SUGGESTED WARM UP ACTIVITIES FOR LISTENING LESSONS IN ’’TIENG ANH 11”

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the Study PART 2: CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background * Stages of Teaching Listening Skills a) Pre-listening b) While-listening c) Post-listening * Warm-up activities a) What are warm-up activities b) Why you use warm-up activities 2.2 Practical background 2.3 Solutions to the problems 2.4 Effectiveness of the Teaching Experience PART 3: CONCLUSION REFERENCES Page 1 2 2 2 3 4 12 14 15 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Of four language skills, listening has long been considered the most challenging and difficult one by both foreign language teachers and students In reality, in many high schools in Vietnam in general and in Nghe An in particular, teaching English listening skills has not been paid much attention to As a result, the qualities and effectiveness of teaching and learning this skill are not really as good and high as expected From the fact that most EFL teachers at high schools in Thanh Hoa have faced a lot of problems in teaching listening It has been found that although teaching and learning English listening skills was significant, it was not taken carefully considerations by higher administrators, educators, teachers and students In addition, lack of wellequipped facilities, teachers’ unsuitable teaching listening methods, poor listening methodology and approaches and students’ low level of proficiency, boredom, indifference as well as de-motivation are obstacles in most high schools in Thanh Hoa Many students claimed that they felt tired of listening to the tape from beginning to the end with controlled exercises in the textbook Without interest, motivation and variation in teaching and learning students found it hard to study in listening class So it is necessary for teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and to know how to motivate students so that they can make progress in listening comprehension Using effective warm-up activities can stimulate students’ spirit in learning Sometimes, a picture or a humor story can great deal towards arousing interest among students However, many teachers seem to neglect or donot pay much attention to the pre-listening stage or warm-up exercise which can be a good step for the next stage of the listening lessons It is believed that how well students had done in class depends much on how well they had been warmed up From this point of view, teachers should take into consideration the methodology they can apply in their listening courses and try to improve their teaching of listening lessons Some techniques should be employed in prelistening stage with appropriate warm-up activities Within this background, the author would like to conduct a study dealing with the problems of creating a good lead-in during the listening teaching process in “Tieng Anh 11” at high schools in Thanh Hoa in order to propose appropriate warm-up activities that can motivate students before the new lesson and facilitate the English listening teaching and learning 1.2 Aims of the Study The aims of the study are as follows: - To investigate EFL teachers' problems in creating a good lead-in of a listening lesson in "Tieng Anh 11" - To suggest warm-up activities for some listening lessons in “Tieng Anh 11” PART 2: CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background Stages of Teaching Listening Skills Teaching listening text can be divided into three main stages: prelistening, while-listening and post-listening Each stage has its own aims and activities a) Pre-listening Pre-listening stage aims at preparing students with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text This stage is of great importance since it leads students to the listening passage that they are going to listen, arouses their interests and provides students with the purposes of listening as well as the input before they listen Some activities at this stage are: Warming up the class: The teacher may motivate the class, gradually set up a context for listening text to be presented by asking questions to elicit students’ experience, or ideas concerning the coming text or by using some sort of visual aids or their imagination Introducing the topic of listening text: The teacher briefly introduces the topic of listening text so that the students may get their mind already for it Presenting key words: The teacher only presents any word that is necessary for students to understand the text Giving guiding questions: These guiding questions will help focus the students’ attention on the main points of the text They will guide the students to the better understanding of the text Students should be allowed to make guesses at the answer to the questions before listening These activities may give students a chance to get some knowledge which helps them to follow the listening text Therefore, when choosing an activity, the teacher should consider factors that Underwood (1989) states: The time, the material is available or not, the interests of the class and the teacher, the place where the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text itself If one of these factors is ignored, the whole process of the activity can be failed b) While-listening The aim of this stage is to facilitate students’ listening and check their comprehension While the students are listening to the text for the first time, they can check their guess and give the correct answer to the guiding questions Then the teacher gives the students some tasks to while they are listening for the second time They can some of the activities such as: gap-filling, true or false statements, answering comprehension questions, matching, multiple choice, reordering, etc While-listening stage gives students a guide to practice listening because they need a reason to listen which helps them to focus their attention As Rixon (1986) mentions, the purpose of while-listening stage is to challenge and guide students to master the information and the message from the passage To facilitate students’ comprehension, the teacher should provide useful techniques such as clear instructions, playing tapes on purposes, classifying levels of difficulty of task from easier to more difficult, and so on It is advisable that while-listening activities should meet students’ different levels and needs so that they are encouraged to listen better c) Post-listening At this stage, students can have opportunities to practice using what they have got from the listening text Post-listening activities are performed after the listening is finished According to Underwood (1989), the first purpose of those activities is to check how well the students understood and whether they have finished the listening task The second one is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the passage Moreover, post-listening activities aims at expanding the topic or the language of the listening text Students are also given an opportunity to consider the attitude of the speaker in the listening text because they can realize the purpose of the speaker based on his/her attitude Students can some following activities: Summarizing the text orally or in written form Re-telling the content of the listening text Role-play: Students play the roles of the characters in the text Discussion: The teacher should make up and vary the activities for students to at this stage depending on their level of English In addition, the teacher should pay more attention to the following factors in selecting post-listening activities: The amount of language work the teacher desires to related to the listening text The time limitation Speaking, reading and listening skills should be integrated in postlistening activities Pair work and group work should be encouraged The designed activity should be motivating to students Warm-up activities Teachers of English may use many different activities to promote students’ engagement Among these, warm-up activities can be used flexibly before students jump into learning It is true that proper warm-up activities ensure that your students are ready to move into the next tasks of the lesson a) What are warm-up activities It is said that warm-up activities, which are also called icebreakers or motivator activities, are structured activities that are designed to relax learners, introduce them to each other, and energize them in what is normally an unduly formal atmosphere or situation Warm-up activities should be designed to get students’ attention and prepare them the right mood before focusing on whatever activities follow They usually last in or 10 minutes which create a sense of excitement in classroom It has been found that students were usually drawn into the activity, finding the questions and listening to the answer when they discover solutions to the puzzles or questions which were set by teachers in warm-up activities b) Why you use warm-up activities It is believed that warm ups set the tone of the lesson, get students to begin thinking and focusing on English, provide a transition into the topic, allow teacher important opportunities to assess character and ability The aim of these activities is various which depend on teacher’s purpose before the lesson Teachers may try to connect students’ prior learning, review a lesson from the previous day, assess skill level or lead students into the topic of the lesson With effective warm-up activities, students come into the classroom and immediately begin their job for the day-learning For these reasons, warmup activities require more consideration from teachers with careful planning before class 2.2 Practical background The reasons affecting the effectiveness of a listening period in EFL classrooms lie in the teachers and the students themselves Besides, the listening section in the book “Tieng Anh 11” also causes difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning process As for the teachers, although they are aware of the fact that teaching listening skill is not easy and the listening section in the textbook is sometimes not appropriate for students’ levels, they not often adapt given tasks Many of the teachers just follow the requirements of the textbook without making any changes to any of the tasks In addition, there are many problems the teachers often encounter when designing and carrying out activities for a listening lesson such as limitation of time for preparation and for curriculum, students’ levels, students’ background knowledge or lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids, etc Especially, lack of the teachers' background knowledge and suitable ways to lead their students into the new lesson is one of the important factors that can make students bored and ignore the listening lesson Many teachers may fail to meet their students' needs and interests before they start the listening lesson That is because they not create an exciting classroom atmosphere and provide their students with background knowledge related to the listening content so that they can feel easier to understand the new lesson It is crucial for students to bare something related to the listening contents in their mind before listening In one word, it is undeniable that there still exist the problems originated from omitted or confused warm-up activities in a listening lesson However, these problems can be solved to make the listening section more simple and interesting for both teachers and students by applying the techniques of adaptation made by the teachers’ flexibility 2.3 Solutions to the problems In this part, I would like to suggest some warm-up activities for some listening lessons in different units in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” from my practical teaching as solutions to the difficulties that are often encountered in teaching listening Most of these activities are used at pre-listening stage WARM-UP ACTIVITIES Unit 1: Friendship (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.17) Game: Song Guessing - Divide the class into groups: Group A and group B - Let Ss listen to pieces of popular songs relating to friendship (e.g Ngồi lại bên nhau, Mong ước kỷ niệm xưa, Season in the summer, You and I, Tiễn bạn lên đường) - The group that can name more songs will win the game - Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game - Play the game and score the points - Declare the winner Unit 2: Personal Experiences (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p 27) Game: Guessing Game: "What is it?" - Divide the class into two groups A and B and ask Ss to guess - Read aloud some cues one by one If students can give out the correct answer for the first cue, they will get 30 points, 20 points for the second one and 10 points for the last one + It can destroy buildings, houses, forests and even kill people + It makes a lot of smoke + You need water to put it out - The group giving the correct answer and get the most points first wins Expected answer: A fire Unit 3: A Party (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p 36) Game: Drawing - Divide the class into two groups: group A and group B - Invite one student from each group who is good at drawing to join the game - Tell Ss the rule: "I will write down the words about items on the paper one by one so that only two students from each group can see The two students have to draw a picture of the item as quickly as possible for their group to guess what it is The first group that gives the correct answer will get one mark If they are wrong, the other group will take a turn to answer At the end, the group with more marks will win the game" - Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game - Play the game and score the points - Declare the winner Keys: cake, candle, gift/ present, candy, flower * Alternative: Kim’s Game - Divide the class into teams - Let the two teams look at the pictures in 30 seconds and then T puts away the pictures and asks them to write down as many items as possible on the board At the end, the group with more correct items will be the winner - Show the pictures: - Control the activity Answer keys: + Cards + Gift/ Present + Chocolate + Candles + Flowers + A cake Unit 4: Volunteer Work (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.51) Game: Finding One’s Other Half - Divide the class into teams: team A and team B - Hang on posters on the board - Stick pieces of paper with different shapes and colors on each poster - Ask Ss in each team to combine pieces of paper with the same shape or color together - The team who first finishes will win the game - Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions Supporting Keys: supporting charities/ raising money / helping the poor / helping the elderly / making donations (Collected from Thiết kế giảng Tiếng Anh 11, 2007, p 64) Unit 6: Competitions (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.70) Game: Picture Guessing (Picture of a marathon race) - Divide the class into groups and let students guess the picture behind the numbers - In order guess the picture, students have to choose the number they want If they have a lucky number, they will get point without answering any question and one piece of picture will be opened If they choose an unlucky number, they have to answer the question of the teacher One point will be for them if they answer correctly and they can open one more piece of picture If not, they will have no marks The group guesses the picture correctly will get points At the end the group with more marks will be the winner - Declare the winner - Keys: + Number 1: (unlucky number): "She is an athlete champion who lives in Hue and got a lot of gold medals Who is she?" (Do Thi Bong) + Number 2: (unlucky number): "Who is the Vietnamese champion in body- building at the 14th Asian Games?" (Ly Duc) + Number 3: Lucky number + Number 4: (unlucky number): "What you call an athlete who practices gymnastic exercises?" (Gymnast) * Alternative: - Ask Ss to watch a video clip about sport news and name the competition in it (The Boston Marathon) Unit 7: World Population (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.84) Game: Bingo - Have students list the populous countries in the world - Note down their names on the board (about 10 or more) - Ask students to take out a piece of paper and copy down countries from the list on the board - Read out countries which were chosen randomly by teacher - Right after the T says the last country, any students who have all the same choices as the teacher will say “Bingo” and they win the game Unit 8: Celebrations (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.94) Competition Game — Guessing Game - Divide Ss into groups - Tell Ss the rule of the game: Each group give a word related to holidays, the other groups will guess what holiday is The group with the quickest and correct answer will get one point for their group After some turns, the group with more points will be the winner E.g: Tet holiday: lucky money/ peach blossom, sticky rice cake… Mid-autumn festival: masks, moon cake… Valentine’s Day: chocolate/red rose… * Alternative: Song Guessing - Divide the class into groups - Play the first part of the song "Happy New Year" and ask Ss to guess the name of the song The first group answers correctly will be the winner Unit 9: The Post Office (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.105) Game: Stop the Bus! Question: Find things that you use to contact with your friends - Divide the class into four groups - Each group tries to find words as quickly as possible after T’s question The group that finishes firstly will shout: “Stop the bus!” and go to the board to write down the answers If the group gives the right answer, they will get one mark The group that gets more marks will be the winner Keys: Cell phone, telephone, letters, the Internet, email Unit 10: Nature in Danger (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.119) Game: Animal Guessing - Prepare an audio-tape with various sounds of animals such as monkey, lion, snake, pig, etc - Divide the class into groups: Group A and group B - Play the tape for Ss to listen to the sound one by one The group that gives the correct answer first will get mark If not, they have no marks and the other group will take the turn to answer At the end, the group with more points will be the winner - Organize the game and score the marks of each group - Declare the winner Unit 11: Sources of Energy (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.128) Game: Lucky Stars (For high-leveled students) - Divide class into groups: group A and Group B - Tell Ss the rule of the game: Choose the star you like If you choose a lucky star, you can get the mark behind the star without answering any questions If not, you have to answer the question corresponding to the star within 15 seconds The mark behind the star will belong to you if you answer correctly In contrast, you will have no marks and the other group will be allowed to answer your question to get the mark At the end, the group with more marks will win the game - Organize the game and score each group’s points - Declare the winner Star 1: What are they? Star 2: Jumbled Word Recorder the letters into a meaningful word related to “Energy”: Fossil fuels Star 3: Can you list names of things in which you use energy at home? Star 4: Double the points (x 2) Star 5: Listening to the song, and then tell the name of the song Star 6: Subtract half of the points (: 2) Keys: Windmill - Solar panelue Fossil fuels Gas stove, cooker, television, electric fan Earth song * Alternative: (For lower-leveled students) Game: Right or Wrong Chair - Ask Ss to work in two groups Five people from each group stand in two lines - Put two chairs in front of the class Stick the word: limited or unlimited on each chair - Tell Ss the rule: "I will say out some sources of energy randomly (water, oil, wind power, natural gas, nuclear power, solar energy, coal), each group has to listen and decide which energy is limited and which is unlimited quickly The first group which runs to the right chair and sits down will get one point If you sit down the wrong chair, you will have no points At the end, the group that scores more points will win the game" - Check Ss’ understanding of the instruction Keys: Limited Unlimited Oil wind power Coal nuclear power Natural gas solar energy Water power Unit 12: The Asian Games (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.141) Game: Miming 10 - Divide class into groups: group A and Group B - Tell Ss the rule of the game: "I will mime some kinds of sports Each group has to guess the names of the sports The first group which answers correctly will get one point If not, you will have no points and the other group will take turn to answer At the end, the group that scores more points will win the game" - Organize the game and score each group’s points - Declare the winner * Alternative: Game: Remembering - Divide the class into two teams: team A and team B - Give instructions: "I will read many kinds of sports at the same time You must listen and try to remember them When I finish reading, each team will come to the board and write down as many sports as possible in one minute The team with more correct answers will win the game" - Play the game and score the points - Declare the winner Keys: long jump, swimming, tennis, fencing, weight lifting, volleyball, football, cycling, body-building Unit 13: Hobbies (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.150) Game: Let's Decode - Ask Ss if they remember the order of the letters in the English alphabet - Tell Ss that "Supposed that we have 26 numbers, from number to number 26, number is relevant to letter A, to B, to C,… and 26 to Z I will give you ranges of numbers and you have to find out the hidden words behind the given numbers corresponding to the order of the letters in the English alphabet." - Check Ss' understanding of the instructions by giving an example: 2.5.5: bee - Write down the numbers (the words should be related to the topic “hobbies”) and play the game with the whole class 1) 18- 5- 1- 4- 9- 14- 2) 2- 15- 15- 11 ……………………… Key: 1) Reading 2) Book Unit 15: Space Conquest (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.169) Game: Who am I? - Divide the class into two groups A and B and ask Ss to guess - Read aloud some cues one by one If students can give out the correct answer for the first cue, they will get mark 10, mark for the second one and mark for the last one + I am an American astronaut + I am a spacecraft commander for Apollo 11 11 + I made history on July 20th 1969 when I was the first human to set foot on the moon + I was born on February 14th 1947 + I am now the chairman of the General Department for Defense Industry + I am the first Vietnamese cosmonaut in space + April 12th was a huge day in my life + On that day I made a 108-minute orbital flight in Vostok spacecraft + I was named the first human in space Key: 1) Neil Armstrong 2) Pham Tuan 3) Yuri Gagarin Unit 16: The Wonders of the World (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.182) Game: Quiz - Divide the class into groups: group A and group B - Prepare a video clip about the Great Wall before class - Give instructions: "You are going to watch a video clip and name the wonder of the world in it The group that gives the correct answer first will be the winner" - Play the video clip for Ss to watch - Organize the game and declare the winner * Alternative: Guessing game: Do you know what wonder of the world it is? - Divide the class into groups: group A and group B - Prepare some pictures of some wonders in the world before class - Give instructions: "You are going to see each part of the picture and name the wonder of the world in it The group that gives the correct answer first will be the winner" - Show each part the pictures slowly for Ss to observe - Organize the game and declare the winner Key: - Ha long Bay - The Great Wall - Taj Mahal - Colosseum 2.4 Effectiveness of the Teaching Experience These suggested activities have been applied in my listening teaching to 11 th students at Quang Xuong II upper secondary school and they seem to be useful to students In order to make a comparison to figure out the effectiveness, these activities were employed at class 11B4 in school year 2017-2018 Meanwhile, no warm-up activities were used at class 11B5 Instead, teacher only 12 used some guiding questions to lead students into new lessons It is interesting that most of the students of the two classes showed different reactions to the new lessons Most of the students at class 11B4 with total of 45 students found it eager and more comfortable before the listening lessons This was shown through their high motivation and interest in learning listening, their active participation in activities and then many students at low levels could carry out listening tasks by themselves Asked about the warm-up activities, 95% of students enjoyed participating in these activities enthusiastically Moreover, a considerable number of the students found lead-in activity helpful for them to have something related to the listening topic in their mind before going to listen to As a result, students’ listening skills, to some extent, have been improved during the school years That also proved that students always wanted their teacher to motivate them by organizing interesting activities and creating comfortable learning atmosphere In contrast, students in class 11B5 seem to give a negative feedback They said that they felt hard to start the listening lessons because their teacher only guided them to use listening strategies before listening and doing the tasks Besides, the students gave different views on the level of listening tasks in the lesson 50% of 40 students in class said that listening tasks were difficult They also claimed that sometimes they were not in the right mood to the listening tasks because of the learning atmosphere and their bad health From the results above, it might be said that warm-up activities can bring students out of boredom and support them energy to start the tasks Warm-up activities enable students to learn from each other and make them feel more confident to give out their answers for the next steps 13 PART 3: CONCLUSION In conclusion, after trying to apply the adaptation techniques to design warm-up activities for listening lessons at Quang Xuong II upper-secondary school with the participants of 11th grader, it has been revealed that students are more eager to study listening skill The adaptation and creation of warm-up listening activities in an easier and more familiar with their real life makes the students more confident in carrying out listening requirements followed because, to some extent, they have background knowledge to listen about The fact is that the presented activities have worked well in my classroom However, you can adapt them in order to fit your teaching style and your students Many of these activities can be modified and used as regular classroom activities It can be easily prepared and enhance the students’ motivation before class In this paper, I share my experiences with you, the teachers of English, with the hope that we can help the students improve skills in learning English in general and listening skills in particular 14 REFERENCES A English Authors: Anderson, A & T Lynch (1988), Listening, Oxford University Press Brown, H D (1994), Teaching by Principles, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents Brown, H D (2001), Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd Ed.), Longman Rixon, S (1986), Developing Listening Skills, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Underwood, M (1989), Teaching Listening, London and New York: Longman B Vietnamese Authors: Nguyễn Thùy Minh Lương Quỳnh Trang (2008), Thiết kế giảng Tiếng Anh 11, Ha Noi Publisher Hoàng Văn Vân et al (2006), Tiếng Anh 11, Giao Duc Publisher C Additional Reference: Website: http://www.betterlanguagelearning.com Website: http://www.nwlink.com XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN Thanh Hóa, ngày 28 tháng năm 2018 VỊ Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Người thực Lê Thị Hải Thiều 15 ... "Tieng Anh 11" - To suggest warm- up activities for some listening lessons in “Tieng Anh 11” PART 2: CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background Stages of Teaching Listening Skills Teaching listening text... can be divided into three main stages: prelistening, while -listening and post -listening Each stage has its own aims and activities a) Pre -listening Pre -listening stage aims at preparing students... in warm- up activities b) Why you use warm- up activities It is believed that warm ups set the tone of the lesson, get students to begin thinking and focusing on English, provide a transition into