SKKN MINIPROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Introduction

permanently mentioned, soft skills are always highly recommended for students to

be well-prepared at the threshold of the world of work Therefore, before

graduation, it is vital that students should be given opportunities to set up and improve soft skills

Many course books or textbooks are primarily designed to mainly supply

knowledge , which is only a part of what is necessary to land dream job As a result, employment recruiters claim that skill gaps need to be more concerned about or future employees would fail to get success in their target job

Context

Since 2010, Vietnamese MOET has been making great effort to reorient and design

-12) with a view to promoting soft skills for students through carrying out mini projects

The mini projects are aimed at supplying students with an opportunity to apply the language and skills they have learnt throughout the unit to do a task in a real life situation As a result, the projects are practical and doable enough for all students

to do provided that collaboration among team members is highly emphasized

Rationale

I have been teaching the new Tieng Anh series for three years and this school year (2016-2017) is the first time I have taught Tieng Anh 12

With the ambition to get students to be well prepared when they leave school, I do this small action research to help them build up soft skills through mini projects

Advantages and disadvantages

While using this kind of material I have come up with some benefits and

limitations that I would like to include here

Advantages

- I am strongly supported by my school authorities and colleagues, especially

I am greatly assisted by my group leader, who gives me more control and freedom in teaching and writing lesson plans

- Our school has two added periods for English per week so that I can fill in the gaps of the lessons for my students

- Most of my students are in the same level

- The books are

eye-topics are varied

However, I also deal with some drawbacks

Disadvantages

- As the series are not widely used in secondary schools, the related sources for reference are not rich and available As a result, it requires the teacher more time and energy to fulfill the task designs

- Since my students do not major in English, some lessons are hard for them

to cover as fully expected Additionally, as 12thgrade students, they are devoting more time to their other major subjects

Procedures

The procedures can be divided into three stages

Stage 1: At the beginning of the first semester, students were put in groups

to pick the projects in Tieng Anh 12 volume 1(see the Overview in the appendixes) at random Then they were demonstrated, described or

explained what they were going to do After that, deadlines were set They were supposed to carry out in ten weeks

Stage 2: Contacts between us were not only in class but Facebook

messenger, mobile texting or emails would also be used Timelines were required after the first week to make sure things went on as expected I gave students more guidance, support and advice to assist them out of the

problems or difficulties

Stage 3:Presentations were done after ten weeks Groups recorded their performance and questions were encouraged to raise from the others

Finally, constructive feedback was given

Here is the table of the summary

- Grouping

- Picking units

- Stating requirements with detailed explanations

- Setting deadlines

and help make some adjustments

- Week 3: asking students to briefly report where they are, what they did through a variety

of means of communication

- Week 7: reading the first written draft and give feedback

- Week 8: reminding the deadline and urging students to rehearse

presentations and giving feedback

Term definitions

What are soft skills?

as interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits and attitudes

ability to communicate well with other p

Among the soft skills, communication skills are considered the most

important ones Communication skills include Interview skills, Listening skills, Conversational skills, Team-working skills, Decision-making,

Problem-solving, Negotiation, Presentation and Personal skills

What is a project?

piece of planned work or an activity that is finished over a

period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose

The projects in Tieng Anh 12 ask students to do a survey or carry out

research to get information about their friends, their neighbourhood or to broaden their knowledge about the real world

Founded results and expectations

Findings

presentations Although the aim was not to improve computer skill, it can be concluded that some students are quite computer-literate(see in the

Appendix 2 and their presentations in the VCD)

Through observation, interviews (enclosed in the DVD) videoed later on, and small talks,

and gradually improved

Though recorded video clips cannot show satisfactory results as expected, I believe that students have gained some life skills when they are to work in teams to fulfill the required task

To make it clearer, I would like to mention some examples as follows

Decision-making and Listening skills were mainly practised when students worked out the Timeline together Team-working and Problem-solving skills were gradually established throughout the process and Presentation skill was built and developed at the final stage

a more professional way to carry out mini projects successfully It is hopeful that I will have more opportunities to share and learn from my colleagues and be more trained in workshops or seminars about this issue

As for students, they should be more aware of the importance of projects because they not only practise the language but also develop soft skills, which cannot be learned from books but only through practice They should take it particularly seriously like the way they spend time for their majors

(Ký tên và ghi rõ h tên)

CHU

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX 1

AN OVERVIEW

Speaking Writing Grammar Project Grade

12

Unit 1 LIFE

STORIES

Talking about a historical figure

Writing a life story

Past simple Past continuous Articles

Presentation: a famous person you admire Unit 2

URBANIZATION

Discussing key features of urbanization and expressing opinions about a preferable place of living

Describing a line graph

Subjunctives Finding out

how a city or a country has undergone urbanization Unit 3 THE

GREEN

MOVEMENT

Discussing lifestyle choices and deciding if they are

environmentally friendly

Writing an essay about advantages and

disadvantages

Simple, compound and complex sentences WHICH-connector

Conducting a survey on student lifestyle

Unit 4 THE MASS

MEDIA

Talking about social networking

Describing a pie chart

Verbs + prep.

Past perfect/past simple

Conducting a survey on favorite social networking sites and apps Unit 5 CULTURAL

IDENTITY

Talking about ways to maintain cultural identity

Writing an essay Present

perfect/Present perfect continuous Repeated comparatives

Presentation: cultural identity

of an ethnic group in Vietnam

APPENDIX 2

Cambridge Dictionary Online -http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/project

Collin Dictionary online-https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/soft-skills

Imran Newaz Khurshid-Why should Teachers have Soft Skills and what you can do about it.-December 29, 2014-https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-should-teachers-have-soft-skills-what-you-can-do-khurshid

PBLEducation -The Importance of Project Based Learning for

Classrooms-