Using grammar and vocabulary CHANT to help students improve the speaking skill

At the university level, students in many countries study almost all their subjects in English in order to make the material more accessible to international students.. The teachers of E

TABLE OF CONTENT

A INTRODUCTION Page

I Reason for choosing topic 2

II Purpose of the study 3

III Objectives of the study 3

IV Research Methodology 3

B CONTENT I The theoretical basic……….3

II The real situation ……… ………… 4

III Solutions ……….7

IV Effectiveness of the initiative for educational activities, individuals, colleagues and schools……….13

C CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5 Conclusion 14

6 Recommendation … 15

D REFERENCES … 15

A INTRODUCTION

I THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING TOPIC.

English was originally the language of England, but through the historical efforts of the British Empire it has become the primary or secondary language of many former British colonies such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and India Currently, English is the primary language of not only countries actively touched by British imperialism, but also many business and cultural spheres dominated by those countries It is the language of Hollywood and the language of international banking and business As such, it is a useful and even necessary language to know

Besides that English is also essential to the field of education In many countries, children are taught and encouraged to learn English as a second language Even in countries where it is not an official language, such as the Netherlands or Sweden, we will find many syllabi in science and engineering are written in English Because it is the dominant language in the sciences, most of the research and studies you find in any given scientific field will be written in it as well At the university level, students in many countries study almost all their subjects in English in order to make the material more accessible to international students

In Vietnam nowadays, English has become a compulsory subject at schools, universities as well as technical schools However, it seems that teaching and learning English at many secondary schools in Vietnam is not very effective One of the most important reasons is unsuitable methods in teaching and learning The teachers of English often meet difficulties in approaching new methods of teaching foreign languages communicatively Especially, How to teach Speaking Skill effectively is also the problem which they often meet Recognizing the importance of doing this, I’ve chosen this topic in the hope of finding out some useful measures in organising suitable activities in the class

Therefore, in the limitation of a small study I am really great at the thought of giving my opinion about “using grammar and vocabulary CHANTS to help students improve the speaking skill”.

II PURPOSES OF THE STUDY

Objective of implement the innovation in teaching methods in English for junior high school is to train skills, form the capacity and quality of students

III OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

I undertake this project to introduce innovative teaching methods that are oriented towards the development of English proficiency skills for students in secondary schools

IV RESEARCH METHODS

1 Research methods to build theoretical basis

Find, read and study the theory of competency, how to form the capacity and the competencies that need to be created for students

Collect and study materials on active teaching methods that are oriented towards the development of student competencies

2 Method of investigation, field survey, information collection

Carry out going to the class for teaching to compare the effectiveness of methods; create test forms before, during and after implementation of methods; exchange and collect peer feedback, student opinions

3 Statistical methods, data processing

Make a statistical table about the number of students scoring average, weak, good and fairly before and after implementing innovative teaching methods, calculate the percentage of each type

B CONTENT

I THEORETICAL BASIC

The Education Development Strategy for 2011-2020, issued in conjunction with Decision No 711 / QD-TTg dated 13 June 2012 of the Prime Minister, also states: "Continuing to renovate teaching methods and evaluate learning results, training in the direction of promoting positive, self-conscious, active, creative and self-learning ability of learners

The above-mentioned viewpoints and orientations create the premise, basis and legal environment which are conducive to the renewal of general education in general and synchronous renovation of teaching methods in the orientation of developing the

pupils' English speaking skill in secondary school in particular And grammar and vocabulary CHANT is a useful solution to help students improve speaking skill

- Chants use natural spoken English: Students don’t force in grammar even though they are learning grammar

- Chants can be used in classes of any size: We can have difficulties in teaching and learning language in a big-size class However, with chants we can consolve this problem

- Chants don’t require any special materials: People can think that this method

is old or not; however, every people can learn English or other languages effectively with chants without modern items such as: computers, projectors, E-Pens, cordless headsets, so on

- Chants can be used with all age groups: Using chants to learn English like reading idioms or poems, so it is suitable for people of all age

- Chants do not require musical ability: Chant means put words or sentences in music; however, it is only in rhythm Once someone who is better at Chants, they can practise with Jazz Chants, the better level of chants

II THE REAL SITUATION BEFORE APPLYING THE EXPERIENCE

INITIATIVE

1 Problems with speaking.

Brown (1994: 256) points out the characteristics of spoken language that make speaking skills difficult as follows:

- Clusterings: In order to speak fluently, speakers have to select from their store of

language clusterings, that is groups of words, not word by word

- Reduced forms: Contructions, elisions, reduced vowels, ect Create difficulties in

teaching and learning spoken English If learners do not learn colloquial contractions, they can develop the kind of speaking that is stilted, bookish

- Colloquial language: Colloquialism appears both in monologues and dialogues If

learners are only exposed to standard English and/or “textbook” language, they sometimes find it hard to understand and produce words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language

- Stress, rthym and intonation: Learners of English often find it difficult to produce

English words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress-times rthym and intonation patterns of spoken English

- Affective factors: Learners learning to speak often encounter the risk of saying out

things that may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible At those times, they tend to

be anxious because they do not want to be jugded by other learners

- Interaction: The greatest difficulty that learners face in learning to speak originates

from the interactive natural of most communication Engages in process of negatiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing what to say, how to say, when to speak, ect Learners are affected by their interlocutors’ performance

2 Problems with speaking activities.

Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech is an important component of a language course where CLT is applied However, it is more difficult to design and administer such activities than to

do so for listening, reading or writing Teachers, in fact, often come across the problems that Ur (1996: 121) lists out:

- Worries: Unlike reading, writing or listening activities speaking requires some

degree od real-time exposure to an audience The student speaker has to face the teacher and other students in class Learners are often worried about trying to says something in a foreign language in the classroom because they are worried about making mistakes, afraid of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Teachers often hear learners, even if they are not worried or

nervous, complain that they can not have anything to say They may have no motivate

to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak When they say something in class, they feel that they are forced to say

- Uneven or low participation: Unusually, there are many students in one class

(between 25 and 35 students) Only one student can talk at a time in a large group This means that each one has only very little time for talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while others

speak very little or not at all In some cases some students haven’t got any chance, intentionally and unintentionally, to speak for a long time

- Mother-tongue use: When all, or a number of the learners share the same mother

tongue, they may tend to use it frequently This happens because the native language

is easier to use and because they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and become learners feel less “exposed” if they are speaking in a small group, it can be quite difficult to get some classes, particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones, to keep to the target language

- Teacher domination: Teaching a crowded class, many teachers tend to spend much

time explaining words, phrases and grammar structures in details for fear that otherwise the students can not understand and fail in their tests During explanation, teacher find it easier and less time consuming to use the mother tongue Another important thing is that the teachers seem more interested in individual work (between teacher and one student or the whole group, or one student and another student or the whole group) They fear that other kinds of student grouping (pair work and group work) may cause noise or discipline problems

Through these facts that students have difficulties in speaking English inside and outside classrooms

Survey results for students in class 6A, 7A in capacity in Thach Thanh Boarding school:

With the request of real life, our country's education is moving from content-based education to learner-centered approach, which means that we focus on what students do through learning process more than what they get

Jazz chants , according to Carolyn Graham, are snappy, unbeat chants and poems that use jazz rhythms to illustrate the natural stress and intonation patterns of conversational American English (from Oxford University Press) We can understand

more that Jazz chants are based on a combination of repetition and learned response Jazz chants set everyday situational English to strong rhythms that give the user practice with pronunciation, stress and the patterns of English The rhythm is the glue that holds the chant together and you find that the language “sticks” in your head and

so aids learning

A (jazz) chant has a three (four)-beat rhythm: 1, 2, 3 (, 4) Each beat will be

either a tressed word (or syllable) or clap (tap or pause) The first beat is the first stress word, which may not be the first word.

Example 1: Do you mind if I bo rrow your ru ler?

1 2 3 (clap = 4)

Example 2: Hi, my name is Ba.

1 2 3 (clap = 4)

Example 3: Do you like this? (clap) Yes, I do.

1 2 3 4

(Audio 1)

For native English speakers, stress is key to meaning It’s what we listen for to know what’s important and what to focus on Therefore, jazz chants are a fun, practical way to help students begin to notice and produce natural rhythm

III SOLUTIONS

1 Chants in practising vocabulary.

- To consolve the problems in daily spoken English, we can use chants in teaching how to pronounce vocabulary correctly, fluently and naturally, and in every lesson we can do this And obviously, we have to focus on word stress

Example 1: English 6 Unit 1: Lesson 2 (page 8)

English physics history

1 2 3

homework judo school lunch

1 2 3

exercise vocabulary football

1 2 3

lessons music science

1 2 3

(Audio 2)

Example 2: English 7 Unit 2: Lesson 2 (page 18)

headache sore throat cough

1 2 3

headache sore throat headache sore throat cough

1 2 1 2 3

temperature stomachache flu

1 2 3

temperature stomachache temperature stomachache flu

1 2 1 2 3

earache tired sick

1 2 3

earache tired earache tired weak

1 2 1 2 3

(Audio 3)

Example 3: English 8 Unit 3: Lesson 2 (page 28 )

major opposite minor

1 2 3

simple opposite complicated

1 2 3

traditional opposite modern

1 2 3

spoken opposite written

1 2 3

(Audio 4)

- In addition to these, we can use chant technique to teach the past form of the irregular verbs For example:

I do, last night I did

I hide, last week I hid

I sell, last night I sold

I tell, last week I told

I get, last month I got.

I forget, but I forgot

I buy, last night I bought

I bring, last week I brought

I ring, last month I rang

I sing, but I sang

I think, last month I thought

I write, but I wrote

I choose, last night I chose

I freeze, last week I froze

I keep, last month I kept

I sleep, but I slept

(Audio 5)

- We can make our own chants; however, the language should be real, useful and appropriate for the level First of all, have students make a list of vocabulary words from a lesson we’ve done Then, ask them to arrange them according to the number

of syllables per word: It should be in order: a two syllable, a three syllable and a one syllable word

Example:

pencil eraser chair

1 2 3 (clap = 4)

pencil eraser chair

1 2 3

pencil eraser pencil eraser

1 2 3 4

pencil eraser chair

1 2 3 (Audio 6)

- We can make it more complex by adding adjectives to the chants

Example:

purple pencil pink eraser

1 2 3 4

purple pencil pink eraser

1 2 3 4

purple pencil pink eraser

1 2 3 4

yellow chair yellow chair

1 2 3 4 (Audio 7)

By doing this regularly, English learners will not have difficulty in producing English words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress-times rthym and intonation patterns of spoken English Moreover, through doing this activity, learning new words or practising vocabulary of students will be able to be easier without pressure Besides, students can practise new words anytime, anywhere

2 Chants in learning grammar.

Traditionally, when we learn structures or tenses, we often have to try to write as much as possible to learn by heart these and this work often makes us feel passive Therefore, instead of writing the structures of the tenses or structures we can chant the sentences and of course we have to focus on the stress of sentences:

- Content words are usually stressed: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, demonstratives (this, these, those) and negatives (can’t, won’t, never, no, etc.)

- Function words are usually unstressed and reduced: a, an, the, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, most prepositions, etc

- In unstressed words and in unstressed syllables, the vowel sounds are reduced and often move to “schwa”:

“Do you like it?” do and you are reduced.

- Typically the last content word in each thought group receives the most stress:

I put the groceries/ in the bag / on the counter.

Here are some examples:

a) I play bad minton e veryday.

1 2 3 (clap = 4)

I don’t play so ccer

1 2 3 (clap = 4)

Do you play so ccer? Yes, I do.

1 2 3 4

Do you play bad minton? No, I don’t

1 2 3 4