Using partners talks as a kind of homework to perform communicative tasks for 10 graders

TEACHING EXPERIENCE TITLE: USING PARTNER'S TALK AS A KIND OF HOMEWORK TO PERFORM COMMUNICATIVE TASKS FOR 10 GRADERS SUBJECT: ENGLISH March, 2021 NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TAN KY HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== TEACHING EXPERIENCE TITLE: USING PARTNER'S TALK AS A KIND OF HOMEWORK TO PERFORM COMMUNICATIVE TASKS FOR 10 GRADERS Teacher : Nguyễn Thị Huệ Group : English School year: 2020 - 2021 March, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for the study Aims of the study Methods of the study Scope of the study 5 Significance of the study PART II: CONTENT Theoretical and practical background 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Definition of homework 1.1.2 The role of homework in teaching and learning 1.1.3 Characteristics of communicative activities 1.1.4 Benefits of partner talk Solution 2.1 Some ways to choose parners for students 2.2 Guided activities: 2.2.1 Picture discription Teacher can use picture discription in design activities for homework because it can help increase students’ imagination and improve their communicative skills 10 2.2.2 Interview method 11 2.2.3 Role play method 16 2.2.4 Discussion method 22 2.2.5 Partner talks for improving writing and grammar skills: Writing reports 27 2.3 Free activities 29 Dramatization method: 29 In this activity, teacher prepares a script of a part of the film or drama for students in advance and students are given enough time to rehearse This method helps students to experience and practice what they are learning A good amount of caution is needed when organizing it 29 Dramatization provides students with some merits: 29 - It develops in students the ability to set up the scenario rules, roles, procedures 29 - It enables students to take on and maintain their role as they interact with the other in the drama 29 - It helps students to explore relationships between fictional and real worlds 29 Suggested activity: Titanic 30 Homework for Unit 13: Films and cinema 30 After lesson D Writing 30 Findings and evaluation 30 PART C: CONCLUSION 32 Conclusion 32 Suggestions for teachers: 32 PART IV: REFERENCES 33 APPENDIX 34 STUDENTS' OPINION SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE 34 PART I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for the study In the modern world today, English plays an important part in every field of our life Having good English may bring us good opportunities not only in being chosen in good high schools and universities, studying in abroad career but also in getting a high - paid job after graduation Therefore, every family uses a lot of ways to encourage their children to study English at the early age: using free English programmes on Internet, English apps , going to English centers, or even buying expensive courses for children to study after school In all levels of education in the recent years, teachers all over the country have made efforts to find out and apply a lot of new methods in teaching, hoping to contribute to students’ success In teaching English subject, realizing that communication is really vital, teachers create a lot of communicative activities in class lessons to promote students’ activeness, language using skills in communication and this brings certain results However, they hardly take notice of designing outside activities such as homework for students 10 graders are new comers at high schools Most of them come from different parts and find strange with new teachers and new friends in a new school It takes them a lot of time to get used to everything new in here.Therefore, creating study invironment in which students can not only study, make new friends but also understand a new place of study is essential For the reasons above, I would like to conduct the Teaching Experience for 10 graders namely: “Using partner's talks as a kind of homework to perform communicative tasks for 10 graders.” th Aims of the study To discuss and work out the communicative activities to perform communicative tasks Methods of the study Reading reference books, doing a survey, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching and getting experience from my own teaching Scope of the study The study was going to be investigated at Tan Ky High School for 10 grader students Significance of the study This study is carried out to aim at contributing to improving students’ attitude toward homework, helping develop communication skills and their mutual understanding PART II: CONTENT Theoretical and practical background 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Definition of homework + According to Wikipedia: “Homework, or a homework assignment, is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed outside the class Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, mathematical exercises to be completed, information to be reviewed before a test, or other skills to be practiced.” + “Homework is what teacher assigned and teacher monitored learning experiences that take place outside the classroom Homework is a planned part of the education process designed to enhance students’ learning” 1.1.2 The role of homework in teaching and learning In some newspapers, a few people concentrate on negative sides of giving homework and say that homework has no academic benefits as it stops students from joining useful activities and makes children hate school This may be true with small children at primary schools but untrue with high school students With a little time in the class, students can not cover every aspect of the lessons Thefore, completing assignments helps students understand their subjects deeper It puts the responsibility for learning on them and teaches basic organizational skills that they will carry and refine throughout their life Doing homework has a lot of advantages such as: + Help build responsibility + Help them get more knowledge and prepare them for higher education + Improve time management + Build students confidence + Enhance self-esteem + Improve study habit + Offer valuable feedback + Get parents more involved in a child’s education + Get the link between homework and standardized test achievement + Equip students for their lifelong learning 1.1.3 Characteristics of communicative activities Communication is the foremost skill that causes students a lot of difficulties The problems are lack of participation, inablility to express opinion, low motivation to speak Harmer (2007) said that high school students are teenagers who are in physical and mental transition from children to adults, so they have great capacity for thinking and studying Creating a language communicating environment for them in this period may they good One of the main characteristics of communicative language teaching is the focus on communicative tasks that enhance language learning These activities use real life situations to trigger communication They stimulate and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners Communicative activities have real purposes such as finding and exchanging information, breaking down barriers, talking about oneself, and learning about culture - The role of the teachers is to give clear and to the point instructions and provide the appropriate environment for learners to interact and exchange information - Communicative activities are motivating Learners should be at ease and have fun while doing the communicative tasks - Communicative tasks are realistic Real communication situations should be the focus instead of isolated structures with no real-life reference - Communicative activities are meaningful: they are carried out to fulfil specific purposes such as booking a plane, hotel ticket, inviting somebody to a party, answering an invitation letter, shopping… - Performance in communicative tests reflects an underlying competence that is linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic… Communicative activities should consider this multi-dimensional nature of language 1.1.4 Benefits of partner talk As we know, the primary purpose of teaching and learning English is that students can communicate English with others sucessfully There are many effective techniques that can be used to encourage and promote students to engage in and one of them is partner talk The benefits of the partner talk: + Children are encouraged to discuss their learning and become more actively involved + It gives children time to formulate their opinions and find an answer they are confident with + Children are more comfortable discussing their ideas with a partner than with a teacher Practical background Tan Ky High school is located in a western area of Nghe An province Its students are from six communes, many of whom belongs to ethnic minority such as Thanh, Tho The new and strange feelings in the new school often make them feel shy and lack self-confidence Another problem is that students live far from school so they have to rent rooms near the school to study Almost all students are provided with new smart phones After school, they have a lot of free time However, they spend their time playing games, chatting with their roomates, using facebooks or even watching films in cell phones Some of them go to Internet shop to play high speed online games Although free time is available, they sometimes go to school without preparing new lessons and doing homework When discussing about homework with my students, I realise that most students not like being given homework They complained that when they studied at lower secondary school, in English subject, their homework was about writing new words or phrases or learning by heart related grammar or vocabulary, and then in the next lesson, they were called to go to the board to write down what they had practised and remembered Doing the same things day by day made them bored and unmotivated Sometimes, they were required to homework in books or exercise books with too many tasks with the similar things They did them reluctantly and boredly, sometimes, many students completed them by using key books or coppied other friends’ results to please their teachers, which did not bring in expected results On being asked about communicative tasks as homework, they said that they had never been given when they studied at secondary school Most of homework was written ones They also added that they were really scared of speaking English in front of people due to little practice There are teachers of English in my school, who are young and enthusiatic They are making their efforts to adapt teaching methods, apply new techniques in the class However, they have faced a lot of difficulties in designing interesting activities for homework Solution To help students complete their communicative tasks in Tieng Anh 10, I have applied two kinds of activites: - Guided activities: - Picture discription - Interview method - Role play method - Discussion method - Partner talk for improving writing skills and grammar usage: Writing reports - Free activities 2.1 Some ways to choose parners for students In order to choose a partner interestingly and unpredictably and students can have opportunities to work with different partners in different topics, teacher should not always let students choose their partners by themselves because some students tend to choose partners from their closest friends and some others feel sad because noone wants to choose them Therefore, teacher should be creative so that students can have a lot of fun and it makes them feel surprised by creating a number of interesting ways to assign partners as the following: + Make different kinds of lottery: - Teacher prepares a box and pieces of paper - Teacher divides class in two groups with equal number of students - A group will write their names on piece of papers, put them in a box The students from the other group will take turn to pull out the name to know who he / she will work with Students in class 10 A2 are choosing a piece of paper to find out their partners - An other way is that half of the class will have a piece of paper containing English words, meanwhile the other half will have equivalent Vietnamese words Students will go around to choose their partners The happiness and surprise that students have when having found out their partners 2.2 Guided activities: 2.2.1 Picture discription Teacher can use picture discription in design activities for homework because it can help increase students’ imagination and improve their communicative skills Procedure: Step 1: Teacher prepares pictures relating the topics of the lessons Step 2: Class members are divided into pairs Step 3: Teacher explains carefully about the task Step 4: Teacher sends pictures via messenger or Zalo Step 5: Teacher provides students with the time to complete and hand in the outcomes Step 6: Teacher collects the videos Step 7: Teacher spends time watching and giving comments Example: Unit 9: Undersea world After lesson B Speaking Aims: Raise students’ awareness of students’ undersea world protection Suggested activity: Students take turn to describe their own pictures and then discuss about the reasons for the problems of partner A and then talk about solutions Pictures: Partner A: Partner B: 10 - Plans of improving a village and possible results - Covid -19: Problems and solutions for the village - Changes in the villages in recent years Procedure: - After the lesson, teacher divides the class into pairs by - Teacher explains the requirements to them and instructs them how to the task - Teacher sets the deadline to collect the videos Model: An roleplay between Thao Nhi (a journalist) and Cam Tu (commune leader) from class 10A1: The image taken from the clip Journalist: Good morning Leader: Good morning Journalist: I’m a journalist of Nghe An newspaper I hear that you are doing well in preventing Covid -19 in your commune, so I’m very grateful if you could share something about that Leader: That’s ok Journalist: As you know, the disease problem is extremely serious now So what measures are you doing to prevent it , especially on Tet holiday coming? As far as I know,our commune has a lot of people who come back from many epidemic zones Leader: First of all, for people who come back from from the areas, they must go to the nearest medical center to notify Next, we’ll help improve the understanding of Covid-19 epidemic such as cleaning homes, roads, spraying disinfesctant at schools, markets, make them wear facemasks in public areas Journalist: Covid-19 is still progressing complicately What else will you do? Leader: It is becoming more and more complex, so we’ll continue 21 propagandizing everyone, every family to carry out measures to prevent pandemic In addition, we will contribute to the country to repel and conquer it Journalist: That’s fascinating I hope our country will be able to win it Thank you very much for your talk today Leader: You’re welcome 2.2.4 Discussion method Discussion is also a good way to be used in assigning homework for partner talk Through discussion, students can get others’s opinions and also express their own point of view to others It helps to develop students with various skills and abilities E.g skills and abilities such as critical and logical thinking Some ways to ask for opinions - Could you tell me….? - What you think about/of….? - What’s your opinion about…? - Do you think/feel….? - How you feel about….? - May I ask you….? Some ways to give your opinion - In my opinion/view… - As far as I can see/I’m concerned… - It seems to me that… - I have the/a feeling that … - I think/feel/reckon/believe… - If you want my opinion… - The way/As I see it Everyone knows… - Sorry to interrupt you, but… - I’m absolutely convinced that… Some ways to agree with an opinion  I (quite) agree  I agree completely/entirely  I couldn’t agree (with you) more  I entirely/completely agree with you on that  That’s true/right Objective: Help students have opportunities to express their ideas about one topic related to the lesson that they have learnt in the class Advantages of discussion in learning English: 22 + Students overcomes their shyness and partcipate actively in speaking English + Their true personality is revealed through discussion + It encourages thinking among students Procedure: Step 1: The teacher lets students play the game to decide the pairs for all the members Step 2: The teacher gives the topic and explains how to Step 3: The teacher checks the understanding and gets feedback from the students Step 4: The teacher provides students the time to complete and hand in the products Step 5: Teacher and students choose an optional period to feedback Step 6: After having their outcomes, teacher spends time evaluating and giving feedbacks If they are good, teacher writes notes to consider giving better marks to them on the following tests Example 1: Unit 5: TECHNOLOGY AND YOU After lesson B: Speaking Aims: Help students raise their awareness of the impact of using mobile devices at school Suggested activity: Discuss the topic: “Using cellphones at school should be prohibited Do you agree or disagree?” Procedure: After studying lesson B Speaking, teacher spends last minutes to assign homework - Teacher divides students into pairs by a game - Teacher explains the task to them and instructs them how to it - Teacher sets the deadline to collect the videos Teacher choose an optional period or five minutes of the next period to show some typical clips, other students Useful languages: + Ask about other’s opinions: Do you think that…? What you think about…? Suggested deas: For: - help students better in study because it is an effective learning tool to have 23 in school - be useful when connected with their family in emergency - look attractive Against: - lead to the distraction for both students and their peers - cause increased problems - make less- in person connections - cheat in the tests and exams - make teacher difficult to control the class A model: The image taken from the clip Tai: Hey, Dat Dat: Hey, long time no see How are you? Tai: Fine, thanks How is everything at your school? Dat: Good Tai: How about students? Dat: Hmm Most of them are very intelligent, kind and friendly Tai: Wow That’s great Dat: However, some students are not good They usually use smart phones in the class They play games, chat, use facebook and cheat in tests or exam Tai: Does your school prohibit it? Dat: Yes What you think about school’s decision? Tai: In my opinion, that’s a good decision Dat: Why you think so? 24 Tai: When you use smart phones in the class, it will be difficult for you to focus on what the teacher says Dat: What if I get teacher’s permission to solve that problem? Tai: I think you should use it in your free time Dat: Thanks for your share I aslo see that some students use cell phones to cheat in exams Tai: That’s terrible They are easy to it with a cell phone Dat: OMG, my mom is waiting for me to go shopping See you later Tai: Goodbye Example 2: Unit 7: THE MASS MEDIA After lesson B: Speaking Aim: Help increase students’ awareness about benefits and drawbacks of the Internet Suggested activity: Discussion: Give opinions to the topic: “Internet provides both advantages and disadvantages for users What’s your opinion” Procedure: - After the lesson, teacher divides the class into pairs - Teacher explains the requirements to them and instructs them how to the task - Teacher provides some suggestions for them to the task - Teacher sets the deadline to collect the videos Useful languages: Benefits of Internet: - Help study with a wide range of available and convenient programs - Help relax by a lot of ways: sports, films, music, … - Up-to date information happening around the world - Help widen knowledge with various fields Disadvantages of Internet: - Be addicted to some bad programmes as online games, violent films - Ignore face to face conversation - Ruin eyes - Prevent people from taking part in outdoor activities - Be made use of by high – tech crime Model: Huyen and Tra My, students of class 10A4 (Because they live far 25 from each other, they stay after class to their homework) Huyen: As we talked yesterday, you would prepare the advantages of Internet and the disadvantages would be my task Today we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of it Are you ready? Tra My: Yes Huyen: What you think of its advantages? Tra My: As we know that Internet is a kind of modern invention that really helps us in our lives Huyen: Can you share the details? Tra My: Yeah We can take our study as an example It helps us a lot in our study with a wide range of online courses and programmes This is useful because we can find something which is suitable for our ability easily After a hard day, we can relax by listening to music or watching films Huyen: That’s right However, it also has bad effects on us At the break time, instead of going out to play or talking to each other, we only sit alone and sulf Internet This will make our eyes bad Some boys play violent games on Internet, which makes them become addicted and violent too Sometimes, they easily lose their tempers and hit anyone immediately if they get angry Tra My: That’s true What you think users should to take advantage of its benefits and prevent its disadvantages Huyen: I think we should make them more aware of them through activities that school and Youth Union can organize Tra My: Yeah And, at the break time, school should create activities such as practise dancing for us, play music for teenagers I believe that this will stop them from sulfing Internet 26 Huyen: It’s nice to discuss this matter with you today I hope we will discuss more about other things in the next time Tra My: I hope so 2.2.5 Partner talks for improving writing and grammar skills: Writing reports Through a talk with their partners, instead of recording, students are required to write a report about what they have talked Example 1: Unit 8: THE STORY OF MY VILLAGE Homework for lesson E: Language focus Aim: Help students understand and apply the knowledge of grammar focus such as tenses, reported speech through reporting what they have talked to each other Procedure: - After the lesson, teacher divides the class into pairs - Teacher explains the requirements to them and instructs them the way to the task: Pairs choose a topic, talk about it - Teacher sets the deadline to collect the outcomes - Pairs write down what they have talked, using reported speech - Teacher collects the outcomes and gives feedback Suggested activity: Talk to a partner about a topic they like and then write report about what you have talked, using reported speech 27 Model: Le Na’s report of class 10 A2: This afternoon, I had a partner talk with Minh We talked a lot of things Firstly, we talked about our family Minh said that his family was not happy because his parents had divorced and they had new families He lived with his grandparents in a small house He also told me that he would try his best to study to have a better life in the future and could help his grandparents more Secondly, we talked about our study We agreed that some subjects were so difficult that we hardly got high marks We also shared the useful ways to study better at high school These are what we talked today Example 2: Unit 12: MUSIC Homework for lesson B: Speaking Aim: Help students understand and apply grammar focus such as tenses, reported speech through reporting what they have talked to each other Model: Quynh Anh’s report of class 10 A2 My partner this time was Trang Yesterday, we met each other at Trang’s rented room We talked about the topic of the lesson that we had studied in the class: Music We asked each other a lot of questions about the kind of music we like, our favourite song and singer She said that she was interested in pop music, K-pop She shared a lot of things about it She told me that her favourite band was Black Pink and her favourite song was How you like that This song was lyrical and it 28 really helped her entertain whenever she listened to it We realized that we had different tastes in music I really feel comfortable when talking to her She is not only kind but also active 2.3 Free activities This activity is really useful for the familiar topics Teacher gives pairs free activities so that they can freely talk to each other They can say whatever they want about the topic without being controlled or guided what they communicate by their teacher Aim: Provide students with chances to speak free English English outside class Procedure: -After the lesson, teacher delivers the task to the students -Teacher explains the task and check whether they understand the task or not -Teacher sets the deadline to collect the outcomes Their products can be a record or report of their talks -Teacher spends time checking their outcomes, giving comments to them but should not mark them Suggested activity: Students spend time practising speaking English with a person who is good at English They can meet directly, make a video call or phone call to fulfill the task Dramatization method: In this activity, teacher prepares a script of a part of the film or drama for students in advance and students are given enough time to rehearse This method helps students to experience and practice what they are learning A good amount of caution is needed when organizing it Dramatization provides students with some merits: - It develops in students the ability to set up the scenario rules, roles, procedures - It enables students to take on and maintain their role as they interact with the other in the drama - It helps students to explore relationships between fictional and real worlds Procedure: Step 1: Class members are divided into pairs Step 2: Teacher gives students the task 29 Step 3: Teacher explains carefully about the task Step 4: Teacher provides students with the time to complete and hand in the outcomes Step 5: Teacher collects the videos Step 6: Teacher asks some pairs as volunteers to act out in warmer part of the next lesson Suggested activity: Titanic Homework for Unit 13: Films and cinema After lesson D Writing Findings and evaluation Having applied the experience for two years, it could be affirmed that the attitude and motivation toward homework among students has been considerably enhanced Total number Showing interest with Partner’s talk as a kind of of students homework School year 2020 2021 Before doing experiments - After doing experiments Number of students % Number of students % 10 A1 (44 Ss) 10 22.73 % 41 93.18 % 10 A2 (43 Ss) 12 27.93 % 35 79.55 % 10 A4 (42 Ss) 11.9 % 27 64.29 % As can be seen from the above table, students showing more interest in doing homework has been considerably increased thanks to the application of new methods in assigning homework Before doing the experiments, only 22.73% of 10 A1, 27.93 % of 10 A2, and 11.9 % of 10 A4 showed interest in partner’s talk as a new kind of homework However, these numbers changed quickly after applying the methods This has demonstrated the effectiveness of the study 30 Taking notice of their talks, listeners are easy to find out some mistakes: some students made mistakes in grammar, pronunciation, some other students found difficult to express their ideas A few students wrote down the talk before pracitising with their partners, which led to unnatural talks However, readers also can realise the enthusiasm, activeness and efforts in every clip My students shared that they were busier than before: they had to prepare, set out ideas and choose a place to make clips but it really helped them a lot Thanks to their own videos, they could see and revise what they have talked, which helped them not only memorize the knowledge better and longer but also realize the mistakes they had made 31 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusion To high school students, homework is necessary because it helps students revise and widen the knowledge that they have studied in the class Traditional homework of English to improve other skills like reading or writing undeniably helps students in their study, however, designing communicative homework in other skills like speaking and listening plays crucial parts not only in succeeding in study but also in every latter phase of life Therefore, it is necessary to create interesting homework that encourages students to take part in it Communication skills are really important and considered as the main goal of studying English Therefore, helping students have chance to speak and listen to English through the tasks in the class and in homework is needed With the methods conducted in this study, the way to design homework has been changes almost completely from writing homework to communicative approaches for partner talk, which have achieved some positive results Not only are partner’s talks helpful to students but also beneficial to the teachers Through students’ partner talks, teachers can adjust their teaching and learning for students both inside and outside the classroom, making teachers become creative people One more important thing of this kind of homework is that when students, teacher work together, they will promote mutual understanding Therefore, the relationship between students and students, between students and teacher has been established and progressed This will be a good base so that students feel more confident, more motivated in their study Suggestions for teachers: Beside spending time creating traditional written homework, teacher should design various and interesting activities for pairs or groups, especially create more English speaking environment to help students communicate English outside class To promote students in doing communicative homework effectively and successfully, teacher should consider suitable tasks to encourage them actively take part in because they have difference in competence 32 PART IV: REFERENCES Byrne,(2004) Teaching oral English Harmer, Jeremy (2007) Huba and Freed, (2007) How to teach English Tieng Anh 10 Tieng Anh 10 Teacher’s book 33 APPENDIX STUDENTS' OPINION SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE What you think about traditional homework that you were usually given? A very meaningful B meaningful C not meaningful D boring How important is homework in your study? A very important B rather important C little important D not important at all What you think about partner’s talk that the teacher has applied recently? A very interesting B interesting C very boring D boring Would you like your teacher usually to organize many interesting activities to make you involve in homework and you have more chances to work with your partner? A Yes, very much B.Yes, sometimes C No, it's very tired D Never Do you think that Partner talk can help you a lot in speaking improvement? A Yes, very much B Yes, not much C Yes, very little D No, not at all What you think about English homework in which you learn new words, write down phrases or extra writing exercises? A It's very boring I don't like it B I don't care what kind of homework teacher assigns C It makes me sleepy D I like it very much In your opinion, Partner talk is a kind of homework in which you: A sit at a desk at home, the tasks the teacher asks you to 34 B work with a partner outside class to deal with the communicative tasks C a lot of grammar exercises at home D the tests How you think about Partner talk? A Very interesting and effective It gives me a lot of fun and I can learn many new things by practise speaking English with my partner B I don't like it very much C I don't like it, it takes me a lot of time D It is difficult and not effective What are the biggest benefits you can get after doing Partner talk? A Nothing B Not much C I don't know exactly D Cooperation, problem solving abilities and English competences 10 What will you expect from your teacher about homework in the future? A Use partner talk to replace traditional homework B Do not use partner talk because it takes a lot of time C Use traditional homework only D I don't care much about that 35 ... talks as a kind of homework to perform communicative tasks for 10 graders. ” th Aims of the study To discuss and work out the communicative activities to perform communicative tasks Methods of the... is a kind of homework in which you: A sit at a desk at home, the tasks the teacher asks you to 34 B work with a partner outside class to deal with the communicative tasks C a lot of grammar exercises...NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TAN KY HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== TEACHING EXPERIENCE TITLE: USING PARTNER'S TALK AS A KIND OF HOMEWORK TO PERFORM COMMUNICATIVE TASKS FOR 10 GRADERS