Some ways to enhance ha van mao high school''''s 10 th form students'''' activeness in leaning english 0 THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE SOME WAYS[.]
Trang 1INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE
SOME WAYS TO ENHANCE HA VAN MAO HIGH
IN LEANING ENGLISH
Researcher: Vu Phuong Mai Occupation : Teacher
Organization : Ha Van Mao High School
THANH HOA, 2016
Trang 2CONTENTS PAGE
1.1 Reasons for choosing the research 1
1.3 Scope, object and researching methods 2
1.2 Promoting student's activeness in learning activities 4
2.1 Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning
English
6
2.2 The learning activities developed in the English 10th textbook 6 2.3 Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language
Learning
8
3.2 Making Writing Activities much more Meaningful and Interesting 14 3.3 Improving the Teacher's Classroom Management 15
Trang 31.1 Rationale
English nowadays has become more and more popular and has been widely used in Viet Nam It is one of the major subjects in many schools and an indispensable means of communication at present With such a trend of development, learning English is, therefore, more important than ever before All learning is active in a certain sense, but some kinds of learning are more active than others Here, active learning is defined in one sense to mean that the learner uses opportunities to decide about aspects of the learning process The stimulation of learning activities and regulation processes, or teaching students how to learn, is likely to lead to the best performance in the long run
It is of great importance that we should take students' English language learning into consideration However, at Ha Van Mao High school, many students are not fully interested in learning English in class On the one hand, they seem to
be shy and fearful of making mistakes On the other hand, we lack a language environment and sufficient learning activities In that reality, there have many problems catching pedagogues' attention, i.e, how to organize learning activities effectively, how to develop interesting study atmosphere in the classroom in order
to enhance students' activeness in English language learning Being aware of this urgent problem, I have a great desire to study the current activeness of students especially the 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school and to investigate the learning activities in the English textbook which contribute an important role in enhancing students' activeness in learning English That is the reason why I choose
the topic "Some ways to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's 10 th form students' activeness in learning English" for my experience initiative I wish
friends and colleagues would refer to additional comments
Trang 41.2 Aims of the study
The study aims at studying on how to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's
10th form students' activeness in learning English through some learning activities
in the English textbook
This paper is intended to:
- Investigate the activeness of 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school
- Suggest some learning activities in the English 10 textbook for enhancing students' activeness in learning English
1.3 Scope, object and researching methods
- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Ha Van Mao high
school
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of enhancing students'
activeness in learning English
- Researching methods: Reading reference books , discussing with other
teachers, applying in teaching, classroom observation, questionnaire and drawing out experiences
Trang 5PART II CONTENT
Chapter 1 Theoretical background
1.1 Active Learning
Like many terms used to describe teaching or learning, active learning is defined in many different ways This notion has developed over the last dozen years or so
"Learning is conceived of us something a learner does, not something that
is done to a learner" [Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991, P7]
"Learning is an action in which students act on object and interact with others' ideas and events to construct new understanding"[Luckner and Nadle,
1997, P13]
According to Meyers and Jones (1993), active learning has been defined
as providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk, listen, write, read and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject There are two basic assumptions of active learning:
* That learning is by nature an active endeavor
* That different people learn in different ways
This definition was modified by Silberman(1996):
- What I hear, I forget
- What I hear and see, remember a little
- What I hear, see and ask questions about or discuss with someone, I begin to understand
- What I teach another, I master
To learn something well, it helps to hear it, see it, ask questions about it and discuss it with others Above all, students need to do it by themselves, try out skills and do assignments that depend on knowledge they already have or must acquire
Trang 6Silberman also states that "When learning is active, students do most of the work They use their brain to study ideas, solve problems and apply what they learn Active learning is fast - faced, fun, supportive and personally engaging"
In addition, in an active learning environment, students are individually encouraged to engage in the process of building their own mental models from the information they are acquiring In such an environment students become active participants who engage in a dialogue with their teacher
Moreover, active learning is an approach to learning that involves the student
as his/her own teacher and involves putting students in situations which force them
to read, speak, listen, think and write In an active learning, knowledge is directly experienced, constructed, acted, tested or revised by the learner working together
in and outside of class Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in higher - order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, evaluation of information within the context, students also are expected to do things and think about what they are doing
In short, in order to help learners participate in the learning process actively, the role of the teacher is of paramount importance to organize learning activities appropriately since it is a great opportunity for students to practice English effectively
1.2 Promoting student's activeness in learning activities.
a Climate variables: creating a motivation environment
As students spend time in classroom, they get feelings about whether they are safe and welcome and whether the classroom is a desirable place to learn Classroom climate refers to "teacher and classroom characteristics that promote student's feelings of safety and security, together with a sense of success, challenge and understanding Raviv and Riesel (1990) stated that climate is important because it creates an environment that encourages both motivation and
Trang 7achievement Students learn best in a safe and orderly environment that promotes success on meaningful task According to Brophy (1987) and Clifford (1990), in a healthy climate, students are treated as competent people They understand the requirements and learning tasks and perceive them as challenging and believe they will succeed if they make reasonable efforts
b Instructional variables: Developing interest in learning activities.
In learning activities, interest is very important According to Krapp, Hidi and Renninger (1992) quoted by Eggen and Kauchak, the Interest like engagement, has been linked to learner attention, comprehension, elaboration and the seeking of additional information From an instructional perspective, Stipek (1996) stated that
a motivated student can be viewed as " someone who is actively engaged in the learning process" But how to promote and maintain active engagement? Eggen and Kauchak suggested that teachers have to think about engagement using the concept of Interest In order to increase learners' interest, our goal is to initially capture learners' attention and then maintain their involvement in the learning activity
c Teacher characteristics: Personal qualities that increase motivation
According to Eggen and Kauchak (1999) teachers create learning environments, implement instruction and establish learning _ oriented or performance _ oriented classrooms
Moreover, Eggen and Kauchak indicate four personal qualities including: teacher's modeling, teacher's enthusiasm, teacher's caring and teacher's expectation Hence, teachers have an important positive effect on students
Trang 8Chapter 2 Practical background
English
Classroom observation is carried out at 8 classes in two school- years during
my weeks of teaching time
It can be easily realized from table 2.3 (appendix 3) that students now are quite active Half of the teachers (40%) agree with this According to the teachers, many students now tend to be more active in the lesson because of their awareness
of the importance of learning English and its benefits With this extrinsic motivation, the students seem to learn English better
Also from the table 2.3, it can be seen that among 76% of the students who show their activeness in learning English, 26% of them are highly active They always show their interest in the lesson during the learning process They pay much attention to the teacher's lesson and are enthusiastic to raise their hands to answer the teacher's questions or contribute their ideas to the lesson They also tend to work in pairs or small groups and really want to interact with other students
However, there are still some students who are a little active or not active at all Those students are often passive in the classroom They rarely take part in classroom activities and prefer to work individually Moreover, these students often show their unwillingness and shyness when being asked to do the tasks or answer the questions; they just do what are required, listen and write down They
do not want to cooperate with others
2.2 The learning activities developed in the English 10 th textbook.
* Learning activities:
The learning activities in the English textbook are divided into three
categories: controlled activities (lead- in, setting situation, role- play
Trang 9demonstration, question- answer ); partly controlled activities (brainstorming, story- telling, cued narrative/ dialogue, information exchange ); free activities
(role- play, game, problem- solving, simulation, discussion ) Among these
activities, asking and answering questions, lead- in, language skill activities are
the most frequently designed learning activities since they focus on four main language skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) and initiate interaction
between teacher and students and among students as well Following these, small
group discussion, cued dialogue, matching and gap- filling exercises are also
designed at the high frequency, and then come to information exchange and role-
play Language games, problem- solving, interview, and story- telling are also
designed, though not much because they are quite new and difficult for students to do
* Skill focus:
Different from the old textbook, this English textbook mainly focuses on four main language skills Speaking, listening, reading, writing activities are designed in all the lessons Speaking skills are developed through some learning tasks such as discussion, interview, role- play, etc Listening tasks are designed based on theme/ topic One of the most important strategies of listening in this textbook is selective listening Students often listen to a text or dialogue, sometimes
a song for relaxation Reading and writing tasks also appear frequently in the book Activities for reading are varied such as brainstorming, answering questions, discussing, etc Writing is paid much attention in this textbook This kind of activity is rather new to students Many kinds of writing activities are designed, for example writing a letter (letter of invitation, letter of requirement, etc), writing a report, an announcement, etc However, these activities seem to be difficult for students at grade 10th, thus they are not very effective
Trang 10* Interaction patterns:
Pairwork and groupwork are designed frequently in almost every lesson In this way, students have a chance to interact with each other and with teacher as well Individual work and whole- class work are also designed, though not much
2.3 Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language Learning
The first and most important characteristic that students expect their teacher to
show is "having an interesting and flexible method" It can not be denied that
the teaching method of the teacher is extremely important Students will be motivated or demotivated depending on the teacher's ways of teaching and organizing the activities in the class If students find the method boring they will probably become demotivated But what is a good teaching method ?, what can
teacher do to enhance motivation and activeness in the learners? See the values
from the Miller's statement, we see that an effective method consists of such four criteria: arouse students' interest, explain the tasks clearly, encourage patience and let students be themselves They are very necessary and indispensable for a good language teacher Hence, the teacher should take these criteria into consideration
The second expected characteristic is that teacher cares students' learning It
means that teacher should pay attention to students' needs, interests,expectations, etc and listen to their concerns so that students have a feeling of comfort and friendliness between teacher and students and their studying will be more effective
What is more, students expect their teacher to have a rich source of
knowledge It can be easily seen that, knowledge is very necessary for making the
lesson more interesting and understandable This will create an active and productive class that makes students learn more actively Thus, teachers should build up not only specific knowledge but social knowledge as well