APPLYING VIDEO PRODUCTION IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL OF UNIT10 ENDANGERED SPECIES ENGLISH 1

However,there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam ingeneral and at Hoang Hoa 4 high school in particular.. After teaching English in Hoang Hoa 4 hig

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

THANH HOA, YEAR OF 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPEAKING SKILL OF UNIT 10: INDANGERED SPECIES – ENGLISH 12

A INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

Nowadays it is not daring to say that the ability to speak at least one foreignlanguage is a necessity “Language is arguably the defining characteristic of thehuman species and knowledge of language in general, as well as ability to useone’s first and, at least one other language, should be one of the definingcharacteristics of the educated individual” (Nunan, 1999) The world hasbecome smaller It is said it has turned into the size of the so-called “globalvillage” We are living in the time of immense technological inventions wherecommunication among people has expanded way beyond their local speechcommunities (Ellis, 1997) Today receiving education, language education notexcepting, is not an issue connected exclusively with schools; the time requireseveryone to learn throughout their lifetimes Therefore learning a secondlanguage has become a means of keeping up with the pace of the rapidlychanging world

Nowadays a foreign/second language forms a permanent part of all types ofcurriculum, from primary schools to universities, not mentioning anemployment where a person, in most cases, can hardly survive without thisability The demands of the contemporary society together with the position ofEnglish as an international language (McKay) may present a reason for learningthis language in particular

Objectively, the increasing demand for learning a foreign language, especiallyEnglish in Vietnam is an evident tendency in the global integration along withVietnam’s policy of innovation and industrialization and modernization cause.Most of the learners of English agree that the ability to express themselvesfreely in communication is of great importance for their future career, especially

in modern societies where contacting with foreigners often occurs However,there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam ingeneral and at Hoang Hoa 4 high school in particular Many Vietnameselearners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak it correctlyand fluently in real-life communication Surely, there are many reasons for thisreality After teaching English in Hoang Hoa 4 high school for 13 years, I haverecognized some big obstacles which prevent English teachers and learners inVietnam from achieving their aims These obstacles are: large and

heterogeneous classes, students’ low level of English language proficiency,students’ low motivation and some others Unfortunately, this is not only thesituation in my school but also the case for many other schools in Thanh Hoa aswell as schools in Vietnam This has given me the desire to conduct

“APPLYING VIDEO PRODUCTION IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

OF UNIT10: ENDANGERED SPECIES - ENGLISH 12”.

II AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study is carried out to:

- improve 12th-form students’ awareness of speaking English

- suggest some ways to stimulate students and help them find it useful whenspeaking English

- to investigate how effective the methods of teaching speaking are, and howsuccessful the students are in speaking English, and also to find out the role ofthe teachers in teaching speaking

-The participants in the sample group of this study were intermediate levelundergraduate preparatory program students at the school of Hoang Hoa 4 atHoang Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province

III SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The subjects chosen for this study are 155 students in 12th- form at HoangHoa 4 high school My school is in the countryside, almost families are farmers.Therefore, students’ speaking English mainly depends on teachers andtextbooks I myself take responsibility for the job and create several simplyways to increase students’ awareness of speaking English

IV METHODS OF THE STUDY

To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I usemainly quantitative and qualitative methods

The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means

of a survey questionnaire for students and observation

B CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

English as a language has great reach and influence; it is taught all over theworld English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is theofficial language in a large number of countries It is estimated that the number

of people in the world that use in English to communicate on a regular basis is 2billion Learning English can also help students to meet new people They canpractice their English with someone who is also learning

English is the language of science, of aviation, computers, diplomacy, andtourism Speaking English increases students’ chances of getting a good job in amultinational company within their home country or of finding work abroad

II PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

The study was conducted at Hoang Hoa 4 high school, a rural school ofThanh Hoa province

The school has 32 classes, each class consists of from 37 to 46 students.Most of the students come from the villages in the district where Englishlearning and teaching does not get much attention The only sources from whichstudents can get knowledge are the textbooks and their teachers With threeperiods per week, this is unable for teachers to meet students’ demand At home,they are short of dictionaries, reference books, cassette tapes, speakers.Additionally, their parents do not know anything about English As a result, theyfind it difficult to speak English and they become lazy

The total number of English teachers at Hoang Hoa 4 high school is 7, all ofwhom are female aged from 32 to 42 They were trained from training courses inEnglish language teaching at different universities in Vietnam All of them areyoung teachers who are friendly, active, knowledgeable and full of inspiration forteaching

The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school areEnglish textbooks 10, 11, 12, Education Publishing House ( Basic stream) From

my personal observation as a classroom teacher and a head teacher, studentsseem to be bored with doing the same activities They do not have motivation tospeak English

The data analysis conducted by means of frequency, mean and percentagerevealed that the students are unsuccessful in speaking English although they arehighly eager for having this skill High anxiety level is an important factor inthis failure The findings of oral interview demonstrated that the students onlyfeel themselves not irritated while working with classmates or playing games

The techniques and the methods used in teaching speaking in English assistlearning this skill positively but it is confirmed that this is not enough.

The attitudes, manners and behaviour of the language teachers who teachspeaking English to the language learners are appreciated by the students;however, this does not change the reality that they are unsuccessful in speakingEnglish

- I have been teaching English for 15 years and during this time period I haveobserved that many of the students have difficulty in speaking English althoughthey are always grammatically successful Therefore the question came to mymind Why? Why are the students successful in grammar but not in speaking?Then I wanted to have my experiential initiative on this topic:

“APPLYING VIDEO PRODUCTION IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL

OF UNIT10: ENDANGERED SPECIES - ENGLISH 12”

III IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS

1 Techniques in teaching speaking skills

1.1 Why Teach Speaking Skills?

In today's teaching climate, it's easy to forget the importance of oral language,

or speaking and listening skills With all the focus on reading and writing,sometimes teachers neglect this more basic aspect of language! Yet studentsneed to learn speaking skills and have opportunities to practice making theirvoices heard in a safe and constructive environment Speaking skills areimportant because:

 Skilled speakers can effectively present their own points of view

 Skilled speakers are often better readers and writers

 Skilled speakers are more confident participants in a variety of contexts both in and out of school

- Skilled speakers are able to advocate for themselves and get theiracademic and emotional needs met

1.2 Which Skills Matter?

One of the reasons teachers might feel hesitant about teaching speaking skills isthat it can feel overwhelming Oral language is complex, and in order to teach itproperly, we need to reconstruct it into separate skills The following skills areimportant to consider when working on speech with students:

Mechanical Skills

Students need to learn how to project, or speak at the right volume for their

audience to hear them They need to learn how to use intonation to expressmood and how to pronounce words properly They must also learn how to pace

their spoken language so that they are neither too fast nor too slow to beunderstood.

Organizational Skills

Just as students must learn to organize their writing, they must learn how

to organize, or structure in a meaningful way, their oral language This means

talking in logical sequence, stating thoughts in an order that makes sense, andmaking sure the spoken word is relevant to the topic of conversation

Expressive Skills

One of the most important aspects of speaking is expression, or the ability to

effectively communicate ideas and feelings Students must learn how to saywhat is on their mind or make oral arguments that get their points across

Pragmatic Skills

Finally, students who are learning speaking skills must gain experience

with pragmatics, or the aspect of language that has to do with social norms and

the rules of conversations Students need practice taking turns in conversation,making eye contact while speaking, and responding appropriately duringdialogues

1 3 Activities to promote Speaking

Discussions

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons Thestudents may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or findsolutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that thepurpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, thediscussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend theirtime chatting with each other about irrelevant things For example, students canbecome involved in agree/disagree discussions In this type of discussions, theteacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, andprovide controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs.people learn best when they travel” Then each group works on their topic for agiven time period, and presents their opinions to the class It is essential that thespeaking should be equally divided among group members At the end, the classdecides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way Thisactivity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learnhow to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with theothers For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form largegroups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups Thegroup members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students maydetermine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion

activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open todifferent ideas Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, thestudents should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas,express support, check for clarification, and so on.

Role Play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing Students pretend theyare in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-playactivities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are andwhat they think or feel Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You areDavid, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…"(Harmer,1984)

Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations differentthan role plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students can bringitems to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if a student isacting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on Role plays andsimulations have many advantages First, since they are entertaining, theymotivate the students Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities,they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, whichmeans they do not have to take the same responsibility

Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student willhave the information that other partner does not have and the partners will sharetheir information Information gap activities serve many purposes such assolving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays animportant role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do notprovide the information the others need These activities are effective becauseeverybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is agood idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what

type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students shouldprepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people givesstudents a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but alsooutside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student canpresent his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each otherand "introduce" his or her partner to the class.

Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which studentssit in a circle For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a fewsentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from thepoint where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add from four

to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and soon

Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and,

in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news.Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worthtelling their friends in their daily lives before class

Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four Each suit will represent a topic For instance:

 Diamonds: Earning money

 Hearts: Love and relationships

 Spades: An unforgettable memory

 Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card Then, each student will write 4-5questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possiblequestions:

 Is money important in your life? Why?

 What is the easiest way of earning money?

 What do you think about lottery? Etc

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity thatstudents are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or

no students get little practice in spoken language production Rather, studentsask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences

Picture Narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures Students are asked to tellthe story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteriaprovided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary or

Picture Describing

Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give studentsjust one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture For thisactivity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture.Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for eachgroup describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativityand imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills

Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given twodifferent pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and anotherpicture of girls playing tennis Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/ordifferences in the pictures

The interactive and downloadable material asks teachers or students to thinkthrough the decisions that go towards making a speaking activity successful –groupings, instructions, language input etc No ‘right’ answers are given butrather teachers are encouraged to think ‘it depends’ - the ‘right’ way to set up anactivity depends on the nature of the activity

2 What is video production?

Video production is the process of producing video content It is the equivalent

of filmmaking, but with images recorded digitally instead of on film stock

There are three stages of video production: pre-production, production, and production Pre-production involves all of the planning aspects of the videoproduction process before filming begins This includes scriptwriting,scheduling, logistics, and other administrative duties Production is the phase ofvideo production which captures the video content(moving images / videography) and involves filming the subject(s) of the video.Post-production is the action of selectively combining those video clipsthrough video editing into a finished product that tells a story or communicates amessage in either a live event setting (live production), or after an event hasoccurred (post-production)