Communicative language teaching (CLT) for the 10th form students at sam son high school

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA TRƯỜNG THPT SẦM SƠN SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM “ COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR THE 10th FORM STUDENTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL” Người thực hiện: Lê Quang

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT SẦM SƠN

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

“ COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR THE

10th FORM STUDENTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL”

Người thực hiện: Lê Quang Nguyên Chức vụ: Giáo viên

SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực: Tiếng anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2019

CONTENTS Page

1 Reason for choosing the study 2

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 3

II CONTENT 4 1 The theoretical basis 4

1.1 Speaking skill and its importance 4

1.2 Overview of communicative language teaching 4

2 The reality of the study 5

2.1 The reality 5

2.2 The results in researching the reality 5

3 Methodology 6

3.1 Types of techniques used in teaching communication 6

3.1.1 Sorting, ordering or arranging communicative language teaching 6

3.1.2 Conversation talking zone 6

3.1.3 Word routes 7

3.1.4 Daily activities in speaking 7

3.1.5 Information gap 7

3.1.6 Word ping pong 7

3.1.7 Puzzle solving 7

3.1.8 Video analysis 8

3.1.9 Role play 8

3.2 Sample techniques used in teaching speaking 8

3.2.1 The textbook 8

3.2.2 Sample techniques used in teaching speaking 8

4 Result 19

III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 19

1 Conclusion 20

2 Recommendations 20

IV REFERENCES 22

I INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for choosing the study

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is considered to be the most recentand successful approach to language teaching in general and English teaching inparticular Being a teacher of English for a while, I have good opportunities toexpose to CLT and implement it in some of my English classes taught at myschool With the development and globalization of the world today, English isconsidered as an important part as a means of international communication thanever Therefore, in some recent years, the goal of teaching English has changed alot, teacher has switched from grammatical teaching to communicative teaching topromote oral skills in order to respond to the students’ needs for effectivecommunication

However, for some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learningEnglish in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come

up to the study aims Despite many teachers’ efforts to supply students withopportunities to develop their communicative skills, students didn’t pay muchattention to the lesson Due to some exam reasons that affect to students in somecases How to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question toboth teachers and students at many high schools in Vietnam, and how to overcomethis is still a big matter In most English class, teachers are mainly concern withteaching the points in the exams that need cope with and find necessary toencourage students’ participation That’s the reason causing the students’ tirednessand boredom Most of students are sitting quietly and listening rather than acting

As a result, they just develop their ability on grammar task rather than thecommunicative one In addition, in language learning, learners have to master fourskills in which speaking is the most essential one for the aim at communication.Hence, a big problem here is how to develop students’ speaking ability is not aneasy work Therefore, it is a necessity to find out some problems of that 10th formstudents are facing with speaking classes and give some useful suggestions to helpstudents more succeed in speaking English

All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a

research titled “Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) for the 10 th form students at Sam Son high school”

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

 Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to the 10th formstudents at Sam Son high school

 Investigating the effectiveness of using techniques in teaching speaking tothe 10th form students at Sam Son high school

 Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement ofspeaking teaching at Sam Son high school by using new ways in addition toother techniques

3 Scope of the study

The study focuses specifically on using communicative language skills inteaching speaking to the 10th form students at Sam Son high school So the studylimits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the studyare 424 students from ten classes studying “Tieng Anh 10” textbook at Sam Sonhigh school

4 Methods of the study

In the process of carrying out this study, I have combined methods such as:

 Surveying and constructing the theoretical basis of communicative skill

 Investigating and inquiring the reality, collecting data of teachingspeaking to the 10th students at Sam Son high school

 Statistical method and processing data from pre-task survey questionnaire

and post- task survey questionnaire

 Surveying and constructing the theoretical basis of speaking skill andlanguage ways

 Investigating and inquiring the reality, collecting data of teachingspeaking to the 10th students at Sam Son high school

 Statistical method and processing data from pre-task survey questionnaire

and post- task survey questionnaire

II CONTENT

1 The theoretical basis

1.1 Communicative (speaking) skill and its importance

1.1.1 The definition of communication

Communication is an interactive process of constructing meaning thatinvolves producing and receiving, and processing information that gains the onepurpose Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs,including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physicalenvironment and the purpose for communication.[1]

1.1.2 The importance of communicative skill among four language skills

Communication is one of the features that help us interact information, ideas,and thoughts with other people It is a thing that distinguished us from most if notall, animals because it is the common way to convey ideas from one person toanother through language

Of all the four skills, communication is the most important skill However, it

is not until I have read the essay titled “Implementation of communicative languageteaching in Vietnam” written by Ngo Duy Phuc, I could have a complete picture ofthis teaching approach.[2]

1.2 Overview of communicative language teaching

1.2.1 The definition of communicative language teaching

Communicative language teaching is a system of manipulating spoken words

to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear Communicative languageteaching is used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their conversations fromothers

Communicative language teaching means an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study It helps learners to improve different aspects such as intellectual ability, patience, then it helps to develop language skills

1.2.2 Roles of communicative language teaching in teaching and learning

 According to Savignon (1971), Communicative Language Teaching(CLT) theory heavily relies upon proper educational setting, which requires areasonable arrangements of several variables – experience and knowledge ofteachers, students’ needs and attitudes, and classroom In other words, theclassroom in CLT is considered as a social context for communicative language toperform and the teacher and students are key players, thus the role of teachers andplayers is a crucial for Communicative Language Teaching performance

 It is very interesting that opening the essay, Savingnon, cited, butdisagreed with findings by a scholar and assumptions by many teachers of Englishheld that “Learners are passive” and “it is hard to implement CLT in the context”

He argued that learners are “active” and “independent”, so they can become moreactive and successful learners provided that they were familiarized with CLT I

strongly agree with him at this point Many students attended my classes comefrom different groups who have never exposed to CLT beforehand They were shy,passive and had a great number of difficulties in learning at the beginning, but after

a short period of time when they started to get familiar with my lessons which aretaught communicatively, they quickly become confident and active Therefore,although difficulties are obvious, implementation of CLT in the context isabsolutely possible[6]

1.2.3 Classroom language

When starting teaching, teachers should draw students the rules andencourage students how to speak fluency without hesitance It is one of the keyfactors that lead to students’ success in speaking

1.2.4 Classroom management

Instead of using the traditional ways, teacher may use other advancing ways

in teaching Teacher may encourage students to speak only English, don’t usenative language, students may speak in pairs or in groups

2 The reality of the study

2 1 The reality

There are totally 424 students at Sam Son high school in tenth classes from10A1 to 10A10 The majority of high school students here enjoy educationprogram in which English is a compulsory subject since they were at primaryschool This means by the time they go to high school, they have at least 5 or moreyears experience in English The level of English for the 10th grade students istargeted at pre-intermediate level through a few actually reaches the standard Astheir primary years were spent with the old text books and the grammar translationmethod, most students are, to some extent, good at grammar, but bad at listeningand speaking the target language They can do written exercises on Englishgrammar accurately but they can hardly communicate in English Moreover,students at Sam Son high school would prefer to pay much attention toMathematics, Physics, and Chemist rather than English As a result, they eitherkeep silence all the time or less participates in the speaking activities Furthermore,students at Sam Son high school have a worse learning ability than those frommany other schools, which is justified by passing the entrance test with the lowmarks required for admission of the school

2.2 The results in researching the reality

I set the objectives of 85 students for my research Most of students are active

in real-life, but they seem to be less active in their classes Initially, I found that most of my students had little interest in lessons with speaking because they are afraid and lazy to speak; their motivation of speaking English is very limited Then they have a lack of vocabulary The survey questionnaires are conducted for 85 students in nine classes (10A4, 10A8) I taught in my teaching practice time to

investigate their interest in learning English As a result, they did not achieve the outcome that they were expected as follows:

Table 1: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire.

Variables Scales

2 The importance of speaking skill

among four basic language skills 30 31.6 40

3 Students’ willingness to speak

4 Students’ opinion about

communicative language teaching 45 47.4 40

6 Reasons for effect of language

3.1 Types of techniques used in teaching communication

In order to fulfill the aims of this study and come up with the answers to the research questions mentioned above, the following techniques are employed to carry out the study

3.1.1 Sorting, ordering or arranging communicative language teaching:

For example, students have a set of cards with different products of them, and they sort the cards into products found at a grocery store and products found at

a department store

3.1.2 Conversation talking zone:

This activity blends ideas related to information gap and read and look upactivities as well as to personal space and physical movement It allows students toconverse with a large number of classmates and to have time to remember, rehearseprivately, reflect on, and make decisions about what they will say and hear Itrequires student to share, collect and understand information by speaking andlistening and then record the information in writing The students can discuss justabout anything you think they are capable of discussing without having it in writing

at the moment they are speaking In this way teacher wants students to practice lowpressure conversation, develop fluency, friendship, memory and cooperation.[7]

3.1.3 Word routes:

This activity can make students feel more relaxed about expressing theiropinions among their own peer groups It generates a lot of talking as students are

free to express whatever ideas they have known about the topic It allows freedomand flexibility to students develop confidence in their speaking and fluency skills asthey examine the twists and turns that different conversations can take on the samesubject.[3]

3.1.4 Daily activities in speaking:

In this activity, students give a detailed description of a process selectedfrom common daily activities The purpose of the detailed account is to encouragethe students to use thematically related vocabulary and consider the stages involved

in carrying out the process described The activity also brings everyday life into theclassroom, thereby making the lesson more entertaining The timely provision of alist of appropriate words and phrases motivates the students to enlarge their presentwords.[3]

3.1.5 Information gap:

These are form of matching, in that participants match labels and pictures[9]

3.1.6 Word ping pong:

In this activity, students focus on the pronunciation of sounds within words.Students have to produce words beginning with the last sound of a preceding word.The analogy is with playing the game of ping pong, only instead of hitting a ball toeach other, the students are “serving” and “ returning” words

3.1.8 Video analysis

Video analysis involves students in performing different tasks They focus

on presentations and dialogues, observing themselves, and reflecting on theircommunication skills and learning process through class discussion and dialoguejournal writing This self-observation technique allows students to take on the dualrole of both the observer and the observed Video analysis enhances studentinvolvement with error correction, document progress, and increases awareness of

identity in the target language Self-observation has a positive impact on students’decision making and promotes students initiative, self-confidence, growth, andchange Increased self awareness enhances communication skills, self-assessment,self-expression, critical thinking, and cross-cultural understanding.[3]

3.1.9 Role play

The terms role play, drama and simulation are sometimes usedinterchangeably but can be differentiated Role play can involve students playingroles that they do not play in real life, such as dentists, while simulations caninvolve students performing roles that they already play in real life or might belikely to play, such as a customer at a restaurant Dramas are normally scriptedperformances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with theirown words, although preparation is often useful.[9]

3.2 Sample techniques used in teaching speaking

3.2.1 The textbook

“Tieng Anh 10” textbook consists of sixteen units for two terms Each unitfocuses on four different skills: reading, speaking, writing, and listening as well assupply language elements such as: pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary

Speaking lesson is the second one in each unit introduced just after readinglesson Therefore speaking lessons are under the tendency theme-based and task-based approaches In general, the textbook provides students with a variety oftopics and speaking activities with the aim at helping students improve theirspeaking skill To be more specific, some of these topics are of students’ interestsuch as talking about one’s daily activities (Unit 1) or talking about moderntechnology (Unit 5), or talking about different type of media (Unit 7) etc… Besidethat, there are some speaking topics that are unfamiliar and far from students’background as talking about, talking about new kind of zoos (Unit 10) or talkingabout the world cup Therefore, an effective technique should be exploited tomotivate students in these speaking lessons.[4]

3.2.2 Sample techniques used in communicative language teaching

3.2.2.1 Warm-ups[5]

A warm up activity is often a short and fun technique which the teacher can usewith his students So warm up activity is prepared significantly and it is to preparethem to learn by stimulating their minds Warm ups should last about five minutes

 Unit 3: PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND

Type of technique: Word routes Classroom management: Group work

Resources: list of interesting topics(from Uncle Ho to Nguyen Trai)

Time: 3-5 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher divides the class into groups of five or six students Have studentschoose one member of the group to take notes Give all the groups the same topic

for free discussion (This means students are free to discuss the topic and todevelop and carry on their conversation within the time limits of the activities).While students are discussing the topic, have the note-taker keep track of theprogression or “word route” of the conversation At the end of the time period (3-5minutes), check the groups’ progress and have the note-taker of each grouppresent the word route they have recorded Compare the different groups’development of their conversations as a whole-class activity.[4]

Samples:

SA: Where and when was Nguyen Trai born?

SB: He was born in 1380 in Ha Dong, Ha Noi

SC: Tell me something about him you know

SD: He was a mandarin in “Ho dynasty”

SE: He took part in the campaign “risen up in arms at Lam Son”

Teacher controls the group discussing and ask Ss to display in the class, then callother groups to compare

Task 2: Let students imagine they are journalists and interview each other in groups

- Ask one group to do the task as a model

Ss: Work in groups with some cues given below

(Greeting, date of birth, home, parents…)

SA: Hi! When were you born?

SB: I was born on August 18th 1991

SC: Where do you live?

SD: I live in TB city

- Go around listening to some groups and help them if needed

- Let some groups play in role as journalists and other answer the questions

- Ask some pairs to stand in front of the class and practise speaking

Other groups go on practising speaking

- Practise interviewing as a dialogue

A: Hello! I’m Huong

B: Hello! I’m Lan Nice to meet you

A: Could you tell me something about yourself and your parents?

B: Oh, yes! Please

- Others listen and write down some information they get

A: What does he do?

B: He’s a student

A: What does he like doing?

B: He likes playing football

Task 3: Give some information about Mark Twain:

1 He/ born/ Missouri/ 1835

2 He/ adopt/ pen name/ “Mark Twain”

3 He/ write/ his famous novels/ “Tom sawyer, Huckleberry”…

4 He/ died/ 1910

- Listen to each group and correct or give mark if they do it well

Ss work and discuss in groups and one of this group asks and one of other answersA: Where was he born?

B: He was born in Missouri in 1835

A: Which name did he adopt?

B: It was “Mark Twain”

A: When did he die?

B: He died in 1910- Listen and write down in their notebooks

 UNIT 8: THE STORY OF MY VILLAGE

Type of technique: Daily activities in speaking

- I save up my money

- I design the form of the house

- I buy necessary things

-

Have students tell the procedures in chronological order, either in pairs, in smallgroups, or in front of the class Draw students attention to the necessity of detail inthe construction Add a list of possible words or phrases concerning the topic Forexample, the following infinitive phrases might all be used in constructing

- To save up money

- To design the form of the house

- To buy things

- To load materials

Give the students the list of words that should be included in the stories after theyfinish The students can easily see the useful words and phrases that may have beenmissing from their own accounts This list is useful for enriching vocabulary(particularly common words) and practicing grammar items (e.g conjunction)[4]

Handouts:

widen the road Children have better learning conditionsRaise and resurface the

roads

Cars and lorries can get to the village

Build a medical center Villagers have a shorter ways to city

Build a football ground Peoples’ health is looked after

Grow cash crops Young people can play sports

Build a bridge over the

canal

People can export the crops and have moremoney

Build a new school Roads will not be muddy and flooded after it

rains, and people get round more easily

Task 2 The villagers are discussing their plans Read and practise the

SB: And we should also resurface and raise the roads

SA: Yes If we resurface and raise the roads, they won't be flooded and muddywhen it rains

SB: And the villagers will be able to get around more easily, too

 Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA

Type of games: Sorting, arranging games Class management: Pairs work Material: film posters and handout Time: 5 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher asks students to work in pairs Teacher sticks the following posters onthe blackboard or alternatively print these posters and distribute them to students Teacher then gives the handout to the pairs and asks students to match the film withthe correct types[4]

Film posters



SA: I like science fiction films very much.

SB: I don't like cartoons very much.

SC: I don't like horror films at all.

Task 2: Find out what your friends feel about each kind of films.

- Give Ss some new words:

+ violent (adj): bạo lực

+ horrifying (adj) làm khiếp sợ

+ moving (adj): cảm động