(SKKN 2022) some methods to stimulate the 10th grade students to speak in english speaking lessons

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOANG HOA IV HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE SOME METHODS TO STIMULATE THE 10th GRADE- STUDENTS TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESONS

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA IV HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE

SOME METHODS TO STIMULATE THE 10th GRADE- STUDENTS

TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESONS

Author: Hoang Thi Minh

Position: Teacher

School: Hoang Hoa 4 high school

Subject: English

THANH HOA, YEAR OF 2022

INDEX

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

1.2 Objectives of the study

1.3 Methods of study

2 CONTENT

2.1 Theoretical and practical background

2.2 Situation of the problem

2.3 Sollutions

2.4 The effectiveness of the measure

3 CONCLUSION AND SUGGUESTION

3.1 Conclusion

3.2 Suggestions

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale (Reasons for choosing the topic)

There is no doubt that learning English is very important Especially, since the school year 2013-2014, it is compulsory for high school students throughout Vietnam to do English test in the GCSE examination In learning English at high schools, speaking skill has become very important since the new English textbook was officially put into use in 2006 However, among the four skills,

speaking seems to be the most difficult one but paid the least attention to at most high schools While many Vietnamese students can be good at grammar, reading

or writing skill, they cannot speak English correctly and fluently

In addition, in speaking English lesson many students only passively sit, take notes and rarely contribute to the lessons They feel tired even sleepy because they have no idea to talk

It is for such reasons that my experiential initiative attempts to explore “Some

methods to stimulate the 10 th grade- students to speak in English speaking lessons”

1.2 Objectives of the study

The study is carried out to meet the following objectives:

(1 ) To find out some factors causing 10th- form students at HH4 high school to

be lazy and passive in English speaking activities

(2 ) To give some methods to stimulate students to speak in English speaking lesson

1.3 Methods of study

To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I use mainly quantitative and qualitative methods

The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means

of a survey questionnaire for students and observation

Research questions:

In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the following research questions were asked in the study:

(1) What factors make 10th- form students at HH4 high school lazy and passive

in English speaking lessons?

(2) What should be done to minimize the students’ laziness and passivity in speaking English?

2 CONTENT

2.1 Theoretical and practical background

English as a language has great reach and influence; it is taught all over the world English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries English is the language of science, of aviation, computers, diplomacy, and tourism Knowing English increases students’ chances of getting a good job in a multinational company within their home country or of finding work abroad

The study was conducted at Hoang Hoa 4 high school, a rural school of Thanh Hoa province

The school has 31 classes, each class consists of from 40 to 46 students Most of the students come from the villages in the district where English learning and teaching does not get much attention The only sources from which students can get knowledge are the textbooks and their teachers With three periods per week, this is unable for teachers to meet students’ demand At home, they are short of dictionaries, reference books, cassette tapes, speakers Additionally, their parents do not know anything about English As a result, they find it difficult to learn English and they become lazy

Such practical background has leaded me to my experiential initiative: “Some

methods to stimulate the 10 th grade- students to speak in English speaking lessons”

2.2 Situation of the problem

Based on my fifteen-year teaching experience at HH4 high school, I know that the students rarely speak English, even in English speaking classes, though they have been learning English since they were at the lower secondary school There have been a variety of studies on this situation and various solutions have been given, including changing teaching methods, changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers’ qualifications, changing formats of speaking tests

and so on However, students’ passivity in learning is still common occurrence

in language classrooms

Possible causes of Students’ laziness and passivity in English speaking lesson

In the past few decades, an increasing number of studies in ESL/EFL have been conducted to explore the reasons for students’ reticence in classrooms The findings have shown that the reasons are very complex and involve multiple learner variables such as motivation, confidence, anxiety, etc (MacIntyre, Clement, Do¨rnyei, and Noels 1998; Hashimoto 2002; Yashima 2002; Liu 2005)

The study conducted by Lee (2006) is also in support of the above findings According to Lee’s observation, there are strict behavioural rules between the teacher and students in English classrooms In most cases, students only speak when they are spoken to The character of the interaction between the teacher and students is that the teacher leads students initiatively and students’ verbal participation is passive These cultural values generally have encouraged reticence and helped make students more apprehensive and less willing to communicate in English

In Tsui’s study, there are some contributing factors from the learners themselves for their laziness and passivity Firstly, their low English proficiency prevents them from speaking up in classroom In fact, some students know the answer but they do not know how to express their thought in English Secondly, students are unwilling to speak in English for the fear of making mistakes and being laughed by their classmates Even when their students have a well-preparation for the lesson, they are still afraid of losing face if they give the wrong answer Another factor is students’ lack of confidence in their language proficiency and their shyness When they feel unconfident in their English knowledge, they prefer remaining silent to risking making mistakes

Moreover, teachers’ intolerance of silence is a widespread phenomenon It’s easy to realize that in class interaction, teachers often asks one question after another without giving students much time to think about the answer because they are afraid that a longer wait-time will slow down the pace of the lesson and lead to boredom and interruption in the classroom One more important factor in student reticence is the teacher’s subconscious choice to allocate speaking turns

to brighter students The fact that brighter students are more likely to provide the right answer can save time so that more can be

covered in a lesson This leads weak or shy students to feel neglected The more they feel

ignored, the more they will be reluctant to participate or talk in classroom learning

The present study, therefore, tries to explore this issue in more depth and

to make contributions to foreign language literature by especially focusing

on the causes of laziness and passivity on the part of grade 10 students in English classrooms at HH4 high school

Survey questionnaires:

The questionnaire has 10 questions and was delivered to 140 students from class 10A1, 10A8, 10A10 at HH4 high school The questionnaire was conducted in Vietnamese because the students might not understand all information in English, which may affect the result of the study The students’ questionnaire is about 2 aspects :

+ Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill (questions 1, 2)

+ Factors making students reticent in speaking lessons ( questions 3, 4 )

Students’ attitude towards speaking skill:

Question 1: Why do you learn English speaking skill?

students

Percentag

e (%)

1 Why do

you learn

English

speaking

skill?

( Tick

English speaking skill is compulsory in the

You like English, especially English culture

It is necessary for your future job 34 24

It is easier than other skills to get high marks 11 8 You learn to speak English for entertainment 17 12

more than

one

It is an important means of communication 46 33

Table 1: Students’ reasons for learning English speaking

As can be seen from table 1, the highest percentage (82%) of the students wanted to learn English because they thought that English was one of the obligatory subjects for learning in the school’s curriculum When being interviewed by the researcher, one student said :

- “I don’t have any specific purpose in learning English It is a compulsory subject, so I guess I have no other choices”

A frequent students’ answer (33%) was that they had to learn English because it

is an important means of communication The future job was also the thing that students concerned 24% of them thought that English was necessary for their future job A small number of the students ( 8%) affirmed that they were fond of learning speaking skill because it was easier for them to get higher marks in speaking tests than in the tests of other skills The lowest percentage of the respondents (2%) claimed they wanted to study abroad in the future Whether they could achieve their wishes or not, it was the reason why they tried to study English About 11% of the participants answered that they were interested in English, especially English culture and people Besides, 12% revealed they were interested in learning English as it helped them relax when listening to music, playing games, reading books, magazines, newspapers…in English One interviewee said:

- “I have been studying English since I was at secondary school I am completely keen on

listening and singing English songs I also want to know more about English culture, so I

find English very interesting”.

The above results suggested that students may enjoy learning speaking skill due

to a genuine interest in English, but this intrinsic motivation only made up a small proportion of students (23%)

It may be concluded that the reasons for which students learn English mostly arise from external stimuli, i.e the requirements of their school; the demands of the contemporary society in general and the needs in their future profession Therefore, they often feel unwilling and forced to learn English This partly leads to their reticence in oral activities

Question 2: How much do you feel interested in speaking English in class?

students

Percentage (%)

2 How much do

you feel

interested in

speaking English

in class?

Table 2: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill.

The statistics from table 2 show a surprising fact that only 22% of all students felt interested in speaking lessons while 51% felt little interested and 27% of them responded that they did not feel interested at all

From these figures, we can come to conclusion that the students with low interest made up the higher proportion than those with high one interest

Factors making students reticent in English speaking activities in class:

Question 3: What student- related factors cause you to be reticent in oral

activities in class?

No of student s

Percentag

e (%)

3 What

student-related

factors

cause you

to be

reticent in

oral

activities

in class?

Lack of vocabulary and grammatical

Fear of being laughed at when making

Not accustomed to speaking English in

Learning goal is not to communicate 22 16 Not have enough time to prepare 35 25

Table 3: Student- related factors making students reticent in oral activities

As can be viewed from the table, low English proficiency was the greatest contributor to the students’ reticence in oral English lessons 66% of the respondents couldn’t find words or structures to express their opinion when

speaking 64% said that their pronunciation was poor, so they couldn’t speak

English fluently 46% of them thought that nothing to say for the given topic was one of the big troubles preventing them from participating in oral activities

A student when interviewed answered:

-“I cannot speak because I cannot find the appropriate structures to express my

idea”

Another important factor was the fear of being laughed at by their peers when they made mistakes, taking 54% One interviewee said:

- “ I do not want to talk in my speaking class because others can laugh at me,

which irritates me a lot.”

The next, which affected 51% of the respondents, was that they were not accustomed to speaking English in class This may be affected by their prior learning experiences at school As one interviewee said, when they were at

primary school, the teacher told them to be quiet in the classroom, listen to her and speak only if she asked them to do The people who made noise were to be punished by the teacher It meant that the teacher was a powerful figure These didn’t change when they grew up

In addition to that, 40% of the students also thought that reticence was so strongly related to personality It was the introversive personality that prevented students from taking part in speaking lessons actively 28% agreed that student reticence in oral English classes was concerned with traditional cultural beliefs, which emphasized modesty and respect to elders and people in authority This was truthfully reflected in the classrooms where teachers were considered as figures of authority As a student respondent stated:

- “Vietnamese people don’t like to show their views in public Culture is deep in

everyone’s mind It is passed from generation to generation So in our mind, it

is all right to be reticent We like to be silent and listen to others”

Contributing to the reasons of the student reticence, 25% said that they were not given enough time for the preparation of their topics, 16% said that their learning goal is not to communicate The smallest percentage of the respondents ( 13%) expressed concern about how their peers would regard them if they spoke up frequently in class They did not want to be labeled as a ‘show-off’ This occurrence is developed in language classes when learners are criticized or even ostracized by classmates if they are viewed as taking a more active role than the rest

All the above-mentioned factors deter students from speaking unwillingly Gradually, they will lose their interest in trying to speak and become discouraged to speak English anymore

Question 4: What teacher- related factors cause you to be reticent in oral activities in class?

Teacher stops and corrects mistakes immediately Teacher talks too much in class Teacher's boring teaching method Teacher keeps a distance from students Teacher's uneven allocation of turns Teacher's unsuitable speaking style 0%

1000%

2000%

3000%

4000%

5000%

6000%

7000%

Teacher keeps a dis-tance from students; 6

Teacher's uneven allo-cation of turns; 42