Study on using language games in warm up activities to motivate 10th in duong xa high school

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIESM.A MINOR THESIS STUDY ON USING LANGUAGE GAMES IN WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE 10TH GRADE STUDENTS TO LISTEN IN LISTENING LESSONS IN DUONG XA HIGH SCHOO

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR THESIS

STUDY ON USING LANGUAGE GAMES IN WARM-UP ACTIVITIES

TO MOTIVATE 10TH GRADE STUDENTS TO LISTEN IN LISTENING LESSONS IN DUONG XA HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ trong các hoạt động khởi động để khuyến khích học sinh lớp 10 học nghe ở trường THPT

Dương Xá)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 By: Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc

Hanoi, 2010

M.A MINOR THESIS

STUDY ON USING LANGUAGE GAMES IN WARM-UP ACTIVITIES

TO MOTIVATE 10TH GRADE STUDENTS TO LISTEN IN LISTENING LESSONS IN DUONG XA HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ trong các hoạt động khởi động để khuyến khích học sinh lớp 10 học nghe ở trường THPT

Dương Xá)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 By: Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc Supervisor: Nguyen Huyen Minh, M.A

Hanoi, 2010

Table of Contents

Candidate‟s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and charts vii

part one: Introduction 1

1. Background to the study ……… 7

2. The aims of the study ……… 7

3. The scope of the study ……… 8

4. Research questions ……… 8

5. Method of the study ……… 8

6.The outline of the thesis ……….8

part two: Development

Chapter one: Literature Review .

1.1 Games

1.1.1 Definitions of Game ………4

1.1.2 Features of a quality game

1.1.3 Roles of games 1.1.4 Procedures in using games to improve listening skills 1.1.4.1 Before using games

1.1.4.1.1 Preparation 1.1.4.1.2 Organizing class ………15

1.1.4.1.3 Giving instructions ………9

1.1.4.2 When using game ……… 16

1.1.4.2.1 Controlling class ……… 10

1.1.4.2.2 Correcting the mistakes ……… 17

1.1.4.2.3 Scoring ……… 11

1.1.4.3 After-using games ……… 18

1.1.4.3.1 Ending the game ……… 18

1.1.4.3.2 Summarizing and commenting ……… 18

1.2 Teaching Listening ……….13

1.2.1 Definition of Listening ……… 13

1.2.2 Three stages of the listening lesson

1.2.2.1 Pre-listening

1.2.2.2 While-listening 1.2.2.3 Post-listening 1.3 Motivation ……… 21

1.3.1 Definitions of motivation ……….21

1.3.2 Kinds of motivation ……….22

1.3.2.1 Intrinsic motivation ……….22

1.3.2.2 Extrinsic motivation ……… 22

1.3.3 The importance of motivation in listening lesson ……… 22

Chapter two: Research Methodology 23 2.1 Subjects of the study ……….23

2.1.1 The 10th form students ……….23

2.1.2 The teachers …….23

2.2 Data collecting instruments ……….23

2.2.1 Survey questionnaire 23

2.2.2 Interview ……… 24

2.2.3 Observation ……….24

Chapter three: Data Analysis ……… 19

3.1 Questionnaire ……… 19

3.1.1 Students‟ view on listening skill ……… 19

3.1.2 The fact of using language games in warm-up activities ……… 19

3.1.3 The difficulties before, while and after playing language games ……… 26

3.1.4 Students‟ attitude and preference on playing language games ……… 27

3.1.5 Effectiveness of language games in warm-up activities in listening lessons ……… 28

3.1.6 Suggestions of using language games in warm-up activities in listening lessons ……… 29

3.2 Interview ……….29

3.3 Class Observation ……….30

Chapter four: Findings and Recommendations ……….32

4.1 Findings ……….32

4.1.1 The benefits of using language games in warm-up activities in listening lessons ………32

4.1.2 The frequency of using language games ………32

4.1.3 Difficulties in organizing and playing language games ……….33

4.1.4 Suggestions on using language games in warm-up activities in listening lesson ………33

4.2 Recommendations ……… 33

4.2.1 Takings the students‟ personal factors and proficiency into consideration …… 34

4.2.2 Using language games in a flexible and appropriate way ……….34

4.2.3 Using variety of language games ………29

4.3 Sample work ………29

part three: Conclusion ………40

1. Summary of the study ……….40

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study ……….41

List of Tables, charts and pie charts

Table 1 Students‟ view on listening skill

Chart 1 The frequency of using language games in warm-up activities

Chart 2 The difficulties before, while and after playing language games

Pie chart 1 The students‟ attitude toward language games in warm-up activities

Pie chart 2 The effectiveness of language games in warm-up activities in listening lesso

part one: Introduction

1 Background to the study

Nowadays, English is becoming more and more popular all over the world It is notonly considered as the mother tongue in many countries but also used widely in the world

as an international language It is the language of politics, science, technology, commerce,tourism, sports, ect In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in thecurriculum at many secondary schools In text-book, students have to learn four skills(listening, speaking, reading, and writing) among these skills listening is a very importantskill for the purpose of communication Nevertheless, listening does not receive adequateattention from both teachers and learners In English classroom, teachers are mainlyconcerned with teaching what students are tested in the exams, which is known as teaching

to the test phenomenon As a result, after graduating from school, students are good atusing grammar structures and vocabulary, but find difficult to listen English naturally Inlistening lessons, students usually feel bored and frightened To motivate and encouragestudents to learn listening is not an easy task for teachers At the beginning, to stimulatestudents to learn, warm-up activities should be stressed Using language games in warm-upactivities becomes a good choice

The main reasons above lead me to my choice of the subject: Study on using language

games in warm-up activities to motivate 10th grade students to listen in listening lessons

in Duong Xa high school.

2 The aims of the study

The study will emphasize on the main following purposes:

 Providing the basic literature review in terms of listening, motivation and language game

 Investigating the effectiveness of using language games in warm-up activities in listening lessons of grade 10 in Duong Xa high school

 Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of listeningteaching in Duong Xa high school in terms of using language games in warm-upactivities

3 The scope of the study

The study focuses specifically on using language games in warm-up activities to teachlistening in Duong Xa high school So the study limits itself to the teaching and learninglistening only, and the subjects of the study are students from some classes who studyTextbook 10 at Duong Xa high school

4 Research questions

The research plans to address the following questions:

Question 1: How do the teachers use language games in warm-up activities in listeningteaching?

Question 2: What techniques should be used to improve listening teaching in terms ofusing language games in warm-up activities?

5. Method of the study

 In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the major methods employed include:

 Survey questionaire with the aims at finding out the difficulties of students when learning listening and their attitude to language game in warm-up activities

 Interview with teachers of English to find out thier diffculties when teachinglistening, and the reasons they use language game in warm-up activities and whattheir criterials to choose a game are

 Personal observations

6. The outline of the thesis

Part one: Introduction: some brief information about the background of the study, the aims,the scope, research questions as well as method of the study Part two: Development

Chapter one: Literature Review: a brief and general review of language games, listening and motivation

Chapter two: Methodology: Methods are employed in this study

Chapter three: Data analysis

Chapter four: Findings and recommendations

Part three: Conclusion

Appendix consist of the Questionaire for students, interview questions, Observation of Unit

12, 13 and 14

Part two: Development

Chapter one: Literature Review

1.1 Games

1.1.1 Definitions of Game

So far, many different definitions of game have been made In the Oxford

Advanced learners‟ dictionary of current English by A.S Hornby (2005), game is an

activity or a sport with rules in which people or teams compete against each other It

means that students play game for their own sake, for fun, for the competitive ambition

Besides, Hadfield (1984), the writer of the book “Communicative Games” states that, “A

game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.” This is summed up very well

by Gibbs (1978: quoted in Rixon, 1981:60), “ A game is an activity carried out by

co-operating or competing decisions makers seeking to achieve, with a set of rules, their objectives.” Although the concepts of game are developed in various ways, all the above

mentioned definitions refer to some common characteristics Firstly, games are activities

governed by rules Secondly, games are for fun Thirdly, there must be goals and objectives

in games.

A language game also shares the similar characteristics with the ordinary game.However, language games mostly involve in developing and improving language skills.Greenal (1984) has defined games as one kind of activity which is used to consolidatelanguage already taught or acquired, and which occurs during the free stage of a lesson or

during occasions such as English club meetings And the term game “is used whenever

there is an element of competition between individual students or teams in a language activity.”

Therefore, the skills needed in any games are heavily weighed on the language side

so not all the games are selected due to this point of view For instance, chess is anexcellent game, but it is almost useless in language teaching For the reason is that theskills needed in chess are not linguistic Understanding games in general and languagegames in particular will help us pick out features that are useful in language teaching

1.1.2 Features of a quality game

“The teacher must take many factors into account when deciding which game

would be most appropriate and most successful with his students at any time.” (Carrier, M

(1980:7)) It means that when the teacher wants to choose a game for his teaching purpose,

he has to ponder whether the game can be used in the lesson and whether the game he usesshould be up to a certain standard and meet certain requirements

To answer for this question, there are some features of a quality game for a listeningclass

Firstly, the most important function of games is to create meaningful contexts forcommunication According to Larcabal, R S, the author of “The Roles of Games inLanguage Acquisition”, “We plan games; we must remember that for communication totake place, the players must find it essential to communicate.”

Secondly, the terms “information gap” and “opinion gap” are mentioned tocontribute for the success of a game These two terms are widely used to describe featuresessential to so much communication in our daily life It is obvious that in order to motivatethe students to be involved in a game, there need be either some information or opiniongap Information gap activities force the participants to exchange information so that theycan find a solution The controversial texts or ideas create the opinion gaps That is thereason why the participants have to describe and defend their own ideas or views

Thirdly, an “information gap” or “opinion gap” needs some content Klippel K

(1984:4) claims that, “information and opinion gap exercises have to have some content

worth talking about Students do not want to discuss the interest which is aroused by the structure of the activity may be reduced or increased by the topic.” Moreover, the relevant

of a game must include relevant language in game Then, the students can enjoy and value

a game if the content and language used are relevant to them (Wright A, Betteridge D andBuckby M (1983:3))

Fourthly, another important feature of a language game is the variety of the game

teachers use It is claimed by Hadfield, J (1990) that “Variety is important in language

teaching, and a succession of games based on the same principles, thought exciting and novel at first, would soon pall.” The techniques used by teacher included guessing,

information gap, searching, matching, exchanging and collecting, combining and card

games, problems and puzzles, role play and simulation techniques It is obvious that thevariety of forms and games is essential to help teachers attract and interest their studentsduring the lessons.

Fifthly, it is vitally important that the games be interesting, simple and easilycomprehensible (Jefitc D (1986)) The games should be interesting so they have tocontain an element of healthy competition Games should be quite simple in order to allmembers to understand the rules efficiently for active participation And they should beeasy to understand which require an appropriate vocabulary level

Another “essential ingredient of a game is challenge.” (Wright, Betteridge andBucky (1983:4)) And to Wright, “challenge is not synonymous with competition.” Thenmost of them strengthen the element of co-operation of games For example, quality gamesshould be co-operative games rather than competitive games

In a word, there have been a few different views about features of a good languagegame Nevertheless, the elements of meaningful contexts, information gap, opinion gap,relevant content and language as well as co-operation would be taken into account if theteachers want to constitute a good game It may be hard to say what the best game isbecause it depends on many factors such as certain situation, certain students and eachteacher, and other factors

1.1.3 Roles of games

Games are often wrongly regarded as an end of term activity or something to fill inlast five minutes of a lesson In fact, they are becoming an indispensable activity inlanguage syllabus because they play vitally important roles in language teaching andlearning

According to Andrew Wright, David Betteridge and Michael Bucky, games canhelp the teacher to create context in which the language is useful and meaningful Thelearners want to participate and in order to do so must understand what others are saying orhave written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view orgive information The contribution of drilling lies in the concentration on a language formand its frequent use during a limited period of time Many games provide this repeated use

of a language form By making they language convey information and opinion, gamesprovide the key feature of “drill” with the opportunity to sense the working of language as

living communication The need for meaningfulness in language learning has beenaccepted for some years A useful interpretation of “meaningfulness” is that the learnersrespond to the content in a definite way If they are amused, angered, challenged, intrigued

or surprised the content is clearly meaningful to them Thus the meaning of the languagethey listen to, read, speak and write will be more vividly experienced and, therefore, betterremembered Games can be found to give practice in all skills (reading, listening, writing,speaking), and in all stages of teaching/ learning sequence (presentation, repetition,recombination and free use of language) and for many types of communication(encouraging, criticizing, agreeing, explaining)

In addition, Simon Greenall (1984: 6) also shared the ideas that games should beused in ELT because of their significant roles According to him, they can help teacher toachieve their aim Students can produce meaningful and authentic utterances without theteacher or course book‟s control; and they can listen to language under simulated real-lifeconditions, at the same time Another role is that it‟s helpful for the learning process It isnecessary to maintain a careful balance between more relaxed work and intensive practice

He also strengthened the roles of language games in ELT He claims that “language gamesand activities provide an opportunity for learners to try out their newly acquiredcompetence in a context where they feel psychologically secure.” Greenall (1984: 7)Moreover, language games are considered to be less likely troubled by the fear of makingmistakes because the consequences of inaccuracies and misunderstandings are fictitiousand have no real significance And therefore, students can build up their confidence bylearning from their mistakes He summed up that the language games and activities can

“provide free and spontaneous practice of the language learnt in conditions lying half waybetween the controlled context of the formal lesson and the real life situations outside theclassroom

While Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby (1984: 1) point out that, “Games help andencourage many learners to sustain their interest and work.” Games also can provideintense and meaningful practice of language, and then they must be regarded as central to ateacher‟s repertoire Moreover, games can be found to give practice in all skills (reading,listening, writing, and speaking), in all stages of the teaching and learning and for manytypes of communication

Besides, Carrier (1980) draws out some advantages of language games:

 Games add variety to the range of learning situations.

 Games can be used to change the pace of a lesson and so maintain motivation.

 Games can be used to punctuate long formal teaching units and renew student‟s

energy before returning to more formal learning

 Games can give „hidden‟ practice of specific language points without students being aware of this

 Games encourage student participation and can remove the inhibitions of those whofeel intimidated by formal classroom situations

 Games can change role of the teacher from that of formal instructor to that ofmanager or organizer of activities that students enjoy participating in this can be useful

in reducing teacher-student distance or conflict

 Games can increase student-student communication, and so reduce the domination

of the classroom by the teacher

 Games can act as a testing mechanism, in the sense that they will expose areas of weakness and the need for remedial work

1.1.4 Procedures in using games to improve listening skills

1.1.4.1 Before using games

1.1.4.1.1 Preparation

The success or failure of a game depends mainly on the way teachers prepare forthe game That is the reason why teacher should pay much more attention to thepreparation

Firstly, the teacher should decide which game to use When deciding which game would bemost appropriate and most successful with the learners, the teachers must take many factors into account He has to consider the level of the learners but also: What is the main aim of having a game?

What is the interest of the learners?

The time the game should be used in class because the interest and motivation of learners

in games may be different on a Tuesday morning from late on a Friday afternoon Havingconsidered these factors an initial choice of game should only be confirmed if the teacher iscertain it is feasible in the class It means that the teacher should ensure that the aids andmaterials are available so that the learners can encounter the game‟s requirements

Secondly, the teacher must prepare the game thoroughly after having decided whichgame to use and when to use Though games may be good fun, they need to be carefullyprepared and organized.

1.1.4.1.2 Organizing class

In order to make the setting up of a game be carried out as quickly and smoothly aspossible, the teacher must decide in advance how to organize the students and theclassroom

The class organization plays very important roles in deciding the success of thegame Therefore, the teacher should know beforehand if games should be conducted inpairs, groups, teams or whole class

According to W.R Lee, because the learners especially the young children will feelsafe and confident when they are sitting in pair or group work, the division of class intoteams or groups should not be changed and redone on every occasion

In conclusion, each teacher should base on their teaching conditions to decide whatarrangement should be made to suit their students

1.1.4.1.3 Giving instructions

To make the learners understand the rules of games and know how to play games,the instructions given are very important Each game has its own specific instructions, butseveral general points can usefully be made

The instructions of the teacher must be ensured that they are clear, simple, preciseand explicit so that the students, who in any case have language difficulties, will not beconfused and understand the instructions

Another point is that it will be vitally important to let students ask questions Theteacher should sit with the students and pose questions himself, both as a demonstrationand as a prompt when students are unsure of what to do next

In addition, all the rules of the game should be provided as well as the system ofscoring in order to avoid the students‟ confusion and trouble latter Also the studentsshould be announced the time limit for the game It is not easy to predict how long a gamemay last, however, it is important for the teacher to consider these points when preparingfor a game:

1. What is the minimum amount of time needed to play this game once?

2. Is it likely that the class will wish to play the game several times over?

3. What is the maximum amount of time available in the lesson?

In brief, the instructions given by teacher are very important and necessary to step by step interest the learners to participate in the games

1.1.4.2 When using game

This stage is the main part in game playing process In this stage the teachers have

to control class, correct the mistakes and score the students

1.1.4.2.1 Controlling class

Since language games are used not only for fun but also for language teachingpurposes, the teacher must control the class to make sure that after performing games,students can get the language points, can speak naturally Therefore, the roles of teacher inevery game are very important The teacher should go from group to group, listen andobserve students‟ performance, check that they have understood and are carrying out theinstructions The teacher may have to answer the students‟ questions about procedures,new words, etc so he/she should go visit quickly to each group within the first two minutes

After that the teacher should go round again helping with vocabulary questions,correcting if it is appropriate, giving encouragement and if necessary inspiration for thosegames which require some imagination However, it is advisable for the teacher not tojump in the game and wait until he is asked for help Therefore, she/he had better try toelicit from students themselves rather than simply providing what they need, which makesstudents feel more comfortable and self-confident

One of the inevitable of a speaking class is the noise Therefore, when a teacherwants to level down the noise, the followings should be taken into account

Firstly, the teacher has to make sure that the students are close enough to each other.This is particularly important for group and pair work A spread out group is noisier than ahuddle

Secondly, the teacher can appoint a chairman for groups The chairman can haveseveral functions, one of which can be to make sure that only one person talks at any onetime

Thirdly, the teacher can tell the students to talk quietly This is an obvious piece ofadvice but often ignored The students normally appreciate the problems as much asanyone else and if they are reminded, they should do as the teacher says.

1.1.4.2.2 Correcting the mistakes

The teacher should consider making mistakes the inevitable and natural part of theprocess of playing games It is also very important to make the students be aware thatmaking mistakes is not a big problem If students are afraid of making mistakes and keepsilent, they will learn little However, the students who know of making mistakes areinvolved in playing game process can learn much more than the former According toMicheal Carrier, correcting mistakes “must be left up to individual teachers to decidewhether or not students‟ language errors should be corrected during or after a particulargame.”

Because correction may reduce students‟ motivation, it is suggested that it shouldnot be too prominent It means that the teacher should not correct every mistake at anytime, in any where It would be preferable for the teacher to make a note of major errors,and then correct them When a small group of students are working together and copyingeach other‟s mistakes, in this case, it is advisable for the teacher to correct mistakes In lessstructured situations, such as role-playing or communication games, correction should beavoided where it would be over-intrusive on the part of the teacher If the students cancorrect himself or herself, it would be very good The teacher should increase self-correction or peer‟s correction

All in all, the teacher should be careful when deciding to correct the mistakes or not

to take advantages of playing games

1.1.4.2.3 Scoring

According to Lee.Wr, 1979:7, the thing the teacher should take in account is that

“psychologically, it is better to give points for success than to false them away for failure,even if this procedure keeps the scores very busy.” It is obvious that the students will havethe feeling of success and therefore, it will stimulate them to lake more effort There aremany ways of recording scores The following ways of recording scores are suggested by

WR, Lee (1979:8) and Selagh Rixon (1988:62)

 Noughts and crosses

 Climbing ladders

 Climbing the mountain

 Hangman (build up one line at a time)

 A fight of steps

1.1.4.3 After-using games

1.1.4.3.1 Ending the game

It is necessary fir the teacher to give signal to the whole class to stop playing game.According to A Wright (1984:6), “As with all events in the classroom, it is advisable tostop a game and change to something else before the learners become tired of it In thisway their good will and concentration are retained.” Also in Opal Dann (1983:7) “the idealtime to stop is when students want another turn In a large class, however, stopping thegame is a big problem The most effective way to solve this problem is to use a horn orclapping hands.”

After signaling to stop the game, the teacher has to declare the points of each team,group The teacher can call a certain student in any teams, groups and ask him to count andstate the points This will increase the objective evaluation of the game

1.1.4.3.2 Summarizing and commenting

Whatever a game is, students like to hear how well they are doing to receiveencouragement commented on as well as having errors corrected Therefore, it is advisablefor the teachers to give remarks and summarize the language points after the end of thegame

It is preferable for the teacher to give good remarks in order to motivate andencourage students to participate in game activities The encouraging comments should begiven to the students According to A Wright, the following praise should be used

 Good, quite good, very good, ok, fine, excellent

 Well done, right, correct, good job

The negative comments should be kept more general for example, not quite right, not very good I don‟t think this one is as good as that one

Besides, the teacher‟s aim should be to share what people did well with the rest ofthe class so that everyone can learn form the experience or to invite suggestions for solvingproblems from the whole class.

As language games are used for language teaching, it is necessary for the teacher tosummarize what language points or skills the language games focus on The main point ofthis is to show the students that what they do with language is interesting To do this, theteacher can ask some students to repeat the main language points in the games or ask them

to tell the purposes of the games they have just played In conclusion, the teacher shouldconsider their teaching conditions to decide what to do in each stage

1.2 Teaching Listening

1.2.1 Definition of Listening

There has been also the idea that listening comprehension is an active process ofconstructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the incoming sound, so hemakes a conclusion as follows, “comprehension is affected by a wide range of variables,and that potentially any characteristic of the speaker, the situation or the listener can affectthe comprehension of the message” (Buck, 2001, p.31)

According to Willga (1966), “listening comprehension is not a skill which can beregular mastered once and then ignored while other skills are developed There must beregular practice with increasingly difficult material.” The conception of bottom-up and top-down processes in comprehension are mentioned by some authors Lynch (1988), Rubin(1994) and Rost (2002) Listeners use top-down processes when they use context and priorknowledge to build a conceptual framework for comprehension And they use bottom-upprocesses when they construct meaning by accretion from phoneme-level to discourse levelfeatures Both processes are equally appreciated nowadays, they should be applied properly

in a specific context and for certain purpose of listening Rixon (1986) divided listeningcomprehension into two types: Extensive and intensive listening Intensive listening isoften practised more frequently in the language classrooms The learners are asked to listen

to a passage with the aim of collecting and organizing the information it contains Intensivelistening usually gives the learners the challenge and encourages them to overcome Thishelps the learners to develop their listening skills As teachers do more detailed work onlanguage, the learners can understand what they are listening to

Therefore, the learners are able to select the information in detail With extensive listening,the learners are not reinforcing a structure or practising a grammar point which is linked tothe course work Extensive listening exercises are those where the learners are primarilyconcerned with the following of a story or finding something out from the passage they arelistening to.

1.2.2 Three stages of the listening lesson

In order to help learners get most from a listening lesson, a lesson plan of listening

is usually divided into three stages: Pre-listening, While-listening and Post-listening Inteaching real-life listening, methodologists have taken expectation and purposes oflisteners into account

1.2.2.1 Pre-listening

In teaching real-life listening, methodologists have taken expectation and purposes

of listeners into account These make listeners feel as in real-life listening situation in theirnative language The teachers can effectively help their students to arouse theirexpectations and see the purpose before a listening lesson Therefore, in pre-listening “Itseems a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give students someinformation about the content, situation and speakers before they actually start listening.”(Ur,1992, P.4)

According to Underwood (1990), pre-listening work can consist of a whole range

of activities, including the students looking at pictures, discussion of the topic/ situation, aquestion and answer session, written exercises, following the instructions for the while-listening activity and consideration of how the while-listening will be done

1.2.2.2 While-listening

The while-listening stage consist of activities that students are asked to do Thepurpose of while listening activities is to help students develop their skills of listening tothe spoken language Rixon (1986) points out the purposes of while listening stage is tochallenge and guide students to handle the information and the message from the listeningtext Activities of this stage must be interested and carefully chosen They must vary atdifferent level and in different cases

1.2.2.3 Post-listening

Post-listening activities in post-listening stage are done after the listening iscompleted Some post-listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stage and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.According to Underwood (1989), the first purpose of post-listening activities is to checkhow well the students understood and whether they have completed the listening task Thesecond purpose is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts

of the passage The next is to expand on the topic or the language of the listening text Thefourth purpose is to give students opportunity to consider the manner and attitude of thespeaker in the listening text In addition, the general factors listed in pre-listening andwhile-listening , Underwood (1989) indicates that the attention should be given to thefollowing factors in selecting post-listening activities: How much language work you wish

to do in relation the particular listening text; whether there will be time to do much listening work at the end of the listening lesson; whether the post-listening work shouldconsist of speaking, reading or writing; whether the post-listening stage is seen as anopportunity for pair or group work; whether it is necessary to provide post-listeningactivities which can be done outside the classroom; how to motivate the chosen activitywill be and whether it can be maybe more motivating

post-1.3 Motivation

1.3.1 Definitions of motivation

The definitions of motivation are numerous and varied

Brown, H.D (1994) defines that “motivation is the extent to which you will make choicesabout goals to pursue and the effect you will devote to that pursuit”

Ur (1996) considers motivation difficult to give a definition, motivation in terms of

„motivated‟ learners, that is, learners who are willing to involve themselves in learningactivities to progress Therefore, teaching and learning can become much easier and morepleasant when there is learner‟s motivation In general, motivation is defined as internalforces and external drives that encourage and energize people to achieve their goal

1.3.3 The importance of motivation in listening lesson

Listening to English is regarded to be hard for students who are not Englishmajors According to Broughter (1978), students have associated listening courses withpain and boredom and often complain that they become tired of listening to the tape fromthe beginning to the end and benefit little from listening lessons Therefore, it is necessaryfor the teachers of English to realize the importance of how to make listening classes moreinteresting Especially, at the beginning How to keep students interest in learning must bestressed In warm-up activities, using language games is considered to be a good choice

Chapter two: Research Methodology

2.1 Subjects of the study

2.1.1 The 10th form students

This study mainly focus on 10th grade students at Duong Xa high school Most ofthem have learnt English since grade 3 They are mostly from rural area Most of themlearn English at class only They learn it because it is a compulsory subject at school.Perhaps they should have general knowledge of grammar and an active vocabulary whichthey can use mostly in written form However, they can hardly understand the tape as well

as natural English Because they find it difficult to hear anything when learning how tolisten However, the majority of the students are aware of the importance of learning how

to listen in a foreign language in general and English in particular

2.1.2 The teachers

There are ten teachers of English at Duong Xa high school, six of them have beeninterviewed in this research Their ages range from late twenties to fifty years old, all ofthem female The years of teaching English are also different, minimum level of threeyears and maximum nearly thirty years Most of them have University Bachelor‟s Degree,one Master Degree, and the others have taken the in-service training courses Withoutdoubt, all the teachers at Duong Xa high school are experienced and enthusiastic inteaching They are willing to help their students overcome their difficulties in learningEnglish generally and in listening particularly

2.2 Data collecting instruments

2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire was delivered to the 10th form students at Duong Xa highschool This questionnaire consists of 11 questions Question 1 aims at finding students‟view on listening skills Questions 2 and 3 were designed to find out the fact of usinglanguage games in warm-up activities The 3 next questions ( question 4,5, & 6) designed

to ask students about their difficulties in playing language games Questions 7 to 10 ask forstudents‟ attitude and preference on playing language games The last question aims at

asking students for their suggestions of using language games in warm-up activities (Seethe appendix I).

2.2.2 Interview

To make clear the researcher‟s concerns, interviewing the teachers at Duong Xa highschool has been done The interview mainly focuses on the difficulties of using languagegames, the reasons for using games, the criteria to choose games and the measurement forthe effectiveness of using games in warm up activities It is semi-open ended interview

2.2.3 Observation

The researcher carried out classroom observations by coming to 3 different classeswhich the researcher distributed the questionnaire and keeping a record of all activitiesoccurred The observations aim at checking the reliability of the data collected from thequestionnaire and hopefully clarifies what has not been done through the questionnaire.(See appendix, III, IV, V)

Chapter three: Data Analysis

3.1 Questionnaire

3.1.1 Students’ view on listening skill

Question 1 asks about students‟ view on listening skill The data collected is summarized

in the table below:

Numbers ofstudents

Table 1: Students’ view on listening skill

As clearly seen from the table, most of students, 56 students out of 90 think

listening is a difficult skill 16 students think listening is a very difficult skill, 15 studentsthinks it is not very difficult, it is a normal skill, and only 3 of them think it is easy to learnlistening Therefore, the majority of students find it hard to study listening skill The

teacher, therefore, should encourage students to learn listening by some ways, languagegames may be their choice

3.1.2 The fact of using language games in warm-up activities

Question 2 and question 3 mention about the fact of using language games inwarm-up activities Question 2 asks about the frequency of using language games in warm-

up activities, the results will be summarized in the chart below:

According to the chart, the majority of students ( 62.2%) say that their teacherssometimes use language games in warm-up activities for listening lessons 23.3% ofstudents say their teachers usually use language games in warm-up activities The rest ofstudents, accounting for 14.5% say their teachers rarely use language games in warm-upactivities Not all the listening lessons, the teacher organize for students to play languagegames during the lessons Therefore, to make the lessons more interesting and makestudents relax and interested in the lessons, the teachers should use language games morefrequently.

The third question mentions about the kinds of language games the teachers use inwarm-up activities Most of the teachers use the variety of language games in warm-upactivities to teach listening skills: crossword, jumbled words, jumbled sentences, bingo,memory game, miming, guessing, and others Of these kinds, most students answer theyusually play miming, memory games, and guessing It seems that these kinds of languagegames are easy to play and especially easy for teachers to organize and it doesn‟t take theteachers too much time to prepare for the games

3.1.3 The difficulties before, while and after playing language games

To find out the difficulties before, while and after playing language games inlistening lessons, the researcher carried out 3 questions: question 4, question 5 andquestion 6 as seen below