(SKKN CHẤT 2020) how to arouse students’ interest in learning english

In order to make his English lessons more effective, the teacher himself mustfind out the ways of teaching suitable for his students.. My ability: Necessarily, among the teachers of my s

In order to make his English lessons more effective, the teacher himself mustfind out the ways of teaching suitable for his students I think that in a goodEnglish period, the students play active roles and the teacher acts as both a guiderand an organiser.

1.2 Rationale of practice:

I have been working as a teacher of English at several junior high schools forover ten years I realize the fact that a rather big number of students are notinterested in learning English and they do not usually get desired results for thissubject They think English is a difficult subject at school As a teacher, I havebeen spending plenty of time thinking about this problem

In fact, students should be aware of importance of the language in their studyand in their future life so that they can be active in learning this foreign language.Besides, their teachers of this subject must give interesting and suitable teachingmethods to their lessons There have been many teaching activities which helparouse students’ motivation in each language lesson such as teaching Englishthrough games and music, eliciting,…… In this limited unit, I would like tosuggest some common and useful ones

Another reason is because of the lack of necessary equipment for teaching English atmany schools in Viet Nam In deed, the school where I am working as a teacher ofEnglish has been famous for its good quality in education for years Most

students of my school are well brought up by their parents and they identify agood motivation in their studying, which leads to better study results for English

as well as other subjects at school

1.4 My ability:

Necessarily, among the teachers of my school I should work harder and harder

so as to master the language and always give my students good lessons, whichmeans that my students’interest in learning English is aroused That is the matter Ihave been absorbed in and that is the reason for my theme

4 Researched participants: Students of my junior high school.

5 Ways to conduct the theme:

- My real teaching in classes

- Surveys

6 Time and place for conducting the theme:

- Time: School year 2013- 2014; School year 2014- 2015

- Place: At my junior high school

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II PROBLEM SOLUTION:

to apply these teaching techniques in their classes

2 Practical basis:

Many methodological materials present a great number of interesting classroomactivities However, some teachers may not have the good chance to be familiarwith most of these activities or some may be afraid of spending a lot of timethinking about their best activities for their lessons or some may know thoseteaching activities half-way Consequently, many Vietnamese pupils has verylittle interest in learning English

3 Some activities to arouse students’ interest in learning English:

There are various activities in a classroom to arouse students’interest inlearning English The following may be extremely helpful:

3.1 Eliciting:

In many classes, it is the teacher that talks while the students listen If thestudents take speaking tasks, it is usually to repeat what the teacher says, or toanswer a set of questions This way of teaching will obviously make the studentsfeel bored and frustrated Instead of simply giving words, sentences, or structuresdirectly, the teacher should involve the students more by eliciting them from thestudents He should ask them for their ideas and suggestions, get them tocontribute what they already know, and encourage them to guess new words This

is called eliciting.

Eliciting involves the class by focusing students’ attention and making them dosome thinking activities This happens even if students do not know the wordswhich are being elicited, so elicitation can be used for presenting a new language

item as well as reviewing what was taught earlier Furthermore, eliciting

encourages students to draw on what they already know or partly know or do not know So it is a useful technique for mixed ability classes or classes of students from different learning backgrounds, from which different students know

different things In addition, eliciting gives teachers a chance to see what students know and what they do not know, so teachers can adapt the presentation to the level of the class Of course, an eliciting presentation takes more time than a straightforward presentation of a new thing However, eliciting will catch

students’ attention and they will remember the new knowledge better

Some ways of eliciting:

3.1.1 Eliciting from pictures:

- Using pictures to elicit is the easiest way to introduce a new topic or newvocabulary When students are elicited from pictures, they should be asked fairlygeneral questions that allow a variety of responses This encourages more students torespond and leads them to say more For example, to elicit from the pictures in unit

12 of the textbook “TIẾNG ANH 7”, section A1 (on pages 114 and 115), I can ask

my students to look at the picture and answer the question: “Where are the people?”and then I say: “ You can answer the question in Vietnamese.” and my students cananswer my question in Vietnamese like this: “Họ đang ở tại quầy bán hoa quả” Then

I give out the answer in English, “ They are at a fruit stall.” As a result, I havesucceeded in presenting the word “ fruit stall” to my students

This picture is shown as the illustration

Then I can ask my pupils to look at the following picture and ask them toanswer my question,“where are they?” and without any of my further explanation,

my pupils can answer the question in English, “They are at a meat stall.” Theresult is that the word “meat stall” is presented in an interesting and easy way

The following picture can be the example of illustration extracted from my powerpoint lesson plan – (“TIẾNG ANH 7”/ Unit 12-A1)

And the same elicitation is used to introduce the word “vegetable stall”

Where are they?

They are at a vegetable stall

The pictures below can be the examples of illustration extracted from my powerpoint lesson plan – (“TIẾNG ANH 7”/ Unit 12-A1) when the words such as

“cucumber”, “spinach”…… are presented.

What are they?

(in Vietnamese)

cucumber s

What kind of fruit can you see?

(in Vietnamese)

papaya s

What kind of fruit does the picture show you?

In what state are these fruits?

(in Vietnamese)

Of course, different questions (as above- illustrated) are designed in order to make my presentation of the new vocabulary more interesting

- In fact, sometimes students may not answer one or two of teachers’ elicitingquestions because they may have very little knowledge about that field In this case,teachers should give out this presentation The advantage of trying to do someeliciting first is that students’ attention will now be focused on the word/words andthey should be learning it/them with their greater interest

3.1.2 Getting students to guess:

- Because the language follows rules, it is often possible to guess things whichstudents have never actually been taught, and an important part of learning alanguage is developing this ability to make guesses Eliciting is one way ofencouraging students to make guesses and to work out rules for themselves Learningthrough this way will fill students with enthusiasm

- For instance, to elicit the topic of Unit 12 of the textbook “TIẾNG ANH 7”, Ilet my students play Kim’s game with some nouns showing food and encouragesthem to guess the topic of the unit by circling the three choices The following slidefrom my powerpoint lesson plan is shown as the illustration

After the game, please guess what is the topic

- When getting students to guess, the teacher should pay attention to these points:+ The teacher should pause after asking each question so as to give students time to think.

+ The teacher should vary his or her questioning techniques according to thedifficulty of the questions, letting good students answer difficult questions anddirecting easier questions at weaker ones In this way, the whole class will beinvolved

+ The teacher should try to elicit “onto the blackboard’, building up a set of examples as students respond

3.1.3 Getting students to imagine:

- A textbook often includes only questions that will elicit key vocabulary or structures, or to establish a situation or a topic Therefore, the teacher should take every opportunity to ask questions that require students to interpret what is in a picture or a text (EX: To get students to interpret the picture in Unit 10 (B1) of the textbook “TIẾNG ANH 7”, I can ask my pupils to look at the picture and imagine

“What is happening to Minh?”), or to imagine things beyond a picture or a text (EX: What will Minh do ?/ How will he feel when he sees the dentist?/…… )

- There may be no single “right” answers to these questions but a wide range ofpossible answers Students are encouraged to express their own ideas and feelings.Questions of this kind encourage students to give a more imaginative, personalresponse If we ask questions like that, we can involve the class in discussion and canstimulate freer use of language.

3.2 Using visual aids:

- There are various kinds of visual aids that teachers can use to teach English such as the blackboard, real objects, flashcards, charts, teachers themselves, etc

- Using visual aids has a lot of benefits:

+ Showing visuals focuses attention on meaning, and helps to make the language used in the class real and alive

+ Having something to look at keeps students’ attention, and makes the lesson more interesting

+ Visuals can be used at any stage of a lesson Visual aids are used topresent a new language, to introduce a topic, as a part of language practice, and toreview the language that has been presented earlier Good visual aids are not justused once, but again and again, and can be shared by different teachers

In this part, I would like to study some familiar visual aids used in a classroom

* The blackboard: The teacher or students can use it to note the importantpoints of the language, to draw pictures, diagrams, maps, etc Simple pictures drawn

on the blackboard can help to increase the interest of a lesson, and are often a goodway of showing meaning and conveying situations to the class Blackboard drawingsshould be as simple as possible, showing only the most important details It is notnecessary for teachers to be good artists to create their drawings successfully on theblackboard A lot of information can be conveyed by means of very simple linedrawings and “stick figures”, which are easy and not time-consuming for teachers todraw It is important for these drawings to be drawn as quickly as possible so as not

to lose the interest of the class Teachers should also talk while drawing In this way,the class will be more involved and will understand the picture on the board bothfrom seeing it and from listening to the teacher The following photos were takenfrom one of my lessons - (Unit 6/B2-TIẾNG ANH 7) at my classes (school year:2014- 2015) The fact is that the whole class involed the lesson with interest

13

This game was used to warm up the lesson at the beginning of the lesson

The technique was used for the “Post- reading” activity of the lesson

The photo below was taken from my lesson taught at my classes Unit 7 (A2,3) – “TIẾNG ANH 7”

The technique was used here as an exercise for the “While- reading”

* Real objects: (sometimes called “realia”):

They can be the things that are already in the classroom such as fans, desks,tables, walls, clothes, etc Teachers can also bring real things into the classroomlike foods, clothes, household objects, containers, etc Real objects are in many

ways the easiest kind of visual aids to be used in class as teachers need no specialpreparation Simple objects can be used not only for teaching vocabulary but also

as prompts to practice structures and develop situations Realia can be used inmany lessons in TIẾNG ANH 6, 7

Example: The teacher can show a ruler

* to teach the word “ruler”

* to practice the structure “What is this/that/it?”- It is a ruler

* Charts:

They are large sheets of card or paper with writing, pictures or diagrams, usedfor more extended presentation or practice They can usually be displayed on thewall or on the blackboard, or the teacher can hold them up for the class to see.Using charts is convenient because of the following reasons:

* The teacher does not have to spend time in the lesson drawing or writing on the blackboard

* As the chart is prepared in advance, it is possible for teachers todraw pictures or tables more carefully and also to make them more attractive (e.g bycolouring them)

* The chart can be kept and used again with the same class (e.g forreview), or used with other classes and by other teachers

The textbooks we are using now are up-to-date and have good illustrations.There may be no need for teachers to make charts However, it may still beworthwhile to copy some visual materials from the textbooks onto charts, so thatthe teacher can introduce the lesson in a more interesting way, or review earlierlessons, or simply make a change of activity

* Flashcards:

They are cards with single pictures which can be held up by the teacher Theycan be used for presenting and practising new words and structures and forrevision Teachers can draw a picture on the flashcard, or stick on a picture from amagazine; flashcards can also be used to show words or numbers Goodflashcards can be made by paying attention to these points:

* They should be large enough – at least 20 x 14 cm (half a piece oftyping paper)

* Pictures can be drawn with a thick pen so that they are clear, or theycan be cut from a magazine Pictures from magazines are often more interesting forstudents to look at, but it is difficult to find pictures which are in the right size andwhich are simple enough

* If possible, flashcards should be made on pieces of white card Then they can be kept and used again

* The teacher herself:

The teacher can use gestures, facial expressions, and actions to help show themeaning of words and to illustrate situations The teacher can smile before the

class to teach the word “smile”- (TIẾNG ANH 7) The teacher can mime someone

sneezing to teach the word “sneeze”- (TIẾNG ANH 7) Most action verbs (sit,

stand, write, etc) - (TIẾNG ANH 6) and some adjectives (happy, worried,

etc)-(TIẾNG ANH 7) could be taught in this way

3.3 Teaching English through games:

- Students are greatly keen on participating in games So teaching English

through games is the most effective way to make students interested in learning

English From my personal experience and from some reference books, I would like

to introduce some common games

3.3.1 Guessing game:

There are different ways to organize different guessing games:

For example:

+ The student who is chosen writes a word or a sentence on a piece of paper

+ The teacher has this student go to the front of the class Other students ask

him/her yes-no questions to guess the word or the sentence

+ The student who can guess the word or the sentence will replace this student

and continue the game

+ The teacher can also divide students in groups Each group will think of a

word or a sentence and the representative of each group will go to the front of the

class in turn The group who can guess the word or the sentence will get three marks

The group with more marks will be the winner

Or

+The teacher searches old magazines and finds photos of simple things such

as dogs, cats, cereal boxes, baseballs, pencils, school bags, and so on, to use them

as objects

+The teacher cuts out the selected photos and pastes them on 3x5 index

cards +The teacher places the cards in a large box and jumbles them up

+ Students take turns to pick up a card from the box

+The student will have to use words that describe the object on the card He/

She has to make sure that he/she does not speak out the name of the object

+The others seated have to guess the name of the object

+The one who guesses it right takes the next turn

3.3.2 Lucky numbers:

This game is usually designed as a way to check students’ answers to a series

of reading comprehension questions so that students will feel more excited about

their lesson The game is played as follows:

+ Have students form groups (It is up to the number of the students in class)

+ Write some numbers on the board

+ There are some lucky numbers (e.g 2, 5, 9) The group who choose the

lucky number will get 2 marks without doing anything.

+ The other numbers each will show a question or an order If the group cananswer the question or perform the order well, that group will get 2 marks If thatgroup cannot answer the question or cannot perform the order, the other groups willhave the right to do that

+ When all the numbers have been chosen, the group with more marks will be the winner

Lucky stars and Lucky animals are very similar to Lucky numbers The only difference is that the numbers (1,2,3,……….) are replaced by the stars or animals that are numbered 1,2,3,…………

3.3.3 Jumbled words:

This example (including the answer keys in red) is taken from my lesson

(Unit 6: Places/ A1- « TIẾNG ANH 6 ») I hold the game to check my students’

homework

JUMBLED WORDS

hotel

E.g: A Word square with its answer keys

Word square Circle the 8 correct words

about the weather and seasons

+ The teacher has students work individually or in groups to find the

information to fill in the word forks

+The first student or the first group that can complete the task correctly will

a decision

an error a mess

be the winner.

3.3.6 Network:

+ The teacher writes the network on the board

+ Students work individually or in groups to find the information to fill in the network

+ The first student or the first group that can complete the task correctly will

be the winner

The technique was used for the “Post- reading” activity of the lesson

3.3.7 What and where:

The game is often played after the vocabulary is presented This teachingtechnique helps students remember the new words better in an exciting way Theteacher conducts the game in the following steps:

+ Draw circles on the board, corresponding to the number of the words that have just been taught

+ Write the words onto the circles

+ Have students read the words

+ Rub out the words in turn and have students read aloud the word that has justbeen rubbed out

+ Have students write the words again onto the correct circles

3.3.8 Kim’s game:

This game is designed to help develop students’ ability of memory The teacher can follow these steps:

+ Divide the class into groups

+ Show students some objects or pictures

+ Hide the objects or pictures.

+ Call on the representative(s) of each group to go to the board to write thenames of the objects or pictures The groups with more correct names will be thewinner The following is an illustration extracted from my powerpoint lesson

- (Unit 12/A1- TIẾNG ANH 7)

KIM’S GAME

This is the answer key of the above game

3.3.9 Slap the board:

The teacher can organize the game after presenting the new words so as to help students remember the new words better in a ralaxing way

+ The teacher writes the new words or sticks the prepared pictures onto the board

+ He calls on two groups to go to the board (Each group has four or five

students)

+ Each group stands in the same distance

+The teacher says aloud the words in Vietnamese if the words on the board are

in English and vice versa He says the words in English if using the pictures)

+ The students of the two groups will go to the board and slap the word said aloud

+The teacher gives marks to the group that can slap the words correctly and more quickly

+ The groups with more marks will be the winner

3.3.10 Find someone who:

+ The teacher writes the table on the board and has students write it on their notebooks

The game has been used as the lead-in part of one lesson of Unit 13- TIẾNG ANH 7

+ He has students make yes-no questions for the words in the left column (e.g Can you roller-skate?/ Can you skip rope?)

+ He gives the model with a student by asking the student a question (e.g Canyou roller-skate, Nam?) If the student answer “Yes”, write his name on the column

“Names”

+ Students go around the class and ask other students to find the names to fill

in the table The names must be different The student who can fill all the blanks first

is the winner

3.3.11 Simon says:

The teacher designs the game as follows: