Practicing speaking skill for students in grade 12

When teaching English to the 12th Grade students at Trieu Son 2 Upper Secondary School I found out that speaking stages are very important in teaching speaking and it also has significan

A INTRODUCTION I: REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPICS 1.Rationale

Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widely used in many parts of the world The English language in particular is firstly to communicate primarily through listening comprehension and writing skills This is clearly reflected in textbooks Besides the innovative teaching methods at all levels is big advocate of education and training sector in the years to improve the ovetoral quality of education One of the requirements for education and training in the current period is to promote positive, dynamic and creative students, making students who passively receiving knowledge of the initiative in knowledge discovery, having capable of solving the problem or the assigned tasks effectively in the environment as well as individuals in collaborative environment to eventually develop self- learning style to achieve the highest efficiency

When teaching English to the 12th Grade students at Trieu Son 2 Upper Secondary School I found out that speaking stages are very important in teaching speaking and it also has significant effects on the students’ speaking performance If students do not prepare well enough they can not speak well They can not even speak anything

How speaking stages affect the students’ speaking performance and whether the pre- lesson activities are important to teachers of English at High School Based on the results of this action research, some changes and improvements could be applied in the author’s lesson, and some appropriate strategies needed

to be designed with the hope that students will work more effectively in a speaking lesson Hopefully that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study

2.Factual basis

With the development of today’s society, each student after school wants

to have a good job and a good income In order to do that, students not only practice their professional skills but also promote English language proficiency You can not work in a foreign company if you do not speak English Because of the reasons above that the general language, English in particular holds a very important role in our lives However, how to learn this foreign languages and use it effectively is an extremely difficult to study in the conditions of students in upper secondary schools, especially in Trieu son 2 Upper Secondary School In fact, many students in Viet Nam graduated from universities can not speak English although they have a large number of vocabularies They are used to doing exercises in textbooks Besides, a number

of students in a class are often over crowded and students in rural areas often feel shy when they communicate with other people so they have a lot of difficulties in speaking practice English The speaking test to date has not dome a systematic way Tests rely heavily on reading skills, grammar and writing This habit leads to the direct consequences that teachers only teach students about the word homework, reading comprehension, and writing skills They ignore the most important skill That skill is oral

From the above realities, all foreign language teachers have developed their own beliefs They know how to learn a foreign language Their beliefs are based on their experiences after each lesson This promotes the foreign teachers

in general and the English teachers in particular try to study to improve their knowledge They have to find new methods to attract their students, and help students get knowledge in creative ways Students must self- improvement approach to learning in a positive direction and created from language thinking ability through communication The English teachers help students to develop their four skills, reading, listening, speaking and writing skills in learning a foreign language

Over the years, I as well as my other colleagues constantly learning to find out for yourself the experience and appropriate teaching methods Innovative methods require teachers and students to work actively to shape dut ability to form language to communicate The English people have idiom “ Practice

makes perfect” For that reason I choose the topic “Practicing speaking skill for students in grade 12” I want to contribute my small part in the innovation

of teaching method and materials to consult colleagues and suggestions

II: THE STATUS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT

TRIEU SON 2 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

1 Status

1.1 The situation of teaching English.

Recent years, English subject is one of the most important subject that the administrators give a lot of attention and facilitate the teaching and learning in order to help students have good knowledge to take the national entrance examination Facilities are also given a lot of attention so that the quality of teaching is getting much higher The implementation of the thematic workshops for the teaching of natural allows school level regularly However, teaching English is very limited, inadequate and not really have the results In fact, it is not practical to attract more students to participate During the lesson is sometimes longer reaction, heavy feeling sluggish for both learners and teachers

1.2 The situation of learning English

With the development of the society, most of the people know the important and the necessary of learning English In fact, learning English has not achieved the expected results Although the students were familiar with English courses from the secondary school but the reason is that they come from rural families with low living standard and poor living conditions, they often feel shy when communicate with friends Besides that there is no visual media Students only study vocabulary and grammar structures in textbooks They are not voluntarily extended thought to relate

to the relationship other topics in life Besides they have little to say to lazy learning, lazy thinking led to the nature of language learning to cope, not achieving learning outcomes

2 The results of the current situation

Although students spent many years learning English at high school did not meet the requirements of society Students learn English from junior level to train more 3 years but they still can not communicate in English They can not overcome their shyness to express and promote their own capacity

B PROBLEM SOLVING I: THE IMPLEMENTING SOLUTIONS

1 Guide students how to perform

Practice speaking must be taken into the meaningful situations to make sense to be able to meet a number of requirements communication method Teachers should not see the technical training is major repeatation and replacement We should consider this technique as first activity to provide in put material for students This helps students use information to communicate

Practice speaking is not only based on each lesson in the class but also help students remember structures and vocabularies to communicate with people We should encourage students to practice English in their free time Teachers help students review their knowledge by setting situation If we do so, students can remember both vocabularies and structures Teachers also encourage students to be interested in learning English Basing on my experience, some language games can also create a controlled exercise While playing the game guide language, teachers must also speak to learners repeating pattern With how to manipulate not only the ability to feel comfortable while learning English that teachers can control the knowledge that his offer to use on new lessons

Example: in class 12 board basic, theme of the lesson is “Home Life”

teachers should require students to train some verbs like; join hands, run the household, take the responsibility for, leave home for school,

to be willing to help etc learners can interview each other as the following the modal dialogue

Student1: What do you do to help your mother at home?

Student 2: I often do the household work

Student 1: Can you tell me about your responsibility?

Student 2: I clean the house, and I wash the dishes to help my mother Student 1 Why do you have to share your household work with your

mother?

Student 2: Because my mother is very busy She has to do many

things to support my family I myself want to do something to help her

In addition, this lesson the teachers can give students a presentation on her mother’s or her father’s work who has to take the responsibility for running the house Student can show the reason why they want to share the work with other member in his or her family Presentation to the class and help them somewhat relieved and gradually they will confident when speaking English, and they will like learning English

Students can write a short paragraph to introduce their mother’s work like the example below;

Student 1: My mother is Lan She is a very caring woman She she is

always the first person to get up in the morning She often cooks breakfast for me and for my brother Although she is very busy, she tries to spend as much time with us as possible She loves us very much She always give good care and unconditional love to us

student 2:

My mother has to work 8 hours a day She has to get up very early in the morning to prepare meal for us In the afternoon, after she comes home from work, she rushes to the market, then hurries home so that dinner is ready on the table by the time I get home from school In order to help my mother, I often wash the dishes, and My sister takes the responsibility for taking out the garbage Etc

Teachers can require students to review the old lesson by summary the content of the lesson After that teachers ask them to study by heart

to present to the class If we do so, learners can remember both structures and vocabularies

2 Ways to help students perform

Although students have learned how to perform in his speech but not really accurate so teachers must use the appropriate sentence for the content that they are doing so they are confident when presenting Here are steps to check the content that we have to guide them in the introduction Through this work, students will remember the structure naturally They will take the initiative and creativity rather than imposing manner of the teacher

3 Assessment test results performed

After the student guide, here are steps for students to practise by presenting content that the instructor asked Category of exercise at home or lessons that students have to summarize the lesson content, the teacher can give a child up table presents that content The under layer is also presented his article then moves the article for you to fix the line together in each other table After the student finished presenting on the board, teachers require other students stop writing to check the writing on the board Teachers comment the writing and guide other students ways to write, what experiences should be drawn after each writing lesson Note; in the presentation of the students, we should not fix many grammatical errors as this activity is encouraging speech If we are interested in the grammatical error correction apprehensive students will lose confidence before friends

II: APPLY TEACHING

1 Time, materials, objects and apply the teaching environment

1.1 Time: This experience initiative was researched by me from

the 28th August, 2015 to the 20th April, 2016

1.2 Materials to research: in the process of implementing

research, I have reference material for teacher, the book teaching English and also learn more through British Council website: hppt//:WWW.Teachingenglish.org.uk

1.3 Application objects: students in grade 12C4 and students in

grade 12C5

1.4 Applicable environment: Triệu Sơn 2 upper secondary

school

1.5 Applicable lesson: Unit6: Future Job ( part B:

Speaking)-page: 65 (textbook- grade 12- standard program)

2 General characteristics of the subjects taught

2.1 Class 12C4:

- There are 42 students in class 12C4 Most of the students have weak academic

- Most students are from poor families so they are faint- hearted They not participating voluntarily post construction, many students

do not participate when teachers work Whenever required and instructors also showed no attention

- The majority of children have homework to prepare but nature should teachers with results not as expected

2.2 Class 12C5:

Here is the original class of naturally selected, but the students have academic average and weak academic subjects in English but their attitudes toward learning harder They often prepare their homework at home In the class children all participate in building excitement From the general characteristics

as outlined above, I studied materials and teaching method then applied normal method to 12C4 and with class 12C5 I applied the form of innovation practice English speaking skill

3 How to perform

3.1 For class 12C4

As presented above, all of the students in class 12C4 have prepared the lesson at home but reactive, during school hours on school students in a very low class Only some of them participated

in all speech construction, the rest is dealing with effective so teachers’ work sometimes not achieved as desired Therefore, to practice speaking skills for students to conduct classes I applied conventional methods to speak specifically the steps:

Step1: Teacher reads the questions then explain the vocabularies, after that

teacher requires students to answer the question in Task 1, textbook (SGK), students work individually for 5 minutes After finishing, teacher calls two or three pairs to make dialogue

Example: two students; Mai and Hương ask and answer,

Mai: what do you want to be in the future?

Huong: I want to be a teacher

Mai: Why do you want to be a teacher?

Huong: Because I love working with children

Step 2: After calling two or three pairs to ask and answer, teacher can

require learners to prune the unnecessary questions, then change those questions

to ask their friends about a birth day party that they took part in The ultimate goal is to turn the questions and answer into the conversation but understandable logic

Example: using the sentences in task 1;

Lan: What would you like to do in the future?

Tuan: I would like to work as a doctor

Lan: Why you would like to work as a doctor?

Tuan: Because working as a doctor would be fascinating job It’s a good chance for me to take care of people health

Step 3: Teachers ask students at this time based on questions and answers

acquire details then convert it into a paragraph saying They have time to prepare is five minutes After writing this paper, the teacher requires students to interchange to fix if any Then teacher calls from three to five students stood before his class reading

3.2 For class 12C5

The steps are the same as class 12C4 but there are some changes as follow:

Step 1: Teachers read questions, explain the vocabularies then ask students to

answer the questions in task 1 (textbook) Students work individually for 5 minutes After they have finished, the teacher can call 2 or 3 pairs to ask and answer as the dialogue

Step 2: In this step, teacher requires students to omit the unnecessary

sentences They can add some questions which related to their birthday party Student can use these questions to ask their friends’ birthday that he or she had participated The ultimate goal is to turn the questions and answer into the conversation but understandable logical dialogue

Example:

Lan: What would you like to do in the future?

Tuan: I would like to work as a doctor.

Lan: Why you would like to work as a doctor?

Tuan: Because working as a doctor would be fascinating job It’s a good chance

for me to take care of people health

Step 3: Teacher now requires students to base on the questions and the answers,

summarize the detail information then convert into a passage speaking Students prepare for 5 minutes After students write on the paper, teacher asks students to change their writing with their friend to fix errors After that teacher call 3 or five students to read his or her writing in front of the class

Step 4: At this stage, I give them skills in the form of expansion by asking them

to write a paragraph about a party that they joined It can be their classmate or other classes When the lesson finishes, they will have to complete the writing at home to be checked in the next lesson

Example: Students can write as the following passage.

Student 1:

In the future, I would like to work as a nurse Working as a nurse would be fascinating job because I would have a chance to take care of people health Student 2:

In the future, I would like to work as a tourist guide Working as a tourist guide would be very interesting because I would have a chance to take people to places of interest I also have a chance to visit many places of beauty

In this stage, I give students more time to prepare their writing Besides I also strict scrutiny to all to write about this event, there may be real or imaginary

or they may use the suggestion questions in task 1 I check 5 to 7 students reading their writing in front of the class to find out the best writing as an

sample for the group

III: APPLICATION ON A SPECIFIC LESSON

Unit 6 – Future jobs

Lesson 2: Speaking Period: 35 (Textbook 12)

1 Objectives:

After the lesson, Ss will be able to:

- Talk about jobs and give their opinions about jobs

2 Teaching aids:

- Posters, pictures, handouts and textbooks

3 Procedure:

Teacher’s activities students’ activities

Warm – up

Brainstorming

- Ask Ss to make a list of jobs as many as

possible

Eg:

-Teacher

- farmer

Whole class read out the answers

- Doctor

- Farmer

- Tourist guide

- Writer

- Mechanic

- Engineer

- Pilot

- Scientist

- Officer

- Electrician

-

Pre – speaking

Task 1: Matching

- Ask Ss to work in pairs to match a job in A

with at least two descriptions in B

- Have them look through the words in Task 1

and make sure that they know all the meaning of

the words

- Go around the class to check and offer help

- Call on some pairs to present their work

- Check the answers and give the feedback with

the following structure

A doctor is a person who……

…

Model:

- Students listen to the teacher and repeat, take notes

- Read the new words in chorus, individually

- Make some sentences using the words

-Individual work

Whole class

-Jobs

Teacher’s activities students’ activities

A doctor is a person who takes care of people’s

health.

- Match a job in A with two descriptions in B

- Present the answers

*Answers:

+ A farmer is a person who constructs irrigation

systems and applies new farming techniques.

+ A tourist guide is a person who finds good and

safe hotels for customers and takes people to

places of interest.

Pair work

Individual work

While – speaking

Activity 1: Task 2: Discussion

Teacher asks students to work in pairs to discuss

the jobs and give your opinions about them.

- Divide class into 4 groups, give each of them

two jobs (hand outs)

Group1: pilot and waiter

Group2: taxi driver and electrician

Group3: policeman and journalist

Group4: singer and computer

Model:

T: Do you like to become a pilot?

S: Yes/ No.

T: Why?/ Why not?

S: Because …/ I think….

- Teacher goes around the class to check and

offer help, collect some common mistakes for

later correction

- Teacher asks Students to discuss the jobs and

the present their opinions about them

Sample:

A: Do you like to become a waiter?

B: No, I don’t.

A: Why not?

B: Because It is very boring.

Activity 2: Reportation

- Call on some representatives to talk bout their

opinions of their jobs

- Call on some others to give their comments,

feedback

Pair- work

Lan: Do you like to become a pilot?

Huong: Yes, I do Lan: Why do like to become a pilot?

Lan: Because it is interesting

-Listen to the teacher

-Whole class

_ Individual works