Warm up activities for speaking class in high school

Vinh unversity Foreign language department  warm-up activities for speaking class in high school (hoạt động khởi động lớp cho học môn nói trờng phổ thông) Supervisor : Student Class: : m.a Nguyen Thi Van Lam Cao Thi Hue vinh ,5/2005 42A2 Acknowledgements The study would not have been completed without the invaluable assistances and unflagging encouragements of many people First of all, I would like to express my great gratitude and special thanks to my supervisor, M.A Nguyen Thi Van Lam who has contributed to my study with many excellent suggestions, detailed critical comments and encouragements My greatest debt is to Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong and many other lecturers at Foreign Language Department in Vinh University who have given me useful advices and favourable conditions for the completion of my thesis I would like to express my gratitude to Miss Mindy who has wholeheartedly helped me much with precious sources of materials My sincere thanks goes to all teachers of English and students in Yen Dinh I high school whose endless enthusiasm has helped me to carry the surveys which are very useful for my thesis I am really in debted to my beloved family and my friends who encourage me, give me useful suggestions, lend me materlials and are always by my side during the process of conducting the study They help me to stay on my toes and complete the thesis Although the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitations of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the thesis Therefore, I am looking forward to receiving the sincere comments from all of you! Vinh,May 2005 Cao Thi Hue abstract Warm- up activities in language class has been discussed for a long time and are still on debate Speaking skills are on the same boat It is one of the most outstanding topics in methodology and is a controversial topic as well Acknowledge this fact and the importance of two above aspects, the thesis with the title “warm up activities for speaking class in high school” has been done with the hope to have a small contribution to language teaching method and to provide some useful knowledge about them Mastering the process of conducting a scientific research, the author has carried out the thesis in a logical order Firstly, the reasons for choosing the topic are presented, then the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study are dealt with in turn in the first part called “introduction” In the “investigation” part, the author does not have the ambition to cover all things related to warm- up activities in general The study only focuses on the most typical things that are important to the thesis Before presenting some warm- up activities for speaking class in high school, the thesis has been gone through all necessary theoretical concepts concerned with the topic such as the Communicative Approach (C.A), the nature of speaking and warm- up activities Then the thesis includes the surveys on the situation of teaching and learning English speaking skills and the state of using warm- up activities in high school The results gained in the surveys provide useful sources for the completion of the thesis Basing on the results, the author suggests some best warm- up activities for speaking class These activities are basically oral To complete the this study, many sources of materials are used, especially the author has exploited to the maximum the website “google.com” Some selections of pictures which can be used in speaking class in warm up’s time are also introduced in the thesis In general, the thesis has been conducted with the purpose of handing teachers and students of English some useful knowledge about and some suggestions of both speaking skills and warm- up activities It is hard for the author to deal with everything about them but hopefully, the thesis has introduced something new, creative and advantageous for foreign language teaching Table of contents Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents abbreviations Part I: Introduction The Reasons for choosing the study The Aims of the Study The Scope of the Study The Methods of the Study The Design of the Study Part II: I II IV VI 3 Investigation Chapter : Theoretical background 1.1 An over view on C.A 1.2 Nature of speaking 1.2.1 What speaking is 1.2.2 The position of speaking skills among four language skills 8 1.2.3 Speaking activities 10 1.2.3.1 A successful speaking activity 12 1.2.3.2 Problems with speaking activities 13 1.2.4 Principles to teach speaking in C.A 15 1.3 Warm- up activities 16 1.3.1 Definition 16 1.3.2 Teaching aims of using warm- up activities 17 1.3.3 The role of warm- up activities in speaking class 20 1.3.4 Principles of using warm- up activities in speaking class in high school 22 Chapter 2: Situation analysis 2.1 The situation of learning speaking skills in high school 2.2 The situation of teaching speaking skills in high school 2.3 The situation of using warm- up activities in high school 24 26 29 Chapter 3: Suggested warm - up activities for speaking class in high school 3.1 Songs 3.1.1 Why songs ? 3.1.2 Which songs? 3.1.3 How to teach with songs 3.1.4 Suggested songs 30 30 30 3.2 Games 3.2.1 Why games ? 3.2.2 Which games ? 3.2.3 Suggested games 32 32 32 33 31 3.3 Story –telling basing on given picturestelling basing on given pictures 40 Part III: Conclusion 42 Referrences Appendix 44 45 Selections of pictures Questionnaire List of abreviations C.A: Communicative Approach e.i: it means that List of tables Table Table Table List of pictures Picture1 Picture Picture3 Picture 26 28 29 30 31 33 34 Part I: Introduction The Reasons for Choosing the Study In the course of global integration, English has become the vital device for communication in all fields It is as a bridge which brings people from different countries in the world closer Therefore, humanbeings is appreciating the role of English more and more English has been considered to be the most necessary subject for students in all levels of educational systems The demand of learning English is gradually increasing To meet the need of everybody, education is required to be improved, how to find the most effeective method in teaching English is the concern now Nowadays, the Communicative Language Teaching Approach seems to be dominant, e i the communicative competence is the goal of language teaching Many great changes have been made in classroom’ atmosphere: learners play active and possitive roles during the classtime and learners –telling basing on given pictures centered classroom is reached In the time of C.A, how to teach four basic language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing is taken into serious consideration Among four of them, speaking takes the highest position However, in fact, in high school, speaking is not paid a lot of attention to Teachers and students find it difficult to start talking in the target languages Actually, it is not easy to get students start talking in English at the beginning of the class How to encourage students to speak English and join speaking activities is the worry of many teachers Facing with that demand of methodology, teachers are required to be more careful and skillful in preparing the lesson plan in which warm- up activities play a very important role To gain a successful speaking class, the very essential element is motivation which is created from the beginning of the class, warm-up activity–telling basing on given picturesthe starting point of the lesson must be very interesting so that it can stimulate students to speak English Surely, good opening leads to successful things In fact, there have been many people writing about warm- up activities and some graduation thesises about these as well However, these materials are too general and difficult to apply in Viet nam Moreover, teachers and students in high school, actually, are not aware much about the importance of warm- up activities These problems have been tossed in the sleep of the author Last but not least, it is insufficient if going wihtout saying that speaking is the most favourable skill for the author and the thesis has been done with the wish that it can contribute a bit to a better future of teaching and learning to speak English To be a teacher of English in the very near future at the time the C.A is widely applied in teaching foreign language, the study entitled “ Warm- up activities for speaking class in high school” has been conducted with the hope to make teachers and students more aware of the importance of warmup activities which play the role of ice breakers in a few first minutes of speaking class The Aims of the Study For the reasons mentioned above, the thesis has been done with the wish that it can contribute to the improvement in teaching English in general and in teaching speaking skills in particular.The thesis aims to : - Provide an overview on C.A and the nature of speaking skills - Present some general knowledge about warm- up activities - Suggest some typical warm- up activities for teaching speaking skills - Give some features of the situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and using warm- up activities in high school - Help teachers and students be aware of the role of warm- up activities in speaking class The Scope of the Study Warm- up activities are varied, so for different skills at different levels we have different choices That is why it is impossible for the author to cover all things related to the topic of the study Only the most necessary knowledge about speaking skills and warm- up activities are mentioned in the thesis Further more, it is too broad to carry out the thesis discussing all levels of students Thus, the thesis focuses on students of beginning level- the students at high school What is more, special attention is paid to warm- up activities which are basically oral because they are the best to get students start talking –telling basing on given picturesget ready for speaking class time In the limitation of a university graduation thesis, the author does not have the wish to provide a too extensive topic 4.The Method of the Study To complete the thesis, the following methods have been used : - Collecting information associated with speaking skills and warm- up activities from different sources : references, books, and Internet - Investigating and analyzing the situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and using warm - up activities in speaking class in high in school - Synthesizing and analyzing the results gained in investigating duration to suggest suitable warm- up activities for speaking class 5.The Design of the Study The study consists of parts : Part I entitled “Introduction” outlines the background of the study In this part, information about the reasons for choosing the study, the aims, the scope, the method and the design of the study are provided Part II with the title “Investigation” comprises chapters: Chapter entitled “The Theoritical Background” provides all concepts related to the study Chapter is about the “Situation Analysis” which results from the investigation of the factual situation of teaching and learning to speak English and using warm- up activities at Yen Dinh I High school in Thanh Hoa Chapter discusses “Suggested warm- up activities for speaking class in high school” Part III is the “Conclusion” which gives a brief overview on the achievement of the thesis and suggests some extensive topics relating to the thesis “Reference” is coming next with a list of sources of materials are presented in detail The thesis ends with “Appendix” part in which some selections of pictures which can be used as warm- up activitties in speaking class are introduced The questionaires of the surveys are also given in this part Part II: Investigation Chapter1: Theoretical Background 1.1 An overview on C.A The developments in teaching and learning foreign languages in recents years have proved the scientific and effective features of the C.A The matter of teaching methods is still controversial but surely the C.A is the best up to now As already known, in C.A the communicative competence is the goal of language teaching This is the most important fearture of C.A According to C.A, the aim of lesson plan is to develop the ability of students to use language appropriately in specific situations In other words, it tries to make learners “communicatively competent” (Lasen-Freeman, 1986) Learners should be able to select a particular kind of language and should know where, when and with whom they should use it Moreover, everything carried out in classroom is done with communicative intent That is activities are designed to provide students with chances to practise using language in reallife communicative contexts or to develop the students “intergrating ability” That also explains why all materials used in classroom, in C.A, are authentic To be clearer, it means that ... 1.3.2 Teaching aims of using warm- up activities 17 1.3.3 The role of warm- up activities in speaking class 20 1.3.4 Principles of using warm- up activities in speaking class in high school 22... analyzing the situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and using warm - up activities in speaking class in high in school - Synthesizing and analyzing the results gained in investigating... saying what it is 1.3.3 Principles of using warm up activities in speaking class in high school As mentioned above, we can not deny the necessity of using warm- up activity in speaking class in