The use of language games to motivate 10th form students to learn writing at kim anh high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HỨA THỊ THANH HÀ THE USE OF LANGUAGE GAMES TO MOTIVATE 10TH FORM STUDENTS TO LEARN WRITING AT KIM ANH HIGH SCHOOL VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRỊ CHƠI NGƠN NGỮ NHẰM TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC THÚC ĐẨY HỌC SINH LỚP 10 HỌC VIẾT TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM ANH M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 60.140.111 HANOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HỨA THỊ THANH HÀ THE USE OF LANGUAGE GAMES TO MOTIVATE 10TH FORM STUDENTS TO LEARN WRITING AT KIM ANH HIGH SCHOOL VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRỊ CHƠI NGƠN NGỮ NHẰM TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC THÚC ĐẨY HỌC SINH LỚP 10 HỌC VIẾT TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KIM ANH) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 60.140.111 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Dr HANOI – 2013 DECLARATION I, Hứa Thị Thanh Hà , declare that the thesis entitled “The use of language games to motivate 10th form students to learn writing at Kim Anh High school” reports the result of the study conducted by myself The minor thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Post-graduate studies, ULIS, Hanoi for Degree of Master in TESOL It has not been published anywhere Hứa Thị Thanh Hà i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the first place, I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor – Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Vice - Director of Institute for Education Quality Assurance, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for all her valuable guidance, helpful advices, recommendation, and encouragement during the time I tried to complete this minor thesis Without her, I would not have followed the right direction for the accomplishment of this research Second, my deepest thanks go to ten teachers of English and 89 tenth form students at Kim Anh High school who were so generous and willing to help me with the questionnaires and interviews Third, I would like to thank all the teachers of the Faculty of Post-Graduate studies for their valuable lectures on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation Last but not least, I would like to express my biggest love and thankfulness to my family for their unconditional contributions during my thesis Hứa Thị Thanh Hà ii ABSTRACT In ELT, language games have long been proved to be a valuable source of motivation, one of the keys to success of language acquisition Aiming at investigating the use of language games as a motivator to students' learning writing, this study was conducted with two sets of survey questionnaires and interviews as the main instruments The study looked at the current situation and difficulties when teachers applied language games to stimulate students to learn writing Ten teachers and 89 tenth form students at Kim Anh High school took part in the study The result reveals positive attitudes from the participants toward the use of language games to motivate students to learn writing Language games are applied frequently to motivate students, mostly in warm up stage within to 10 minutes Students often play games in two teams or groups with the common ones such as crossword, hangman and matching Most of the teachers are pleased with their use of language games and most of the students take part in the activities enthusiastically However, there remain some difficulties facing the teachers and students while language games are used as a motivator in writing lessons Based on the findings, some pedagogical implications are provided for the improvement of writing teaching by motivating students via language games iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table The benefits of using language games to motivate students to learn writing Table Teachers' preparation for the use of language games in writing lessons Table Students' performance in the games according to the teachers' viewpoint Table The difficulties facing teachers when using language games to motivate students to learn writing Table Teachers' suggestions on how to use language games to motivate students to learn writing Table The benefits of using language games as a motivator in writing lessons according to students' viewpoint Table The difficulties students meet when playing language games in writing lessons Table Students' suggestions for teachers' using language games to motivate students to learn writing Figure Teachers‟ keenness on using language games to motivate students to learn writing Figure The usefulness of using language games to motivate students to learn writing in teachers' viewpoint Figure The frequency of using language games to motivate students to learn writing Figure Stages at which language games are used in writing lessons Figure Time for using language games to motivate students to learn writing Figure Kinds of language games to stimulate students to learn writing Figure Class organization when language games are used to motivate students to learn writing Figure Teachers‟ activities before conducting the games iv Figure Teachers‟ activities while students are playing the games Figure 10 Teachers‟ activities in the post playing stage Figure 11 Teachers‟ feeling pleased with their use of language games to motivate students to learn writing Figure 12 Figure 13 Students' interest in teachers' using language games in writing lessons Students' attitudes towards the usefulness of language games in motivating students to learn writing Figure 14 Teachers' frequency of using language games to motivate students to learn writing according to the students Figure 15 Students' participation in language games in writing lessons Figure 16 Stages at which language games are used in writing lessons according to the students Figure 17 Time for using language games to motivate students to learn writing according to the students Figure 28 Class organization when language games are used to motivate students to learn writing according to the students Figure 19 The teachers' using other teaching aids when they apply language games in writing lessons v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT English Language Teaching EFL English as Foreign Language TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi ULIS University of Language and International Studies vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of tables and figures iv List of abbreviations vi Tablle of content vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study Aims of the study Research question of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Writing and writing teaching 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 Approaches to writing teaching 1.1.3 Processes in teaching writing 1.1.4 Factors affecting students' performance in writing lessons 1.1.4.1 Student factors 1.1.4.2 Teacher factors vii 1.1.4.3 External factors 10 1.2 Language games 11 1.2.1 Definitions 11 1.2.2 Roles of language games 12 1.2.3 Types of language games 13 1.2.4 Methods of using language games 14 1.2.4.1 When to use a game? 14 1.2.4.2 Which games to use? 15 1.2.4.3 How to run a game? 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study 18 2.2 Participants of the study 18 2.3 Data collection instruments 19 2.3.1 Survey questionnaires for teachers and students 19 2.3.2 Interviews with teachers and students 19 2.4 Data collection procedure 20 2.5 Data analysis methods 20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Survey questionnaires 21 3.1.1 Survey questionnaire for the teachers 21 3.1.1.1 The attitudes of the teachers towards using language games to motivate students to learn writing 21 3.1.1.2 The current situation of teachers‟ using languagegames to motivate students to learn writing at Kim Anh High school 22 3.1.1.3 Teachers‟ difficulties when using language games to motivate students to learn writing 28 viii S2: I want to hear teachers' comments on how well we have done and correct our mistakes if any This encourages us to try more and win the games the next times S3: Teachers should ask students to prepare for the activities in advance For instance, students are required to find out at home as many words about a certain topic as possible So they may get their best performance in the games after that And after the games are over, teachers should summarize the language items used in the games and students can remember them better S4 I would like my teachers to conduct language games more often S5: Why don't teachers have students design games and organize for the rest to play? It may be funny and exciting S6: I think teachers should not have the games played in a long time 10 minutes may be the maximum S7 I don't understand the rules Teachers should translate them into Vietnamese S8 I like playing games with my group But I would also prefer working with different students each time we play a game Changing partners helps me to know more about my classmates XX APPENDIX 6: DATA COLLECTED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS No Questions Have you ever applied language th games to stimulate 10 form students to learn writing? No of teachers % How you like using language games to motivate students to learn writing? No of teachers % What you think of the usefulness of using language games to motivate students to learn writing? No of teachers % What are the benefits of language games to motivate students to learn writing in your viewpoint? XXI No of teachers % How often you use language games in writing lessons? No of teachers % Which stage you often use language games? No of teachers % How long you often conduct a language game? No of teachers % What kinds of language games you often use to warm up writing lessons No of teachers % How you often organize work in class? No of teachers XXII % What you to prepare for the language games used to stimulate students to learn 10writing? No of teachers % What you often before 11conducting the game? No of teachers % What you often while students are playing the game? 12 No of teachers % XXIII What you often in the post 13playing stage? No of teachers % How your students often play the game? 14 No of teachers % How you feel about your motivating students to learn 15writing via language games? No of teachers % XXIV What are your difficulties in using language games to motivate students to learn writing 16? No of teachers % What should the teachers to deal with these problems? 17 No of teachers % XXV APPENDIX 7: DATA COLLECTED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS No Questions Have you ever played language games in writing lessons? No of students % How you like when teachers use language games to motivate students to learn writing No of students % What you think of the usefulness of using language games to motivate students to learn writing? No of students % Answers Yes 89 100 not at all 30 34 24 27 quite useful 19 21 I can revise What are the benefits of language games to motivate students to learn writing in your viewpoint? No of students % 10 some and useless 0 I feel more selfconfidenc e structures through games 80 90 0 64 72 24 27 Games make the lessons more interestin g and less sleepy 44 49 others 10 11 XXVI How often your teachers use language games in writing lessons? No of students % When the teacher organize language games in writing lessons, you often No of students % At which stage your teachers often use language games? No of students % 10 How long your teachers often conduct a language game No of students % How your teachers often organize work in class when using language games in writing lessons? No of students % Do your teachers use other teachings aids such as pictures, a in very few lessons 4 b in few lessons 33 37 only join in when you are called on like and join in 67 75 10 11 Pre writing 41 46 Warm up 75 84 1-5 minutes 6-10 minutes 36 40 group work pair work 60 67 52 58 always usually XXVII cassette player, overhead projector, etc when they apply language games in writing lessons? No of students % 11 What are your difficulties when teachers use language games to motivate students to learn writing? No of students % What should the teachers to deal with these problems in your view 12 point? No of students % I don't understand the rule 46 52 35 39 games are too difficult our class become very noisy when playing the game 12 13 use various kinds of games 50 56 30 34 comment students' performan ce for better result next time 40 45 XXVIII ... the attitudes of the teachers and students towards using language games to motivate students to learn writing?  What games are used to motivate students to learn writing at Kim Anh High school? ... of language games to motivate them to learn writing 30 3.1.2.2 Students' viewpoint on the current situation of using language games to motivate students to learn writing at Kim Anh High. .. DECLARATION I, Hứa Thị Thanh Hà , declare that the thesis entitled ? ?The use of language games to motivate 10th form students to learn writing at Kim Anh High school? ?? reports the result of the study