Some activities to stimulate students’ speaking in speaking lessons (tiếng anh 10)

Purposes of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to 10th Graders in Quang Xuong 3 High School, Quang Xuong, Thanh Hoa; - Inves

Table of contents

Contents PageName of the theme

A.Introduction

I Reasons of choosing the theme

II.Purposes of the study

III Scopes of the study

IV Research methodology

I.THE REASONS OF CHOOSING THE THEME

According to my teaching experience, four language skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be fully stimulated during the course of study to help the students communicate in the target language since thelack of any skills will spoil the effectiveness of communication However,

learning quality is still far from being satisfactory Learners have faced many difficulties in English learning, especially in the learning of speaking skills.

In fact, it is undeniable that many Vietnamese students after seven yearslearning English at schools still feel confused when communicating withforeigners or they even could not say a simple utterance like an offer Obviously,the ability to communicate in a foreign language clearly and effectivelycontributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in everyphase of life

Like many high schools in Vietnam,at Quang Xuong 3 high school,English has been a compulsory subject in its curriculum for many years and theEnglish speaking skill is one of five official parts in a unit However, due to thedemand of the high school graduation exam, which means little attention hasbeen paid to the speaking skill Sometimes, they feel bored with the difficult anduninteresting topics in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ With 6 year – experience inQuang Xuong 3 school.HS,I find that the English lessons with speakingactivities designed by teachers always motivate students and get them involved

in speaking effectively

The effort of this thesis is trying to encourage teachers to apply innovativemethods in teaching speaking skill for learners and to help students to learn speaking subject more effectively Having students work in groups not only makes them more involved in learning but also gives the m opportunities to practise the foreign language being learned There are many reasons but above

are the main drivers for us to engage in this study entitled Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10)

II Purposes of the study

The study is aimed at:

- Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to 10th

Graders in Quang Xuong 3 High School, Quang Xuong, Thanh Hoa;

- Investigating the effectiveness in Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10)

III.Scope of the study

This study is implemented to find answers to the following research

questions:

1 What are students’ difficulties in learning the current English speaking

2 Which speaking lessons (in 16 units of Tieng Anh 10) are difficult for the students at QX3HS?

3 What speaking activities in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”should be adapted to reduce students’ difficulties?

IV.Research methodology

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the study employed survey

questionnaire for students, interview for teachers and classroom observations

to collect information on the the students’ difficulties and seeks a way to reduce those difficulties by adapting some unsuitable textbook pre-designed English speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10”

B CONTENTS OF THE THEME

I Theoretical basis

In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers tofollow without any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such aslinguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety.Thus, I favor Madsen and Bowen’s (1978) and Tice’s (1991) view that is thepurpose of material adaptation is to compensate for those deficiencies This isimportant to all teachers of English because it can activate learners and stimulatetheir motivation, and increased motivation, in turn, is likely to create a moreconductive classroom atmosphere

II.Practical basis

1 Problems with English speaking

Everything has bad and good sides Speaking also has its own problems.According to Brown (1994: 256), the characteristics of spoken language canmake oral performance easy as well as in soe cases difficult There are followingproblems with speaking:

• Clustering * Redundancy

• Reduced forms * Colloquial language

• Stress, rhythm and intonation * Affective factors

2 Problems with English speaking activities

It is more difficult to design and adminster such activities than to do so forlistening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that Ur(1996:121) lists out:

• Inhibition * Nothing to say:

• Lows or uneven participation * Mother-tongue use:

Basing on these views, an action research is to caried out on adaptingsome English speaking activities for the ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to reduce thesedifficulties

3.Applying some activities to stimulate students'speaking

3.1 ROLE PLAY

a.Activities 1

Application: Task 3 - Unit 6: An excursion

Aims: Giving opinions, expressing agreement and disagreement

Class time: 20 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 66

Source: Section cards and role cards (See Appendix 1)

Procedure:

1 Copy and cut the 4 role cards of each people and the 6 section cards

2 Divide the class into group of four (or three if there are only three students left) Give each group one set of role cards and one set of situation cards (for group of three, leave out role card D)

3 Ask the students to sit round the table with the situations cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table The cards should be in order from 1 to 6 Each student should have a role card 1, 2, 3 or 4

4 Tell the students that it is Sunday morning and Tim’s class is going on a boat

on Lake Michigan in Chicago Read the seat plan You suggest the best seat in each section for each person

5 The object of the game is using structures ‘… think …‘should’ or should not… because’ Or giving opinions via answers ‘Yes’, ‘No’ basing on the content of

textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’

6 The game is finished when they have successfully decided on each people’s seat Ask groups their decision on some sections and check with the whole class

b Activities 2

Application: Task 2 – Unit 3: People’s background

Aims: to encourage students to find out information related to their friends’

background for their presentation next task

Level: Elementary

Class time: 10 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 35

Source: English Textbook 10, Education Press, 2006 (See Appendix 2)

3 Students work in pairs to do the interview

4 Teacher walks around to encourage and help students if necessary

5 Teacher calls some pairs to do the interview before class

After doing this task, students can collect information to talk about the friend they have interviewed for reporting at the end of the lesson Most students are eager to do the task because they can do it in role of the interviewers

3.2 INFORMATION GAP

a Activities 1

Application: Task 3 – Unit 1: A day in the life of …

Aims: Talking about daily activities

Class time: 10 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 14

Source: Role cards

Role Cards

Student A

In the At 10 In the Before At the

morning a.m evenings bed weekends

The pictures are adapted from http://www.esl-library.com

Procedure:

1 Copy the two role cards They are the same but some information is missing from each

2 Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the 2 role cards

3 Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’squestions

e.g A: What does Tom do after school?

B: He often does exercise.

4 Tell the students to write the answers in the boxes or draw the picture

5 Ask the students to write his/ her partner’s name in the last box and ask him/ her the same questions to complete the boxes

6 The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing

information Tell students to stand up and make full sentences about the

characters in the cards

b Activities 2

Application: Task 2 – Unit 15: Cities

Aims: Comparing two cities

Class time: 15 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 159

Source: Role cards – Cities (See Appendix 3)

Procedure:

1 Copy the two role cards - cities They are the same but some information is missing from each

2 Ask students to work in pairs Give each pairs the 2 role cards

3 Tell the students to complete the form by asking and answering their partner’squestions

e.g When was New York founded?

What is population of New York?

How many national holidays are there in New York?

5 The activity is finished when students have completed all the missing

information in their cards

6 Ask some students to stand up and talk about the person they have asked their partners to get the information about their cities

3.3 CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING

a Activity 1

Application: Task 1 – Unit 5: Technology and You

Aims: Asking for and giving information about the uses of modern inventions Class time: 10 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 56

Source: Modern inventions Cards

Modern inventions Cards

Answering machine Camera

Cassette tape

CD player

The pictures are adapted from: http: www.esl-library.com

Procedure:

1 Copy and cut out the 18 modern invention cards above

2 Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students

left) Give each group one set of job cards

3 Tell the students to put cards face down on the table

4 Ask students to take it turn to pick up a card and ask and answer about the

uses of modern inventions Put some helpful language on the board for them to

6 Ask one group to stand up and say about one of the modern inventions in

the cards Ask the other groups to add more information

b Activity 2

Application: Task 2 – Unit 11: National Parks

Aims: Expressing regrets (using the conditional sentence type 3)

Class time: 15 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 115

Source: Situation cards - List of wishes (See Appendix 4)

Procedure:

1 Copy the list of wishes and the situation cards, cut out the situation cards

2 Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student a list of wishes and two situation cards

3 Tell the students to complete their list of wishes by saying according to model others in their group:

e.g If we had not …., we wouldn’t have …

4 When students have completed all the missing information in their list of wishes, ask them to tell their group the most interesting or surprising wisher theyhave known

3.4 DISCUSSION

a Activity 1

Application: Task 3 – Unit 8: The story of my village

Aims: Talking about plans and possible results (in the village).

Class time: 10 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 85

Source: Question Cards (See Appendix 5)

Procedure:

1 Copy, cut out and shuffle question cards

2 Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three

students left) Give each group one set of question cards

3 Ask students to sit round the table with the question cards face down in a pile in the middle of the table One student starts by turning up the top card, reading it out to the group and discussing their plans and possible results The next student now picks up a card, reads it out … and the activity continues

4 Stop the students at the end of the time limit

5 Ask each group in turn which question card gave rise to most discussion

b Activity 2

Application: Task 3 – Unit 9: Undersea World

Aims: Reporting on discussion results

Class time: 15 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 97

Source: Situation Cards (See Appendix 6)

Procedure:

1 Copy and cut out the 5 situation cards

2 Divide the class into groups of four (or three if there are only three

students left) Give each group one set of situation cards

3 Ask students to turn up the first card and compare four situations on the card to find out solutions Encourage them use ‘should’ and ask groups

exchange situations, then discuss again

4 When the time is over, find out the best solutions.

c Activity 3

Application: Task 2 – Unit 14: The World Cup

Aims: Asking and answering questions about the World Cups

Class time: 20 minutes

Source: Handouts (See Appendix 7)

A: Where was the first World Cup held?

B: It was held in Uruguay.

A: Which teams played in the final match?

B: Uraguay and Argentina.

A: Which team became the champion?

3.5 INTERVIEWS

Application: Task 2 – Unit 4: Special Education

Aims: Making an interview.

Class time: 20 minutes

Materials: English textbook 10, page 48

Source: Handouts (See Appendix 8)

Procedure:

1 Copy and cut out the six handouts

2 Divide the class into groups of six (or five if there are only five students left) Give each student one of the six handouts

3 Explain that each student has some questions in their handout, ask them tointerview four other people in their group and make a note of answer they get

4 Stop the students at the end of the time limit whether they have finished

or not Ask some students to stand up and present their work

4 Results

In order to assess the effectiveness of applying this method to teachingreading, I have compared my work with many classes (10D, 10A5, 10 A2 schoolyear 2013-2014, 10 D, 10 A2, 10A3 school year 2014-2015) for many years.Before using this method, most of my students find it difficult to complete allthe taks in the text book

It is a matter of fact that after applying Some activities to stimulate students' speaking in speaking lessons (Tieng anh 10) , my students and I felt it

very interesting , they seemed to be very eager for speaking lessons During the lessons, all the students were involved in the activities After each speaking

lesson, students remember the speaking situation more thoroughly Besides, theyhad many chances to practice many other skills like writing and listening,

especially speaking in pairs, in groups or in individually in front of the whole class

Chart Students’ feedback towards applying changing or

adding English speaking activities and their effectiveness.

Most children love to speak English with the following results:

Beginning of the year After 1 st term After 2 nd term

of being a translator, for all the activities in the classroom

generally Therefore, to motivate students in speaking lessons, it is vitally

necessary to adapt these speaking activities

Secondly, the students’ favorite speaking activities except for games are also highly appreciated by the teachers Moreover, these activities get them not bored and make them more confident However, games are not always profitableand very time-consuming though they are very interesting and attract students’

This is my little experience in finding methods to help students findspeaking lesson more interesting I hope to receive your reading and comments

as well as contribution to make this theme more perfect so that it can be appliedwidely

Sam Son,April 17 th ,2016

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Of the school mine,not copying

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