SKKN using the short news and songs in english to practise listening skills for 11th grade

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THANH CHUONG HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== TEACHING EXPERIENCE USING THE SHORT NEWS AND SONGS IN ENGLISH TO PRACTISE LISTENING SKILLS FOR 11TH GRADE STUDENTS Teacher: Hoàng Thị Hằng Group: English School year: 2020 - 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for teaching experience Purpose of teaching experience Innovation of teaching experience Methods of the teaching experience Background of teaching experience II: CONTENT Chapter Theoretical and Practical background 1.1 Theoretical background 1.2 Practical background Chapter 2: The techniques 2.1 Pre – Listening Tasks 2.2 While – Listening Tasks 2.3 Post – Listening Tasks Chapter 3: Illustrations 3.1 Sample 1: Listening to the news 3.2 Sample 2: Listening to the song 3.3 Sample 3: Listening to the news 3.4 Sample 4: Listening to the song 3.5 Sample 5: Listening to the news Chapter 4: Findings and evaluation Chapter 5: Some images were taken in classes which were applied this teaching method 5.1 Images of classes 11A3, 11 B, 11D2, 11D5 in listening lessons 5.2 Images of group works of these classes in listening parts 5.3 Images of Role Play “I’m a singer” 5.4 Images of the interview and talk about gardening in lesson 5.5 Image of presentation about their favourite singers 5.6 Images of discussion about Covid -19 5.7 Image of Student's Portfolio III CONCLUSION REFERENCES PAGE 1 1 2 3 5 5 5 10 14 18 23 28 29 29 30 31 33 34 35 36 37 38 I INTRODUCTION Reason for teaching experience How to teach and study English effectively is always a big question to both teachers and students Moreover, learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree The knowledge introduced in the textbook is what all students have to exploit and receive However, if teacher teaches directly the lessons, students will feel passive and bored They cannot define what they are going to study because the fact that English is too difficult for them, especially in listening skills As we known, “ Listening is ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker’s accent and pronunciation, his grammar and vocabulary, and grasping his meaning” (Howatt and Dakin 1974) However, in almost mountainous areas the students have little chance to practice listening and speaking with native speakers They encounter many problems with listening skills, so they feel bored with the subject Furthermore, it can be undeniable that English has played a vital role in the period of modernization and industrialization It is not only the official language in many fields of society but also the compulsory subject of many countries Companies are becoming more international, and English is listed as an essential skill for more and more jobs Therefore, being good at English is everyone’s desire because they can easily find a good job in job markets However, the effectiveness of teaching and studying Listening Skills is not really as what we want Despite their good grammar and vocabulary, Listening skills in English cause students a lot of trouble They can not communicate well because of poor listening Therefore, to contribute to solving the problem, I have made every effort to find out the ways to improve and develop students’ listening skills, not only in listening lessons but also other ones In my teaching experience, I would like to recommend this method to help improve listening skill for 11th graders:“Using the short news and songs in English to practise listening skills for 11th grade” Purposes of teaching experience The purposes of the study is to investigate some useful listening activities to improve and develop students’ listening skills through short news and songs in English Innovation of teaching experience Listening is a basic skill in first language acquisition and is crucial in English as Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) learning According to Wolvin (2012) listening has been identified as one of the most used and one of the most important communication skills in personal, academic, and professional settings alike The vital role of listening in communication begins with the recognition that listening is the first language skill to be acquired Given the concepts related to listening, it is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners It is not only for communicative goal of language teaching but also when they use the language outside the classroom as well Besides that, using authentic songs and news is a new way in teaching listening skills We can access a great deal of materials which is updated every minute on the internet Students not feel bored with the repetition of old information in the text books Moreover, the authentic songs and news can be used for a number of purposes and there are many reasons why songs and news can be considered a valuable pedagogical tool Teachers should take songs and news to a teaching context First of all, music and news have to with social context The second, they may change students' mood Next, they provide stimulation and entertainment as well as challenge and pleasure Furthermore, music and news maybe associated with happiness because it brings people's remembrances and dreams Finally, most teachers agree that music and authentic news are powerful tools to learn English Methods of teaching experience To complete my study, I draw experience from my own teaching, especially in teaching for gifted students I also consult a lot of documents and my colleagues about their teaching experiences Moreover, I carry out surveys among grade 11 students I also use comparative methods (Compare the differences between my colleagues’ periods and mine, compare the differences of the periods before and after application) Background of teaching experience I applied techniques to teach students in 11A3, 11B, 11D2 and 11D5 at Thanh Chuong High School (a mountainous school with low level in English) in school year 2020 -2021, and some of them for gifted students The following statistics at my classes when I did not apply these techniques: Class Good Quite Normal Number % Number % Number % 7.7 % 12 30.7% 24 61.6 % 11A3 ( 39 students) (inapplicable) 11B (40 students) 5.0 % 15 37.5% 23 57.5 % 7.3 % 23 56.1% 15 36.6 % 2.9 % 17.1% 28 80 % 40 % 60 % 0% (inapplicable) 11D2 (41 students) (inapplicable) 11D5 (35 students) (inapplicable) Gifted Students (5 students) (inapplicable) The table shows the statistics of classes 11A3, 11B, 11D2, 11D5 and some of gifted students about listening results when I have not applied the techniques As can be seen, a lot of students in these classes can not listen to English well The good students who can listen to English make up below 10 % On the other hand, the number of normal and low level students account for more than 50 % in these classes In reality, they are lack of capability in listening skills, and usually get bored with the subject So, using songs and news is a new way to motivate students and help them pay more attention to the subject II CONTENTS CHAPTER THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theoretical background The use of music and song in the English language-learning classroom is a common way It has been proven by many researchers that music and songs become one of the effective ways in English classroom According to Brand and Li (2009) teachers of English as a second language (ESL) from around the globe enthusiastically report contributions to music education about their successful use of music and associated song lyrics with students Various teaching methods are used to teach ESL learners and, according to research, music is the most important method to enhance the learning of ESL (Horn, 2007, p.7) It is said that songs play roles as authentic materials When designing lessons and teaching materials to further develop listening comprehension skills, students need to be motivated and stay motivated According to Hornby (1990), a song is a piece of music with words that is sung Song is also a great language package that bundles culture, vocabulary, listening, grammar and a host of other language skills in just a few rhymes Songs can also provide a relaxed lesson They can also form the basis for many lessons (Futonge, 2005) An other way of teaching listening is using news to provide authentic materials for learners By listening to the news (on TV, the internet or radio) students are expected to be able to comprehend spoken language and it will improve their ability in listening comprehension So, by listening to the authentic news, the students are trained to listen to the listening material from different sources, topics, and accents, of the news readers These activities also train them to understand the spoken language in limited time, because the news presenters commonly deliver the news faster Therefore, songs and news are authentic materials to improve students’ listening abilities By doing this task regularly, the students will know the wide range of vocabulary, pronunciation of unfamiliar words, and accents of the news readers When this activity is done continuously it will improve their listening comprehension 1.2 Practical background Through teaching, my colleagues and I have experienced some obstacles in teaching listening parts in the classroom The followings are the most common ones: - The content of listening parts in the text book is too challenging and general Some of them are not updated every day Therefore, students find it hard to engage in the lessons - Because the exams usually examine students in grammar, reading and writing skills, teachers at high school seldom pay attention to communicative skills like listening section - Some teachers remain the same requirement, not adapt the task, not prepare the activities beforehand This leads to boredom and overload among students - The most important thing is the students at Thanh Chuong High School are mainly from mountainous area, some of them are ethnic minority They have a lot of difficulties in learning foreign language, particularly the chance to access internet to get materials is too little As a result, they are not motivated in learning English (especially in listening section) and they lose their passion for the subject Consequently, they usually get bad marks in the exams and feel bored with learning English - To solve the problem, I decided to conduct a classroom action research which focus on improving my students’ listening by applying authentic English songs and news These songs and news bring positive changes to my students So, finding effective solution is main duty of this teaching experience CHAPTER THE TECHNIQUES To help students improve their listening skills, these authentic tasks and activities have been organized in the classroom and some of them carried out as students’ homework (I ask Students to use PORTFOLIO to collect Students’ news and song notes as a regular work, which was done every week) 2.1 PRE – LISTENING TASKS: o True or False statements Teacher asks the Students to guess the answers before listening o Synonym matching – Students guess and try to match the synonyms in two columns o Sentence matching – Provide sentences that have been cut in half Students try to match the beginning to the end of the sentence Vocabulary and some grammar points relate to the topics o 2.2 WHILE – LISTENING TASKS o Gap-filling (with options) o Gap-filling (without options) o Multiple-choice questions o Sentence matching o Reorder the sentences o And many others, but make sure tasks are more targeted towards listening comprehension and not entirely open-ended 2.3 POST – LISTENING TASKS o Open-ended questions: why, what, where, who, how, etc… o Discussion questions o Picture describing o Presentation (the current news, famous singers, favourite songs, etc…) o Games to practice vocabulary or grammar CHAPTER THE ILLUSTRATION 3.1 Sample LESSON (I adapt some tasks of listening section of Unit 10 English 11 – Basic level) (I also use this task for my gifted students) LISTENING TO THE NEWS Headline: Cases in the U.S have decreased in recent weeks, but new virus variants are bringing new threats  Objectives: Help students practice listening for specific information, inferring meaning, and discussing about problems of Covid-19  Level: Intermediate • Activity type: Note taking • Grammar focus: Passive Voice • Vocabulary: infection, mutation, trajectory, pandemic, clinical trials, legislation • Preparation: design the worksheet and copy for every students in the class  Procedure: Stages/ Time Teacher’s activities Pre – listening - T asks students to work in pairs and match the word with its synonym (worksheet) - Work in pairs and match the words with synonyms - Expected answer: - Give answers and Vietnamese meaning 10 minutes 1.b, 2a, 3f, 4b, 5e, 6d Students’ activities - T calls some students to give answers and ask them to give Vietnamese meaning if necessary - Read the words chorally - T asks SS to read the words and individualy chorally and individually While – listening - T asks SS to read through the - Read through the news on tasks worksheet and guess the kind - T asks Ss to guess what kind of missing words 20 minutes of words that are missing - Listen to the audio/video - T plays the audio/video for and fill in the missing words students to listen and take note the missing words - Go to the board and write - T asks Ss to work in pairs and the answers exchange the answers - T calls some Ss to write the missing words on the board - T plays the audio/video for Ss to listen again and check the answers - Take note the right answers - T gives feedback and answer on the worksheet key Expected answers: Threats Cases Infectious Security Vaccination Promises Variants Economic - T provides tapecript students the Post – Listening - T asks Ss to work in groups - Work in groups and discuss 15 minutes and discuss about Covid-19 about Covid -19 pandemic - Make presentation in front - T calls some leaders of the of the class groups to express their discussion THE WORKSHEET Some people took part in clinical trials Listen to the news and the tasks that follow Audio/video source: https://tinyurl.com/ncrcz34d I Vocabulary: matching the word with its synonym A B Infection a variation Mutation b disease Trajectory c epidemic Pandemic d lawmaking Clinical trials e trials of drugs Legislation f track/path II Grammar: passive voice applied these ones has significantly increased the proportion of strong students in class In addition, they can have chance to intergrate with communicative skills like speaking skill Moreover, they also enrich their vocabulary and grammar CHAPTER SOME IMAGES WERE TAKEN IN CLASSES WHICH WERE APPLIED THIS TEACHING METHOD 5.1 Images of classes 11A3, 11B, 11D2, 11D5 in listening lessons of songs and news 33 5.2 Images of group work of these classes in listening parts 34 35 5.3 Images of the role play “I’m a singer” In the images, Hong Nhung, Ngan, Manh and Anh are from class 11D2 They sing their favorite songs ( in the post - listening part) 36 37 5.4 Images of the interview and talk about gardening in lesson (post listening) In the images, Khanh and Viet are from 11B Dat and Quang are from class 11A3 Lam and Thang are from class 11D5 Hung and Manh are from 11D2 All of them interview and make report in front of the classes 38 5.5 Images of presentation about their favourite singer In the images, Hoang Yen (11D2), Quang (11B) talk about their favourite singers 39 5.6 Images of discussion about Covid -19 (post – listening part of lesson 1) 5.6a In the images, some of students of class 11A3, 11B, 11D2 are talking about Covid – 19 40 5.6b In the images, students of class 11D5 (a class with many low level students), but they take part in the task with a lot of passion 41 42 5.7 Images of Studens’ Portfolio (the homework that I ask my students to it regularly) Image of Hong Nhung’s Portfolio (11D2) and Phuong 11A3 43 44 III CONCLUSION Procedure In my study, I have applied music and news as useful and authentic activities for listening skill and it brings students good benefits I feel very glad when seeing students become more confident in communicating in English and interested in receiving knowledge which is used in different situations through authentic activities such as listening to the favourite songs, current news, and a lot of comunicative activities like singing, presenting, role playing, ect… In addition, students have the opportunity to work in groups, pairs and comment on each other's work, thus developing collaborative capacity, communication capacity, selflearning ability, problem solving competence capacity to use language effectively Therefore, it also helps teachers and learners access to the trend of teaching in the new high school program, which is aiming at developing new people who have the ability and qualities to meet the development of society Significance Listening skill is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process Listening is key to all effective communication Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is it Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work In my point of view, when I apply this technique into my teaching listening skills for my students I feel very happy because my students are eagerly to learn, they have waited for my lessons and enjoy it everyday They also are motivated to listen to more songs and news which are updated every minute Their result is better and better Therefore, I find myself more motivative and energetic to innovate my lesson everyday Suggestions 45 Above all are some activities for listening skills I have from references and from my own teaching experience which I have used successfully in my classes Whenever the songs and news were played I could see the excitement on my students’ faces Moreover, this teaching experience bring a lot of motivation to my students So, I think it is a good method for every teacher in teaching listening skills This paper is only my suggestions, you can create a suitable one for your own class you will see how helpful it is Furthermore, my study is focused only on my classes which I teach in my school, I think it still has a lot of shotages and I would like other teachers will have further research to make this technique more perfective Through my study, I hope that it can help colleagues in their teaching and inspire students with listening skill in English I would be grateful if I would like to receive contribution and comments from colleagues and other educators so that it becomes more successful and effective Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, my colleagues and beloved students, who have helped me without hesitation for me to complete my study 46 REFERENCES https://www.google.com.vn/ https://learningenglish.voanews.com/ https://www.newsy.com/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world_radio_and_tv https://www.youtube.com/ https://busyteacher.org/ Problem and activities in listening skill in EFL classroom - Balikesir University, Necatibey Education Faculty, Kasaplar Mah Balikesir 10100 Turkey Using english songs in improving listening skill - Cindiyana Muryani Putri, Eusabinus Bunau, Yanti Sri Rezeki Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Untan Pontianak Oxford.dictionaries 10 Pictures from google.com.vn 47 ... 1: Listening to the news 3.2 Sample 2: Listening to the song 3.3 Sample 3: Listening to the news 3.4 Sample 4: Listening to the song 3.5 Sample 5: Listening to the news Chapter 4: Findings and. .. news and songs in English to practise listening skills for 11th grade? ?? Purposes of teaching experience The purposes of the study is to investigate some useful listening activities to improve and. .. listening skills, not only in listening lessons but also other ones In my teaching experience, I would like to recommend this method to help improve listening skill for 11th graders:? ?Using the short news