(Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm) some effective ways to attract students interest in learning english at thuong xuan 2 high school

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THANH HOÁ THƯỜNG XUÂN HIGH SCHOOL THE INITIATIVE FROM TEACHING EXPERIENCE SOME EFFECTIVE WAYS TO ATTRACT STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT THƯỜNG XUÂN HIGH SCHOOL Teacher’s full name: Vũ Thị Hồng Position : Teacher The initiative of : Teaching English THANH HOÁ, 2018 I INTRODUCTION Reason for choosing the topic: The difference of language prevents us from exchanging economy, politics and culture among nations in the World Trade libralization and globalization of the World’s economy have been the special trend of the current society Foreign language is one of the necessary materials which helps each of us go into the World with confidence The typical expression of the general trend of globalization is the association of economy among nations in the region and in all the World This has a great influence on the international relationship and the life in each country It is not only the economic cooperation but also the cultural integration among nations, so the knowlegde of foreign language is becoming the general trend in the World The founding of ASEAN economic community in 2015 allows the free labours to move abroad This makes a chance for the experts or the professional workers in ASEAN’s countries to join the trading activities and invest abroad This action has been satisfying the lack of the worker force within countries in the region; and improving the workers’ payment and experience Of course, many of those workers are Vietnamese It means that foreign language is considered as “an important ticket” to come into other countries in the region and in the World for work Thus, foreign language is necessary and evident for people who want to work with foreigners in both home and aboard From seeing the benefit of English, our Government leads this subject into the curriculum in schools, beginning from primary schools Schools have been invested much money in improving materials which are used for teaching and learning English So our Thuong Xuan high school does But, in fact, the Vietnamese’s ability of foreign language is not good As the declaration of the index of the Global English expertness - EFEPI - in 2015 from International Educating Organization, Vietnam’s expertness is at the average of index, it’s about 53,81% , with that result, Vietnam ranks 29 out of 70 countries Now we can see that foreign language as “a key” to help every one, every country improve the future It has been believed that learning foreign languages express the trending of integration clearly for an individual, a country So, imroving the efficiency of teaching and learning English in schools in general is necessary Especially, in mountainous areas like Thuong Xuan province According to me, the teachers of English should inspire the passion of learning for this subject for each learner The teacher of foreign language’s mission does not only teach the knowlegde of language but also creats inspiration in learning for each student Teachers should help students comprehend: Speaking some foreign language well is an efficient instrument to approach the modern science and technology, to enrich for themselves and for their country It’s considered as an important way for success I think that the young people enthusiasticaly things that they love So, if we make them love English, they will try their best to achieve it in many their ways Teaching and learning must be easier from that From the above given reasons, I decide to choose the theme “ some effective ways to attract students’ interest in learning English at Thuong Xuan high school” for my research Aim of the research: The aims of the research are to find the way to promote students’ interest in learning English The subject of study: In this study, I concentrate on researching on my students’ attitude and interest in learning English Then, I conclude the reason why my students are not interested in learning English much At last, I try to find the best way to motivate my students to learn English The subject of this study is the students in class 11B1 at Thuong Xuan High school The number of students consists of 35 Research methodology: - Observing - Sharing - Listening - Analysis II CONTENT The research projects of some effective ways which accelerate students’ interest in learning English: In a recent blog post at the NCWIT blog, the researchers give some reasons for the problem why it is very important for students to have teachers who know the way how to inspire the students’ interest in learning They get students interested and even excited about what they are learning Passion is what makes students decide to study more A research shows that a teacher for a while who taught both math (which he loved) and computer science (which he was not so enthusiastic about) The difference in the level of success between students in those different courses was amazing Same teacher Same brilliant mind But a different level of enthusiasm meant different levels of results Good teachers will find a way to get more interested in what they are teaching and to make things more interesting for their students It requires a little more work, a little more imagination, and maybe even a little acting ability The best teachers make learning interesting, exciting and important The teachers who that well deserve the students and their parents Nowadays, English is admitted to be an International language It is spoken widely in the World More and more foreign cooperations and companies have invested in Viet Nam since viet nam joined ASEAN So, employees have to use English in work and in communication well beside they are high professional employees Thus, people who communicate in English well can get a good job in some foreign company with the high payment, and they have also a chance to develop further in their job’s position and their work The current serious fact is that using materials of teaching English in high schools in Viet Nam hasn’t brought the desired effect back yet This makes many students and their parents not to be pleasant Most of students who learn English in years at schools are not able to listen, speak, read and write in English The lastest searches show the pessimistic result: Many pupils who finished their compulsory education at lower schools are only able to speak and listen to the simple sentences about name or year-old, they can’t speak in English in daily communication From this, many students are sent to the famous foreign language centers to approach the more modern conditions of teaching and learning English The reality of learning English before applying this initiative: English teaching is not a piece of easy work Especially, many students are losing their interest and showing negative attitude towards english learning Teachers are always complaining that it’s hard to improve students’ scores and the students are too lazy to learn the words, recite the dialogues and finish exercises To some degree, the effective way to make the English teaching and learning go smoothly is to improve students’ interest in learning English, Einstein once said: “interest is the best teacher” Interest is a kind of direct motivation to push students’ study That means interest plays an important part in learning English as to the teacher, it is worth-while to improve students’ interest It can make students concentrate on what they are learning and think actively Learning English is quite different from other subjects’ learning It is a foreign language and there is not a good invironment for them to learn Relatively speaking, learning English is rather dull Especially, learning so many new words by heart is a hard nut to crack As a result, a lot of students are afraid of it So, it’s teachers’ duty to motivate them to learn actively Teachers should spare no efforts to arouse their students’ interest I have been teaching English at Thuong Xuan high school for many years This school is in a mountainous area so I know clearly what my students’ purpose is So far, I have been able to confirm one thing: Most of my students learn English for the GCSE, only a few study for the University entrance examination Generally, the quality of students’ input is not high so it is very difficult for both teachers and students in teaching and acquiring English In fact, we don’t only teach the very basic knowledge in the textbook but we have to teach students all the knowledge that they learned before also Besides, there are also many reasons which make teaching and learning English are prevented development, for example: Students don’t have further materials, students don’t have time to study at home (their families are very poor so they usually help their parents to get more money), they don’t have chance to practice English much, … Because the living conditions of most local people are still poor and backward so learning in general has not been focused, particularly, learning English is attended hardly Students have no any reference and means of learning except their textbooks There are about 40 students in each class in my school I think it is a large class So, it is very difficult for me to control my class while speaking and students have no more chances to practice English skills, too Especially in oral skill because they have few words My students cannot communicate in English, even though they spent 6-7 years learning English at grammar schools Actually, in English curricula, there are lessons that use tapes and CDs to practise listening and speaking skills, but my school resources and the habits of individual teachers mean they are rarely used, especially in rural areas Students mostly copy the way their teachers speak, but many teachers mispronounce the words themselves In the past, the teachers of English in my school used to teach English in traditional teaching method which students stayed passive in learning and did not have a communication environment and we didn’t care almost ways to attract students’ attention I think it is the main reason behind the ineffective teaching and learning of English in our school because this makes our students become afraid of speaking English We focused on teaching grammar much, and our students also focused on grammar lessons in order to pass tests and examinations This traditional way of teaching I think we put our students in the "passive voice" when learning English, and they cannot have good communication skills, even though students can be good at grammar I think that our students had to try to approach English in the hard way and they seemed to be tired of this subject I felt their tiredness though their actions of learning this subject Since many recent years, I have been trying to perfect the questions: What should teachers to make students love learning English more? and How the teachers to make English more attractive and easier? At last, I can find the answers for my questions ( I will show that in the next part ) The other problem is that they learn English just to pass regular tests or examinations, while they cannot use English in reality Especially, many students got high scores from exams and tests, but they can only write grammatical sentences, while they are very bad at listening and communicating Many students tell me that they like learning English, and some of them always have good learning results at school However, when they meet foreigners or go to an English club, they find out that they are afraid of speaking English in crowded places because they was afraid of making mistakes Beside that, there is no place of tourism or some factory which foreigners work or live in here so my students have no chance for communication That's why their listening and speaking skills are poor and my students become frustrated by this I think that bad English skills have become a hot topic on education forums Educators have pointed out that it is the nature of Vietnamese people that they can easily get embarrassed when making mistakes, therefore, they would rather not to speak English to make mistakes My students do, too The initiative is being applied to teach English in my school A great number of students in my school shared me that they learnt English because they were required to learn this subject in their curriculum at school Similarly, not many said that they learnt English due to their love for this foreign language Obviously, no teachers can persuade their students to learn English like a favourite subject if they dislike it Hence, to help students learn English better, it is important to make English become something special that impresses students I think that teachers of English should make students realise that learning a new language gets so many benefit to them They gain practical knowlegde, learn valuable things about foreign cultures, and discover a whole new World outside of their own These are some ways I have used to improve the learning English problem in our school: 3.1 Forging the relationship between teacher and students Creating the close relationship in and outside the class between teachers and students is necessary This makes students feel easier and more friendly when they make questions of lesson as well as share personal secrets with their teachers Students feel teachers like theirs friends Forging the relationship with students encourage them in conversations, too For example, if your lesson is on while your students can not focus on it because of something, you should let them share their problem and you can participate in that action as a member Your taking part in the action to help students solve their problem will stop wasting time for personal problem soon and will make the relationship between teachers and students more close-knit Students will have an interest in learning English more from the reason they love you 3.2 Explain the benefits As a teacher, you should be wise enough to explain subtly the benefits of learning English to your students Try to elaborate how mastering foreign language is rewarding and beneficial You can also add that learning English correlates with better their academic results This applies to career and selfdevelopment as well 3.3 Make them use English (create a learning English environment) Theoretical knowledge is the basic precondition for language learning but it is even more important for your students to practice what they learn Therefore, as a teacher, you should create possibilities for them to use English more You may create a friendly learning English environment in each lesson Sometimes, you can organize debates or close meetings, where many students will communicate in English as well as they will understand what they or don’t know Of course, mistakes come as a natural part of this process so you have to provide support and encourage your students not to give up on expressing their opinions in foreign language because the more they speak, the more they are going to learn 3.4 Make class fun Making class fun is a surefire way to up intrinsic motivation levels When students are having a good time, they’ll be more engaged in learning Their motivation will come from them rather than from you You just have to find the best ways to help your students have a good time while they learn One thing I have remembered since I was a student is my teachers’ humour They knew how to make the lesson easier and more interesting I am sure we used to be under study pressure, but our teachers helped us get over that pressure by their funny teaching Why don’t you make your class funny from now? For example, if you are having a lecture of sports, you should change your class into My Dinh stadium and your students will be athletes I am sure that the lecture will be more attractive; your students will comprehend and memorize the lesson easier They will be attracted from the begining to the end by you 3.5 Let them know the timely results of learning Let your students see the results of their learning every once in a while, it’s up to you to choose how There are many ways to it but keep in mind that your students are young, so they are usually impatient and yearn for some encouragement from your side It may be done by organizing an English speaking club with discussions on the specific topic that they have already perfected Introduce the rule with scores and objectives so that students can enjoy achieving results through correct use of foreign language Any method that makes students feel proud about the progress they made is valid These are two of teaching plans that I use the above ways to attract my students in learning English Namely, I apply the 3rd way (make them use English) to these teaching plans Unit 5: Illiteracy (English 11) Reported speech role play Level: Intermediate Teacher's notes: After you have taught reported speech, put the students into groups of three Explain that one person in the three is a rich actress/actor, one is his/her niece/nephew and the last person is the butler The actor/actress is hearing impaired and dying She is going to decide what to with her money and house after her death Set up the class so that the actors/actresses are on one side of the room, the nieces/nephews on the other and the butlers in the middle The butlers need to give messages from the nieces/nephews to the actor/actress The aim is for the butler and the nephew/niece to be nice so that the actor/ actress will give them her money As they are doing this the butler will use reported speech e.g She said that you are lazy and never visited her He said he was busy and didn't have time He said that he was helping animals You are the niece/nephew of a very rich, famous hearing impaired actress You know that she hasn't got long to live So, for the moment you are trying to become her favorite relative in order to obtain her millions after she is dead You know that she loves animals and children You also know that her dog is her closest friend What you think will make her give you some money? You are the butler to a rich, famous hearing impaired actress Actually she hasn't got long to live and so you are being very nice to her at the moment, you think you have a good chance of being left her millions in her will You have always helped her and you have looked after her cats and dogs with care You think you should at least get the house which you have cleaned for nearly 40 years! You don't like her niece/nephew who has suddenly made an appearance You always have to act as a go between for the niece/nephew and aunt because the aunt can never hear her relative You are a rich, famous, hearing impaired actress You know that you haven't got long for this world but you don't mind because you have had a good life You also know that your niece/nephew wants something but you're not sure what You have already written your will but you are prepared to change it Your will: $ million to be left to the animal rescue league (you love cats) Your house will go to your dog It has been a faithful companion animal and you want it to have a home when you're gone Your jewelry will be sold at auction in order to raise money for the children's hospital near your house You haven't decided about the rest, a sum total of $150,000 Your butler has always been good to you Your niece/nephew is also sweet You are waiting to hear what they have to say You feel that if they can show you how good they really are you will give the money to either one of them As a follow up lesson: Ask the students what type of words "hearing impaired" and "companion animal" are i.e politically correct For homework ask the students to think/find of more politically correct words The students can compare their lists when they get back into class Unit 10: Nature in Danger (English 11) ROLE PLAY: A discussion between different parties interested in global warming Team up with classmates who have been assigned the same role to develop your roles and discuss ideas and “strategies” before the role play begins Introduce yourself to the other role players Discuss your roles after the role play ends Role A – Penguin leader You live in Antarctica You need global warming to stop Temperatures must actually get cooler Your species is at great risk of extinction Your habitat, the ice, is melting and your sources of food are disappearing The world must act to save you The day the last penguin dies is the start of the end of the Earth   Role B – Dessert dweller You like the recent effects of global warming It has brought a lot of unexpected rain to your land For the first time you can grow things You have bumper harvests You have lots of water to drink You think global warming is simply a matter or winners and losers You think global warming or cooling has always happened   Role C – Worried Martian Billions of years ago, Mars, your planet, looked like Earth Life was everywhere However, greedy Martians controlled the energy sources and the Mars climate changed, killing all life – except you The greedy Martians paid leaders to pretend nothing was happening and that alternative energies would 10 arise It was all too late Advise the Earthlings and the penguins of the dangers of climate change   Role D – U.S President You are terrified of taking measures to control global warming because you might lose your power You believe scientists can build a huge machine to refreeze the ice caps You think keeping American jobs is more important than penguin food You know better than the world’s climate experts You don’t believe in aliens Some above role plays are used to teach speaking skill in my school Of course, I can only apply role-play in some units, not in all I realize that in lessons use role-play, I can make the situations easier and more familiar The students are also more active The effect of the initiative from experience: During the whole procedure, I observe that my students study harder, they are also more active in practicing Until now, they have known the way to comprehend the lesson, they tasks more effectively, they love learning English more Many pairs of students practice speaking English at class or outside class From that, the quality of lessons is getting better Below is some actual results I have reached: 4.1 Vocabulary From the performance, students consciously applied the vocabulary from the presentation of new lessons The effect of memorization and application of new words is proved better than single practice of recitation Almost 21 students applied the new vocabulary freely during the procedure As for the four topics, they are real and relevant to the students’ life and all provide enough flexibility for students to imagine Occasionally, they would rely on Chinese to express some difficult meaning 4.2 Grammar The students avoided the limit of "formal speech "by taking lifelike forms in their conversation, e.g elliptical sentences, repetition, exclamatory sentences, etc Some errors occasionally occurred Those serious grammatical errors were corrected by the teacher immediately or by the students in the afterward 11 discussion Some slips of tongue were neglected while the speaker himself was aware of it 4.3 Communicative purpose Without rigid limit of word application, students had much space to bring their imagination and intelligence into full play About 24 students can communicate freely and fluently in English in this way However, the accuracy of their speaking needs to be improved Here the accuracy does not only mean using grammars and vocabulary correctly without errors, but also refers to the "property of language ", which means to speak appropriately according to different time, places and situations 4.4 Teaching procedure During the whole procedure, there is no situation out of control occurred all students throw themselves into their "roles", fusing the ideas, emotions and languages all together After the performance, the discussion went on with high enthusiasm They made poignant comments on each other’s performance and declared that they benefit a lot from others’ presentation Students also put forward some creative suggestions for this kind of practice Those would be discussed in the following part 12 III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion:  It is not too difficult for our students to learn English because with enough dedication and passion from their teachers, every difficult problems of learning English become easier A nice combination of teachingg techniques and practical lessons will be able to motivate and inspire our students to learn faster and more effectively I think if you keep my five ways in your mind when giving a language lecture you will find the results much better and the job more satisfying Suggestion: 2.1 Prepare for success At the first period, the teacher should be brief and to the point so that the students would have more time to perform Also, try to keep the topic real and relevant and the roles you ask students to play as real to life as possible Try to think through the language the students will need and make sure this language has been presented Students may need the extra support of having the language on the board When the role-play began the students felt 'armed' with the appropriate language At higher levels the students will not need so much support with the language but they will need time to 'get into' the role Furthermore, the teacher should create a comfortable atmosphere so that the students wouldn’t feel nervous and pressed 2.2 The role of the teacher Some of the possible teacher roles are: Facilitator - students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage Spectator - The teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end Participant - It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the roleplay yourself To sum up, using the attractive ways into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun! It can be an integral part of the class and not a 'one-off' event It's fun and motivating; quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more forthright way; the world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world - thus offering a much wider range of language opportunities In addition 13 to these reasons, students who will at some point travel to an English speaking country are given a chance to rehearse their English in a safe environment Real situations can be created and students can benefit from the practice Mistakes can be made with no drastic consequences XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày tháng năm 2018 Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Vũ Thị Hồng 14 References: Dawes, 2001 Dawes, L (2001). Điều khiến giáo viên sử dụng cơng nghệ mới? Trong M Leask (Ed.), Các vấn đề giảng dạy cách sử dụng ICT. London: Routledge Ellis, 1997 Ellis, R (1997). Mua lại ngôn ngữ thứ hai. Oxford: Nhà xuất Đại học Oxford Gardner, 1985 Gardner, RC (1985). Tâm lý xã hội học ngơn ngữ thứ hai: Vai trị thái độ động lực. London: Nhà xuất Edward Arnold Forcheri, 2000 Forcheri, P., & Molfine, MT (2000). ICT công cụ để học tập. Trong DM Watson, & TA Downes (Eds.), Truyền thông Mạng Giáo dục (trang 175-184). Boston: Kluwer Academic Krashen, 1987 Krashen, SD (1987). Nguyên tắc thực hành việc mua lại ngôn ngữ thứ hai . New York: Prentice-Hall Littlewood, 1995 Littlewood, W (1995). Học ngoại ngữ ngôn ngữ thứ hai. Cambridge: Nhà xuất Đại học Cambridge Ngeow, 1998 Ngeow, KYH (1998). Động lực chuyển giao việc học ngôn ngữ. (Dịch vụ chép tài liệu ERIC số ED 427 318) Parsons cộng sự, 2001 Parsons, R., Hinson, S., Brown, D (2001).Tâm lý giáo dục: Học viên - mơ hình nghiên cứu giảng dạy . Đại học Virginia: Wadsworth Thomson Learning 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION Reason for choosing the topic Aim of the research The subject of study Research methodology II CONTENT The research projects of using role-play in speaking The reality of speaking before applying this initiative The initiative is being applied to teach speaking English in my school The effect of the initiative from experience 13 III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion 15 Suggestion 15 IV REFERENCES 17 16 17 ... learning go smoothly is to improve students? ?? interest in learning English, Einstein once said: ? ?interest is the best teacher” Interest is a kind of direct motivation to push students? ?? study That... In this study, I concentrate on researching on my students? ?? attitude and interest in learning English Then, I conclude the reason why my students are not interested in learning English much At. .. interest in learning English at Thuong Xuan high school? ?? for my research Aim of the research: The aims of the research are to find the way to promote students? ?? interest in learning English The