Some suggested techniques to promote students’ speaking skill at high school

1 Introduction 1.1 Rationales When I first entered the pedagogical profession, there was a saying of Frederick William Robertson that I really liked: "The true goal of anyone who wishes to become a teacher is not to communicate his ideas but to arouse thinking." In recent years, the teaching of English in general schools has changed the content and the teaching method, there are many new methods to be applied and widely spread to the teacher Flexible use of methods and techniques in classroom activities promotes student activeness and activeness and creates optimal conditions for students to practice, develop their thinking and improve ability to use language for communication purpose It is a fact for students in Vinh Loc High School that most students have limited English language skills They feel that they are not interested in learning English and are not confident in speaking English and they are very cautious in using English to communicate with teachers and friends during English lessons, especially Speaking lessons Because of this, many students feel bored and sit down passively.This makes the class atmosphere very tense and boring They seem to be timid and scared at every mistake and lack of positive proactive in speaking English Together with The Citadel of the Ho Dynasty – World Cultural Heritage , there are 147 historical and cultural relics and places of interest This advantage is very important to exploit, develop a variety of types and create specific tourism products Developing speaking and communication skills using language helps children to better understand the value of The Citadel of the Ho Dynasty - a world cultural heritage in the locality This helps us to raise the sense of protection of the heritage, each person can be an active propaganda for tourists, especially foreign tourists, when visiting The Citadel of the Ho Dynast From the beginning of the school year 2016 - 2017 to now, Vinh Loc high school has organized many professional activities of the group in the direction of "innovation in professional activities" During each session, teachers discussed the teaching methodology of textbook lessons in the motto of "Promoting student competence", and the school and the foreign language team also Organize lesson classes and discussions to gain experience in the team After observing the teaching hours and participating in the discussions, each teacher has thoughts and concerns in exploring and applying new methods in teaching hours to stimulate and promote all abilities of the students in the class they teach As a teacher assigned by the school to teach English to students in grades 10, 11, and 12 over the years, I have always wondered about how to stimulate students' speaking English in the classroom Study English, especially during Speaking and practice communication skills in English between students and teachers and other class members After many years of experience and successful application, in the academic year 2016 - 2017 I boldly wrote to experience with the topic: “ Some suggested techniques to promote students’ speaking skill at high school” 1.2 Aims of the study Some speaking tutorials are designed to help English teachers having a wide range of choices to apply to their classes, depending on the specific subject: systematizing knowledge, creating specific communication situations, developing personalities, promoting the positive, creative initiative of students 1.3 The object of the study - Teaching methods help to promote the positive and the ability to use the spoken and spoken language of students in the high school English program - English speaking and communication activities - Students in grades 10, 11, 12 Vinh Loc high school 1.4 Method of the study The assessment reviews the product performance of the student through oral tests, speaking skills in pairs, speaking groups, and extra-curricular English sessions Using analytic methods Observing and asking colleagues for ideas and experiences Practising the application of the study Content 2.1 Theoretical foundations The ultimate goal of language learning is communication Grammar and other skills are also important, but the aim is to support this goal Teachers organize classes in Speaking class for the following basic reasons: - Ask the students to practice the skills and apply the knowledge they have learned in the classroom - Help students to deepen their knowledge - Get students familiar with big work, pair-work, teamwork, highly interactive personal ideas, time-consuming activities and the need to search for external sources of information (such as information on the library, on the Internet, or information from students themselves) Communication is an important part of everyday life Communicating helps to develop both the new language and thinking, it can improve memory and understanding Engaging directly in activities improves student learning and student attitudes toward the subject, and shows students that learning can take place anywhere, not just in the classroom ( assign similar tasks for students to continue to practice at home but at a higher level.) 2.2 The real situation According to what I observe, the way of teaching the speeches of most teachers now has some limitations: Firstly, except for the other teachers, teachers often cling to the textbook's Tasks With these types of requests, students passive They haven’t developed linguistic thinking They are good at textbook abuse, or are using older, answerable books Secondly, sometimes the teacher organizes some supportive activities but fails to check They don’t score, or they test but has not attracted all the students Thirdly, teachers not fully apply the method of communication when teaching Teachers also talk a lot, control the classroom They less promote active and active students Organizing pairwork or groupwork is not effective so they can’t support each other We are afraid that the weak children will be passive and nothing and students will use their mother tongue when practicing This can be overcome by calling the weak student of the group to present and scoring points for the group, so that they will have to help each other accomplish the tasks that the teacher gives them Depending on the content of the topics and exercises designed in the textbook or the appropriate assignments designed by the teacher, each teacher must develop a few of the competencies in each lesson It is necessary to develop the students in the system of nine competencies set by the Ministry of Education and Training, namely: 1- Self-learning ability 2- Ability to learn how to learn 3- Personal competence 4- Creative ability 5- Cooperative capacity 6- Capacity of communication 7- Capacity of thinking 8- Capacity to solve problems 9- Capacity of information technology and communication Finally, one of the contents of the graduate and college exams that make students anxious is communication To well in this type of exercise, they need to have broad knowledge, but the most important thing is through the specific situations they have been experiencing A communication situation is not easy to memorize but when communicating many times, it is self-absorbed in the subconscious mind 2.3 Problem solving Below I would like to give some experience on the design and organization of some teaching activities aimed at promoting the positive and the ability to use the language of students in Speaking Classes: 2.3.1 Interrupting stories This is an interesting activity for students to practice speaking, listening and other skills In this way, the teacher (possibly the student) will tell a story that the student knows clearly containing some false information While hearing the story, if you hear the wrong information, other students will stop the story and correct that information Example: English Textbook 10, Unit 1: A day in the life of…, Speaking - Step 1: Students work in groups, looking at the pictures and depicting Quan’s activities [1] - Step 2: Choose a good student to stand up and repeat the sentences in front of the class Ask students to deliberately give false information under the teacher's secret instruction Ask other students to hear and interrupt that student if the information is wrong, and correcte and givethe right information Example: Quan often gets up at p.m At 2.15 p.m, he watches T.V ( wrong )  correct At p.m, Quan goes to the stadium by bus ( wrong) correct After that he plays football with his friends At 6.30 p.m, he goes home At 45 p.m, he does his homework (wrong )  correct …… 2.3.2 Interviews / Role play The name of the activity clearly shows how to this A student will go forward to play a doctor, a celebrity, a player and other students to ask questions Students work in pairs: one of the students who plays the interviewee will ask questions and answers based on the specific content stated in the request and under the guidance of the teacher Teachers can explore a number of selfgenerated situations that are relevant to the content of the unit: Holiday plan interview Job interview Club membership interview Famous people interview In addition, teachers can explore real-life situations in the classroom, in the school such as: Interviews with classmates about the life or events they have just experienced, his/her plans, strengths , abilities, hobbies, habits, Example 1: English textbook 10, Unit 3: People's Background- Speaking Task 2: Imagine you are a journalist, use the cues given to interview a classmate about his or her background or that of a person he / she knows well Change the roles when you have finished * Greeting * Date of birth * Place of birth * Home * Parents * Brother(s) * Sister(s) * Primary school * Secondary school * School work * Favourite subject(s) * Experiences * Thanking [1] Example : A: Good afternoon, I am working for Thanh nien Newspaper I’d like to ask you some questions Is it O.K ? B: Good afternoon That’s fine A: When were you born ? B: ……………………………………… Example 2: English 10, Unit 6: An Excursion- Speaking A student goes up to the board and plays a person on a cruise The rest of the students ask questions to the student Example : : - How you feel about the trip ? - I think you should sit in seat 11 Is it OK ? - Do you want him to be in the section which is air- conditioned ? ……………………………… 2.3.3 Brainstorming Brainstorming is a technique that uses the support of the thinking diagram to find solutions to a problem, and it is really effective when working in teams Group work has been a new form of activity for innovating a method in which teachers play a central role in orientation, organization, and mentoring, while students are actively involved actively seeking direction They resolve and solve the problem Brainstorming will promote teamwork and groupwork in English Speaking class This cooperation’ll be indispensable if you want to achieve the purpose of communication in the process of teaching - learning English in particular and foreign languages in general Brainstorming can be applied in many stages such as the warm-up process, to the process of addressing the main requirements of the task; It can be used in Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing or Language Focus At each stage, each section, brainstorming brings about certain effects and stimulates all students to involve Brainstorming can be conducted in the classroom as follows: - Step 1: Teachers divide students into groups In the process of grouping, teachers should distribute students equally to the same group for mutual support Avoiding the fact that this group and the other group have a great difference in English language learning ability A weak students group can not carry out the desired Brainstorming activity Teams select a leader and a secretary Then the largest group is the class of students and the supporting tool can now be the writing board - Step 2: Deliver Brainstorming to groups At this stage, the teacher needs to make the students understand the requirements and tasks they have to accomplish It is possible to assign a topic to all groups Finally teacher’ll have a general synthesis Teacher compare the performance of each group or each group will have issues that need to be solved independently - Step 3: Carry out Brainstorming The leader will direct the members of the Brainstorming team, which requires all members to have ideas or opinions on the issue and the secretary is responsible for recording all (except for duplicate ideas) In some cases, comments may be accepted in Vietnamese if some students are limited in their ability to study English as a vocabulary Members can speak out to their secretary for writing or take – note on papers At this stage, the teacher is a general observer of the activity of the groups, They provide some suggestions or support, or encourage or motivate certain students in the groups In the case the teacher holds two roles at the same time: both the facilitator and the secretary they may call the student to voice their opinion, the teacher randomly writes the student's answer on the board Arrange in a specific order, or ask the students to write their ideas on paper and then put them on the board To attract and impress the sticker paper, colorful pens can be used: (Illustration) - Step 4: Analyze the answers and find a solution to the problem In this step, all members of the group review the answers, they don’t comment or criticize any of them, simply collapse the idea of duplication, dismiss the unrelated ideas and then decide on the most appropriate answer Example 1: English10- Unit 8: The story of my villge, Speaking Students work in groups to discuss and develop ideas for improving their village build a medical centre grow cash crops build a football ground Plans to improve life of the village build a football ground build a new school widen the roads Example 2: English 10 - Unit 12: Music, Speaking section To "warm up" for this lesson each teacher will have a different way For me, I chose to use Brainstorming to create a comfortable atmosphere for students before entering a new topic with a topic of musical preference, and also to help students recall vocabularies concerning about the music for the later practice - I wrote the keyword "Music" on the board and began dividing the students into groups of to students Ask each team to select leader and secretary Ask the groups to find as many words or activities related to the subject as possible within minutes - Team leaders control the team members to find vocabulary related to the topic "Music", encouraging all members, despite the comments in Vietnamese Other members will assist in finding the corresponding English words - Ask the groups to report the results and the teacher will report the results of the groups to create the broadest possible vocabulary scheme The results of Brainstorming activities are shown in the diagram below: Rock The piano Pop Types Instruments The guitar Folk music Music Party Concert When to play Wedding Performance Live show Sport events [2] 2.3.4 Find someone who Students will give information or ask information from friends and then report to the class Then the teacher (possibly the student) will ask "Who?" And the other students will answer who he/ she is This activity is interesting because it helps students to develop reflexes and improve their skills Example 1: English textbook 10, Unit 1: A day in the life of - Speaking - Step 1: Students prepare the following table: Nam x likes English has a history lesson on watches T.V every night x helps mother with housework x Hoa Mai x x …… x x - Step 2: Students go around the class, ask and collect information about their friends and fill out the form - Step 3: The teacher calls some students to present to the class Example : - Nam likes English - Hoa often has a history lesson on Friday - Nam often watches T.V every night - Mai often has a history lesson on Friday - Nam often helps his mother with the housework - Hoa often watches T.V every night - Mai often helps his mother with the housework - Step 4: The teacher asks students: - T : Find someone who likes English S : Nam likes English - T : Find someone who has a history lesson on Friday S : Hoa and Mai often have a history lesson on Friday - T : Find someone who often watches T.V every night S : Nam and Hoa watch T.V every night - T : Find someone who helps mother with the housework S : Nam and Mai often help mother with the housework ………………………………… 2.3.5 Twenty questions This activity is usually conducted in the Warm-up section, as follow: - First, the teacher gives a word or phrase or picture about the subject ( name of a city, name of an organization, celebrity or person in classroom…) - The task of the students is to find out the answer by asking Yes- No questions Teacher can limit the number of questions depending on the difficulty of the topic For example, text books in English 10, Unit 16: Historical Place- Speaking - Step 1: Teacher gives the picture [3] - Step 2: In groups, students will in turn ask Yes-No questions to find the place name Suggested questions: * Is it a famous historical place? YES * Is it located in Nghe An? NO * Is it the final resting place of Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh? YES * Are there many people visting each year ? YES Then the teacher introduces the President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum [3] 2.3.6 Given dialogue frame Thanks to the teacher's guidance, students can create their own dialogues and then practice and practice instead This activity is easy and familiar so students will be interested in learning 10 Example: : It’s a hot day Plan the day with your friend, follow the frame below You Your friend Comment on the weather Express agreement with the comment Suggest something to Disagree Make another suggestion Agree Suggest a time and place to meet Agree Say goodbye Say goodbye Example: A: Today’s really hot B: Yes It’s much hotter than yesterday A: Shall we have some beer after work? B: I’d love to but I can’t come because my little boy is ill Let’s have some beer on this Saturday afternoon A: 2.3.7 Discussions and Reporting a presentation Students will discuss and comment on a given topic based on their recent knowledge In this section, teachers should encourage students to use mind maps to express ideas and express the relevance of those ideas Teachers can provide sub- tables or paper to groups and ask groups to write their thoughts on a map of thinking in the table Subsequently, students will report, present what they have learned, read and discussed through their group's thinking map Obviously this is a difficult activity, so students must prepare well and can report in groups or take turns reporting Example 1: English Textbooks 11, Unit 11: Sources of Energy- Speaking Task 3: The teacher asked the students to discuss the group, then report on the types of energy, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to utilize and develop alternative energy sources 11 - Dicussion: Students discuss in groups, brainstorming about four aspects of the topic [4] - Reporting a presentation : Teachers ask students in each group to take turns lecturing on the topic Not only good students but also weak ones in each group have a chance to report Example: Student 1: For a long time, the major source of energy used by people has been fossil fuels (including coal, oil and natural gas) However, this kind of energy is limited, non-renewable and will be exhauted soon That’s why we should use alternative sources of energy such as nuclear energy, water energy, solar energy or wind energy Student 2: These alternative sources of energy have their own advantages and disadvantages For example, nuclear power is unlimited but very dangerous 12 2.3.8 Questionaire - The teacher will prepare the student a poll Students read information, mark and complete content as required and report Example 1: English textbook 10, Unit 7: The Mass Media-Speaking - The teacher sends students a questionnaire and asks students to complete QUESTIONNAIRE Name : …………………………… Sex : ………… Class : ………… Age : ………… How are the mass media important to our life ? a very important b not very c not at all The mass media are widely used for ……… a entertaining b getting knowledge c Other purposes What kinds of media you like best? a Television b Newspaper c the Internet How often you use the Internet ? a once a week b twice a week c more than twice What kind of newspaper you like to read ? a Nhan Dan b Tuoi Tre c The Thao Your opinions / suggestions ? ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… - The teacher collects the answers of student A's assignment to student B and asks student B to revise the content class that student A answered After the presentation of B, the teacher may ask a number of related questions to check the level of attention, comprehension and reaction of other students Example : Nam is a boy of 16 years old from class 10A3 He thinks that the mass media is very important to our lives and he also thinks that the mass media are widely used for entertaining and getting knowledge He often watches television more than two hours a day He also uses the Internet service quite often He often read sports newspapers because he loves football He wants that more and more people are interested in getting information from the mass media Question: What does Nam think about the mass media? How often does Nam use the Internet? 2.3.9 Games Games are popular activities that teachers often use An activity is considered as a game when we want students to make and want to find the winner Obviously Games are very active and highly motivated Teachers can design games that are tailored to specific classes and specific subjects in order to involve more students Example: Lucky number * Purpose: 13 - Check student vocabulary - Make students reflect, listen, speak accurately, fluently * Organization: - Give the student a plaque consisting of a sequence of numbers that has lucky numbers Example: (number 5,7,8) - If you choose the lucky number, you get points - If you select a number other than the lucky number, you must ask the question on the given subject - If you meet the requirements (Say it right, fast, fluent) you will get points If not hit minus points - Each team has the same number of turns - End which team gets more points than that team wins Example: English 10, Unit 11: National Parks- Speaking Task and Task can be considered as a difficult part because students are unacquainted and not have much knowledge of the conditional type The teacher designed this game to create a light practice gently and cheerfully atmosphere in the classroom In this section, the teacher will give the student a few cards with the numbers attached to them which may be a note of a gift, a request or a sentence in the task to complete Example : Lu c k y n u m b e rs [5] You are lucky Your present is a pen Complete the sentences: a If they hadn’t gone by coach, ………………… b If ………………………, they wouldn’t have got lost Smile and laugh You are lucky if you are a girl 14 Complete the sentence If / bring / food / drinks / not / spend / money / expensive restaurant Sing an English song with the word “Love” 2.3.10 Using teaching aids Teaching materials are things we use along side textbooks, teachers' books to help the teaching process more lively, with better results For example: English 10, Unit 11: National Parks- B- Speaking- Task 2: Teachers can use the projector Task 2: Task 2: Conditional Sentence- Type III IF CLAUSE , Conditional Sentence- Type III IF CLAUSE , MAIN CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE IF + S + HAD + V3/ed , S + WOULD HAVE + V 3/ed… IF + S + HAD + V3/ed , S + WOULD HAVE + V 3/ed… HADN’T WOULDN’THAVE We had food poisoning We didn’t enjoy our visit Nga’s class are not happy with their excursion to Huong Pagoda Now they are talking they had or hadn’t done expressing regrets ( They went to Huong Pagoda by coach and most of them got carsick ) If we hadn’t had food poisoning, we would have enjoyed our visit Eg: If we hadn’t gone by coach, we wouldn’t have got carsick or: If we had gone by bike, we wouldn’t have got carsick Task 2: Conditional Sentence- Type III Task 2: IF CLAUSE Conditional Sentence- Type III IF CLAUSE , , MAIN CLAUSE IF + S + HAD + V3/ed , S + WOULD HAVE + V 3/ed… MAIN CLAUSE IF + S + HAD + V3/ed , S + WOULD HAVE + V 3/ed… 4.We had no raincoats We got wet If we had had raincoats, we wouldn’t have got wet 5.We left our luggage on the coach We had no clothes or money with us If we hadn’t left our luggage on the coach , we would have had clothes and money with us [5] 2.3.11 Outdoor Activities Type 1: Talent Before the extra-curricular week, teachers can assign topics to groups of students (eg, Historical Places, Environment protection, Your hometown, ) Students choose to present their talents to the topic through the design, drawing, music, etc During the extra-curricular session, the teacher opens competitions for groups to demonstrate the talents and presentations of each group Teachers 15 ...“ Some suggested techniques to promote students’ speaking skill at high school? ?? 1.2 Aims of the study Some speaking tutorials are designed to help English teachers having... that learning can take place anywhere, not just in the classroom ( assign similar tasks for students to continue to practice at home but at a higher level.) 2.2 The real situation According to. .. knows clearly containing some false information While hearing the story, if you hear the wrong information, other students will stop the story and correct that information Example: English Textbook