TEACHING SPEAKING ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE SPEAKING

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN ĐỊNH SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM TEACHING SPEAKING: ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE SPEAKING Người thực hiện: Lê Thị Hà Chức vụ: Giáo viên SKKN thuộc mơn: Tiếng Anh THANH HỐ NĂM 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study .2 PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Review of Language Skills 1.2 What is speaking and Why teach speaking skill? 1.2.1 What is speaking? 1.2.2 Why Teach Speaking Skill? 1.3 Elements of successful speaking .4 1.3.1 Inputs: 1.3.2 Skills: .4 1.3.3 Knowledge: 1.4 Principles in teaching speaking 1.4.1 Beginning Levels 1.4.1.1 Limit the objectives to avoid overwhelming the learners 1.4.1.2 Mix the speaking activities with comprehension work 1.4.1.3 Provide activities which involve dialogues and functional use of the language 1.4.1.4 Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes .5 1.4.1.5 State the purpose/ goal of the activity to the student .6 1.4.2 Intermediate and Advanced Levels 1.4.2.1 Focus on and work toward real spontaneous speech: 1.4.2.2 Design activities which encourage natural interaction between speakers 1.4.2.3 Place students in pairs , triads or small groups 1.4.2.4 Provide topics of interest to the students 1.4.2.5 At the advanced level, especially in free production , allow only speech in the target language (English) CHAPTER 2: THE CURRENT SITUATIONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING AT YEN DINH HIGH SCHOOL .7 i 2.1 An overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Yen Dinh High school 2.2 Findings from the current situations 2.2.1 Results from asking questions .7 2.2.2 Results from observation .7 2.3 Solution CHAPTER 3: ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE SPEAKING 3.1 Always present yourself as an English speaker, right from the start .8 3.2 Interrupting story .9 3.3 Interviews 3.4 Role play 10 3.5 Find someone who 10 3.6 Twenty questions .11 3.7 Brainstorming 12 3.8 Providing a dialogue 12 CHAPTER 4: EXPERIMENT AND RESULT .13 4.1 Participants .13 4.2 Data collection instruments .13 4.3 Results 13 4.3.1 Results from the test .13 4.3.2 Results from the questionnaires 14 4.3.3 Results from observation .15 4.4 Findings .15 PART C: CONCLUSION .16 Suggestions for further study .16 Conclusion of the study .16 REFERENCES 17 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IN TEACHING SPEAKING I APPENDIX 2: SOME MORE OTHER ACTIVITIES CAN BE USED TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL I APPENDIX 3: TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER IN ENGLISH .III APPENDIX 4: TALKING ABOUT YOUR FREE TIME AND HOBBIES IN ENGLISH IV APPENDIX 5: HOW TO DESCRIBE A PERSON IN ENGLISH V ii PART A: INTRODUCTION Title: “Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking” Rationale As you know education plays an important part in developing society Learning a foreign language is necessary in a modern world Every student has to learn a foreign language when they are studying at college or university Nowadays more and more people learn English because it is thought to be an “international language” Most of high schools in our country teach English Is teaching English effective in the Upper Secondary schools? Are pupils interested in learning English? What is the aim of teaching English? There are so many questions that we-the teachers of English -have to answer Teaching English not only teach pupils how to read a word or how to speak a sentence in English but also provides pupils knowledge about English people, England, culture, famous people, some problems that the world are facing with v.v There are many things to teach in teaching English Beside three aspects: pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, there are four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing All these things are very important in teaching and learning English Among these, speaking is the most distinguishing feature of human beings from the other living creatures because it is the natural state of language that all human beings are born to speak their native language In learning a second or foreign language, most of the learners find speaking the most difficult skill to have a success because it needs oral communication that consists of both speaking and listening In the part speaking was not considered much in language learning and teaching Primarily, learning structures, rote memorization of sentence patterns and vocabulary, and using literary language were of great importance Grammar Translation Method defends this However, in the mid-nineteenth century, by the travelling, the trade and interpersonal connections of Europeans, the primacy of grammatical and literacy language decreased, and the use of conversational skills increased Nowadays, with the rapid development of economy and technology which makes people in the world closer and closer, more and more people recognize the importance of speaking skill I have been teaching English in a Upper Secondary School for a few years As far as I observed, most of the language teachers’ lessons are taken up with grammar We teach grammar and we think that our students have learnt it In examinations we test what we taught in written English so the results become very well The students can answer all the written questions about the grammar topic However, when you ask a simple question orally, they have difficulty in answering it They cannot use their knowledge of grammar for their verbal communication Generally speaking, language is a tool of communication If you cannot speak, all your effort is in vain Thus we have to give importance to seeking in our English lessons right from the beginning because there is no use of knowledge about of a language without having the skill of using it As I stated I have been teaching English for a few years and during this time period I have observed that many of the students have difficulty in speaking English although they are very successful in grammar Most of the students are silent and not want to say anything or cannot say anything Participation may be dominated by certain students Therefore, the question came to my mind Why? Why are the students successful in grammar but not in speaking Then I wanted to have a research on this topic with the hope to build up the habit of speaking for students and design activities to motivate their students to learn in the most efficient ways Aims of the study The specific aims of this study are as follows: - Give out the principles for teaching speaking skill - Put forward some activities that promote speaking - Apply these techniques in some specific lessons to my bit in innovation English Teaching methodology and raise the quality of English teaching and learning Scope of the study This study aims to examine the effective techniques on the development of learner’s communicative skills in speaking English in Yen Dinh school, which is located in the countryside where teaching and learning conditions are limited My students pay much attention to other subjects, but not English So I only choose some methods that I think can apply to the students in the Secondary Schools in the countryside as my school Methods of the study To gain effectiveness of the aims the researcher has just mentioned above, the following methods were used: - Survey questionnaire for students in class 10A3 and 10A5 at Yen Dinh High School to collect information about their views of the current situations and their feelings about lessons which are used motivated activities - The results of tests to check the speaking ability of the students in class 10A3 and 10A5 at Yen Dinh High School -Beside these instruments, classroom observation is used to record more information from teachers and students during lessons - Constant discussions with the supervisor and colleagues are of great significance PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Review of Language Skills For the purpose of analysis and instruction, language has been divided into different skill areas These can be discussed in the framework of how we learned our first language A child first learns to practice language through the skill of listening Later, a child uses language by speaking, combined with listening Then, when school begins, children learn the skills of reading and writing The first two skills, listening and speaking, are called the oral skills The last two, reading and writing, are called the literacy skills As learners grow in their language ability and use, the different skills are often integrated with each other so that they are being used in coordination with each other In conversation, when one person is speaking another is listening After listening and understanding, the hearer respond by speaking In an academic setting, while students are listening, they may also be writing notes or reading a handout However, for the purpose of teaching language, we may divide language into the various skill areas and concentrate on one at a time This study focuses on teaching the skill of speaking I begin with speaking because second (foreign) language learners often neglect or have difficulty with oral production (speaking) Some learners have memorized hundreds of words and many grammar rules, but they still cannot speak well Many learners can read better than they speak This is very much unlike a child who learns to listen and speak long before learning to read and write After learning to speak, it is easier to develop reading and writing skills in the foreign language classroom However, language teachers have found it difficult to develop their student’s speaking skill 1.2 What is speaking and Why teach speaking skill? 1.2.1 What is speaking? Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998, p.13) 1.2.2 Why Teach Speaking Skill? In today’s teaching climate, it is easy to forget the importance of oral language, or speaking and listening skills With all the focus on reading and writing to prepare for students to take part in GCSE examination, sometimes teachers neglect this more basic aspect of language! Yet students need to learn speaking skill and have opportunities to practice making their voices heard in a safe and constructive environment Speaking skill is important because: - Skilled speakers can effectively present their own points of view - Skilled speakers are often better readers and writers - Skilled speakers are more confident participants in a variety of contextsboth in and out of school - Skilled speakers are able to advocate for themselves and get their academic and emotional needs meet 1.3 Elements of successful speaking To speak English well, a learner must know (knowledge) and know how to (skills) many things 1.3.1 Inputs: - interesting topic - ideas and questions to respond to - teacher’s and students’ enthusiasm - personal experiences - listening - readings - short video clips - memories 1.3.2 Skills: - being able to pronounce clearly - being able to organize and develop ideas in real time - being able to produce chunks (phrases) - being able to ask for clarification - being able to check understanding 1.3.3 Knowledge: - knowledge of grammar systems - knowledge of appropriate language - knowledge of suitable exchange patterns - knowledge of phonology - knowledge of topic - awareness of what the listener knows and is interested in 1.4 Principles in teaching speaking The following principles are divided into two groups: Beginning Levels, and Intermediate and Advanced Levels It is important to remember that the goal in language use is natural communication and the principles for the beginning levels point to and prepare for the principles given for the intermediate and advanced levels It is all too easy to be satisfied with unnatural or repetitive speech But the goal is natural communication in which real information is transferred through speech 1.4.1 Beginning Levels 1.4.1.1 Limit the objectives to avoid overwhelming the learners - Provide the students with enough structured practice so they can begin interacting at a basic level - This will reduce students fear and encourage more speaking - Later, more free conduction can come after structured practice Example of structured practice for a beginner: Teacher asks: What is he wearing? Student answers: He is wearing _ Example of a non-structured assignment: Teacher asks: Please describe what he is wearing Student: ??? (Such an open-ended question can overwhelm a student if they have not first been prepared through adequate practice) 1.4.1.2 Mix the speaking activities with comprehension work - When the students listen before they speak, it leads to more natural speech - Comprehension work fosters an interaction between speaking and listening - Remember, we listened first before we began speaking, so speaking should involve listening as well Example using comprehension work: Teacher has students first listen to or read a dialogue The class can discuss the meaning of difficult words After understanding the text, they can practice the dialogue (Speaking, or rather reading aloud, without understanding has very little benefit There is often no comprehension involved in reading aloud.) 1.4.1.3 Provide activities which involve dialogues and functional use of the language - Focus on language use rather than knowledge about language - Functions involve a focus on meaning - Dialogues are more concrete and controlled than less structured drills Example of knowledge about a language: A student can describe the structures and parts of speech in a language Example of knowing how to use a language: A student can introduce himself or herself, great others, request information, apologize, etc 1.4.1.4 Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes - This encourage students to speak without fear of correction - This increases focus on meaning and communication rather than grammatical correctness (though such structural errors can also hinder communication.) - Corrections should especially focus on problems affecting clear communication or language already taught to the students 1.4.1.5 State the purpose/ goal of the activity to the student - This provide a context or focus to help comprehension - It also allows the learners to concentrate on the task and understand why they are doing it Examples of purposes in speaking “Now we will practice describing our friends” “ In this exercise we will learn to talk about clothing.” “ In this activity we will practice asking for information.” 1.4.2 Intermediate and Advanced Levels 1.4.2.1 Focus on and work toward real spontaneous speech: - Avoid form-bases drills (repetitious or grammar- based exercises) - Remember real speech is most often unrehearsed or unpracticed Examples of questions leading to real spontaneous speech: What did you last night? What did you eat for breakfast this morning? What you think about the new television program? 1.4.2.2 Design activities which encourage natural interaction between speakers - Human speech most often involves interaction (Monologues are rarely used) - Interaction integrates speaking and listening 1.4.2.3 Place students in pairs , triads or small groups - Smaller groups, and pairs are student-centered - This increases the quantity of speech spoken by students - This decreases the vulnerability of the students and lowers their anxiety level 1.4.2.4 Provide topics of interest to the students - Interesting topics increase student motivation - This also fosters a focus on meaning (and their personal feelings and thoughts) - It is good to ask students what they are most interested in 1.4.2.5 At the advanced level, especially in free production , allow only speech in the target language (English) - This greatly increases the amount of English spoken - Having a clear guideline reduces the temptation of students to “hide” in their native language - Students may dislike this but should be discouraged from using their own language without the teacher’s permission CHAPTER 2: THE CURRENT SITUATIONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING AT YEN DINH HIGH SCHOOL 2.1 An overview of the current situation of teaching and learning English at Yen Dinh High school The study was conducted with students in grade 10 at Yen Dinh high school Most of them have been learning English for at least years at secondary schools 2.2 Findings from the current situations To find out some current situations in teaching and learning English speaking at Yen Dinh high school, the researcher surveys the current situations by asking questions and observation The researcher found out some following results 2.2.1 Results from asking questions Most of the students did not know what to say They could not get the ideas Besides, they had so few words to express their opinion Some students were always silent in class and did not want to say anything In speaking lesson, many students might be inhabited by fear of making a language mistake Some of them complained that they did not understand what to in speaking activities They also had difficulty in pronouncing, they were afraid of mispronunciation Sometimes, they got trouble in grammar, they could not put the verbs in the correct tenses Besides a small number of the students believed that they were very bad at English when they were at lower high school And they thought that they cannot put the words in correct order In addition, a number of the students could not remember all structures ,students could not apply all structures correctly Besides, having a small number of the students said that the lack of teaching aids at school is other difficult of them The researcher asked students about the main causes of these difficulties Most of the students said the method that teacher used is not suitable In addition, they don’t know the good way to learn English structure, English vocabulary, pronunciation Meanwhile some them were bad at English speaking when they studied at lower school and they also thought that the lack of learning aids at school is other main reason that they have difficulties in studying English speaking 2.2.2 Results from observation  Results from the teacher Most of the teachers think that speaking is not very important They only teach grammar and the meaning of words to prepare the students to take part in GCSE in which speaking skill is not tested Almost the teacher applied the traditional methods such as: translation, audio-lingual or using PPP model  Step 2: Students go around, ask their friends and fill/ tick in the table  Step 3: The teacher will call some students to report Example: - Nam likes English - Hoa often has a history lesson on Friday - Nam often watches TV every night - Nam often helps his mother with housework - …………  Step 4: The teacher will ask students: - Teacher: Find someone who likes English - Student: Nam likes English - Teacher: Find someone who has a history lesson on Friday - Student: Hoa and Mai often have a history lesson on Friday - Teacher: Find someone who often watches T.V every night - Student: Nam and Hoa watch T.V every night - Teacher: Find someone who helps mother with the housework - Student: Nam and Mai often help mother with the housework …………………………… I also use this activity when teaching Speaking lesson of Unit 3, Unit 6, Unit 12- Tieng Anh 10 3.6 Twenty questions This activity is carried out as follow:  step 1: Teacher gives a word or a phrase about a something/ event/ someone/ … (e.g a name of a city/ a name of an organization/…….)  step 2: Students have to find out what it is by giving Yes/No questions Teacher can set a limit about the number of the questions which depends on the difficulty of the topic When teaching Speaking lesson of Unit 7- Tieng Anh 10, I use this activity as follow:  Step 1: The teacher writes one of the kind of media on a piece of paper  Step 2: Students in groups (2 groups) will ask Yes/No questions until they find out what the kind of media is (Only in questions) Example: - Does it provide information and entertainment orally? - Do we receive information from it through eyes? - Does it have beautiful pictures? - Do we use it for entertainment? - …………………………… 11 3.7 Brainstorming In this activity, students will give words, ideas about the topic given by the teacher The ideas are developed naturally For example: Unit 12: The Asian Games- Part B: Speaking- Tieng Anh 11 After studying part A: reading, students have some main information about The Asian Games And to give students a chance to get some more information about this multi-sport event so that they can have a lot of information and have an interest to study part B: speaking I use the technique “Brainstorming” I divide the class into groups and ask each group to find out as much as possible about the Asian Games before the lesson such as: - Game number - Host country (cities, …… ) - Time (from…….to) - Countries took part in - Number of sports, name of sports - Number of medals (gold, …… ) - New record - Famous athletes - Official songs (I usually get students these at home before class) With this, students have a large amount of information, and they can use this information to make the ask and answer in Task more interesting Therefore, the lesson will be less boring 3.8 Providing a dialogue With the guide of the teacher, students can make a dialogue by themselves and the practice and substitute practice This is quite easy activity and familiar so students are rather interested in it For example:  For Speaking Part of Unit 13: Films and cinema - Tieng Anh 10 From the information provided in the text book, students will combine into a dialogue and then make many other dialogues by substituting and then practice Such as: - A: What kind of film you like? - B: I like science fiction films - A: Why you like them? - B: Because they are very interesting - A: How you find about war films? - B: I find them really boring - A: Which you prefer, cartoon films or thrillers? - B: It is difficult to say but I suppose I prefer cartoon films to thrillers  For Speaking Part of Unit 2: School Talks - Tieng Anh 10 12 In this period of speaking, it’s very difficult to use variety of activities The best and the most effective techniques is providing a dialogue (pair work) after giving students some suggestions  Step 1: Introduce to students some expressions used in starting a conversation and closing a conversation Such as: - Starting: Good morning!/ Hi It has been nice to meet you/ How is everything at school/ How are you? /…… - Closing: Nice talking to you but I have to go/ Catch you later/ See you again/ See you son/ Good bye  Step 2: Provide them some topics for practice (the weekend, the weather, the holiday, last night’s program, plan for next week, …….) ( Note: Students only use some of the above expressions in their speaking) CHAPTER 4: EXPERIMENT AND RESULT 4.1 Participants I chose two classes, 10A5 and 10 A3, to a control experiment In class 10A5, I use mainly pictures and translation I also use a lot of Vietnamese when teaching In the other class, I only use English while teaching speaking skill and I also use variety of activities I let students play games, make interviews, play roles,……during the first term in order to know whether using many kinds of activities to promote speaking skill is effective or not 4.2 Data collection instruments  Observation was used to check the interest of the students in studying speaking after the experiment  A test was used to check the result of the students in two classes about speaking  The questionnaire for 42 students in class 10A3 about the students’ attitudes towards the speaking lesson after the second term 4.3 Results 4.3.1 Results from the test You can compare the difference in the result of the end second-term test between these two classes Table 1: Student’s result after the speaking test Class 10A3 Class 10A5 Mark Number pupils Scale (%) Number pupils Scale (%) Below 0 20 5 11,9 15 37,5 16,7 20 10 23,8 12,5 10 23,8 7,5 16,7 2,5 10 7,1 0 13 It can be seen from the table that the number of students who get bad marks (below 5) in class 10A3 is fewer than that in class 10A5 Whereas, the number who get good marks (mark and mark 10) in class 10A3 with 10 students in total is much more than that in class 10A5 with only student In general, students’ result in the class where the teacher used some promoting activities is much better It means that suggested techniques that the researcher use in teaching speaking is really effective 4.3.2 Results from the questionnaires Table Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ variety promoting activities Opinion Agree Disagree The new teaching method makes the 41 1 speaking lesson more comfortable 97.6% 2.4% The new teaching method helps me speak 41 English more confidently 97.6% 2.4% The new teaching method helps me 38 remember my vocabulary better 90.4% 9.6% The new teaching method helps me 39 remember grammar structures which I 92.8% 7.2% have learned before The new teaching method helps me write 40 English more correctly 95.2% 4.4% The new teaching method does not help 41 me learn English better than the old 2.4% 97.6% method The new teaching method is very difficult 41 for me 2.4% 97.6% The new teaching method is appreciate only with students who learn well 2.4% 41 97.6% As shown in table, 97.6% of the students who took part in the experiment felt that learning speaking was very comfortable with the variety of promoting activities which is one of necessary and useful factors in language learning and language teaching While only 2.4% of them disagree Regarding the effectiveness of the new teaching method, the majority of students (97.6%) said that the new teaching method helped them speak English more confidently, although 2,4% of them found that it was not effective Similarly, 90.4% of them recognized that these activities helped them remember vocabulary, although 9.6% of them disagreed 14 4.3.3 Results from observation During teaching lessons, I observed the students’ attitude in class I saw many students raising their hands to contribute to the lessons With the aim of proving English teaching and learning, the teacher tried to use a lot of activities in their lessons The teacher used some techniques to present knowledge, the teacher only translated into Vietnamese very little In these lessons, although the teacher used English mostly, the students still understood what the teacher said The teacher only used Vietnamese when there were some difficult words or structures Therefore, the effectiveness of these lessons was better than before The students were asked to work in pair or group basing on the content of each activity In these lessons, the teacher used some activities to teach the structures The teacher taught speaking English lesson through variety of promoting activities As a result, students were very interested in lessons They showed their excitement about these activities Thank to these activities, students contributed to the lessons very well The class’s atmosphere became interesting According to the researcher’s observation, in lessons that teachers used these promoting speaking activities, students not only contributed to the lessons but also practiced speaking well They showed their confidence when present their ideas before class Moreover, students can know some grammar structures clearly about the form and the usage of these structures In addition, they remember the structures easily and apply these structures to exercises correctly Most of them are excited in speaking lessons 4.4 Findings From the results of observation, survey questionnaire, and test, the researcher found out some findings about the effectiveness of using many different activities in teaching English speaking in class 10A3 at Yen Dinh high School after experiment Most of the students felt interested in speaking lessons They paid attention to studying The classroom’s atmosphere makes them feel comfortable in the lessons Moreover, the teacher usually asks them to work in pairs or groups, so they have more chance to interact with their friends to get or sharing their knowledge According to the classroom observation, most of the students contributed to the lessons They are not bored with speaking English any longer Many students raised their hand to take part in the language games and to practice When being asked, all the students wanted the teacher to change the teaching method They wanted the teacher to continue use many other activities in the speaking lessons 15 PART C: CONCLUSION Suggestions for further study I have tried my best to carry out this study but the study still remains some problems which need to be solved because of the limited knowledge, and little experience The following recommendation is made for further study  I only mentioned mainly teaching speaking lessons in Tieng Anh 10 The study should focus on Tieng Anh 11, especially Tieng Anh 12  The researcher should be carried out with a large number of participants and in longer time  In this study I suggested the activities for students in my school which is located in the countryside where the students’ ability to speak English is not very good The study will be more convincing if we carry out the study with the students who can speak English better Conclusion of the study Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired With this aim various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them In my study, I mentioned some common problems in teaching and learning English speaking at Yen Dinh High School and gave out some activities I myself had used when teaching students in my school and seeing that these activities really made my students study speaking skill more effectively I hoped to receive further comments and advice to make it better XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày 15 tháng năm 2018 Tơi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác LÊ THỊ HÀ 16 REFERENCES 1 Ron Foreth, Carol Forseth Ta Tien Hung, Nguyen Van Do “Methodology hand book for English teachers in Vietnam Celce-Murcia M.2001 Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed) USA: Heinle&Heinle The British Council and the Ministry of Education and Training “English Now” - issue 15-April 2009 Chaney, A.L., and T.L Burk 1998 Teaching Oral Communication in K-8 Boston: Allyn&Bacon Baruah, T.C 1991 The English Teacher’s Handbook Delhi: Sterling Publishing House Brown, G and G Yule 1993 Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer, J 1984 The Practice of English Language Teaching http://w.w.w.oxfordonlineenglish.com 17 APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1: SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IN TEACHING SPEAKING Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language  Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge  Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation  Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time Step back and observe students  Indicate positive signs when commenting on students’ response  Ask eliciting questions such as “What you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?” in order to prompt students to speak more  Provide positive feedback like “Your presentation was really great It was a good job Well done I really appreciate your efforts in preparing your materials and efficient use of your voice…….”  Do not correct students’ pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking Correction should not distract students from his speech  Circulate around class to see whether students need your help whilr they work in groups or pairs  Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities  Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language APPENDIX 2: SOME MORE OTHER ACTIVITIES CAN BE USED TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL The following activities are also very useful when teaching speaking skill  Information Gap: In this activity, you will create two different versions of a dialogue and hand out version A to student A and version B to student The idea behind this is all the B section sentences that are missing on version A appear on version B; and vice versa Example: Version A Student A: How are you today? Student B: ! Version B I - Student A: ? Student B: I’m fine, thank you! The students have to read out loud and listen to and write down sentences from the other student’s paper You have to make sure though that students are really having a conversation and not just sharing and copying each other’s dialogues  Would You Rather This conversation activity is about student preference Students are given a question that start with “Would you rather…… ” followed by two good or equally bad options For example, “Would you rather be beautiful b ut poor or less attractive (ugly) but rich?” Answering “neither” or “both” is against the rules so students must choose one and justify their answer Sometimes, students’ answers will crack you up! One student said that she’d rather rich but ugly because if she’s rich, she could afford plastic surgery  Missing Dialogues This is a drill conversation activity where you pair your students up to practice the dialogue you show on the screen Simply show your slide and have students read out loud After two rounds, you will start deleting words in the dialogue and replace it with blanks Do this in sequence until the entire dialogue is just a series of blanks  Tongue Twisters Well, everybody knows what a tongue twister is! It is a series of words or sounds that are usually repetitive and are difficult to pronounce quickly and correctly I use tongue twisters to develop my students pronunciation and accent; or sometimes just for sheer fun of doing it I often get my students to memorize this and ask them to say it loud in class as a group and in pairs Funny Tongue Twisters Sally sold seashells by the seashore I wish I were what I was when I wished I were what I am Red lorry, yellow lorry She sees cheese How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood  Class Presentation or Reporting There are many ways to class reports in the classroom Students can a presentation about a project or you can provide opportunity for each student to teach the class about whatever topic that he/she is interested in I did this activity before where every day, one student got to talk for minutes before I started the lesson My colleague called this activity as “Students Can Teach Too.” II  Story telling Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell classmates Storytelling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class  Story Completion This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle For this activity, a teacher or a student starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student supposed to add a limited number of sentences which depends on the ability of each class Students can add new characters, events, descriptions, and so on  Picture Describing Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture For this activity, students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spoke person for each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills  Find the Difference For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures APPENDIX 3: TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER IN ENGLISH Talking about the weather in English can help your students with their conversation skill I will give some phrases, idioms and vocabulary to describe weather in English  Talking about the cold weather - It is a bit chilly (not very cold) - It’s freezing (very cold) - You can see your breath (very cold) - You’ll need to bundle up  Talking about rain - It’s drizzling at the moment (rain lightly) III - It’s only spitting (rain more lightly) - Suddenly, the heaven opens (it starts raining heavily) - It’s chucking down (it rains a lot) - My clothes are getting soaked  Talking about bad weather - It’s very overcast and dark over head - There’s a storm brewing - I can see lightning - I can hear thunder - The wind picks up It’s almost a gale  Talking about hot weather - There isn’t a cloud in the sky - It’s baking hot - It’s a scorcher today - It’s boiling  Talking about wintry weather - Tomorrow will begin with a bit of frost on the ground - It will be sleeting - There will be a flurry of snow - It will turn into a blizzard - The snow will turn into slush - It will be below freezing for most of the day APPENDIX 4: TALKING ABOUT YOUR FREE TIME AND HOBBIES IN ENGLISH I use this when teaching Unit 13- Hobbies- Tieng Anh 11  Free time and hobbies vocabulary - watching TV - reading - cooking - playing football - playing basketball - playing tennis - going swimming - going jogging - going climbing - doing boxing - doing judo - doing yoga - hanging out with friends - relaxing with family - going shopping - taking photos IV   - - -  painting writing stories/ a blog What you like doing? I like/ love/ enjoying …… You can add some adverbs such as: really/ sometimes/ absolutely to make your sentences stronger or weaker Adding details to your ideas How often you your hobby/ free-time activities? (using: every / once/twice/ …… a Example: I like playing sports I play football every Tuesday I really like taking photos, but I don’t get the chance to it often Where you your hobby? Example: - I like playing sports I play football every Tuesday at the park near my house -I really like taking wildlife photos in the forest, but I don’t get the chance to it often Giving some background information I started _when I was I’ve been _for I decided to _because got me into Example: I started playing tennis when I was ten I’ve been learning to paint for months I decided to yoga because I wanted to be healthy My French friend got me into climbing (My friend introduced this activity to me and I like it) Saying why you like your hobby You can use some adjectives or phrases such as: exciting, relaxing, creative, easy to acquire, or provide me a chance to use my imagination, …… Example: I love taking photos Once or twice a month, I go to different areas of the city and look for interesting pictures to take I’ve been interested in photography since I was young when my dad got me a camera for my birthday I like it because it’s creative and I can express myself through my pictures Anyone can use a camera, but you need to use your imagination to find good pictures APPENDIX 5: HOW TO DESCRIBE A PERSON IN ENGLISH (Unit 1: Friendship- Tieng Anh 11) V - - - - -  Describing appearance (what does she/he look like?) Describing height and build You can use some adjective such as: short, medium height, tall, skinny, thin, slim, medium weight, chubby, fat, overweight, obese You can add some adverbs to make your sentences more precise such as: -My brother is quite tall and well-build -My friend Lisa is medium height and really slim -Craig, who I work with, is short and a little overweight Describing hair You can use some adjectives; short, medium length, long, straight, wavy, curly, fair, blonde, dark, brown, black, …… Example: -He has short, brown hair, but he’s going bald fast -She has long dark blonde hair -He has curly, fair hair You can add details, such as; -He looks a bit like a younger version of -She’s really beautiful with very striking features -He has a long scar on his right elbow  Describing positive characteristics Positive adjectives: kind considerate warm funny/ good fun entertaining reliable honest straightforward cheerful positive optimistic Add examples and reasons Example: -My brother is really funny He likes making weird jokes, generally at the most inappropriate moment -My friend Lisa is a very cheerful person even early in the morning She’s always smiling and in good mood I don’t know how she does it Add a story Example: Craig, who I work with, is such an honest guy I remember one time he found a wallet with $500 in a pub It would have been easy to keep the money- there was nothing in the wallet to say whose it was, but VI - - - - he said it wouldn’t be right to keep it, and he insisted on taking it to the police station right that minute  Describing negative characteristics Negative adjectives: unkind inconsiderate dishonest unreliable selfish self-centered self-obsessed humorless dull insincere moody grumpy Add details and examples For example: -Lisa’s great but sometimes I feel she’s a bit insincere She says all these nice things, but I am not sure she really means them -My colleague, Craig is so moody He’ll be fine one minute, then suddenly he starts acting like he hates every one It makes him quite difficult to be around  Talking about your relationship How you know -We have known each other for _ -We met _ -We get on well because _ How often you see and what you like doing together VII DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP PHÒNG GD&ĐT, CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: Lê Thị Hà Chức vụ đơn vị công tác:Giáo viên, Trường THPT Yên Định TT Tên đề tài SKKN Teaching vocabulary Cấp đánh Kết giá xếp loại đánh giá (Phòng, Sở, xếp loại (A, Tỉnh ) B, C) Sở GD&ĐT Loại B Năm học đánh giá xếp loại 2004-2005 VIII ... IN ENGLISH IV APPENDIX 5: HOW TO DESCRIBE A PERSON IN ENGLISH V ii PART A: INTRODUCTION Title: Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking Rationale As you know education... in speaking Then I wanted to have a research on this topic with the hope to build up the habit of speaking for students and design activities to motivate their students to learn in the most efficient... the principles for teaching speaking skill - Put forward some activities that promote speaking - Apply these techniques in some specific lessons to my bit in innovation English Teaching methodology