Some certain suggestions to movitate speaking in speaking lesson of 10th grade students at nong cong 2 high sch

Part I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale With the development of society and the need to integrate into the international economy Vietnam Government has set strategic goals for its own, in which education is considered as one of the leading goals As a result, many changes and amendments to educational policies have made The new set of textbooks, for example, has been modified and applied officicially in high schools nationwide And up to now, the new textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ has been officially put in application for five years for 10th grade students The pilot period may be long enough for administrators and teachers to draw out some suitable adaptations, especial speaking skill However, we can not deny a fact that many Vietnamese students after seven years learning English at schools still feel confused when communicating with foreigners or they even could not say a simple utterance like an offer Obviously, the ability to communicate in a foreign language clearly and effectively contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life At Nong Cong High School (NC2.HS), like many high schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in its curriculum for many years and the English speaking skill is one of five official parts in a unit However, due to the demand of the high and get them involved in speaking effectively Moreover, improving speaking skill for 10th form students proves essential because most students have not learned how to speak English when they were at lower secondary school and their speaking ability is extremely poor All the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study about exprerience initiative in teaching ‘Some certain suggestions to movitate speaking in speaking lesson of 10th grade students at Nong Cong high school, Thanh hoa” , which means little attention has been paid to the speaking skill Sometimes, they feel bored with the difficult and uninteresting topics in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ With year – experience in NC2.HS, the author finds that the English lessons with speaking activities adapted or designed by teachers always motivate students II Aims of the study The aims of the study are: - to investigate students’ difficulties in learning English oral skills and the current situation of teaching the speaking activities to the 10-form students by teachers at Nong Cong High School - to adapt some speaking activities based on “Tieng Anh 10” to reduce 10th grade students’s difficulties in learning English oral skills at Nong Cong high school III Scope of the study This initiative is carried with no hope that can cover all kinds of English speaking activites because this is a board aspect investigated by many authors The authors’s attempt is only to adapt some difficult speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10” to reduce students’s difficulties and make them more interested and active in English lesssons, thus, improving their speaking ability IV Research questions What are students’ difficulties in learning the current English speaking activities in ‘Tieng Anh 10’? Which speaking lessons (in 16 units of Tieng Anh 10) are difficult for the students at NC2HS? What speaking activities in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”should be adapted to reduce students’ difficulties? V Research methodology To achieve the aims mentioned above, the study employed survey questionnaire for students, interview for teachers and classroom observations to collect information on the the students’ difficulties and seeks a way to reduce those difficulties by adapting some unsuitable textbook pre-designed English speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10” Part II: DEVELOPMENT I The purpose of material adaptation In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety Thus, I favor Madsen and Bowen’s (1978) and Tice’s (1991) view that is the purpose of material adaptation is to compensate for those deficiencies This is important to all teachers of English because it can activate learners and stimulate their motivation, and increased motivation, in turn, is likely to create a more conductive classroom atmosphere II Categories of English speaking activities • Discussion * Conversation • Storytelling * Oral reports • Telephoning * Announcements • Role play * Interviews • Informal Debate * Co-operative learning III Problems with English speaking and speaking activities Problems with English speaking Everything has bad and good sides Speaking also has its own problems According to Brown (1994: 256), the characteristics of spoken language can make oral performance easy as well as in soe cases difficult There are following problems with speaking: • Clustering * Redundancy • Reduced forms * Colloquial language • Stress, rhythm and intonation * Affective factors • Interaction Problems with English speaking activities It is more difficult to design and adminster such activities than to so for listening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996:121) lists out: • Inhibition * Nothing to say: • Lows or uneven participation * Mother-tongue use: Basing on these views, an action research is to caried out on adapting some English speaking activities for the ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to reduce these difficulties PART III – DATA ANALYSIS Questionnaires The questionnaires for teachers and students consist of and questions respectively to collect information focusing the following categories: (see appendix and appendix 2) - The effectiveness of communicative activities in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10 - Students’ perceptions of their difficulties in English speaking skills - Necessity of changing or adding English speaking activities - Students’ attitudes towards applying changing or adding English speaking activities and their effectiveness - Changing or adding English speaking activities applied by teachers and the ones chosen by students The effectiveness of communicative activities in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10 Question in both questionnaires asks about the teachers’ and students’ viewpoints on the effectiveness of the speaking activities presented in 16 units of ‘Tieng Anh 10’ Chart The effectiveness of communicative activities in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10 Most of the teacher (81.25%) and the students (72%) agree that they are not very effective when being taught at NC2 HS, although the new textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ is interesting According the teachers, there are some reasons for this First, some activities in the text book are not suitable to rural students of NC2 HS, for example some topics are unfamiliar to them Changing or adding English speaking activities applied by teachers and the ones chosen by students The next two questions in the questionnaire for students aim to investigate the types of changing or extra oral activities the teachers have applied in the classroom with the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ and the types students believe to be effective when applied in this textbook Types of English speaking activities Changed by Supported by teachers (%) students(%) Games 13 34 Information gap 33 41 Discussion 32 46 Role play 49 47 Story telling 11 Oral report 14 Telephoning 15 Drama in context Informal Debate 12 Co-operative learning 12 33 Solving – problem 13 Announcements 1 Interviews 27 40 Table 4: The English speaking activities adapted by teachers and the changing activities in tasks of speaking lessons in ‘Tieng Anh 10’ chosen by students The table reveals that the teachers have applied most categories of the speaking activities above This is very helpful because students can provide the designer with helpful information about the effectiveness of each activity when applied in ‘Tieng Anh 10’ As seen in the table, students show their most interest in the categories of information gap, discussion, role play and interview Changing or adding English speaking activities chosen by teachers and their reasons Question and in the questionnaire for teachers were designed to get their advice on the types of changing or extra speaking activities for the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ and the reasons for these Types of English speaking activities Reasons Supported by teachers(%) 12.50% Games It is very interesting but time-consuming and not Information gap profitable It is easy to prepare and carry out It is also 56.25 Discussion reasonable for students’ language level Many students can participate in speaking 68.75 activities Students like this way It gives students Role play high motivation of brains This activity is very useful Students can practice 75.00 Story telling English phrases or structures in certain situations It is time-consuming to prepare and practice at 10.50 Oral report Telephoning Drama in context class It takes much time to prepare and carried out It is time-consuming and difficult It is difficult for students and they have to cope 8.25 12.25 Informal Debate Co-operative learning with the lack of vocabulary It is time-consuming and difficult It helps students work together and support each 45.50 Solving – problem other It is quite interesting and give students high 12.50 motivation of brains but students sometimes lack Announcements Interviews vocabulary of English and social knowledge It is difficult The activity is profitable and it makes students 56.25 more confident It is a good way to provide students chances to practice speaking English Table 5: The English speaking activities for ‘Tieng Anh 10’ chosen by teachers Follow-up class observation In speaking periods which author visited, English speaking activities such as information gap, role playing, describing pictures and co-operative learning always applied (7 periods) instead of task 2, or in textbook The class observation also reveals that teachers need to have good preparation for prespeaking to make the speaking activities more effective such as providing students key words relating to the topic, giving clear instructions Feedback of students towards applying changing or adding English speaking activities and their effectiveness Chart Students’ feedback towards applying changing or adding English speaking activities and their effectiveness PART IV - SUGGESTED ADAPTATIONS OF TEXTBOOK ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES In this part, some most common and effective activities such as role play, discussion, information, telephoning, co-operative learning, interviews are presented The author’ own experience suggests that these activities work effectively when applied to textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to motivate the 10th form students at NC2.HS in speaking lessons V.1 ROLE PLAY V.1 1.Activities Application: Task - Unit 6: An excursion Aims: Giving opinions, expressing agreement and disagreement Class time: 20 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 66 Source: Section cards and role cards (See Appendix 6) Procedure: Copy and cut the role cards of each people and the section cards Divide the class into group of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of role cards and one set of situation cards (for group of three, leave out role card D) Ask the students to sit round the table with the situations cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table The cards should be in order from to Each student should have a role card 1, 2, or 4 Tell the students that it is Sunday morning and Tim’s class is going on a boat on Lake Michigan in Chicago Read the seat plan You suggest the best seat in each section for each person The object of the game is using structures ‘… think …‘should’ or should not… because’ Or giving opinions via answers ‘Yes’, ‘No’ basing on the content of textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ The game is finished when they have successfully decided on each people’s seat Ask groups their decision on some sections and check with the whole class V.1.2 Activities Application: Task – Unit 3: People’s background Aims: to encourage students to find out information related to their friends’ background for their presentation next task Level: Elementary Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 35 Source: English Textbook 10, Education Press, 2006 (See Appendix 7) Procedure: The teacher elicits situation and ask students to make questions basing on given information, for example: The teacher introduce some special expression for students to the natural conversation Students work in pairs to the interview Teacher walks around to encourage and help students if necessary Teacher calls some pairs to the interview before class After doing this task, students can collect information to talk about the friend they have interviewed for reporting at the end of the lesson Most students are eager to the task because they can it in role of the interviewers V.2 INFORMATION GAP V.2.1 Activities Application: Task – Unit 1: A day in the life of … Aims: Talking about daily activities Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 14 Source: Role cards (See Appendix 8) Procedure: Copy the two role cards They are the same but some information is missing from each Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the role cards Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’s questions e.g A: What does Tom after school? B: He often does exercise Tell the students to write the answers in the boxes or draw the picture Ask the students to write his/ her partner’s name in the last box and ask him/ her the same questions to complete the boxes The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing information Tell students to stand up and make full sentences about the characters in the cards V.2.2 Activities Application: Task – Unit 15: Cities Aims: Comparing two cities Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 159 Source: Role cards – Cities (See Appendix 9) Procedure: Copy the two role cards - cities They are the same but some information is missing from each Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the role cards Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’s questions e.g When was New York founded? What is population of New York? How many national holidays are there in New York? The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing information in their cards Ask some students to stand up and talk about the person they have asked their partners to get the information about their cities V.3 CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING V.3.1 Activity Application: Task – Unit 5: Technology and You Aims: Asking for and giving information about the uses of modern inventions Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 56 Source: Modern inventions Cards (See Appendix 10) Procedure: Copy and cut out the 18 modern invention cards above Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each group one set of job cards Tell the students to put cards face down on the table Ask students to take it turn to pick up a card and ask and answer about the uses of modern inventions Put some helpful language on the board for them to refer to: A: Can/ Could you tell me what ……………………… is used for? B: It is used to …………………………………………………… The activity is finished when each student has said at least one thing about each of the cards Ask one group to stand up and say about one of the modern inventions in the cards Ask the other groups to add more information V.3.2 Activity Application: Task – Unit 11: National Parks Aims: Expressing regrets (using the conditional sentence type 3) Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 115 Source: Situation cards - List of wishes (See Appendix 11) Procedure: Copy the list of wishes and the situation cards, cut out the situation cards Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student a list of wishes and two situation cards 10 Tell the students to complete their list of wishes by saying according to model others in their group: e.g If we had not …., we wouldn’t have … When students have completed all the missing information in their list of wishes, ask them to tell their group the most interesting or surprising wisher they have known V.4 DISCUSSION V.4.1 Activity Application: Task – Unit 8: The story of my village Aims: Talking about plans and possible results (in the village) Class time: 10 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 85 Source: Question Cards (See Appendix 12) Procedure: Copy, cut out and shuffle question cards Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of question cards Ask students to sit round the table with the question cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table One student starts by turning up the top card, reading it out to the group and discussing their plans and possible results The next student now picks up a card, reads it out … and the activity continues Stop the students at the end of the time limit Ask each group in turn which question card gave rise to most discussion V.4.2 Activity Application: Task – Unit 9: Undersea World Aims: Reporting on discussion results Class time: 15 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 97 Source: Situation Cards (See Appendix 13) Procedure: 11 Copy and cut out the situation cards Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of situation cards Ask students to turn up the first card and compare four situations on the card to find out solutions Encourage them use ‘should’ and ask groups exchange situations, then discuss again When the time is over, find out the best solutions V.4.3 Activity Application: Task – Unit 14: The World Cup Aims: Asking and answering questions about the World Cups Class time: 20 minutes Source: Handouts (See Appendix 14) Procedure: Copy handouts Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each group two handouts Tell students to complete their handouts by asking and answering the others in their group such as: A: Where was the first World Cup held? B: It was held in Uruguay A: Which teams played in the final match? B: Uraguay and Argentina A: Which team became the champion? B: Uraguay A: What was the score of the match? B: - When students have completed all the missing information in their handouts, ask them add more information about famous football team if they know V.5 INTERVIEWS 5.1 Activity Application: Task – Unit 4: Special Education 12 Aims: Making an interview Class time: 20 minutes Materials: English textbook 10, page 48 Source: Handouts (See Appendix 15) Procedure: Copy and cut out the six handouts Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student one of the six handouts Explain that each student has some questions in their handout, ask them to interview four other people in their group and make a note of answer they get Stop the students at the end of the time limit whether they have finished or not Ask some students to stand up and present their work PART V: REACHED RESULTS All in all, the teaching experiences help the reseacher confirm the fact that prelistening 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 2016 -2017 Speaking Skills Before Class Rank Class Excellent Good Medium Weak 10A1 techniques(20162017) 6.81% 40.90% 50% 2.27% After (2018-2019) 23.68% 62.27% 4.05% 0% 13 Bad (49 Class students 10A4 (50 sts) Class 10A6 (44 sts) Excellent Good Medium Weak Bad Excellent Good Medium Weak Bad 0% 0% 2.27% 34.1% 56.81% 4.54% 0% 3% 25% 57% 15% 0% 4.54% 69,99% 25.45% 0% 0% 6% 30% 62% 2% 0% PART VI: CONCLUSION As teachers of English at a rural school, we have faced many obstacles in developing students’ speaking skill, and the desire of how to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons is really the strong motivation This study aims at investigating the necessity of adapting speaking activities (in tasks of speaking lessons), finding how to adapt them and then suggesting some appropriate speaking activities for textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’to help the 10th Nong Cong students have more chances to practice speaking and improve their speaking ability The research has discovered the significant findings: First, the communicative activities presented in some tasks in speaking lesson in ‘Tieng Anh 10’ are not effective because they are not varied and interesting enough to attract the students’ concentration or some topics are not familiar to them due to the low background knowledge of rural students, generally Therefore, to motivate students in speaking lessons, it is vitally necessary to adapt these speaking activities Secondly, the students’ favorite speaking activities except for games are also highly appreciated by the teachers Moreover, these activities get them not bored and make them 14 more confident However, games are not always profitable and very time-consuming though they are very interesting and attract students’ attention According to the findings, it can be concluded that teachers should adapt speaking activities to increase the effectiveness of speaking lessons However, teachers play a key role which can affect the success or failure of the changing speaking activities Therefore, teachers should have good preparation for pre-speaking, good organization of group or pair works Nong Cong, May 25th 2019 Signature Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng Teacher of English at Nong Cong high school REFERENCES Bailey, K.M and Savage, L (1994) New Ways in Teaching Speaking.USA Byrne, D (1991) Teaching Oral English Longman Hadfield, J (1985) Elementary Communication Games Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd 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 Jones, L (2002) Let’s Talk 2: Teacher Support Site Cambrigde University Press 15 Ellis, M (1986: 47) Making and shaping games How to adapt University of Technology, Loughborough Madsen, K.S., &Bowen, J.D (1978) Adaptation in Language Teaching Rowley, MA: Newbury House Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambrigde University Press Van, H.V., et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Education Publishing House of Vietnam 10 Wallwork, A (1994) Discussions A-Z Advanced: A Resourse Book of Speaking Activities Cambrigde University Press 11 Watcyn-Jones, P (1995) Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers Penguin Books Websites: http://www.bogglesworldesl.com http://www.esl-library.com http://www.onetopenglish.com 16 ... speaking activities (in tasks of speaking lessons), finding how to adapt them and then suggesting some appropriate speaking activities for textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10 to help the 10th Nong Cong students. ..- to investigate students difficulties in learning English oral skills and the current situation of teaching the speaking activities to the 10-form students by teachers at Nong Cong High School... need to have good preparation for prespeaking to make the speaking activities more effective such as providing students key words relating to the topic, giving clear instructions Feedback of students