Some strateries to develop students listening skill in english 11 basic program

Being a teacher of English, I always pay attention to helping the students feel simple and excited about their listening lessons.. Therefore, how to make students enjoy the listening les

INDEX Page

I INTRODUCTION 1.Reasons for research

2.Purposes

3.Subjects

2

II CONTENTS

3 Solutions : Guessing information, brainstorming, getting

the main idea, using many activities in a listening lesson, and

combining many tips to make the lesson more effective

+ A Model lesson plan: English 11: Unit 6: Competitions

Part C Listening

4

11

III CONCLUSION

IV REFERENCES

1 Reasons for the research

English is, nowadays, used as an important tool in communicating with other countries in the world Learning English has always been very essential for every student to study However, it is not always easy to use English as an effective means

of communication without practicing listening skills The more we listen, the more quickly and efficiently it helps us to understand and communicate with others Thus, listening skill is one of the most necessary parts in English language program at high schools To be skillful listeners, all students require not only great motivation but

also good teachers’ methods of teaching To do well in teaching English requires that the teacher of English spend a lot of time on preparing thoroughly to be able to master the contents of the teaching lesson Furthermore, practicing English skills for students at Hau Loc I high school is really challenging because of their poor vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation Therefore, students are afraid of listening skill Being a teacher of English, I always pay attention to helping the students feel simple and excited about their listening lessons

2 Purpose.

Currently, we are adopting innovative teaching methods of English teaching and learning to achieve the best efficiency, especially focused on communicative skills What teaching techniques are the best and suitable for language teachers? In fact, most students have learned a number of relatively words, but they often feel it very hard to listen and master the language according to situations happened Therefore, how to make students enjoy the listening lesson and have the ability to use their listening skill to communicate actively is a problem every teacher has concerns Based on the innovation of the teaching methodology of the Ministry of Education and Training , I would like to give some experiences in :

“Some strategies to develop students’ listening skill in English 11 basic program”

3 Subjects.

In my research, I study with 11th grade students In this grade, students are mature enough to understand some concerned facts about the learned topic Therefore, the ways to motivate them to listen is the most important thing in teaching process From my practical teaching experience, I’ve found that if we use suitable methods, most of the students will be very interested in the class and doing the exercises more perfectly

4 Methods

To make my listening lessons effectively, I have used some following methods: Firstly, I always ask the students to search for information about the topic before coming to class

Secondly, I always get advice from colleagues through co- working I can learn from both their good and bad points by attending their lessons

Thirdly, I apply science and technology in teaching For example, I use the software which applied to pronounce vocabulary to help students be accustomed to listening

to native speaker accent

Next, I study through the internet, use new methods in teaching English such as: using pictures to teach vocabulary, using the bingo-game to check up new words; Finally, I use a variety of activities in the listening lesson to get students involved in

my activities without being bored

II- CONTENT

1.Theoretical basis:

In the current high school program, listening skill is one of the four main skills for students to learn But in fact, both teachers and students must be ready to practice listening skill in all parts of the lesson In examinations for English certificates, listening exercises are more and more stressed Therefore, to have an effective listening skill, students should be encouraged to practice that skill in every lesson of each unit

2 Realities before applying the reseach:

Teaching and learning English at high school in Vietnam still faces many problems such as: lack of teaching equipment, and adequate teaching methods Furthermore, that the majority of students do not pay attention to acquiring knowledge is also a serious problem causing difficulties in raising the quality of teaching and learning English

The innovative way of teaching and learning English has been conducted for a long time, but only in the process of teaching formulas, many teachers still follow the path of reading and copying, not really apply active teaching methods to stimulate students’ creativity, self – promoting students to learn, explore and acquire knowledge Besides, teaching and learning English at schools also take place in the communicative environment of teachers and students which has so many limitations: Teaching in a large group ( usually each class has about 40 students or more) , the levels of awareness are different Many students have difficulty in learning a foreign language because they don’t realize the importance of it These things not only distract students’ focus on the lesson but also have a huge impact on skills trained for students They make the students’ process to acquire knowledge slow Moreover, in listening lessons, problems students often encounter are:

Speed of Speaking: what listeners hear seems to be spoken too quickly; they can’t

control the pace at which the speaker speaks

Phonology: listeners often can’t hear or pronounce letters/sounds that don’t occur

in their mother language; they often can’t decode reduced forms

Difficult to grasp the main idea of the listening.

Limit vocabulary, and lack of concentration when listening.

How can we help learners who have such difficulties improve their listening comprehension ?

3 Solutions:

Using some strategies in teaching listening lessons for students of grade 11.

From the practical teaching experience of the subject and the requirements to achieve when teaching students in the English listening lesson, I myself have applied some strategies available that match the characteristics of students’ age and English programs to help students have the right skill to learn the listening lessons more effectively

3.a Guessing information.

Actually, when we listen to people talking, we may not understand all the words However, we can use all the words we know and the context of the conversation

to help us guess the words we do not know Guessing information is an important listening skill It can help us do well on standardized listening tests

Example:

When teaching Unit 2 “ Personal experiences” Part C: Listening: Before

listening, I prepare some picture and let students do some exercises

EX 1 : Look at the picture and guess what is hapening in it

Students may guess the content of the story, teacher write down the information, and lets students check after they listen to each part

A fire / burn /destroy/ terrible / firemen/ a little girl and her mother…

EX 2: Have any of these things happened to you ? Tick the right

column.

What happened Yes No

1 You experienced a fire

2 You got stuck in an elevator and couldn’t escape

3 You were terrified and screamed

4 Someone rescued you

Students can easily give some related words to the topic such as: burn, escape , terrified , scream, rescue ,and guess the content of the listening task.

3 b Brainstorming.

It is important that teachers prepare enough data for the listening lesson by providing some cues and brainstorming the knowledge from students To motivate students to listen teachers should have some guided methods which can make it easier for them to understand the foreign language

For example:

When teaching Unit 11: Sources of energy Part C- Listening, before

listening teachers can ask students to look at the pictures and give the names of each type of energy

Then ask them to decide which sources of energy are limited and which ones are

unlimited

Solar energy

Wind power

Water power

One kind of Fossil fuels.

In this process, teacher can also elicit the advantages and disadvantages of these sources of energy Base on the information given from the students, teacher can

make the listening lesson get closer to their daily life and easier for them to understand.Therefore this activity can motivate students’ listening skill

3.c Getting the main idea

In this case, teacher helps students identify the important words which are stressed Notice that these words are spoken louder, longer or higher than other unstressed words Stressed words usually give the most important information

Example:

Herb: Say , Mike Can you give me some help with my math homework this afternoon ?

Mike: Umm, I’d like to but I really can’t I have to go into the city and do alot of things

Herb: Oh yeah ? Like what ?

Mike: I have to go to the bank and open a checking account, I have to mail

a package at the post office, and I might get a hair cut too.

Herb: Well, that’s not much When are you going to come back ?

Mike: I’m not sure I might eat downtown if the traffic looks bad Herb: How are you going to get around ?

Mike: I don’t know I think I’ll take a taxi

(The underlined words are stressed in the conversation )

Or sentences with unstressed words are often reduced

Example: Long form reduction

Can you give me some help ?

I’d like to but I can’t

When are you going to come back ?

Could you get me some stamps ?

Kinya gimme some help ? I’d liketa, but I can’t Whenaya gonna come back ? Couldja get me some stamps ?

By listening and paying attention to the stressed words, students can easily

summarize the main ideas of the conversation

Note the cues: in listening to a passage or a speech, the phrases often used to give

main ideas are: I would like to emphasize, The general point you must remember is,

It is important to note that, I repeat that, Another thing is, Finally, That is, Now,

3 d Using many activities in a listening lesson

To encourage and promote students to learn more effectively and positively, students need great concentration Taking part in many activities gives students a chance to express their language abilities because it makes students enthusiastic and excited In this step, students will pay more attention to the lesson and they’ll feel more confident to express their opinions, which promote their creative thoughts Therefore, I have applied some activities such as : group discussion , role play or questions and answer These activities widen students’ knowledge about the topic they have listened Not only can they help students understand the lesson deeply but they can have chances to practise their communicative skills

3 e Combining many tips to make the lesson more effective.

Tip 1: Use a Hand Signal

A wonderful way to sharpen those listening skills is to use a

non-verbal hand signal It can go something like this, "After I read the following

statement, I would like to you to hold up one finger if you agree with it, or two fingers if you disagree with it.” This strategy asks all students to fully participate

and it will be obvious if a student wasn’t paying attention at the end of the statement

Tip 2: Talk Less

Most of the time teachers spend the majority of their day talking and lecturing to students But listening to teacher talk does not ensure that students are actually learning What we want to do is talk less and have students talk more Try several mini-lessons through the day where students listen for shorter periods of time, and talk amongst their group about what they are learning

Tip 3: Have Students “Check-in” with Each Other

There will be times when students miss what teacher said and instead of interrupting

us to find out what that is, we can have them “check-in” with a partner Each day give students a few moments to compare notes or talk with their partners about anything that they may have missed

Tip 4: Hold All Students Accountable

If we really want our students to listen to us when we talk then we must hold them accountable for listening Instead of giving them all of the notes or key concepts that they need to know, only give them half of them The other half they will have to listen to us to get By providing only an outline for them to follow, we are ensuring that they will listen to us as we speak

Tip 5: Break the Monotony

Breaking the monotony is the key to success of a good listening lesson If we design lessons suitably, we’ll make the students active and motivated Be sure to break the monotony of our lessons and our school day to ensure students are always on their toes If they think they can be called upon at any time to answer a question, they will

be more apt to listen

4 A model lesson plan for a listening lesson.

English 11: Period: 31 Unit 6: Competition

Part C: Listening

I/ Aim: Listening for specific information

II/ Objectives: By the end of the lessons, will be able to:

 listen and understand the summary history of Boston Marathon in The United States

 listen and decide whether the right or false information

 ask and answer about the content of dialogue

III/ Materials:

Textbook, cassette player, tape, projector

IV/ Anticipated problems:

Students may have difficulty in catching exact meaning of words and phrases to understand the conversation

V/ Procedure

I/ Warm-up:

Show the pictures and ask the questions

1.What are they doing?

2 Have you ever taken part in the marathon race?

3 Do you know what kind of contest is

“ Marathon”?

4.What do you know about Marathon ?

5 Who can take part in it ?

II/ Pre-listening:

Pre-teach Vocabulary: Use pictures, and

translation

-formally /’fomli/ Adv: chính thức

Listen

Do as directed Group work -Pair work

1………

2………

3 It is a running contest

4 It is the oldest road race

in the U.S It is held every year in middle of April

5 Both men & women can take part in it

Whole class Listen Repeat

-clock /klok/ (v): ghi được = (n)

- reach the finish (v) =come to the destination

-join (v) = take part in: tham gia

-association /əsousi’ei∫n/ (n): hiệp hội

Teacher plays the tape and asks students to

practice them

Teacher calls some students to read the words

CHECKING VOCABULARY

Teacher instructs: The game called “Bingo”

Teacher tells students to write 5 words/ phrases

what you have learnt randomly

Teacher plays audio with 7 words

Students listen to their pronunciation to tick the

word which they have heard on their lists

Copy down Read the words

Whole class

Students write 5 words as teacher’s requirement

Tick the word which they have heard on their lists

The whole class read the statements in pair and try to guess the information

Students focus on listening

to the tape and do the task