SKKN sáng kiến kinh ngiệm “improving english speaking skills through extracurrials activities – a pilot care with 10th graders at trieu son high school n0 2”

The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 .... In terms of my experiences of teaching English and teaching speaking skill at Triệu Sơn High Scho

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ABBREVIATIONS

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

M.A: Master of Arts

ECAs: Extracurricular activities

ECA: Extracurricular activity

MC: Master of Ceremony

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

PART 2: PROBLEM SOLVING 2

CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY 2

1.1 Research setting 2

1.1.1 An overview of Triệu Sơn High School No2 2

1.1.2 The teachers of English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 2

1.1.3 The students in Triệu Sơn High School No2 2

1.1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn High School No2 2

1.2 Research methods 3

1.2.1 Description of the participants 3

1.2.2 Procedures 4

1.2.3 Instruments 9

CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 11

2.1 Findings from the students 11

2.1.1 From the evaluation forms 11

2.1.2 From interviews 12

2.2 Findings from the teachers 13

2.2.1 From their observation 13

2.2.2 From the discussion 13

2.3 Discussion 14

2.3.1 The organization of extracurricular activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities in class 14

2.3.2 The effectiveness of extracurricular activities experimented at school 14

2.3.3 The students’ response on the organization of extracurricular activities 15

PART 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 16

1 Conclusion 16

2 Recommendations on how to organize extracurricular activities 16

2.1 For the students 16

2.2 For the teachers 17

2.3 For the administrators 17

3 Limitations of the study 18

4 Suggestions for further study 19

REFERENCES 20 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III

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APPENDIX 3 IV APPENDIX 4 V

Furthermore, there are a lot of elements of speaking affecting the ability to speak fluently such as language features (connected speech, expressive device, lexis and grammar, negotiation language) and the ability to process information and language “on the spot” such as language processing, interacting with others… However, in a period of 45minutes, it seems to be impossible for both teachers and students to control them Therefore, if teaching and learning speaking skill takes place within 45 minutes every week and only in classroom settings, its effect is limited

In terms of my experiences of teaching English and teaching speaking skill at Triệu Sơn High School No2, I found that most of my students are unwilling to participate in oral activities Most of them only passively sit and take notes, rarely contribute to the lesson and even do not ask for the teacher’s help when they have any problems Reasons for this are varied, including large classes, psychological or cultural differences, teaching methods, teacher’s knowledge, student’s lack of idea or language devices, such as grammatical structures or vocabulary, etc Whatever reasons they may be, it is the first target of the teachers to help their learners speak up in class, and thereby, improve their speaking skills

Another reason why the study was carried out is that I am the head of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union at the school During the school year I organize many extracurricular activities for students, so I believe that using extracurricular activities for English practice is a good way to enhance students’ English skills, primarily speaking skills

The above reasons have inspired me to conduct an action research on

“Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a pilot case with 10 th graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” with the hope to

make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for 10th graders at this school

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PART 2: PROBLEM SOLVING CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY 1.1 Research setting

1.1.1 An overview of Triệu Sơn High School No2

Triệu Sơn High School No2 is located in the West of Thanh Hoa Founded in 1968, Triệu Sơn High School No2 is one of the oldest as well as the biggest schools in the area At present, there are 21 classes with over 900 students placed into three different grades: grade 10, 11 and 12 The teaching staff composes of more than 60 teachers of 12 compulsory subjects, of whom two-thirds are young, creative and well trained whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic In recent years Triệu Sơn High School No2 is one of the schools which has high percentages of high school graduate and gifted students

1.1.2 The teachers of English in Triệu Sơn High School No2

There are six teachers of English currently working at Triệu Sơn High School No2, four of them have participated in this research for discussion Their ages range from late twenties to forty years old, three of them are female The years of teaching English are also different, minimum level of eight years and maximum nearly fifteen years Most of them have University Bachelor’s Degree, one Master Degree, and the others have taken the in-service training courses Without doubt, all the teachers at Triệu Sơn High School No2 are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching They are willing to help their students overcome their difficulties in learning English generally and in speaking particularly

1.1.3 The students in Triệu Sơn High School No2

The majority of students in the study at Triệu Sơn High School No2 are aged from 15 to 18 Most of them come from rural areas and they have learnt English since lower secondary schools Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English In contrast, the other part of students is low in motivation They tend to regard English as less important than other

subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations

1.1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Triệu Sơn High School No2

1.1.4.1 The syllabus of teaching and learning English

At Triệu Sơn High School No2, English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum The syllabus and the textbooks for English

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including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” are prescribed

by the Ministry of Education and Training

The English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 105 periods, 3 periods per week Each period is 45 minutes long

The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Triệu Sơn High School No2 is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following communicative approach The textbook consists of 16 units with 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every 3 units The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units

1.1.4.2 The teaching and learning English speaking skills

It has been accepted that students’ communicative ability is the proper aim for language teaching This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an important part in any English course Like many other high schools in Vietnam, teaching and learning speaking skills at Triệu Sơn High School are affected by some constraints such as large class sizes, students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency, students’ low participation in class time Normally, in a class at Triệu Sơn High School, a number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the class while a majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive Besides, lack of training in teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access to new approach, which makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging

1.2 Research methods

1.2.1 Description of the participants

There are two reasons why this research aimed at 10th form students at Triệu Sơn High School No2 Firstly, the 10th form students are the newcomers

to the new kind of textbooks for high schools in which speaking is stressed equally to other three skills However, their speaking abilities are limited and they are sometimes too shy to speak They have difficulty in expressing their ideas Secondly, the students are at pre-intermediate level for which the organization of extracurricular activities is of great help for them to overcome speaking abilites limitations The students here were restricted to two 10thform classes (among seven 10th form classes at Triệu Sơn High School No2)

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These two classes, which were chosen randomly, account for 90 students They are aged from 15 to 16 and all of them have had at least four years of learning English at lower-secondary schools They are not the same at English speaking competence Some of them are really good and active while a lot of them are quite passive and unmotivated in learning English

There are four out of six teachers of English at Triệu Sơn High Shool No2 participating in this study These four teachers include two males and two females Their ages range from 34 to 38 with at least nine years of teaching English One of them has finished an M.A course at Vietnam National University, Hanoi The reason for this choice of participants is that they are all in charge of 10th form classes at Triệu Sơn High School No2

1.2.2 Procedures

The study strictly followed the steps First, possible extracurricular activities were designed based on the students’ level of English and the requirements of their English program in Grade 10, particularly the expected outcomes of their speaking ability when they finish Grade 10 Then, the designed activities were piloted with the selected groups of students Following are the activities piloted

To overcome the problem, the researcher with collegues in English group organized three extracurricular activities for students in the school year

in order to improve their speaking skills The researcher planned three extracurricular activities as follows

The first extracurricular activity

Theme: Let’s explore English/ Explore English

2.1 Content of the competition

There are 5 parts

Part 1: Greeting

- Three teams take part in the first part respectively

- The maximum point is 10 given by the judge ( not decimal points)

+ 5 scores max for fluency

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+ 5 scores max for impressiveness

Part 2: Start

- Each team takes turn to answer 10 questions

- Time allowed: 15 seconds per question

- 10 scores for each correct answer

- If time is up with no answer, no score is gained and subtracted

Part 3: Overcome the Obstacle

- There is a crossword that consists of 6 rolls

- The obstacle that contains 6 letters is hidden behind a vertical line This is a missing piece of a saying

- 120 scores will be given for the correct answer before the first roll is opened

- 30 scores added for an excellent expression for the saying

- 20 scores respectively deducted after 1 roll

- The team has the wrong answer for the obstacle will have to stop its turn in this part

- 30 scores for each correct answer (for the team selecting the roll), other teams will have right to answer (in circle) and can gain 10 up to 20 scores

Part 4: Speed up

- Three teams answer 6 questions at the same time Each question has 3 smaller parts ranging in 6 fields and skills, including phonetics, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

- Time allowed: 90 seconds per question

+ 45 scores for the correct answer at the first 30 seconds

+ 30 scores for the correct answer at the next 30 seconds

+ 15 scores for the correct answer at the last 30 seconds

- Team with no answer or wrong answer will not be given scores

- Teams write down and show answers then the judge gives them scores

Part 5: Finish

- There are 3 packages of questions: 40, 60 and 80 scores

- Each package has 4 questions The level of difficulty is equal to scores

- Time allowed: 15 seconds per question

+ Package 40: 4 questions of 10 scores

+ Package 60: 2 questions of 10 scores, 2 questions of 20 scores

+ Package 80: 1 question of 10 scores, 2 questions of 20 scores, 1 question of

30 scores

- The content of the competition will be presented on PowerPoint

- There are also competitions for the audience

- Students from class 10C1 and 10C7

2.4 Place and time

- Place: the schoolyard

- Time: February 17th, 2015

2.5 Attendants

- The Board of School Management

- All teachers of English group ( English Department)

- All head teachers of 10th grade

- All students of the school

(The content of the competition will be planned and presented on powerpoint)

The second extracurricular activity

Theme: English singing and retelling stories contest

2.1 Contents of the competition

- In order to take part in this competition, participants must undergo the

preliminary round The best 10 performances, including 5 singing and 5 storytelling repertories will be selected for the final round

- To prepare for the final round, contestants will be strongly supported by their English teachers in phonetics and the way of performing

2.2.Organizational formality

- Dramatization

- The contestants perform following their orders taken before the competition

- Three examiners will process their judgments separately and pick out the best performances

- Prizes will be sorted out according to types of performances

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2.3 Participants

- Students from class 10C1 and 10C7

2.4 Place and time

- Place: the schoolyard

- Time: March 24th, 2015

2.5 Attendants

- The Board of School Management

- All teachers of English group ( English Department)

- All head teachers of 10th grade

- All students of the school

The third extracurricular activity

Theme: English speaking club

2.1 Content of the competition

There are 3 parts

Part 1: Greeting

- Three teams take part in the first part respectively

- Each team participates in the greeting part by short plays from 10 to 15 minutes

- The maximum point is 10 given by the judge ( not decimal points)

+ 5 scores max for fluency

+ 5 scores max for impressiveness

Part 2: Answer the questions

- Each team takes turn to answer 10 questions given by the MC

- Time allowed: 15 seconds per question

- 20 scores for each correct answer

- If time is up with no answer, no score is gained and subtracted Other teams will have right to answer (in circle) and can gain 10 scores

Part 3: Rhetorics

- Each team assigns a member to partake in the Rhetoric contest that lasts for

10 minutes Scores will be deducted when exceeding the time allowed

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- 5 topics will be sent out to contestants for pre-preparation

- Maximum score is 50, including:

+ 10 scores for fluency

+ 10 scores for pronunciation

+ 10 scores for content

+ 10 scores for performance

+ 10 scores for accent

- Teams select their orders and topics 5 minutes for preparation

- There are also competitions for the audienc

- Aside from the competition, there are English singing performances from

- Students from class 10C1 and 10C7

2.4 Place and time

- Place: the schoolyard

- Time: April 21th, 2015

2.5 Attendants

- The Board of School Management

- All teachers of English group ( English Department)

- All head teachers of 10th grade

- All students of the school

After the activities, evaluation forms were distributed to the 90 students

to collect their feedback towards extracurricular activities that they participated in This was followed by semi-structured interviews with 10 randomly chosen students out of the piloted groups to obtain their attitudes and detailed assessment of the extracurricular activities as well as clarification

of important points in the evaluation form

The four teachers in charge of Grade 10 were invited to observe the extra-curricular activities and provide their assessment of the activities, especially their judgements of the effectiveness of the activities on students’ performance in general, and their speaking skills in particular Feedbacks from these observers were gathered both from their observation notes and discussions that followed

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1.2.3 Instruments

1.2.3.1 Evaluation forms for students

The major mean of data collection is the evaluation forms for students Each evaluation form was constructed from two parts: part A for personal information and part B for content information The questions in the evaluation forms were worded carefully in Vietnamese to make it easy for the students The evaluation forms were also piloted with the help of three students before delivering to the large number The specific strategies were carefully illustrated with examples, so students could clearly understand them and increase the accuracy of their responses The students were encouraged to share their ideas frankly and accurately, i.e describing what they actually did rather than what they should be doing Besides, the evaluation forms were collected anonymously in order that students could freely express their ideas

The full evaluation form is provided in Annex 1

1.2.3.2 Observation forms for teachers

The four teachers in charge of Grade 10 were invited to observe three extracurricular activities During observations, the teachers were observers and did not take part in any activities The observers took notes focusing on the ways that the teachers help students to develop speaking skills and students performed their actions in using English

1.2.3.3 Interviews and discussion

The interviews and discussion in this study aimed at obtaining the participants and observers’ attitudes and detailed assessment of the extracurricular activities as well as clarification of important points in the evaluation and observation forms

Each interview consisted of two parts: the first one for personal information and the second one for the content information The number of prepared questions for the content information for the students was eight The

interviews were semi-structured, which means there is “a prompt which

requests certain information but the exact shape of the response is not predetermined” (Cohen, 1989: 28) In the interviews, the researcher

sometimes added some explanation as well as asked for some more detailed information

The focused group interviews were conducted in Vietnamese and in informal ways so that the students were able to express their ideas freely It was lucky that all of the students were very enthusiastic in participating in the interviews The method of recording information was note-taking

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After each extracurricular activity was organized, the researcher discussed with the teachers/observers to find out the advantages and disadvantages of organization of each extracurricular activity From these discussions, the researcher and the teachers could find out the best way to organize extracurricular activities for 10th graders

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CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presented and discussed findings from analyses of the students’ evaluation forms, their interviews, the observers’ notes and discussion

2.1 Findings from the students

2.1.1 From the evaluation forms

Ninety students had to answer eight questions in the evaluation form to express their feedback toward extracurricular activities

From ninety evaluation forms of the students, the researcher can see that all students like extracurricular activities All of them participated in at least two extracurricular activities They were all interested in the extracurricuar activities that had been organized at school They thought that all the activities that had been organized at school were very useful for their language learning Extracurricular activites had many impact on their language learning such as: knowledge of grammar, English proficency, communication abilities, social skills, teamwork skills When they participated in the extracurricular activities, they made evident progress They felt more confident in using English, their communicative competence was better, they could speak English more fluently After participating in three extracuricular activities, their teamwork skills have been improved remarkably But they all thought that extracurricular activities should be led

by students and the time for the activities should be longer The extracurricular activities should be organized regularly Besides the extracurricular activities that had been organized, the students suggested some

more extracurricular activities that should be organized such as: Skit Contest

(The Skit Contest, hosted by a teacher of English, and aided by other group members.The six prizes are as follows: The Best Original Creation, The Traditional Film, The Best Live Prize, The Best English Pronunciation, and The Best Male and Female Actors Role play has been a very important activity in English learning The Skit Contest allows students to present the results of their English learning in a dramatic way It’s a student favourite

because it’s so vivid and interesting), English Impromptu Speech

Contest (The participants draw topics five minutes before they give their

delivery Then two participants in the same group take the conversation contest for three to five minutes Through the role play, students learn the skills in English conversation and also raise their interest in English),