(SKKN 2022) using language games in warm up activities to motivate 10th grade students to listen in listening lessons in ba đình high school

EDUCATION AND TRAININGBA ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE USING LANGUAGE GAMES IN WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE 10TH GRADE STUDENTS TO LISTEN IN LISTENING LESSONS IN BA ĐÌNH HIGH

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

BA ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

USING LANGUAGE GAMES IN WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE 10TH GRADE STUDENTS TO LISTEN IN LISTENING LESSONS IN BA ĐÌNH HIGH SCHOOL

Implementer: Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh Job title: Teacher

School: Ba Đình high school – Nga Sơn Experience initiative: English

THANH HOÁ 2022

1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

12 II The fact of teaching and learning on listening skill in Ba Đình

high school

4

13 1.The fact of students’view on listening skill 4

14 2 The fact of using language games in warm-up activities 4

15 3 The difficulties before, while and after playing language games 5

16 III Suggestions on using language games in warm-up activities inlistening lesson

6

17 1 Procedures in using games to improve listening skills 6

19 3 Using language games in a flexible and appropriate way 12

In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have beengaining significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it isalso seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation betweenViet Nam and other countries There have been an increasing number of peopledesiring to know English with the hope of keeping up with the latest moderntechnology in the world English has now been taught not only at all universitiesand colleges, but also at almost every senior high school and it is considered as acompulsory subject at secondary schools.

At PB school, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject

in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for the high schoolexamination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basicknowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to scienceand technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing Englishlanguage teachers at PB school, especially in teaching listening skills tostudents The teachers of English at PB school find it difficult to teach listeninglessons successfully

Listening has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by manysecond language learners It takes much time and energy to make progress inthis skill For listening teachers, it is a difficult task to get students involved inlistening lessons

At my school, teaching listening is really a problem In addition to thelack of well-equipped facilities, teaching listening methods are not satisfactory.Another problem is students’ low level of proficiency in terms of vocabulary,grammar, pronunciation, skills and so forth It is the reason why students find itdifficult and tough to listen to and they are not confident enough to do listeningtasks successfully Moreover, learning habits do not help much to improve theirlistening in classroom

In English classroom, teachers are mainly concerned with teaching whatstudents are tested in the exams, which is known as teaching to the testphenomenon As a result, after graduating from school, students are good atusing grammar structures and vocabulary, but find difficult to listen Englishnaturally In listening lessons, students usually feel bored and frightened Tomotivate and encourage students to learn listening is not an easy task forteachers At the beginning, to stimulate students to learn, warm-up activitiesshould be stressed Using language games in warm-up activities becomes a goodchoice

The main reasons above lead me to my choice of the subject: Using language games in warm-up activities to motivate 10th grade students to listen in listening lessons in Ba Đình high school.

2 Aims of the Study

The study is aimed at:

 Investigating the effectiveness of using language games in warm-upactivities in listening lessons of grade 10 in Ba Đình high school

 Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement oflistening teaching in Ba Đình high school in terms of using language games inwarm-up activities

3 The Participants

In this individual research, the researcher will only focus on theeffectiveness of using language games in warm-up activities in teachinglistening skills to two large classes 10A1, 10A6 at Ba Đình high school Thelistening activities are selected and adapted the text book The data collectedfrom classroom observation, informal interviews and questionnaires are thenanalyzed by the researcher

4 Method of the Study

 In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the major methodsemployed include:

 Survey questionaire with the aims at finding out the difficulties of studentswhen learning listening and their attitude to language game in warm-upactivities

 Interview with teachers of English to find out thier diffculties whenteaching listening, and the reasons they use language game in warm-up activitiesand what their criterials to choose a game are

is used to consolidate language already taught or acquired, and which occursduring the free stage of a lesson or during occasions such as English club

meetings And the term game “is used whenever there is an element of

competition between individual students or teams in a language activity.”

2 Roles of games

Games are often wrongly regarded as an end of term activity or something

to fill in last five minutes of a lesson In fact, they are becoming anindispensable activity in language syllabus because they play vitally importantroles in language teaching and learning

While Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby (1984: 1) point out that, “Gameshelp and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work.” Gamesalso can provide intense and meaningful practice of language, and then theymust be regarded as central to a teacher’s repertoire Moreover, games can befound to give practice in all skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking), inall stages of the teaching and learning and for many types of communication

Besides, Carrier (1980) draws out some advantages of language games:

Games add variety to the range of learning situations

Games can be used to change the pace of a lesson and so maintainmotivation

Games can be used to punctuate long formal teaching units and renewstudent’s energy before returning to more formal learning

Games can give ‘hidden’ practice of specific language points withoutstudents being aware of this

Games encourage student participation and can remove the inhibitions ofthose who feel intimidated by formal classroom situations

Games can change role of the teacher from that of formal instructor to that

of manager or organizer of activities that students enjoy participating in this can

be useful in reducing teacher-student distance or conflict

Games can increase student-student communication, and so reduce thedomination of the classroom by the teacher

Games can act as a testing mechanism, in the sense that they will exposeareas of weakness and the need for remedial work

3 Features of a quality game

“The teacher must take many factors into account when deciding which

game would be most appropriate and most successful with his students at any time.” (Carrier, M (1980:7)) It means that when the teacher wants to choose a

game for his teaching purpose, he has to ponder whether the game can be used

in the lesson and whether the game he uses should be up to a certain standardand meet certain requirements

To answer for this question, there are some features of a quality game for

a listening class

Firstly, the most important function of games is to create meaningfulcontexts for communication.

Secondly, the terms “information gap” and “opinion gap” are mentioned

to contribute for the success of a game

Thirdly, an “information gap” or “opinion gap” needs some content

Klippel K (1984:4) claims that, “information and opinion gap exercises have to

have some content worth talking about Students do not want to discuss the interest which is aroused by the structure of the activity may be reduced or increased by the topic.” Moreover, the relevant of a game must include relevant

language in game Then, the students can enjoy and value a game if the contentand language used are relevant to them

Fourthly, another important feature of a language game is the variety ofthe game teachers use The techniques used by teacher included guessing,information gap, searching, matching, exchanging and collecting, combiningand card games, problems and puzzles, role play and simulation techniques It isobvious that the variety of forms and games is essential to help teachers attractand interest their students during the lessons

Fifthly, it is vitally important that the games be interesting, simple andeasily comprehensible

In a word, there have been a few different views about features of a goodlanguage game Nevertheless, the elements of meaningful contexts, informationgap, opinion gap, relevant content and language as well as co-operation would

be taken into account if the teachers want to constitute a good game It may behard to say what the best game is because it depends on many factors such ascertain situation, certain students and each teacher, and other factors

II The fact of teaching and learning on listening skill in Ba Đình high school

1 The fact of students’ view on listening skill

Most of students think listening is a difficult skill Some of the studentsthink listening is a very difficult skill, Some students thinks it is not verydifficult, it is a normal skill, and only a few of them think it is easy to learnlistening Therefore, the majority of students find it hard to study listening skill.The teacher, therefore, should encourage students to learn listening by someways, language games may be their choice

2 The fact of using language games in warm-up activities

The majority of students say that their teachers sometimes use languagegames in warm-up activities for listening lessons Some of the students say theirteachers usually use language games in warm-up activities The rest of students

say their teachers rarely use language games in warm-up activities Not all thelistening lessons, the teacher organize for students to play language gamesduring the lessons Therefore, to make the lessons more interesting and makestudents relax and interested in the lessons, the teachers should use languagegames more frequently.

The kinds of language games the teachers use in warm-up activities Most

of the teachers use the variety of language games in warm-up activities to teachlistening skills: crossword, jumbled words, jumbled sentences, bingo, memorygame, miming, guessing, and others Of these kinds, most students answer theyusually play miming, memory games, and guessing It seems that these kinds oflanguage games are easy to play and especially easy for teachers to organize and

it doesn’t take the teachers too much time to prepare for the games

3 The difficulties before, while and after playing language games

To find out the difficulties before, while and after playing language games

in listening lessons, the researcher carried out 3 questions:

Em có gặp khó khăn gì trước khi chơi trò chơi?

A Có (em hãy tick vào khó khăn em gặp phải) B Không

1 không hiểu luật chơi

2 không tìm được bạn chơi

3 khó khăn khác:

Em có gặp khó khăn gì trong khi chơi trò chơi?

A Có (em hãy tick vào khó khăn em gặp phải) B Không

Em có gặp khó khăn gì sau khi chơi trò chơi?

A Có(em hãy tick vào khó khăn em gặp phải) B Không

games or they can’t find the partners to play games Question mentions thedifficulties of students while playing language games, 55.6% of students saythey find it difficult to play games because of some reasons They think thegames are too difficult, the class is noisy and crowded The game is not veryinteresting or the other members are not cooperative 44.4% of students thinkthey have no difficulties in playing language games Question mentions thedifficulties students have after playing language games 54.5% of students havedifficulties after playing games They have trouble because of some reasons.Firstly they find it hard to concentrate on the lesson Secondly, the class is toonoisy after games And it takes time to continue the lesson It can be seen thatmost of teachers have difficulty in playing games The reasons are various,however, the ability to understand the language is the main reason Theeffectiveness of the games for that reason is so limited.

To organize a language game in warm-up activities, teachers have to takemany factors in consideration The time for each class hour is limited, and thelesson content is usually long Even if the teachers have language games athand, there is not enough time to play games, which is a difficulty Anotherdifficulty is that teachers have to do many other things besides teaching, theyhave to make the tests, mark students’ papers and many others so they have littletime to prepare and look for the language games that are suitable for most ofstudents Moreover, the classes are so crowded and have mix-ability students.One game can not suit for all students’ levels and needs ,therefore, when playinggames both teachers and students have difficulty Because of a large class withstudents of different proficiency, it is not easy to control the whole class.Students may not like the games or do not understand what is talked about, theymay not find the group members or the group members are not cooperative,that’s why the games sometimes cannot be successful

III Suggestions on using language games in warm-up activities in listening lesson

1 Procedures in using games to improve listening skills

1.1 Before using games

1.1.1 Preparation

The success or failure of a game depends mainly on the way teachersprepare for the game That is the reason why teacher should pay much moreattention to the preparation

Firstly, the teacher should decide which game to use When deciding whichgame would be most appropriate and most successful with the learners, the

teachers must take many factors into account He has to consider the level of thelearners but also:

What is the main aim of having a game?

What is the interest of the learners?

The time the game should be used in class because the interest and motivation oflearners in games may be different on a Tuesday morning from late on a Fridayafternoon Having considered these factors an initial choice of game should only

be confirmed if the teacher is certain it is feasible in the class It means that theteacher should ensure that the aids and materials are available so that thelearners can encounter the game’s requirements

Secondly, the teacher must prepare the game thoroughly after havingdecided which game to use and when to use Though games may be good fun,they need to be carefully prepared and organized

1.1.2 Organizing class

In order to make the setting up of a game be carried out as quickly andsmoothly as possible, the teacher must decide in advance how to organize thestudents and the classroom

The class organization plays very important roles in deciding the success

of the game Therefore, the teacher should know beforehand if games should beconducted in pairs, groups, teams or whole class

According to W.R Lee, because the learners especially the youngchildren will feel safe and confident when they are sitting in pair or group work,the division of class into teams or groups should not be changed and redone onevery occasion

In conclusion, each teacher should base on their teaching conditions todecide what arrangement should be made to suit their students

1.1.3 Giving instructions

To make the learners understand the rules of games and know how to playgames, the instructions given are very important Each game has its own specificinstructions, but several general points can usefully be made

The instructions of the teacher must be ensured that they are clear, simple,precise and explicit so that the students, who in any case have languagedifficulties, will not be confused and understand the instructions

Another point is that it will be vitally important to let students askquestions The teacher should sit with the students and pose questions himself,both as a demonstration and as a prompt when students are unsure of what to donext

In addition, all the rules of the game should be provided as well as thesystem of scoring in order to avoid the students’ confusion and trouble latter.Also the students should be announced the time limit for the game It is not easy

to predict how long a game may last, however, it is important for the teacher toconsider these points when preparing for a game:

1 What is the minimum amount of time needed to play this game once?

2 Is it likely that the class will wish to play the game several times over?

3 What is the maximum amount of time available in the lesson?

In brief, the instructions given by teacher are very important and necessary tostep by step interest the learners to participate in the games

1.2 When using game

This stage is the main part in game playing process In this stage theteachers have to control class, correct the mistakes and score the students

1.2.1 Controlling class

Since language games are used not only for fun but also for languageteaching purposes, the teacher must control the class to make sure that afterperforming games, students can get the language points, can speak naturally.Therefore, the roles of teacher in every game are very important The teachershould go from group to group, listen and observe students’ performance, checkthat they have understood and are carrying out the instructions The teacher mayhave to answer the students’ questions about procedures, new words, etc sohe/she should go visit quickly to each group within the first two minutes

After that the teacher should go round again helping with vocabularyquestions, correcting if it is appropriate, giving encouragement and if necessaryinspiration for those games which require some imagination However, it isadvisable for the teacher not to jump in the game and wait until he is asked forhelp Therefore, she/he had better try to elicit from students themselves ratherthan simply providing what they need, which makes students feel morecomfortable and self-confident

One of the inevitable of a speaking class is the noise Therefore, when ateacher wants to level down the noise, the followings should be taken intoaccount

Firstly, the teacher has to make sure that the students are close enough toeach other This is particularly important for group and pair work A spread outgroup is noisier than a huddle

Secondly, the teacher can appoint a chairman for groups The chairmancan have several functions, one of which can be to make sure that only oneperson talks at any one time.

Thirdly, the teacher can tell the students to talk quietly This is an obviouspiece of advice but often ignored The students normally appreciate theproblems as much as anyone else and if they are reminded, they should do as theteacher says

1.2.2 Correcting the mistakes

The teacher should consider making mistakes the inevitable and naturalpart of the process of playing games It is also very important to make thestudents be aware that making mistakes is not a big problem If students areafraid of making mistakes and keep silent, they will learn little However, thestudents who know of making mistakes are involved in playing game processcan learn much more than the former According to Micheal Carrier, correctingmistakes “must be left up to individual teachers to decide whether or notstudents’ language errors should be corrected during or after a particular game.”

Because correction may reduce students’ motivation, it is suggested that itshould not be too prominent It means that the teacher should not correct everymistake at any time, in any where It would be preferable for the teacher to make

a note of major errors, and then correct them When a small group of studentsare working together and copying each other’s mistakes, in this case, it isadvisable for the teacher to correct mistakes In less structured situations, such

as role-playing or communication games, correction should be avoided where itwould be over-intrusive on the part of the teacher If the students can correcthimself or herself, it would be very good The teacher should increase self-correction or peer’s correction

All in all, the teacher should be careful when deciding to correct themistakes or not to take advantages of playing games

1.2.3 Scoring

According to Lee.Wr, 1979:7, the thing the teacher should take in account

is that “psychologically, it is better to give points for success than to false themaway for failure, even if this procedure keeps the scores very busy.” It is obviousthat the students will have the feeling of success and therefore, it will stimulatethem to lake more effort There are many ways of recording scores Thefollowing ways of recording scores are suggested by WR, Lee (1979:8) andSelagh Rixon (1988:62)

 Noughts and crosses

 Climbing ladders

 Climbing the mountain

 Hangman (build up one line at a time)

 A fight of steps

1.3 After-using games

1.3.1 Ending the game

It is necessary fir the teacher to give signal to the whole class to stopplaying game According to A Wright (1984:6), “As with all events in theclassroom, it is advisable to stop a game and change to something else beforethe learners become tired of it In this way their good will and concentration areretained.” Also in Opal Dann (1983:7) “the ideal time to stop is when studentswant another turn In a large class, however, stopping the game is a big problem.The most effective way to solve this problem is to use a horn or clappinghands.”

After signaling to stop the game, the teacher has to declare the points ofeach team, group The teacher can call a certain student in any teams, groupsand ask him to count and state the points This will increase the objectiveevaluation of the game

1.3.2 Summarizing and commenting

Whatever a game is, students like to hear how well they are doing toreceive encouragement commented on as well as having errors corrected.Therefore, it is advisable for the teachers to give remarks and summarize thelanguage points after the end of the game

It is preferable for the teacher to give good remarks in order to motivateand encourage students to participate in game activities The encouragingcomments should be given to the students According to A Wright, thefollowing praise should be used

Good, quite good, very good, ok, fine, excellent

Well done, right, correct, good job

The negative comments should be kept more general for example, notquite right, not very good I don’t think this one is as good as that one

Besides, the teacher’s aim should be to share what people did well withthe rest of the class so that everyone can learn form the experience or to invitesuggestions for solving problems from the whole class

As language games are used for language teaching, it is necessary for theteacher to summarize what language points or skills the language games focus

on The main point of this is to show the students that what they do with

language is interesting To do this, the teacher can ask some students to repeatthe main language points in the games or ask them to tell the purposes of thegames they have just played In conclusion, the teacher should consider theirteaching conditions to decide what to do in each stage.

2 Class Observation

The researcher carried out to observe 3 classes at 3 different classes, grade

10 taught by 3 different teachers When visiting these three classes, she realizedthat all 3 teachers used language games in warm-up activity in listening lessons.They all find that language games are useful and should be used in warm-upactivities to motivate and encourage students to learn listening

Firstly, the investigator observed class 10A1 in which students weretaught Unit 12- Music In the warm-up activities, the teacher asked students tolook at the four pictures and guess what people’s jobs are The teacher gave fourpictures of Van Cao, who was a composer, picture of a teacher, picture of asinger and a doctor The pictures looked so funny so all the students feltinterested and eager to raise their hands to answer and guess the jobs of thesepeople This activity lasted only 5 minutes Then the teacher asked students “Doyou know Van Cao? Who is he?” and lead in the lesson

The second observation was done in class 10A2, with Unit 13- Films andCinema In warm-up, the teacher asked the whole class to look at the picture andsay the words- the kinds of film The teacher gave students 7 numbers and askedstudents to choose the number to open the picture so they can guess the word.The words are: detective film, action film, thriller, cartoon, science fiction film,love story film and comedy film As can be seen, all the pictures were sopopular, therefore all students could answer the words easily This game lasted 7minutes

Finally, the observation was carried out in class 10A3, with Unit 14- TheWorld Cup, the teacher organized the memory game for students The teacherasked students to watch a clip about the football players Then the students had

to name the footballers After watching the clip, they had 1 minute to rememberthe names of the footballers After that, the teacher called 2 students from 2groups to go to the board and write down the names of the footballers as many

as possible without watching the clip Finally, the teacher checked with wholeclass Which team wrote more names would be the winner It seemed that thegame made the students so excited and eager to join They all felt relaxed andconfident The game lasted nearly 10 minutes