Using meaningful activities to improve high school students’ spoken competence

Đơn vị : THPT NGÔ QUYỀNSÁNG KIẾN USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN... Tên sáng kiến : Using meaningful activities to improve high schoolstudents’ spoken

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SÁNG KIẾN

USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN COMPETENCE

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Năm học: 2019-2020

Đơn vị : THPT NGÔ QUYỀN

SÁNG KIẾN

USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Backgound/context 1

2 The scope of the research 2

3 Rationale/ reasons for choosing the topic 2

4 Research aims (Purposes) 4

CONTENTS .5

I REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING 5

II RESEARCH CONTENTS 6

1 Research procedures/ definitions of terms 6

2 Advantages and disadvantages of meaningful activities .12

3 Evaluation of the research 12

a Novelty of the research ( Innovations) 13

b Effectiveness 13

c Applicability of the research 14

CONCLUSION 14

REFERENCES 15

APPENDIX 17

Appendix 1: RESEARCH DESIGN 17

Appendix 2 18

Appendix 3

1 TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

2 IELTS : International English Language Testing System

3 TOEFL : Test of English as a Foreign Language

4 TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication

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1 Tên sáng kiến : Using meaningful activities to improve high schoolstudents’ spoken competence

2 Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh

3 Tác giả:

- Họ và tên: Trần Văn Nghĩa Nam (nữ): Nam

- Trình độ chuyên môn: Thạc sĩ chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng Anh

- Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Tổ trưởng tổ tiếng Anh, THPT Ngô Quyền–Biên Hoà - Đồng Nai

- Điện thoại: 0913130131 Email: Johnnghia5@yahoo.com.vn

- Tỷ lệ đóng góp tạo ra sáng kiến (%): 100%

USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES

TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN COMPETENCE

In informal discussions with students and teachers in the school, I have recognizedthat problems facing the reality of teaching and learning speaking are that realcommunication is not always achieved Most form is focused and display questionsare often exploited The teachers make questions available in the textbooks in order

to complete their lesson plan Therefore, the students meet difficulty achieving goodresults in IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC tests

2 The scope of the research

The research consists of an introduction, a review of worthwhile literature related tothe independent variable: “meaningful activities” and their benefits, a description ofstudents’ learning styles, learning habits, preferences and their views of thesespeaking activities The final parts of the research paper are sections about researchmethodology, anticipated outcomes and possible problems which may come upduring the research together with a short conclusion

The application of meaningful activities will be carried out among a class of five 10-graders at Ngo Quyen High School The students will be tested on orallycommunicative ability before and after the techniques called “meaningful activities”are applied in the classroom in order to see how much improvement the studentsgain Both teachers’ attitudes and students’ feelings towards meaningful activities asteaching and learning tools will be reflected through interviews and questionnairesrespectively This will prove, to some extent, the usefulness and the feasibility ofthese activities in English classrooms

thirty-3 Rationale

Students acquire a foreign language through the four fundamental skills includinglistening, speaking, reading and writing Proficiency in each of these skills makes agreat contribution to becoming a competent language user, but the ability to speak

clearly and fluently can help learners to inform, express feelings, persuade andinteract with others Therefore, teaching speaking plays a very important role inhelping learners master the target language.

As a language teacher, I have recognized that real communication occurs in real-lifecontexts By using meaningful tasks, activities and practice in classes, students willhave opportunities to communicate with each other in the target language It is theteacher’s job to create classroom environments where real-life communication takesplace and meaningful tasks are exploited

● Research Focus

The following diagram illustrates the relationship between the key variables of the

study which serve as the research focus with the title: “Using meaningful activities

to improve high school students’ spoken competence at Ngo Quyen High School”.

● Research Questions and Variables

Independent Variable

Teachers use meaningful activities

to help students with speaking

Dependent Variable

Students’ enhanced spoken discourse This dependent variable is measured through speaking tests.

The use of meaningful activities

High school students’ spoken Communication

(Problems)

- What is the effect of meaningful activities on the development of Grade 10students’ spoken communication?

- How will meaningful activities be effectively used in speaking classes ?

- What are students’ opinions on meaningful activities: referential questions,discussions and simulations ?

4 Research aims (Purposes)

The study aims at finding out about the effects of using meaningful activities on thedevelopment of high school students’ spoken discourse at the school The researchalso aims to identify students’ speaking problems with the hope that meaningfulactivities can help promote their spoken competence

CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH

I REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING

As a teacher of English for over 25 years, I usually have discussions with a number

of students, I have learned that most of them really want to study English forcommunication However, they do not have strategies for developing their oralcommunication The speaking problems that the teacher frequently deals with arestudents’ difficulty in expressing ideas and opinions Also, students are not often,during the lesson, encouraged to respond to questions for real information from theirteachers and friends

In my teaching experience, I have learnt that teaching speaking, a productive skill, isparticularly vital because my students’ achievements in speaking will increase theirintrinsic motivation to learn other language skills

I also hold the belief that speaking is one of the most important parts of Englishlanguage learning and teaching However, its significance is underevaluated by somestudents and teachers in the school They teach speaking just as a repetition drill formemorizing dialogues, useful expressions or language functions In fact, the goal ofour teaching speaking is to improve students' communication skills, and throughspeaking with meaningful activities students can learn how to follow the social andcultural aspects appropriate for any situational context

II RESEARCH CONTENTS

1 Research procedures/ definitions of terms

● The Subject

The sample includes two groups of year 15 students belonging to two differentclasses Each group has 35 students The group engaged in meaningful activitylesson will form the experimental group, while the other, which carries on withnormal lessons will form the control group A speaking pre-test will be carried out so

as to show that the two groups have the same level of proficiency I will teach bothgroups for the second term of the school year 2020, using meaningful activities withthe experimental group and the control group will be taught as usual The two groupswill be orally tested at the end of the second term so that I can get the scores for eachstudent The test scores will be analyzed and considered as useful data for thefindings The three teachers and I will make comparisons between the control groupand the experimental group on their learning achievements in order to see the effect

of meaningful activities on students’ development of spoken English Finally, datacollection will be shared and discussed with the school administrators

DATA COLLECTION

The research will be carried out with three different methods for data collection Thefirst tool is to prepare open-ended questions for the survey that the researcher isgoing to carry out A questionnaire which will find out about students’ attitudes tomeaningful activities, their views of their speaking abilities and awareness of whatmeaningful activities will be about

Then , I will interview the four teachers in my school The second thing I will do isthat I get my students to fill the questionnaire I have made to find a better way toteach and learn speaking The next thing I will do is that I make a lesson plan inwhich meaningful activities are made effective use of The purpose of the

questionnaire and the interview and classroom observation will be clearly explained

to the students before the research starts

● Questionnaire

As a questionnaire may play a central role in the data collection process, a designed questionnaire is needed To do this, I have to make a draft plan, thenconsult my colleagues for some questions on the topic I want the questionnaire to beinformative and appropriate for the subjects Before conducting the questionnaire, Iwill pilot it in another group that shares the same similarities to the sample Thedesigned questionnaire is anonymous so that the students do not conceal theirfeelings when they give comments on their teachers and their teaching Thequestionnaire which uses closed-and open-ended questions covers different kinds ofstudents, their views on meaningful activities

● Interview

Interviewing is chosen as one of the three main methods of data collection Byasking 4 teachers questions about views or opinions on using referential questions,discussions and simulations, and the approaches of teaching speaking It will take anhour for each interview In order to make the interviewees comfortable, the place forthe interview and the purpose of the interview will be made clear to the fourinterviewees The main part of the interview includes asking teachers 13 questionsand recording their answers by a good Sony recorder Each teacher will beinterviewed once at the beginning of the study Open-ended questions are designedfor the teacher’s interviews

● Classroom Observation

I have designed 16 statements which describe the students’ learning styles, viewsand the teacher’s methods of teaching The observer will observe and record

concrete details of what the teacher does in the lesson, methods of teaching andmeaningful activities will be utilized in the classroom.

DATA ANALYSIS

All the data will be analyzed by the four teachers The findings will be shared withthe teaching group leader and the school administrators A workshop will soon beheld in order to widely disseminate the findings of the research

● Questionnaire Analysis

There are five items in the student survey, I will do a tally count, then change it intopercentages, using the tables about the students’ learning styles and views onmeaningful activities The data will be carefully analyzed

● Class Observation Data Analysis

Observations will be used to gain in-depth understanding and to avoidmisinterpretation I will double read to gain the teacher’s views or beliefs aboutmeaningful activities in teaching speaking, and the relationships among views andpractices

● Interview Data Analysis

Each interview will be recorded, coded and then transcribed and analyzed critically

In looking across cases, I will look for themes and patterns which emerge from thedata and code for the emerging themes Each teacher’s data analysis includesclassifying, categorizing, labeling and organizing the emerging classifications

REVIEWS OF LITERATURE

The study aims to investigate the effects of meaningful activities on the development

of students’ speaking skill The first thing that will be discussed is a brief review ofliterature related to the definition of meaningful activities: referential questions,discussions and simulations The second part will look at the advantages ofmeaningful activities to teaching speaking

● Referential questions

In my experience, I often make referential questions in order to get students to

communicate We should consider the question: “ What do you think will happen to Everglades National Park if more chemicals are released into the water?”( English

10- page 114) In fact, this referential question encourages students to have personalideas on a serious problem of pollution nowadays

In defining referential questions, Brown (1983) explains that referential questionsare questions you ask someone because you don't know the answer He also addsthat this can mean questions teachers ask learners and learners ask each other.Referential questions can be compared with display questions, for which the answer

is already known by the asker Teachers make display questions to see if the studentsknow the answer and to ask for language manipulation Brown (1983) states that

“display questions” seek answers in which the information is already known by the

teacher This type of elicitation has been criticised for its lack of authenticity since it

is not commonly used in conversation outside the classroom In explaining thebenefits of referential questions, Brock (1986) points out that referential questionsare commonly used in regular conversation outside the classroom, so they are used

to encourage students’ higher-order thinking skills and authentic use of the secondlanguage in the classroom Many researchers (Nunan, 1987; Suter, 2001; Morell,2007) also emphasize that teachers’ use of referential questions can stimulate

students to provide much longer and more complex responses than the use of displayquestions.

● Discussions

Davis (1993) says that using discussions as a main teaching technique allows us tostimulate critical thinking As we establish a rapport with our students, we candemonstrate that we appreciate their contributions, at the same time that wechallenge them to think more deeply and to articulate their ideas more clearly.Frequent questions, whether asked by the teacher or by the students, provide ameans of measuring learning and exploring in-depth the key concepts of the course.After the input or contents are delivered, a discussion should be organized forvarious reasons First, the students aim to come to a conclusion, share ideas about anevent in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that thepurpose of the discussion is clearly stated to the students In this way, the discussionpoints are relevant to the purpose Each group works on their topic for a given timeperiod, and then presents their opinions to the class It is essential that the talkingtime should be equally divided among group members Finally, the class decides onthe winning group that can express the idea in the best way This activity fosterscritical thinking and quick decision making

● Simulations

By definition, role plays and simulations are forms of experiential learning (Russell:2009) Learners take on different roles, assuming a profile of a character orpersonality, and interact and participate in diverse and complex settings He alsodefines that simulations are similar to role-plays, but what makes simulationsdifferent from role-plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students canbring items to the class to create a realistic environment For example, if a student isallowed to act as a journalist, he or she can bring a microphone to interview people