Helping students in quan son high school use smartphones effectively in english lessons

PART I THE INTRODUCTION I THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME English has undoubtedly become part of our daily lives and it has become a vital and mandatory communication language in Vietnam in context of the fourth industrial revolution This has motivated Vietnamese to learn English to facilitate effective communication among their counterparts and meet the development requirements of the country The importance of English was immediately acknowledged by the Vietnamese government and as a result the English language programs were made compulsory beginning with the primary schools Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in Viet Nam The teaching and learning English in Vietnam is a big challenge To improve the quality of teaching and learning English, the teachers of English who are diligent to reform the teaching methods, have applied the information technology effectively for transfera lot of meaningful English lessons to students To catch up with the new teaching methods and get better results in learning English,the students tried their best to learn all of the knowledge in text book, references, .Actually, in the era of the globalization and international exchange, students can learn English through computers, laptops, tablets, TVs, Internet Espcially, with the dramatically development of smartphones, learning English on smartphones gets more attention In Quan Son high school, most of students have their own smartphones In the past few years, students were forced to use smartphones in the classroom They often used smartphones for entertainment like surfing facebook, tiktok, internet, or taking photographs, watching film,videos, playing games A few of them use smartphone for ther study outside the classroom However, since the Circular No 32/2020 /TT-BGDDT dated September 15, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training was passed, students are allowed to use phones during class time to serve learning purposes with their teachers’ permission Students at Quan Son high school can use smartphones more widely, but the effect for study remains limited While some students take advantages of this Circular to play games and use for their own purposes, other students don’t know how to apply them to learn English effectively As a teacher, We must have responsibility to guide our students to learn English in the most effective ways and get the best out of smartphones to learn English instead of using for the worthless things and making the lessons timeconsuming Because of above reasons I make a decision to choose the initiative named “Helping students in Quan Son high school use smartphones effectively in English lessons” II THE PURPOSE OF THE INITIATIVE The main purpose of this theme is to assist students in Quan Son high school find out the benefits of smartphones and use them to learn to propose pronunciations, definitions, grammatical tenses, language skills with a countless number of examples Furthermore, This theme will help students minimize the waste time to exposed to any kind of information which can prove to be harmful for them Last but not least, teachers are dedicated professionals who have a lasting impact on students Each day we will exercise our creativity, patience and communication skills as we present engaging lessons We always have to design the new online or offline activities for our lessons find out the meaningful websites, webinars, softwares so that our students access to learn and make the good interaction in the class This is also the important preparation for online teaching to deal with the worst situations in the time of coronavirus pandemic III THE REEARCHED SUBJECTS When researching this theme, I would like to concentrate on students who comes from remote and difficult villages in Quan Son district where most of people are ethnic minority ones Because they are in need of manythings, their awareness of learning English is still limited and the capacity of using modern technology has been rather low Many students are addicted smartphones for playing games but studying Hence the grade point of English subject of students there in the GCSE examinations and the entrance examinations has been lower than it in other regions in Thanh Hoa province This urges me to change my mind and make a good decision to something and improve the situations In the limited scale of this initiative, I mainly focus on the students in class 11A2 at Quan Son high school And then I will widen to apply to teaching other ones in our school the next school years IV THE METHODS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM When researching this theme, I have studied the role of modern technology in teaching and learning English by taking part in ULIS National Conference 2021 And I knew exactly the fact of using smartphones of students at Quan Son high school Therefore, I have used the following methods - Reading the researches related to using technology and mobiles teachnologies to teach and learn English - Searching ways of using smartphones in learning English - Asking the collegues for advice and help - Observing and conducting real surveys on students in my school and changes the ways of teaching in time - Investigating and estimating the result of each survey so as to find out useful tips and experiences PART II THE CONTENT I.THE THEORICAL FOUNDATION OF THIS THEME In the past, learning and education simply meant face-to-face lectures, reading books or printed handouts, taking notes and completing assignments generally in the form of answering questions or writing essays In 21st century teaching practices are revolutionized as classes are more students centered instead of being teacher centered The increasingly raised the issue of using modern technologies in the educational process English teachers are relentless to find out not only new technical means, but also a new forms and methods of teaching, new approach to learning Therefore, smartphones and mobile technologies have been used widely to teach and learn Enlish in different places in Viet Nam The role of smartphones and mobile technologies in education must not be ignored (Tikoria & Agariya, 2017) They advance students’ understanding by increasing academic performance, social media participation and information sharing; They help their social skills by giving them opportunities to seek academic assistance and support, and many more Beside that, they also bring a lot of drawback to the students who use it everyday Teachers or experienced people must be the guiders to control those disadvantages and assit them to mine the good data II THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE THEME Before the Circular No 32/2020 /TT-BGDDT dated September 15, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training was passed, students were not allowed to use smartphones in the class so they keep pace with all technological developments embedded in these smartphones outside These students are more skillful in using them than their parents or grandparents Therefore, users of smartphones can use them for educational as well as for communication purposes in a way that makes their learning easier and more enjoyable However, Many students have embraced their own smartphone devices to use for research-purposes but schools and use these devices for selfish-reasons After the Circular No 32/2020 /TT-BGDDT dated September 15, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training was passed, with the uses of cell-phones in schools, students can actually learn from anywhere at any time even when inside the classroom In fact, today some students can attend virtual-classrooms while using smartphones that have been connected over the internet and the fact is that online-learning is becoming very popular than never before Teacher can design many interactive games, online tasks that students can on their smatphones But the question is that how to use it more effectively while many bad programs on the phones are attracted them III.THE CONTENT OF THE INITIATIVE Using smartphones in vocabulary lessons Smartphone is a good tool for practising and enhancing students’ vocabulary Smartphones helps them to learn new words and meanings and their vocabulary is enhanced by using mobile dictionary as well as due to chatting in English on their Smartphone (Small, 2014) There are many websites, softwares for dicttionaries, but the most suitable dictionary suggested for children is“ Oxford Dictionary of English” It has accurate and clear definitions, rich examples, words for the specialist, grammar, synonyms/antonyms, pronunciation with clear audio.We can use it by online or offline It is sad that It is not free Another useful choice is TFLAT dictionary which is free and has many functions and the most important is that it’s free After choosing the dictionary, we guide students to use it productively; We only use in some situations and don’t use it to look up all of the new words, they have to guess them base on the context In addition, students can interact with teachers and other students by taking part in checking vocabulary games prepared by teachers The role of teacher in this game is very important, he/ she has to use the webs and the softwares like quizlet, kahoot,… to design some interactive games on the phones and get students to play those games in the most effective way The most common web used to design games is kahoot which has had a positive effect on learning performance, classroom dynamics, attitudes, and anxiety It helps the teachers understand the weak areas of their students and assists in planning reinforcement of those weak areas It is also a helpful tool for selfevaluation, as it challenges students in “Ghost Mode” to evaluate their own understanding and reinforce learning Using kahoot, will make our students enjoy coming to class and is sure to boost the morale during those trying times of the semester Whenever students use educational technology, it’s important to teach and emphasize digital citizenship This way re-enforces our lessons and assures a safe learning environment The following steps are to use kahoot on checking vocabulary activity Create kahoot Students get ID and link then play the game Fill the questions and answers, set the time Share ID and link play Some the applied activities in textbook English UNIT CELEBRATIONS – ENGLISH 11 PART A: READING Part II Practice a Activity Vocabulary - Teacher asks students to look at the book and underline the following words: “excitement, positive” - Teacher asks them to use TFLAT dictionary to find out the meaning of those words - Students use TFLAT to look up the new words And here is the product - Teacher asks students to click the audio button to listen to the pronunciation and repeat these words - With other words “agrarian, candied fruit, lucky money”, teacher uses real objects and pictures, to teach - Teacher calls some students to read aloud the words in front of the class, then give feedback b Activity Checking vocabulary ( using Kahoot) - Teacher asks students to use their smartphones - Teacher accesses to https://kahoot.com→ click to the library → choose the collection of the questions prepared before →play → teach → classic → start then send the ID code and link to the students - Teacher asks students to use the ID code and link to participate in the game - Teacher asks students to read the questions carefully then give the correct answer on their phones - Teacher observes and find out who didn’t take part in the game, who gave incorrect answers,…….After the game, teacher gives comment and finds out the winner Using smartphones in reading lessons One of the important skills to be mastered by students when learning English is reading skill If the students have a good reading skill, they can gain information and expand their knowledge Reading is not only the skill that makes success in schools but also the skill that needs to be owned by any English speakers in the life of society, both during the study and after completing the study The fact, teaching and learning reading skill in Vietnam is still a problem Many students still get the dificulties in reading test because they have little vocabulary, and the skills to the test Moreover, many teachers are teaching skills by using the old methods, even the improvement of the modern technology Like other skills, we can learn reading on our smartphones in useful ways In reading lessons, students can take part in vocabulary games, quiz games by access to kahoot on the phones as I mentioned above Additionally, they can look up the unkown words by using TFLAT dictionary The web is recently used by the teachers to engage students in the calssroom namely “https://quizizz.com” Teachers can design some activities of the lesson on the web like multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, check box, poli, or open-end For the students, they get the code from the teachers then start the games The key advantages that Quizizz seems to have over Kahoot is that with Quizizz, students see the questions, answers, and their leaderboard on their devise One of the interesting features of this web is that students can log in the web and find out a lot of the topics related to many topics and challenge other students This feature can motivate students to enhance their self-study ability The following is the demo for applied activities in textbook UNIT CELEBRATIONS – ENGLISH 11 PART A: READING Part II Practice Activity Task Teacher redesigns some questions for task on the website “quizizz.com” Make a game then give students passcode to participate in After students participate in, teacher starts the game and show the the questions which are on the students’ smartphones screen as follows While students are giving answers, teachers can observe all the students’ action on the screen When the game ends, teacher shows the winner, gives feedback and checks the answers By this way, students can interact with the teacher effectively It not only helps them reduce the pressure but also enhances their interest in the lesson This web can be used in the revision lessons, especially for the grade-12students Furthermore, It can be used to give the homework for students, they can access the web and get the topic given by the teacher It is interesting and competitive that studens challenge the others to the homework together Using smartphones in speaking lessons As English is widely used all over the world, there is a need for learners to acquire the communication skills of it to get success in their respective fields To get a good communication skill, we need to improve our speaking skill As being at school, students must be practised this skill carefully, but the problem is that our students have no real environment to practise Instead of looking for a native speaker, we should use our smartphones directly to make our own environment to practise By this way, we can use English in the modern way and can be corrected pronunciation accurately In speaking lesson, we can use Kahoot introduced in 3.1 to check vocabulary and other websites to get information Teacher can design many activities for students practicing English on the phones such as making a call, sending the voice messages, livestreaming, interviewing,… The most popular activity is often used is that using the voice recording which is available on any smartphones and is the student’s hobby In addition, any speaking tasks can be recorded Recordings can be done individually or in pairs or groups, inside or outside the classroom.It’s mainly used in the production part of all the speaking lessons After having their own outputs, students can share in the classroom, or mail to the teacher to get mark and feedback All of the qualified files can be uesd for teaching aids or collections like a portfolio At the end of the school year, student can present about their portfolio as a speaking competition among the students in the school This process can be showed following and applied to teach UNIT CELEBRATIONS – ENGLISH 11 PART B: SPEAKING Activity 3: Work in pairs Ask and answer about the holidays above, using the dialoguge in task as the model To make a start, Teacher sets a short speaking activity for students” Work in pairs Ask and answer about the holidays above, using the dialogue in task as the model” Students in pairs outline their speaking task then practise, they can ask the teacher if they have any problem They can play different roles to talk about the valentine’s day, thanksgiving, mid-autumn festival… Students carry out recording the voice or video Some students are confident and fluent in speaking can record without practise first 10 After recording, students show their output in front of the class directly and other ones give comments Teacher gives feedback and corrects pronunciation and grammar structures Teacher can give mark based onthe content, the quality of the record, ………… Alternatively, Teacher sets a short task “ talk about Mid-autumn festival” for students to record video at home and share it by email After allowing students to use smartphones in speaking lesson, I found that they are more active, more creative to speak English without embarrassing They can use up their vocabulary as much as possibleto talk about the topic required, they can make a good relationship in the class They also come to have a better understanding of the functional aspect of the target laguage The most important I saw is that my speaking lesson becomes more and more attractive Using smartphones in listening lessons Listening is the receptive skills therefore makes up 60% of all communication If you have a good listening skill, the other skills will come, the 11 speaking will come, even your grammar, your accuracy In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, smartphone is the powerful tool for foreign laguage learner when we have no chances to practise listening skill with the native speakers We can access to the webs or make a video call with native speaker to practise and enhance our skill This is limited in the classroom, but in other ways, we can use smartphones to make our listening lessons more interesting and effective Teacher can use kahoot which is mentioned before to design some questions to check vocabulary or check students’ understanding like this The applied activity in textbook English UNIT CELEBRATIONS – ENGLISH 11 PART C: LISTENING Part III: Post listening Activity Checking understanding Firstly, I prepared the questions on the kahoot, then ask students to use their smartphones to access the internet 12 Secondly, I started the games, and copied ID code and link then sent to the students Thirdly, students used the ID code and link to take part in the game The next, I showed the questions, then students gave answers I just observed who gave correct answers, who gave incorrect ones, who was the most hard working and who didn’t pay attention to,…… After the games, I chose the students having the most correct answers and give mark By this activity, students can summarize the contents of the lesson which they have learnt, and the most benefit is that they have a joyful time together without having pressure of stress Using smartphones in writing lessons Writing is one of the terrible experiences for students in school, but it is also one of the essential skills If students not attempt to learn the skill of writing at a young age, they will face difficulties in mastering the skill in their later life.Teaching writing is the hardest part for a teacher to guide It takes the teachers a lot of times to prepare and find out the best ways to transfer the content of a writing lessons Currently, smartphone has features such as higher capacity for connectivity, built in virtual keyboards to enter text easily, touch screen with high resolution user interface and multitudes of downloadable applications Today, any smartphones has notes The notes you jot down in class can come in handy when you want to augment your writing skills You can refer to them to remind yourself of something or get an idea that you can use to better your writing The most difficulty of writing skill to foreign language learners is finding out the suitable word By using smartphones, you can read the grammar blogs on the internet to hone your English writing skills These blogs contain useful information assits you improve your grammar, vocabulary For instance, you can learn how the writers bring ideas to light and make their articles as appealing as possible To make the writing lessons meaningful, teachers can ask students to use their smartphones to write a letter or an email then send to teachers’ mail address By this way, students can be more excited to express their ideas because they are set in the real context and they can use their English freely like they are in the English environment The following is the applied activity in textbook English UNIT THE POST OFFICE – ENGLISH 11 PART D: WRITING Task 2: After a year in the job, the director of Thanh Ba Post Office has invited residents in the neighbourhood to write letters to him descrbing the quality of the services they have received Write such a letter, using the ideas you discussed in Task Firstly, teacher asks the students to read the requirement of the task Secondly, teacher asks them to brainstorm the topic, they can give ideas freely 13 Next, teacher asks the students to make their own outline Teacher gives some useful structures to the students 14 Then ask students to write the letter of invitaion by using their own email on the smartphones Finally, When students finish the letters, they send to teacher’s email address, teacher collects some of them to show in front of the class, asks other ones to give comments Teacher is the last person to give feedback and check the mistakes After the lesson, It can be true that my students are no longer awkward in writing English All of them sent their letters to me inspite of having some mistakes When I gave feedback, they got them with the positive attitude which give me inspiration to make more meaningful lessons The rules of using smartphones in the classroom Classroom rules are the foundation for a functional and successful classroom in any setting Rules of using smartphones are very important Anyone in calss have to follow the rules to help them work towards a common 15 goal Smartphones are accepted in the calss It means that there are both benefits and drawbacks to the students Therefore, to make students better, develop the maximum efficiency as well as minimize the disadvantages of smartphones, It is essential to make the rules of using smartphones in the classroom Use the smartphones with teachers’ permission Only use smartphones for studying duties Concerntrate on the studying Don't use smartphones for the personal purposes Follow the teacher's guide 16 PART III CONCLUSION In conclusion, Learning English is essential for everyone in Viet Nam because of being an international laguage, language of social communication, language of science The Circular No 32/2020 /TT-BGDDT dated September 15, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training opened the new age of teaching and learning English In Viet Nam and in Thanh Hoa province It is no doubt any more that smartphones are helpful for learning English according to students’ own convenience and ease They give us the accuracy respone toward learning English by applying smart devices based on the tools, websites, apps, software, with the guide of the teachers in English skill lessons The use of smartphones in English lessons make the teachers more creative, more enthusiatic to design the interesting lessons It also motivate our students to learn English better with the obedience the rules in the classroom The most wonderful thing is that it is the best preparation for future study that cope with the sudden situations in the complicated scene of coronavirus pandemic Be based on what we have done in our school, I have to admit that the interest of students in learning English increases clearly They can use their smartphones for their school duties instead of the worthless ones The students’ result in this school year is the clear evidence for what I have been mentioning in the research During the school year, I have conducted a lot surveys And this is survey conducted with the students coming from class 11A2 in my school The first survey with students in grade 11A2 in October (when the technique was applied) Total 1-3.4 3.5-4.9 5-6.4 6.5-7.9 8-10 students points pionts Pionts points points 40 33 The second survey conducted in January Total 1-3.4 3.5-4.9 5-6.4 pionts 6.5-7.9 8-10 students points pionts points points 40 34 The third time conducted in May Total 1-3.4 3.5-4.9 5-6.4 pionts 6.5- 7.9 8-10 students points pionts points points 40 0 33 This changes is not much, it is a positive signal for teaching and learning English in a mountainous school like Quan Son I hope that my ideas will be applied in all the schools in difficult areas in our province to stimulate the spirit of learning English among students in the Western of Thanh Hoa province The advantages 17 - Due to smartphones’ huge variety, they become very easy for students to access ; And also, anyone from anywhere can access the internet for different types of topics - Students can use the webs, apps, sofware designed for smartphones to practise their languge skills with variety of useful contents - Using smartphones in the classroom with the rules of the teacher can motivate students to learn and improve their English It is also the great encouragement to the teachers to dedicate and inspire for the students 2.The disadvantages - Due to the limited time, the theme focuses on the use of smartphones in some lessons and in the classroom but doesn’t widen outside the classroom or in online learnig Besides that, As a new teacher and my experience needs to broaden more, It is inevitable that my initiative may exist some drawbacks - Some students did not cooperate well during the lesson, so teachers always have to try best to achieve the initial purpose - To have a interactive lessons by using the smartphones, teachers have to try the best to brainstorm and design the various activities so that the students can get the content easily and effectively Last but not least, It is not good for students’ health if they spend a lot of time on smartphones Some suggestions - In order to enable for students to upgrade the quality of learning English, the parents and locals should pay more attention to the students, coordinate closely to the teachers to make the timerly motivation, and give the exactly adjustment - Teachers should be to have more chances to meet each other and exchange experience, and teaching method They should be joined in the useful workshops and conferences about the new teaching methods - School mangements should renew the libraryand buy new books, references which are necessary for teaching and learning With limited experience, I hope to assist the students get success in learning English and hope them to be alert users on using smmartphones both in the classroom and in their real lives Surely my analization of theme remains certain mistakes, I hope to be shared and remarked by all readers Thank you very much! XÁC NHẬN CỦA HIỆU TRƯỞNG Quan Sơn, ngày 14 tháng năm 2021 Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác 18 Bùi Thị Thu Thủy REFERENCES The Circular No 32/2020 /TT-BGDDT dated September 15, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training Chu, H C (2014) Potential Negative Effects of Mobile Learning on Students’ Learning Achievement and Cognitive Load—A Format Assessment Perspective Educational Technology & Society, 17 (1), 332–344 Thornton, P a (2003) Using mobile web and video phones in English language Japan Trang web: https://kahoot.com Trang web: https://quizizz.com 19 ... in English skill lessons The use of smartphones in English lessons make the teachers more creative, more enthusiatic to design the interesting lessons It also motivate our students to learn English. .. technology in teaching and learning English by taking part in ULIS National Conference 2021 And I knew exactly the fact of using smartphones of students at Quan Son high school Therefore, I have used... done in our school, I have to admit that the interest of students in learning English increases clearly They can use their smartphones for their school duties instead of the worthless ones The students? ??