(Skkn 2023) applying experiential activities in some topics to improve the presentation skill of the 12th grade students

NGHE AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT 1-5 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING EXPERIENCE APPLYING EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITIES IN SOME TOPICS TO IMPROVE THE PRESENTATION SKILL OF THE 12 TH

NGHE AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT

1-5 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

APPLYING EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITIES IN SOME TOPICS

TO IMPROVE THE PRESENTATION SKILL OF THE 12 TH

GRADE STUDENTS

(Subject: English)

Teacher: Ho Thi Thuy Duong

Group: English Academic year: 2022-2023

Phone number: 0986153040

Nghia Dan, April 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Experiential learning activities in education 3

2 Why applying experiential learning in language teaching

and learning?

4

3 Presentation skill in learning foreign language 5

II Real situation before applying experience 5

VI Survey on the necessity and the feasibility 30

4 Results of the survey about the necessity and the feasibility

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Reasons for the study

From the beginning of the education of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, President Ho Chi Minh specified the method to train talented people as: “Learning goes with practice, education combines with labor and production, schools are associated with social activities!” Deploying educational activities with creatively experiential ones is implementing of this viewpoint and orientation

The inclusion of creatively experiential activities in the school's educational program contributes to overcoming the shortcomings of the currently educational program, meeting the urgent requirements of fundamental and comprehensive education reform Experiential learning encourages personal input, initiative, and self-direction in the learning process Activities begin with accessing the specific past experiences of students, and then building on these experiences to construct a framework for learning unique to the requirements and learning style of each student Things students underwent become the materials supporting them to access the topics of lesson easily and frequently Since the academic year 2022-2023, the “experiential activities” was officially introduced in National Curriculum as a subject taught for the 10thgrade students However, these activities might have been applied during teaching process with some topics, particularly in teaching English Developing students’ ability to speak to audience is one of the greatest benefits that they will derive from their future or higher education Students accumulate the knowledge about a topic from their own experiences in the life, then this becomes the data help students to perform a presentation

Actually, for majority of students in my school, especially the students at grade 12th, it seems to be that their presentations have been performed mostly basing on the materials about topics provided in textbook, and students have presented following a given modal These tend to limit students’ ability in using English to express their points of view about the topics that they have observed

or experienced in reality Their experiences probably enrich the number of words in English and stimulate learners to come up with good ideals that helps their presentations to become attract the audience

From this fact, I decided to choose the topic: “ Applying experiential activities in some topics to improve the presentation skill of the 12 th grade students” for my experienced innovation

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II Aims of the study

The aims of this study are:

- To maximize students’ using their own experiences in real life to present their points about the topics Learners can reduce the fear of standing in front of the class by being equipped the materials for the speech

- To partly stimulate students’ practice in foreign language about topics that illustrates the real situations in the life

III Methods of the study

- Drawing from experience of my teaching

- Consulting many documents ,especially methods of study

- Studying colleagues’ experience

IV Range of the study

The theme revolves around the issue of research, designed from some experience in teaching English 12 - Standard program to teach speaking skill for students as well as enhance their presentation ability, particularly in the classes 12A1, 12A6 and 12A7 the academic year 2022- 2023

V The new point of this experience

Experiential learning method can be used in teaching English to make teaching process much interesting and fun It will increase students’ interest in learning process in classroom, because the circumstances become more interesting

It is suitable for characteristics of students who are likely active in English class, so experiential can be helpful in teaching English, especially in speaking class Moreover, using experiential activities can help create environment for students to develop the ability of using language in real situations

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PART B: INVESTIGATION

I Theoretical background

1 Experiential learning activities in education

Many teachers have discovered that the interests of students in this present generation have really changed Also, many education systems have made numerous changes making the curriculum developers implement new techniques and methodologies in creating the program This could be attributed to the shift from lecturer-centered to learner-centered approach This technique has led to the development of a powerful reading environment as it facilitates knowledge 2367 construction and discovery Experiential learning theory mostly concentrates on the importance of experience in the human learning process (de Guzman & Choi, 2013; Young & Norgard, 2006)

The theory of experiential learning proposed by David Kolb was an inheritance and development from the theory of learning that was related to the experience of famous Psychologists and Educators, such as John Dewey (1859-1952), Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and many other scientific researchers These useful research works were vital foundation for David Kolb to build up his four stages experiential learning theory which was applied at developed countries in the world Up to now, the theory has become modern educational philosophy with most of the countries to improve their education quality and develop students’ competence and performance to meet job requirements and social demand in the modern life According to the Kolb’s theory

“learning is a process in which knowledge is created through transformation learners’ experience” (Kolb, 1984) During the process, learners take part in their active studying steps and activities, so that “knowledge is created by combinations

of grasping and transforming the experience” Generally, experiential learning encompasses any learning process that focuses on the application of student's knowledge to real-world situations and whereby the teacher acts as a facilitator and director of the learning process Experiential learning can occur in classrooms or laboratories with the inclusion of activities like art projects and experiments (Wurdinger & Carlson, 2010) Experiential learning incorporates phenomenon observation and acting purposively with it through active participation It focuses

on a learning process where the student directly gets involved with the substance being studied rather than just hearing or writing their teachers’ words Although many researchers have come up with different definitions of experiential learning, there is no specific agreed definition Generally, it is assumed that experiential learning is based on the notion that students should be given a key role in the learning process and that self-discovery is the best learning process (Lysiuchenko

et al., 2021; Markova et al., 2021)

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Learning by doing This is the basis for the experiential learning theory Learning through classroom experiences plays a significant role in improving the communication skills of learners Language learning is also a process in which students should not just listen to their teachers’ words, they need to practice using the language depending on their lexical resource, grammar, and their social knowledge about the topics The best way to motivate students take part in useful activities to improve their communication skill is organizing variety of experiential activities instead of sitting quietly and listening to their teachers Students will have chance to make decisions in studying and check the consequences For teachers, creating opportunities for students to have experiences based on the things they are learning about is key Teachers can help create environments where students can learn and have experiences at the same time

If you’re a current teacher, or studying to become one, it’s important to get a degree that will give you qualifications and knowledge for your career, and help prepare you to be licensed Additionally, it’s key to understand how different students learn and understand how different learning theories impact education Teachers who understand learning theories can better optimize their classroom and help more students learn in ways that work for them Being a successful teacher means focusing on how best to help students succeed

2 Why applying experiential learning in language teaching and learning?

According to Schank & Fano (1995), experiential learning enables students to acquire skills by doing According to him, one of the greatest benefits of experiential learning is that it motivates the students It is evident from his works that students like to learn through engaging in real-world situations and at the same time get entertained while learning and participating in learning activities inside class Learning through classroom experiences plays a significant role in improving the communication skills of learners Language learning is also a process in which students should not just listen to their teachers’ words, they need

to practice using the language depending on their lexical resource, grammar, and their social knowledge about the topics The best way to motivate students take part in useful activities to improve their communication skill is organizing variety

of experiential activities instead of sitting quietly and listening to their teachers Students will have chance to make decisions in studying and check the consequences The evaluation of the results will determine their future actions Most of the learning institutions are faced with a major problem where learners are not capable of transferring and applying the knowledge acquired in class to the real-world environment Based on this fact, Hamer (2001), recommends the application of experiential techniques as a way of encouraging learners to apply the acquired skills in the outside classroom environment Harmin(1994), agreed with this idea According to him, this goal could be achieved through the development of a classroom that promotes self-respect, self-

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management, and consciousness For that reason, some useful activities as real simulation situations were applied in teaching, which was a constructive approach for students at 1-5 High School to practice and improve their presentation skill while studying English subject

3 Presentation skill in learning foreign language

Speaking in front of an audience is a daunting task, even more so when a talk has to be delivered in a foreign language Therefore, language learners who want to improve their presentation skills need training opportunities designed to promote the learners’ confidence and linguistic autonomy — as often as possible and early

on in the learning process Below, I describe suitable classroom activities for students at B1 level or higher They have been developed in courses for German as

a foreign language at university level, but they can, in principle, be adapted for training in any foreign language Whereas Ruuska (2015), for example, focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of presentations in authentic settings, this paper deals with the benefits of delivering (very) short presentations (lasting from a few seconds up to a minute) in the target language At the same time, these mini-presentations have to be structured carefully, in the same way that ‘big’

presentations do

II Real situation before applying experience

Students have a great fear when standing in front the crowd They tend to tremble uncontrollably at speaking out something on the pulpit, which makes the words they have prepared disappear Additionally, anxious learners are unwilling

to participate in speaking activities Due to speaking anxiety, students cannot enhance their speaking performance

Pronunciation, fear of making mistakes, unattractive evaluation, lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, lack of preparedness, and even teachers’ attitude are other factors influencing learners’ speaking skills

There were weaknesses in students’ presentations regarding preparation and presenters themselves Traditionally, students are often required to speak something after prepare themselves Moreover, they don’t even have enough time

to get ready for a presentation As a result, they have no opportunity to get any support from their partners, and using much their experience in their life

The respondents in this study were 119 students from classes 12A1, 12A6, and 12A7 at 1-5 High School Most of them have at least 4 forty-minute periods of English per week, some of which was dedicated solely to the speaking skill The experimental design, a method type of research was used since it involved the gathering of information about the present conditions It described the nature of the situation as it existed at the time of the study It aimed to determine the effectiveness of using experiential learning activities in improving students’ English speaking skill The main source of data was the questionnaire and

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observation to be developed by the researcher The use of questionnaires is one of the most common research methods because it can produce a large amount of information about many different issues such as communication difficulties, preferred learning styles, preferred classroom activities, attitudes and beliefs suggests observation is a way of gathering information about teaching, rather than

a way of evaluating teaching, although generally observation is associated with evaluation

The questionnaire consisted of six questions to investigate how students speak English in class and ask for the students’ opinions about the necessity of practicing English much more to become good English speakers

Table 1: Students' attitudes towards the presentation in English in front of the

class:

Being shame when speaking English because they are afraid of

making mistakes in grammar, or vocabulary in the process of

speaking

65

Being afraid of the teacher and the classmates’ attitude 51

Using Vietnamese when being assigned to work in pairs, groups 80

Not having enough information on assigned topics 58

Shortage of vocabulary, grammar to solve questions related to

c Students often feel that there is not enough information on the topics discussed even in Vietnamese

d Students feel lack of language and verbal resources to solve assigned tasks

In that case, the teacher should create a friendly atmosphere of cooperation so students will not have to fear admit their mistakes and will accept the criticism

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There were many causes, including both subjective and objective ones, which led to errors that students often encounter in the English speaking process Most students claimed that the shortage of background knowledge and vocabulary were the main reasons leading to the difficulty in expressing the topics The pronunciation which was not similar, and the natural speaking pace of native speakers and Vietnamese people also caused great difficulties for students to listen

to questions and answered In addition, many topics that were unfamiliar to students, lack of knowledge and vocabulary also significantly affected to the content that are needed presenting on the topics, although it had been assigned to the students before their English oral test

Based on the interviews, all respondents indicated that not enough vocabulary

as well as phonetics, natural intonation led to many difficulties for students during the process of presenting topics Some students said that they had difficulty not only in the vocabulary required for the topics, but also the sentence structures They were unable to translate themselves so they did their task through Google translation Moreover, students borrowed the materials of the ex-student and tried

to remember, or memorized before one or two days before the exam though they did not understand the content of the topics which they have to present Especially, all surveyed students indicated that subjective reasons, such as lack of background knowledge, limited vocabulary and insufficiency of communication skills, had the greatest effect on the accuracy of the answers Besides, objective factors such as voice, phonetics, the intonation of the judge lecturers and the students themselves were the factors that led to mistakes they made in English speaking exam

III Solutions

To attain a effective presentation for students, teachers need to assist them to overcome the obstacles about their emotion of fear, shortage of vocabulary and structures Moreover, learners are provided the handed-on environment that supports them to get more background knowledge relating to the topics by participating in some experiential activities organized in the school

Experiential learning occurs in several varieties and encompasses a wide range of strategies that can be applied by instructors Below are examples of how teachers can apply experiential learning in language teaching not only to motivate students in learning but also to get better their communication skill

1 Specific role play

Role-play is an effective technique to animate the teaching and learning atmosphere, arouse the interests of learners, and make the language acquisition impressive So this research will mainly focus on how to apply it successfully and take the most advantage of it in English class

This regular activity is asking learners to participate in an imaginary role and play it, for example, being a doctor, a visitor to a new city, a manager, a customer

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in a restaurant or a coffee shop In this manner, student emulates and perform tasks

that are similar to what individuals who hold this position does Role play activities are obviously new approach in teaching speaking, because students will improve their ability of applying language knowledge in meaningful context sand also help them more confident in studying It seems that the activity was beloved by most of students during the research because they have chance to practice with their classmates using handy daily structures for real situations which happen every day

in their life Beside, a narrator can play an significant role in making the story more

coherent and comprehensive

This activity is often applied to the third step of three steps in Communicative Approach Method in classroom teaching consisting of presentation, practices and production, which emphasizes much on the comprehensively performance of the target language When organizing the practice of role-play, the teacher must provide a context and several roles for students to prepare and then perform in the class The performance can be developed by several groups When one is performing, the other students are audience and discuss its advantages and disadvantages afterward The discussion itself is also a kind of practice

2 Project work presentation

This involves assigning of tasks to students in groups This enhances the student to develop a norm of self-dependence and become more responsible learners The activity was not only an active teaching but also a collaborative learning activity for students during investigating, researching, and solving the learning problems Instead of teaching students what to do, the teacher helped them how to do in their groups to practice speaking skill and develop many core skills, such as: collaborative skill, time management, critical thinking skill, problem solving, group work skill and presentation skill Based on learning out come and the content of the topics, teacher designed the tasks with related topics for students

to prepare in their groups, and then present in front of their class For example, teacher can give the topics involving in the environment, jobs, introducing places

of tourism etc After every group presentation, the teacher and their classmates gave out advice for each member The group work or project work teaching method is carried out according to the following process

To complete this activities, both graders and teacher need more time than 45 minute for a class The teacher plans about the topics and tells students the requirements of the project Learners can prepare in groups at home because within the time of a class, they cannot implement various activities including discussion, preparation for the way of their presentation and presentation, etc Presentations about the results of the project are performed during speaking class or Post -stage

of other skills in classroom

3 Story telling through organizing reading or watching activities

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In this activity, the teacher gave popular topics, students worked in pairs, in groups or individually to tell a story which they read or watch videos involving the topics they have learnt The story was limited to a certain period of time However, students seemed to be difficult and not eager to join the activity because of many reasons, for example: lacking of vocabulary and confidence Therefore, organizing

an activity that supports students to prepare the content of the story, vocabulary and the structure of the story they will present is necessary

Story telling can be applied in speaking classes, optional lessons, or post- stage of one skill period

4 Organizing a survey activity

A class survey responds to several aims Firstly it provides practice in free but purposeful interaction with both the teacher and with other students, encouraging socialization and active participation in a lesson The ability to initiate and structure short conversations is also central The survey can also provide practice

of a more structured nature in important language such as the language of direct and indirect questions and in important skills such as report writing A more general educational aim is to provide students with personal experience in using a simple form of a common academic tool

The teacher introduces the task and helps students prepare At this stage the teacher is probably controlling all student actions from the front of the class Some kind of sheet is recommended to provide a focus for preparation The teacher can then demonstrate possible survey questions to students in the whole-class session and get students to demonstrate their questions in interaction with the teacher There is also a pre-survey option of drilling the language that is likely to be needed

or providing language support handouts It is assumed that the vocabulary of the topic itself has been introduced elsewhere as it is probably the topic of a unit which has been studied during previous lessons Going into a survey "cold" is not recommended Varying combinations of reading texts, listening exercises, teacher-led introductions or discussion, pair/group exercises will normally already have established a topic

Students work in groups and do survey in their own group After getting required information from their group members, they prepare a report to present in front of the class This activities may be completed within a period of speaking or implemented in optional lesson

5 Drawing pictures:

Teacher choose the topic and asks learner to draw pictures basing on their imagination that relating to what the teacher requires Then they present about the drawings This activity enhance students’ ability of remembering vocabulary and language structures It also engages the participation of all members in each group

- Audio aids: Speaker

- Audiovisual aids: Computer and projector

- Other visual aids: pictures, posters, handouts, etc

2 General procedures

Teachers needs to pay attention to the following procedures of encouraging students to present in front of the class

- Attracting students’ attention

- Giving the topics

- Introducing the activities: Telling types of activities (individual, pair work, group work or teamwork); Giving instructions and setting the rules

- Setting the deadline for students’ preparations

- Getting feedback from students

- Monitoring the activity

- Setting up time for students’ presentation

- Letting the activities begin

- Evaluating and declaring the excellent participants

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3 Illustrated topics

3.1 Topic: Home life

Role- play: Making a play about family’ emotion towards the long- separated child coming back home

Below are some images of the play and its script:

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3.2 Topic: School education system

Project work presentation: Comparing school education system in Viet Nam and that in other countries in the world

* Used in:

Post- speaking and optional lesson

* Objectives:

- From the information about school education system in Vietnam and that in

England, student will able to recognize the similarities and differences between them and further comparison with that in other countries

- Students are able to improve their IT competence to create videos or videos with powerpoint about a given topic

- They can also enhance their presentation

* Procedures:

- Students get the topic: Compare education system in Vietnam with that in other countries

- Learners work in groups and prepare at home The can used the knowledge

in the previous lesson and their own background to complete the requirement

- The groups can choose the forms of presentation:

+ Making videos and presenting directly in front of the class

+ Dubbing during editing the videos

Some images about the presentations from the groups in the classroom:

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