(SKKN 2022) Some techniques to improve English speaking skill for grade 3 Students.

THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE SOME TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL FOR GRADE 3 STUDENTS The

THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT

THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

SOME TECHNIQUES

TO IMPROVE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL

FOR GRADE 3 STUDENTS

The implementer: Nguyen Thi Mai Position: Teacher

School: Quang Phu Primary School Subject: English

THANH HOA, 2022

2.4 The effectiveness of the experience initiative for education

activities with themselves, colleagues and the school

17

3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 18

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason for choosing topic

In a short period of time English displaced other languages and becameone of the leading means of communication worldwide Its dominationcontinues to extend The modern world of media, mass communication, andInternet demands good knowledge of English, especially of spoken English.Every person wishing to get the benefits of modern education, research, science,trade, etc., knows that it is impossible without a working knowledge of theEnglish language and good communication skills A person without oralcommunication skills will suffer in this era of competition and may find itdifficult to achieve a higher position

Nevertheless, most Vietnamese students are not able to communicate inEnglish fluently for many reasons The present study is devoted to the research

of the issue of speaking skills of today's students in Viet Nam and to theexisting methods of enhancing speaking skills of elementary level students It isalso related to discovering the reasons of unwillingness to communicate and theways to overcome the language barrier

In Viet Nam, English is currently a compulsory subject for secondaryschool and higher levels It is an elective subject and will become a compulsorysubject for primary school in the near future English is also not strange to thestudents It has been the concern of parents and students They also saw theimportance and necessity of English when they applied it to their life or theeconomic and social fields

However, many students, especially students living in the suburb are notaware of the importance of learning English Time for learning at school is notlong enough; each lesson has many new words and phrases Most of teachershave not been trained to teach at the elementary level And particularly, lack offacility and teaching equipment also effects learning and teaching English Soteachers should provide students with exciting learning environment Teachingmethods are innovative, scientific and effective Because elementary studentsonly familiarize with simple communication patterns, short passages or simpleconversations Thus, making students enjoy learning English is giving themconfidence in using foreign language and communicating with others or learningEnglish better

Especially, for primary students, learning and playing has always aneffective coordination, giving them real passion on subject Therefore, I want toshare with colleagues some experience of teaching English through the

initiatives:" Some techniques to improve English speaking skill for grade 3 students”

1.2 Research purposes

- To contribute to innovate English teaching methods at primary school in thedirection of promoting positive, creative initiative of students, strengtheningindividual activities in combination with learning exchange

- Form and practice the skill of applying knowledge into the communicationprocess.

- Create interest of learning English for students, the introduction ofcommunication games to manipulate the English words learned in the game.Students are not discouraged subjects are too new, have the feeling of playing inlearning Games during school hours not only help students gain knowledge butalso help them consolidate and deepen their knowledge

1.3 Research objects

This experience initiative will research and summarize solutions to makestudents more interested in learning English Help them to apply languageknowledge to flexible and dynamic communication Improve their pronunciationskills Especially, they are more confident in communicating in English

Audience research that I made this topic is grade 3 students at Quang PhuPrimary school - Thanh Hoa City - Thanh Hoa Province

1.4 Research Methodology

In the content of this initiative, I would like to focus on introducing somemethods of training English speaking skills for students to help them applylanguage knowledge to flexible communication, as following points:

1 Prepare lesson plans and teaching aids well

2 Practice English reflexes for students

3 Practice pronunciation for students

4 Make sure the steps practice speaking for the students

5 Build working in pairs and groups well

6 Types of speaking exercises for students

7 Teachers are always creative to help students be creative

8 How to correct mistakes for students?

9 How to set up pair and group works

10 Teaching speaking English onine for primary sutdents effectively

1.5 New points of the experience initiative

Name of the initiative: focus on speaking skill instead of communication

The presentation: All of the illustrative pictures are presented in the

experience initiative’s appendix

New status of the problem before applying the experience initiative

Solutions: some new points of view; different analysis about teaching

speaking for primary students; some new techniques are used to teach students

online because of Covid 19

2 CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background

With 2 billion speakers worldwide, English is the largest language by thenumber of speakers It is also the third largest language by the number of nativespeakers As the most common language, English has the power of connectingpeople from many different cultures, building relationships and understanding.And speaking is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced

as means of effective communication

According to Nunan (1991), among English language skills, speaking isthe most important aspect of learning a foreign language, and success is measuredinterms of the ability to carry out a conversation in that language Speaking isviewed to be at the heart of second language learning among the four language

skills by Egan (1990) According to Brown, speaking is “a constructing

meaning interactive process that is comprised producing and receiving information” Furthermore, Harris (1974) defines speaking as the encoding

process whereby we communicate our ideas, thought, and feeling orally.Speaking, which effects success or failure in school, family, workandcommunity life, can play a very important place in the social and interpersonalinteractions (Erdem & Deniz, 2008; Temizkan, 2009)

Improving teaching methods in a positive direction, promoting proactiveinnovation and self-learning ability of students is fundamental solutions to improveeducation Therefore, Ministry of Education and Training is focused innovationprogram in English teaching and learning Besides improving the quality of teachers,curriculum design must conform to each subject in each grade school students Thus,the ability to create and develop thinking ability to learn independently, to createpassion, interesting for both teachers and students during the teaching and learning ofEnglish Many methods of teaching - is given in the education sector in order toovercome the limitations that the industry is facing

2.2 Status of the problem before applying the experience initiative

Nowadays, English has become one of the most popular language in theworld As an experienced English teacher, you will not only need to teachyour students well but you will also need to face some teaching problems Agood ESL teacher must be able to recognize these problems, and try hard tofind solutions as soon as possible

Disparities between the two languages

Vietnamese and English language are very different in terms of intonationand syllabic structures Vietnamese is a purely tonal language, and as such,students may find it hard to speak English with the correct rhythm, intonation,and stress When speaking, they may pause between words or partition

sentences into unnecessary segments As such, the end result turns out to be arhythmless, monosyllabic speech with a heavy Vietnamese accent.

Most students are afraid to speak English in class.

This problem occurs when teachers ask their students to tell what they arethinking, such as their feelings, their point of view etc M y students are afraid

to make mistakes while speaking As a great English teacher, you shouldencourage your students (even if they make many mistakes), by showing theright answers and giving them a chance to answer again Remember topatiently help and support your students untill the end of the lesson

Restrictions on the timing and the form of the game

In elementary school student is a child so the speed of writing is still slow This

is a major reason leading to the limited time for organizing the Games Besides theform of the games has not been held rich Especially elementary students enjoyedlearning English has integrated into the game This is very good because the teacherhas done any work: Learning through playing and having fun through learning

In general, the problems of our students related to learning to speak can bedivided into four main groups:

1 Students feel shy speaking English because they are afraid of makingmistakes It is usually seen at the initial level as they are afraid of beingcriticized by teachers and other students

2 Working in pairs (or groups), students often begin to use their nativelanguage

3 Students don’t have enough information on the topics discussed even in theirnative language

4 Students feel a lack of linguistic and verbal resources for solving the giventask In that case the teacher should create a friendly atmosphere ofcollaboration so that students will not be afraid of admitting their mistakes andwill accept criticism

From this stuation, I have a research on topic: “ Some techniques toimprove English speaking skill for grade 3 students” at class 3A, 3B, 3C fromthe middle of the first term to March of the school year 2021-2022

Here are the results observation of the students’ quality at Quang PhuPrimary School:

Class Number Good Fair Average Weak

2.3.1 Prepare lesson plans and teaching aids well.

A lesson plan is important as a cornerstone of successful teachingpractice You don’t go into battle without a plan Walking into a room full ofyoung people and expecting them to engage and respond to you with nothingprepared is a recipe for disaster Through trial and error, you will reach that levelwhere a couple of quick notes in your day-planner will be all the preparation youneed

Effective lesson planning is an important facet of professional teachingpractice because planning:

- Provides the students with the necessary structure and direction to receive arelevant and engaging education

- Allows us to meet the diverse learning needs of our students throughdifferentiation and increased choice

- Integrates use modern technologies and better resources that are integral

to students’ everyday lives, increase the interactivity of lessons, and create aricher learning environment

- Allows you to map goals and assess achievement of outcomes

- Keeps lessons relevant to increase engagement and understanding andpromotes greater independence and mastery of a topic

- Enables us to critically reflect on and improve our teaching practice

2.3.2 Practice English reflexes for students

At the beginning of the school year, for primary school students in thesuburbs, their family economic conditions were still difficult, most of themcould not take extra classes so they did not have vocabulary, if any, it was verylimited However, teachers should still strengthen their English speaking inclass, often with simple commands combined with movements and postures Ingeneral, students are still bewildered at first, but gradually through periods theyalso understand and follow the teacher's orders

After they have learned new sentence patterns, we should use them often

in class so that they have good reflexes such as self-questions:

- What's your name ?

- How are you?

questions about objects, using real objects in the classroom (tables, chairs,rulers, notebooks ) such as sentence patterns:

- What's this?

- What are these?

2.3.3 Practice pronunciation for students

Teaching English pronunciation is a challenging task with differentobjectives at each level This guide on how to teach pronunciation provides ashort overview of the main issues to be addressed at each level, as well aspointing to resources on the site, such as lesson plans and activities, that you canuse in class to help your students improve their English pronunciation skills.Following each level are a few suggestions for level appropriate activities.Finally, the best way to help students improve their pronunciation skills is toencourage them to speak English as much as they possibly can Introduce theidea that even when doing homework students should be reading aloud.Learning to pronounce English well takes muscle coordination, and that meanspractice - not just mental activity!

When teachers decide to focus on pronunciation practise, many of themmake the mistake of teaching pronunciation along with new vocabulary Thiscombination can work with students who have a ‘good ear’ or speak a relatedlanguage However, it can be hit and miss with students whose mother tonguehas no relation to the target language

This problem brings us back to whether pronunciation can be taughteffectively at all? The answer is yes, of course, it can; it’s just that the way manytextbooks teach it is one of the least effective Many books will have you drillpronunciation with repetition of the vocabulary Some of the better ones willhave you work on spelling., Spelling is an important skill, especially in Englishwith its many irregularities and exceptions But, unfortunately, very few will

start you and your students where you need to, at the phoneme level.

- Pay attention to practice for students to pronounce with the last sounds such as:

bag / bæg /, book / buk /

- Practice for students to have the habit of reading syllables

For example: Stand-up / 'stænd ʌ p /

Look-at / lukæt /

It's a pencil / itsəpensl /

- For the plural form, it is necessary to practice for students how to pronounce inemphasizing the plural:

Pronounced / s / after subsonic sound / t /, / p /, / k /, / s /, / f /, / θ /

For example: cassettes, books,

Pronounced / z / when it comes after the vowel or the voiced consonant: / b /, /

v /, / ð /, / d /, / g /, / l /, / m /, / n /, / ŋ /, / r /, / әuu /, / ei /

For example: crayons, tables, markers

Pronounced / iz / when after consonants such as: / z /, / s /, / ʤ /, / tʃ /, / ʃ /, / ʓ /

For example: pencil cases, oranges, nurses

- Distinguish the difference between / θ / and / ð /

The 'voiced th' /ð/ and 'unvoiced th' /θ/ sounds are the only pair of English

sounds that share a single, common spelling With the exception of being voiced

or unvoiced, the /ð/ and /θ/ are nearly identical; the tip of the tongue is placed

behind the top front teeth The friction occurs between the tip of the tongue andthe top front teeth.

Figure 1: The mouth position of the Figure2: The Mouth Position of the /θ/ phoneme /ð/ phoneme

Train students to use intonation.

Intonation and stress are closely linked In fact it's impossible to

dissociate them They go hand in hand Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in

other words the music of the language Just as words have stressed syllables,sentences have regular patterns of stressed words In addition, the voice tends torise, fall or remain flat depending on the meaning or feeling we want to convey(surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.) Intonation therefore indicatesthe mood of the speaker

There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonationand rising intonation

Falling intonation is demonstrated by lowering the voice pitch in the

- Wh- questions (requesting information.): Questions beginning with 'who',

'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how', for example:

What are these? ↘

Where is the cat? ↘

- Commands, for example:

Open your book ! ↘

Write your name here ↘

- Exclamations, for example:

How nice of you! ↘

That's a surprise! ↘

Rising intonation is expressed by increasing the voice intonation up high

in the following cases:

- Yes/no Questions, for example:

Is that Mary? ➚

Do you like badminton? ➚

- Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions),

for example:

You like fish, don't you? ➚

You're a new student aren't you? ➚

2.3.4 Make sure the steps practice speaking for the students.

Depending on each lesson, we apply different teaching methods Basically,

in speaking practice, the following procedures must be followed:

Pre-Speaking

Teacher introduces new language materials, new grammar In this activity,students listen or write, and the teacher introduces sample sentences Studentsspeak mainly to answer questions

Controled Practice

This activity gives students more practice in speaking than teachers In thispart, students practice in groups, individually under the control of teachers,students feel excited when speaking, creating opportunities for them to developspeaking skills

2.3.5 Build working in pairs and groups well.

The tendency with primary learners is to treat the class as a whole group andunderestimate their ability to work in pairs or in small groups Even very younglearners can become independent in their learning and guided early on they will

be more likely to grow into autonomous and successful language learners

The advantages of pair work and small group work:

- Gives learners more speaking time

- Changes the pace of the lesson

- Takes the spotlight off you and puts it onto the children

- Allows them to mix with everyone in the group

- Gives them a sense of achievement when reaching a team goal

- Teaches them how to lead and be led by someone other than the teacher

- Allows you to monitor, move around the class and really listen to the languagethey are producing

Pair work

Pair work activities in class create a number of benefits This is why theyare used by teachers in many different situations working with students of allages and levels of English ability Pair work activities can be a very efficient use

of classroom time They engage all students in the activity, rather than studentspassively listening to either the teacher talking or another individual studentresponding to the teacher’s questions In order to get the most out of pair work

activities, though, it’s important to plan them well and to keep a few keyprinciples in mind.

Pair work activities can be a fun, motivating part of your classroompractice As well as allowing all students to participate at the same time, theyprovide a safe space which is less exposed than contributing in open class Thishelps students feel more comfortable sharing their personal opinions or tryingout aspects of English that they have not yet fully mastered They also providevital opportunities to develop social skills and to collaborate with other students

on activities that demand a range of other skills, such as problem-solving orcritical thinking skills

There are usually two kinds of working in pairs: closed pairs and opened

pairs For example, pictures P.1; P.2 ( The Initiative’s Appendix )

Group work

In the case of group work, if the class is cramped, it is possible to arrangefor two students sitting in two adjacent rows to sit with their heads facing eachother to form groups of 4 without students moving much in the classroom , donot waste time

- When dividing groups, ensure quantity consistency

- It is necessary to equalize the number of students to each group (excellent, fair,average)

- How many students in a group depends on the size of the class

- The factor that affects the grouping is the student's sitting position in the group

- You can name groups in English such as numbers, colors, flowers, animals or

adjectives that they like ( The picture P.3 –The Initiative’s Appendix )

Measures to organize pairs, groups

The form of teamwork has many advantages, especially in the practice ofverbal functions, but in practice, when students work in pairs or groups, theteacher cannot control all of their speech birth and also not necessarily control.However, when doing pairing or group activities, the following points should benoted:

1- Give exercise instructions or make clear requests

- Before working in groups or pairs, you must have a good preparation: Have agiven sample or example, provide enough language needed for the exercise.2- It is necessary to assign pairs or groups appropriately, can choose studentswith the same level, or different cognitive levels to work together depending onthe intentions and nature of the exercise

3- Create real cohesion in the group, nominate the group leader and clearlydefine the duties of the group leader

4- It is necessary to specify the time to do the homework, depending on the level

of the question or the exercise, so that the time is long or short Set out aconvention for starting and ending the activity (tap the ruler, clap your hands).5- Have the general supervision of the teacher

6- Have timely support from the teacher when the students in the group havedifficulty (teachers walk around the class to listen and help, record commonmistakes )

7- No need to wait for students to finish the time, teachers actively stop groupactivities when deeming it necessary.

8- After students complete assignments in pairs or groups, it is necessary tocheck and respond promptly such as making comments, making suggestions,correcting mistakes or providing correct samples

9- When working in groups, teachers can combine many methods to helpstudents practice such as: repetition, substitution, change into form andcombination of teaching aids such as projectors, pictures, study cards, extraboards to guide

Conducting pair organization:

1 Introduce new sentence patterns: The teacher prompts and models clearly.Have students repeat in unison, individually Pay attention to correctpronunciation errors for students

2 Replace the sentences according to the suggestion Suggestions can be written

on the board or sub board

3 Ask the whole class to practice with the teacher and vice versa so the studentsknow for sure what to do Choose two students who are not sitting close togetherand speak aloud to the class

4 The teacher numbered students vertically or horizontally and asked students

to practice at the same time Ask students to switch roles when finished Theteacher walks around the class to control the activity, taking note not to correctthe errors while the students are practicing, but the teacher should record theseerrors to correct after the practice is finished

5 Stop activities after most of the class has finished Choose a few pairs tospeak in front of the class

6 Teachers correct common mistakes during practice, focusing on correctpronunciation and grammar errors

The process of organizing work in groups

-Teachers give instructions on tasks in a specific and clear way (You canchoose students at the same level or at different levels to work togetherdepending on the intentions and nature of the exercise)

-Teachers provide samples, examples and necessary materials for theassignment

-Provisions on practice time

-Teachers walk around the classroom to monitor their practice to help weakstudents and answer students' questions

-After students complete assignments in groups, it is necessary to check andrespond promptly such as commenting, commenting, correcting errors orproviding correct samples

Conditions apply

1- For students

The teacher needs to create the habit of the students to follow a number ofnecessary rules to ensure the requirements of the exercise such as:

- Need to listen carefully to the requirements of the exercise

- Need to follow requested instruction

- Need to start and stop as soon as required.

- Need to switch quickly from one activity to another when the teacher asks, nottrying to complete what is doing bad

- Need to work voluntarily, not too noisy

2- For teachers who need to perform well some of the following points:

- Choose tips and methods suitable for each type of lesson

- Always instruct and assign clearly tasks so that students understand what to do

- Always encourage students to boldly ask teachers when there are problems

- Check closely so that students always perform the lesson as required

- Always write down common mistakes or points to note so that they can bepointed out to students and helped them to correct afterwards

2.3.6 Types of speaking exercises for students.

There are many types of speaking exercises for students Below is adescription of some of the types and methods of implementation

Substitution Drill.

Substitution drill is a quick activity that reinforces vocabulary andlanguage structures Learners repeat a sentence, substituting one word in thesentence for another with picture or written cues

- Can use pictures or school supplies to make suggestions For example:

Unit 11: lesson 1, part 2 ( English 3) ( P.4, P.5- The Initiative’s Appendix )

For example: Unit 12, Lesson 1, part 2 ( English 3)

( P.6- The Initiative’s Appendix )

- Students work in groups, use picture cards to talk about

house

S1: There’s a living room.

S2: Wow! It’s nice There’s a bedroom.

S3: Wow! It’s big There’s a kitchen.

S4: Wow! It’s beautiful There’s a bathroom.

S1: Wow! It’s large.

Transformation Drill.

- This technique, the teacher guides students to change infinitive verbs into the3rd person singular forms; or change subjects from the first person into others…

For example: Unit 10, lesson 1, part 3( English 3)

( P.7; P.8 - The Initiative’s Appendix )

Tuan: What do you do at breaktime? Tuan: Dung goes swimming

Dung: I go swimming at breaktime.

Role plays :

Role plays can be really good speaking activities However, studentsreally need to be able to identify with and be interested in the characters they areplaying This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to be creativeand to improvise

For example: Unit 12, Lesson 1, part 3 - English 3(P.9-The initiative’s

Appendix)

The student plays a role, Nam to talk about his house

“ Hello My name is Nam This is my house There is a living room There is

a bedroom There is a kitchen There is a bathroom My house is nice.”

2.3.7 Teachers are always creative to help students be creative.

Teacher and students’ creativity demonstrated through learning games.Learning game is an activity which is primarily for entertainment purposes, torelax after hours of stress and fatigue But through learning games, players canalso train physically, train their senses, create opportunities to interact withpeople, cooperate with friends and teammates in groups, teams, Learninggame is an activity organized with a play and entertaining nature Throughlearning games, students have the conditions "Learn to play, play but learn".When participating in learning games students will imagine and ponder and testsituations Learning games also create a joyful, innocent, lively atmosphere inclass Help alleviate the arid aspect of the learning problem and strengthen thechild's memory Helping students to absorb knowledge in a positive and self-conscious way The combination of using games in learning will bring higheffectiveness in teaching The learning games used will have a positive effect tochange the form of learning and through learning games the classroomatmosphere will become comfortable, comfortable, the learning of studentsbecomes lighter and more effective

There are many types of games Some focus on vocabulary, some onstructures, and there are others that promote both: vocabulary and structure.Here are some games to help children improve their communication skills andtheir passion for the subject:

Games for practicing Vocabulary

+ Hot Seat:

The Teacher divides the students into 3 or 4 teams and chooses eachgroup of 1 member to sit on the Hot Seat and face the class The teacher writes aword on the board, and a member of the student team sitting on the Hot Seatmust describe to help his teammates guess the word without speaking, spelling