using language games toimprove speaking skills for grade 10 students at nong cong 3 upper secondary school

INITIATIVE: “USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT NONG CONG 3 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL”PART 1: REASONS FOR TOPIC CHOICE In the world of the integration

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES

1 Students’ psychological characteristics in learning English 4

2 Importance in stimulating participation of students in

REFERENCES

INITIATIVE: “USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT NONG CONG 3 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL”

PART 1: REASONS FOR TOPIC CHOICE

In the world of the integration and development with the multilateralrelations and information explosion, English remains an important role incomprehensive development for each student However, in fact, I realize mystudents find it very difficult to express their ideas in English and they even donot know how to keep the conversation going on They are usually stressed andpassive when being asked to participate in speaking activities More importantly,

the topics chosen are quite broad and the way teachers develop them is not veryinteresting Some topics are beyond students’ enjoyment And some require adeep common knowledge which students usually lack If students have no ideawhat to say, they may lose confidence and feel uncomfortable and makemistakes Consequently, teaching and learning in the speaking lessons are boringand ineffective Therefore, it is essential that we carry out better methods inorder that students have certain abilities of English communication Nowadays,

in the process of teaching method improvement, the main purpose is to form anddevelop the knowledge and skills in using English English 10 gets in closecontact with distinct skills: listening, speaking, and reading To practice theseskills, each student has to work diligently with his/her partners Consequently,they can speak English more fluently With the aim at developing speaking skill,

I am going to present the subject: “USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO IMPROVE

SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT NONG CONG 3 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL”.This research is to help students simply communicatewith the classmates It also helps teachers build the content of a teaching lesson

As a result, students will be effectively attracted to English lessons

I THEORETICAL BASIS

1 Students’ psychological characteristics in learning English.

Students own age characteristics and innate skills which help them inlearning language process Teachers must fully understand and take fulladvantages of them effectively These specific characteristics are: They learn aforeign language naturally as they learn their mother tongue They learn itthrough encouragement, which depends on each teacher’s methods If they areeffectively motivated, they will perform better and more enthusiastically.Besides, they learn through their listening and repeating, through cooperationand reciprocation in reliable atmosphere; and through interesting activities fromwhich they gain their aims

One of the things that makes teaching a source of endless fascination isthe fact that no two classes are ever the same There always exists the complexinterpersonal chemistry between teacher and students and between student andstudent In any given classroom, the factors such as position attitudes andindividuals’ personalities will be in constant interaction creating a dynamic,unstable environment that can either facilitate the learning process or seriouslyimpair it The role of expectations of both teachers and learners will beconditioned by individual personality factors such as introversion, cognitivestyle, prior learning and teaching experiences, and cultural factors.

Real-life observation also tells us that even if language learners can beshown to be following a common developmental route, they differ greatly indegree of ultimate success which they achieve As a teacher, one should beaware that learners differ in ways that careful thought when making decisionsabout what to be taught and how to teach Social psychologists have arguedconsistently that differences in learning outcomes must be due to individualdifferences between learners, and many proposals have been made concerningthe characteristics which supposedly cause these differences

The degree to which any of the factors discussed will become significant

in a particular learning and teaching situation will depend partly on the reasonswhy learners are learning English Any individual may be influenced by avariety of motivations which will affect such things as anxiety, attitudes orwillingness to try new learning strategies

In short, there exist individual differences among learners and thesedifferences play a significant role in language learning For a teacher, thechallenge must be how to enable each learner according to his or her individualcharacteristics and cultural background

2 Importance in stimulating participation of students in English lesson.

Students’ participation is very necessary for learning process to occur.Lack of participation will have negative influence on all the learning process.Through interacion in the target language students learn to communicate Hence,speaking skill is quite important

3 Speaking skill

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, ismore complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncingwords There are three kinds of speaking situations in which we find ourselves:

Some few speaking situations maybe totally non-interactive, such as whenrecording a speech for a radio broadcast Here are some of the micro-skillsinvolved in speaking The speaker has to:

1 Pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so thatpeople can distinguish them This includes making tonal distinctions

2 Use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of thelanguage clearly enough so that people can understand what is said

3 Use the correct forms of words This may mean, for example, changes

in the tense, case, or gender

4 Put words together in correct word order

5 Use vocabulary appropriately

6 Use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situationand the relatonship to the conversation partner

7 Make clear to the listener the man sentence constituents, such assubject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses

8 Make the main ideas stand out from supporting ieas or information

9 Make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what youare saying

(Extracted from the LiguaLinks Library, Version 3.5 published on CDROM by SIL International, 1999)

II THE REAL STATE OF AFFAIRS

1 Researching method.

In order to realize the above aims of the study, qualitative and quantitativemethods are mainly used The data collected for the study come from threesources: The questionnaires bring me the overview of both English speakingteaching and learning by teachers of English and students at Nong Cong 3 HighSchool; the classroom observation, we can see what the participants do incomparison with theoretical base of the study and an interview of teachers aregoing to be used to collect information and evidence for the study

In addition, synthesis material of speaking and giving some suggestions forstudents to improve English speaking skills through language games activities

3 Results of the survey.

I have carried out the survey of real situations of teaching and learning thepart- pronuonciation, intonation and rhythm in language focus classes skill inclass 10B2 and 10B5 (the school year: 2019- 2020) and I have got the followingresult:

Class

Before applying innovative techniques

(According to the figures at the beginning of the school- year 2019 – 2020)

10B5 0% 8% 27% 65%

Games are often used in language teaching However, this thesis only focus

on the games to develop speaking skills Especially to improve speaking skills

of the grade 10 students at Nong Cong 3 upper secondary School, the researcherintends to investigate the current situation of teaching and learning speakingskill, then apply some language games in teaching speaking skills in grade 10 atNong Cong 3 upper secondary School, finally to make some suggestion forimproving speaking skills for students through using language games activities

1.1 Mapped dialogue

Unit 2: School talk

Type of games: Mapped dialogue Classroom management: Pair works Teaching aid: handouts Time: 5- 7 minutes

B Hi, Lan, How are you?

A I’m fine Thanks And you?

B I’m fine Let’s go somewhere for a drink

A Sorry……… (2)

B Oh yes Bye

A Bye See you later

Ask students to work in pairs

Each pair has to make a conversation based on the information on the boardAfter 2 to 3 minutes, call some pairs to practice about conversation

Possible dialogue:

A Hello, Hong

B Hi, Lan, How are you?

A I’m fine Thanks And you?

B I’m fine Let’s go somewhere for drink

A Sorry I’m busy I must go out with my mother now

B Oh yes Bye

A Bye See you later

1.2 Sorting, arranging game

Unit 13: Films and cinema

Type of game: Sorting, arranging game Classroom management: Pair works

Teaching aids: film posters and handouts Time: 5-7 minutes

1.3 Cross – word

Unit 14: The World Cup

Type of games: Cross- word Classroom management: Whole class Teaching aid: handouts Time: 5- 7 minutes

Procedure:

Teachers prepare a cross- word which has the key word “world cup”(teachers can use a sub- board or a PowerPoint presentation).Teacher divides theclass into tow teams to answer eight questions in eight horizontal to find out thekey word in the vertical

Who can answer the key word will be the winner

1 The person who wins in a competition?

2 Who is considered the biggest football player every age?

3 The person who fails in a competition?

4 The city has Big Ben Tower?

5 Which country is called the hometown of football?

6 Who is the head of a football team?

7 Where are football matches taken place?

8 Which national team does Cristiano Ronaldo play for?

2 Pre- speaking stage

This stage is carried out before students actually speak The pre-speakingactivities are aimed at preparing students with everything necessary forspeaking They also involve thought and reflection, and provide opportunitiesfor students to plan and organize for speaking Normally, pre-speaking stageoften lasts from five to fifteen minutes depending on each lesson

2.1 Brainstorm

Unit 1: A day in the life of………(Task 2)

Type of games: Brainstorm Classroom management: Whole class Teaching aid: handout Time: 15 minutes

Procedure:

Teachers ask each person in the class recall their activities in a day frommorning to night

After 7 minutes ask students talk about their activities

Teachers can give some examples:

The activity’s Lan was take place in a day from morning to night

1 At 6 o’clock Lan gets up after her mother called

2 At 6.30 a.m Lan has a breakfast with her mother

3 Then she goes to school by bus at 7 o’clock

4 She plays football with her friends

5 She gets home at 11 o’ clock

This is a typical day of Lan

Then asked students write the activities, the teacher asks each person stand

up to read about their activities

2.2 Matching

Unit 2: School talk

Type of games: Matching Classroom management: Group work Teaching aid: 1 big sheet of paper and 10 pieces of expressions

Time: 5 minutes

Preparation: prepare a big sheet of paper with 10 movable pieces of

expression which are put in random, use magnets to hang on board

Starting a conversation Closing a conversation

Good morning.\ Hi Great I’ll see you tomorrow

Sorry I’ve got to go Talk to you later Hello How are you?

Well, it’s been nice meeting you Hello What are you doing?

How’s everything at school? Catch you later?

Goodbye See you later? Hi How is school?

Procedure:

- Three tables will be a group So there will be 4 groups in total

- Students will discuss in groups to put sentences to the right columns

- The fastest group can go to the broad and match

- Teacher will check and give the key

2.3 Net works

Unit 3: People’s background

Type of games: Net works Classroom management: Group work

Teaching aid: card Time: 15 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher divides the class into groups of eight students (two rows oftables) The teacher asks students to work in groups to write about their topicThe teacher wrote on the board from the network

After teacher asks students work in group then students in each on theboard and write the information on topic

Then teacher asks students use information on this topic to talk about thistopic

For example:

Bother/ sister

Secondary school

The students can talk about the topic such as:

Family: In my family, there are four people They are father, mother,brother and me

My father is a doctor and my mother is a teacher

…………

2.4 Role – play

Unit 14: World Cup (speaking task 1)

Type of games: Role- play Classroom management: Group work

Teaching aid: handout Time: 7- 10 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher asks students to name four national football teams in thephotos on page in the textbook They are: The English national football team(photo1), the French national football team (photo 2), the Italian nationalfootball team (photo 3) and the German national football team (photo 4)

Then the teacher divides the class into 4 groups namely: The Englishteam’s fans, the French team’s fans, the Italian team’s fans and the Germanteam’s fans respectively The teacher will take turns to read the questions toeach group and the students in each group are supposed to answer them Onepoint is given for each correct answer And if all the members in one group fail

to give correct answer, the other groups can score points by raising their hands

to answer the questions The winner is the one that gets the highest point

Finally, the teacher can call the representatives from four groups to talkabout their favorite teams, using the information they have gained via the quiz.They are encouraged to add some further information that they know to the talk

World Cup quiz for each national football team

Questions for the English team’s

fans

1 How many World Cup tournaments

has England participated in up to

2006?

2 How many times has England won

the trophy up to 2006?

3 Who was the captain of the English

team in World Cup 2006?

4 Who was the top scorer in English

Questions for the German team’s fans

1 How many World Cup tournamentshas German participated in up to 2006?

2 How many times has Germany wonthe trophy up to 2006?

3 Who was the captain of the Germanteam in World Cup 2006?

4 Who was the top scorer in Germanteam in World Cup 2006?