A STUDY ONTEACHING GRAPH DESCRIPTION TO ENGLISH MAJORS USING PROJECT BASED LEARNING

Paraphrasing skill Method Number 1: Using Synonyms Synonyms are different words that have the same meaning.. Method Number 2: Change the Word Order Changing the word order also allows us

SỞ GIÁO DỤC &ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LAM SƠN

A STUDY ONTEACHING GRAPH DESCRIPTION

TO ENGLISH MAJORS USING PROJECT BASED LEARNING

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ DẠY MIÊU TẢ BIỂU ĐỒ CHO HỌC

SINH CHUYÊN ANH

SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP HỌC QUA DỰ ÁN

Người thực hiện: Vũ Thị Thu Hiền Chức vụ: TTCM tổ Ngoại ngữ SKKN thuộc môn: Tiếng Anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2019

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale: ……… 2

2 Aims of the study ……….… 2

3 Scope of the study ……….……… 2

4 Method of the study……… ………… 2

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Data interpretation ……….

2 Role of project-based learning in a language classroom: …… ………. 23 PART III GRAPH DESCRIPTION TECHNIQUES I Language use ……….

1 Language of Introduction ………

2 Language of Change ……….………

3 Language of Comparison and Contrast ………

4 Linking Devices ………

5 Prepositions ………

6 Tenses ………

II Subskills ……….

1 Paraphrasing skill ………

2 Identification of Main Features ………

3 Organization of Information ………

III Chart of Different Types ……….….

1 Line Chart ………

2 Pie Chart ………

3 Bar Chart ………

4 Table ………

5 Two Graphs Together ………

PART IV A CLASSROOM PROJECT ON GRAPH DESCRIPTION WRITING 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 9 9 9 10 10 12 13 13 13 14 1 Topic ……… 14

2 Participants ……… 14

3 Procedure ……… 14

4 Samples ……… 15

5 Effectiveness of using PBL ……… 19

PART V CONCLUSION and SUGGESTION 20 REFERENCES ……… ……

PART I INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

Chart description is a challenging task for English learners because it requires notonly a strong vocabulary, good grammar but also high level of analytical skills ManyEnglish majored high school students are struggling to fulfil this task They often go

to details andfail to recognize the distinguishing features of the graph Besides, theflow of their writing is rather difficult for the readers to follow as the interpretation isoften poorly organized Another difficulty they meet lies in the content of the graphwhich is generally unfamiliar to them and far from their interest.For these reasons,the author of this study decided to research different approaches to teaching thissection in hope of enabling the students to overcome the aforementioned obstacles

II Aims of the study

The four main objectives of this study include

- to review some literature related to data description and statistical analysis;

- to provide several samples of student work;

- to find out an effective method in teaching this part of knowledge

III Scope of the study

The object of my study is restricted to English majored 10 graders in Lam Sơngifted high school because a majority of them want to sit the IELTS exam and thenational competition for the excellent students in which chart description is arequired part Thus, the students have motivation to learn and the teacher can assignextra time out of the whole curriculum for this section

IV Method of the study

The study is conducted after the teacher’s instruction of the language, types ofgraphs and how to describe different types of graphs A thirty six student class isdivided into 6 groups, each will do a project using the recently learned knowledge.The project aims to investigate students’ satisfaction with their school After ten days,all students in class are questioned about their opinion on the new method

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW

This research is developed from the popular instructions on data interpretation ingeneral and chart description in particular Moreover, the theories about project-basedlearning is also discussed to provide the ground for a minor project on motivatingstudents to interview their friends and analyze the data collected using the chartdescription techniques they have learnt

I Data interpretation

Data, in simple language, is the name given to basic facts like names andnumbers Time, dates, weights, prices are some simple examples of data Handlingdata interpretation questions is difficult and it is one of the important aspects ofalmost every competitive examination

The job requires a set of subskills including:

1 Attention to Details

Ability to pay attention to details allows interpreters to find and see initiallyunseen details and links.

2 Numeracy Skills

These refer to mathematical skills which include a wide range of abilitiesincluding:

 Have good knowledge of figures and numbers

 Understand the relationships existing between numbers

 Interpret any mathematical information

 Have the ability to organize information

 Be conversant with trends

 Know how to measure and analyze data

 Be able to work with graphical information

 Possess calculation skills

To read and interpret charts, the reader should be able to:

• Read the title on the chart to find out what content is being presented

• Read all the headings and labels in the chart to determine what is beinggrouped andpresented in each subcategory (each column and each row) Begin byreading the headings atthe top to find out what categories of information theycontain

• Identify similarities, differences, and other relationships among the data

• Compare the information being presented Numerical data often can beranked from smallestto largest

• Identify trends, patterns and relationships in order to reveal information andconnections about thesubject/topic

II Project-based learning in EFL classroom:

The pedagogical concept of Project-Based Learning (PBL) is not new PBL isdescribed by Moss and Duzer as an instructional approach that contextualizeslearning by assigning students with products to develop Students then have toexplain their answers to real-life questions, problems, or challenges It starts with adriving question that leads to inquiry and investigation

The approach involves skill-integration learning Complex skillsincludingreading, listening,writing, speaking and complex tasks such as sortinginformation, designing, presenting, problem-solving, decision-making tasks aresequenced and combined in multiple states of development for the success of project.These tasks are often centered on a theme, or topics, relevant to the specific contentbeing studied

PBL is common and useful in second language classroom because the targetlanguage then is used as a tool for communication and functions as a vehicle foracquiring knowledge Students have opportunities to recycle known language whilefocusing on topics or themes As a result, linguistic features found in texts studentsread or listen are likely to appear at some point in their written or spoken projectreport Besides, PBL is engaging as students learn the language through meaningfulactivities, in natural context and use the language for real purposes PBL also helps

project, for each step of shaping their own products and for their own learningoutcome in general

Thus, teachers are encouraged to assign projects which motivate students toaccess information presented in their target language in order to solve real problems.This way their language skills are also improved automatically

PART III GRAPH DESCRIPTION TECHNIQUES

Showsrepresentsdepictsenumeratesillustratespresentsgivesprovidesdescribesdelineatesdenotescomparescontrastsfigures

the comparison ofthe differencesthe changesthe shiftthe information onthe data on

the proportion of the percentage ofthe trend of

2 Language of Change

Visualization does help learners to strengthen their vocabulary in writing graphdescription The illustrated images and language below may be used for

thatpurpose.

3 Language of Comparison and Contrast

a Expression to focus on an item in the graph

With regards to, In the case of, As for, Turning to, When it comes to ,Where is/are concerned, Regarding

b Expression to compare

Similarly, In a similar fashion, In the same way, Same as, As much as,Meanwhile

c Expression to show contrast

However, On the contrary, on the other hand, in contrast

5 Prepositions

Certain prepositions go with certain words when you use the language of change

If you put them in the wrong place or use the wrong preposition you may confusewhat you are trying to say First, take a look at this graph model answer and noticehow some of the prepositions in the graph are used They have been highlighted

Sample Task 1 Answer

The line graph compares the number of car thefts for every thousand vehicles in four countries from 1990 to 1999 Overall, it can be seen that car thefts were far higher in Great Britain than in the other three counties throughoutthe whole time frame.

To begin, car thefts in Sweden, France and Canada followed a fairly similar pattern overthe first five years, all remaining at between 5 and 10 per thousand The general trend though for France and Canada was a decline inthe number of vehicles stolen overthe period, with both at around 6 in 1999 In contrast, Sweden experienced an upward trend, starting the period at approximately 8, and finishing at just under 15.

Interestingly, car thefts in Great Britain started at 18 per thousand, which far exceeded that of the other countries It then fluctuated overthe next nine years, reaching a peak of 20 thefts per 1000 in 1996, and ending the period slightly lower than where it began, at approximately 17 per thousand.

As you will see, it runs from 2012 until 2022 In some graphs you may be given atime frame that includes the past and the future (or possibly only the future) In thiscase you need to be very careful that you are using the past tense when appropriateand the future tense when appropriate.

These are some common phrases you can use to discuss a graph in the future:

+ infinitive

is/are expected to + infinitive

is/are predicted to + infinitive

Now take a look at the line graph and a part of the model answer and the differenttenses employed:

The line graph illustrates the financial position of a New Zealand local authority from 2012 to 2022 It is measured in millions of New Zealand dollars Overall, it can be seen that while rates revenue and user charges are predicted to increase over the period, borrowings and grants and subsidies will remain much lower.

Rates revenues and user charges will follow a very similar pattern over the time frame Rates revenue stood at just under 1.5 billion in 2012, which was the highest of the four criteria Though they remained stable until 2013, they are expected to climb

to approximately 2.4 billion dollars in 2022 Like rates revenues, use charges are predicted to continuously increase They began the period at 1 billion and will stand

at twice this level by 2022…

II Subskills

1 Paraphrasing skill

Method Number 1: Using Synonyms

Synonyms are different words that have the same meaning For example, ‘humans’ is

a synonym of ‘people’ and ‘attractive’ is a synonym of ‘beautiful’ This methodsimply replaces words with the same meaning in order to produce a new sentence.For example: My car needs petrol.

My vehicle requires fuel.

As you can see, I have replaced 3 out of 4 words with synonyms to produce a newsentence, with the same meaning as the first one You will notice that I did notreplace all of the words, but you should try to replace most of them

This is the most common method that students use and it can be used effectively, butyou should be careful The biggest mistake students make is trying to paraphrase andthe word having a similar meaning, but not the same meaning Similar meanings are

not good enough and will lose you marks Let’s look at some examples of poorparaphrasing because of using similar instead of the same meanings.

Violent crime is on the rise among teenagers.

Violent offences are rising among young people.

This student has changed the word ‘teenagers’ for ‘young people’ They are similarwords and teenagers are of course young people; however, children and young adults,aged between 18-30, could also be described as young people A more term would be

‘adolescents’ or ‘young people between the ages of 13-19.’ A better way toparaphrase this sentence would therefore be:

Violent offences are rising among adolescents.

You should therefore only use words you are 100% sure about Don’t change a wordunless you are 100% sure that it is a direct synonym, otherwise you are likely tomake mistakes and this will bring down your score

Let’s look at another good example:

Global warming is mostly caused by emissions from internal combustion engines Climate change is mainly caused by the release of fumes from motor vehicles.

Method Number 2: Change the Word Order

Changing the word order also allows us to effectively paraphrase a sentence,but again, we have to be careful Don’t change the word order without thinking abouthow this affects the grammar of the sentence By changing the word order you mayhave to add a word, subtract a word or change the form of the word

The 100% rule applies again; don’t change it if you are not 100% sure it isgrammatically correct Remember that you are being judged on your ability toproduce error free sentences in the IELTS test as well as use a range of grammarstructures

Fortunately, there are two straightforward ways we can change the word order

in most IELTS questions.You can easily change the order of the clauses, if theoriginal sentence has more than one clause

As languages such as Spanish, Chinese and English become more widely used, there is a fear that that many minority languages may die out.

Paraphrased by changing word order:

There is a fear that many minority languages may die out, as languages such

as Spanish, Chinese and English become more widely used.

We could also add some synonyms to paraphrase it even more:

Paraphrased with changing word order AND synonyms:

There is dismay that many lesser used languages may pass away, as languages such as Chinese, English and Spanish become more broadly spoken.

You can also change the word order if there is an adjective or noun in thequestion You do this by simply changing the adjective into a relative clause

Learning to manage money is one of the key aspects to adult life.

Paraphrased using a relative clause:

Learning to manage money is one of the aspects to adult life that is key.

Method Number 3: Change the Form of the Word

There are many different forms of words including nouns, verbs, adjectives andadverbs Changing the form of a word allows us to paraphrase effectively Again,don’t just change the form of the word; you also need to check that your changes

make grammatical sense You might need to change the words around it to make thesentence error free.

Longer life spans and improvements in the health of older people suggest that people over the age of sixty-five can continue to live full and active lives.

Paraphrased by changing word form:

Longer life spans and improvements in the health of older people are suggesting that people over the age of sixty-five can continue living full and active lives.

Method Number 4: Change from Active to Passive

The passive voice is often used in academic writing and can therefore be used in theIELTS academic writing test Only verbs with an object can be turned into thepassive

Example active sentence: The property developers invested $20 million in the development of the shopping center.

Example passive sentence: $20 million was invested in the development of shopping centers.

We often use the passive voice in academic writing when we don’t want to say it isour opinion

Example active: People say that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Example passive: Global warming is said to be caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

2 Identification of Main Feature

This is often the area most students struggle with and it is because of one mainreason Students need to prioritize Prioritizing means you should choose two or threesignificant features and just write about these Things that you should be looking forinclude:

Notable exceptions