Helping students learn listening skill effectively by using english songs

INTRODUCTION - Reasons for the study The innovation of teaching foreign languages in general and teaching English in particular has been emphasized since 1980s, together with the trends

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

- Reasons for the study

2 STUDY CONTENT

- Some ways of using music to practice English listening 8

- Introducing some English songs for listening practice 10

1 INTRODUCTION

- Reasons for the study

The innovation of teaching foreign languages in general and teaching English in particular has been emphasized since 1980s, together with the trends

in educational innovation of the country; in which people not only pay attention

to the writing skill practising, but the other skills are also interested in: listening, reading and speaking, especially listening and speaking However, in fact, in the last few years the listening and speaking skills of the students and even of the teachers of English were also limited Therefore, in the renewal of the current reform programs, to meet the practising requirements of the skills, we have to overcome many difficulties, which requires the efforts of teachers and students

in a long time In order to solve some difficulties in teaching English listening and helping students listen better, I have chosen the theme: “Helping students

learn listening skill effectively by using English songs" ( Giúp học sinh học kỹ năng nghe hiệu quả bằng cách sử dụng các bài hát Tiếng Anh) Because, as

we all know, if the students learn in a funny and creative environment, they will

be excited whenever going to class And the use of music in the classroom is a way for us to create the atmosphere of great learning, brings joy and passion for learning to the students, because "Music is the common language of the mankind "- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Using music to teach English has ever been referer to, but how to make English absorbed in both teachers and learners in a long time by using it doesn’t make me satisfied I hope this experiential initiative will live up to your expectations

- Aims of the study

To create interest in learning English for students Through the English songs students can easily acquire knowledge better and more important, lead the students into this subject

- Object of the study

In this study, I focus on the appropriate English songs to the conditions and the singing ability of students, how to design the songs to practice and ways

to practise to be good at listening skills, thereby good at English and communicating in English

- Study method

- Observation Method

- Research and Practice Method

- Synthesis method

2 STUDY CONTENT

2.1 Theoretical Rationale of the study

At school, English as a subject has its own characteristics, causes curiosity

to study of many students but it also causes many difficulties that discourage learners Therefore, teachers must do their best to help students become interested in learning English

Stemming from the point "learner-centered'', teaching and learning approach to has changed fundamentally The teachers are not only the ones that hold and impart knowledge but also a guide, an assistant, an adviser and an inspector The learners are no longer the passive to acquire knowledge They are the centre

of the teaching process, have the creativity in the learning process to achieve high results in learning and applying knowledge in real life

For foreign language teaching in general and teaching English in particular, the innovation of teaching methods is very important It is hard for students to master the language, be good at all the skills, specially for students at Thach Thanh which is one of 24 mountainous districts of Thanh Hoa province Listening is one of the basic content, a subtle combination of teaching skills and

a difficult skill to achieve From the above point, the use of appropriate songs really helps the students interested in the subject, better at listening skill In my opinion, every teacher needs to find an optimal method, in accordance with the actual situation and the individual pupils

As a teacher of English, I hope to bring my knowledge to impart easily to the students, and find out teaching methods for myself So I boldly launched research projects: “Helping students learn listening skill effectively by using English songs" I hope the use of appropriate songs for listening skill will help the students extremely interested in the subject, better at listening skill

2.2 Status of the study problem

In teaching English, for teachers, combining the four skills: Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing is indispensable in order to comply with the

reform programs by the Ministry of Education and Training Teachers need to teach tricks for students to be distinctive, easily recognizable and well in actual use, as well as the associated test concerned so that they can listen properly However, over the years, we have become familiar with such ideas as: "We do not have listening competition for students at all levels."; "We need to help students understand and use the phrases, grammar proficiency points as much as possible, so that they can achieve high scores in these tests " In fact, according

to the reforms enacted by the Ministry of Education, students learn Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Skills equally, but they almost only use Writting skill in their final exam That may be the reason that we do not pay attention to teaching Listening skills perfectly for students This leads to the fact that pupils have good grammar and are weak at listening and speaking ability Like students

in other countries in Asia, they have been trained through a system focusing on English grammar, very little on the listening and speaking ability to

communicate Therefore, many students understand the rules of grammar well but cannot express their opinions and have difficulties in listening and

pronunciation Listening English seems to be the most difficult task of the

Vietnamese in general and students in particular They frequently have some errors in English as:

=) Trouble with sounds:

Students fail to recognize the same sounds and the relationship between them It seems that there are some difficulties in stress or negative tone between teaching

of Vietnamese teachers and the native people

=) Have to understand every word.

Students tend to hear every word from the tapescript and think they are all equally important Actually, it is not true If students do not have the ability to select important words from the speech of others, they fail to understand others, which will lead to utter frustration

=) Cannot understand fast, natural native speech

This is because students have few opportunities to hear native speakers say Students only hear the words of the teachers who speak English slowly

=) Find it difficult to keep up

Because students are familiar with the sayings of the teachers, when the hear the words quickly in tapes, or direct native dialogue , they can’t understand

=) Need to hear things more than once.

Few Vietnamese students can understand English words when hearing for the first time They have to listen to it so many times to be able to understand

=) Get tired and dicappointed

Not understanding all the listening passages immediately, students have to hear many times, this makes them tired and frustrated

Because of these difficulties, a teaching method which is effective and makes the students excited is needed And in my opinion, the only music can meet the need

2.3 Measures for implementation

2.3.1 Some tips before teaching listening.

In fact, with the reforms enacted by the Ministry of Education, students learn Listening and Speaking Skills in paralell to Reading and Writing Skills, but in their final exams Listening skill isn’t refered to That may be the reason why we do not pay attention to teach the listening skill for students perfectly However, this skill is very important on the way to reach the target language of ours And we will not develop speaking skill if we do not develop listening skill To have a successful conversation, students need to understand what

partners are talking to them Listening also helps students permeable vocabulary, sentence structures So, when teaching listening, teachers should teach

students to listen in different ways Capturing small following skills will help students' listening skill improve rapidly:

- Distinguish the differences between the sounds of the phonetic system

For example, we can distinguish the difference between / g / and / k / in the word "pig" and "pick" etc

- Master grammatical structures

For example, in the sentence "Would you please pick up the phone?" people listening must recognize that the word "pick" is a verb and the word "phone" is

a noun In addition, from the order of the question and the tone, the listener must recognize this is a question

- Guess the meaning of the words or recognize the unnecessary words

The guess must be based on the context or the grammar of the sentence

For example, in the sentence, "The police hit the man with a billy club," the listener can guess the meaning of "billy" or ignore it

- Identify signals of conversations and connecters to help combine conversations with one another

Words appearing in conversation including nouns, pronouns, articles, linking words, ect

- Have the ability to infer information not explicitly referred to in the

article.

For example:

Woman: I want to complain about a man abusing me

Policeman: Did the man hit you?

Woman: He was screaming at me and threatening me

Through the answers of the woman, we can infer that the man didn’t beat her If

he did, she responded "Yes" or an other sentence containing direct means

- Skimming in listening

This is the skill that helps students understand the content of the listening

- Summarize

- Listen carefully.

This skill is used to search for information

- Know how to assess when listening

Students must decide what they are listening is true or false Students should know how to assess the listening

- Identify style, different emotions and the variety of language

Office: Formal / informal

Emotions: angry / excited /

Variety of language: British English / American English /

- Guess what the speaker will say next

Students have to guess when people will say important issues to focus more carefully

2.3.2 Measures for implementation

There are many different forms of activities in the use of music for learning English, such as: self -learning, receiving private tuition or practising

in groups ( at home or in class) Specifically:

*) Some ways of using music to practice English listening

a Passive Listening: (Teachers should guide students to practice this way

mainly at home)

- 'Bathe' language Listen not to understand: Listen! Do not understand.

The teacher suggested students some English songs Each song can be 1

to 5 minutes long When they're at home alone, open it up just enough to hear, and keep it as background sound all day They do not need to pay any attention

to it They just do their tasks, brush their teeth, wash their face, do all

homework, surf the internet with all the English sound

If students have a CD player, USB player or iPod, bring along to listen

in the downtime - for example, moving long hours in the car, waiting for

someone or waiting for their turn at the clinic

'Language bathing' is just a matter of having the good habit of hearing, and after some time (a long time, not a few days) students will catch the sounds

of English, and find the sounds very easy to listen, but they are completely different from Vietnamese sounds Do not be discouraged because of not

distinguishing the sounds after many days: remember that we have to “bathe” Vietnamese language at least for nine constant months before we can say the first words and understand some short words of our parents; and then we again continue to bathe Vietnamese language for 4 or 5 years!

- Listen with moving pictures

If there is time, students should watch some music programs in English The attached photos will make them more or less 'understand' the song without 'translating' what the singer is singing And this is the second way to bathe language

b Active Listening: ( Students can practise at home or in the class)

- Listening carefully to some songs they heard during the period 'language bathing'.

Get back to the lyrics of the songs they've ever heard, read and remember those words in their mind Then put the lyrics away and listen again to

understand In this time, they will hear and understand the sounds naturally If they don’t understand a word or phrase, repeat them as several times as they have heard, then flip back the lyrics to compare

- Some songs on the CD:

Listen many times before reading the lyrics Then, read the lyrics, mainly check the words they have heard or guessed , or words that they can pronounce and write again but do not understand the meaning By this, they will discover that many words they are very familiar and speak in a certain way actually need to talk and pronounce differently Then, put the lyrics back and listen again for once or twice more (For example: the words “tomb”, “bury”, I surely thought that they were pronounced 'tôm-b(ơ)” and “bơri” Later, when listening the words 'tum, beri' I did not understand anything I only know which words they are after rereading the lyrics

- Sing along while listening

Choose a song that they like, find its lyrics then both listen to it and see the lyrics Then memorize and sing along with the singer, and try to pronounce

as well as keep the speed and the length right When they are sad, they can also sing to themselves (If they don’t have a good voice and maybe, sing a bit

wrongly, it does not matter, because the purpose is practising the pronunciation, speed, length and English accent) And speaking correctly (through songs) is another way to help them better at listening in the future, because the language

in the songs is often harder to listen than it in the real life

- Answer the questions

Teachers can give some questions, ask students to read the questions and then listen to the song in English to answer that question

- Do gap-filling exercises.

Teachers give the students the handout of the lyrics of the song which has been removed some important words Ask students to listen to the song and fill the missing words / phrases

The last two methods are used for classroom practising is very effective

*) Introduce some English songs for listening

Selecting songs to design listening exercises is very crucial Now I will give some songs together with designed exercises, mainly exercises on

answering the questions based on the song and filling the missing words /

phrases in the song Through these exercises, the teacher can ask students to recall the grammatical structures, phrases, verb phrases, or (if available) the pronunciation

Exercise 1

Listen to a song / song snippet and answer the questions based on the song

That's Why You Go Away

Baby won't you tell me why There is sadness in your eyes

I don't wanna say goodbye to you Love is one big illusion

I should try to forget But there is something left in my head

You're the one who set up Now you're the one to make it stop I'm the one who's feeling lost right now Now you want me to forget

Every little thing you said But there is something left in my head

Questions:

1 Will the girl tell the boy why she is bored?