skkn MAKING SPEAKING TASKS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS MORE MEANINGFUL

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point.. Unit 4 MY SOURCE OF INSPIRATION Level: Intermediate Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis o

S L Ơ ƯỢ C LÝ L CH KHOA H C Ị Ọ

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I THÔNG TIN CHUNG V CÁ NHÂN Ề

8 Nhi m v đệ ụ ược giao: Gi ng d y và ch nhi m l p chuyên Anh ả ạ ủ ệ ớ

• H c v cao nh t: Th c sỹọ ị ấ ạ

III KINH NGHI M KHOA H C Ệ Ọ

S năm có kinh nghi m: ố ệ 12 năm

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI

Đơn vị TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LƯƠNG THẾ VINH

Mã số:

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

MAKING SPEAKING TASKS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS MORE

• Các sáng ki n kinh nghi m đã có trong 5 năm g n đây:ế ệ ầ

1 Students’ preferences for speaking activities

2 Sample lesson plans

MAKING SPEAKING TASKS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS MORE MEANINGFUL

I RATIONALE

It is undeniable that Vietnamese high school students often get bored anddistracted during speaking lessons Having speaking skill integrated intohigh school English textbooks is really a great innovation, showing theawareness of the importance of being able to communicate when learning aforeign language However, speaking task designers have not done a good jod

in encouraging students to open their mouths because they see no point indoing so, or in other words, they have not been given the motivation tospeak

Motivation plays a significant role in the process of learning a language.However, the authors of the textbooks did not seem to recognise this whendesigning speaking tasks, which are not meaningful enough to get learnersinvolved in the lessons Learners need quality instruction, input, interaction,and opportunities for meaningful output, not only to make progress, but also

to maintain motivation for language learning A good teacher, then, must tapinto the sources of intrinsic motivation and find ways to connect them withexternal motivational factors that can be brought to a classroom setting

In the scope of this paper, the author attemps to adapt 6 speaking lessons inEnglish textbook 10 to make the tasks more relevant to learners

II IMPLEMENTATION

A LITERATURE REVIEW

According to the result of an ESL workshop about scaffolding, ‘an ESLstudent who is nervous or bored in class will learn neither subject contentnor new language, even if the input is comprehensible’ and ‘the purely oralscaffolding undertaken by the teacher is not enough’; therefore, ‘visualscaffolding is an excellent way to provide comprehensible input to ESLstudents so that not only will they learn the essential subject content but alsothey will make progress in their acquisition of English.’ Besides, Jeremy(1998, p 88) states that ‘good speaking activities can and should be highlymotivating If all the students are participating fully – and if the teacher hasset up the activity properly and can then give sympathetic and usefulfeedback – they will get trememdous satisfaction from it.’

Therefore, at the beginning of any speaking lesson, teachers should exposestudents to inspiring, motivating, and above all, authentic materials like thevideos I use in most of my speaking lessons and get students engaged in reallife situations Besides, scaffoding is also of utmost importance in languageacquisition, and videos serve this purpose best as they can provide thestudents with both inspiration and the target language that can boost thestudents’ confidence in speaking

Jack and Will (2002, p 364) states, a teacher ‘selects the video, relates thevideo to students’ needs, promite active viewing, and integrates the videowith other areas of the language curriculum’ to increase the ‘chances ofachieving the important goals of motivating students’ interest, providingrealistic listening practice, stimulating language use, and heighteningstuents’ awreness of particular language points or other aspects ofcommunication’ because ‘scenes with a high degree of visual support aremore useful for presenting language.’ It is also emphasised that teachers canbring in the video to introduce or to expand on a theme or topic that isalready part of the curriculum or that is dealt with in the students’ textbook(Jack and Will, 2002) They aso add that ‘teachers can promote activeviewing and increase student comprehension and recall by planning video-related lessons for three stages of activity: previewing, viewing, andpostviewing’ because ‘these prepare the students to watch the video bytapping their background knowledge, stimulating interest in the topic, andlessening their fear of unfamiliar vocabulary.’ Jack and Will (2002, p 366)

B METHODOLOGY

 Subjects

The subjects of the study are 27 students from class 10 English 2 and 25students from class 10 Mathematics, Luong The Vinh Specialised High School

in the school year 2016-2017 Generally speaking, all the 30 students arerather good at English However, most of them seem reluctant to speakEnglish.

 Research instruments: questionnaire, experimental teaching,

observation

 Procedures

1 Students’ preferences for speaking activities

Order these activities from most motivating to least motivating to you in speaking lessons

No

From the data collected, the author finds out that most of the students (more

than 90%) state that watching a video related to the topic is a great source of

inspiration for their own speaking The next positions belong to listening to

a sample conversation and pictures/posters related to the topic In contrast,

100% of the students find speaking activities in the text book the most boring,

putting it at the bottom of the least Number 1, 2, 3 are not very helpful inengaging the students in speaking activities

2 Sample lesson plans

Unit 1

MY WEEKEND MORNING ROUTINE Level: Intermediate

Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis on oral fluency; students practise

making a monologue about their weekend morning routine

Language point: expressions to use for describing everyday activities;

rhythm and stress when giving important information

Materials: a sample clip in which a girl talks about her weekend morningroutine

WARM-UP

Write on the board: A DIFFERENT ME

Ask the students if they would like to know about a different aspect of theirclassmates

Ask five pairs of students (it is better if the pairs are deskmates or bestfriends) to come to the front

Give one member in each pair a piece of paper and a pencil to draw theirfavourite activity on a day off school, and ask the other to guess what it iswithout looking at the drawing

Then check if the answers and the drawing really match

Write some ‘abnormal’ activities on the board

Check my phone Get onto my laptop

Get my lazy butt up

Make my bed

Head downstairs

Make some coffee/can’t

live without coffee

Let out my dog

Head back upstairs Take a shower

To heat up Hop into the shower Exfoliate my skin

Change into my clothes

Do my makeup

moituriser/concealer Curl my lashes

Ask the others to take notes of the activities mentioned and connectors

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point

POST-SPEAKING

Ask the students if they have found anything surprising about their friends

Do a quick feedback on the errors or language you took notes on

Ask the students to come home a make a video clip of their own

Unit 4

MY SOURCE OF INSPIRATION Level: Intermediate

Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis on oral fluency; students practise

describing incredible figures

Language point: expressions to use for describing describing incredible

figures; rhythm and stress when giving important information

Materials: a clip of a disabled girl

WARM-UP

Write on the board: BORN DIFFERENT

Have the class watch a short clip in which a girl amazingly adapts to lifedespite her disabolity

Ask the students to note down some expressions used to describe incrediblefigures

Elicit the phrases and write on the board

- Hold her back

- Learn to adapt in many ways

- Rarely complain about her disability

- Upbeat and optimistic

- Fit in

- Struggled with questions and looks she received

- Face new challenges

- Incredible attitude

- She has so much personality, perseverence, spirit

- Outgoing, spunky, amd tenacious

Back down from a challenge

Put students into groups of 4-5 students

Ask each group to think of a person that inspires them the most in the school.Ask them to write down a list of questions they are going to ask that personand those who know the person really well, for example his/her teacher, closefriends, etc

WHILE-SPEAKING

Ask the groups to go and interview those people

Groups of students come back to the classroom and report what they havedone

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point

POST-SPEAKING

Do a quick feedback on the errors or language you took notes on

Ask the students to come home a make a video clip of that person

Unit 8

THE BEST FUTURISTIC CITY Level: Intermediate

Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis on oral fluency; students practise

presenting ideas and convincing others

Language point: expressions to use for describing a city, presenting ideas and

convincing others; rhythm and stress when giving important information

Materials: a short clip about A FUTURISTIC CITY

WARM-UP

Write on the board: SPOT THE DIFFERENCES

Have students look at two pictures of Bienhoa City at two different times Ask students to note down the differences between the two pictures

PRE-SPEAKING

Have the student watch a short clip about a futuristic city

Ask students to note down the language to describe a city

Elicite and write down some phrases on the board

Set up the scene:

Bienhoa city is going to become the host city for Olympic Games 2020 The citycommittee has just launched a competition to look for the best design for a citythat can meet all the requirements of a city that hostS Olympic Games

Put the students in to groups of 4-5 young architects who are going to takepart in the competition by handing in their own designs

WHILE-SPEAKING

Students work in their group, sketching the city on an A0 paper

Students stick their work on the board and take turns presenting their ideas ofthe ideal city

Other groups vote for the best city

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point and video the competition

POST-SPEAKING

Do a quick feedback on the errors or language you took notes on

Ask the groups to come home watch the video to see how they have improved

in the speaking skill

SAVE THE BEAUTIFUL MARINE WORLD Level: Upper-Intermediate

Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis on oral fluency; students practise

calling for actions and and convincing others

Language point: expressions to use for describing problems, calling for

actions and convincing others; rhythm and stress when giving importantinformation

Materials: a short clip about PROJECT OCEAN

WARM-UP

Write on the board: PROJECT OCEAN

Ask students to note down the language to describe problems and call foractions

Elicite and write down some phrases on the board

- Fish are worth more to humanity than gold

- Rely on fish as their primary protein source

- Count on the ocean for their liveihoods

- We need healthy ocean to support our way of life

- Fish stocks are fully or overexploited

- Overfish our ocean

- Become bycatch

- Unintentional victims of indiscriminate fishing practices

- Oceans are complex interconnected systems

- Damage one part and all the others suffer too

- Wipe out

- Multiply unchecked

- Take actions

- Marine reserves work

- Provide a refuge for species

- Protect the habitat they depend on during critical life stages

- Restoring our oceans will take time

- We need to act globally and act now

Set the scene:

The city committee has just launched a competition to look for the best posterthat can raise people’s awareness of the threats to marine life and call forpeople’s actions to protect marine life

Put the students in to groups of 4-5 students who are going to take part in thecompetition by handing in their own posters

WHILE-SPEAKING

Ask students to have a look at the 4 problems in task 2 and solutions in task 1

in the textbook to get some ideas for their posters

Each group is assigned with one problem

Students work in their group, sketching the poster on an A0 paper

Students stick their work on the board and take turns presenting their ideas.Other groups vote for the best poster

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point and video the competition

POST-SPEAKING

Do a quick feedback on the errors or language you took notes on

Ask the groups to come home watch the video to see how they have improved

in the speaking skill

Language point: expressions to use for giving comments on music; rhythm

and stress when giving important information

Materials: a short clip about THE VOICE US – BLIND AUDITIONS

WARM-UP

Write on the board: WILL YOU PICK ME?

Have students watch a short clip about the voice US – blind auditions

Ask students to note down the reasons why the coaches chose that contestant Ask them to write down the adjectives that are used in the clip

- How engaging and passionate and you’re more comfortable than I am up there

- That moment when you realise this person can be a huge star

- I’m gonna fight harder than you

- Someone who understands who you are as an artist and is able to unlock that

- You were phenomenal

- I have planned on winning this entire thing with you

- I just want to help you figure out what you wanna do amd make you the winner of this show

- It’s time to choose Who do you want to be your coach?

- I’m going to pick …

PRE-SPEAKING

Set up the scene:

Choose one student to be the host, and 4 other students to be in the coachingpanel The others will be the contestants

It is better if you allow the students to take turns playing the roles of the hostand coaches in order to save time

For example: if there are 30 students in the class 9 students will play the role

of contestants, 5 students the host, and the other 16 the coaches After theperformances of 2-3 contestants, the 4 coaches will be replaced by other 4.Ask each student to choose one of their favourite song to sing in the blindaudition

Give the host the list of songs together with the names of the contestants.

Give the coaches the list of questions to ask the contestants

WHILE-SPEAKING

The host introduces the contestant and the song

The contestant sings the first part of his/her song

The coaches can turn round to face the contestant if they decide to pick thecontestant

The coaches ask the contestant some questions and give comments

Take notes of language errors good use of the target language, but don’tcorrect at this point and video the competition

POST-SPEAKING

Do a quick feedback on the errors or language you took notes on

Ask the groups to come home watch the video to see how they have improved

in the speaking skill

Unit 13

MY FAVOURITE THEME SONGS Level: Upper-Intermediate

Aim: a mingle activity with emphasis on oral fluency; students practise

making a monologue about their favorite theme songs

Language point: expressions to use for describing music and films; rhythm

and stress when giving important information

Materials: five film trailers and a clip about best moderns theme songs

WARM-UP

Write on the board: DO YOU REMEMBER ME?