Adapting some speaking lessons on textbook english 10 with a view to motivating and improving students speaking skil

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGLE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE Author: Le Thi Hong Occupation: Teacher Field: Foreign language ADAPTING SOME SPEAKING LESSON

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL

THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

Author: Le Thi Hong Occupation: Teacher Field: Foreign language

ADAPTING SOME SPEAKING LESSON ON TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10 WITH A VIEW TO MOTIVATING AND

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL

THANH HOA YEAR 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

1 Introduction

1.1 Reasons for choosing the thesis

1.2 Objectives

1.3 Participants

1.4 Methods of the study

2 Contents of the thesis 2.1 Rationale which affects to the thesis

2.1.1 Students’ factors

2.1.2 Teacher’s factors

2.1.3 Other factors

2.1.4 Speaking program for the grade 10th at Le Hoan high school

2.2 Some problems before implementing the thesis

2.2.1 Some features about class 10A1

2.2.2 Some problems with some speaking lessons on textbook …

2.3 Some activites to promote speaking

2.3.1 Some notes teacher should remember when ………

2.3.2 Some activites to promote speaking 2.4 The specific results with teaching activities, my colleagues and my school………

3 Conclusion, suggestions 3.1 Conclusion

3.2 Suggestions

References

Some initiative experiences winning prices

1 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 10 10 11 12 19 20

1 Introduction

1.1 Reasons for choosing the thesis.

As you know, English is an international language which is used by a lot

of countries all over the world It also becomes main language in

communicating among different people in different countries in the world

With the trend of integrating, Vietnam has been promoting their abilities

in all aspects Therefore, in education, Vietnam really pays attention to teachingand learning English all schools in Vietnamese educational system English isalso becomes a chore subject in national educational system From those, we seethe importance of teaching and learning English in the development andintegration of our country

In Vietnam, nowadays students begin to learn English at primary school

In high school, they continue the teaching program from primary school tosecondary school They learn English with four skills such as writing, listening,speaking and reading along with language focus to continue improving theirskills and knowledge Furthermore, they also prepare the best knowledge fortheir most important examination of graduating or use the knowledge for highereducation as well as better job opportunities The students, parents, teachers,education sector and the whole country attach special importance to English Inour province, Thanh Hoa, becoming a popular place for economic developmentand investment from inside and outside investors of the country Therefore, thetrend for finding a job in the future has changed Many students hope to have agood English Speaking skill for finding a good job after studying such as a tourguide, an interpreter or a translator as well as communicating with foreigner intheir job

As an English teacher I know the importance of English with my students,

so I always try to find out the best methods in teaching English for them In ourschool system, English is both different and characteristic subject It makesstudents curious and passionate However, it also creates a lot of difficulties andmisunderstandings As a result, students sometimes feel discouraged In thissituation, teacher has a very important role to transfer the passion and theenjoyment to their students

When teaching English at high school, specially teaching the 10th grade at

Le Hoan high school, I see that most of my students like learning English Theyalso try their best to learn it in all skills and language focus While teachingthem, I see that my students are attractive and exciting with my subject, butmajority of them are weak, timid and lack of confidence in using English forcommunication Their vocabularies were a little, the practice of speaking andpresentation was limited In the process of directly teaching at 10th grade Irealized that their speaking ability is still limited Furthermore, when asked tolook and read the speaking tasks on the textbook, students seem indifferent andnot pay attention to it It makes teacher feel sad and disappointed Certainly,there are many reasons for this If those difficulties are not found out and no

solutions can be given, the speaking classes cannot be successful and studentswill be fed up with learning English All of the above reasons have inspired theauthor to do the research “ Adapting some speaking lessons on textbook English

10 with a view to motivating and improving students’ speaking skill ”

With the thesis I hope that I will contribute my little experience to help

my students like and improve their speaking skill in the next courses and in thefuture

1.2 Objectives.

When teaching speaking skill to the students in the grade 10a1 at LeHogan high school I found out some speaking lessons using too old method toattract their attention to it, it is also lack of motivation to most of the students

As a result, these unattractive lessons make students less creative, less active tothe lesson Step by step, they become lazy and timid From this fact, I see that anattractive lesson with a lot of suitable activities plays an important part to asuccessful class Therefore I decided to carry out this thesis Firstly, I want todesign some new, attractive and creative activities instead of the old tasks insome speaking lesson on English 10 book From my adaptation, my studentswill change their attitude to each speaking lesson in the class They will seemany new and magical acidities in each lesson which attract them, make themcreative and interactive with their friends and their teacher more Gradually,they like to speak, express their thoughts in English more and their speakingskill will be improved Secondly, I want to create my own experiences which areuseful and necessary for my teaching The experiences will be used in the nextcourses and bring out the good results in my job Furthermore, I also want tocontribute my own experiences in teaching English at Le Hoan high school.Hopefully, that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagueswho had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study Last butnot least, based on the results of this action research, some changes and newmethods could be applied in some lessons I hope that my students will lovespeaking skill more than ever before, work effectively in the speaking lessonsand have good preparation in their further study or in their job

1.3 Participants.

The subjects chosen for the research include 46 students in the class 10A1

at Le Hoan High School with the survey questionnaires The research wascarried out during the first term of the academic year 2019 – 2020 at Le HoanHigh School

1.4 Methods of the study.

The study bases on teacher's main activities: teaching time in the classThe data is collected by sets of questionnaires Some were set beforeusing the methods and others were set after using the methods

Other sources of data come from speaking tasks from the textbooks Theanalysis of the data hopefully will bring about reliable findings useful for theteaching of speaking to students at Le Hoan High School

I also find out some related thesis or some related information on theInternet and from my fellows

2 Contents of the thesis

2.1 Rationale which affects to the thesis.

Students' result in speaking lesson can be affected by some major factorswhich originate from students, teachers, and other external factors

2.1.1 Students’ factors

a Students' learning style

As we know, it is normal that there are about 40 to 50 students in peerclassroom at high school They are different individuals in a class Differentindividuals may have different learning styles and different kinds of work Theywant to get different degrees of care and attention from the teacher It means thatthere are different reactions from students toward speaking tasks From those Ifteacher realizes the differences among individuals in the class when they create

an activity, the students will take part in the lesson actively

b Students' language level.

It can be easily seen that Le Hoan high school is situated at thecountryside in Xuan Lai commune, Tho Xuan district Most of the people herehave medium living condition, so most students learn English with very simpleways They only learn English from their teacher at school These students havemedium level, few also have low level Others, but not large amount of studentswith good living condition from their parents, find out some extra ways forlearning English such as learning outside the school, using cassette, computerand cell phone to learn online or in an English center This group of the studentshas good knowledge It means that students' language level is different.Therefore, teacher may have some difficulties in choosing a suitable teachingmethod, language and activity which are used in a class

2.1.2 Teacher's instruction.

Before asking students to do something, teacher always has to explain andinstruct them If students don't understand teacher's instruction, they don't reactanything This is a problem that teacher's instruction should be clear and shortnot too complicated To have a good instruction, teacher should prepare whatthey are going to say and ensure that the class's attention Next they should givethe information more than one That helps students know exactly what they willhave to do next

2.1.3 Other factors

a Time limitations

Normally, in each lesson as well as in each speaking lesson it takes45minutes for both teacher’s guide and student’s act and speaking Therefore, insome large classes with a number of students whose English knowledge islimited, it is hard for teacher’s to manage, pay attention to and focus on allstudents’ speech during this limited time

b Classroom and material limitations

In teaching lesson, there are some facilities in classroom which also affectstudents' learning and students' result such as the lightness, the temperature orclassroom atmosphere and facilities for displaying pictures and chart As weknow English is a subject which is using and updating a lot of pictures aboutmany aspects in daily life the use of visual display to show these pictures inteaching and learning is an effective way, that makes students exciting andwants to discover the subject more Specially on textbook English 10 there arefew illustrative pictures relating to the lesson, which makes the lesson lessattractive and exciting.

2.1.4 The speaking program for the grade 10 th at Le Hoan high school

Basing on the text books designed by the Ministry of Education and Training,English is taught with four skills and language focus which focus on grammar andpronunciation The speaking program at Le Hoan high school is the same as this bookwith the aim of improving students' abilities in speaking On English 10 textbook, wehave 16 units with 16 topics for student's speaking There are a range of types topractice speaking in the class, students can work in pairs to ask and answer,work in a group to discuss a topic or work individually to give their ideas, theirspeech in front of the class

From the content and speaking lessons of the textbook, we can see the speakingtopics in the first term of the academic year It consists of the 8 units with 8topics for students' writing After 8 units, they review to prepare for the finalfirst term test

Topic 1 Unit 1: A day in the life of………Speaking lesson: talk about daily activities

Topic 2 Unit 2: School talks– Making questions and giving responses insmall talks.Topic 3 Unit 3: People’s background–Talk about people’s background.Topic 4 Unit 4: Special education – Making an interview and reporting onresults Topic 5 Unit 5: Technology and you – Talking about the use ofmoderntechnology.Topic 6 Unit 6: An excursion – Giving opinions

Topic 7 Unit 7: the mass media – talk about different types of media

Topic 8

Unit 8: The story of my village – talk about the plans and theirpossible results

Final first – term Test

2.2 Some problems before implementing the thesis.

2.2.1 Some features about class 10A1

a Advantages

Class 10A1 is the class with 46 students Most of them have goodknowledge about Math, Physics and Chemistry because they choose them astheir main subjects for their studying and their higher education When theylearn those it means that most of the students in class 10A1 have a good logical

ability and they are active people Beside their main subject, they can havespecial ability for learning others quickly and well

With my subject, English, most students in the class 10A1 really like itand also aware its importance for their future Therefore they always feelattractive and try their best to learn it Some students also have good knowledge

in English both grammar and 4 skills They react and response quickly withteacher’s requirement They are the people raising their hand first in eachactivity and each exercise They become encouragement for teacher in eachlesson,

b Disadvantages

My student's attitude in learning is very good, but it also has somelimitations Firstly, their main subjects are Math, Physics and Chemistry, so theyspend much time studying them It means they spend little time on the others aswell as English Secondly, beside some excellent students, there are many weakstudents who had limited knowledge at secondary school This makes themtimid and has bad reflection with teacher and their friend Therefore, theybecome passive, less confident and indifferent to speaking skill When I askedthem to read the tasks in the lesson, they seem to keep quiet and didn’t payattention Last but not least Most of them also don't have good condition inusing modern devices for studying foreign language such as computer withinternet connection, radio or expensive cell phone These modern devices withinternet will help students improve their speaking and listening more These aresome disadvantages affecting my students in learning English As a result, it ishard for teach to design suitable activities for both kind of the students in theclass These reasons leading to the problem that “why teacher has to adapt somespeaking lesson on textbook English 10”

2.2.2 Some problems with some speaking lessons on textbook English 10 and their impression in students’ mind and students’ reflection about the requirement on each task.

I began teaching class 10A1 since September, 2019 In some first lessons

I taught speaking skill based on the design of the textbook I also taught this killwith three stages pre, while and post stage sometimes I taught four stagesconsisting warm-up I didn't change anything in the textbook I also asked mycolleges for how they taught this kill They gave me the same steps as I did.You can see the method and its result which I and my colleagues used last year

in teaching speaking skill in class 10A2 and other classes at Le Hoan highschool as some following examples:

Example 1: Unit 1: A day in the life of… Lesson: Speaking

Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

A WARM UP

-T gives handouts that write ten subjects on

the blackboard

1.Civic education 2.Biology

Ss work in group of two

Ss have 3 minutes to rememberall subjects and then write

3 Technology 4 Chemistry

4.Mathematics 5.History

6.Physics 7.Geography

8.Literature 10.Physical education

-T introduce the new- lesson

down them on the blackboard

If the group has more correct words, they will be winner

B PRE-SPEAKING

How to say the time

-to help Ss to revise how to say the time, T

asks Ss to match a number A with a

suitable phrase in B

Handout1:

7:158:058:559:4510:4017:006:0018:30

a a quarter to ten

b five to nine

c five past eight

d a quarter past seven

e twenty to eleven

f half past six p.m

g five o’clock p.m

h six o’clock a.m

-T can help So remember the ways to say

the time

-Ss work individually and the compare their answers with a friend

Expected answer:

1d,2c,3b,4a,5e,6g,7h,8f

C WHILE- SPEAKING

- asks Ss to practice TASK in textbook

TASK1:Set the scene

- asks Ss to look at Quan weekly timetable

on page 15.Ask and answer questions with

a partner, using the information from the

timetable

Model: makes a short dialogue with a

student

: What time does Quan have Civic

education less on Monday?

S: He has Civic education at a quarter

past seven on Monday.

: What lesson does Quan have at quarter

past seven on Monday?

S: He has Civic education lesson

TASK2:Describe the picture

- keeps Ss work in pairs and ask them to

study the pictures T may help by asking

questions such as:

- look at Quan weekly timetable and work in pairs

- work individually and talk about Quan’s activities, using the picture

Note: Use some conjunctions such as: Then

*What is Quan doing in picture A?

* Is he getting up ?

*What time does he get up?

- goes around the class and provides help if

- asks Ss to close your textbooks and tell

your classmates about your daily routine

Note: Ss only talk about their main /

important activities

- calls some Ss to present in front of class

and give them mark

- close the book

- go to the board and talk about their daily routine

Example 2: Unit 3: People’s background: Lesson: Speaking

I Warm-up:

- Ask students to close the book

- Give some words and let students complete

the full sentences:

1 Marie Curie/ born/ 7th/ November/

Warsaw/ 1867

2 Marie Curie/ harbour/ dream/ scientific

career/ impossible/ woman/ time

- Close the books

- Working pairs and write thefull sentences

- Each student speaks out thesentence they’ve done

1 Marie Curie was born inWarsaw on November 7the1867

2 Marie Curie harbored thedream of a scientific career,which was impossible for awoman at that time

II Pre-speaking:

- Asks students to practise speaking about

their parents, brothers, sisters…

- Goes around and listen to them

- Work in pairsA: What is your father’s job?B: He’s a doctor

A: How old is he?

B: He’s 40 years oldA: What does he like doing inhis free time?

B: He likes playing badminton

III While-speaking:

Task 1: Work in pair Decide which items

below can tell you about somebody’s

background.

- Lets students open the books and decide

which items below can tell you about

someone’s background

- Asks students to read some words given

and then let them choose which words used

for someone’s back ground

- Listens and corrects

- continues asking students to work in pairs

and discuss what questions they can use to

ask about someone’s background

- give feedback

Task 2: Imagine you are a journalist Use

the cues below to interview a classmate

about his/her background or that of a

person he/she knows well Change the role

when you have finish.

- Ask students to look at the pictures again

- Let students imagine they are journalists

and interview each other in groups and pairs

- Ask one group to do the task as a model

- 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 practice speaking

Task 3: Work in groups Talk about the

person you have learnt about from the

interview.

- Asks students to tell about others they’ve

heard by interviewing their friends

- Some groups go on speaking each other

-Listens and sives feedback

- Look at the book and decidethe items

- Read these words and work ingroups

- Some students can show offthese words: family; dislike;hobby; education

- work in pairs and discuss

- give the questions

- Work in groups with somecues given below

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

A: Hi! When were you born?B: I was born on August 18th1991

A: Where do you live?

B: I live in

- Other groups go on practicingspeaking

- Work in groupsA: Can you tell me somethingabout Nam?

B: Yes, pleaseA: Where is he from?

B: He’s from

A: What does he do?

B: He’s a student

A: What does he like doing?B: He likes playing football

IV Post-speaking:

- Gives some information about Mark Twain:

- asks ss to use these information to talk

about Mark twain, background

1 He/ born/ Missouri/ 1835

2 He/ adopt/ pen name/ “Mark Twain”

3 He/ write/ his famous novels/ “Tom

of the whole class

From two lessons, I see that my students have different interaction with their friends and their teacher about their lesson In speaking lesson unit 1, they seem to be attractive and react quickly Specially, most of my students raise their hands to do the task or give their speech about the lesson Both weak

students and good students can do some simple and easy tasks From Quan’s activities in the pictures they can talk about his activities easily and talk about their own activities in their daily life However, in unit 3, my students’ responsesabout teacher’s requirement and tasks’ demand seem slow and passive I wonderwhat are the differences between these two units and why my students’

responses and participation are very different between two units To know

exactly the cause of this problem and to find out the solution as well as the bettermethods in teaching speaking I implemented a survey to get information from

my students In my survey, 46 students in class 10A2 were asked to give their answer to the questions from the teacher then handed in their papers to the

teacher There were the results of the survey

Question 1: Do you like activities in speaking lesson at unit 1 or unit 3?

The result in the table shows that most students like the tasks or the

activities at unit 1 with the rate is 69,56%, 17,39 % of the students has a neutral idea and only 8,69% of them like the activities at unit 3 This result shows us that students’ responses and participation in each unit or the activities in it are different

Question 2: Why do you have different responses and different participation in

each unit?

Reasons:

A the activities at unit 1 are simpler and more attractive than those at unit 3 and give students more detailed cues and information than those at unit 3.

B Speaking lesson at unit 1 gives good students chances to create and present themselves

C Speaking lesson at unit 1 is more suitable for both weak and good

students than that at unit 3

D You choose all

As can be seen from the table, most students think they need simple

activities with detailed information However, some of them also need some challenge tasks to present their thoughts and their creation From the informationcollected I am aware of the importance and the influence of adapting some speaking lessons to make them more suitable with my students changes and adaption new activities and new teaching method becomes imperative

Question 3: What should teacher do to help the whole class improve their

speaking skill in each lesson?

A She should make speaking tasks simpler, easier and more logical

B She should change some old tasks which don’t have detailed

information and don’t encourage students’ intelligence

C She should adapt some speaking lessons with some activities which are more suitable and attracive than the old ones

D You choose all

From the number on the table, we see that all students want their teacher

to make a change about the speaking tasks they see hard and design the new ones which are suitable with their ability and motivate their speaking skill Fromthese ideas, teacher knows that she should change or adapt some speaking

lessons she think that they are not suitable for studentswith a view to motivating them in each lesson and improving their speaking skill

2.3 Some activites to promote speaking.

2.3.1 Some notes teacher should remember when teaching speaking skill.

From students' ideas as well as my own experience, I gives some noteswhich are necessary for speaking skill

A prepare more than one suitable activity for each leson

B if teacher can make the tasks simpler and easier

C try to give clear and short instruction

D make sure that student are motivated to work and are more interested

in the speaking lesson