SKKN SOME ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH 11

DEPARTMENT OF THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING HAU LOC I UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ************************* EXPERIENCE REPORT THEME: SOME ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH 11 Written by: Hoang Thi Hoa Position: Teacher Field: English THANH HOA, 2021 Contents Page A INTRODUCTION .1 I Rationale II Aims of the study III Scope of the study .2 B CONTENT I Theoretical basis:…………………………………………………………………….….2 II Factual situation III Goals and techniques for teaching speaking……………………………………….….3 Goals for teaching speaking Suggestions for teaching speaking techniques .3 IV Students’ motivation to participate in a speaking lesson V Assessment criteria for speaking The four criteria a Fluency and coherence b Lexical resource c Grammatical range and accuracy d Pronunciation Approaches for students Correcting students’ mistakes a Fluency activities b Accuracy activities VI Methods of teaching spoken English… Repeat Conversation Translation Immersion VII Communicative activities to promote students’ speaking skill The role of a teacher in communicative activities .10 Types of communicative activities 10 VIII Procedure and achievement……………………………………………………… 15 The context of the plan 15 Procedure .15 Achievement of data collection 18 IX Results after applying……………………………………………………… ………19 C CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ……………… ……… … ……….19 I Conclusion ……………………………………………………….………… ……… 19 II Recommendation ………………………………………….….……….…….……….19 1.For teachers …………………… …………… 20 2.For school management committee ………………….….….……….………….…….20 REFERENCE BOOKS…………………………….……………………………… … 21 A INTRODUCTION I Rationale Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p 13) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students'communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance English has become an international language in such many areas as science and technology, business and commerce, international relations and diplomacy in Vietnam In recent years, with the national policy of renovation and expansion of international relations, there has been an increasing need for learning English in Vietnam To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English They always try to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching Therefore, as in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using Communicative Language Teaching Approach to teach English to learners of all levels They hope that by using this teaching method, they can help their learners improve their English and use it effectively and fluently in communication That is also the idea suggests and methodologists such as Nunan, 1991 and Das, B.K, 1985 Most of the students in Hau Loc I High school who took part in the survey conducted in this study agree that the ability to express themselves freely in communication is of great importance for their future career as many of them will surely have to work with foreigners However, there still exist many difficulties facing English Language teachers in Vietnam in general and English Language teachers in Hau Loc I High school in particular Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak fluently and correctly in communication Certainly there are many reasons for this After teaching at the school for several years, we have recognized some big obstacles which prevent English Language teachers and learners in Vietnam from reaching their aims These obstacles are large and heterogeneous classes, students’ low level of facing English Language proficiency, students’ low motivation, etc Unfortunately, this is not only the situation in but also the case for many others in Vietnam This has given us the desire to conduct a research to clarify the teaching and learning English speaking skill as well as to find techniques and activities to improve the quality of the teaching of speaking skill in Hau Loc I High school II Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the current reality of the teaching and learning of speaking skill in high schools - Identifying the difficulties and obstacles that the teachers and learners of intermediate level of English language proficiency in high schools encounter when teaching and learning speaking skill - Suggesting some techniques and activities with the hope of helping English language teachers in high schools improve the quality of their teaching, which later helps improve students’ learning quality III Scope of the study The study focuses on the difficulties that the English language teachers meet when teaching speaking skill to grade 11 students in high schools and some suggested techniques and activities which help them improve the quality of their teaching The study of difficulties, techniques and activities of other skills and levels would be beyond the scope of the study B CONTENT I Theoretical basis: In the current high school program, speaking skill is one of the four main skills for students to learn But in fact, both teachers and students must be ready to practice speaking skill in all parts of the lesson In both the entrance upper secondary school and General Certificate of Secondary Education, speaking exercises are more and more stressed Instead of reading a specific word only, students now have to response to daily situations Therefore, to have an effective speaking skill, students should be encouraged to practice that skill in every lesson of each unit II Factual situation: Teaching and learning English at high school in Vietnam still faces many problems such as: lack of teaching equipment, and adequate teaching methods Furthermore, that the majority of students not pay attention to acquiring knowledge is also a serious problem causing difficulties in raising the quality of teaching and learning English The innovative way of teaching and learning English has been conducted for a long time, but only in the process of teaching formulas, many teachers still follow the path of reading and copying, not really apply active teaching methods to stimulate students’ creativity, self – promoting students to learn, explore and acquire knowledge Besides, teaching and learning English at schools also take place in the communicative environment of teachers and students which has so many limitations: Teaching in a large group (usually each class has about 40 students or more) , the levels of awareness are different Many students have difficulty in learning a foreign language because they don’t realize the importance of it These things not only distract students’ focus on the lesson but also have a huge impact on skills trained for students They make the students’ process to acquire knowledge slow Moreover, in speaking lesson, problems students often encounter are: error worry and shame Students are often afraid of standing in front of the whole class to speak because they lack of confidence At the beginning of the school year 2020 – 2021 at Hau Loc I upper secondary school, the average speaking results inEnglish grade 11 of classes that I am responsible for were: Class sizes Exellent-Good Average 11A3 11A7 Total 20 16 36 14 14 28 48 40 88 41,6 % 40 % 40,9% Weak (bad) 29,2 % 35 % 31,8 % 14 10 24 29,2 % 25 % 27,3 % III Goals and techniques for teaching speaking Goals for teaching speaking The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some sort of information gap between the participants Communicative output activities involve a similar real information gap In order to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap In these activities, language is a tool, not an end in itself In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning Suggestions for teaching epeaking techniques Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language: Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge  Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation  Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time Step back and observe students  Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response  Ask eliciting questions such as "What you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more  Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great It was a good job I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice…"  Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking Correction should not distract student from his or her speech  Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other people who can help  Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs  Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities  Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language IV Students’ motivation to participate in a speaking lesson When students learn a foreign language, they very often accumulate a lot of knowledge (grammatical rules, lists of vocabulary items), but then they find out that they can not actually use this language to communicate when they want to Scrivener (2005, 147) claims that there seems to be some difficulty in moving language from passive knowledge into active usage Without experience in using the language, learners may tend to be nervous about trying to say things Partly they may fear seeming foolish in front of others, they may worry about getting things wrong they may want to avoid teacher’s comments or correction and so on It takes quite a long time for some students to express themselves, which leads to long embarrassing pauses while learners are trying to find out how to say what they really want to say One of the best ways of helping learners to activate their knowledge is to put them in “safe” situations in class where they are inspired and encouraged to try to speak a foreign language Teachers should try to create such activities in which learners feel less worried about speaking and less under pressure  Nevertheless, the teacher is not the only one whom the students’ success in speaking is based on There are also motivational factors, differing from student to student, which influence his progress in the spoken language Harmer (1991, 4-6) distinguishes extrinsic and intrinsic motivation He claims that students´ attitude to speaking the language may be affected by different factors from the outside, such as people in close surroundings, previous speaking experience in a foreign language or the job opportunities offered after mastering foreign language communication All of these represent extrinsic motivation Although extrinsic motivation is nowadays a driving force for most students, without intrinsic motivation no goal in improving the speaking skill could be achieved Success is also based on students´ willingness to learn to speak a foreign language, which may be influenced by the teacher´s methods used in teaching communication and, above all, his or her personality Considering these, teachers should realize how important role they play in encouraging the students to learn to speak a foreign language Students’ personalities also play an important role in determining how quickly and correctly they will manage a speaking task Those students who are risk-takers, unafraid of making mistakes, are generally more talkative but usually make many errors Those who are shy may take a long time to speak confidently, but when they finally manage it, their English contains fewer errors The aim of both types of students is the same, indeed – to use the language correctly and fluently To achieve this goal the teachers should try as much as they can to break the silence in the classroom and get the students speak no matter how many mistakes they make or how long it takes them to produce sentences In order to decrease shyness while speaking in front of the whole class, students may be offered the opportunity to work in groups or pairs, which is a suitable approach for enhancing the active language use To satisfy students’ expectations, teachers should be supplied with sufficient amount of authentic materials, such as newspapers and magazines The speaking tasks could be based on describing the photos to each other and guessing the place in the world where the action has happened Connection between the picture and reality makes it even more tempting for students to express their points of view to a particular event and, at the same time, the teacher’s goal is achieved as well – getting students to speak and communicate with each other V Assessment criteria for speaking The four criteria a Fluency and coherence • speaks fluently with only rare repetition or self-correction; any hesitation is content-related rather than to find words or grammar • speaks coherently with fully appropriate cohesive features • develops topics fully and appropriately b Lexical resource • uses vocabulary with full flexibility and precision in all topics • uses idiomatic language naturally and accurately c Grammatical range and accuracy • uses a full range of structures naturally and appropriately • produces consistently accurate structures apart from ‘slips’ characteristic of native speaker speech d Pronunciation • uses a full range of pronunciation features with precision and subtlety • sustains flexible use of features throughout • is effortless to understand One of the most important among the criteria of the IELTS Speaking module is assessed on is fluency and coherence What does this mean? - Fluency is the ability to maintain a flow of language without unnatural hesitation - Coherence is the logical organization, development and connection of ideas  Do you express ideas and opinions clearly and coherently (logically ordered and easy to follow), without long pauses or hesitations?  Do you use discourse markers appropriately and naturally (i.e you don’t overuse the same few ones) to link your ideas?  Do you stay on topic, develop your ideas but not “go in circles” (repeating yourself) or “go off on a tangent” (moving off the topic)? Accuracy versus fluency Accuracy and fluency are terms characteristic for a successful and fecund conversation Scrivener (2005, 160-162) declares that accuracy is the ability to speak correctly without making serious mistakes and therefore a greater use of instant teacher's correction within a speaking activity is appropriate On the contrary, fluency is the ability to speak confidently without irrelevant pauses or hesitation, however, often with making major mistakes In this case, instant correction may be inappropriate and could interfere with the aims of the speaking activity Teachers should be aware of whether their main goal in a speaking activity is accuracy or fluency and adapt their role in class eligibly If the main aim is to get students to speak, then one way to achieve that would be reducing teacher´s contribution It is supposed that the less he or she speaks, the more time and space it will allow the students to If the main aim is accuracy, the teacher should concentrate on students´ mistakes and devote time to their correction However important speaking without mistakes is, a promoted trend at present seems to be to lead students to a fluent conversation in everyday situations Taking this into consideration, this approach best fits the needs of today´s society which is based on fast exchanges of information Nevertheless, it would be injudicious to qualify accuracy as less important in communication and underestimate its importance It is also essential for the ability to speak a foreign language well Approaches for students Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for this Fluency comes from a lot of practice speaking, so the best way to improve is to speak/engage in conversation as often as you can! But you can really think about your strategy for coherence and practice When answering a question remember to: - Expand on your answer Think of logical details that the examiner would want to know about If someone else were talking to you, you would naturally have questions to find out more What are those questions? Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? How much? How often? How good? How did you feel? Expand on your answer by adding those details that make it interesting -Where appropriate, explain how you feel about something – it gives emphasis to your reasons and details - Where appropriate, describe a person, thing or place - Think of a logical order or sequence Don’t jump around from one part to another The examiner doesn’t know what you’re thinking in your head, so you should try to make your answer easy to follow -Use common conversational discourse markers to signal how your sentences and ideas are linked together Using discourse markers makes your spoken English sound more fluent and natural – and it may help fill in some of the “pauses” in your speaking! Here are some examples of discourse markers: 1- well, – this has a lot of different uses, but mostly at the beginning of speaking in response to the other speaker Eg “Well, I would say my favorite trip was the one I took with my family to the Philippines for the first time.” 2- actually - used to state a fact or reality, or for stating a correction, or sometimes to signal that what you’re going to say may be unexpected Eg “Actually, I think it was the first time for my parents to go back to their home country in about 20 years.” 3- as for – used in the same sense as “regarding” or “in regard to” which can be more formal Eg “As for the food, I found it to be really fresh and light.” 4- basically – when you want to simplify or summarize a complicated or lengthy story/idea Eg “Basically, we were there to visit relatives my parents hadn’t seen since they were young and for me to get to know my parents’ home country.” 5- I mean – used to clarify what was just said or say it in different words Eg “It wasn’t at all what I expected I mean, I thought I knew a lot about the culture and the food, but it was so different being there.” 6- on the other hand – used to introduce a different view or alternative opinion Eg “The big crowds on the streets made it really difficult to walk around On the other hand, it made it exciting to be surrounded by so many people.” 7- anyway – to move on to another point or close the conversation 8- as I was saying – to bring the topic back to the original point 9- the thing is – to raise an important point Eg “The thing is, I think the trip was just as memorable for my parents as it was for me They were so proud to show off their hometown.” 10- at the same time – used to contrast what was previously said Eg “It was fun enjoying summer weather during Christmas At the same time, it didn’t really feel like Christmas to me.” Correcting students’ mistakes a Fluency activities In a fluency activity the teacher is expected to monitor the class and encourage the students to speak with minimum interfering and correction This technique is called scaffolding Scrivener (2005, 162) states that “it is a way a competent language speaker helps a less competent one to communicate by encouraging and providing possible elements of conversation.” In practice it means to encourage the weaker one by nodding, eye contact, repeating the last word in order to encourage the speaker to continue, asking tag questions, etc The aim of this encouragement is to make a student speak as much as he or she is able to Considering a fluent activity, correcting the mistakes should be done after finishing this activity Suggested techniques are the following: a) writing the sentences used during the activity on the board and discussing them with the whole class b) writing incorrect sentences used during the activity on the board and encouraging the students to make correction c) inventing and writing down the story that includes some errors the teacher overheard during the activity and students try to find them and correct them d) writing out two lists A and B – each list contains ten sentences from the activity but some of them are correct, some of them incorrect Students work in two groups and their task is to decide if the sentences are either correct or incorrect and why b Accuracy activities In an accuracy based activity the teacher is required to correct students´ mistakes whenever possible While practising accuracy, students become aware of their own mistakes in speaking straight away because the teacher does not wait until finishing the task This approach is suitable while focusing on grammar mainly and enables the students to realize and correct their mistakes and also prevent their recurrence VI Methods of teaching spoken English Spoken English is the type of English that native speakers learn first It comes from listening to caregivers and being present in society To teach spoken English to nonnative English speakers, there are a few methods that you can follow Spoken English can be taught to students of all ages, whether or not they are living in an English-speaking country Repeat Babies learn to speak by repeating what they hear, so you can use this method when teaching spoken English at any age level Simply say the words that you'd like students to know, and have them repeat the words Point to objects or mimic actions; as students repeat what you are saying, they will learn what that word is You can start with small words and common words, and work your way up to bigger and more complex words and ideas, in the same way that infants learn speech Conversation Teach by conversation In a conversation, non-English speakers might not understand all of the words, and they might not know what is being said However, through the flow of conversation, and through actions and facial expressions, learners will begin to pick out pieces of the language that they understand Through enough conversation activities, students will begin to learn spoken English Translation Translate sentences and ideas from the student's native language into English Then have the student say the phrases back, both in their own language and in English Although this process takes a long time, it can help students understand the meanings of what they say, and might help them learn more quickly Immersion Immerse students into an English-speaking class or even an English-speaking area, like a campus or a town Don't teach by using any type of translation, and even ban dictionaries from your classroom Speak only in English Use the words that they might already recognize to explain harder words Although this might seem like a harder way to learn a language, it actually mimics most closely the ways that babies and children learn to speak It can be a method to teach spoken English quickly VII Communicative activities to promote students’ speaking skill Every speaking lesson should be based on communicative activities which fulfill two important language learning needs They encourage the learners to acquire language knowledge and prepare them for real-life language use Achieving the outcome requires the participants to interact, which means not only speak with a person but also listen to what he or she is saying and react to it The role of a teacher in communicative activities The teacher is a facilitator of students´ learning and as such he has many roles to fulfill Freeman (1986, 131) describes him as a manager of classroom activities In this role, one of his major responsibilities is to set up activities that promote communication During the communicative activities he acts as a consultant answering students´ questions, offers advice and provides necessary language items One of the most important roles is to make sure that students know what they are supposed to practise and check if they it effectively These roles are called a conductor and a monitor Although there is a great number of various activities which may be used in speaking lessons, their use would be confusing and pointless if they would not be logically organised Being a good organiser should be an ability possessed by every skillful teacher Considering the facts mentioned above we can conclude that the teacher´s personality in a learning process is very important not only while participating in the activity but also while monitoring the students The teacher´s less dominant role in communicative activities offers the students the opportunity to be involved in conversation and improve their speaking skills to be able to cope with the real-life situations Types of communicative activities Communicative activities are dealt with in a large number of methodology books and their classification is distinguished according to each author´s point of view However, all of them mention the same or similar communicative tasks but in different extent Supported by a sufficient amount of literature, we applied the following categorization of prevailing communicative activities: 2.1 Discussions After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably or in each group, and provide controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs people learn best when they travel” Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members At the end, the class decides on the winning group who 10 defended the idea in the best way This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on Students of HauLoc I upper secondary school are taking part in group discussion eagerly 2.2 Role play One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel Grade 11 students are acting in a play at an English speaking club 11 2.3 Simulations Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on Role plays and simulations have many advantages First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and not have to speak for themselves, which means they not have to take the same responsibility 2.4 Information gap In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners not provide the information the others need These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language 2.5 Brainstorming On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas For example, when teaching Unit 2: Personal experiences - B Speaking, teacher can prepare a handout with a network of the word “The most unforgettable experience”, elicits more ideas from the class When it happened? What happened? Where it happened? The most unforgettable experience Who was involved? How it happened? How it affected you? 12 2.6 Storytelling Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class 2.7 Interviews Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class 2.8 Story completion This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on 2.9 Reporting Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class 2.10 Find the difference 13 For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures 2.11 Picture narrating This activity is based on several sequential pictures Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating For example, when teaching Unit 2: Personal experiences – B Speaking, teachers can get students to recall what they’ve learned in the reading lesson by narrate the story based on the pictures given 2.12 Picture describing Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a representative from each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills For example, when teaching Unit 10: Nature in danger – B Speaking, teachers can have the students look at the pictures and describe them, then show their feelings 14 Forest fire in Australia VIII Procedure and achievement The context of the plan I carried out our plan at Hau Loc I High School with the participation of 88 students from English classes Students’ level is intermediate, and they are all taught with the Textbooks English 11 by Vietnam Education Publishing House, which teaches language in communication approach, so it provides a good amount of vocabulary Procedure In this part, we will describe the teaching procedure of one lesson, then, we show out some methods of data collection in evaluating the learners’ achievement after the lesson Hence, we can evaluate the effectiveness of the plan Unit 1: FRIENDSHIP - Period - Speaking I - Aims : After the lesson, Ss will: - know how to describe physical appearance and personality - describe people in different situation II - Teaching aids: Chalk, board, overhead projector, handouts III- Procedure: Time Teacher’s activities Students’ activities (5’) Warm up Guessing Game: -Listen to the teacher -Teacher introduces the game One student may -Join the game go to the blackboard and get one picture from the One student goes to the teacher She or he tries best to describe the person blackboard and get a picture of in the picture The other students listen carefully Taylor Swift She or he tries to and guess who she is describing There are describe: pictures on the screen for them to choose -“She is a famous singer She 15 Ex: Teacher shows four pictures like these has blonde hair She has red Teacher calls another student to the blackboard lips, fair skin and round face and play the game She also has curly hair.” “I guess she is Marey Carieh” -“No” -“I guess she is Taylor Swift” -“Yes”… (10’) Describing physical appearance Activity 1: Review vocabulary of physical characteristics -Work in groups Group up the -Asks ss to work in groups of to Each group words and put them in correct will get one handout where there are words to column describe people’s appearance Asks students to group them up and put the words in correct Build Age Face Eye Hair column Slim … Old … Two may stand up and read the words Asks ss to read aloud their answer Check correct answers Asks two students to stand up and read the words Check pronunciation Key: Build Age Medium In her teens height Middle aged Fat Old Slim Muscular (10’) Face Eye Hair Square Oval Round Shining Straight Deep-set Wavy Dark In bunches Blonde Activity 2: Practice T shows pictures of different people, who can be Work in pairs Try to describe described using the above words, and asks ss to the pictures using the words work in pair to describe them they have learnt Model answers: 16 “Sir Obama is a tall black man He has very short black hair and long face He has a broad nose and a very large smile He is neither fat nor thin He looks very confident.” “Mai Phuong Thuy is a very attractive woman She is slim, tall and has fair complexion Her eyes twinkle and she has a very lovely smile I think she is a warm-hearted woman” (10’) Activity 3: Number the following persionalities in Whole class & group work (8’) (2’) order of importance in friendship Report your result to the class caring generous hospitable honest modest helpful sincere understanding… Ask ss to write new words & make sentences Asks ss to work in groups in minutes, T goes round for help if necessary Calls some students to speak in front of class After each presentation, teacher tries to elicit them by showing attention to what students say and encourage them to speak naturally Activity 4: Role play Whole class & pair work Give ss a dialogue build -Ask them to make an interviewee -Go around for help if nessessary What is her personalities?) -Call each pair to report in front of the class What is she like? (friendly, honest, helpful…) *Dialogue build What made her successful? Journalist Interrviewee Her / his name? Date of birth? His/ her personalities… Gives general comment on the students’ speech, praises the good presentation, points out typical mistakes and gives some suggestions for later improvement 17 WRAPPING Teacher summarises the main points of the lesson and asks Ss to the extra exercise as homework Home work Write a short description of one of your beloved people Listen and take note Work individually at home Ex:My mother is rather short She is in her forties but she is still very energetic She has an oval face and fair complexion For me, she is one of the most beautiful women in the world Achievement of data collection As a part of the plan, we evaluated the learners’ achievement after the lessons We decided to use qualitative approaches to collect the data Firstly, we made the direct observations before, during and after each lesson to evaluate the learners’ behavior towards these new techniques of teaching Then, we designed fifteen-minute tests to examine the learners’ achievement after each lesson Lastly, we interviewed a group of 10 students in our class to show their opinion about the new teaching techniques The direct observation was implemented based on these criteria: Do the students like the idea of integrating songs into learning and teaching English vocabulary? (observation before the lesson) Does the lesson cause the learners’ interest? (observation during the lesson) Does the lesson encourage the students? (observation during the lesson) Do the learners feel eager to join the tasks? (observation during the lesson) Do the learners understand the content of the lesson or not? (observation during the lesson) How much students gain after the lessons? (observation after the lesson) Do the students want to continue another lesson like these? (observation after the lesson) Do the students want to suggest several projects on the use of English songs for the future learning? (for interviews) With the same questions, we had some face-to-face interviews with 10 students before and after the lessons to collect more detailed and valid data The tests were distributed to students in class one week after the lessons to examine the knowledge of the students After that, the papers were marked and the results would reveal the learners’ achievement IX Results after applying: 18 With the methods of teaching and practicing speaking skill as shown above I have found the lessons more effective Students are interested in participating in the study voluntarily Most students including those who are weak pay more attention, be attracted to all activities, acquire knowledge teachers provide much better and easier Many students who were shy to speak in class are now more confident in communication Their speaking skill is significantly increased The weak students can make simple sentences Students can use various words in more complex sentences Students can use rich vocabulary in communication and get effective results of learning English Many students learn more excitingly and lively Therefore, the results of the subject study have a considerable improvement The average quality of the second semester of two classes that I have applied in school year 2020-2021 has been significantly improved: Weak (bad) Class sizes Exellent-Good Average 11A3 48 11A7 40 Total 88 26 20 42 54,2 % 50 % 52,3% 26 20 46 45,8 % 50 % 47,7 % 0 0% 0% 0% C CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION I Conclusion: Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them This experience not only has important implications in the method of teaching English, it also meets the requirement of the innovation of teaching methods and promotes the positive role of students, provides high efficiency in teaching, enhances the quality of learning the subject Moreover, it can be applied and develop extensively in all other grades in high school programs II.Recommendation: 1.For teachers: To achieve the best effective method in teaching speaking skill teachers should have creativity, enthusiasm and love for the job they are teaching Thus, inorder to use teaching techniques appropriately to inspire students to learn English, each 19 teacher should constantly explore, and learn experiences from colleagues, and in books In addition, teachers need to create a favorable environment for students to practice communicating in every English lesson For school management committee: I would like the Department of Thanh Hoa Education and Training to expand attending scientific conference to discuss the teaching and learning experience, organize annual training for teachers to improve their knowledge of access to new teaching methods so that they can apply new techniques in teaching to get more success Above are some ideas suggested for teaching speaking skill that I have used and found it very effective I would like to have contribution from teachers and colleagues to help my theme better in the teaching process I sincerely thank you! PRINCIPAL'S CONFIRMATION Hau Loc, May 20, 2021 This is my own experience initiative, I not copy other people's content Written by Hoang Thi Hoa REFERENCE BOOKS 20 English 11 - Educational Publisher Teach English - Adrian Doff eds 3.Celce-Murcia M 2001 Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed) USA: Heinle & Heinle 4.Chaney, A.L., and T.L Burk 1998 Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 Boston: Allyn & Bacon Baruah, T.C 1991 The English Teacher's Handbook Delhi: Sterling Publishing House Brown, G and G Yule 1983 Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer, J 1984 The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman McDonough, J and C Shaw 2003 Materials and Methods in ELT: a teacher’s guide Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Nunan, D., 2003 Practical English Language Teaching NY:McGraw-Hill 10.Staab, C 1992 Oral language for today's classroom Markham, ON: Pippin Publishing 11.http://www.ehow.com/info_8150785_methods-teaching-spoken-english.html 12 Methodology Handbook - (Ron Forseth; Carol Forseth, Ta Tien Hung & Nguyen Van Do) 13 Teaching English in secondary schools" Nguyen Hanh Dung - Educational Publisher -1998 14 English Language Teacher Training Project - Educational Publisher 15.English Language Teaching Methodology - Ministry of Education and Training - Hue University, Hanoi 2003 16.Let’s talk 1,2,3 – Leo Jones – Introduced by Dung Tien 17.A listening/ Speaking skills Book- Interactions one - Judith Tanka & Paul Most 18.Website: www.teachingenglish.org.uk 19 Website: www.thuvienbaigiang.violettructuyen 21 ... for teaching speaking? ??…………………………………….….3 Goals for teaching speaking Suggestions for teaching speaking techniques .3 IV Students’ motivation to participate in a speaking lesson... basis: In the current high school program, speaking skill is one of the four main skills for students to learn But in fact, both teachers and students must be ready to practice speaking skill in. .. techniques for teaching speaking Goals for teaching speaking The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current