my school received their primary and secondary educationfrom different communities of Quang Xuong district and few students came from Thanh Hoacity Therefore, the learning conditions are poor and they are deprived of chances to speakEnglish While most urban students start learning English in primary schools, my students donot start until secondary schools and then they learn in difficult conditions In addition,outside class time, the communicative environment in English is limited An annual survey in

my school of English speaking skills for the 10th graders has given a low result: more than60% of students have difficulties when answering simple questions about their names,addresses, age or their hobbies As a result, they feel scared of speaking English, of makingmistakes, and of not conveying their sentiments to listeners It indicates that my students havelimited vocabulary They often use mother tongue Hence, most of the students are notconfident to use English in speaking class For instance, when I asks them to comeforward to have a conversation with their friends, they refuse it They are shy to performEnglish conversation in front of their friends Thus, most speaking classes are monotonous

and unsuccessful Sometimes, in speaking classes, I have to guide the ideas in Vietnamese,and then help the students translate the ideas into English In reality, these classes are the mostineffective ones

Against the problems above, some stimulating activities should be used to overcome them I

am interested in applying these activities to improve the speaking skills of Quang Xuong 1Upper Secondary school students in English classes based on the syllabus of MOET so that Iwill conduct the research entitled “Some stimulating activities to improve 10th form students’English speaking skills” My objective is to find the most effective ways of helping them toovercome the barrier of low self confidence when studying speaking skills I want to helpthem become familiar with English and to enjoy learning it more and more Furthermore,training cadres for suburdareas is the aim of Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School inThanh Hoa province, so being good at English will be a gateway leading to opportunities towork with international projects for developing economics or cultures

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- To study the use of three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to intensifystudents’ participation in speaking activities at Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School inThanh Hoa province

- To suggest some recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities: games, video,role play to enhance their learners in speaking skills and develop communicative skills

3 Scope of the study

- The study only focuses on using three stimulating activities: games, video, role play toimprove English speaking skills for 10th form students at Quang Xuong 1 Upper SecondarySchool in Thanh Hoa province

- The reasons for choosing only three activities for 10th form students are as follows:

+ The students are not experiencing final examination pressures;

+ The topics in Tieng Anh 10 are still basic and simple;

+ The students have time to master speaking skills step by step and consider speaking

as an essential skill in an English learning

4 Method of study

To conduct the study, a lot of methods are used However, the main ones are descriptive

statistics, observation and analytical method

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

1 Theoretical background

1.1.Factors affecting English speaking abilities

There are many factors that influence the success or failure in learning English speaking.However, the three most important factors are motivation, attitude and learning strategies

Motivation is the first important factor affecting a language learner According toGardner (2001), motivation refers to the driving force in any situation In the socio-educational model, motivation to learn the second language is viewed as requiring threeelements First, the motivated individual expends effort to learn the language That is, there is

a persistent and consistent attempt to learn the material by doing homework, by seeking outopportunities to learn more, by doing extra work and so on Second, the motivated individualwants to achieve the goal Such an individual will express the desire to succeed, and willstrive to achieve success Third, the motivated individual will enjoy the task of learning thelanguage Such an individual will say that it is fun, challenging, and enjoyable, even though

at times enthusiasm may be less than at other times

1.2 Stimulating activities

According to Jeremy Harmer (2001), students need frequent changes of activities: they needactivities that are exciting and stimulating their curiosity: they need to be involved insomething active The span of concentration of our students is less Thus, we have to assignsome interesting activities to draw their attention.The students become comfortable to speakeverything and get opportunity to develop their communicative competence more freely Inother words, stimulating activities can be considered effective tools that teachers shouldbenefit from to stimulate their students to raise much more voice in class That is the newsetting of a modern language classroom where students are the center of attention in class

1.3 Role play

According to Stephen D Hattings (1993:165) based on his observation in the conversationclass, the role play would seem to be the ideal activity in which students could use theirEnglish creatively and it aims to stimulate a conversation situation in which students mightfind themselves and give them an opportunity to practice and develop theircommunication skill

1.4 Simulations

For others, simulations stimulate student (Joan Andorfer, 2008) Burns & Gentry (1998) statethat the teacher must take on some additional responsibilities in role playing/ simulation Inparticular, the teacher must keep learners motivated by stimulating their curiosity and keepingthe material relevant, creating a "tension to learn"

1.6 Video

It is universally recognized that videos as visual aids have a lot to contribute to the process oflanguage learning and teaching, combining education and entertainment Supporters agreethat videos stimulate student interest to acquire the target culture, as well as language (e.g.,Stempleski, 1992; Tomalin, 1992) Video is supposed to communicate meaning better thanany other media (Tomalin, 1992) Here it will be useful to look at the advantages of video in

language classes from different perspectives

1.7.Three most stimulating activities used in speaking class

There is a variety of stimulating activities to use in the teaching and learning process Eachstimulating activity has its own advantages and using the right activities in the right way toteach, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making theEnglish language classroom a fun and dynamic place In this study, in reality of my teachingand talking with my students the researcher suggests using some kinds of stimulating

activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities.

1.8.Games

A structure—that— has rules, goals and agreement of players on the surface, and wonderfulhidden processes underneath (Turtledove, 1996: 3)

An activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun (Hadfield, 1990: 5)

An agreeable way of getting a class to use its initiative in English and as it is gentlycompetitive, it increases motivation It is also a contrast to periods of intensive study(Haycraft, 1978: 94)

1.9.Videos /DVDs in language teaching and learning

Learners are extremely excited about the programs which combine foreign languagelearning with entertainment By listening to English songs, watching films or cartoons, itstimulates students to practice English effectively, getting themselves involves in the foreignlanguage environment naturally At the same time, they have a lot of fun, they start findingout that learning English is far from boring but very easy and interesting with video programswhich are specially designed for language learning purposes

1.9.1.Role play

It has been mentioned before that role play is one of the activities to promote speaking.Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling toothers by using words or sounds of articulation

Larsen Freeman (1986) explained that role plays are important in the communicativeapproach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in differentsocial contexts and different social roles

1.2 Some stimulating activities help the 10 th form students at Quang xuong 1 Upper secondary school in Thanh Hoa.

By using stimulating activities (games, video and role play) in teaching speaking, the studentshad a chance to be active and cooperative in speaking activity Stimulating activities (games,video and role play) was a different method that can be effective to teach the students in a bigclass Finally, speaking skill of 10T5,10T6 students were improved This result hadanswered the second research question that the use of stimulating activities (games, video and

role play) in teaching speaking was quite effective

The use of stimulating activities (games, video and role play) made the speaking and learningactivity more enjoyable and interesting It was because games, video and role play helpedstudents felt relax and interested Most of the students were actively participated in the games,video and role play In addition, it was fun and most students would agree that enjoyment led

to better learning

Example 1: Unit 12: MUSIC Part B: SPEAKING

Objective: Helping students to ask and answer about music

Activity: Some following activities

Using Hangman game to warm-up the lesson

R: Do you like to play a game?

Ss: Yes

R: I give you a game “Hangman game” This game is Shack Attack You choose a letter fromletter A to letter Z If you guess right, you’ll get a present If you have a wrong answer, theShack will attack you Ok?

Ss: Yes

R: Now, the first letter Can you guess?

S1: (raised their hands) Letter M

R: Shack will attack letter M

Ss: No

R: It has letter M ……

 Using games and video

R: Do you want to play a game?

Ss: Yes

R: Now, divide our class into two groups You listen to these songs and you choose a numberfrom number 1 to number 8 And you tell the kinds of music based on video clips on theslides You have 1 point for each correct answer, the group has more mark will be thewinners

………

R: Which number do you choose, group Tom

Tom: (raised their hands) number 1

R: Look at number 1 and tell me what kind of music do you know? Tom group, can youguess?

Tom: listen and raised their hands to give the answer: pop music

R: very good, 1 point for group Tom How about you, group Jerry? ……

Using role play

ACTIVITY 2: Asking and answering about music taste

R: Now, I give you some handouts and you look at the first column If you want to ask aboutyour favourite kind of music, what questions can you ask? …… (See Appendix 3)

R: Now, you work in group of 3 and one of Ss will be a journalist who wants to interviewhigh-school Ss about their music taste The journalist has to ask two Ss some questions to getinformation to complete the table below for his/ her article Now, journalist-what does itmean?

 Group 1 (raised their hands)

Hanh: Good afternoon, 10T5 student My name is Hanh I am a journalist for MTVmagazine I want to interview you about their music taste

Dung: Good afternoon, Mrs Hanh Welcome to our class ………

 Using shack attack game

Ss: Yes

R: Now, the first letter Can you guess?

S1: (raised their hands) Letter M

R: Shack will attack letter M

Ss: No

R: It has letter M

S2: (raised their hands) Letter A

R: Can Shack attack letter A

Ss: (in chorus)Yes

R: No letter A here-Another person?

S3: (raised their hands) letter U

R: letter U, now look at Yes, it has letter U- And what else?

S4: (raised their hands) letter S

R: Yes, it has letter S- And what else?

S5: (raised their hands) letter I

R: Yes, letter I very good And the last, you, please?

S6: (raised their hands) letter C

R: letter C Yes, very good Congratulation!

R: (raised their hands) Now, who can tell me what kind of music do you know?

S1: (raised their hands) Pop

R: And what else?

S2: (raised their hands) Jazz

S3: (raised their hands) classical music

S4: (raised their hands) pop music

S5: (raised their hands) Rock n rolln  roll n  roll

S6: (raised their hands) Folk music

R: very good

 Using games and video

R: Do you want to play a game?

Ss: (in chorus) Yes

R: Now, divide our class into two groups You listen to these songs and you choose a numberfrom number 1 to number 8 And you tell the kinds of music based on video clips on the

slides You have 1 point for each correct answer, the group has more mark will be thewinners.

R: Your group, give me a name

Tom: listen and give the answer: pop music

R: very good, 1 point for group Tom How about you, group Jerry?

Jerry: number 8

R: What kind of music?

Jerry: listen and give the answer: jazz

R: Now, let me check Yes, very good-1 point for Jerry

R: Now, group Tom

Tom: Number 4

R: ask Tom group to listen

Tom: listen and give the answer: Rock and jazz

R: Are you sure?

Tom: yes

R: No rock and jazz, only Rock music

R: Group Jerry, which number do you choose?

Jerry: number 2

R: Now, listen What kind of music do you know?

Jerry: listen and answer: Rock n rolln  roll n  roll

R: Are you sure?

R: What kind of music?

Jerry: listen and give the answer: classical music

R: Now, let me check Sorry, country music- Group Tom, which number do you choose?Tom: number 6

R: listen and give your answer

Tom: folk music

R: very good One point for Tom’s group

Jerry: number 5

R: listen and answer

Jerry: classical music

R: very good One point for Jerry’s group

R: Which group has more mark?

Ss: Tom

R: Congratulation to group Tom!

 Using role play

ACTIVITY 1: Give the reasons why you listen to music

R: Give me the reasons why you listen to music?

S1: (raised her hands) music makes me happy, comfortable

R: How about you, Dung?

Dung: (raised her hands) it helps me relax, forget troubles and reduces my stress

R: very good

R: give the reasons on the slide and read aloud

R: ask Ss to writes these reasons on their notebooks

ACTIVITY 2: Asking and answering about music taste

R: Now, I give you some handouts and you look at the first column If you want to ask aboutyour favourite kind of music, what questions can you ask?

S1: (raised her hands) What kind of music do you like?

R: yes-and the second question? Who can make a sentence?

S2: (raised her hands) Why do you like it?

R: very good- favourite band/ musician?

S3: (raised her hands), Who is your favourite band/ musician?

R: very good-number 4, favourite song/ piece of music-what questions can you ask?

S4: (raised her hands) When do you listen to music?

R: Yes, very good T gives the prompts on the slide

R: Now, you work in group of 3 and one of Ss will be a journalist who wants to interviewhigh-school Ss about their music taste The journalist has to ask two Ss some questions to getinformation to complete the table below for his/ her article Now, journalist-what does itmean?

R: Now, time is up- go back to your seat Who can talk about it?

Ss: raised their hands

R: Yes, your group, please

 Group 1

Hanh: Good afternoon, 10A student My name is Hanh I am a journalist for MTV magazine

I want to interview you about their music taste

Dung: Good afternoon, Mrs Hanh Welcome to our class