applying warm up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the 10th form students at nhu xuan high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page 1 Introduction 2- 3

1.1 Rational of the study 2

1.2 Aims of the study 2- 31.3 Scope of the study 3 1.4 Method of the study 3

2 Contents

2.1 Theoretical background 3- 52.2 Some problems before applying this experience initative 5- 62.3 Some solutions to the problem 6-152.4 The effect of experience initative 15-16

3 Conclusion and proposal 3.1 Conclusion 16

3.2 Proposal 16-17

4.References 18

1 INTRODUCTION1.1 The reasons of the study.

English is one of the most dominating laguage of the world which is havingits impact on every field of work It not only provides us an access to worldscholarship and world trade but also gives the youth a chance to get a good job andjoin the international activities Undoubtedly, English plays a much greater role inthe world that it is evitable for people to ignore it fully.

Nowadays, with the development of economy and relationship betweennations English becomes an effective means of international communication It isused as the official language in many fields of life such as economics, politics,science, technology, sports and many others This leads to an increasing demandfor English learning, especially speaking skill People need oral communication indaily life more than written words Therefore, the teaching of speaking has recentlybeen paid more attention to learners It can’t be deniable that the ability to useverbal communication in a second language effectively contributes to the successof learners at school time as well as in their lives However, how to teach and learnspeaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students atmany gigh school despite teachers’s efforts to provide students with opportunitiesto develop their communicative skills.

Nhu xuan high school is situated in a moutainous district where students donot have many opportunities to communicate with foreign people Therefore, TheirEnglish is not good, especially English speaking skill A great number of studentsare afraid of learning to speak English and say that it is difficult for them to begood at this skill and there is not a real language environment for them to do theirpractice every day Many students find it very difficult to express their ideas inEnglish due to nervousness and lack confidence in front of the class As a result,they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and passive because studentsdon’t want to say out their thought.

All the aboved mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct aresearch titled : “ applying warm-up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the10th form students at Nhu Xuan High School”

1.2 The aims of the sudy

The major aims of the study are :

- To emphasize the role of warm- up activities in teaching speaking skill.

- To investigate the present situation of teaching and learning speaking of the10th form at Nhu Xuan high school.

- To provide some useful warm-up activities to get students in the right moodfor seaking and help them feel more confident and eager to speak English inspeaking lessons.

- To investigate the effectiveness of using warm-up activities in teachingspeaking lesson at the three classes 10 A3, 10 A4, 10 A5 of Nhu Xuan highschool.

1.3 The scope of the study

The study focuses specifically on some warm- up activities applied in

teaching speaking lessons to the 10th grade students at Nhu Xuan high school,namely, three classes 10 A3, 10 A4, 10A5.

1.4 The methods of study

- Studying materials : I have read some books and materials on internet about how to motiavte students to speaking effectively by using warm- up activities.- Delivering survey questionaire and observing speaking lessons: To fulfill this study, I have delived some survey questionaires to students and teachers and observed some speaking classes to find out the teachers’s and students’ attitudestowards teaching and learning speaking.

- My real teaching at three 10th form classes at my school.

2 CONTENTS

2.1 Theoretical background

a Definition of speaking skill

Speaking is “ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use ofverbal and non- verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” ( Chaney, 1998, p.13 ).Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite itsimportance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and Englishlanguage teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills ormemorization of dialogues However, today’s world requires that the goal ofteaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because, only inthat way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social andcultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance.

Speaking is being capable of speech, expressing or exchanging thoughts throughusing language “Speaking is a productive aural/oral skill and it consists ofproducing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (Nunan, 2003, p.48).”(Harmer, 2001) notes down that from the communicative point of view, speakinghas many different aspects including two major categories – accuracy, involvingthe correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practised throughcontrolled and guided activities; and, fluency, considered to be ‘the ability to keepgoing when speaking spontaneously’ Bygate (1991, p.3), also emphasizesknowledge of the language, and skill in using this knowledge for an effectivecommunication Language knowledge and skill in using it, are considered twofundamental elements of an effective communication.

Speaking is the most important skill, corroborates: “ of all the four skills,speaking seems intuitively the most important People who know a language arereffered to as “ speakers” of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds of

knowing, and many of not knowing, and many of not most foreign language

learners are primary interested to speak” (Ur, 1996, p 120).

Speaking skill is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involvesproducing and processing information The peaking skill involves a communicationability to use language to chat and transmit messages in different and appropriate

situations It is to interact with participants and carry a message Petrie ( 1987 )

citied that : “ speaking is an activity which most of us spend a great deal of timeengaged in apparently without any effort and with not very much thought” People

around the world produce a lot of words without making great efforts, Brown in his

turn ( 2000 )(Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997 ) defines speaking as “ an

interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receivingand processing information” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context inwhich it occurs including the participants themselves, their collective experiences,the physical environment, and the purposes of speaking It is often spontaneous,open- ended and involving Being skillful in speaking means to be able to decidewhat to say in the situation, saying it clearly and being flexible during aconversation when a difficult situation comes out, for that reason, speaking requiresthat learners not only how to produce specific aspects of language such asgrammar, pronunciation and vocaulary but aslo that they nderstand when, why, andwhat ways to produce language? Finally, speaking has its own skills, structures andconversations that the speaker should be aware(Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter &McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996) .

b The importance of speaking skill

People express their ideas and interact with each other to give or ask for

informatiom through speaking which is so much part of daily life” ( Thornburry,2005, p.01 ).

Concerning the importance of speaking skill ( Cambridge, p.07 ) claimed

that “ speaking is a highly channenging yet essential skill for most learners to

acquire”, in additio, ( Renandya and Richards, 2002, p.201) state that “a large

percentage of the world’s language study English in order to develop proficiency inspeaking” Many English foreign language students consider the mastery ofspeaking skill a priority Besides, they evaluate their success according to their

spoken language proficiency ( Richard, 2008,p.19)

For many teachers, teaching speaking is so important.( Burn and Goh, 1012,p.1-2) claim that “ teachers do much effort to help their students develop their

spaeking abilities For them speaking skill is important of three reasons First, alllanguage learners should be able to communicate well with the foreign languagespeakers Second, many students are good at reading and writing, but thay havepoor speaking and listening abilities Third, many students memorize words fromdictionaries, but they could not use them to speak English or to communictae informal situations Therefore, teaching speaking is a very important part in Englishlanguage teaching and learning.

c The role of warm-up activities in speaking lessons

As we know, warm- up is an important part which contributes to the successof a speaking lesson Warm- up helps learners put aside their daily distractions andfocus on English Warm-ups also encourage whole gropu participant which canbuild a sense of community within the group and warm-ups can help to arousestudents’s interest in sppeaking

component when planning warming up activities According to Dornyei (2001), teachers need to try and actively generate positive students' attitudes toward learning He also claims that the key issue in generating interest is to widen the student's appetite; that is, to arouse the students' curiosity and attention and to create an attractive image for the class so that they will get more involved with it and a better learning process will take place.

The importance of having warming up activities was mentioned above, but a

question remains: What is a warming up activity? Allwright (1984) considers that warm up activities are designed to attract students' attention, to help them put aside distracting thoughts, and to get them ready to focus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow They will cause people to stop whatever they are doing or thinking and refocus their attention We could say a warming up activity isa motivating starting point that will lead students to become animated to work efficiently in the language class For the purpose of our study, it was the activity used to encourage students' involvement and permeate the development of the whole lesson, so we avoided looking at them as isolated activities These kinds of activities might also be called zealous, enthusiastic or suggestive activities How we can include these activities in the process of a class will be the next focus in ourdiscussion

Warm- up is an effective way to help the students begin to think in Englishand to review previously introduced material Different types of warm ups helpprovide variety and interest in the lesson A warm up to prepare students for aperiod of concentration may involve physical movement with activities that keepthem active by standing up, walking, jumping, matching pictures with sentences orvocabulary, drawing or writing personal experiences or stories, and singing orlistening to familiar songs and chants These are, among others, enjoyable andmotivating warms up

2.2 Current status of the problem before applying innitiate experience.

To begin with, Nhu Xuan district is considered a poor, mountainous districtof Thanh Hoa province Although my school is located in the centre of district,

Students’s English is in bad quality There is not a real language environment forthem to do their practice every day Students don’t have many chances tocommunicate with native speakers

Secondly, there are too many students in a class Normally, each class hasabout 40 students In addition, all of the classes are fixed with rows of desks Thismakes it difficult for teachers for teachers to oraganize communicative tasks andkeep control of the class

Thirdly, most of the students are not good at the language, especially theircommunicative competences are poor although they have been exposed to the newcurriculum since they were in secondary school Normally, most of them don’tknow how to talk about the topic about the topic given They can’t make up theideas to express in English because their vocabularies, structures are still limited Many students find it very difficult to show their ideas in English due tonervousness and lack confidence in front of the class They feel shy, they are afraidof being laughed at, being lost face with their friends when they have mistakes Asa result, they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and passive becausestudents don’t want to express their thought

A large number of students are afraid of learning to speak English and saythat it is difficult for them to be good at this skill Moreover, their awareness ofimportance of being good at this skill is not really made clear because speakingskill is not usually included in their exams, so they often learn English only fortheir written exams, not for communication According to the survey carried out atthe beginning of last school year at my school, more than 70% of the studentsreported that they are worried about their English speaking skill They said thatthey could hardly make a simple conversation in English or express what theythought Importantly, most of them assumed that speaking is very difficult for themto master Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get manyopportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivatedand lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the right activities are taught inthe right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learnermotivation and making the English language classroom fun and dynamic.

2.3 Some solutions to the problem

UNIT 1 : A day in the life of Warm-up: (4mn) : Matching

- Ask sts to close their books.- Deliver the handout.

A B

1 Civic education a Tin học2 Technology b Vật lí‎‎3 Maths c Sinh học4 Literature d Thể dục5 Physics e Địa lí‎‎

6 Biology f Giáo dục công dân 7 Chemistry g Văn học

8 Physical education h Lịch sử9 Geography i Công nghệ10 History j Toán11 Informatics k Hóa học

- Ask them to match one item in column A with one item in column B.

- Ask them to work in groups in 2 minutes, then check this exercise in chorus.- Ask sts to read aloud the names of these subjects in chorus

- Asks the class : when do you have English lesson?

- Gets the aswer from the class and lead in the new lesson: Today, we are going totalk about timetable

Unit 2 : School talks

- Warm-up ( 4mn ) : Completing the dialogue

- Introduce the situation and write a short dialogue on board:

"Suppose that you meet a friend at the supermarket You are very busy What willyou say to open and end the conversation."

A: ( 1) B: Hi Lan How are you?

A: I’m fine Thank you And you?

B: I’m very well Thanks I haven’t seen you for a long time Let’s go somewherefor a drink

Unit 3 : People’s background

Warm-up (4mn): Game : Giving questions about people's background.

- Divides the class into four teams

- Aks students to discuss and give questions to know some information of aperson’s background in two minutes.

+ family + education + experience

- The team has more correct and faster questions will win the game.

- Elicits the answers from four teams - Gives feedback and declares the winnerSuggested answer:

Unit 4: Special education

Warm-up (4mn) Game : Network

- Asks sts to work in groups and make a list of words relating to school The wordsmust be correctly spelled and related to the topic.

- Ask some groups to report.

- The group with the longest list will be the winner.- Suggested words:

Subjects: English, maths, literature,

Tests, breaks, homework, teacher, students, Secondary school , high school

OK, today, we will go to Lesson: Speaking to talk about school life of a student

School

subjects

UNIT 5 : Technology and you

Warm-up( 5mn): GAME: Write down the name of some modern inventions

- Show Ss the pictures of a radio/ TV / computer / electric cooker / air-conditioner /cell phone.

-

- Divide the class into 2 teams.

- Stick all the pictures and ask Ss to look at and remember within 1 minute, then goto the board, write down the name of each picture

- The team winner is the one that has more correct answers.

- calls on two presentative of two teams to go to the board to write the answer

- Checks and declare the winner.

- Leads in the new lesson : In our lesson today, we are talking about the uses ofsome mordern inventions and information technology.

UNIT 6: An excursionWarm-up (5 mn) : Answering the questions

- Ask some questions:

1 Have you ever gone on a boat trip?2 When?

3 Is it interesting?

4 Which seat do you think the most suitable for you?- Gets the answer from students

Suggested answer:1 Yes, I have.2 Last summer3 Yes, it is.

4 The seat on the sundeck…

- Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson by saying: “Ok, there are many nice

seats Today, we study part B: Speaking to know how to choose the best seat thenwe go on a boat trip”

UNIT 8: The story of my villageWarm-up (5 mn) : completing words

- Write the incomplete words on the board,ask sts to give complete wordsRO_DS

M_DIC_L C_NT_ECR_PS

FO_TB_LL GRO_ND- Divides the class into four groups to complete the words.

- The group having more correct and faster words will win the game.

- Calls on the presentatives of four groups to go to the board to write their words- Checks and declare the winner

Answer key :

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