SKKN tiếng anh: Create a positive environment for Primary students to acquire English

The primary environment is the fundamental place forming habits and communication capacities. Frequent communication results in braveries for students without fears of making mistakes in public speaking. As for students lacking proficiency in the mother tongue language, they had a lot of difficulties in getting access to a foreign language. Their timidity makes oral communication limited greatly. From my own teaching experiences, I’m pleased to introduce: “Create a positive environment for Primary students to acquire English”, and I expect to contribute a part to English teaching more effectiveness and attract more students in loving this subject.

A PRESENTING PROBLEM

According to the perspective of Party and State, education is aimed at fully developing people to satisfy the common demand of industrialization and modernization Foreign languages in general and English in particular play an important role as an active means supporting for our country’s integrating process most effectively Therefore, improving the education quality in general and the English in particular are considered as one of the most concern of the current education

English has been taught in primary schools with the guidance document

of Ministry of Education and Training since 1996 In 2003, the Ministry issued the English teaching program of primary education guiding targets and contents

in nationwide However, there have been lots of existed shortages of facilities in classrooms, teaching materials such as books, tapes, CDs, Cassettes, etc Especially, almost all teachers are only trained for “Introduction and guidance to use the set of books” in one day without being trained on primary education professionally Hence, there is still a range of difficulties in teaching skills for students at primary school

The primary environment is the fundamental place forming habits and communication capacities Frequent communication results in braveries for students without fears of making mistakes in public speaking As for students lacking proficiency in the mother tongue language, they had a lot of difficulties

in getting access to a foreign language Their timidity makes oral communication limited greatly From my own teaching experiences, I’m pleased

to introduce: “Create a positive environment for Primary students to acquire English”, and I expect to contribute a part to English teaching more

effectiveness and attract more students in loving this subject

B SOLVING PROBEM

I THE THEORETICAL BASIS OF PROBLEM

For years, the teaching method for kids has been similar to one for adults apart from supplementing some songs and games into lectures It’s clear that the receptive process of our mother tongue language and the next process in the school period are natural Language capacity is generated by imitating, unconscious learning through different forms such as communicating with relatives, reading stories, connecting with communities, singing, reading poems, painting, etc The difference of children’s receptive process in comparison with adults is that adults’ receptiveness is conscious and annalistic but children’s one

is natural via intuition

There are two kinds of material languages which almost every learner needs develop: receptive language and productive language Receptive language is the language factor possibly realized and not produced by learners Productive language is the language factor possibly used in speaking or writing Students will become familiar with realizing new factors through situations if those are repeated many times To practice using the receptive language, students have to learn how to reflex with new words naturally In curriculums, grammars are sentences or questions and answers practiced more than once It is essential that samples are given clearly and fully for students to understand what they have to

do in some class activities

II THE CURRENT SITUATION OF PROBLEM

According to the regulation of Ministry of Education and Training, every child is permitted to study two lessons with 40 minutes per lesson Several qualified schools could have more lessons, four lessons per week Hence, the period for students to get access to English is obviously short in comparison with the total communicating hours every week Moreover, English environment

is restricted in classroom hours and students use Vietnamese when lessons end Children don’t actually need to use English except for the requirement of studying and examination All the requirements using English are practical and there isn’t other natural English environment for children

Children are unable to concentrate on what teachers are delivering in a long period Consequently, they should be engaged in different activities, to

perform various tasks by themselves with exercise types always changed and diversified communication situations

Children often obtain and imitate knowledge quickly and also forget what have learned quickly They are naturally curious, dynamic and creative Children always demand to discover outside environment and interact with others It cannot be denied that they are interested and creative in games

In fact, even native children run into difficulties in pronouncing several

English sounds like r, l, sh, and th and their pronunciation could be fully

correct when they grow up The importance of the initial stage is developing simple communication capacity in a new language without creating fears of making mistakes, which significantly affect on students’ motivations for studies There is one factor basically impacting on language studying process: children will not study without motivation

- Almost all students pronounce word stress incorrectly

Example: ‘classroom, ‘library, e‘raser, etc

- In addition, they haven’t been able to pronounce words with s, z, p, k

Example: /s/ -> its, excuse…

/z/ -> please, He’s…

/p/ -> pen, pencil, pet…

/k/ -> close, milk, like…

- Students also read incorrectly Most of them do not remember vocabulary, especially long words

Example: good afternoon, school library, bathroom, interesting, difficult…

- Students’ communication is not fluently due to fears of making mistakes Their ability to form a completed sentence is not still good They still confuse with the position of word class (verbs, preposition, adjectives, nouns and questioning words, etc.)

Example: My name’s Alan

That is my brother

There’s a chair in the room

When’s your birthday?

The statistic result at the beginning of this school year through directly interviewing students at grade 3, 4 and 5 at Nga Thanh Primary School

Total No of

students

With the result above, from this early school year, I always try to find the best methods to design interesting lectures inspiring students so that they could turn what they have learned into productive language via oral communication, integrate with the developing tendency of foreign language subject: learning a foreign language is learn how to communicate but not focusing on grammar as

in the past

III SOLUTIONS AND IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATION

1 Chant to learn:

Chants can be really useful, and the primary students enjoy them A chant

is simply vocabulary spoken over a background of music or rhythm They are useful becaause something about the music energizes the students, and they have pronounce the word in a rhythm Also, if we are not comfortable with singing in front of our students, chants are great

1.1- Vocabulary chants: ( ruler, eraser, pen…)

ru/ler _ 2 sounds, e/ra/ser _ 3 sounds, pen/ _ 1 sound

1.2- Grammar chants:

English 3: Unit 15:

- Team A: Do you have any puzzles?

- Team B: Yes, I do (looking at the pictures hanging down on the board)

- Team A: Do you have any dolls?

- Team B: No, I don’t (looking at the pictures hanging upside down on the board)

2 Sing to learn:

The use of songs in English classes has been suggested since it is believed that these will make young learners get more benefits There are many types of songs and one of these is action song type A fun and joyful class atmosphere is a situation that is beneficial for learners, but only fun is not enough Teachers should be able to create a fun but educating English class Action songs are songs which are completed with particular body movements that support the meaning of the song

Using Action Songs to Promote Fun English Learning at Elementary School.

3 Play games to learn:

A new teaching method could create an amount of inspiration and creativities for teachers Each teacher has his own unique creativities during

teaching process If teachers repeat the same method in every lesson, students will get bored and even feel that lessons come as normally without inspiration and expectation

Games are also considered to be an important entertainment form In fact, they could be used to consolidate material languages as shown above by the method attracting students In all every form, games could perform functions of exercises of practicing skills because we can review and introduce material languages in funny and well-organized ways through games The method of skill practicing section often goes with repeating with teacher-centered The method takes effects when students learn new words and sentence structures On the contrary, games are often open-ended and student-centered

There are various types of games Several ones focus on vocabularies or sentence structures And there are games promoting both vocabularies and sentence structure Here are several games that I usually apply into my lecture in

my class:

a Matching game:

Two students run to the board, and match the pictures to the words on the board The faster is the winner

b Acting game:

This activity could be implemented in different forms but all the forms are aimed at expressing meaning through gestures The simplest way to play the game is that word cards or pictures are upside down in a pile One student takes

a card at the top of the pile without reavealing what the word is to the classmates and the rest of the students guess the words In another more simple method without using word cards or pictures, the teacher will whisper the word to a student Then, the student continues to do the same steps above

E

xample : English 4: Unit 12: Jobs.

E

xample : English 5: Unit 11: What’s the matter with you?

E xample : English 4: Unit 16: (Zoo Animal Charade)

Is it a tiger? Is it a bear?

The teacher divides the class into two groups When there is a signal of the teacher, one member in each group runs quickly to the picture equivalent to his group to see what the animal is and does actions for their friends to guess the animal’s name or makes sentence with the animal based on the already learned structure Which group speaking correctly and more quickly is the winner

c Simple actions:

Simple actions are great way to get children to be ready for learning English by doing some actions like this:

a sore throat an armache a backache

Brush your teeth, brush, brush, brush.

Wash your face, wash, wash, wash

Wash your hands, wash, wash, wash

Clap our hands, clap, clap, clap

Shake our hands, shake, shake, shake

In order to get the students’ attention, I say:

If you hear me, clap twice

If you hear me, clap once

If you hear me, clap three times…

Students keep quiet to listen if clap twice, once or three times happily together

d The ballgame:

This is a great icebreaker, especially for young students All I need is a ball Passing the ball round saying a word or a full sentence

For example:

Step 1: Get the students to a form a circle

Step 2: Hold the ball up and do the model

Step 3: Pick a student at random and throw the ball to him or her The student that catches the ball must then

e Back to the board:

My house

garden

e “Back to the board” game:

The game “Back to the Board” is a good way for student to understand and consolidate new vocabulary This game engages students and activates them into using their wider vocabulary to describe key words

Step 1: Split students into two teams

Step 2: One person from each team must sit on a chair with their back to the board

Step 3: The teacher write or stick a word on the board The players on the chairs cannot see this but the rest of the team can

Step 4: Both teams must try and describe the word on the board to the person from their team without using the actual word

Step 5: The first team to guess the word gets one point and then I switch the person on the chair so that evevryone gets a go at guessing

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins And most importantly… have fun!

4 Creating attraction during the lesson by using flashcards:

When teaching primary students, flashcards are practical and useful resources for teaching vocabulary Here are some activities I have been used

Activity 1: Flash

When introducing or revising a set of flashcards with the children, use the technique flash Get the children’s attention: “Everyone, look in this way, please Are you ready?” And then show them the flashcard very fast, children identify what is on the flashcard: “Green.”

Be ready to remodel if they respond in their first language

Activity 2: Slowly, slowly

In this case, cover the flashcard that you choose to use (about toys, pets, action verbs, family members, house, rooms,…) and then slowly reveal the picture orthe word Children identify what is on the flashcard as soon as they can

recognize this: “Green.”

Activity 3: What’s missing?

Stick the flashcards on the board, get the children to repeat the words, then ask children to close their eyes and cover their eyes with their hands demonstrate this, remove one of the flashcards from the board and hide it behind my back Ask the children to open their eyes and say what’s missing

Activity 4: Magic eyes

Play magic eyes, stick the flashcards in a row on the board Four is a good

number to use This is a number that children can retain in their short time memory Get the children to repeat the words in a rhythmic way

When I think children are doing this comfidently, remove the first flashcard, and continue in the same way

Remove the second flashcard in the same way and repeat all the words again And then remove the next one and repeat all the words again

In a simple activity like that I am helping to chase children’s memory Children are encoraging children to have a visual representation of the image and to associated with the word

Activity 5: Lip - reading

Do a “lip – reading” activity, stick the flashcards on the board, get the children’s attention: “Everybody look in this way, please I’m going to say one

of the words, and I want you to tell me what it is Are you ready ?”.

Students: “ doll”.

With a little activity like that, I’m actually giving children a strategy which

is very helpful when they are learning a foreing languge Because we look at people’s lips when they speak, it can help us understand what they say

Activity 6: Hands on heads

In this activity, divide the class into two teams Stick the flashcards in two columns on the board Each team assigns three or more different flashcards The activity works in the following way: Children listen out for the words that belong to their team and respond by putting their hands on their heads

For example:

English 3: Unit 11: ( family members)

Team 1: She (grandmother, mother, sister) Team 2: He (grandfather, father, brother)