Some pre listening techniques to motivate 10th students at nong cong II school to improve the listening skills’

All the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study about exprerience initiative in teaching ‘Some pre-listening techniques to motivate 10th students at Nong Cong II school t

TABLE CONTENT Page Part I: INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale

II Aims of the study

III Research methodology

Part II: DEVELOPMENT 3

1 Factors in teaching and learning listening skills

2 The role of pre-listening techniques

3 The importance of motivation in second language learning

Part III – DATA ANALYSIS 4

I Situation analysis

1 Tenth-form students:

2 The teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school

II Data analysis result

1 Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the role of pre-listening techniques.

1.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques 1.2 Students’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques

2 Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques.

3 The situation of using pre-listening techniques.

4.Data analysis of the class experience teaching

Part IV – SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPLOYING PRE-LISTENING TECHNIQUES 8

1 Using pre-listening techniques at Nong Cong II appropriately and flexibly

2 Encouraging the stuents’ internal factors

3 Improving the pre-listening activities in the Textbook English 10

Part V: CONCLUSION 10 REFERENCES 11

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT NÔNG CỐNG II

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

NHỮNG THỦ THUẬT DẠY Ở GIAI ĐOẠN TIỀN NGHE HIỂU NHẰM THÚC ĐẨY HỌC SINH LỚP 10 THPT NÔNG CỐNG 2 PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHE

Người thực hiện: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng Chức vụ: Giáo viên

SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực: Tiếng Anh

THANH HOÁ NĂM 2016

Part I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English is, nowadays, needed in every field of our lives and for such a long time it has been not only a compulsory subject in schools in Vietnam but one of three major subjects in the entrance exam to some Universities and Colleges as well

Of all four skills: listening, speaking , reading and writing, listening is always considered to be most difficult for teachers to teach and for students

to improve themselves, which leads to the fact that learners are afraid to learn listening skills

The ablity to understand the native speakers in direct conservations, on the radio or tape may be important for learners to further study the language and communicate in it This is also true to students at Nong Cong II high school, especially to 10th grade students, who little or even never practice listening skill at lower secondary school

It is known that a good pre-listening stage can arouse the students’ interest in listening as well as provide them language preparation which can

be helpful clues to their listening comprehension In order to make pre-listening techniques effective, the author applied a number of pre-pre-listening techniques helping students improve their listening skills

All the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study about

exprerience initiative in teaching ‘Some pre-listening techniques to motivate 10th students at Nong Cong II school to improve the listening skills’.

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- to investigate the teachers and students’ attitudes towards the pre-listening techniques And examine the students’ preference for the pre-listening techniques

- to give some suggestions for using pre-listening techniques (based on listening lessons of “Tieng Anh 10”) to motivate 10th grade students’ listening skills at Nong Cong 2 high school

3 Research methodology

Questionaire are designed as a means to make the researcher’s evaluayion more objective The questionnaires are given to tenth-form students and teachers of English at Nong Cong II with the hope to find out their attitudes towards pre-listening techniques as well as suggestions for these techniques

Part II: DEVELOPMENT

1 Factors in teaching and learning listening skill.

1.1 The listening texts

A listening text may be a short story, dialogue, a piece of news, a reading passage, ect written or read by native speakers in authentic English Therefore, learners are supposed to understand the text as much and correctly as possible According to Buck, G (2001): ‘Providing suitable texts

is not a simple matter It take times, effort and some expertise’

1.2 Teacher’s role

As many students feel afraid of listening, teachers should be a guide to help them, to courage them Rost, M (1994) states that ‘language teachers need to provide various types of support to their learners to help them to develop listening skills’

1.3 Students’ role

Obviously, students themselves play an important role in improving their own listening skills They not only should take an active part in learning but also have to take the risk of making mistakes because a mistake

is an opportunity to learn

1.4 Task difficulty

It will be good for both teachers and students to know about the factors which makes listening difficult, because this can help them find the way to overcome the problems they have in teaching and learing listening In second language teaching and learning, most of researchers focus on three following factors: Textual factors, the types of classroom tasks and inferences

2 The role of pre-listening techniques

This stage is carried out before students begin listening to the listening text It plays an essential part in the whole process of a listening lesson The pre activites are aimed at preparing learners with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text Normally, pre-listening stage often lasts from five to twelve minutes depending on each lesson

3 The importance of motivation in second language learning

Motivation is essential to success in most field of learning We will almost certainly fail to make the necessary effort without motivation Obvious, there has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second language learning However, researchers to indicate precisely how motivation is related to learning, especially for most Vietnamese learners, who are often driven by social and institutional factors such as finding better job opportunities as well as pressure on exams

Part III – DATA ANALYSIS

I Situation analysis

This experience report is carried out with the participation of over 120 tenth-form students in 10A1, 10A3 and 10A6 and 5 teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school

1 Tenth-form students:

Tenth-form students at Nong Cong II high school, aged 16, all have learned at least 4 years (from grade 6 to grade 9) However, it can be assured that their knowlegde of English is not the same Most of them come from Northern communes of Nong Cong district

2 The teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school

Of all teachers of English of Nong Cong II high school, Five teachers taking part in this study have been teaching ‘Tieng Anh 10’ textbook for over 8 years Without doubt, they are experienced and enthusiastic teachers Morever, they are willing to help their students overcome the difficulties in learning English

II Data analysis result

1 Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the role of pre-listening techniques.

1.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques.

All the teachers at Nong Cong 2 high school are aware of the importance of pre-listening techniques While 60% of the teachers admits they always use pre-listening techniques , and these techniques are often used by the rest of the teachers And the author herself recognizes their purposes in using pre-listening techniques , which to help students to predict the content of the text, provide background knowledge about the topic of the text, teach new or difficult vocabulary in the text, increasing the students’ motivation in listening to the text and get them involved in the text

1.2 Students’ attitude toward the role of pre-listening techniques

The pre-listening techniques are beneficial to students in any way, so it

is not suprising to find out majority of the students think these techniques play an importance part in motivating them to listen because they will feel more confident when they are guided by teachers before listening

2 Students’ preferences for pre-listening techniques.

A large number of the students enjoy such techniques as using games, pre-teaching new words and using pre-listening questions, which the teacher often uses This will make teachers’ activities more effective

3 The situation of using pre-listening techniques.

In each listening lesson, I have managed to one of these techniques before listening to motivate the students:

* Using games to introduce the topic of the text

* Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text

* Giving a brief introduction of the text

* Explaining the introduction of the text

* Pre – teaching new vocabulary in the listening text

* Making students brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text

* Using pre-listening questions

* Using group discussion about the topic of the text

* Giving listening tasks to students

4 Data analysis of the class experience teaching

The reseacher taught three classes (10A1, 10A3 and 10A6) with different pre-listening techniques when lead in at the pre-listening stage

The first experience took place in class 10A1 with unit 4 The listening text

is about Vang Trang Khuyet Club, an art club, organized for mentally retarded children This listening text is quite long and includes lots of new words The teacher employed the techniques for teaching vocabulary First, she asked students to work in groups to guess the words deriving from the roots: sorry, photo… In fact, some of these words will appear in the text Then she used pre-listening questions ‘Do you know how to take photo?’,

‘Would you like to join a photographic club?’ to introduce the topic Last, she pre-taught new words by giving definition or explanation These activities lasted in 15 minutes The reseacher’s experience, the students were willing to take part in teacher’s activities and eager to listen to the text

The second experience was taken from class 10A3 with unit 5 In the text,

an old man is talking about his learning how to use a computer The text also includes new words which belong to informatics The teacher prepared the pre-listening activities very carefully and spent 15 minutes employing them She used the pictures of the items (radio, cell phone, computer, …) and asked students to discuss the uses of these items This is the good way for students to revise the words they learnet in the reading and speaking lessons Then she introduced the topic briefly Before asking the students to listen, she elicited new words Most of the students took an active part in these activities

For unit 8, the author of the study taught class 10A6 The listening text is

about the changes of Poffero, a small town on the south coast of England First, the teacher hang up two pictures of the same town at two different point of time (in the past/ now), then asked students to discuss the differences between them Clearly, this attracted energetic students more than shy ones From the discussion, students were asked to predict the topic

of the listening text Many students pu up their hands, which means that they could guess the topic of the coming text Last, the teacher pre-taught new words The students listened attentively and took notes carefully

All in all, the teaching experiences help the reseacher confirm the fact that pre-listening techniques applied by the teacher have great impact to students’

motivation before they start listening And this is the result compared by the

previous years 2014 -2015

Listening Skills Before using pre-listening

techniques(2014-2015)

After (2015-2016)

Class

10A1

(43

students

Class

10A3

(50 sts)

Class

10A6

(44 sts)

Part IV – SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPLOYING PRE-LISTENING TECHNIQUES

1 Using pre-listening techniques at Nong Cong II appropriately and flexibly

It is obvious that motivating students to get actively involve in listening lessons depends on several factors However, in the experience study, the author’s invention is to investigate into the impact of teachers’ techniques on the students’ motivation at the very first stage of the lesson: pre-listening stage

The techniques used at this stage are:

* Using games to introduce the topic of the text

* Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text

* Giving a brief introduction of the text

* Explaining the introduction of the text

* Pre – teaching new vocabulary in the listening text

* Making students brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text

* Using pre-listening questions

* Using group discussion about the topic of the text

* Giving listening tasks to students

Teachers should also take the flexbility of applying pre-listening techniques into account This work is affected by the students’ level of proficiency and their familiarity to the topic

Let us take the listening in Unit 4 as an example If at the beginning of the lesson, teacher asks “What do you know about Vang Trang Khuyet club and its activities?” students will feel confused because many of them may know nothing about this club Thus, it is advisable for the teacher to make sure that students are clear about the topic and to ask more specific questions

2. Encouraging the students’ internal factors

Besides the teachers’ techniques or the ways they carry on the activities, the students’ personal things: Their feelings, their needs, their interests or their innate characteristics have a great impact on the success of the lesson Thus, it is essential to assist the students to build up their strong motivation for listening by raising their awareness of the importance of motivation to their understanding as well as to their skill development Moreover, students should be encouraged to build up confidence in learning

Last but not least, teacchers’ techniques or activities should meet the demands of the students To help students sustain long-term motivation, teachers should consider the students’ needs and interests while designing and and employing any kind of techniques

3 Improving the pre-listening activities in the Textbook English 10

A large number of teachers and students are in favor of pre – listening available in each lesson of English book 10 However, 16% of the students suppose that these activities are boring or can not motivate them Therefore,

it may be a good idea to add more activities that are of students’ interests, such as games or visual aids at the pre-listening stage

PART V: CONCLUSION

As teachers of English at a rural school, we have faced many obstacles

in developing students’ listening skill, and the desire of how to improve the effectiveness of listening lessons is really the strong motivation This study was conducted with the hope to find out the role of pre-listening techniques

to students’ motivation in listening at Nong Cong II high school In fact, teachers often find it hard to get students actively involved in their listening activities, meanwhile, the students are not always highly motivated by the techniques their teachers apply in the lesson

To better the listening lesson, the teachers should take such things as teaching ang learning conditions, the listening texts, listening strategies and students’ preference into account In more details, some suggestions (Using pre-listening techniques appropriately and flexibly; Encouraging the

students’ interal factors; Improving the pre-listening activities in the

material) are provided above, which, hopefully, are useful for the teachers of English at Nong Cong II high school

Due to the limitation of time, experience and resources, short-comings and mistakes are inevitable Therefore, all comments and corrections are hightly appreciated

Confirmation of the Head Master

of Nong Cong II High School

Thanh Hoa March 20 th, 2015

I declare that the work contained in this initiative is result of

my own research

Nguyễn Thị Thu Hang (M.A)

1 Anderson A& Lynch T, (1988) Listening, Oxford, Oxford University

Press

2 Field J (1998) Skills and Strategies; towards a new methodology for listening Oxford University Press

3 Linggzhu, J (2003) Listening activities for Effective to-down processing.

The Internet Journal, Vol IX, November, http: iteslj.org/

4 Hoa, H.X., et al (2004) Tài Liệu Bồi Dưỡng Giáo Viên Dạy Sách Khoa Lớp 10 – Môn Tiếng Anh The Ministry of Education and Training.

5 Rost, M (1990) Listening in language learning, London, Longman

6 Ellis, M (1986: 47) Making and shaping games How to adapt.

University of Technology, Loughborough

7 Ur P, J.D (1989) Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambrigde

University Press

8 Van, H.V., et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Education Publishing House of Vietnam.

9 Websites:

- https://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/listening/

- http://www.esl-library.com

- Englishpost.org/2013/03/16/pre-listening-activities/

- http:iteslj.org/techniques/Lingzhu-listening.html

APPENDICES

I. Appendix 1: OBSERVATIONAL PROTOCOL

1 Observational Protocol 1: Unit 4 – Van Trang Khuyet club

Class: 10A1 (Period 3from 9.20 to 10.05)

Date: Monday, 23/10/2015

Teacher’s activities Students’attitu

des toward T’s activities

Students’

involvement

Students’interacti

on with each other

-At 9.20 a.m,

teacher comes in

and greets the

students