SUGGESTED WARM UP ACTIVITIES FOR LISTENING LESSONS IN ’’TIENG ANH 11”

It has been found that although teaching and learning English listening skills was significant, it was not taken carefully considerations by higher administrators, educators, teachers an

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.4 Effectiveness of the Teaching Experience 12

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Of four language skills, listening has long been considered the most challenging and difficult one by both foreign language teachers and students In reality, in many high schools in Vietnam in general and in Nghe An in particular, teaching English listening skills has not been paid much attention to

As a result, the qualities and effectiveness of teaching and learning this skill are not really as good and high as expected From the fact that most EFL teachers at high schools in Thanh Hoa have faced a lot of problems in teaching listening

It has been found that although teaching and learning English listening skills was significant, it was not taken carefully considerations by higher administrators, educators, teachers and students In addition, lack of well-equipped facilities, teachers’ unsuitable teaching listening methods, poor listening methodology and approaches and students’ low level of proficiency, boredom, indifference as well as de-motivation are obstacles in most high schools in Thanh Hoa Many students claimed that they felt tired of listening to the tape from beginning to the end with controlled exercises in the textbook Without interest, motivation and variation in teaching and learning students found it hard to study in listening class So it is necessary for teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and to know how to motivate students so that they can make progress in listening comprehension

Using effective warm-up activities can stimulate students’ spirit in learning Sometimes, a picture or a humor story can do great deal towards arousing interest among students However, many teachers seem to neglect or donot pay much attention to the pre-listening stage or warm-up exercise which can be a good step for the next stage of the listening lessons It is believed that how well students had done in class depends much on how well they had been warmed up From this point of view, teachers should take into consideration the methodology they can apply in their listening courses and try to improve their teaching of listening lessons Some techniques should be employed in pre-listening stage with appropriate warm-up activities

Within this background, the author would like to conduct a study dealing with the problems of creating a good lead-in during the listening teaching process in “Tieng Anh 11” at high schools in Thanh Hoa in order to propose appropriate warm-up activities that can motivate students before the new lesson and facilitate the English listening teaching and learning

1.2 Aims of the Study

The aims of the study are as follows:

- To investigate EFL teachers' problems in creating a good lead-in of a listening lesson in "Tieng Anh 11"

- To suggest warm-up activities for some listening lessons in “Tieng Anh 11”.

PART 2: CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background

Stages of Teaching Listening Skills

Teaching listening text can be divided into three main stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening Each stage has its own aims and activities

a) Pre-listening

Pre-listening stage aims at preparing students with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text This stage is of great importance since it leads students to the listening passage that they are going to listen, arouses their interests and provides students with the purposes of listening

as well as the input before they listen

Some activities at this stage are:

Warming up the class:

The teacher may motivate the class, gradually set up a context for listening text to be presented by asking questions to elicit students’ experience, or ideas concerning the coming text or by using some sort of visual aids or their imagination

Introducing the topic of listening text:

The teacher briefly introduces the topic of listening text so that the

students may get their mind already for it

Presenting key words:

The teacher only presents any word that is necessary for students to

understand the text

Giving guiding questions:

These guiding questions will help focus the students’ attention on the main points of the text They will guide the students to the better understanding of the text Students should be allowed to make guesses at the answer to the questions before listening

These activities may give students a chance to get some knowledge which helps them to follow the listening text Therefore, when choosing an activity, the teacher should consider factors that Underwood (1989) states: The time, the material is available or not, the interests of the class and the teacher, the place where the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text itself If one of these factors is ignored, the whole process of the activity can

be failed

b) While-listening

The aim of this stage is to facilitate students’ listening and check their comprehension While the students are listening to the text for the first time, they can check their guess and give the correct answer to the guiding questions Then the teacher gives the students some tasks to do while they are listening for the second time They can do some of the activities such as: gap-filling, true or false statements, answering comprehension questions, matching, multiple

choice, reordering, etc While-listening stage gives students a guide to practice listening because they need a reason to listen which helps them to focus their attention As Rixon (1986) mentions, the purpose of while-listening stage is to challenge and guide students to master the information and the message from the passage To facilitate students’ comprehension, the teacher should provide useful techniques such as clear instructions, playing tapes on purposes, classifying levels of difficulty of task from easier to more difficult, and so on

It is advisable that while-listening activities should meet students’ different levels and needs so that they are encouraged to listen better

c) Post-listening

At this stage, students can have opportunities to practice using what they have got from the listening text Post-listening activities are performed after the listening is finished According to Underwood (1989), the first purpose of those activities is to check how well the students understood and whether they have finished the listening task The second one is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the passage Moreover, post-listening activities aims at expanding the topic or the language of the listening text Students are also given an opportunity to consider the attitude of the speaker in the listening text because they can realize the purpose of the speaker based on his/her attitude

Students can do some following activities:

Summarizing the text orally or in written

form Re-telling the content of the listening

text Role-play:

Students play the roles of the characters in the text

Discussion:

The teacher should make up and vary the activities for students to do at this stage depending on their level of English In addition, the teacher should pay more attention to the following factors in selecting post-listening activities:

The amount of language work the teacher desires to do related to the listening text

The time limitation

Speaking, reading and listening skills should be integrated in

post-listening activities

Pair work and group work should be encouraged

The designed activity should be motivating to students

Warm-up activities

Teachers of English may use many different activities to promote students’ engagement Among these, warm-up activities can be used flexibly before students jump into learning It is true that proper warm-up activities ensure that your students are ready to move into the next tasks of the lesson

a) What are warm-up activities

It is said that warm-up activities, which are also called icebreakers or motivator activities, are structured activities that are designed to relax learners, introduce them to each other, and energize them in what is normally an unduly formal atmosphere or situation

Warm-up activities should be designed to get students’ attention and prepare them the right mood before focusing on whatever activities follow They usually last in 5 or 10 minutes which create a sense of excitement in classroom It has been found that students were usually drawn into the activity, finding the questions and listening to the answer when they discover solutions to the puzzles or questions which were set by teachers in warm-up activities

b) Why do you use warm-up activities

It is believed that warm ups set the tone of the lesson, get students to begin thinking and focusing on English, provide a transition into the topic, allow teacher important opportunities to assess character and ability

The aim of these activities is various which depend on teacher’s purpose before the lesson Teachers may try to connect students’ prior learning, review a lesson from the previous day, assess skill level or lead students into the topic of the lesson With effective warm-up activities, students come into the classroom and immediately begin their job for the day-learning For these reasons,

warm-up activities require more consideration from teachers with careful planning before class

2.2 Practical background

The reasons affecting the effectiveness of a listening period in EFL classrooms lie in the teachers and the students themselves Besides, the listening section in the book “Tieng Anh 11” also causes difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning process

As for the teachers, although they are aware of the fact that teaching listening skill is not easy and the listening section in the textbook is sometimes not appropriate for students’ levels, they do not often adapt given tasks Many of the teachers just follow the requirements of the textbook without making any changes to any of the tasks In addition, there are many problems the teachers often encounter when designing and carrying out activities for a listening lesson such as limitation of time for preparation and for curriculum, students’ levels, students’ background knowledge or lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids, etc Especially, lack of the teachers' background knowledge and suitable ways to lead their students into the new lesson is one of the important factors that can make students bored and ignore the listening lesson

Many teachers may fail to meet their students' needs and interests before they start the listening lesson That is because they do not create an exciting classroom atmosphere and provide their students with background knowledge related to the listening content so that they can feel easier to understand the new lesson It is crucial for students to bare something related to the listening contents in their mind before listening

In one word, it is undeniable that there still exist the problems originated from omitted or confused warm-up activities in a listening lesson However, these problems can be solved to make the listening section more simple and interesting for both teachers and students by applying the techniques of adaptation made by the teachers’ flexibility

2.3 Solutions to the problems

In this part, I would like to suggest some warm-up activities for some listening lessons in different units in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” from my practical teaching as solutions to the difficulties that are often encountered in teaching listening Most of these activities are used at pre-listening stage

WARM-UP ACTIVITIES

Unit 1: Friendship (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.17)

Game: Song Guessing

- Divide the class into 2 groups: Group A and group B

- Let Ss listen to 5 pieces of popular songs relating to friendship (e.g Ngồi lại bên nhau, Mong ước kỷ niệm xưa, Season in the summer, You and I, Tiễn bạn lên đường)

- The group that can name more songs will win the game

- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game

- Play the game and score the points

- Declare the winner

Unit 2: Personal Experiences (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p 27)

Game: Guessing Game: "What is it?"

- Divide the class into two groups A and B and ask Ss to guess

- Read aloud some cues one by one If students can give out the correct answer for the first cue, they will get 30 points, 20 points for the second one and 10 points for the last one

+ It can destroy buildings, houses, forests and even kill people.

+ It makes a lot of smoke.

+ You need water to put it out.

- The group giving the correct answer and get the most points first wins

Expected answer: A fire

Unit 3: A Party (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p 36)

Game: Drawing

- Divide the class into two groups: group A and group B.

- Invite one student from each group who is good at drawing to join the game

- Tell Ss the rule: "I will write down the words about items on the paper one by one so that only two students from each group can see The two students have to draw a picture of the item as quickly as possible for their group to guess what it

is The first group that gives the correct answer will get one mark If they are wrong, the other group will take a turn to answer At the end, the group with more marks will win the game".

- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game

- Play the game and score the points

- Declare the winner

Keys: cake, candle, gift/ present, candy, flower.

* Alternative:

Kim’s Game

- Divide the class into 2 teams

- Let the two teams look at the pictures in 30 seconds and then T puts away the pictures and asks them to write down as many items as possible on the board At the end, the group with more correct items will be the winner

- Show the pictures:

- Control the activity

Answer keys:

Unit 4: Volunteer Work (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.51)

Game: Finding One’s Other Half

- Divide the class into 2 teams: team A and team B

- Hang on 2 posters on the board

- Stick pieces of paper with different shapes and colors on each poster

- Ask Ss in each team to combine pieces of paper with the same shape or color together

- The team who first finishes will win the game

- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions

Keys: supporting charities/ raising money / helping the poor / helping the

elderly / making donations

(Collected from Thiết kế bài giảng Tiếng Anh 11, 2007, p 64)

Unit 6: Competitions (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.70)

Game: Picture Guessing (Picture of a marathon race)

- Divide the class into 2 groups and let students guess the picture behind the numbers

- In order guess the picture, students have to choose the number they want If they have a lucky number, they will get 1 point without answering any question and one piece of picture will be opened If they choose an unlucky number, they have to answer the question of the teacher One point will be for them if they answer correctly and they can open one more piece of picture If not, they will

have no marks The group guesses the picture correctly will get 3 points At the end the group with more marks will be the winner

- Declare the winner

- Keys :

+ Number 1: (unlucky number): "She is an athlete champion who lives in Hue and got a lot of gold medals Who is she?" (Do Thi Bong)

+ Number 2: (unlucky number): "Who is the Vietnamese champion in body- building at the 14th Asian Games?" (Ly Duc)

+ Number 3: Lucky number

+ Number 4: (unlucky number): "What do you call an athlete who

practices gymnastic exercises?" (Gymnast)

* Alternative:

- Ask Ss to watch a video clip about sport news and name the competition in it (The Boston Marathon)

Unit 7: World Population (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.84)

Game: Bingo

- Have students list the populous countries in the world

- Note down their names on the board (about 10 or more)

- Ask students to take out a piece of paper and copy down 3 countries from the list on the board

- Read out 3 countries which were chosen randomly by teacher

- Right after the T says the last country, any students who have all the

same choices as the teacher will say “Bingo” and they win the game

Unit 8: Celebrations (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.94)

Competition Game — Guessing Game

- Divide Ss into 4 groups

- Tell Ss the rule of the game: Each group give a word related to holidays, the other groups will guess what holiday is The group with the quickest and correct answer will get one point for their group After some turns, the group with more points will be the winner

E.g: Tet holiday: lucky money/ peach blossom, sticky rice

cake… Mid-autumn festival: masks, moon cake…

Valentine’s Day: chocolate/red rose…

* Alternative: Song Guessing

- Divide the class into 2 groups.

- Play the first part of the song "Happy New Year" and ask Ss to guess the name

of the song The first group answers correctly will be the winner

Unit 9: The Post Office (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.105)

Game: Stop the Bus!

Question: Find 4 things that you use to contact with your friends.

- Divide the class into four groups

- Each group tries to find words as quickly as possible after T’s question

The group that finishes firstly will shout: “Stop the bus!” and go to the board to write down the answers

If the group gives the right answer, they will get one mark

The group that gets more marks will be the winner

Keys: Cell phone, telephone, letters, the Internet, email.

Unit 10: Nature in Danger (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.119)

Game: Animal Guessing

- Prepare an audio-tape with various sounds of animals such as monkey, lion, snake, pig, etc

- Divide the class into 2 groups: Group A and group B

- Play the tape for Ss to listen to the sound one by one The group that gives the correct answer first will get 1 mark If not, they have no marks and the other group will take the turn to answer At the end, the group with more points will

be the winner

- Organize the game and score the marks of each group

- Declare the winner

Unit 11: Sources of Energy (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.128)

Game: Lucky Stars (For high-leveled students)

1

6

4

- Divide class into 2 groups: group A and Group B

- Tell Ss the rule of the game: Choose the star you like If you choose a lucky star, you can get the mark behind the star without answering any questions If not, you have to answer the question corresponding to the star within 15 seconds The mark behind the star will belong to you if you answer correctly In contrast, you will have no marks and the other group will be allowed to answer