SKKN the methods encourage primary students to speak english in the classroom

0 CONTENT INDEX 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic 1.2 The purpose of research 1.3 The objects of research 1.4 The method of research 1.5 The new points of the experience idea…………… …………… THE CONTENT OF THE EXPERIENCE IDEA … 2.1 The rationale of the experience idea …………………………… 2.1.1.Characteristics of children…………………………………… 2.1.2.“How to make students speak English in the classroom?”… 2.2 The current situation before applying the experience idea….… 2.2.1 School facilities………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Students and their parents……………………………………… 2.2.3 Teachers………………………………………………………… 2.3 The solutions of implementation…………………………… 2.3.1 Establish your 100% goal from Day 1….…………………… 2.3.2 Write first, speak later…… ……………….………………… 2.3.3 Mix it up………………………… ………………… ……… 2.3.4 Start (almost) every class with free conversation.…………… 2.3.5 Arrange the classroom so that students are sitting in rows 2.3.6 Do the "Speaking Marathon" at least twice ………………… 2.3.7 Turn regular activities into information-gaps………… ……… 2.4 The effect of the experience idea ………………….…………… CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION….……………… ……………… 3.1 Conclusion……………………………………………….……… 3.2 Suggestion……………………………………………… ……… REFERENCE DOCUMENT………………………………………… Pag e 1 2 3 5 5 6 6 8 10 11 12 12 13 14 16 16 16 19 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic Language is both a means of an expression and a means of keeping the cultural values of the nation that produces language Therefore, language courses are to equip students with new communication tools and through the use of communication tools, students acquire the cultural values of ethnic groups including knowledge of the country, people, customs, science and technology Today with the importance in the world in general and Vietnam in particular, English was chosen as required courses at schools, this is the advantage to promote the students to learn better The goal of the English is to help students to form and develop the basic skills of English and intellectual qualities needed to further educate or enter working life We can say that one of the positive expressions, typicals of students in learning English is that students need to acquire knowledge and skills applied to communication, know how to work in pairs, groups and cooperate with partners if necessary during practicing speaking and writing, know to initiatively present his or her intention to communicate through speaking or writing In today's modern world, learning spoken English has many advantages English is fast becoming the international language of many fields, including politics, business and education Not only is English used between native speakers and non-native speakers, but it is also used increasingly as a common language in interactions between non-native speakers When you are asked to make a lecture in English, you can put it to good use When you need to make a foreign friend, you just try a little in other ways except for English For example, traveling abroad to know more western customs and culture personally, making friends with foreigners because you can communicate freely with them in English, enjoying more classic western plays, films and literatures and so on Having a good grasp of spoken English helps you to improve your chances of employment Therefore, spoken English is an important and fundamental tool in today's global village Working as a teacher of English in Yen Tho Primary School in Yen Dinh district, Thanh Hoa province makes me think about the topics “teaching English for children” and “student motivation” a bit deeper than I probably would When I first started to work with young learners, it raised questions in my mind For example: “Whether children like to learn English or not?”, “How can I inspire them?” “What strategies should be used to fit children’s characteristics?”, “What should be done to motivate young learners?” and the most important “How to encourage students speak English in the classroom?” Besides, many children living in the countryside generally, in my region particularly are often provided with limited facilities in learning a foreign language In other words, these young learners will have to deal with more obstacles in acquiring a foreign language rather than those living in a city The current context inspires me to study the issue of primary students’ motivation in English so that I could understand the motivation underlying my pupils’ learning process and I myself can find better teaching methods to help them have a foundation of English at their early stage of learning There are a lot of teaching methods which can be used to motivate students to speak English and today I would like to show my experience idea about “The methods encourage primary school students to speak English in the classroom” 1.2 The purpose of research Teaching English, especially for children, should be enjoyable, interesting, repetitive, and understandable In doing so, there should be appropriate methods for students to speak English and my following idea is one of the most perfect methods which motivates students and help them to be more interested in learning English, develop their English skills and feel more confident and natural in speaking English I wish all of my students could catch the new language enthusiastically and be good at four skills, especially speaking skill, they could be able to communicate in English With my own experience in teaching English in the primary school, I have observed, studied and recognized that the teachers of English should apply my methods “The methods encourage primary school students to speak English in the classroom” in their teaching I hope that other teachers who encounter the similar teaching contexts may have some suggestions to improve their own situation 1.3 The objects of research - The students in grade of Yen Tho Primary School (they take part in English classes with the curriculum of periods per week) Basing on the result of two surveys I made in second semester of school year 2019 - 2020 and the first semester of school year 2020 - 2021 for the students in grade 5, I analyze their improvement after they are taught to speak English with the method and find out the effectiveness of the method in teaching speaking English 3 - The vocabulary, model sentences and dialogues in the text book TiengAnh5 (Macmillan - The Ministry of Training and education publisher) are materials which support my research 1.4 The method of research In the process of my study on this theme, I myself have used a combination of the following study methods: Method of observation: the person, who implements the project, looks for new research, visit colleagues’classes The method of exchange, discussion: after visiting the classes of colleagues, colleagues take an attendance at the lectures of the person that implements the project, colleagues and the person implements the project start to exchange and discuss to draw experiences from those lessons Studying reasoning: firstly, I think of the topic which I am going to study In the other words, I brainstorm the research idea and clarify the theories about the problem by searching the information on the internet, reading reference books, newspaper, document, lesson plans…So that I can form theorical foundation for my own research After that, I identify the research questions to find the solutions for them Analyzing the real situation: Identifying the grade students’ level in Yen Tho Primary School, the facility of the school, the attitude of students toward the subject,… Experimenting the method: This is the main step which shows the effect of the research When applying the method, the teacher of English finds students more dynamic and they are keen on the funny actions used by their teacher, which help them memorize the target language and feel confident in English communication Reporting the results and drawing the conclusion: This will be the suggestion for myself and other teachers of English to apply the method for their own teaching 1.5 The new points of the experience idea - Interaction between the learner and users of the language - Collaborative creation of meaning 4 - Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language - Negotiation of meaning as the learner and his or her interlocutor arrive at understanding - Learning through attending to the feedback learners get when they use the language - Paying attention to the language one hears (the input) and trying to incorporate new forms into one’s developing communicative competence - Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things 5 THE CONTENT OF THE EXPERIENCE IDEA 2.1 The rationale of the experience idea Your first reaction may be that this is an unrealistic goal, one that you may have presented to your students before, but a goal they have always failed to achieve You may be in a classroom situation where the students speak 10-20% Vietnamese Or your students may not speak much at all The essence of new teaching reason is a positive and creative promotion of students, students-centered, studentsare the subject of the learningactivity, the teacher is the organizer who guides themto receive new knowledge, practices language through a variety of communicative activities 2.1.1 Characteristicofchildren In learning language, children begin learning simple expressions Broadly speaking, children learn rules of language from which they listen, and even they also learn expressions that they have never heard before It is extremely important that teachers not only get children to learn language, but they also encourage them to learn it positively Children aged 8-10 are mature enough; They have a particular point of view; They are able to describe the difference between facts and fictions; They are curious of asking questions; They believe in what is said and the real world to express and comprehend the meaning; They have distinct options about what they like and what they dislike; They open to what happens in the classroom and begin asking a teacher’s decision; and They can cooperate with each other and learn from others In addition, children are competent mother tongue users In the context of teaching, most people assume that children learn a foreign language in the same way that they learn their mother tongue Basically, children are potential in acquiring and learning a foreign language, and even they learn it more quickly than those who are learning the foreign language after puberty On the contrary, children are less capable of absorbing or acquiring a foreign language optimally 2.1.2 “How to make primary students speak English in the classroom?” At first you might get frustrated when students speak their own language in class Keep this checklist in mind and it may help - Always present yourself as an English speaker, right from the start - Don’t be tempted to lapse into the students’ language to explain, regain control or reply to a question Patiently reply in English - Don’t be tempted to slow down 6 - You may feel put off when they call to each other in their mother tongue What’s she saying?” Use pictures, gesture, facial expression and rephrasing to get your message across - Lapsing into quick explanations in their language will undermine your role Tuning-in will take time! Keep at it! 2.2 The real situation before applying the experience idea 2.2.1.School’s facilities Yen Tho Primary School is located in the north of Yen Dinh District Most of the teachers here are helpful and kind hearted They are all well trained In addition, the local government always concerns about Yen Tho school’s teaching and learning On the other hand, Yen Tho school has many difficulties: over-sized class with 25 to 31 students in a class English is a new subject which has been taught in primary schools in Yen Dinh district for about 13 years And the new English text book has been taught for years So it’s also lack of English teaching materials:flash cards, reference books, VCD player, television,….The school has only one teacher of English, therefore, it is difficult to arrange the school timetable, especially, for the new curriculum of the text book, students learn periods per week instead of periods per week 2.2.2 Students and their parents Because of living in the local area, all of the students’ parents are farmers and workers They spend all time on the fieldor companies to earn living, they pay little attention to their children’ studying Students are not willing to learn, to homework Moreover, they have special voice: local voice, it makes them hard to pronounce exactly Living skills of the students are not as good as the town or city’students Most of them are shy, afraid of speaking (of course, not only speaking English) Most of the students at Yen Tho Primary School as at many other schools not know how to learn English effectively They not know how to use English to communicate to each other They are shy, afraid of making mistakes In this area, students not have chance to talk to the foreigners, not have enough English materials to study….Moreover, English is not easy subject with much more words, sentence parterns, proverb… And their parents cannot help the children with the homework or practice of speaking 2.2.3 Teachers Being a teacher of English in a primary school for over ten years, I find it necessary to study more about teaching approaches to help my students to be better at English, not only in grammar but also in developing four skills, especiallystudents can use the English they learn to communicate In fact that, as one of young teachers of English, I have a lot of difficulties in teaching because of the class size, the students’ characteristic and the yearly changing of the text book I often receive similar questions from many students: “I can understand the use of sentences and the exercises easily but I feel embarrassed to talk in English because the lack of vocabulary and how I can catch the new language in class” or “ what I should to remember the new words quickly and use them in suitable situations” or “I am afraid of making mistake” In my reality of teaching, there are many students who are afraid of speaking and expressingthemselves to the teachers On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complains from the colleagues: “students seem so quiet and lazy, they are not interested in learning English during English lessons It is difficult for young learners to take part in English class activities” In order to solve this problem, in final-semester of school year 2019 - 2020, I had a small survey with the students of grade (now they are in grade 5) with a spoken test within period: Result: No Class Sizes Good Pretty Average Bad Worst No % No % No % No % No % 5A 35 11,4 14,3 10 28,6 25,7 20 5B 30 10 16,6 26,7 26,7 20 Total 65 10,8 10 15,4 18 27,7 17 26,1 13 20 The result shows that students have some difficulties in speaking English They understand the new knowledge in English class but they can’t practice speaking out I think that I should find out the effective method which helps students to memorize the new language easily and confidentlycommunicatein English And my idea is the best way which I should apply However, to be apply it perfectively, we should use this method as a small technique in each lesson, because this requires students’ movement and if it lasts long time, it will make our students get tired of it 8 2.3 The solutions of implementation What follows are some techniques that I have found to be successful in getting my students to speak mostly in English 2.3.1 Establish your 100% goal from Day On the first day of class make your expectations clear to your students I usually have my students make a pact with both me and themselves The students read the promises (see below) and I elaborate on each a bit Next, the students sign their names in agreement My Promises I promise to try to speak as much as possible I promise not to be afraid of making mistakes I promise not to speak any Vietnamese I promise to use English to communicate I promise to ask questions when I not understand I promise to try to have fun! You can go back to these promises from time to time throughout the process of searching method as necessary Moreover, inform your students with the main goal of speaking and the importance of developing speaking skills Model speaking with one of your best students so everyone can see what to say Students also need to know how to say something Without understanding why,what, and how, many students think it is not important to anything Speaking English activities in grade When it comes to motivation, the best kind comes from within Ultimately, students will speak when it’s important to them Have students decide what they want to get out of the class and why they want to speak English At the beginning of the school year, you can have students write down some specific skills they hope to gain from the class and why those are important to them For example, if they want to talk with a foreign friend, they will need to speak English fluently When students are self-motivated by a personal goal, this will serve as encouragement to participate in the activities that will help them to reach their goal No arm-twisting required 2.3.2 Write first, speak later For students who struggle to speak English, it can be very helpful to write out a script first and then practice speaking it Writing gives students the time to think through what they will say, check their grammar and look up any words or phrases they don’t know This is especially helpful for beginners who simply haven’t learned enough English to carry on a conversation off the top of their head You can give them scripted speaking activities by having them write out a conversation with a partner based on a specific conversational topic, such as what they would say if they ran into a friend on the street, how they would interact with a waiter in a restaurant or how they would ask a stranger for directions This will help with their confidence when they find themselves in these scenarios in a real English-speaking setting Example: Grade – Book 2: Unit 15: What would you like to be in the future? Lesson (page 30): First, motivating students to write down all words about jobs they knew or learnt Second, students practice in pairs model sentences they learnt when they were in grade 4: Student A: What does your father do? Student B: He’s a doctor What about your father? Student A: He’s an engineer 10 Third, they practice in pairs new model sentences “What would you like to be in the future?” Student A: What would you like to be in the future? Student B: I’d like to be a doctor, like my father? 2.3.3 Mix it up Sometimes students might simply lose interest in a certain speaking activity To avoid this, use different methods to motivate students by challenging them You can have them record their conversations, sing along to songs or present material to the class Finding new ways to incorporate speaking will keep lessons fresh and interesting, which will help students stay engaged You can even use authentic content to model conversations and encourage shadowing Alternatively, students can act out a scene they view in video, trying to mimic the tone and pronunciation as best as they can Students can also make a video by themselves after the lesson in order to practice pronunciation day by day And decause in a private school like Yen Tho Primary school, students don’t have chance to communicate English with a foreigner, I think this idea is one of the best ways for my lovely students to practice speaking Example: Grade – Book 2: Unit 14: What happened in the story? Lesson (page 24) After finishing lesson 1, just encourage students to retell “The story of Mai AnTiem” at home and ask them to use a mobile phone to make a video Then they can send their teacher for comment A picture from a video made by student at home 11 2.3.4 Start (almost) every class with free conversation If I had to choose one technique that is the most effective for getting students motivated and speaking in English this would definitely be my choice Have the students sit facing a partner and tell them they have to talk on a topic for a set time They absolutely must not speak any English during this time! Possible topics are yesterday, TV, movies, sports, etc I usually this for 2-3 minutes at the beginning of a lesson Over the past few years I have noticed that whenever I fail to have the students free conversation at the beginning of class, they often speak much more Vietnamese and the class generally is not as successful Free conversation works because it warms the students up, and it gives them the sense that English can be used for real communication Example: Grade – Book 1: Unit 3: Where did you go on holiday? Lesson 1;2(page 18;20) After lesson1 and lesson 2: In a group of five, students ask and answer questions they learnt Student A: Where did you go on holiday? Student B: I go to Ha Long Bay? (He uses go instead of went) Student A: How did you get there? Student B: I went in train? (He uses in instead of by)… Don’t correct the students’ mistakes at the same time they make because it makes them less confident to go on speaking English Speaking English in groups freely 12 2.3.5 Arrange the classroom so that students are sitting in rows facing each other As with free conversation, I have noticed whenever I fail to arrange the chairs in this fashion the students have been much more reticent to speak out Ideally, there will be no desks or barriers between the students, only chairs in two rows facing each other (see diagram below) There is something magical about this arrangement that gets the students talking It may work because the students are out in the open and have nowhere to hide and so feel obliged to speak only English Also, sitting face to face affords direct eye contact which somehow improves communication in English Another advantage of this arrangement is that it allows for a very easy and fair way to change partners Students simply stand up and move in a clockwise direction a set number of chairs and end up sitting across from a new partner 2.3.6 Do the "Speaking Marathon" at least twice during your course I usually the speaking marathon in the fourth or fifth lesson and after that once or twice more as needed SPEAKING MARATHON Work with a partner You can talk about anything you like with your partner, but you can't stop talking! If you stop for more than seconds, your team is out! Also, if you speak any Vietnamese your team is out! Which team can keep talking the longest?! I tell the students they can say anything when they can't think of what to say, but they must fill in the silence They can say "umm ", "Let's see ", "chicken", "kitchen", and so on Amazingly, students usually pause very little, and I have often had groups go on for 20-30 minutes without pausing for more than three seconds During this activity you must act as a "policeman" and go from group to group 13 counting off three seconds and noting when a group has spoken Japanese or has stopped for more than three seconds However, it's best if you don't tell a group when they are out so that everyone continues speaking for as long as possible There is simply no better way to build students' speaking confidence than the speaking marathon 2.3.7 Turn regular activities into information - gaps You can what is called the “information gap” activity with students to encourage speaking Give only SOME students certain information, a text or picture, for example, the other students must use English to find out what information they are missing Successful pair practice and language games include “information gaps” can encourage students to talk and ask questions to discover what information they not have Information-gaps force the students to communicate in English more than in activities where knowledge is shared I have rarely heard students speak Vietnamese while doing information-gap activities, and for this reason I use them liberally Example: Grade – Book 1: Unit 9: What did you see at the zoo? Lesson (page 58): Revising words about animals at the zoo: tigers crocodiles peacocks pythons Having a student stand in front of the class with some flashcards of animals without saying anything The other students guess which animals they are through observing the gesture or the sounds others students mime Student A: What did you see at the zoo? Student B: …(miming the sound of an animal) Student A: Did you see tigers? Student B: Yes, I did (No, I didn’t) 14 Student C plays a role as a reporter, he or she has to write down the information then speak aloud in front of the class Student C: A saw tigers at the zoo B saw peacocks at the zoo … 2.4 The effect of the experience idea The survey was made afterthe first semester when students are in Grade at that time- school year 2020 - 2021 The spoken test (within period) The result: No Class Sizes Good Pretty Average Bad Worst No % No % No % No % No 5A 35 12 34,3 25,7 11 31,4 8,6 5B 30 10 33,3 30 26,7 10 Total 65 22 33,9 18 27,7 19 29,2 9,2 % Basing on the above result, it is clearly to see the better result of the present survey comparing with the result of the past survey: Good quality increases from 10,8% up to 33,9% Pretty quality increases from15,4% to 27,7% Average quality increases from 27,7% to 29,2% The bad quality reduces from 26,1% down to 9,2% The worst quality reduces from 20% down to 0% Contrasting the result of two surveys, the good and pretty quality increasing; the average, bad and worst quality reducing has proved that the method I applied to encourage students speak English is the suitable method to teach spoken English It 15 not only enhances student to involve much more in the lesson but also encourages the shy students to take part in the activities of the whole class Applying the experienced initiative, in fact,has brought satisfactory result 16 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 3.1 Conclusion The method “The ways to make students speak English in classroom” is based on the combination between speech and action When my method is applied in the classroom, learning English is more interesting to children In English lessons, making the spoken language must come prior to speaking, comprehension is developed through body movement, and the period of listening period helps a learner to be ready to speak The young learners are not embarassed when they are speaking English This method is interesting, creative, memorable and fun, without lots of thinking and much writing After applying the new method of teaching, students are keen on learning English and have better result Furthermore, they are more active in speaking English and express themselves The research has shown that teachers know that children are interested in learning by doing or actively involved in the learning process Those are my thoughts and the practical work which I have done to improve the quality of primary students in English It is difficult to avoid the shortcoming; I hope I will be given the suggestions from the colleagues to make my initiative completely and applied widely When I write this experienced initiative, I really wish my students will not only have more useful knowledge to learn English well but also give them the most effective method to memory the new language and I realize that it helps to promote students’ activeness and creation Moreover overcomethe mistakes, difficulties which students meet in improving four skills, especially, listening skill and speaking skill The method mentioned in the topic will help them reduce difficulties and be more confident in speaking English Besides, this is a useful document for English teachers to refer in the process of teaching thebeginning-level students in English 3.2 Suggestion In the area of development, it is the young generation who are the pioneers to connect Vietnam with international friends, so they are the ones who need to learn more, devote their best ability for a rich and flourish country, and compare with the great powerful countries in the world And so, the way to lead them to success is to 17 learn, to hear, to speak, and to communicate in English very well! With that importance, I strongly suggest as follows: 3.2.1 For young learners We give them some playgrounds, clubs to speak English at school By coordinating with English professional groups, other professional groups as well as and other organizations, weekly or monthly and special anniversary holidays of the year, we must have real plans and encourage weaker students to participate 3.2.2 For teachers In addition to teaching in the classroom, teachers need to visit class, supervise colleagues not only in schools but also take time to visit colleagues in school groups Regularly organize their teaching subjects in accordance with the actual situation of the school and classroom It has to be evaluated, contributed ideas and give honest and accurate comment each lesson 3.2.3 For school leaders Next to the overall leadership of the school's work, it is necessary to add equipments for teaching, listening, watching and learning English at school, school leaders need more care deeply about teaching teachers, encourage teachers to do, use equipments effectively, Teachers must check and protect teaching aids well School leaders should urge and encourage all members of the school Council together to the business of growing people well 3.2.4 For education and training department The department plays animportant role in improving the teaching qualifications of teachers of English with the new policy I suggest that education and training department should pay more attention to train the good teachers and frequently organize the meeting in which teachers of English have more chances to update and exchange the latest information and teaching methods Inaddition, the department should popularize the experience idea which gets high reward for the teachers of English in our province and they will be able to improve themselves with better approaches 18 This is my effective experience, I have summed up in the teaching process I hope to receive the attention, the sharing and the sincere comments which support my research to be more perfective and practical Sincerely thank you! Yen Dinh, April10th 2021 THE SCHOOL HEADMASTER I declare that this is my experienced initiative, I not copy the other person's content Written by Nguyen Phuong Thuy 19 REFERENCE DOCUMENT TiengAnh5 (Macmillan - The Ministry of Training and education publisher) Halliwell, S 1992 Teaching English in the Primary School.London: Longman Larsen-Freeman, D 1986 Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press Communicative language teaching today by Professor Jack C Richard Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Prentice Hall Nunan, David 1991 Language Teaching Methodology, Prentice Hall  ... should apply my methods ? ?The methods encourage primary school students to speak English in the classroom? ?? in their teaching I hope that other teachers who encounter the similar teaching contexts... necessary during practicing speaking and writing, know to initiatively present his or her intention to communicate through speaking or writing In today's modern world, learning spoken English has... improvement after they are taught to speak English with the method and find out the effectiveness of the method in teaching speaking English 3 - The vocabulary, model sentences and dialogues in the text