(SKKN 2022) some effective warm up activities to motivate 11th grade students in learning english at nghi son high school

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGNGHI SON LOWER AND UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ---INNOVATION SOME EFFECTIVE WARM UP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE 11th GRADE STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLI

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NGHI SON LOWER AND UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

-INNOVATION

SOME EFFECTIVE WARM UP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE

11th GRADE STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT NGHI

SƠN HIGH SCHOOL

Written by: Trinh Thi Thu Hoai Function: Teacher

Subject: English

THANH HÓA NĂM 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page s

1 Rationale and context of the study 1

2.1 Theoretical background 2

2.1.2 The importance of warm-up 3

2.1.3 Useful strategies when implementing warming up activities 3

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale and context of the study

It is undeniable that English language plays a crucial role in our lives as ithelps in communication It is supposed to be the main language for studying anysubject all over the world English is critical for students as it broadens their minds,develops emotional skills, improve the quality of life by providing jobopportunities Additionally, the use of English as an International language isbecoming popular with time because it is the only means for communication inmany countries Therefore, learning and teaching English as a second language ispaid more and more attention

Over the last two decades, the needs for English language ability inVietnam have significantly changed with the rapidly increasing demands ofglobalization in many fields such as the environment, economy and culture Englishhas been regarded as an essential foreign language, especially for the Vietnameseyoung generation Particularly, it is compulsory in the curriculum of almost allschools and universities Awkwardly, the concern of students in English is not thesame as how well they realize the crucial role of being good at English Studentsseem reluctant to learn English as a required discipline in their school The reasonsfor the ignorance to English of students were originated from inadequate learningcondition and traditional teaching methods

It is believed that an ESL class will not be successful if the students do notfeel interested at the very beginning of a class Hence, a teacher is always supposed

to start a lesson in a way which keeps his or her students engaged Accordingly,many different types of warm-up activities such as songs, games and discussionquestions can be used to catch students’ attention in class Many researchers statethat to improve students’ learning and to get the best from them, it is a must to start

a class with a good warm-up session

In addition, many school children complain that they feel bored doing samething again and again from the beginning to end of a class As they do not feelinvolved in class, they cannot progress much in learning a language Unluckily,many teachers do not pay attention whether students feel interested and motivated

to work with the activities they provide in classes It is needed to find out how tokeep students’ interest in learning Using warm up activities can be one useful way

to bring difference in class activity and to make the students curious, focus theirattention, provide them purpose and motivation This helps to create positivityaround the lesson, motivate students with their participation and creating a positiveattitude towards learning Games can also create a positive memory and experience

of learning for students in the classroom

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All the above reasons and factors have inspired the author to choose the

study entitled “Some effective warm up activities to motivate 11 th grade students in learning English at Nghi Son high school” Hopefully, the study may

result in some benefits for English learners as well as English teachers

1.2 Aims of the study

This study has been carried out with an aim to raise both teachers andstudents’ awareness of the importance of warm up activities at Nghi Sơn lower andupper secondary school It is hoped that the findings from this study could arouselearners’ interest and enable them to select and use games for warmups which aresuitable for them

The researcher is interested to know whether and how often warm up activity

is used in 11 grades Also, the study attempts to find out how effectively warm up

is used in the above the mentioned classes

1.3 Scope of the study

The research was conducted among the 11th grade students of three classes(11A1, 11A5, 11A6) at Nghi Son Lower and Upper Secondary School Theimplementation took place in accademic year 2021-2022 and was determinedlyobserved, reviewed and evaluated by the teacher researchers

1.4 Methods of the study

To carried out the study, the following methods and procedures wereemployed:

- Investigating methods

- Analytic and synthetic methods

- Comparative and contrastive methods

- Observating methods

Firstly, the writer reviewed the theories related to the matter in concern inorder to shade up a framework for the analysis and then collected informationasociated with the warm-up activities from different sources: refernces, internet andbooks Secondaly, the author created on the observation to realize the problem inteaching and learning English Then, the instructor applied all the practices inteaching warm up and examine the results after that

2 CONTENT OF THE STUDY

to think in English, review previously introduced materials and become interested

1 The concept of warm up, author is based on reference []

in the lesson So, a warm-up activity is used to start a class with an interesting task

to help the students be comfortable in classroom setting and to help them startthinking in English

Hoang (2000) additionally has defined the main characteristics of a warm-upactivity [2] He comprises that a warm-up activity needs to be fascinating tomotivate the students for performing English It will not be the main part of thelesson as a warm-up activity is a short activity Warm up can be used to give thestudents a chance to revise previously studied language It is commonly agreed thatwarm up activity must be related with the lesson topic He mentions that it is notnecessary that warm-up activity be connected to the lesson as the main purpose ofusing warm-up activity is making the students ready to work in English

Smith (2008) suggests some principles to design a warm-up activity [3] Hesuggests that a warm-up activity should take place at the beginning of the class Itwill help the teachers catch the students’ attention It must be interesting so thatstudents get motivated from the very beginning It is usually a short activity as it is

a preparatory stage of other stages of a lesson Warm up activity must be relatedwith the lesson topic so that in other stages students can get involved in differentactivities easily to develop their language skill Following is the diagram thatdisplays some of the principles of warm up activity taken from Smith (2008) [3]

2.1.2 The importance of warm-up activities

The importance of having warming up activities was mentioned at thebeginning of this paper, but a question remains: What is a warming up activity?Many researchers considers that warm up activities are designed to attract students'attention, to help them put aside distracting thoughts, and to get them ready tofocus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow They will causepeople to stop whatever they are doing or thinking and refocus their attention Wecould say a warming up activity is a motivating starting point that will lead students

to become animated to work efficiently in the language class For the purpose ofthe study, it was the activity used to encourage students' involvement and permeatethe development of the whole lesson, so we avoided looking at them as isolatedactivities These kinds of activities might also be called zealous, enthusiastic orsuggestive activities How these activities can be included in the process of a classwill be the next focus in our discussion

2.1.3 Useful strategies when implementing warming up activities

For the purpose of the project, the writer considered some specific aspectsrelated to warm up activities which could make students' learning more stimulating.They were as follows:

- Breaking the monotony of learning

- Making the tasks more interesting

2 The principles of warm up, author is based on reference []

3 The principles of warm up, author is based on reference []

3

- Increasing the involvement of the students

Diagram 1 shows some of the principles that a teacher must consider whenpreparing a warm-up activity It emerged as a result of our reflections upon ourconceptual framework and the implementation process we designed

Diagram 1: features of warm-up activity

The principles contained in this diagram make us realize that warm upactivities are not only processes to begin the class, but tools that help us catchstudents' attention If you start with an exciting and interesting activity you can besure the other steps can be developed easily This warm-up must also be shortbecause it is like a preparation for the other class stages That is why it must berelated with the topic and centered in communicative aspects which could involveactivities that emphasize the practice of different skills

Learning English highly depends on pupils' positive attitude toward the class.Consequently, learning must be stimulating and enjoyable through breaking whatmight cause monotony in this process and strengthening what makes tasks moreinteresting, as well as what increases students' involvement The use of warming upactivities implies features as the ones previously described to get students'attention, to make them interested in what is going on, to focus on language itemsand to increase learners' expectations by consciously arranging the conditions in away that they put the learner in a more positive or optimistic mood

2.2 Reality

2.2.1 To the students

In general, the Vietnamese students’ ability to use English is still weak; moststudents can study English at university, but the ability to speak it with foreignersseems impossible for most students if they are not majoring in the Englishlanguage

The English level of graduates has not met the needs of the job Moststudents can read and understand some documents, but many of them cannotcommunicate, write, and speak well The English proficiency of most students doesnot meet the requirements The testing forms are somewhat different but reflect thegeneral picture of ineffective teaching and learning of English in the educationsystem in Vietnam These problems have resulted from the following reasons:

First and foremost, in Vietnam, the results of teaching and studying English

is evaluated in grammar and reading comprehension Therefore, the wholeeducation system has not really invested effectively to teach this language focusing

on important skills, such as listening, speaking and writing Besides, teachers ofEnglish seem only to take the test, so they do not invest in other skills, especiallylistening and speaking Even, many teachers in the schools cannot speak fluentlywith foreigners in English These causes also influence the quality of Englishteachers which may affect learners’ abilities Also, class sizes in Vietnam are large(often over 30 students per class), and there is no assistive technology, so it isdifficult to teach language skills effectively Passive students mainly learn to getpoints for passing English subjects, not to use practical language skills Thus,teachers do not have the motivation to improve their qualifications and teachingmethods

2.2.2 To the teachers

Regarding teachers, some people believe that warm up is useful and neededfor learning to be fun They basically use it in the first class of a new course to givethe students a chance to be familiar with each other They ignore the other benefits

of using a warm-up activity in classroom For example: it can motivate the students

to participate in class activities, activate the students’ background knowledge, helpthe teachers introduce a new topic in interesting way or help get the students’attention However, teachers use common techniques such as questioning,reviewing materials from the previous class, chatting with students as warm upactivity whereas they can use jokes, songs, funny videos, games, stories, or pictures

to make the class more interesting On the first day of the survey, a survey wasdelivered to the teachers to make sense of their awareness of the importance ofwarm up activities in the classroom

+ Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of warm up activities at ESL classrooms.

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More important Equally important Less important

Chart 1: The importance of warm up activities

Moreover,11th grade students at Nghi Son Lower and Upper SecondarySchool are quite bad at English They often feel bored during lesson, hence, theyhave no motivation to acquire language Consequently, the results of English testsare not highly expected Consequently, teachers are supposed to give somestrategies to stimulate the students’ interest, and warm up is among the mosteffective ways

2.3 Solutions to the problems

Beginning a class with a warm-up activity is a good way to grow curiosityand interest among the learners and motivate them to give their attention in furtheractivities to know more Teachers can use the following games to warm up thelessons in five or seven minutes

a Using video and songs

Short videos increase student engagement, which in turn helps boostachievement If students are interested in the material, they will process andremember it better They offer the flexibility to pause, rewind, or skip throughoutthe video to have class discussions or review particular areas This is an excellentway for students to familiarize with the topic Teachers can make use of YouTubesources for songs and short clips

For example, unit 4: volunteer work, teachers can show a video and ask

students some questions:

- What are the people doing?

- How meaningful is volunteer work?

- How often do you involve in volunteer work?

Afterwards, students may be led to the lesson officially

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClrFW2Y2Bv8 [4]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZol5vMDhe4 [ 5 ]

The song about renewable energy is used in unit 11: Sources of energy.

4 Example, the link is on the reference []

5 Example, the link is on the reference []

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b Hot Chair Game

This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes It isalso excellent for revising vocabulary

- First, split your class into different teams

- Sit the students facing the board

- Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of theclass, facing the team members These chairs are the 'hot seats'

- Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so theyare facing their team-mates and have their back to the board

- As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in thisgame

- Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board

- The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word,using synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc to their teammate who is in the hotseat - that person cannot see the word

- The student in the hot seat listens to their teammates and tries to guess theword

- The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team

- Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking theirplace in their team's hot seat

- Then write the next word…

One student from each team comes up and sits in the chair.

The teacher then writes a word or phrase on the board.

For example, Unit 12 Asian Games, teachers can write some words related

to sports: volleyball, soccer, basketball, cycling, football, aquatic sports, athletics and weightlifting…

The students are then given 30 seconds to try and explain the target word onthe board to their team member They must not say the target word or any otherword in the phrase, they cannot use body language to help, nor can they userhyming words

The first person sitting in the chairs to guess the word or phrase wins a pointfor their team

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c Using pictures or flashcards in guessing word game

In teaching and learning procedure, the role of using pictures as media hasbecome the best choice in teaching English especially in warm up activities.Pictures are important to help the students in learning English

It is said that visual have an important function as aids to learning simplybecause they attract student’s attention and help encourage them to focus on thesubject in hand Pictures can play a key role in motivating students contextualizingthe language they are using, giving them a reference and helping to discipline theactivity Here are some benefits of using pictures in teaching languages:

 Pictures can motivate students and make him or her want to pay attentionand take apart

 Pictures contribute to the context in which language is being used

 Pictures can be described in an objective way or interpreted or respondedsubjectively

 Pictures can cue responses to questions or cue substitutions throughcontrolled practice

 Pictures can stimulate and provide information to be referred to inconversation, discussion, and storytelling

For example, unit 16: the wonders of the world, teachers can use some pictures of

some wonders of the world and ask questions:

- Where is it?

- What do you know about it?

And then teachers lead students to the topic interestingly

d Crossword games

Crossword puzzles, which are mainly focused on vocabulary and spellingpractice Crossword puzzle can improve the students’ vocabulary by filling thewords in the clues and reading the clues of crossword puzzle Sometimes, theteacher gives the clues of crossword puzzle orally, so the students listen and writedown the clues It can train the students’ spelling and listening

Teacher should divide class into small groups for students to do warm up infive or seven minutes Which group has the right answers most quickly will be thewinner

For example, unit 13: Hobbies Teachers can deliver some handouts to the

students about hobby vocabulary and then lead them to the topic of the lesson