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Teacher's Role and Classroom Atmosphere in Enhancing Students' Activeness in English Language Learning 41 2.1.4.1.. The Influence of Classroom Atmosphere on Students' Activeness in Engli

BINH ĐỊNH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TUY PHUOC NO 1 HIGH SCHOOL

A STUDY ON SOME WAYS TO ENHANCE THE

Name: Nguyen Bui Thuy Linh, M.A.

School’s name : Tuy Phuoc No.1 High School

Tuy Phuoc, April 2012

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF FIGURE v

PART A : INTRODUCTION I The Statement of This Problem………1

1 The Reality of The Problem Requiring The New Solution to solve………1

2 The Meaning and Effect of the New Solution……….2

3 The Scope of the Study 2

II Method and Procedure 3

1 Literature review and theoretical background 3

1.1 Literature Review 3

1.2 Theoretical Background 3

1.2.1 Overview of Communicative Approach 4

1.2.1.1 Theories of Communicative Approach 4

1.2.1.2 Purposes of Communicative Activities 5

1.2.2 Learner- centered Approach 6

1.2.3 Active Learning 8

1.2.3.1.Definition 8

1.2.3.2 The Good Language Learner 10

1.2.4 Factors Affect Students' English Learning 11

1.2.4.1.Motivation 11

1.2.4.2 Interest 13

1.2.5 Promoting Students' Activeness in Learning English 14

1.2.5.1.Climate Variables 14

1.2.5.2 Instructional Variables 15

1.2.5.3 Teacher's Characteristics 16

1.2.6 Overview of Learning Activities 17

1.2.6.1 Prominent Features of Leaning Activities 17

1.2.6.2 Classification 17

1.2.6.3 Principles of Selecting Appropriate Work Tasks 18

2 M easures for Implementing and Time to Create This Solution 19

2.1 Research Design and Procedures 19

2.1.1 Research Design 19

2.1.2 Research Procedures 19

2.2 Methods of Data Collection ' 20

2.3 Population of the Data Collection 22

2.3.1 The Population of the Questionnaires 22

2.3.2 The Population of the Classroom Observation 22

2.4 Data analysis 22

PART B: CONTENT I Aim and Objectives 23

II The Description of The experience Initiative’s Solution II.1 : Findings and discussion 23

2.1.1.Students' Activeness in Learning English ………23

2.1.1.1 Students' Attitudes towards English Language Learning 25

2.1.1.2 10th Form Students' Involvement in the Lesson 25

2.1.1.2.1 Students' Involvement in the Lesson 29

2.1.1.2.2 Reasons for students not involving in Classroom Activities 29

2.1.1.2.3 Students' Willingness for Communication and Discussion the tasks with others 30

2.1.1.2.4 Frequency of Finding Chances to Practise English inside and outside Classroom 31

2.1.2.The Implementation of the Learning Activities in the English Textbook.31 2.1.2.1 The Learning Activities Developed in the English Textbook 32

2.1.2.2 The Frequency of Organizing the Learning Activities in the English Textbook 36

2.1.3.The Influence of the Learning Activities in the English Textbook

on Students' Activeness 38

2.1.4 Teacher's Role and Classroom Atmosphere in Enhancing Students' Activeness in English Language Learning 41

2.1.4.1 Teacher's Role and Characteristics in Enhancing Students' Activeness in English Language Learning 41

2.1.4.2 The Influence of Classroom Atmosphere on Students' Activeness in English Language Learning 48

II.2 : Implications for enhancing students' activeness in learning English …49 2.2.1 Textbook Renovation 49

2.2.2 Making Writing Activities much more Meaningful and Interesting 52

2.2.3 Improving the Teacher's Classroom Management 53

2.2.4 Other Suggestions 55

PART C: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR… 56

FURTHER RESEARCH

REFERENCES

Survey questionnaires

APPENDIX 1 For teachers

APPENDIX 2 For students

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I

The Statement of This Problem:

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 indispensablemeans of communication at present With such a trend of development, learningEnglish is, therefore, important than ever before All learning is active in a certainsense, but some kinds of learning are more active than others Here, active learning isdefined 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 longrun

1 The Reality of The Problem Requiring The New Solution to solve:

It is of great importance that we should take students' English languagelearning into consideration However, in Viet Nam, many students are not fullyinterested 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 sufficientlearning activities In that reality, there have many problems catching pedagogues'attention, i.e, how to organize learning activities effectively, how to develop interestingstudy atmosphere in the classroom in order to enhance students' activeness in Englishlanguage learning Being aware of this urgent problem, I have a great desire to studythe current activeness of students especially the 10th form students at high schools inTuy Phuoc High School and Quoc Hoc High School and to investigate the learningactivities in the English textbook which contribute an important role in enhancingstudents' activeness in learning English That is the reason why I choose the topic "Astudy on some ways to enhance the 10th form students' activeness in learning Englishthrough some learning activities in the English textbook for my experience initiative

2 The Meaning and Effect of the N ew Solution

"Active learning has a long and distinguished history Again and again the idea

of learners getting involved in the learning process instead of passively receiving information from an instructor has been considered the essence of education No doubt

good teachers have always known that learning is enhanced when students get involved to discover, manipulate or personalize information"[22].

Active learning connects it to mental activity in another sense: it refers to theextent to which the learner is challenged to use his or her mental abilities whilelearning Thus active learning on the one hand has to do with decisions about learning

and on the other hand making active use of thinking

Active learning can be more attractive for learners than more passive forms oflearning because they can become more motivated and interested when they have a say

in their own learning and when their mental activity is challenged Being involved inthe decisions about learning they can connect to their prior knowledge and their ownneeds and interests In finding out things independently, they can follow their owninterests and motivation In the process they can learn to make decisions and takeresponsibility Moreover, active learning is important because of opportunities forlearning to learn Students can learn how to learn by practising how to do it Givingthem responsibility for parts of the decisions that can or should be made is one way toteach them how to learn In earlier times, one thought that learning to learn and activelearning were for the elite Only the best students were expected to learn actively Forthe weaker students highly structured forms of teaching were to be preferred, so wasthe conventional wisdom One reason why they are weak students turned out to be thatthey are not able to learn actively When the weakest students learned how to learn andthink, their learning performance improved drastically (see, for instance, Palincsar andBrown, 1984) Active learning is also important for teachers Motivational and burn outproblems of teachers may disappear when students are more motivated and more activelearners Besides, teaching will become more intellectually challenging when studentsare learning actively and independently Hence, the problem I am concerning aboutwhich learning activities in the English textbook implemented in the class makestudent learn more actively As an English teacher, I truly believed that this studywould be a great contribution to my current teaching

3 The scope of the study

With a limited fund of time and ability, this study only investigates the activeness

of 10th form students in two high schools The paper also only studies some learning

activities in the English 10 textbook for enhancing students' activeness in learningEnglish.

II Method and Procedure

1 Literature review and theoretical background

In the book entitled "Teaching principles and practice" by Cole and Chan (1994),they mention student engagement as students' involvement and active participation inlearning activities They suggest the most frequently used measure of studentengagement is the amount of time that a student engaged in learning tasks They alsorefer to some techniques to promote active engagement and success rate amongstudents

In addition, in "Language teaching methodology", David Nunan introduces somecharacteristics of the "good" language learners, and mention learning styles andlearning strategies that mainly focus on learner as well

Regarding students' activeness, some Vietnamese writers such as Dang Thi Kiem(2003) and Nguyen Van Vien (2003) also mention students' activeness through readingcomprehension and pairwork and groupwork activities

Although active learning has been mentioned in a number book, there has sofar not been any study discussing how to enhance the activeness of high school

students at grade 10

1.2 Theoretical Background:

1.2.1 Overview of communicative approach:

1.2.1.1 Theories of communicative approach:

The origins of communicative language teaching (CLT) are to be found inthe changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s CLT

is best considered an approach rather than a method It is a theory of language teachingthat starts from a communication model of language and language use Because of thefocus on communicative activities and the concentration on language as a means ofcommunication, such an approach has been called the communicative approach[9,P.4] It mainly focuses on communicative proficiency rather on merely the mastery

of structures In learning and teaching activities, the range of exercise types andactivities compatible with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that suchexercises enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum,engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicationprocesses as information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction

Consequently, communication has been the major aim of language teaching andlearning The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as

"Communicative competence" The term indicates the ability not only to apply thegrammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correct sentences butalso to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom

Elements of an underlying learning theory can be discerned on some CLTpractices according to Little wood (1981) and Johnson (1982)

_The 1st element described as the communication principle: Activities thatinvolve real communication promote learning

_The second element is the task principle: Activities in which language isused for carrying out meaningful tasks promoting learning

_The third element is the meaningful principle: Language that is meaningful

to the learner supports the learning process Learning activities are consequentlyselected according to how well they engage the learner in meaningful and authenticlanguage use

In short, communicative approach provides learners with a desired goal

"Communicative competence" To obtain this, students need knowledge of language

which can be enhanced through the use of learning activities appropriately Also,

through learning activities, students participate more in the learning process andtherefore, promote students' activeness.

1.2.1.2 Purposes of communicative activities

According to Littlewood (1990), what the teacher might hope to achieve throughcommunicative activities in the classroom may be very important because this willdetermine his own attitude towards it and what place he gives it in his overallmethodology The followings are some typical purposes of communicative activitiesthat can make to language learning:

* They provide "Whole - task practice" In foreign language learning,

teacher's means for providing learners with whole - task practice in the classroom isthrough various kinds of communicative activity, structured in order to suit thelearners' level of ability

* They improve motivation.

The learner's major objective is to take part in communication with others.Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how theirclassroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to achieve it withincreasing success Also, most learners' conception of language is as a meanscommunication rather than as a structural system Their learning is more likely tomake sense to them if it can build on this conception rather than contradict it

* They allow natural learning.

Language learning takes place inside the learner and, as teachers know how

to frequent frustration, many aspects of it are beyond their pedagogical control It islikely, in fact, that many aspects of language learning can take place only throughnatural processes which operate when a person is involved in using the language forcommunication Activity (inside or outside the classroom) is, therefore, an importantpart of the total learning process

* They can create a context with supports learning.

Communicative activity provides opportunities for positive personalrelationships to develop among learners and between learners and teachers Theserelationships can help to "humanize" the classroom and to create an environment thatsupports the individual in his efforts to learn [15,pl7-18]

1.2.2 Learner- centered Approach

Today, the dominant view of language teaching and learning favors a greatamount of student-centered learning instead of the traditional teacher-dominatedclassroom "The learner-centered approach is based on the principle that learning istotally determined by the learner As teachers we have an influence what we teach, butwhat learner learn is determined by the learner alone" [12] Along with this view,Nunan (1991) sees that a learner-centered approach is based on the belief that learnerswill bring to the learning situation different beliefs and attitudes about the nature oflanguage and language learning and that these beliefs and attitudes need to be takeninto consideration in the selection of content and learning experiences

[19, pl78]

Obviously, there is an emphasis on the central importance of the learners andtheir attitudes to learning According to Hutchinson and Waters (1989), learners wereseen to have different needs and interests which would have an important influence ontheir motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of their learning Thissupports to the development of courses in which "relevance" to the learner' needs andinterests was paramount

Moreover, Hutchinson and Waters also state that learning is seen as a process inwhich the learners use what knowledge or skills they have in order to make sense ofthe flow of new information Learning, therefore, is an internal process, which iscrucially dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have and their ability andmotivation to use it Furthermore, learning is not just a mental process It is a process

of negotiation between individuals and society Society sets the target and individualsmust do their best to get as close to the target as possible The learners will certainlydetermine their own route to target

In the learner-centered classroom, the learners are not only involved in makingchoices about what and how to learn but also are actively involved in the learningprocess and they do all the work Learners will pay more attention and learn betterfrom one another since their performances and processes of negotiation of meaning are

more closely adapted to one another's level of ability (Module 4, Language Teachingmethodology, p5)

Learners' ability to take responsibility for their own learning depends on theirskills of independent learning They need to learn how:

- Manage the physical environment

- Search for and discover information for themselves

- Take appropriate risks and learn from mistakes

- Determine their own targets and assignments and how best to achieve these through discussion with the teacher

- Work individually

- Work in groups, in pairs and cooperate with others

- Read information for themselves

- Evaluate their own learning, their efforts as well as the process they go

through to achieve a goal

- Use strategies to overcome communication breakdown

- Use negotiated strategies

- Develop specific skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing

In addition, placing students at the center of learning requires important shifts in

our teaching According to Harmer [1991:35], "Language teaching is not just about teaching language, it is also about helping students to develop themselves" Teachers no

longer merely present and explain topics Instead, they guide learners' efforts todevelop their own understanding Arthur Combs (1965) assumed that all behavior of aperson is the direct result of his field of perception at the moment of his behaving.From this assumption, we can see that the way a person perceives himself or herself is

of paramount importance and that a basic purpose of teaching is to help each student todevelop a positive self-concept The role of teacher is, therefore, required as facilitator,encourager, helper, assister, colleague, friend of his students Teacher should besensitive, sincere and willing to meet the needs of students when necessary

"Give a man a fish, you feed him for one day Teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"

(Chinese proverb)

In this proverb, we can see that if a man is given a fish, he will have enoughfood for one day but if he is taught to fish he will have enough food for all his life.

In the same way, if learners only depend on teachers and receive knowledgepassively, they will not learn the language well However, if teachers give learners

a chance to do individually, teach them how to work with themselves, they willsucceed in learning language and can develop communicative competence

In summary, learner-centered approach emphasizes the role learners ratherthan the role of teacher In classroom, teacher works as a facilitator, a guide, acontroller, an assessor, organizer, a resource, monitor, prompter, and a participant(Harmer, 1981) in order to identify goals, organize and sequence learning activities

so that learners can be actively involved in the learning process and that enhanceslearners' motivation in English language learning

1.2.3 Active Learning

1.2.3.1 Definitions

Like many terms used to describe teaching or learning, active learning isdefined in many different ways This notion has developed over the last dozenyears or so

"Learning is conceived of us something a learner does, not something that isdone to a learner" [Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991, P7]

"Learning in which students by acting on object and interacting with otherpeople ideas and events construct new understanding"[Luckner and Nadle, 1997,P13]

According to Meyers and Jones (1993), active learning has been defined asproviding opportunities for students to meaningfully talk, listen, write, read and

reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject There aretwo 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 question about or discuss with someone, I begin to understand.

_What I teach another, I master

[13]

To learn something well, it helps to hear it, see it, ask questions about it anddiscuss it with others Above all, students need to do it by themselves, try out skillsand do assignments that depend on knowledge they already have or must acquire.Silberman also states that "When learning is active, students do most of the work.They use their brain studying ideas, solving problems and applying what they learn.Active learning is fast -paced, fun, supportive and personally engaging" [13]

In addition, in an active learning environment, students individually areencouraged to engage in the process of building their own mental models from theinformation they are acquiring In such an environment students become activeparticipants 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 [24] In an active learning, knowledge isdirectly experienced, constructed, acted, tested or revised by the learner workingtogether in and outside of class Most important, to be actively involved, studentsmust engage in higher - order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, evaluation ofinformation within the context, students also are expected to do things and thinkabout what they are doing [24]

Mark Grabe and Cindy Grabe (1996) reported that "active learning is a moreeffective learning approach When a student functions in an active role, he manipulatesinformation to construct personal understanding when we advocate specific learningtasks, we do so bases on these tasks providing meaningful opportunities for students tothink, solve problems and apply their knowledge When students play a more activerole in their own learning, there is a need of changing teacher's role from "dispenser ofknowledge" to "facilitator of learning" One assumption behind such a shift is thatlearning is accomplished by the student and that the teacher's role is to consider how to

assist students A second assumption is that academic work extends beyond the merestorage of information.

According to Joseph Pitts and Horton [20], the structure of active learninginvolves three categories: elements, strategies and resources The elements refer towhat we do during the presentation (i e, talk, listen, read, write or reflect) Thestrategies determine what we do as a group (small groups, cooperative work, casestudies, simulations problem solving or journal writing) The resources might includereading outside speakers, teaching technology, or commercially produced educationalprograms

In short, many researchers have mentioned the notion of "active learning" Inclassroom, in order to help learners participate in the learning process actively, the role

of the teacher is of paramount importance to organize learning activities appropriatelysince it is a great opportunity for students to practice English effectively

1.2.3.2 The "good" language learner

Learners could be categorized into many types in which Jones, et al (1987)found that effective learners are aware of the processes underlying their own learningand seek to use appropriately learning strategies to control their own learning Nunan(1991) also found that one of the characteristic of the "good" language learner was anability to reflect on and articulate the processes underlying their own learning In thestudy of the "good" language learner, Rubin and Thomson

(1983) suggest that good or efficient learners tend to exhibit the followingcharacteristics as second language learning:

- Find their own way

- Organise infromation about language

- Are creative and experiement with language

- Make their own opportunities and find strategies for getting practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom

- Learn to live with uncertainly and develop strategies for making sense of the target language without wanting to understand every word

- Use mnemonics (rhymes, word associations) to recall what has been

learned

- Make errors work

- Use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first language in mastering a second language

- Let the context (extra linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world ) help them in comprehension

- Learn to make intelligent guesses

- Learn chunks of language as whole and formalized routines to help them perform beyond their competence

- Learn production techniques (e g techniques for keeping conversation

going)

- Learn different styles of speech and writing and learn to vary their languageaccording to the formality of the situation

[3, p57-58]

1.2.4 Factors influencing student's English learning

It is supposed that high motivation and deep interest are the two mains elementspromoting learner's language learning

Harmer (1991) has divided motivation into two types: the extrinsic motivationconcerning with factors outside the classroom and intrinsic motivation relating toactivities happening in the classroom.

As for Harmer this "intrinsic motivation" plays a vital part in most students'

success or failure as language learners" For many students what happens in theclassroom will have a great effect on determining their attitude to the language Harter(1982) added that "intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that has been internalizedand is the desire to do things for student's own sake or self _ reward" Four followingfactors affect intrinsic motivation according to Harmer [9]

The first is the physical conditions

We can say that the atmosphere in which a language is learnt is very important.Classrooms that are prepared in poor - condition will demotivate students' motivation

It is clear that physical condition have a great effect on learning and students'motivation either positively and negatively

Methodology is another factor affecting learners' motivation If learners find itboring they will probably become demotivated while if they find the methodinteresting, they will be motivated However, it is difficult to certain what method isgood or bad exactly It depends on students' expectation and students' taste at the time.Furthermore, success also plays a vital part in students' motivation "Eithercomplete failure or complete success" maybe demotivating For them, this involves thetypes of tasks Tasks are very important in enhancing learners from learning but theyshould not too high or low challenging Jere Brophy (1998) said that "students maybemotivated to learn from a lesson or activity whether or not they find its contentinteresting or its processes enjoyable" And Little Wood [14] added that "activities inwhich language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning" Tasksshould be meaningful and at the right level of challenge, students will be motivated.Lastly, the teacher affects their motivation The teacher in the classroom inparticular is in a position to generate, increase and maintain the motivation of hispupils through his teaching In fact, the teacher's rapport with students and theteacher's personality are the two areas that most of the people mentioned It is clearthat teachers need to do everything possible to create a good rapport with their

students Hence, the teachers should be fair, fun and understand their students Theycan also encourage learners' confidence to take part in negotiating for meaningfulclassroom communicative activities and create an interesting and enjoyable class All

in all, the qualities of a teacher are necessary providing intrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation can be affect by culture of the target language communityand the attitude towards the language and learning experience [Harmer] Students wish

to integrate themselves into that culture and have desire for a better job, position orstatus Moreover, for students who are successful have positive attitude towardslanguage learning than those who fail in their study We have been taking aboutmotivation The next section will deal with the learners' interests which are believed toaffect students' language learning

1.2.4.2 Interest.

According to Donough (1994) "Interest is often regarded as a major element in the teachers' store of motivational tactics: If the pupils' interest is aroused, perseverance may be increased".

Along with Donough, Sax (1997) also defined "an interest is a preference for one activity over another" This definition emphasizes interests involve the selection and

ranking activities along a like - dislike dimension and involve activities or behaviorsengaged in by individuals

The second is manifest interest: "The behavior demonstrated by an individualwho voluntarily participates in an activity" [23] There are many reasons for a personengaging in an activity whether they like or dislike Nonetheless, most individuals whovoluntarily devote time to some activities express a preference for it

The third is inventoried interest: Inventoried interest is those measured by teststhat compare interests in different activities They include strong and weak interestsand sample only limited aspects of a person's total interests.

[23, p.476-477]

1.2.5 Promoting student's activeness in learning activities.

1.2.5.1 Climate variables: creating a motivation environment

As students spend time in classroom, they get feelings about whether they aresafe and welcome and whether the classroom is a desirable place to learn Classroomclimate refers to "teacher and classroom characteristics that promote student's feelings

of safety and security, together with a sense of success, challenge and understanding[7] Raviv and Riesel (1990) stated that climate is important because it creates anenvironment that encourages both motivation and achievement [7, P.428] studentslearn best in a safe and orderly environment that promotes success on meaningful SuaCuallen ging task According to Brophy (1987) and Clifford (1990), in a healthyclimate, students are treated as competent people They understand the requirementsand learning tasks and perceive them as challenging and believe they will succeed ifthey make reasonable efforts

Some specific ways are given by Eggen and Kauchak that affect classroomclimate

- Order and safety: Classroom as secure places to learn

Effective schools are places of trust, order, cooperation and high morale For students

to be motivated to learn, school must be physically and psychologically safe places

- Success:

According to Eggen and Kauchak (1990), once a safe and orderly environment isestablished, student's expectation for success is the most important climate variable.Success likes many aspects of teaching and learning Our goal in promoting success is

to help learners develop self - efficacy - the success must be on tasks learners perceive

to be meaningful and worthwhile, success on trivial tasks does little to create feelings

of competence and self - efficacy

- Challenge:

Lepperand Hodell (1989) believe that challenge is an essential component ofintrinsically motivating activities A sense of challenge is needed if students are toexperience feelings of satisfaction competence persistence and control

- Task comprehension:

From the success and challenge we mentioned above, to be motivated learners mustexpect to succeed and must believe that what they are learning is important andvaluable Challenge helps promote a sense of value; value is also enhanced whenstudents understand both what they are supposed to be learning and why they earning

it If students are to be motivated, teacher should teach things that are worth learning(Good and Brophy, 1997)

1.2.5.2 Instructional variables: Developing interest in learning activities.

In learning activities, interest is very important According to Krapp, Hidi andRenninger (1992) quoted by Eggen and Kauchak Interest like engagement, has beenlinked to learner attention, comprehension, elaboration and the seeking of additionalinformation From an instructional perspective, Stipek (1996) stated that a motivatedstudent can be viewed as " someone who is actively engaged in the learning process".But how to promote and maintain active engagement? Eggen and Kauchak suggestedthat teachers have to think about engagement using the concept of Interest In order toincrease learner interest, our goal is to initially capture student's attention and thenmaintain their involvement in the learning activity

[7, P.431]

Some following ways to increase interest:

* Introductory focus; Attracting student's attention.

Eggen and Kauchak (1999) defined introductory focus "which attracts studentattention and provides a framework for the lesson" It capitalizes on the effects ofcuriosity and the desire for understanding Students are, therefore, motivated byunique, attractive, eye - catching or discrepant experiences

* Personalization: Links to student's lives

Most motivation theorists' personalization encourages the development of tasksthat have some personal meaning for student They described personalization as one ofthe most important ways to promote students' interest in learning activities.

According to Eggen and Kauchak, the value of personalization can be explained

in several ways Firstly, relating content to students personally is a core element ofhumanistic views of motivation Secondly, personalization is one way of increasingmeaningfulness that enhances learning Thirdly, anything people can relate topersonally is concrete for them than distant or abstract information

* Involvement

The key to maintaining motivation is involvement; students actively participate

in the learning activity Eggen and Kauchak suggested that to increase students'involvement and create learners' interest, teachers should use open-ended questioningand hand - on activities

* Feedback:

Clifford (1990) quoted by Eggen and Kauchak indicates that feedback used toimprove future performance has powerful motivation value In fact, the influence offeedback is so powerful that it could be called a principle of learning and motivation

[7,p.431-436]

1.2.5.3 Teacher characteristics: Personal qualities that increase motivation

According to Eggen and Kauchak (1999) teachers creates learning environments,implement instruction and establish learning _ oriented or performance _ orientedclassrooms

Moreover, Eggen and Kauchak indicate four personal qualities of including:teacher's modeling, teacher's enthusiasm, teacher's caring and teacher's expectation [7].Hence, teachers have an important positive effect on students

The model can be synthesized as follow:

Figure: A model for promoting students motivation by Eggen and Kauchak [7,p.429]

1.2.6 Overview of learning activities.

1.2.6.1 Prominent features of learning activities.

In Teaching principles and practice (1994), according to Brophy and Alleman(1991) quoted by Cole and Chan define "learning activities as anything that studentsare expected to do, beyond getting input through reading or listening in order to learn,practice, apply, evaluate or in any other ways respond to curricular content"[2, P.256]

In the classroom, teachers organize learning activities for students with the purpose ofstimulating student interest and enhancing learning Appropriate learning activitiesextend student knowledge and understanding of relevant subject matter They providestudents with useful learning experiences and opportunities to consolidate theirlearning Most teachers agree that assigned tasks are an important useful means ofpromoting learning This part will examine how learning activities may best be used topromote learning

1.2.6.2 Classification.

It is not enough to introduce a range of different activities into lessons Ingeneral, learning activities can be grouped into two distinct types according to Coleand Chan (1994):

* Guided practice activities;

Those teachers - led activities in which students are rehearsing or practicing newconcepts or skills with constant prompting, checking for understanding and correctivefeedback from the teacher Guided practice activities involve students in constantinteraction with the teacher or other students and typically require extensive assistancefrom the teacher In these activities, students imitate the teacher's modeling, respondorally to the questions, practise a skill, receive immediate feedback and correct theirown errors under the direction of the teacher Guided practice activities are conducted

in the classroom in large or small groups following teacher's explanation ordemonstration of subject major to be learned These activities aim to provide studentswith sufficient practice in using new concepts or skills until they are confident andcompetent in their responses and are most useful for the early stages of learning subjectmatter

Secondly,competitive learning: "the focusing of student effort in performing

faster and more accurately than classmates"

Thirdly, individualistic learning "working by oneself to ensure one's own

learning meets a preset criterion independently from the efforts of other students

In brief, as mentioned above, there are many different kinds of learningactivities Next we will go to consider the principles of learning activity in terms ofselecting appropriate work tasks

1.2.6.3 Principles of learning activities: Selecting appropriate work tasks.

Ensure that students are assigned work tasks that involve them in a broad range

of cognitive and practical activities and aim to provide them with opportunities topractise and apply new learning

-Make sure that all work tasks are meaningful and related to instructionalobjectives Students benefit from learning activities that are relevant to prescribedgoals and have demonstrated practical value

-Avoid tasks that involve meaningless or rote practice

-Ensure that the content and format of work tasks are inherently interesting.Students will be actively involved in the assigned work if they find it challenging andstimulating

- Make sure that each work tasks includes both new content and reviewmaterial Students learn more effectively if the assigned tasks allow for integration

of new and old learning

- Set work tasks that allow students to generalize or transfer their knowledge topractical problems

- Vary that format and content of work tasks Students' interest can bemaintained if there is sufficient variation in the tasks

- Do not become dependent on texts and photocopied materials for work tasks

- Set easy tasks for those students who consistently have difficulty with regularclassroom work

- Prescribe challenging work tasks for ability students

- Make appropriate changes if students experiment difficulty with any

particular aspect of a work task

[2, p.275-278]

This part deals with the methodology of the study The first part is concernedwith the research design and procedures The second part discusses methods of datacollection and data collection procedures The final part is devoted to the selection ofsamples for document study, the classroom observation and the questionnaire

2.1.Research design and procedures.

2.1.1 Research design:

This research was replied on the quantitative and qualitative approach

2.1.2 Research Procedures:

In this study, the following steps were involved:

Firstly, for the theoretical background, a number of related books and internetmaterials were collected and processed

Secondly, for data collection, a survey was carried out by means of documentstudy, classroom observation and questionnaires for teachers and students at TuyPhuoc 1 High School and Quoc Hoc High school

Thirdly, the data collected was quantitatively analyzed to discuss the research questions

2,2.Methods of data collection:

As mentioned in the previous parts, the paper aims to some ways to enhance 10th

form students' activeness in learning English through some learning activities in theEnglish textbook The learning activities in this textbook are certainly performed in theclassroom In order to get the reliable data, the study is decided to employ thefollowing data collection methods: document study, classroom observation andquestionnaire

The data for this study were collected as follows:

First of all, the English textbook was studied to identify all the learning activities

in the book These activities vere then listed to check how often they are organized,which activities predominate and which activities make students learn more actively.What is more, questionnaire was chosen for this study for a number of reasons.Questionnaire helps to save time because it can be distributed to a large number ofpeople at the same time In questionnaire, the answers are expressed in a written form

So the subjects have more time to think over the information before deciding theanswers In this way, questionnaire may give detailed and accurate data Added to this,

in the questionnaire subjects are expected to respond without giving their names Thus,the information maybe objective and reliable

The questionnaire for students consisting of 15 questions was distributed to 10th

form students of Tuy Phuoc 1 High School and Quoc Hoc High school The questionswere translated into Vietnamese before handed to the informants so that students canunderstand all the questions easily The questions then were translated into English andanalyzed Question 1 to 3 aims to study students' attitudes towards learning Englishand their reasons for it Questions 4 to 7 are concerned with how active students are inlearning English Question 8 deals the frequency of organizing the learning activities

in the English textbook Questions 9 and 10 are concerned with the influence of somelearning activities in the English textbook on students' activeness Questions 11 to 14are to study teacher's role and classroom atmosphere in enhancing students' activeness

in English language learning and the last question asks for free suggestion forenhancing students' activeness

The questionnaire for teachers is composed of 11 questions The first fourquestions, teachers were asked about how active their students are in class In question

5 deals with the implementation of the learning activities in the English textbook.Questions 6 to 7 are to study he influence of some learning activities in the Englishtextbook on heir students' activeness And the last 4 question (8-11) deal with howteacher's role and classroom atmosphere affect students' English learning, andsuggestion for enhancing students' activeness

Finally, classroom observation was considered as a subordinate method but veryuseful way to collect the data Real behaviors of the students and teachers were noteddown In this study, observation was carried out at 8 classes at Tuy Phuoc 1 HighSchool and Quoc Hoc High school During my observation, some criteria were set sothat my work would be carried out more effectively They are as follows:

1 Students' attitudes towards learning English

_ Paying attention to teacher's teaching

_ Raising hands to contribute ideas to lesson frequently

_ Answering teacher's questions

_ Involving in learning activities

_ Discussing with each other

_ Working individually, in pairs or in small groups

2 Teacher's activities in the class.

_ Does teacher use interesting helpful topic?

_ Does teacher visit and give advice when students are in group discussion?_ Does teacher praise / encourage students when they work?

_ Does teacher give students helpful instructions?

_ Does teacher interrupt students when they make errors?

_ Does teacher give any compliments?

_ Does teacher often give feedback?

_ Does teacher often organize cooperative learning?

_ Are students interested in learning activities?

2.3 Population of the data collection:

2.3.1 The population of the questionnaire:

As mentioned above, questionnaire was distributed to 200 10th form students

at four classes of Tuy Phuoc 1 High School and Quoc Hoc High school.in Qui Nhoncity To get more information, a questionnaire for 10 teachers in charge of 10th wascarried out at two above high schools In The process of getting information, teachersalso gave useful and good ideas for the research

2.3.2 The population of the classroom observation:

Classroom observation was made in eight classes at two high schools, four classes

at Tuy Phuoc 1 High school and four classes at Quoc Hoc High school

2.4 Data analysis:

This study presents both qualitative and quantitative results basing on the datacollected from the questionnaires and classroom observation

In summary, questionnaire is chosen as the main method while observation is arded

as a subordinate one to make the data collected more reliable In addition, the datacollected form questionnaire will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively

PART B: CONTENT

I Aim and Objectives:

This paper aims at studying on how to enhance 10th form students' activeness inlearning English through some learning activities in the English textbook

This paper is intended to:

- Investigate how active the 10th form students are in learning English

- Investigate learning activities in the textbook and how they are carried out in theclassroom

- Study the impact of these learning activities in the English textbook on learners'activeness

- Study how teacher's role and classroom atmosphere affect students'activeness

- Give some recommendations for enhancing students' activeness in learningEnglish

II The Description of The experience Initiative’s Solution

II.1 : Findings and discussion

2.1.1 Students' activeness in learning English

2.1.1.1 Students' attitudes towards English language learning.

Table 2.1 A summary of students' attitudes towards English language learning

77,522,5

2 What do you think about the importance of

3 What are your reasons for learning English?

- A compulsory subject at school

- Better job in the future

- Knowledge of another culture

- Your favorite subject

- Others

14,56119,518,50

According to what is shown from the table 2.1, it can be realized that a largenumber of high school students enjoy learning English (77, 5 %) while there are still

22, 5% of the students who have a negative attitude towards English learning.However, nearly almost all the students are aware of the importance of learningEnglish (91%), very few of them think that learning English is a little important ordeny the role of English nowadays Obviously, learning English is very important.English nowadays is not only a means of communication but also a "useful tool" and a

"master- key" to discover the world of science, technology, education, culture,business and diplomacy It is of such great importance that many students are moreand more interested in learning English

As for the reasons for learning English, most of the students have a common idea

of learning English for a better future job Actually, with the development of society,learning English becomes a necessary demand for everyone especially whencommunication among countries is becoming popular and globalized Thus, more andmore students learn English in the hope of getting a better job in the future

In addition, some of the students (19, 5%) learn English because of their desirefor knowledge of another culture It is certain that learning a foreign language givesstudents an opportunity to learn about the culture of another country, for exampleliterature, history, places of interest, etc to enrich their knowledge

What is more, some of the students show that they learn English because it istheir favorite subject With this reason, we can see that students learn English justbecause they like it, they consider it one of the most interesting and exciting subject inthe school curriculum

Being one of the most important subjects at school, English is compulsory to allhigh school students but few of the students learn English for this reason Obviously,students nowadays have a clear awareness of English learning; they learn it notbecause they are forced to study but because they are conscious of the importance andnecessity of English at present Therefore, in order to help students learn Englisheffectively, the enhancement of students' activeness in English language learning is ofparamount importance.

As mentioned in the previous parts, classroom observation is carried out at 8classes of the 2 high schools during my weeks of teaching time

Table 2.3: A summary of students' activeness in English language learning

responses

%

Students' responses

38

42 164

2 The reasons for students not involving in

English classroom activities

- Nervousness and shyness

- Inefficient learning activities

- Insufficient English knowledge

- Not speaking English fluently

37,51247,515,50

3 Students' willingness for communication

and discussion the tasks with others.

-Yes

-No

70 30

87,5 12,5

4 The frequency of finding chances to

practise English inside and outside classroom

8,5

4 930,5 12

The data collected from the teachers' as well as students' questionnaire andclassroom observation give us an overview of the activeness of the 10th form students

in learning English

2.1.1.2.1 Students' involvement

It can be easily realized from table 2.3 that students now are quite active.Half of the teachers (50%) agree with this According to the teachers, many studentsnow 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 80% of the students who showtheir activeness in learning English, 38% of them are highly active They always showtheir interest in the lesson during the learning process They pay much attention to theteacher's lesson and are enthusiastic to raise their hands to answer the teacher'squestions or contribute their ideas to the lesson They also tend to work in pairs orsmall 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 classroomactivities and prefer to work individually Moreover, these students often show theirunwillingness and shyness when being asked to do the tasks or answer the questions;