skkn MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN ENGLISH CLASS WITH THE HELP OF ENGLISH SHORT CLIPS

INTRODUCTION As a teacher of Luong The Vinh High School for the Gifted and having taught different classes for the past few years, I can’t help but noticing that the majority of the stud

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SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LƯƠNG THẾ VINH

Mã số:

- -

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN ENGLISH CLASS

WITH THE HELP OF ENGLISH SHORT CLIPS

 Người thực hiện: PHAN THỊ NHƯ ANH

 Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh

Sản phẩm đính kèm:

- Năm học 2016- 2017

SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC

- -

I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN

1 Họ và tên: PHAN THỊ NHƯ ANH

2 Ngày tháng năm sinh: 07- 09 - 1982

3 Giới tính : Nữ

4 Địa chỉ: 100/1c Hà Huy Giáp, P Quyết Thắng, TP Biên Hòa, T Đồng Nai

5 Điện thoại: 0918539309

6 E-mail: sn10_07@yahoo.com

7 Chức vụ: Giáo viên giảng dạy bộ môn tiếng Anh

8 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT chuyên Lương Thế Vinh

II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO

- Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ

- Năm nhận bằng: 2011

- Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Ngôn Ngữ Ứng Dụng

III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC

- Số năm có kinh nghiệm trong lĩnh vực chuyên môn: 9 năm

- Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây: Không có

CONTENTS

I INTRODUCTION

II RESEARCH QUESTION

III IMPLEMENTATION

IV LITERATURE REVIEW, FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION

V CONCLUSION

I INTRODUCTION

As a teacher of Luong The Vinh High School for the Gifted and having taught different classes for the past few years, I can’t help but noticing that the majority of the students of the school just focus on their major subjects This means only students of English classes really have strong motivation to study English while those in other classes such as Math, Physics, Biology or Literature, etc…lack motivation as well as interest in learning the subject There are many reasons accounting for this, but one of them can be narrowed down to the fact that they don’t find the lessons interesting enough From my own observation, the students get fed up with the amount of excessive grammar in each unit Furthermore, although there have been revisions and updating, the lessons in their course books, somehow, lack authenticity, or in other words, fail to stimulate them Having identified the problem, I have tried showing some English clips in my classes The result

is quite promising- the students did show more enthusiasm and excitement in engaging in the lessons

II RESEARCH QUESTION

This mini paper aims to clarify the following identified issue among students of Luong The Vinh High School for The Gifted:

- The possibility of using English clips in the classroom as an effective way to motivate students in English class

III IMPLEMENTATION

Step 1 Define the theme/main topic of each lesson in the course book

For example: Unit 9 in English 10 is “Undersea World” Therefore, teachers may search for clips with key words such as: “marine life”, “undersea creatures”, “interesting sea

creatures”, etc…

Step 2 Search for appropriate clips

By “appropriate” I mean the teacher should search for a clip that has a similar content with the topic of the lesson In addition, the language used in the clip should not be too hard for the students’ input Another important thing to be taken into consideration when searching for a clip to show in class is that the teacher is expected to make sure there is

no offensive “language” or anything inappropriate for Vietnamese high school students

Step 3 Show clips

Once the teacher has found the appropriate clip to show in front of the class, he or she should decide the right time to do this- whether before the lesson as a warm-up activity,

in the middle of the lesson as a listening task, or as a sum-up activity at the end of each unit This depends as whether the teacher wants to use the clip as a catchy introduction to

a new lesson, as a part clarifying an important point in a lesson, or as a wrap-up for a lesson

In addition, since it’s a known fact that the allocated time for each unit in the textbook is a pressure for both teachers and students, it should be up to the teacher in charge to decide when and how to include video clips in her/his teaching

Here is an example of one of the lessons I teach using clips as visual aids:

ENGLISH 10

UNIT 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION

A Tap Dancer Who Proves Anything Is Possible.mp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_uj7mom1Q

Before showing the clip to the class, the teacher writes a few questions on the board:

1 What is special about this dancer?

2 How old was he when he started tap dancing?

3 How old was he when he figured a problem with a part of his body?

4 What was actually the problem?

5 How many surgeries did he have totally?

6 What do we learn from this dancer?

After showing the clip for the first time, the teacher write some key new words on the board to help the students understand the clip better

New words:

- tumor (n)

- amputate (v)

- chemo (n) = chemotherapy

After the students have understood the clip and are able to answer all the given questions, the teacher can lead in the topic of the unit which is teaching children with special needs: SPECIAL EDUCATION

IV LITERATURE REVIEW, FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION

The recent years have witnessed a shift in English teaching approaches To be more specific, it has been clearly stated by the Ministry of Education that English teachers should now pay more attention to communicative skills when teaching English as a compulsory subject in schools For the past few years speaking and listening skills have been put into official assessment scale for 10th graders nationwide At Luong The Vinh High School, 10 graders and 11 graders have oral final exams together with paper-based exams which include listening tasks Therefore, I believe it is high time English teachers put more emphasis on bringing more listening and speaking tasks into the classroom One

of the most possible and effective ways, in my own opinion, is to introduce English clips

to our students

First, I’d like to point out the advantages of using English clips as teaching material in the classroom There is one thing that we can be sure, and that is these clips are “those which have been produced for purposes other than to teach language" (Nunan 1988, p 99) As for me, I usually download short clips from some talk shows hosted by famous people such as Ellen DeGeneres, or sometimes short inspirational clips for some advertising campaigns The point is these clips, since not made for the purpose of teaching, are

“authentic”, and are therefore, “natural” in terms of real life and meaningful communication (Rogers, 1988) When it comes to the benefits of using authentic materials

in the classroom, according to Philip, Shettlesworth, and Clarke (as cited in Richards,

2001), there are a few that are worth considering: “they [authentic materials] have a positive effect on learner motivation, provide authentic cultural information and exposure

to real language, relate more closely to learners ' needs, and support a more creative approach to teaching” In short, what I’ve been trying to prove is that the English clips I use in my classroom, as authentic materials, are really helpful in my teaching

I have been showing several clips for my students in different classes and their feedbacks are, to a certain extent, positive The students all agree that with the audio and visual effects, these clips can instantly grab their attention In addition, to make sure that students are engaged in the activity, I try to choose clips of interviews with celebrities or about popular issues everyone knows of (see attached clips for reference) One good point about this new material is that although the students don’t always understand all the words and phrases, they still can have a general idea of what the whole clip is about And this is

of no doubt very close to the well-known communicative approach As a result, all of the students show great enthusiasm and engagement Even for those who admit that they can’t understand the whole content of a clip express their eagerness for more clips Besides that, I’d like to emphasize that “positive attitudes towards the self, the native language group, and the target language group enhanced proficiency” (Brown, 2000) When students sit in the classroom, ready for a new lesson or task with positive attitudes, they are likely to experience success, or at least, to produce better performance of their language ability

So as to illustrate the points I made above, I’d like to enclose here the result of a survey I conducted among 100 random students I was teaching last year The questionnaire consisted of 8 different questions asking for their opinions about the importance of Speaking and Listening skills as well as about the English clips I showed to them

Disagree (1)

Disagree (2)

Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)

Agree (4)

Strongly Agree (5)

1 Speaking and

Listening are not as

important as Grammar

difficult to improve

3 I wish that I could

accurate English

4 I wish that the teacher

speaking and listening

tasks in class

clips shown in class are

too difficult for me to

understand

6 I enjoy watching

English speaking clips

clips are helpful in

improving my listening

and speaking skills

8 Other than improving

speaking and listening

skills, English clips give

a lot of useful and

interesting information

Drawbacks:

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that teachers are likely to experience difficulties of using English clips as teaching materials In terms of outside factors, first and foremost, not all classrooms are equipped with suitable devices for showing clips As the case of my school, we have to register the media room in advance whenever we need to use the projector This could be a problem if other teachers also need the media room for their classes on the same date as we choose Also, the fact that students have to move around from their own class to the media room and then back to their classroom for the next subject may take some time off their time for the lesson

Secondly, as I earlier mentioned, it may be time-consuming for the teacher to choose a suitable clip to show to the students Searching for a clip that suits the content of a unit in the course book, or one with enough entertaining factors but without exceeding the limit

of Asian culture’s norm, or one with interesting message but still within students’ English ability…takes a lot of time Given that a teacher has already a great deal of work to do and

a number of different classes to teach, this may be an unreasonable request to make That

is not to say even when the teacher is willing to go all the way to find the best clips for his

or her students, he or she has another obstacle to deal with: the restricted time for each unit It’s a known fact that standardized English tests still put a lot of emphasis on grammar and structures, meaning that the teacher has to make sure the students master all grammar points with enough exercises to practice This leaves little time for activities to improve speaking and listening skills

In terms of subjective difficulties, although in the same class, students have various levels

of English competence This is definitely something to take into consideration when choosing a clip and showing it in class Sometimes, even with the “right” clip, the teacher

saying this, I mean the teacher may need to pause a clip several times to help with some vocabulary, or to make questions to make sure that all students understand what is going

on Definitely, a good teacher should never leave any student feeling lost in this additional activity

V CONCLUSION

Scarcella (1990) said that “cognitive and interactional patterns” which means “learning style” can affect the ways students “perceive, remember, and think” Scarcella also said that if teachers don’t take into consideration their students’ learning styles to choose compatible ways in their teaching, their students may have to “suffer the consequences” Being well aware of this, teachers all over the world have been trying to put more effort in choosing suitable approaches and teaching styles to help their students achieve the best results out of school Each and every approach and technique has their own effects and drawbacks; therefore, it’s considered a teacher’s responsibility to continue offering more choices for his or her students Using English short clips in classroom as a way to motivate students may not always work for all students or for all classes, however; it’s worth a try

REFERENCE

Brown, H D 2000 Principles of language learning and teaching 4th ed White Plains,

NY: Addison Wesley Longman

Nunan D (1988) The learner-centered curriculum Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press

Richard, J.C (2001) Curriculum development in language teaching Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press

Scarcella, R (1990) Teaching language minority students in the multicultural classroom:

Prentice Hall Regents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_uj7mom1Q

SỞ GD&ĐT ĐỒNG NAI

Đơn vị: Trường THPT Chuyên

Lương Thế Vinh

–––––––––––

CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc ––––––––––––––––––––––––

Biên Hòa, ngày 18 tháng 05 năm 2017

PHIẾU ĐÁNH GIÁ, CHẤM ĐIỂM, XẾP LOẠI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

Năm học: 2016 -2017

–––––––––––––––––

Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN ENGLISH CLASS WITH THE HELP OF

ENGLISH SHORT CLIPS

Họ và tên tác giả: Phan Thị Như Anh

Chức vụ:

Đơn vị: Trường THPT Chuyên Lương Thế Vinh

Họ và tên giám khảo 1: Chức vụ:

Đơn vị:

Số điện thoại của giám khảo:

* Nhận xét, đánh giá, cho điểm và xếp loại sáng kiến kinh nghiệm:

1 Tính mới

Điểm: …………./6,0

2 Hiệu quả

Điểm: …………./8,0

3 Khả năng áp dụng

Điểm: …………./6,0

Nhận xét khác (nếu có):

Tổng số điểm /20 Xếp loại:

GIÁM KHẢO 1

SỞ GD&ĐT ĐỒNG NAI

Đơn vị: Trường THPT Chuyên

Lương Thế Vinh

–––––––––––

CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc ––––––––––––––––––––––––

Biên Hòa, ngày 18 tháng 05 năm 2017

PHIẾU ĐÁNH GIÁ, CHẤM ĐIỂM, XẾP LOẠI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

Năm học: 2016 -2017

–––––––––––––––––

Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN ENGLISH CLASS WITH THE HELP OF

ENGLISH SHORT CLIPS

Họ và tên tác giả: Phan Thị Như Anh Chức vụ:

Đơn vị: Trường THPT Chuyên Lương Thế Vinh

Họ và tên giám khảo 2: Chức vụ:

Đơn vị:

Số điện thoại của giám khảo:

* Nhận xét, đánh giá, cho điểm và xếp loại sáng kiến kinh nghiệm:

1 Tính mới

Điểm: …………./6,0

2 Hiệu quả

Điểm: …………./8,0

3 Khả năng áp dụng

Điểm: …………./6,0

Nhận xét khác (nếu có):

Tổng số điểm: /20 Xếp loại:

GIÁM KHẢO 2