How to motivate students in english speaking lessons and improve their english speaking skill (biện pháp khuyến khích học sinh tích cực trong các giờ học nói và nâng cao kỹ năng nói tiếng anh)

Today's world requires that thegoal of learning speaking English should develop students' communication skill so that students can express themselves and use the target language to state

TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages

1 INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale of the study… 2

1 2 Aims of the study……… 3

1 3 Scope of the study ………… 3

1 4 Research methods of the study……… 3

2 DEVELOPMENT 2 1 Theoretical background…… 4

2 2 Findings and discussion 2 2 1 Methodology… 5

2 2 2 Data analysis and discussion…… ……….7

2.2.2.1 Problems that students often meet in English speaking lesson 7

2 2.2.2 Teachers’ problems in speaking lessons……… ……… 8

2 2 3 Some suggestions for solutions……….8

2 2 3 1 Some advice for teachers in general………8

2 2 3 2 Some suggestions for a successful speaking skill lesson and to motivate students………10

2 2 3 3 Sample lesson plans……… …16

3 CONCLUSION……….…… 19

LIMITATION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.… 20

References

Appendix

1 INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale of the study

In English teaching, the main objective is to prepare students forcommunication in the real world and it is very important for a learner toefficiently equip himself with four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading andWriting, together with relatively sufficient background knowledge Amongthose skills, speaking is a crucial part of language learning The mastery ofspeaking skill in English is a priority for many second or foreign languagelearners

However, despite its importance, for a long time, teaching speaking hasbeen under valuated Traditional teaching methods have seemed to emphasizethe learning of language system (rules of grammar and, lists of vocabulary items ) as a goal in its own right and failed to give learners an ability to gainrealistic experiences in actually using the language knowledge gained.Moreover, very often when people study a language, they accumulate a lot ofacademic knowledge, but then find that they can't actually use this language toexpress what they want to

Nowadays, things have been different Today's world requires that thegoal of learning speaking English should develop students' communication skill

so that students can express themselves and use the target language to stateopinions, express their feelings and exchange information Many new teachingmethods have been introduced and applied to serve the basic need of Englishlearners Among them, communicative approach and learner-centered approachseem to be the most effective ways to teach oral communication And weshould apply these methods in teaching the four skills and focus on designingspeaking activities in appropriate stages of English lessons while teaching otherskills so that students always have a lot of chances to practise speaking whilelearning English

In Viet Nam, there has been also a reform in teaching English insecondary schools as well as High schools The new series of textbookspresently used in secondary schools and high schools were designed inview of communicative language teaching method The topics of the lessonsgiven in the textbooks are really interesting and based on real- life situations thatrequire communication However, in spite of many efforts of teachers andothers, the results we get from our students are unsatisfactory Students stillcomplain that they find speaking lessons really stressful and thus speaking is adifficult skill to master As a matter of fact, most of our students, even though,start to learn English since the very early year of school (even from the firstgrade), cannot communicate with people from English speaking word withconfidence From my experience as a teacher of English at Tinh Gia 1 (TG1)

high school for 12 years, I have realized the bitterly disappointing truth that

after about seven years or more of studying English, what our students get is

almost a “dead” language In other words, many students who have studied

English for many years (7 years) leave school have left school without beingable to speak an intelligible sentence

That is why I felt the urge to do research about it and took appropriateactions It is time the great efforts were made by teachers to improve the quality

of English speaking lessons as well as to meet the teaching goals and to helpstudents overcome difficulties in expressing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings inEnglish This issue has brought me a great desire to conduct action research inorder to examine factors that cause barriers in English speaking for students atTG1 high school as well as to motivate students in English speaking lessons.With this study, the researcher hopes to help students at TG1 high school tohave a better English speaking skill and can communicate with foreigners inEnglish with confidence

1 2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Investigating and discovering obstacles or difficulties that both students andteachers have encountered in English speaking lessons at TG1 high school

- Suggesting techniques and activities applied in English speaking lessons tomotivate students and help them develop speaking skill

1 3 Scope of the study

With this study, the researcher puts focus on investigating and discoveringobstacles or difficulties encountered with students in English speaking lessons

at TG1 high schools From these findings, the internal and external causes areanalyzed to give some suggestions for tackling them in order to motivatestudents and help improve students’ speaking skill

The study was conducted on the students of grade 10, 11, 12 at TG1 highschool with the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, and “Tiếng Anh 12”

1 4 Research methods of the study.

In order to get the goals of the study, a wide range of data are gathered,questionnaires and follow-up interviews are analyzed Therefore, all comments,remarks, suggestions, and conclusions provided in the study are based on theresults of the data analysis

2 DEVELOPMENT

2 1 Theoretical background

2 1 1 What is language teaching and learning?

"Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners tolearn, setting the conditions for learning." [2] Foreign language learning, likeother subjects, is part of the overall development of all students Throughlearning a foreign language, the students can enrich their experience of life,broaden their world vision, and enhance their thinking skills Language learning

is most effective when students' interest, motivation and attitudes are taken intoconsideration Therefore, evaluation should be summative and formative anddesigned and administered to encourage the learners rather to frustrate them Itshould be carried out in terms of what students can do rather than what theycannot do

In addition, learning a foreign language is a process which requireslearners to integrate many language skills including: Listening, Speaking,Reading and Writing Learners of a second or foreign language can not onlyread different texts in different subjects with varying degrees of detail anddifficulty but also communicate with native speakers orally It is generallyaccepted nowadays that speaking is a key skill for most students learning aforeign language In short, Speaking skill plays a vital role in teaching andlearning a foreign language This fact calls for suitable teaching methods to helpthe students become more active in English speaking lesson

2 1 2. What is the goal of teaching speaking?

In the book Language Learning Strategies by Rebecca L Oxford, she

writes: "A more practiced eye, a more receptive ear, a more fluent tongue, a more involved heart, a more responsive mind are the characteristics we want to stimulate in students to enable them to become more proficient language learners." [3] In other words, the goal of teaching speaking skills is

communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselvesunderstood, using their current proficiency to the fullest They should try toavoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, orvocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in eachcommunication situation

However, most of my students are only reading and trying to memorize,using their words only with vague applicability Their minds, most of the time,just seem to be waiting to be fed It is hard to say that any other senses areinvolved, and certainly not that they are learning with interest They are neitherusing what they have grasped nor using what they have currently learned fromthe given dialogue In a word, they are not improving their speaking ability Yetspeaking ability is so crucial to language learners Therefore, it’s time to havesome changes in our way of teaching so that the students would be stimulated,interested, motivated to speak and finally become masters of speaking thelanguage

2 2 FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS

2 2 1 Methodology

2 2 1 1 Method orientation

This study employed the quantitative method This method helped toprovide quantified background data, which aims to understand problems thatstudents and teachers of Tinh Gia 1 High School meet in their English speakinglessons The data and information collected lay the foundation for my study

2 2 1 3 Data collection

With the view to discovering problems with speaking activities thatstudents and teachers often face in English speaking lessons, I asked mycolleagues, who teach the same subject, some questions about their teachingmethods, visited their classes, and asked the students' opinion about it Inaddition, a questionnaire was designed for the students In order that therespondents could be free to express their specific thoughts about the itemsraised in the questionnaire, some questions are open-ended or have the freeanswer (often put at the last choice of the answer), and students can write theiranswer in Vietnamese

2 2 1 4 The Interview

The questions for the teachers focus on these points:

- Problems and difficulties that teachers meet in English speaking lessons

- How to motivate students in speaking activities

- How to help our students deal with a lack of knowledge of languageforms

- How to provide feedback to our students to encourage them in theirlearning

- How to encourage our students to take responsible for their own learning

2 2 1 5 The questionnaire

Comprising 8 questions, The questionnaire was delivered to 90 students

of class 10A7, and class 10A9 and 110 others students of class 11A1, 11A2 and11A7 in Tinh Gia I High School All questions were written in simple English inorder to make sure that students could fully understand all the questions beforeanswering Their answers were also given in Vietnamese allowing them full

expression of their ideas (These questions are included in the appendix.)

Question 1: Do you like speaking English in your class? Why/Why not?

(Please give some reasons for your answer, you can write in Vietnamese if you like)

………

………

Question 2: In English speaking lessons, do you spend most of the time

speaking English?

A I speak English most of the time

B I speak Vietnamese most of the time

C I speak both English and Vietnamese

Question 3: Are there a wide variety of speaking activities in your speaking

lessons?

A Yes, there are always a lot

B No, there are a few

C Other answer (you can write in Vietnamese if you like)

Question 5: Do you often work in pairs or in groups in speaking activities?

Question 6: When working in pairs or groups, do you think every member of

your group has equal chance to speak English?

A Yes, every member of my group can have chance to speak up

B No, only some ‘top’ students in my group can speak

C Other answer ( you can write in Vietnamese if you like )

Question 8: What difficulties do you have when speaking English in classes?

(you can write in Vietnamese if you like )

From the results of the questionnaire as well as from the observation and follow-up questions, I recognize that the problems with speaking activities in English classes at Tinh Gia 1 High School can be generalized as follow.

2 2 2 1 Problems that students often meet in English Speaking lessons

Students are inhibited, afraid of speaking or unwilling to speak English in class.

Most students (about 75%) are inhibited, afraid of speaking or unwilling

to speak English in class Unlike reading, writing and listening activities,speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience There aredifferent situations that can cause students inhibited or even dread speaking aforeign language in the classroom, such as:

- Lacking vocabulary

- Worrying about their accent

- Being frustrated about constructing the sentences with correct grammar

- Being afraid of making mistakes

- Being fearful of criticism or losing face

- Being shy of the attention that their speech attracts

Students have nothing to say in some speaking activities.

About 70 % of students say that they have nothing to say in some

speaking activities Even if some students are not inhibited, they often complain

that they cannot think of anything to say They have no motive to expressthemselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

Most of my colleagues realized that our students are not in the habit of speaking English

Although many students have a good vocabulary and grammar grasp, theyare still reluctant to speak This may demonstrate that a good command ofvocabulary and grammar is not enough In the other hand, they must be prepared

to be in the habit of speaking English

During speaking lessons, students have low or uneven participation

Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in alarge group this means that each one will have only very little talking time Thisproblem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, whileothers speak very little or not at all

Students use their mother – tongue (Vietnamese) almost all the time

About 85% of students admitted that they use their mother – tongue(Vietnamese) almost all the time They explain that because it is easier, because

it seems unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and becausethey feel less ‘exposed’ if they are speaking Vietnamese

2 2 2 2 Teachers’ problems in Speaking lessons

Teachers speak their native language (Vietnamese) in English teaching classes almost all the time.

The fact that English teachers in Tinh Gia 1 High School speakVietnamese in their classes seems to be so popular that they consider itunavoidable Unfortunately, this has unexpectedly killed the studentswillingness to speak English

Teachers talks too much in class, letting their students few chances to participating in speaking activities.

These teachers are using the out-dated traditional teaching method inwhich students are not stimulated to learn actively In other words, by this way

of teaching, students are not provided a positive learning environment toencourage them to speak more, but instead they become passive learners andwhat they grasp is a “dead” language

2 2 3 Some suggestions for solutions

2 2 3 1 Some advice for teachers in general

Firstly, the teachers themselves must make great effort to change theirmethod of teaching I myself have been applying some tips as follow and I havegained some positive results

- Reduce your TTT (Teacher Talking Time) in the classroom, by giving

simple and clear instructions, by asking one or two students to show (by means

of speaking) that they understood the task instructions, and also by asking otherstudents to answer a student's question Being a teacher of English is differentfrom being a lecturer

- Increase STT (Student Talking Time), again, by asking other students to

answer a student's question, by showing pictures related to the topic of the classand, without saying a single word, eliciting students' participation

- Avoid yes/no questions; prefer those questions that make students speak

in order to make themselves clear

- Pay attention to the way of correcting students Sometimes, even when

the teacher’s intention is simply to help a certain student, he/she may makethings even worse to them

For instance, if teacher wants to show a certain mistake to a student, instead of saying "Oh! this is not correct, " or "You made a mistake, " or "Oops! don't say this or that, " etc you'd better say "Maybe you should change this or that " or "Why don't you use ", or "Well, it may be even better if you do/say " or

"Very good try, but you'd better say/do " or "Nice try/beginning Now why don't you ?" or "Good participation/answer, now I will make it better " etc.

- When watching student A for mistakes, don't be so close to them

because this will make them even shier Instead, get close to another student orsimply stand back or pretend being interested in something different, picking up

a book or going back to your table etc This will make students feel morecomfortable and increase STT.

- When your students are having fluency practice (for instance, free

conversation), which is totally different from pronunciation or grammarpractice, never correct them, unless something really serious happen Let themtalk! Let them feel that they can communicate in despite of their mistakes inpronunciation, grammar etc Praise them for speaking!!! Show satisfaction!!!

- Not only encourage them to watch movies Give them tips on what andhow to select what really matters, based on what they are interested in Forinstance, taking notes on useful sentences/phrases and thinking about whichenvironment or opportunity they could put those selected sentences in action(among friends, with a teacher, at work, at the club etc), just for practice

- Never forget! Participating/speaking is what really matters in this case,

and when a student participates (answering questions, clarifying, helping other

in English, arguing etc) ACCEPT that as something GOOD, despite of beingright or wrong, otherwise you take the risk of making your student shier andshier (lack of participation)

- All classes should start with pair work on a topic on which most have experience or opinion During these , pens are down and teacher goes round the U-shaped classroom, answering mostly vocabulary questions when students call -Sir or Peter Students know they can talk about other things if they have

finished discussing the topic, and those who become silent early are asked a further question to discuss A general discussion of the topic follows, with

extensive use of the board for notes

- For the first class, students usually start introducing themselves to each other in pair work, with a small A5 document providing some grammar and vocab This is a springboard for similar work at the beginning of every class A mark with coefficient 2/10 includes this as participation

- Outside the classroom, I encourage joining chat rooms, which is a kind

of written conversation where and when students must quickly come up with a reply or question, yet having a few seconds to think of contents and language use I also regularly advertise local language cafés, lecture hours, day trips to and weekends in London, and always speak in English to any student -and some staff- out of the classroom

- Of course, all students can not be expected to possess the same level of

intelligence and grasping ability, but a teacher's ability lies in making a lesson/ message as easily understandable by the poorest student as by the best in the classroom As regards the original question by LB as to how to improve

"speaking skill" of your students, I feel interactive mode of class room teaching works better

- We need to make a friendly atmosphere in class room so that students don't hesitate to interact Personally for me it’s very easy, as most of my PG students are nearly my own age (mostly 5-6 years junior to me) As a routine, I spare last 10 minutes of my lecture for students to speak on the subject just taught I facilitate the things in friendly manner, and they really enjoy it And

yes, I have observed perceptible improvement in their speaking ability and confidence

2 2 3 2 Some suggestions for a successful speaking skill lesson and to motivate students.

There are many rules we must remember while teaching speaking so that

we can help students improve their speaking skill:

Firstly, teachers must make sure that students feel safe and confident while they express themselves

Personally I think that , the first thing that teachers have to do to helpstudents improve their speaking skill is that they have to help them overcometheir feelings of shyness and nervousness when practicing English in theirclass One of the best ways to solve this problem is to put them in 'safe'situations in class where they are inspired and encouraged to try using thelanguage from their 'store'

Organizing communicative activities in pairs, in groups is also aneffective way to serve this aim Working in pairs, in groups, students will feelless anxious than when they are 'on show' in front of the whole class together.Moreover, pair-works and group works can help shy students who would neversay anything in a whole class activity have the confidence to open their mouths.Students can also learn from each other's new ideas so that they will havesomething to speak in front of the class later Another thing that teacher should remember to help students haveconfidence in speaking is teacher's positive corrections and feedbacks Makingerrors is a natural and unavoidable part of the learning process, but how tocorrect the students’ errors is particularly important Teachers need to provideappropriate feedbacks and corrections, but don't interrupt the flow ofcommunication Take notes while pairs or groups are talking and addressproblems to the class after the activity without embarrassing the student whomade the error We can also write the errors on the board and ask who cancorrect it Teachers should encourage their students to speak whatever they canand focus on what they have got right, not on what they have got wrong Weshould also help them to develop positive attitudes towards their friends’errors and to correct themselves Teachers should try to develop forthemselves positive strategies of error corrections When students achievesuccess in oral communication, they will feel confident, secure and enjoylearning English; they will have confidence to take part in communicativeactivities later

Secondly, teachers must pay attention to warm-up activities:

Warm-up is also an important part which contributes to the success of aspeaking lesson Warm-ups help our learners put aside their daily distractionsand focus on English If they haven't used English all day, they may take a littlewhile to shift into it Warm-ups also encourage whole-group participation which

can build a sense of community within the group and they can help to arousestudent' interest in speaking We should vary warm-up activities to attract ourstudents' attention and interest because if they feel good about the lesson fromthe beginning they'll make a good contribution to it These may be a discussion, apicture describing activities or playing a game, brainstorming etc In order tohave a good preparation, the teacher does different things to arouse students’interest, i.e brainstorming, musical warmer, word card, etc Before a new lesson

I often motivate the students by chatting to them about the topic of interest,giving them preparation tasks or quick warm-up to get them in the right moodfor speaking Brainstorming is one of the simplest, but the most effective kind ofmotivation because it takes a short time I can write key words on theblackboard and the class is encouraged to think of ideas, words, phrasesassociated with them

Example 1: Speaking in unit 12-English 10

When I teach speaking in unit 12 - English 10, I may present a picture of a famous singer or musician and asks them the following questions

1 Who is she?

2 Do you like her?

3 If not, who is your favorite singer?

4 What kind of music does she sing?

5 Teacher leads in new lesson Example

Example 2: Speaking/Unit 15/English 12

Teacher may raise some questions and ask students to discuss in pairs:

1 Do you think that women are as intelligent as men?

2 Do they have equal rights in the family and in the society? Students ask and answer in pairs, then some students present their answer, teacher leads in new lesson

Example 3: Speaking-unit 6-English 12

T asks students to play a guessing game:" Find someone who "Teacher divides the class into 2 groups Teacher gives some information about some popular and interesting jobs in the society and asks student to guess what job it is Each time they can guess they got one point

Thirdly, students must be well-prepared and instructed before they

practices peaking

Another point that makes it difficult for students to practise speaking isthat their knowledge of the language is poor and they don't have ideas to talkabout the topic; (their language competences, vocabulary and grammar arelimited) so in order to help students practice, teachers have to provide them withnecessary language input and give students clear instructions

Example 1 : Task 2/speaking/unit 7/English 12

Teachers have to present some verbs used with the collocations given in the task by asking students to do the matching A B

1 Build Teacher's salary

2 Provide Curriculum and textbook

3 Reform More school

4 Apply Teaching and learning method

5 Train More highly qualify doctors

6 Raise More equipment and facilities Teachers also have to elicit the meaning

of some words or phrase in the task

Example 2: Speaking/unit11/English 10

Before students practise, teachers have to present the form and use of

conditional sentences type 3 which is used to express a regret about what you did in the past

Example 3: Speaking /unit3/English 12

Teacher presents some ways of giving and responding to compliments Giving compliments Responding to compliments

- You really have a beautiful blouse, Barbara

- Thank you, Phil That's a nice compliment

- What a beautiful blouse it is !

- You've got to be kidding! I thought it was terrible

- How beautiful you are!

-Thanks, Peter It's nice of you to say so

-Congratulation You've played so well today

-Thank you Your compliment is really encouraging

-Your hairstyle is terrific

Fourthly, Varying communicative activities is also important

As I have just presented above, effective methods of teaching indirectlyencourage oral interaction and they can provide motivation The direct way topromote oral communication is to provide students with opportunities toparticipate and to communicate with each other so that students can learn thelanguage from speaking The more opportunities of speaking the language theyhave, the more fluent they become Actually, various activities in each lessonadds interest to students and can help with making students more dynamic andactive In speaking, students will be motivated if teachers provide them withvarious communicative activities Below are some common speaking activitiesthat I often carry out in my classes to make my speaking lessons moreinteresting and to motivate my students in practicing English:

Discussions : In an discussion students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share

ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before thediscussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by theteacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose In an