Some measures to improve listening skill for students at primary school effectively

1 Background 1.1 The reason for selecting the topic Together with science and technology, education and training is the top national policy, aiming to improve people's knowledge and training human resources Investing in education is investing in the future The education and training sector is constantly innovating in terms of content and teaching methods English has been taught at elementary level to help students master the common language of the world To achieve that goal, there must be a positive direction in teaching to provide students with a solid foundation for later learning and communicating through English The new English program has been implemented nationwide so far for many years The highlight of this program is to provide maximum opportunities for students to practice four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing on living environmental topics and situations in and out of the country This change facilitates the teaching and learning of English in the school as a language instead of teaching words as many years ago However, in practicing for students' English skills, teachers face many difficulties, especially for listening skill In fact, at school, when I began to study foreign languages, most students liked to study, but gradually the students became ill Most of them are very weak in listening skill It is difficult for them to understand the content of a text or conversation After each lesson, it is very difficult for the teacher to check the information they have listened to, and checking the lessons is not easy Facing that situation I myself who teaches English to elementary students am very concerned about how students can master, listen to information and apply information In the process of teaching I observe my students and discovered that the training of listening skill of students has many problems Most students not know how to learn to listen, the most common practice listening is the hardest In the classroom, students often say that in the listening list there are many words that are known but not heard How to help students to use their vocabulary and grammatical structures to understand effectively? As a result, in the process of teaching, I find myself some positive, simple, easy-to-understand methods to develop students' thinking, their creativity With this small range of experience, I boldly go into the issue of " Some measures to improve listening skill for students at primary school effectively " 1.2 The studying purpose English has been widely popular in schools across the country But it is still considered one of the most difficult subjects for students So how teaching learning English to achieve high results, especially to improve the ability to listen to students That requires a lot of innovation in the teaching methods of the teachers and the hard work, enthusiasm, research and learning of the students As an elementary school English teacher, I learned the advantages and disadvantages of children in the learning process So I'm always anxious to find a new, best-fit teaching method for students to help them understand and encourage their love of English, especially to improve their listening ability So, how can students develop their listening skill quickly, effectively, and easily? Especially when applying them to actual communication when interacting with foreigners? Is this the trick of the teacher? 1.3 The studying subjects - Grade students of Chau Loc Primary School - English teaching for grades 1,2,3,4,5 1.4 The studying methods After nearly 10 years of teaching English in primary school in the innovative way I realize that most of us not know how to learn foreign languages The use of English in life is limited, they not dare speaking in English, communicate with friends in English Also, during the learning process, they are weak in listening skill and find difficulties in listening In order to practice effectively, students must learn and practice listening to a variety of speech patterns Moreover, the formation and training of skills for students, teachers not only pay attention to the transfer of knowledge in textbooks, use the means of teaching but also attention to the organization too The teaching program aims is activating learners' activities, enhancing and promoting the active role of active creation of students in learning and organizing students to acquire knowledge by their own activities, but most students not understand the importance of learning listening comprehension so it is very lazy or just learn through speakers and not use it, including students in grades 3, 4, 5.New knowledge that is so far away from the mother tongue is very afraid to learn In this experimential initiative, I use some methods of studying such as survey methodology , collecting information and compare the results of the students The content of initiative 2.1 The theoretical basic Education Law was amended 2010 stipulates that “educational methods must promote the positiveness, self-awareness, activeness and creative thinking of students, training the learners’ abilities of self-studying, the ability of practicing, passion for learning and the will to rise The goal of universal education is " Helping students develop comprehensively of ethics, intellect, constitution, aesthetic and basic skills , promote personal abilities , dynamism and creativity , make up the Socialist Vietnamese personality ,build status and responsibilities as citizens , prepare for students to continue studying for further education or come into labor life , participate in building and protecting their country" Any one language in the world, to communicate with it, requires us to have a source of vocabularies Because vocabulary is an indispensable component in the language used for communication activities Therefore, the mastery of vocabulary to use is a very important job In English we can not train and develop the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing of students that are not based on the foundation of the vocabulary Indeed without the necessary words, they will not be able to hear, and its consequences are not able to speak, read and write well, whether they have mastered the structures of sentences If we put this initiative into practising in Primary School , we can help students feel more confident when they communicate, or participate in activities and games in English 2.2 The real situation of the studying issue 2.2.1.The stage: * Advantages: - The school board always take their interest and create necessary conditions of the facilities and professional documentation served for the lecturing such as pictures, wordcar, recorders , projector, ect - Local authorities and associations in and outside schools always support the teacher in the process of teaching - Teachers themselve always receive support from other teachers and professional groups and colleagues - The majority of students in the class loved to learn English and prepare books and utensils for learning So some students feel excited, or interested in this subject, so most students are very positive - The majority of parents are interested and create conditions for their children's learning * Difficulty: - English in primary schools in general and Chau Loc Primary School in particular was difficult especially in learning and using the vocabulary So teaching students how to learn and use English is to give students a living treasure dictionary of words and sentence structure and is an essential requirement in learning English, specially with primary students English is considered to be new to elementary school students in recent years - According to the current program distribution, English in almost primary schools is taught with per week, but each lesson always has new words and even in exercises But if we want to make lessons to become more vivid, teachers must make pictures, maps to illustrate, enabling them to easily remember words and the attention of the children on the themes or focus on the lessons Besides, because of difficult conditions and circumstances, parents not understand the importance of the English language, so they have not paid more attention to this subject and urged them to study In addition, due to the development of all aspects is limited, conditions for elementary school children are exposed to mass media, entertainment programs using English are limited That leads to the possibility of their communication is limited, so communicating in English becomes more difficult - To the students, besides some students study English positively, a large number of children consider it perfuntorily, not inculcate the words into memory, not learn to read, write regularly, two-dimensional non-sense When teachers ask they will not succeed - In addition, teachers also have difficulty in checking or guiding them to learn at home because English is a foreign language, not the mother tongue they know This is a very difficult problem in managing the student's learning at home - In addition, the way of students’learning vocabulary is also attentive, students often learn vocabulary by reading words in English and try to remember them in Vietnamese, writing them in the notebooks to deal with teachers, but have no sense of self-check themselve, to inculcate new words and available vocabulary Therefore, they are easy to forget and easily confuse the words with other words, and many students get bored and neglected school So teachers need to pay attention to the students' psychology 2.2.2 The results of the current state: The question is how we overcome these weaknesses in order to contribute to improving the quality of learning and listening skills, help students feel more confident in communicating, using English as a second language, Proficiency in each word, especially for rural students like students in Hau Loc district First of all I survey the situation characteristics, health practitioners, and listening skill of students in grade I took a listening exercise of elementary English program I did a survey at the beginning of the year as follows Listen and complete the dialogue Lan: Hello, Hoa Hoa: Hi, Lan You seem (1)……………… Lan: I am I received a (2)………………….from my friend Hung today Hoa: Do I know her? Lan: I don’t know I think so She (3)………….my old friend in Hue Hoa: What does she (4)…………….like? Lan: Oh, she is (5)…………… Here is her (6)………… Keys: happy letter beautiful photo was look Result: No Class Numbers of students 5A 5B Total Finished Unfinished Mark (9;10) Mark ( 7; 8) Mark ( 5, 6) Bad mark 22 2=9% 5= 22% 12=55% 3= 14% 21 2=10% 5=24% 11=52% 3=14% 43 4=9% 10=24% 23= 53% 6=14% As a result, I found that their listening skills were limited They have not understood the lesson, have not used the knowledge they have learned I am very anxious concern, not knowing how to help students good English listening, helping them studious With many years of direct teaching experience in the subject of English, initially to train the students in the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, I give some experience in the teaching as well as skills sounds like the following 2.3 Initiatives and solutions used to solve problems 2.3.1 Some experiences help teachers teach effective listening skills * Listening skill is influenced by speaking skill Listening skill is influenced by speaking skill so teachers must help students in many classes to compensate speaking and listening skills Because when they practice speaking, they will remember the vocabulary and sentences that they often encounter, so students will develop listening skill Moreover, while listening, if you meet long and difficult sentences, then you just need to stop at the level of understanding the meaning of the sentence, and not need to hear all the words in the sentence For long essays that want to hear well, focus on the mind for a long time, depending on the ability to withstand the pressure of the brain under great psychological pressure If it is too much, it can be divided into small sections to hear and then to hear once again It is necessary to focus on pronunciation and intonation, understand directly in English , if possible you can contact to Vietnamese Remember that when you listen you should look at the picture and associate the image of things or events in your head In the process of hearing if the words or sentences are not clear, after listening you can stop to reflect on the sentence If you can not hear it, you can watch it in textscript and listen to it again Remember that " listening with the eyes" is more effective and less boring than "listening with the ears” Example: Lesson 2- Unit : I always get up early How about you?Part 4: Listen and number- Class Teachers let students to observe the pictures in the textbook page 15, and then set up a situation of listening: "Some Students (Mai, Linda, Tom and Nam are talking about daily routines Listen and number the pictures in their correct order At this point, the teacher asks the students to practice speaking by describing their activities through the pictures + What are they doing in picture a,picture b……? -Mai is going shopping in picture a -Nam is having lessons in picture b -Linda is doing her English project in picture c -Tom is playing computer game in picture d Keys: a4 b1 c2 d3 It can be said that speaking skill plays an important role during the listening process, the more you talk, the better you listen * Help students figure out how to learn to listen effectively Like other skills, listening plays an important role in gaining knowledge of English It may sound a little harder than other skills, but there are also more benefits If we listen well we will improve our pronunciation and communicative ability Normally students who learn English practise listening exercises by doing their homework in listening books However, the lessons in books are not updated regularly, so students not have much opportunity to acquire knowledge in modern life I suggest that teachers should give students useful advice to help them find the best way to learn listening  Learn to listen from the beginning When learning a foreign language in general and English in particular, should start as soon as possible In this way, it will help students get familiar with the sounds of that language Thus, learning to pronounce will become easier When you first start learning English, find all the tapes that come with the accompanying version Whenever you not understand a word on tape, look at the version and look up the word on the dictionary  Listen multiple times a content Listening to the same content is a good way Guide students to choose an interesting video and listen to it many times While listening, try to memorize useful sentences Then recall and rehearse the sentences, trying to imitate the speaker's pronunciation After some times students will notice that the words and phrases on the tape have become part of themselves Students will start using them in their own sentences Pronunciation and listening skills will definitely be improved  Listen everyday Instruct children to practice listening every day, practice each day a little If possible,you should equip yourself with a suitable hearing aid Record and preset your favorite English tapes so you can listen whenever you can  Listen to what? Help students find listening contexts that are easy to understand and meaningful to them Select materials for appropriate topics to ensure student interest Choose a pleasant voice for the student to listen and expect to hear every day  Principles of listening skills Listening is probably the hardest skill for most English learners as a second language The most important thing for students is to improve their listening and listening more offen Help students realize that not only they not understand If you still not understand, then not be discouraged or disappointed Orientation for students: - Accept the fact that you not understand anything - Keep calm when you not understand anything, even may not understand for a long time - Do not try to translate them into Vietnamese - Pay attention to the gist of what you are listening to Do not focus on details until you know the main idea 2.3.2 Use good, flexible techniques during a listening session * Warm up A lesson of listening will become more effective if the teacher knows how to make the text sound lively, interesting and engaging One of the first things a teacher can is to prepare well for the "warm up" activity Here are some specific warm up activities that teachers can apply to make their lessons really engaging and effective - Reading stories The story, if the content is interesting and recounted in a professional manner, will attract the attention of most students pay Therefore, before the students listen to the tape, teachers should read slowly for their students to hear a short story with simple content, easy to understand After that, the teacher may set out a few questions related to the content of the story for the student to answer Or the teacher can tell only a part of the story, then let the students discuss and give the end of the story This will make students feel very excited about the lesson because students are being given their own ideas Especially for students who are weak in using English, they will feel very surprised and happy that they can understand a story in English From there, they will have more motivation to try to learn - Ask and answer Before beginning the listening lesson, teachers may spend about to 10 minutes asking students a few questions about the topic of the listening This will help students shape the topic of the listening, so that they will be able to learn the basics of vocabulary and grammar related to the topic of the lesson, and help them to learn more effectively Example: Teachers can use the following questions to ask their students in Unit 5: Can you swim? Lesson 1-Part - Who are they in these pictures? - What are they doing ? - What abilities can they have? Students can answer: - They are Tony, Nam and Akiko - They are talking about their abilities - Tony can draw a picture, sing and dance Nam can cook, skip and ride a bike Akiko can skate, sing and read stories Now, you are going to listen to three dialogues and tick the correct pictures When answering such open questions, students will be able to visualize what they must do, what they need to know when they hear it In addition, this makes the atmosphere between the teacher and the student to become more friendly, and helps students gain confidence and excitement to pay attention to lessons - Use pictures In English, the sentence "a picture is worth as a thousand words" shows the importance and efficiency of conveying the message of the pictures So, teachers take full advantage of that strength, because the picture will make the lesson more lively, helping students to participate in the lesson more passionately These are three of the many ways we can apply for warm up activities to prepare for effective listening * Pre-listening techniques The purpose of the activities at this stage is to help students focus their attention on the topic, especially anticipating the information of the topic being heard To overcome the difficulties of listening during the class, the teacher should introduce the topic, context and situation of the content related to listening part, findimng out if whether the students know or not know what they will listen , suggesting curiosity, creating excitement for the activities Have students think, anticipate things to be heard in a certain context When we teach vocabulary, we should note that we should not introduce all new words, so let students guess the meaning of the word in the context Provide listening purpose, compose requirements and listening assignments When conducting listening activities, the visualization of accompanying illustrations will be very helpful in clarifying the context of the upcoming story Pictures are also a means to check the level of listening comprehension of students Show students the pictures or questions in the exercise to guess the topic, the information needed to hear Here are some tips we can apply to the Pre-Listening section: a True/False statement prediction Teacher writes from to 10 sentences on the board, based on the main idea of the listening: in which half of the sentence is true; Half of the sentences are false Students copy these sentences into their notebooks Each pair of students predicts which sentence is true (T), which is wrong (F) at the end of each sentence - Students read out their predictions aloud (T / F) - Teachers not say right or wrong - The teacher reads the listening content or opens the tape for the student to listen ( Teacher should play the tapes) - Students listen and check, mark the sentences they think are right - Students compare the results with each other, if there is a disagreement, the teacher re-listen to students and come to a consensus b Open prediction - Teachers not give students any sentences - The teacher sets the scene and asks the students to guess some things they will hear - Students write down what they predict - Students begin to pay attention to listening, the teacher reads, and students mark what is predicted correctly c Ordering - Teacher gives students some sentences or some pictures on the board are arranged inorderly - Students discuss in pairs, groups to predict the correct order - The sentences or the pictures are marked as a, b, c - Students rearrange order sentences, picture according to the logic of the story, marked 1-c, 2-a 10 - Students compare in pairs or in groups - Students listen, mark and correct in the correct order d Pre-questions - The teacher asks the questions before listening on the board Each question contains a main idea in the listening - Students read and think about those questions - Asked questions focus on the student's attention, without the student having to guess the answers - After the first round, students answer questions * While listening techniques The purpose of the activities at this stage is to help students practice their listening skill through the information they need to convey Ask students to listen and homework If the previous part tells the students to guess the listening content, let them compare it with what they have guessed For difficult listening assignments, the teacher can split the listening process into easy to difficult listening exercises For long listening assignments, it is possible to make post-grade assignments suitable for different types of assignments Here are a few specific tips: a Selecting Teacher shows students a set of the same pictures, but there are several different detains - The teacher describes one or two of them - The pictures are marked in numerical or alphabetical order - Students listen and mark the picture the teacher is describing b Delibrate Mistaken - The teacher asks the students to guess what is in the living room Then the teacher described the picture In the reading text the teacher made a few mistakes Each time the student hears the wrong word, the student raises his or her hand for an opinion or says "That's wrong." c Grids - Teachers draw tables on the board (or paper) hanging on the blackboard, students draw on notebooks Based on the content of the table, students listen to the details 11 of each specific information, and then fill in the table with the ideas they hear Students match up to check the answers and the teacher reads two or more times until everyone agrees For example: Unit 18: What will the weather be like tomorrow?Lesson 2( Part 4)- English Name Season Weather Tony winter cold, a lot of(1) Akiko (2) cold, a lot of(1) Mai summer (4) , a lot of (5) d Listening and draw -The teacher gives students a diagram, a map, or a chart Students fill in, draw, and paste the diagrams Example: The teacher can give each student a home plan (on the right there is a shop, on the left there is a bookstore opposite to a post office, nearby there is a temple, or park) - Teachers read students to write up these places in every position that students hear In addition to the tips above teachers can use the following tips: + Defining True – False + Check the correct answer + Matching + Filling in the grip / chart / gap + Answering comprehension questions For example: To perform the Listen and Number of Unit 4- Lesson 2: 12 I let the students observe four pictures in turn, asking students to look at the picture to associate or guess about some students’ birthday (Mai, Tom, Akiko and Linda) Or I can ask the children to rearrange the pictures in the correct order of the activity you have done Then the teacher listens to them and checks their guessing, then the teacher tells them the last time and is about to come up with the correct sequence Teachers give answers to students to correct Keys: 1b 2d 3a 4c * Post listening techniques The purpose of the following activities is to: Check that students understand the information heard at the request or not and have completed the work in stages "While-listening" or not Find out why students not hear or understand certain parts of the listening exercise Help students have the opportunity to assess the expressive attitude of the person through the intonation of communication Use the post-thematic exercise to add extra listening skills Some of the following activities may be used: Ask students to compare their responses and discuss in pairs or in groups what they have heard and understood Encourage students to respond to what they have heard Example: At the right time the teacher can ask questions such as: Do you agree? Also encourage debate because this will make students think deeply Asking pairs, groups write a brief summary of the main idea After that, students will compare and check that they have all the main ideas Turn on the tape again and ask students to say "stop" at the answer that they have heard before Ask the students to write in their notebooks what new words they need and remember + Some tips in this phase: Give answers and feedback - Ask students to repeat some sentences / sentences they have heard Feed back (While-listening) - Organize your students talk about themselves or about their friends by relying on information in the listening 13 - Give students some feedback about the group's listening - Ask the students act out the conversation may have heard - Use extended exercises to get more information about the listening Depending on the specific class, the teacher may use one of the above activities Depending on the characteristics of each lesson teachesr can conduct a three-step process of listening comprehension for students, especially the first step that can help children form and develop interest in concentration , knowing the use of information to speculate what will listen As a result, students will be more active and confident when listening 2.3.3 Combine listening practice with other technical groups * Basic technical practising group These are prerequisite tips for creating students' ability to listen in English  Routine practice to focus attention upon hearing Have the students listen to the sentences or paragraphs, and the teacher ask the students to repeat Give students a sense of and habit of listening to you One way for students to focus on what they say is that teachers often ask questions that ask students to reuse information from what they say to answer: For example: A student says, "My house is in the countryside After you finish talking, I will call anyone of you to answer the question: Where does A live? How is his house? Once a week, students should be played a focused game The first game: Transfer information The class has rows of desks, the teacher makes sheets and writes one sentence on each sheet Then pass the sheets for six top students these students have the task of whispering in his ear the next thing he can read So, this person in succession speaks in the ears to the end of the row The person at the end of the line is asked to say the word or phrase that he or she hears, and whether the student is correct or not The second game: Find your communication friend Teachers prepare some questions and answers on paper, transplant answer with the question by giving them numbers: Example question corresponds to answer Students find answers By finding your friend corresponding to the right answer, the pair who recognize each other will win The Third Game: Help you learn well Each student in the class collect or create a sentence (may have wrong information) Each member of the class will listen to your sentence and then try to 14 determine whether the sentence is true or false and correct Teachers should draw lots of students so that everyone in the class can listen to them The fourth Game: Quick answering and listening Contest "Who is where? Who does what? " Example: Teacher introduces: This person is very famous in Viet Nam He was born in 1890 in Kim Lien Nghe An and died in 1969 “Who is he?”  Practise listening word stress and sentence stress - British while listening to a word with many syllables they nearly hear the stress of that word For example, with the word 'family', they hear mainly "fa" and not all three syllables When listening to a lot of syllables, we should practice listening to the stress of the word For example: Unit 3( Where did you go on holiday? –Lesson 3- English ) -When listening to a sentence, pay attention to the stress in the sentence and coordinate the stress that guess the meaning of the sentence For example: Unit 6( How many lessons you have today? –Lesson 3- English ) 15 Listen to the stress of the words (words marked with red accents) and then guess the meaning of the words Thus, with this technique, I practice for students to hear and guess the meaning by grasp the sound Word stress or sentence stress should be performed not only in listening exercises but in the various stages of English language teaching: reading new words; Introduce new grammatical structure; or perform skills in each unit  Practise listening and recognizing pairs of easy-to-pronounce sounds, standard pronunciation and pronunciation of native speakers In fact, many students receive an English voice that is not standard or contains a lot of sounds that are not identical of native speakers This is also an obstacle for students when listening to native speakers Therefore it is important for students to be aware of the pronunciation of standard hard-hitting sounds, as well as how to pronounce them of the native speaker This listening practice should be integrated and regular in the lessons Also teachers can make some games to help children just relax, just reinforce skills to recognize and how to connect the specific sound closer to sound native * Stress Practice Technical Group These are measures to help students practice listening comprehension skills in a textbook or textbook reading Teachers should give students an active and creative way to listen to their listening assignments in their textbooks.Depending on the characteristics of each lesson, the teacher can conduct the three-step listening comprehension process for the students, especially the first step, so that they can help them shape and develop their interests Focus on the important ìnormation you need to hear and use the information from the questions or pictures, the charts in the listening exercises to make the bases in which to speculate what is listening As a result, students are more active and confident in their listening * Extra Technical practice group Provide some extra practice by selecting some of the same vocabulary from materials such as: Language in focus, new interchange for monthly or weekly short tests in the class The results of these essays require the student to keep a copy of his or her learning outcomes in chronological order to help students easily identify their progress, as well as allow the teacher to communicate with the students’ parents about their children's learning In the process of teaching, I always have the opportunity to help children practice listening and asking them to improve their English listening ( through TV, radio, tape), especially listening to native speakers 2.4 The effect of experience 2.4.1 Achieved results and comparison 16 * Achieved results After applying the experiences mentioned above to teach the steps of a listening, I have achieved some very positive results, with over 80% of students grasp and understand quickly Besides, they also help them to love, excite, express their enthusiasm, encourage students to learn, exchange with their friends in the same table or group, help them remember the knowledge quickly and easily Here are the results I obtained after the qualification test in the final first semester of school year 2017-2018 No Class Numbers of students 5A 5B Total Finished Unfinished Mark (9;10) Mark ( 7; 8) Mark ( 5, 6) Bad mark 22 8=37% 10= 45% 4=18% 0= 0% 21 8=38% 9=43% 4=19% 0=0% 43 16=37% 19=44% 8= 17% 0=0% 2.4.2 Comparison -The quality of good students increases: 28% - Weak students decreases : 14% - Most of the children are doing well in the listening test increase Conclusion, petition 3.1.Conclusion - Teachers need to identify the student's basic shortcomings to overcome Paying attention to weak students helps them get used to this language and use it in their lives - Teachers need to know the suitable tips for each student Make things interesting for students in learning English in general, and listening skill in particular.During the lessons, teachers should make use of time to guide students to work - Need to study the limitations in teaching: time, class size, teaching materials elements such as: Classroom area, visual aids.Teachers should encourage them to practice more listening skill Especially let students to listen the native speakers 17 - Encourage them to watch movies or listen to English radio, but not watch the full movie or listen for hours Students should listen regularly, but they should listen for a short period of to 10 minutes They should this to times a week Even if they not understand anything Do not think that could improve understanding quickly Therefore students must be persistent - To help students hear and become good listeners, the teacher themselves also must constantly improve their listening ability During the process of writing the experiential initiative I think it still have some shortcomings, so I am looking forward to getting feedback from colleagues and others who are interested in this content 3.2 Petition - With schools: encourage each teacher to implement and apply good ideas to promote the professional movement in the school - With the education department, education service: I proposed to be invested more material facilities, modern teaching equipment for schools, create more favorable conditions for teachers to fulfill the assigned tasks CONFIRMATION OF THE HEADMASTER Hau Loc, March 4th 2018 I swear this initiative is written by myself without copying content from the other’s Le Thi Quynh 18 ... Give students a sense of and habit of listening to you One way for students to focus on what they say is that teachers often ask questions that ask students to reuse information from what they... Listen to what? Help students find listening contexts that are easy to understand and meaningful to them Select materials for appropriate topics to ensure student interest Choose a pleasant voice for. .. listening skills * Listening skill is influenced by speaking skill Listening skill is influenced by speaking skill so teachers must help students in many classes to compensate speaking and listening skills