Using some language games in some speaking lessons to create excitement and enhance learning english for grade 12 students

TABLE OF CONTENT 2.3.9.Daily work 12 2.3.10 Exhibition 13 2.3.11.Guessing game 14 2.3.12 Stop the bus 14 References 17 Introduction 1.1 Reason for choosing the study Learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition from the classroom to the 'real' world In the classroom, everyone knows you are a student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe Speaking another language outside the classroom is completely different and often students are lost at sea as soon as they step outside the door Lists of memorized vocabulary are suddenly useless when ordering in a restaurant The problem becomes more complicated when it comes to Vietnam setting English teachers in Vietnam have just adopted communicative approach for just a few years since the using of the new textbooks However, they have not paid enough attention to speaking skill The speaking tasks are simple, and more importantly, impractical How to create excitement for students during English speaking lessons? Through out five- year teaching experience, studying materials as well as observing the other teachers' class, I realize that stimulating students to practice speaking actively during English lesson majorly bases on designing teaching-learning activities of each teacher in each lesson plan And, games in general and speaking games in particular are very useful in teaching and learning English speaking because it not only encourages, but improves and teaches students’ ability in using English fluently as well Therefore, I think this study is necessary and the result of using games in teaching speaking will bring many practical benefits to the students As an English teacher, I really want to clarify the topic here with my knowledge to analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at high school; the application of games in teaching English at the school Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and make a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject Thus, in this writing, I would like to present the study entitles: "Using some language games in some speaking lessons to create excitement and enhance learning English for grade 12 students" 1.2 Aims of the study The aims of this study are: - To introduce some language games in teaching speaking - To show how to organize games effectively and how to deal with initial problems that may arise - To create excitement and enhance learning English for students 1.3 Objects of the study This subject is concerned with ways of using some language games as well as their effectiveness on teaching speaking 1.4 Methods of the study Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences Content 2.1 Theoretical back ground Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p 13) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting" Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task There is an interesting movement towards teaching speaking with games It creates students’ motivation in learning English, especially speaking English g Just immage when coming in class the teacher annouces that it is time for speaking lesson with games instead of moans and whinning, the teacher and the students get smiles and excitemment Aydan Ersoz, author of "Six Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom" also explains more reasons why games work for teaching speaking Learning a language requires constant effort and that can be tiring, but Ersoz outlines two good reasons why games should be included in the classroom: * Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating * Games allow meaningful use of the language in context Students may wish to play games purely fo fun Teacher, however, need more convincing reasons “ Teacher need to consider which games to use, when to use them, how to link them up with the syllabus, textbook and programme and how, more specially, different games with benifit student in different ways” (Khan, J,1996) The key to a sucessful language games is that the rule is clear, the ultimate goal is well designed and the game must be fun 2.2 Real situation of teaching and learning English at Tho Xuan high school From applying new English teaching methods, "language games” have been become main activity in teachers' lesson plans, especially in speaking plans Some teachers have paid attention and prepared careful game They know how to make the class time pleasant and comfortable so they create excitement and motivate speaking English for their students However, some others are not aware much about the importance of language games as well as speaking skill They still think that these games for this part waste time and make class noisy Thus, instead of having better preparation for speaking period, they often explain the grammar rules and ask students to exercises This makes students stressful and the class time boring Moreover, for students at Tho Xuan high school, they have approached new teaching methods, but they seem to be embarrassing when they take part in speaking activities To know exactly about this problem, I have investigated 90 students in classes 12A5 and 12A6 by asking them the following questions: Please tick your choice to answer the following questions: Do you like speaking activities in English lessons? Very like Like Normal Dislike Why (don't) you like speaking activities in English lesson? And I get the bellow result: Total 90 students very like like No % No 10 11.1 15 Normal % No % 16.7 25 27.8 Dislike No % 40 44.4 As can be seen from the result that most of good students are interested in speaking activities while lower students are shy because they have no ability to take part in Student's level of understanding is unequal in a class to cause difficulty for teachers to choose activities which are suitable for whole class Many activities can be applied well in this period but they also are boring in the other ones Lots of speaking activities make good students excited while bad students could not participate in And vice versa, some activities attract lower students but make good ones bored Besides, my school is located in half-plain and pure agricultural area so students `have less chance to communicate in foreign language in daily life They are so shy to speak as well as express ideas, so the lessons often end with chatting in mother tongue From those reasons, the study entitled ""Using some language games in some speaking lessons to create excitement and enhance learning English for grade 12 students" has been conducted with the hope to make teachers and students have a good chance to practice speaking English 2.3 Some speaking activities applied in teaching English 12 (basic) 2.3.1 First riddle Aims: find key word related to the topic of the lesson Unit 1: Home life Time: minutes Preparation: pictures Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - Teacher (T) divides class into teams A and B - T hangs the pictures prepared on the board and asks students (Ss) to find out the name of each picture and then take the first word of each word to make key word Which teams finding the key word fastest will be the winner - Ss work in group and find the key word - T declares the winner and leads in to the new lesson * Key word: FAMILY * cue pictures: Fish Armchair Mushroom Ice cream Lamp Yard 2.3.2 Who takes on? Aim: practice talking about house works Unit Home life Time: minutes Preparation: handouts printed the information in the textbook Work arrangement: group work Procedure: T divides class into groups of students T gives Ss handouts Each student in each group will go to other groups to interview about the information in the handout After minutes, Ss return their group to report the information of the friend who they have interviewed T calls some groups to present their work in front of the class T gives feedback *Model dialogue: Student A: Can you tell me who works in your family? Student B: Both my parents work My father is a doctor My mother is a worker Student A: Who does household chores? Student B: My mother does most household chores Student A: What is your responsibility in the family? Student B: I help my mother the washing up and clean the floor I help my brother with his homework Student A: What interest your family members share closely? Student B: our schoolwork and TV programs are what we share closely Student A: Who you often share your secrets with? Student B: I often share my secrets with my mother Student A: Who you talk to before making an important decision? Student B: I talk to my parents before making an important decision Report I talked to Mai Both her parents work Her mother does most household chores but she helps her a lot Her responsibility is doing the washing up, cleaning the floor and helping her brother with his homework Her family members share the schoolwork and TV programs closely She often shares her secrets with her mother She talks to her parents before making an important decision 2.3.3 How much you know about this? Aims: practice talking about diverse culture Unit 2: Cultural diversity Time: minutes Preparation: pictures Work arrangement: group work Procedure: T divides class into groups Each group chooses a representative T lets groups choose one of pictures in random Each picture expresses one of different cultural features which are concerned in the textbook page 22,23 Ss will observe the picture and express the their ideas about the cultural feature in it After minutes, T calls representatives of groups to present their ideas in front of the class T gives comments *8 cue pictures 6 *Answer People go shopping once a week Lovers hold hands and kiss in public Children sleep in their own bedrooms Three generations live under the same roof People ask questions about age people celebrate their birthdays Christmas is a national holiday Marriage is based on love 2.3.4 How you say in this situation? Aim: practice giving and responding compliments Unit 3: Ways of socializing Time: minutes Preparation: some situations Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into team (A &B) - T gives some situations on the board - One student in group A will give a compliment following the situation given by teacher and one student in group B will respond After that, one student in group B will give compliment and student in group A respond - This response must be done continually in turns Whoever stop s in seconds (the whole class counts one, two, and three….) has to stand up Which team has less students standing up will be the winner - T gives feedback Example: Situation 1: a girl is wearing a new dress Student A: You look very nice in your new dress Student B: Thank you That’s a nice compliment… 2.3.5 Win her heart Aims: warm- up activities for talking about the topic of the lesson Unit 4: School education system Time: minutes Preparation: pictures about kinds of school Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into teams "Son Tinh" and "Thuy Tinh" - T hangs pictures in turn on the board - teams raise hand to have right to guess "what is kind of school?" in the picture If guessing is correct, they will one step to win Mi Nuong's heart If wrong, they will spend right to answer to the left team Which team stepping to the top first will be the winner - T gives feedback for each guessing and marks for each team - T declares the winner and leads in to the lesson *Cue pictures: Kindergarten, Primary school, Secondary school, High school 2.3.6 Which school? Aim: practice talking about school education system in Vietnam and England Unit 4: School education system Time: minutes Preparation: a note of vocabulary cards for each pair Work arrangement: pair works Procedure: - T lets Ss work in pair - T puts vocabulary cards on the desk and covers them - Ss take turn to choose card and talk about the tissue in it Student A will talk about school education system in Vietnam and student B will school talk about education system in England After that, two students will find the similarities and differences between two school education systems - T asks Ss to discuss in minutes and then calls some pairs to present their work in front of the class - T gives feedback • Vocabulary cards Levels of education The age at which children start grade The terms Compulsory education Academic year The grades at primary school School fee curriculum School system National examination 2.3.7 Magic wheel Aim: practice talking about the process of applying to a tertiary institution in Vietnam Unit 5: Higher education Time: minutes Preparation: a wheel of 12 numbers (from one to twelve) indicating 12 months in a year Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into teams - Each team will take turn to choose the number by turning the wheel Then, Ss will have to talk about what they will in that month to prepare for going to university - Ss can using the cues in task page 55 - Each presentation will get one point Which team has more points will be the winner - Ss plays game and T gives feedback *Expected answer: Month Work October Learn for the first semester at high school Do 15 minute and one period tests November Learn for the first semester at high school Do 15 minute and one period tests December Take first term examination January Get first term results Start second semester February Attend meetings introducing universities Choose the favorite university or college March Fill in the application form Send the application form May Take the GCSE examination June Get the GCSE result July Take the entrance examination to the university of August Get the entrance examination result September Get a letter of acceptance from the university Go to university as a university student 2.3.8 Complete the words Aim: review some vocabularies related to job Unit 6: Future jobs Time: minutes Preparation: handout Work arrangement: group work 10 Procedure: T divides class into four groups T gives handout including 17 words There is a key letter of the key word “ choose the right job” in each word Ss will work in group to find the words by reading the given cues T lets Ss to discuss in minutes and then calls them to give their answers on the board Which group has more right answers and find the key word in the shortest time will be the winner *Handout SHEET Read the clues and find out the right words The dashes show you the number of letters of each word Some of them are two- word C _H _ _O _ _O S _ _E T _H _ _E 10 _R 11 _I _ 12 G 13 _H _ 14 T 15 G _ 16 O _ 17 B SHEET 2: Clues He can arrest criminals ( two words ) He designs houses, buildings… She wears and shows her new styles of clothes He prepares food in the restaurant He spends most of his working time at sea She makes people’s appearance more beautiful He travels into space He designs clothes (two words) He makes people laugh a lot by his performance on stage 10 He writes articles for some newspapers 11 He stops fire 11 12 She takes groups of tourists around the city 13 He sells you things in a shop(two words) 14 He cures animals when they are ill 15 He plays records at a jazz club at night 16 He plays football professionally 17 He repairs things like water pipes in your house Answer: police officer architect model cook sailor beautician astronaut fashion designer comedian 10 journalist 11 fireman 12 tour guide 13 shop assistant 14 vet 15 disc jockey 16.footballer 17 Plumber 2.3.9 Daily work Aim: practice talking about the work features of some common jobs Unit 6: Future jobs Time: 10 minutes Preparation: pictures of some common jobs Work arrangment: group work Procedure: - T divides class into groups of five students and gives them a set of pictures - T asks them to talk about daily activities of the job in each picture One student in each group will take note the ideas of their group - After minutes, T calls the representative of each group to present their ideas in front of class Other students can give more ideas if necessary - T gives feedback *Cue pictures 12 Example: Picture 1: A policeman directs the traffic, helps people in the streets with information about traffic laws, prevents crimes, and catches criminals… 2.3.10 Exhibition Unit 10: Endangered species Aim: express their own ideas about endangered species as well as protecting them Time: 10 minutes Preparation: some big pieces of paper, markers, color pencils Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into groups and delivers big pieces of paper and markers, color pencils to each group - T asks them to draw a picture of endangered animals and then introduce some facts about them - Ss discuss in group to discuss the information about the animal in their picture - After minutes T has Ss stick their pictures on the board, one representative of each group will present their group’s idea - T and other Ss give comments and choose the best-designer poster and the best presentation to praise *Model: Pandas live in bamboo forest in the mountains in central land western China They are big animal Pandas can grow up from to 1.5 meters high and weigh up 160 kg Bamboo is their main diet The life span of pandas can be about 20 to 30 years Now there are only about 600 pandas left in the world Pandas populations are at risk due to hunting and illegal trading 13 2.3.11 Guessing game Unit 12: Water sport Aims: practice talking about some water sports Time: 10 minutes Preparation: some small gifts Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into teams - T asks them to prepare a talking about some water sports you have known in minutes Ss can use cues in the textbook page 131 - T lets each group to choose the best student to represent - A representative of each group will stand in front of the class and tell about the type of sport you have talked Other teams have to listen and give the name of the sport - The team who gives the correct answer first will win and gets 10 marks - T gives feedback after each presentation and declares the winner *Example: It is played in a pool It is played with a ball and people play it in a team Key: water polo 2.3.12 Stop the bus Unit 12: The 22nd Sea Games Aim: introduce some country in Southeast Asian and some popular sports Time: minutes Preparation: some alphabet cards Work arrangement: group work Procedure: - T divides class into three teams - T draws three lines on the board and labels them with two categories Team A Team B Team C Country: ………… ………… ………… Sport: ………… ………… ………… - T gives Ss a letter from alphabet As quickly as possible, Ss should think of a word connected with each category beginning with this letter and write them down - The first team to write down one word for each category should shout “stop the bus” If the words are correct, T gives them one point then Ss choose the other letter *Model: 14 Letter M Letter T Country: Malaysia Sport: Mountain climbing Country : Thailand Sport: Table tennis/ Tennis 2.4 Result All above things are some speaking activities which I applied for grade 12 students at Tho Xuan high school After applying those activities, I see that students' learning English have been improved The table below expresses clearly the change in the students’ behavior in speaking activities: Total 90 students (12A1,12A2) very like No 30 like % No 33.3 40 normal % No 44.4 15 dislike % No 16.7 % 5.5 In fact, almost students seem to be more excitement as well as indulging in learning English Lots of shy students are more confident They begin speaking English together in the class time Especially, they are very interested in speaking activities This makes them more active and more enthusiasm to take part in learning activities Thus, their learning result has been clearly increased in comparison with the beginning semester Learning result in 2019-2020: (before applying project) Total excellent good fair bad 90 students No % No % No No No (12A1,12A2) 3,3 15 16,7 30 33,3 42 Learning result in 2020-2021: (after applying project) Total excellent good fair bad 90 students No % No % No % No (12A1,12A2) 10 11,1 30 33,3 40 44,5 10 % 46,7 % 11,1 Conclusion and suggestions 3.1 Conclusion 15 Language games help teachers combine skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing during giving the games and form the habit to play them Therefore, teachers only need to prepare a little, they can make class atmosphere lively and effectiveness of learning high because both teachers and students are familiar to the way to play games During the game, most students feel interested, ready to cooperate to take part in the game When playing the games, students express their motivation Moreover, students can revise the old structure and learn new one without being nervous or tired In summary, learning speaking through games is a method both effective and attractive, and can apply in any classes 3.2 Suggestions It can be said that teaching English by new methods at high school especially at schools which is located in pure agricultural area is very difficult However, teacher can apply new methods effectively if they really have love with teaching career and always study suitable teaching methods for each student, gradually solve difficulties of this subject Through this writing, I want to share my little experience about using some new speaking activities to stimulate students to learn English with the other teachers I really hope that it is a useful reference to help teacher have the most effective lessons ` XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh hố, ngày 15 tháng 05 năm 2021 Tơi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Người viết LÊ THỊ HOA 16 References Sách giáo khoa Tiếng anh 12, NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam Thiết kế hoạt động dạy & học Tiếng anh 12, Kiều Hồng Vân- Cao Thị Thu Hương- Cao Hồng Liên, NXB Giáo dục Thiết kế giảng tiếng anh 12, Trần Thị Ái Thanh- Hồ Thị Tân Hoa- Huỳnh Thạnh- Trần Thị Diệu Hòa, NXB Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Phương pháp giảng dạy Tiếng Anh trường phổ thông – Nguyễn Hạnh Dung Tài liệu bồi dưỡng giáo viên cốt cán môn Tiếng Anh THPT – 2003 Methodology handbook for English teachers in Viet Nam Teach English by Adrian Doff Harmer, J( 1991), How to teach English, London- Long man Press 17 ... entitled " "Using some language games in some speaking lessons to create excitement and enhance learning English for grade 12 students" has been conducted with the hope to make teachers and students. .. excitement and enhance learning English for grade 12 students" 1.2 Aims of the study The aims of this study are: - To introduce some language games in teaching speaking - To show how to organize games. ..enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject Thus, in this writing, I would like to present the study entitles: "Using some language games in some speaking lessons to create excitement and