Some practical solutions for conducting an effective listening lesson in teaching english for grade 10

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE “Some practical solutions for conducting an effective listening lesson in teaching English for grade 10” PART A INTRODUCTION I Rationales Teaching English’s objectives in high schools is to take shape and develop basic skills of English and intellectual quality needed for students to continue with their tertiary education or labor life There fore, “listening”, “speaking”, “reading”, “writing” are all dignified with thematic approaches in series of text books for English secondary level In fact, “listening” is a very important direct communication skill which requires learners with their frequent practice in many daily situations or circumstances However, this seems to be the most difficult part in reaching English improments, and it brings challenges to not only students but also teachers of English Working as a teacher for nearly 16 years I myself understand the nature of the problem and usually find it necessary to look for the ways to improve the situation I have tried my best to this research with a view to getting my students and my colleagues to benefit from it by giving them more opportunities to practise and to better their English For all the reasons, I would like to conduct my research on the topic: “Some practical solutions for conducting an effective listening lesson in teaching English for grade 10” II Aims of the study Each work has its own aims, so does this study The aims of my study are: To help teachers hold a useful and attractive listening lesson To illustrate typical procedures of an effective listening period To help students master more and more English knowledge and develope communication skills III The object of the study + Teachers and students’s mission in listening periods in Tong Duy Tan high school + First grade level: class 10A consists of 43 students-the most brilliant students of our school’s Natural Science Department anhd class 10G with 38 poor quality students when entering the school + The students’ abilities in getting knowledge and developing listening skills IV Method of the study • • • • Using analytic methods Observing and asking colleagues for ideas and experiences Practising the application of the study Investigating methods: giving questions after lessons to test and assess the students’ attainment PART B CONTENT I Theoretical basis Teaching aims The aims of teaching a language not only provide students with its knowledge but the last aim is to help students raise communicational abilities through skills: listening, speaking, reading and writting in which, “listening” has to be obtained by continually practising Outsides school environment, English should be learned through many other ways such as communicating in English frequently, listening to English songs, watching foreign chanels, making pen friends oversea in order to understand and to apply daily English speaking situations thoroughly a - Basic elements determining the effect of a listening period For teachers: Using new and active teaching methods, teachers play roles as steerers to help students create and self develope listening skills In order to have and effective listening periods, the teachers ought to conduct following basic elements: b c - - d II Choosing and aplying teaching techniques in active and suitable ways Arranging time and steering the class reasonably Making use of teaching equipment Being creative, attracive and emotive Listening techniques Good teaching methods of listening periods are ruled by their conment That means the content can govern the choice, the implement of teaching techniquies There are many ways to attain the objectives of the lessons depending on reasonable techniques that teachers use Teaching equipment and devices All the content of listening passages or dialouges is recorded in tape recorders whereas textbooks only contain the tasks Therefore teachers should use teaching equipment and devices in effective ways with a view to obtaining the most useful practices In addition to this, teaching aids also motivate and attract students to further studying activities Equipment and devices needed: + Tape recorder ( or tantamount devices) + Speakers + Real objects + Powerpoint lesson plan + Projector For students Prepare lessons before going to school Brain storm and search information relating to the topic of the lesson at home Listen carefully to teacher’s introduction Follow techer’s guideness Be active and creative Make use of listening skills The Reality Strong points Although there still are some of objective and subjective conditions that affect the teaching procedures, we have got over the difficulties and gradually raise the quality of listening lessons in particular and English subject in general by having conducted the following activities: a For teachers: - Updating information on Internet or through workshops of English Making use of typical techniques Getting used to holding pairs work, groups work in active ways Creating suitable teaching aids Applying information technology in teaching Having modern teaching equipment Having the support and co-operation from the school, collaegues and students b - For students Being raised awareness of the importance of English language in further study and their future Being approached to English daily on mass media More and more students are encouraged to study English from their parents More and more students have good language skills a - Weak points For some teachers: Having difficulties in choosing listening techniques Being limited and confused in manipulating and process leading the lessons’ situations b - For some students: Having less oppotunities of using modern devices and practising English at home Lack of learning motivation Being shy when having mistakes in pronouncing Being a little shocked with high speaking speed of native speakers c - Teaching aids: Low quality of recorded tapes Having few pictures and real objects that should be used in listening lessons Initial investigation result: In the school year of 2018 - 2019, I have taken on classes of grade 10 One with ralatively high input points and another one with very low points of English when taking the entrance examination for upper secondary education taken place in June of last year After units of 10th English text book, I had a small listening test for both of the classes: d Exercise 1: Listen to the student talking about her life and study in an international university then mark True(T) or False(F) statements She has classes in Spanish at La Guardia Community College T/F The teacher of her class is very nice and good T/F The speaker lives in an apartment with her sisters T/F is easy to understand Annie they speak slowly T/F It and Marine Kass because Although it's very cold now, Central Park is lovely in the snow T/F Tapescript Dear Miguel How are you? I'm fine Here's a letter in English It's good practice for you and me! I have classes in English at La Guardia Community College I'm in class with eight students They are all from different countries: Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, Poland and Italy Our teacher's name is Isabel She is very nice and a very good teacher I live in an apartment with two American girls, Annie and Marine Kass They are sisters Annie's twenty years old and a dancer Marine is eighteen and a student They're very friendly, but it isn't easy to understand them They speak very fast! New York is very big, very exciting but very expensive! The subway isn't difficult to use and it's cheap it's very cold now but Central Park is lovely in the snow I'm very happy here Write to me soon Love, Dorita Exercise 2: You will hear a report of Lessons From Shanghai's Top Scores on International Test Listen carefully and then complete the missing words ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "Asian countries value education more than other countries They have given (1)……education……… a priority Every child, every teacher, every parent knows that education is the gateway to (2)…… success………." Mr Schleicher says other education (3)………systems……… can learn from Shanghai For example, he says education spending in the province has (4) ……increased………., including teacher pay and training And administrators are putting teachers into challenging classroom (5)……situations…….to make them better at their jobs Tapescript The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is a two-hour test that compares the performance of fifteen-year-olds In the latest test, the countries with the best readers were South Korea and Finland But students in Shanghai, China, scored the highest of all in reading, mathematics and science The next strongest results were in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Japan In all, around half a million students in more than seventy economies took the test last year The test has been given every three years since 2000 Last year was the first time Shanghai took part The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development just released the results Andreas Schleicher is director of the Education Indicators and Analysis Division at the OECD ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "Asian countries value education more than other countries They have given education a priority Every child, every teacher, every parent knows that education is the gateway to success." Mr Schleicher says other education systems can learn from Shanghai For example, he says education spending in the province has increased, including teacher pay and training And administrators are putting teachers into challenging classroom situations to make them better at their jobs The specific result: Clas s Total Points: & 10 Points: 7& Points: 5&6 Points: 3&4 Points: 0, & N0 % N0 % N0 % N0 % N0 % 10A 43 4.7 12 27 18 41 20 4.7 10G 38 0 7.9 23 15 39 11 28 The statistical results showed that the percentage of weak students are still quite high This indicates that their listening skills are limited, so the essential problem is how to raise listening skills for students to be effective, I have proposed solutions and used following methods to perform III Solutions Making a careful plan This duty is concducted constantly and methodical so the teachers have to: - Look into the major content of the period from students’ book, teacher’s book and follow standard knowledge of skills This duty is very essential because it helps teachers organise and control the lesson more easily, intentionally - Study carefully the objectives of the lesson In a listening period or in the any others, students are helped to practise and trained all of the skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing ( in which Listening is the centred skill) Generally, after the lesson, students can make out the main ideas of listening passages or dialouges then fulfil all the tasks from teachers - Use listening devices in active ways This can vary and depend on the topics of the lessons, the abilities of students and conditional features of the classrooms To be more specific, for class 10A, with alot of fair students and having a projector, I often use powerpoint in teaching and search online update information related to the topics On the other hand, for class 10G, with most of weak students and having no devices supported, I have to use a cassette player with low speed speaking disks for each lesson, besides, I also bring real objects or pictures related to the topics - Choose and co-ordinate listening techniques based on approach to the lesson’s aim such as: + brainstorming about the topic + surfing listening skill + pausing at key words or phrases + guessing the meaning of the text - Prepare a scientific lesson plan with students’ activities, teacher’s questions, students’ answers - Give actual contacts: There are 16 topics in the text book of grade 10 and all of them are closed to daily life so it is essential for teachers to take examples in reality to illustrate the situations or draw useful lessons for students to follow - Discuss with colleges about the possibility of the lesson - Give students open questions about the topics and ask them to prepare at home before the class time - Distribute the time for each activity reasonally It is not permanent for all the lessons but we can take following hint: + Warm up: about minutes + Pre-listening: about minutes + While-listening: about 20 minutes + Post-listening: about 10 minutes + Consolidation and giving homework: about minutes Implementing the process of teaching a listening period A typical procedure consists of stages: Pre - listening, While listening and Post - listening This process not only helps students comprehend enough materials to finish the tasks but also assist them in lively comunications That means the teacher must be profesional enough in the role of a “ferry man” a Pre - listening In this period, teachers should - Prepare psychosphere for students before listening by leading directly; asking open questions about the topics; showing pictures, words, phrases or sentences related so as to be predicted about the topics of the lesson - Elicit the excitement from students through small games involving with the topics - Help students be out of difficulties in pronoucing or new source of knowledge by pre teaching some new key words, new structures or introduce back ground knowledge This period often helps students thinking or having orientation about themes or situations of listening passages There are lots of ways for teachers to teach in this part but the best choices for me are: True/ False Prediction; Open Prediction; Ordering and Pre-Questions b While - listening It can’t be denied that this part is the main one of the lesson It is the chance for students to practise and develop listening skills Teachers have to introduce the tasks with a view to being sure that all students know about their duties clearly Basing on the level of students and on how difficult to understand the tapes, teachers can give the tasks easier or not in comparision with the tasks printed in the text book and decide how many times the students shoud be heard For example, the learners in class 10 A need hearing times, whereas the ones in class 10G need to be heard 0r times: + The 1st time is for surfing - getting used to the voice of speaker, recognizing the position of words and phrases and getting the main ideas of the text + The 2nd time is for students to catch the information to fulfil the tasks + The 3rd time is to check the answers and to correct the wrong ones There are also numerous ways of conducting this part as long as after listening students meet the requirements of understanding the content and getting over all the tasks given In this part, I and my colleges often use exercises such as: Selecting; Delibrate Mistakes; Grids; Listen and Draw; True/ False Statements; Multiple Choice or Comprehension Questions c Post - Listening This part is a good chance for students to have further practices or we can call it “free pracice” This is really important because students can combine information in the “while-listening” part with their background knowledge and language skills in real communicational situations among classmates in pairs or groups under the guideness of the teacher This part should be applied in varied activities: Role play; Recall the story; Write-it-up; Further practice Task redesigning 10 As mentioned above, my school is situated in a rural and poor area, It is very hard for students to get a good result in learning English, especially in listening skill development beacause of many reasons Having concerned about this fact, I intended to make it easier the tasks in while-listening I myself preciate this work because it has been the key of success in my listening periods Most of the tasks in the text book are suitable for my students, however, there are some of them seemed to be beyond their levels If I kept the original tasks, there would be nothing to be caught after blistening From that point of view I have decided to change some of the tasks as followed: - Mutiple choice exercises It is difficult for the students to listen and fulfil the missing words of more than three words or the questions with long answer Therefore I have moved these tasks from “fill in the blank” or “answer the questions” to “ multiple choices Let’s take these changes as good examples: * Unit 6: An Excursion Task The weekend picnic I enjoyed most _ weeks ago A just few C was just a few B was just D were few My class decided _ to the Botanical Garden A pay a visit C paid a visit B to pay a visit D to visited We met on time A at the school gate C a school gate 11 B at a gate D the school mates We made roud the garden A short tours C a big cake B mistakes D a short tour In the afternoon, we went on _ games A to playing more C playing some more B delaying more *Unit 11: D to play some National Parks Tasks Howmany provinces does Cuc Phuong National Park belong to? A B C D How far is it from Hanoi to Cuc Phuong? A.1960 km B 160 km C 200 km D 450 km What many people come to Cuc Phuong for? A to see the work being done to protect endanged species B to see friends and ralatives C to take photographs of buterflies and 1000-year-old-tree D to have a nice time When did Nguyen Hue defeat the Qing invaders? A 1960 B 2000 C 1785 D 1789 What the Muong ethnic minoriry in Cuc Phuong live mainly on? 12 A keeping cars and washing C bee keeping and farming B cutting trees and raising D guiding tours and farming - True/False Statements Another kind of exercises that I suppose better for my students is T/F statements It is simplified by changing from “answer the questions” tasks *Unit 14 The World Cup Task As a football player, Pele was famous for kicking and holding the ball T/F → controlling He participated in world cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970 T/F Before retiring, Pele played for American national football team T/F → American football club After his retirement, he became international ambassador for peace T/F → sport On be half of being an ambassador, he worked to promote peace and understanding through friendly sport activities T/F *Unit 16: Historical places Task 2: The ancient town of Hoi An is situated 13 km south of Da Nang T/F → 30 13 Hoi An was known as an important trading centre in Southeast Asia between the 16th and the 17th centuries T/F It is now famous for its old temples, pagodas, small thatch-roofed houses and narrow streets T/F → small tile-roofed houses The old houses in Hoi An were made of brick and their pillars were carved with ornamental designs T/F → wood The Assembly Hall of Cantonese Chinese Congragation is 164 years old T/F (it was built in 1855) Tan Ky House was built 200 years ago T/F ( centuries ago) The house was for Vietnamese merchants and now is not well- preserved T/F → looks almost exactly as it did in the early 19 th century Hoi An was recognised by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1999 T/F Study environment 14 Propagating enough source of knowledge and meeting requirement of fulfiling the tasks are the main objectives of the lesson, but one more essential element in a language period is encouraging study environment - Teachers must always create and lead foreign language environment in class, that means English is the main and sometimes the only means of communication It bases on the level of student, teachers can choose to use short, simple sentences to be easy to understand and remember - Teachers should always encourage and make effort to help students make full use of learned knowledge and skills to communicate with each other - Teachers should not pay too much attention to correct students’ mistakes while they are practicing speaking skills Let they that in naturally - Listening and speaking activities should be integrated through games with rewards or compliments for the winners IV Testing and Acquirement After the session of 16 units, I handed out a small listening test to check the students’ acquirement of class 10A and 10G: Exercise 1: True / Fasle Statements You will hear a report on VOA (Voice of America) about the new testing ways to recognize what makes a good teacher Listen and the task below Yould should listen three times According to the report, Bill Gates supports this project T/F The project began last month T/F → (last year) 15 3.The goal of this project is to help the educators and policy makers raise money for education T/F → help the educators and policy makers identify and support good teaching 4.There are 11 American cities taking part in the project T/F → 5.Students were also tested in mathematics, English and biology.T/F Tapescript In recent years, Bill Gates has given financial support to improve American education Late last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching project The project tests new ways to recognize what makes a good teacher Its goal is to help educators and policymakers identify and support good teaching The study is being carried out in public school systems in seven American cities Thousands of teachers volunteered to take part They agreed to have their classes recorded on video, but only for observation by expert researchers Last spring, the project collected digital videos of thirteen thousand lessons in the classrooms taught by the teachers They were in grades four through nine Researchers also collected information from students They asked students to report their opinions of each teacher’s classroom Students were also tested in mathematics, English and biology Officials recently released early results of the project study The report says teachers’ past success in raising student scores on state tests is one of the strongest signs of their ability to so again This is known as a teacher’s “value-added.” 16 The teachers with the highest value-added scores on state tests also help students understand math or show reading ability Exercise 2: Multiple choice You will hear a speaker who talk about London Listen and the task below Yould should listen three times London is in the ………………of England A north-east B north-west C.south-east D south-west London has a population of about …………million people A 11 B 12 C 13 D 20 Most people travel into the city to work by ………… A bus B bus and car C tube D underground train Near the center of the city, people live in……… A large houses B flats C small house D hotels The best thing about living in London is that………… A it is peaceful B it is cheap C there is a great mix of people from different countries and cultures D there are many beauty spots and lovely people Tapescript I come from London in the southeast of England It's a very large city and has a population of about twelve million people Most people travel into the city every day to work, usually by bus or underground train, which we call the "tube" Many people work in offices or for big companies, but of course people all sorts of jobs here I think the majority of people live in what we call semi-detached houses, in the suburbs usually, but nearer the centre of the city, 17 people live in flats, too London is great fun because there is so much to do, erm, great restaurants, theater, museums, but it is very busy so it can be quite stressful as well sometimes One of the best things about living in London is that it's so cosmopolitan, you know, there is a great mix of people from different countries and cultures I really love it here and I can't imagine living anywhere else really The test result: Clas s Total Points: & 10 Points: 7& Points: 5&6 Points: 3&4 Points: 0, & N0 % N0 % N0 % N0 % N0 % 10A 43 18 21 48 14 32 0 0 10G 38 5.3 13 34 15 39 15 5.3 As can be seen from the tables above, the knowledge and listening skills of the students in both classes were greatly enhanced The excellent marks (9,10) increased from to 10 Especially, no mark was lower than for class 10A, while listening level of students in class 10G is improved remarkably It is clear that my solutions were definitely successful PART C CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS I Conclusion In the process of teaching English at Tong Duy Tan Upper Secondary school, I realize that improving listening skill for 10th form students is extremely important This direct communicatinal skill should be concentrated and developed so that they can apply to better their lives and 18 their next stage of learning English for grade 11 and 12 in both immediate and long-term vision The teacher should choose, change the warm- up and practice activities in the different lessons in order that the atmosphere of class is always lively and not boring, monotonous for students During this period, teachers act only as guideliness and don’t give correct answers but they stimulate students’ participation, arouse interest, curiosity of the children about the lesson content To continuously improve the quality of student learning, teachers have to prepare lessons, and creative exploration as lesson plans And especially they have to know how to select the appropriate option to boot form with each different lesson This work will create a difference between method teaching and teaching without method That is the key to create a successful lesson Specifically, in Listening lesson of English book 10, after lessons, students can hear better, more confident, be able to relate to reality when they have oppotunities to speak to natives, they can listen boldly and communicate well To practice listening skill well, teachers need to spend much time preparing pictures, teaching aids, creating real situations for students to raise language skills, use modern devices fluently and the most important thing is that they have to understand the posibility of students to give them suitable tasks This is my personsal study in teaching listening skill of English book 10, so some mistakes are unavoidable I am looking forwards to receiving faithful comments from colleagues to help my reseach will become better and more successful II Recommendations Starting from the basis of theory and practice as well as the successes and limitations, this subject contributes to arouse interest in learning listening skill and improve the quality of students in English I would venture to suggest some comments as follows: * To Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training: 19 - The Department of Education and Training should be organized more English work shops for teachers to exchange teaching experience - And should open far more training courses for all English teachers attended to improve teaching methods and all can reach C1 level * To my school - Equip function rooms for English subject with educational facilities such as projectors, laptops, labs, and so on so that the teachers can have opportunities to use up-to-date technologies in teaching - Open English clubs, give students more chances to be confident in using English * To the colleagues: - Encourage students not only to learn in class but also to practise at home from reference books, radio, TV or foreign programs on mass media - Teachers should take more time to feedback to colleagues, regularly exchange experiences, exchange reference books to enhance the quality of teaching THE CONFIRMATION OF THE Thanh Hoa, May 25 th, 2019 HEADMASTER I hereby declare that this is my experience initiative and that no parts of the initiative have been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work acknowledgement Writer MA NGUYEN VAN TINH 20 without TRAN TO UYEN REFERENCES Teacher English Books 10, Department of Education and Training English 10, by Hoang Van Van, the publisher of Vietnam Education Regularly Fostering Documents for teachers in Upper Secondary Education - Stage III - Ministry of Education and Training, ( 2004- 2007 ) 21 Teaching methods and checking reviews’students’assignments renovation for English at upper secondary schools Ministry of Education and Training ( 2008 ) English Dictionary (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary) A Listening / Speaking Skills Book-Judith Tanka & Lida R.Baker Http://www.globaledu.com.vn/ViewDetail.aspx?contentID=2015 Http://prettyguy.violet.vn/present/show/entry_id/1855510 The Internet CATEGORY PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationales page 01 II Aims of the study page 01 22 III The object of the study page 02 IV Method of the study page 02 PART B: CONTENT I Theoretical basis ……………………………… … … page 02 II The Reality ……………………………………….… page 03 III Solutions .……………………… page 07 IV Testing and Acquirement page 14 PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS I Conclusion ………………………… … page 17 II Recommendations page 18 REFERENCES: ……………… … 23 page 20 ... Getting used to holding pairs work, groups work in active ways Creating suitable teaching aids Applying information technology in teaching Having modern teaching equipment Having the support and... systems can learn from Shanghai For example, he says education spending in the province has increased, including teacher pay and training And administrators are putting teachers into challenging classroom... (3)………systems……… can learn from Shanghai For example, he says education spending in the province has (4) ……increased………., including teacher pay and training And administrators are putting teachers into challenging