USING GAMES TO HELP STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE OF THE STUDY There are many reasons why learning a new language is a good idea It allows people to communicate with the others It helps people to see things from a different perspective, or get a deeper understanding of another culture It helps citizens to become a better listener It even has health benefits, as studies have shown that people who speak two or more languages have more active minds later in life 400 million people around the world speak English as their first language Not only that, but English is listed as one of the official languages in more than a quarter of the countries in the world That’s a lot of new people you can communicate with just by improving one language! What’s more, English is the rest of the world’s “second language” While Chinese Mandarin and Spanish are the mother tongues of more people overall, most people in the world choose to learn some English after their native language In fact, one in five people on the planet speak or understand at least a little bit of English Communication skills are essential for a successful career, satisfying relationships and a personal sense of accomplishment Communication is seen every day through TV commercials, interaction with the person opening a door for people and listening to the CEO of their company speak Effective communication empowers people, provides clear direction and increases productivity Without it, people lose motivation and the inability to make a decision, and they become angry because their messages are not understood In fact, many Vietnamese students who have good professional knowledge, but can’t use English well don’t get good jobs So, English is the first and the most important standard for workers who want to work not only at foreign companies but also at national ones Since English is a foreign language in our country, most students especially high school students are not familiar with it (Hetrakul, 1995) Kavin Hetrakul also said that they use English more frequent only inside the class and less frequent outside the class Whereas, students have limited time to learn English in class, and they still not have enough encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get familiar with English This case brings a problem that make high school students have difficulties to communicate in English At Nhu Thanh High school, my students often find it difficult to communicate in English, especially in new curriculum Therefore, in this study I present some games which I have used successfully with classes of different sizes and levels to improve the students’ speaking skills II AIMS OF THE STUDY I the research to know about the fact of teaching and learning communication skills in Nhu Thanh High School more clearly This study also investigates whether the games can have positive impact on process among students and can develop their communication skills or not Bearing in mind, I decide the research with title “ some games to improve the students’ English speaking skills at Nhu Thanh High School III RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study aims at finding answer to the following research question: How can games help the students at Nhu Thanh High School improve their speaking skill? The question has been addressed to the class B2 that I have been teaching in Nhu Thanh High School with the aim to examine how games affect the process of speaking here IV SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study does not aim to teach any skill in a systematic way, because it is experience not for teaching but for practice The study investigates games to help students practice so that they can improve their speaking skill V METHODS OF THE STUDY In this study, I use some research tools to collect and analyze the needed data Recording is used to record the process of giving some games The second tool used in this study is interviews with students at the end of the research to study whether games is really suitable for them or not Surveying through the answer sheets is used to know the practical situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I.The difficulties of the students’ learning English speaking skill Kavin Hetrakul also said that they use English more frequently only inside the class and less frequently outside the class Whereas, students have limited time to learn English in class, and they still not have enough encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get familiar with English This case brings a problem that makes high school students have difficulties to communicate in English One of the causes that make the students difficult in speaking English is that the environment does not support the students to speak English frequently The environment here means the people outside the class Those people may think that the students just want to show off when they speak English for daily conversation The response that the students get makes them loose their selfconfidence to improve their speaking Since the students not want to be rejected by the people around them, so they use their native language in daily conversation That makes the students unable to communicate in English fluently outside the class The second cause is problem with grammar English always deals with reference of time while Vietnamese does not have one Moreover, there are singular and plural forms that the students have to distinguish and still many forms that have to be learned Most students are very easy to get confused with English grammar, while grammar is very needed to form a right sentence If the students not have grammar mastery, of course they will not be able to produce sentences that grammatically right Realizing that the grammar students have is very weak, so they feel embarrassed when they want to produce English sentences orally II Games and their impacts on developing students’ speaking skill Games are used as methods or techniques to involve students in learning Well-chosen and designed games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow learners to practice language skills The benefits of games range from cognitive aspect of language learning to more co-operative group dynamics and as a result games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging Ersoz(2000) states that games can be used to give practice in all language skills and they can be used to practice many types of communication Huyen (2003) identifies the advantages of using games to learn English in the classroom: a) Games add relaxation and fun, so the learners retain words more easily b) Games involve friendly competition, so it keeps learners interested and motivated c) Vocabulary games bring real world context to the classroom Mei (2000) emphasizes similar points by saying that it encourages active learning, as well as collaboration and interactivity Interactive learning techniques also hold memory, performance and social benefits According to IJung (2005) the benefits of using games in language-learning include that games are learner centered, encourages creative and spontaneous use of language and foster participatory attitudes of the learners Kim (1995) states more general advantages of using games in the classroom and they include: Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class They are motivating and challenging Learning a language requires a great deal of effort Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading They encourage students to interact and communicate They create a meaningful context for language use Students learn through experimenting, discovering and interacting with their environment Students need variation to increase their motivation By using games students already have a context in which the use of the target language is immediately useful Lastly, but not least, games of any kind are usually fun Students who are having fun are always motivated, so they will find speaking made more interesting and more enjoyable, and will begin to improve as a result CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I METHODS OF THE STUDY The research is done qualitatively in the context of English class B2 In this survey, I use the survey questionnaire for students This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the Reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill at Nhu Thanh High School II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The whole procedure of teaching and learning is implemented similarly to all students of the class after all of them give consent to be part of the research However, due to the limit of the study, I only focus to collect information from the learning engagement of class B2 during this process as the data for analysis Below is the survey of the practical situation of learning English speaking skill Survey no.1 Practical Situation of learning English speaking Skill at Nhu Thanh High School Questions for students How difficult is the English Speaking skill ? What is your idea about improving English speaking skill at your school? What you think of your skill classes at Nhu Thanh High School? A B C D Too easy 6% Not difficult 9% Difficult 32% Really difficult 53% Very essential 12% Essential 16% Not really essential 47% Not essential at all 25% Really interesting 3% Interestin g 7% Boring 41% Really boring 49% 4 What you think of the materials used for teaching skills at Nhu Thanh High School? Does your teacher give you guides to improve your speking skills? Difficult and boring 51% Difficult but interesting 8% C Interesting and stimulating 9% Always 2% Sometime s 4% Rarely 22% Easy and boring 32% Never 72% From the survey number 1, we can see that: For students: There are so many different students in class and the quality of each student is uneven Many students haven’t determined the importance of English in the current period, so they aren’t aware of their own learning Some students have a limited vocabulary so they can’t know how to speak a correct sentence Classrooms are crowded, and the activities of speaking lesson often practise in pairs or in groups so the classrooms are easily noise For teachers: There are still some teachers who have difficulty in teaching speaking skills and choosing suitable activities for each lesson Teachers don’t assign the tasks to students clearly Teachers don’t create the environment to encourage students to speak English effectively CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ ENGISH SPEAKING SKILLS I RECOMMENDATIONS According to the data analysis from the survey, it can be personally concluded that the most important feature that makes my students to engage more in the lesson is the kind of assessment which forces them to learn although the meaningfulness of tasks also more or less affect the level of engagement the most meaningful tasks to my students are tasks that can help them to pass the tests at the end of the semester not tasks that give them reasons to communicate as I expected Therefore, I have given them some games to improve my students’ speaking skill The ability to communicate effectively is important in relationships, education and work Here are some games to help students develop good speaking skills II PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS Learning English should be fun We learn faster and more effectively when we are engaged in learning and using games is a great way to make learning more interesting Who's Telling the Truth? Have each student write three facts about themselves that nobody in the class knows on a piece of paper Make sure each student includes his/her name on the top of the paper Collect the sheets of paper and bring three students to the front of the room Read aloud one of the facts that is true for one of the students in the front of the room The class then proceeds to question the students in an attempt to determine who is telling the truth, and who is lying Each student is allowed to ask one question to one of the three students After a round of questioning, the students predict who is telling the truth Taboo Variations 2.1 Create a PowerPoint presentation with each slide containing a noun Have one student come to the front of the room and sit with his/her back to the PowerPoint The students in the class should take turns describing the words for the student in the front of the room to guess 2.2 Separate the students into groups of 4/5 Place a pile of cards with random nouns in the center of the group Have students take turns describing the nouns for their group members to guess The group member who guesses correctly keeps the card in an attempt to have the most cards at the end of the game 2.3 (Advanced speakers) Separate the class into two teams Students are given a word to describe to their teammates, in addition to a list of words that they cannot use in their description Each student should have 2-3 minutes to see how many words his/her teammates can guess Descriptive Drawing Activity Pair up the students and give them each a picture face down They must describe the picture for their partner to draw Comic Strip Descriptions Give each student a portion of a comic strip Without showing their pictures to one another, the students should attempt to describe their image, and put the comic strip into the correct order After about ten minutes, the students can predict the order, show one another their portion, and see if they were correct! "Secret" Word Students are given a random topic, and a random word completely unrelated to the topic The student must hide the word in their speech, without the other students in the class guessing their "secret" word The other students in the class must listen carefully to the speech, in an attempt to discover the secret word Debates Give each student a piece of paper with “agree” written on one side, and “disagree” on the other side Read aloud a controversial statement, and have each students hold up his/her paper stating whether they agree or disagree Choose one student from each side to explain his/her position and participate in a short debate Impromptu Speaking Split the class into two teams, and use a list of impromptu speaking topics Have each student choose a number, and respond to the statement without preparation The student must continue speaking for 45 seconds when the teacher calls out "stop." As the student is speaking, the other team listens for any hesitation, grammatical mistakes or vocabulary mistakes If the other team can correctly identify an error, they get a point Desert Island Activity Give each student a piece of paper and tell him or her to draw an item Any item Tell the students that they have been stranded on a desert island, and only half of the class can survive and continue to inhabit the desert island The student's goal is to convince the class that they should survive The hard part is that the only thing they have is an item that was drawn a few minutes earlier by a classmate on the piece of paper Storytelling Activity Bring four students to the front of the classroom Three students should sit down in a row, and one of the students should stand behind them acting as a controller The controller should have a stack of cards in his hand containing nouns The controller will hand a noun to one of the three students who will start to tell a story The student will continue telling the story until the controller decides to hand another noun to another student who will then take over the story 10 Two Truths, One Lie Each student should write three facts about themselves on a piece of paper Two of the facts should be the truth, and one should be a lie Students read aloud the facts, and give the other students a chance to question them and decide which statement is a lie 11 True/False Storytelling Give each student a piece of paper with either the word “true” or “false.” Each student should tell the class a story, and the class must guess whether the story is the truth, or a lie To add to the activity, you can allow the other students to question the student telling the story 12 I Have Never… All students in the class should start holding five fingers in the air (this number can be adjusted depending on how many students are in the class) The student who begins the activity will tell the class one thing that he/she has NEVER done The students who have done that activity should put a finger down, and tell the class a story about this activity Circle action game On the board, write: “I’m (name) I like ” “You’re (name) You like ” Students work in groups of 8-12 Give the animal to one person He introduces himself and says something he likes (“I’m Hoa I like skiing.”) As he says what he likes, he makes a gesture demonstrating it For example, he moves his body as if he was skiing or uses two fingers flying down a mountain to represent a skier Then he throws the object to the next speaker (If there is no object, he just points to the next speaker) The next speaker must repeat the first speaker’s information and the gesture before adding her own information and gesture (“You’re Hoa You like skiing I’m Lan I like listening to hip-hop.”) She adds a gesture such as a hiphop dance movement or something to show listening to music She throws the object to the next person who has to remember and repeat both Hoa’s information and Lan’s The game continues Everyone has to remember each person’s information and each gesture: #2 remembers #1 #3 remembers #1 and #2 #4 knows #1, #2 and #3 #4 knows 1-2-3-4, etc If someone forgets (no problem It will happen.), the person gives a hint by showing the gesture That is often enough to help the speaker remember the name as well as the thing he likes If not, the person can give the information, either by speaking aloud or by mouthing the information silently (like lip-reading) III SOME PRACTICAL EXAMPLES AFTER GIVING GIUDES IN THE EXPERIMENTAL CURRICULUM AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL Example 1: ENGLISH 11 Unit 1- FRIENDSHIP- B-SPEAKING Using “Two Truths, One Lie” Each student should write three facts about their friend on a piece of paper: - He is friendly and humorous - He is interested in Mathematics - He often go swimming in his free time Two of the facts should be the truth, and one should be a lie Students read aloud the facts, and give the other students a chance to question them and decide which statement is a lie Example 2: ENGLISH 11 Unit 6- COMPETITIOS- SPEAKING Using “Debates” Give each student a piece of paper with “agree” written on one side, and “disagree” on the other side Read aloud a controversial statement - English competition gives students opportunities to practice speaking English and have each student hold up his/her paper stating whether they agree or disagree Choose one student from each side to explain his/her position and participate in a short debate 10 CHAPTER 4: RESULT In conclusion, giving games is an efficient way to teach English This way I get the best results in the classroom It arises students’ motivation 11 They felt more confident when they were participating in oral face-to-face discussions Students were able to discuss numerous topics and express their opinions which all students in the interview admitted was more comfortable to in an online environment, especially in a culture where people not often openly state their opinions Students became more motivated in class and were actually talking more with their classmates It was also noticed that students began to express more opinions and give extended reasoning in not only their face-to-face interactions but also in their written classwork Moreover, The result of testing skills has increasingly improved The following is the result chart of class B2 Before giving guides Class B2 Excellent Good Fair (%) (%) (%) 2,1 11,9 Poor (%) 35,2 50,8 After giving guides (Speaking tests) Excellent Good Fair Poor (%) (%) (%) (%) 10,3 28,7 34,8 26,2 14,3 34,2 35,7 15,8 PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION I CONCLUSION To sum up, the research has brought to me some important lessons of English communication teaching and learning in general and of working with my students in particular As a result of students forming their own discussions, this enabled the learning to become student-centered rather than teacher-centered II SUGGESTION It does not matter indoor or outdoor, we can not deny the importance of games If students learn with games, have fun, feel happy and free, it means that you have reached your goals Games strengthen language skills,besides, learners develop social skills and good relationships while they interact with each others Whatever your goal is (speaking, writing, listening, reading,grammar points,vocabulary) you must believe that every game you have students play, is much more useful than tons of exercises and worksheets and you get more positive results than anything else The Headmaster’s identification Thanh Hoa, the second of May, 2018 I ensure that this study has been written by me The writer 12 Nguyen Huu Hoang REFERENCES Ersoz, A (2000) Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol VI, No.6 Hong, L (2002) Using Games in Teaching English to Young Learners in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol VIII, No.8 Gaudart, H (1999) Games as Teaching Tools for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in Simulation Gaming, 30:283 Huyen, N.T.T & Nga, K.T.T (2003) Learning Vocabulary through games in Asian EFL Journal I-Jung C, (2005) Using Games to Promote Communicative Skills in Language Learning in The Internet Kim, L.S (1995) Creative Games for the Language Class in English teaching Forum 33:1 Kopecky, A (2009) Using Games to Motivate your Adult ESL Students Kumar, R & Lightner, R (2007) Games as an Interactive Classroom Technique in International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Volume 19, Number 1, 53-63 Mei, Y.Y (2000) Using Games in an EFL Class for Children in Daejin University ELT Research Paper 13 ... some games to improve the students English speaking skills at Nhu Thanh High School III RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study aims at finding answer to the following research question: How can games help. .. help the students at Nhu Thanh High School improve their speaking skill? The question has been addressed to the class B2 that I have been teaching in Nhu Thanh High School with the aim to examine... Reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill at Nhu Thanh High School II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The whole procedure of teaching