Some ways of arousing the grade 3 students’ interest before lesson

Therefore, teaching English to elementary students, especially forbeginners, is an important task for teachers in this subject.. Grade 3 students who are at playful age and not aware of

THACH THANH EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THANH VAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

SOME WAYS OF AROUSING THE GRADE 3 STUDENTS’

INTEREST BEFORE EACH LESSON

Written by: Doan Thi Tam Tittle: Teacher

Place of work: Thanh Van primary school Subject area: English

2 THE CONTENT OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE.

2.1 The theoretical foundations of the initiative

3

2.2 The reality of the research 32.3 The solution used to solve the problem 52.4 The effectiveness of the experience initiative 16

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reasons for choosing topic.

Nowadays, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored sinceEnglish is the most common language spoken everywhere It is estimated thatthe number of people in the world that use English to communicate on a regularbasis is more than 2 billion In the context of international exchanges andintegration, the expansion of friendly and comprehensive relations andcooperation as well as the need to increase mutual understanding amongcountries in the region and in the world has become more necessary than ever

In that trend, English becomes an indispensable tool on the path ofintegration and development It is a global language, used anywhere, in anyfield, and as a tool for accessing knowledge and technology, most scientificconferences are expressed in English Mastering this language helps us to beproactive and confident in our integration with the world It can be said thatEnglish is important for the young generation to confidently enter the world

In the field of education, the Prime Minister approved the project ofteaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system 2008 -

2020 (issued in September 2008) Accordingly, English has been taught inelementary school from grade 3 upwards, and the target is all Vietnamesestudents after graduating from universities and colleges must speak Englishfluently Therefore, teaching English to elementary students, especially forbeginners, is an important task for teachers in this subject

Grade 3 students who are at playful age and not aware of their study yet.They often grasp the lesson quickly, but they are also fast bored with learning.How to draw pupils’ attention, help them study English in active mood andpractice English effectively and flexibly is a very difficult duty for a teacher Alesson of English learning will be effective if the teacher knows how to make thelesson more lively, interesting and appealing to his students, especially toelementary school students One of the first things a teacher can do is doing a

"warm-up" activity before beginning the new lesson It will help students tolearn English in a comfortable, natural and full of enthusiasm Learning Englishwith pleasure and fun, to understand the content of lessons as well as to increasethe long-term interest in learning the language

Being of an English teacher for more than 10 years in Thach Thanh, I amvery concerned with the excitement and passion in learning English of primarystudents and help them study more effectively I have made a lot of great effort

in renovating the methods of teaching to get started new lessons with variety of

collages I hope that this initiative experience will be useful for us, the teachers

of English to get some experiences to help us together do our teaching better

1.2 Reseach purposes.

An interesting way of starting a lesson could be using activities calledwarm-up activities or ice-breakers (Robertson & Acklam, 2000) Teacher couldstart warm up activity by using some games, asking questions and havingdiscussions which all should be related to the topic or lesson

- Create a friendly environment.

A brief warm up activity can build a relationship between the students andthe learning materials (Hasan & Akhand, 2013).Warm up works as an icebreaker; it helps students to be comfortable with the environment and theirclassmates

- Attract student’s attention.

Walqui (2006) states, “by focusing student’s attention on the main ideas,teacher first prepares the students for engaging them in interactive tasks topractice” (p.169) A five or ten minute warm up attracts the student’s attentiontoward the lesson and besides being physically in the class it helps them beingmentally in the classroom, too

- Activate the student’s background knowledge.

Rumelhart (1980) states, “we comprehend something only when we canrelate it to something we already know-only when we can relate the newexperience to an existing knowledge structure” (as cited in Carrell, 1983, p.82).Students might forget the things which they have learned from the last class orsession Hence, a warm up activity could activate their background knowledge;things they already know or learned

- Think in English and focus on the topic.

Kay (1995) claims that warm ups are different types of activities whichhelp the students begin to think in English, review previously introducedmaterials and become interested in the lesson (as cited in Velandia, 2008, p 11)

A warm up activity could help ESL students to start thinking in second languageand forget any distractions and focus on the new topic or lesson

- Increase student’s participation.

Warm-up activities like joke, game, and puzzle establish a positivelearning environment and make the students comfortable to participate in theclassroom (Joshi, 2006) When a teacher uses warm up, because of its enjoyableand interesting feature, students attends to participate or take place in thatactivity Students like to be involved in such an amazing warm up activity; itbuilds a sense of community inside them

1.3 Research subjects.

- Textbooks for grade 3 of the new programme of the Ministry ofEducation and Training

- Students in grade 3 at Thanh Van primary school

- Steps taken in English language classes

1.4 Reseach methodology.

a Theoretical research method

- Analyze textbook content of knowledge part of each lesson

- Research references related to the knowledge

b Methods of actual investigation

Observe and assess the practice of speaking English in classes

2 THE CONTENT OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE.

2.1 Theoretical foundation of the initiative

For the purpose of my project, I considered some specific aspects related

to warm up activities which I thought could make students' learning morestimulating They are as follows:

- Breaking the monotony of learning: About this one, Dornyei (2001)highlights the importance of the "motivational flow" when talking about thegeneral rhythm and sequence of events in class and suggests starting it with awarmer, which can be a short stimulating game to set the tone

- Making the tasks more interesting: The author claims that humans areable to produce concentrated effort if they want to Generating this interestinvolves a set of characteristics Most of them can be adaptable; thus, theybecome challenging for students since they have interesting content, novelty,and intriguing, exotic, fantasy and personal elements; they stimulate competitionand humor

- Increasing the involvement of the students: He considers that it isimportant to make students active participants and suggests selecting taskswhich require mental or bodily involvement of each participant and creatingspecific rules and personalized assignments for everybody

The diagram below shows some of the principles that a teacher mustconsider when preparing a warm up activity It emerged as a result of ourreflections upon our conceptual framework and the implementation process Idesigned

The principles contained in this diagram make us realize that warm upactivities are not only processes to begin the class, but tools that help us catchstudents' attention If you start with an exciting and interesting activity you can

be sure the other steps can be developed easily This warm up must also be shortbecause it is like a preparation for the other class stages That is why it has to berelated with the topic and centered in communicative aspects which couldinvolve activities that emphasize the practice of different skills

2.2 The reality of the research.

a advantages.

Thanh Van primary School is a school located in Thach Thanh, an ethnicdistrict However, Parents and students are aware of the importance of acquiring

a foreign language Some students show a special interest in learning English

In addition, most teachers in the school have significant contributions devoted

to education and they respect students’opinions Besides, they always focus ontheir students who are considered as the subject of action The school Boardalways takes care of the school education’s quality, especially the learningquality of students, modern teaching aids are also equipped such as labroom,projector, … Being a young, dynamic and enthusiastic teacher, I alwaysresearch and innovate my teaching methods, which make my students to learnEnglish without having boredom

Be short (about 5 minutes)

Be related to the

topic

Be useful to continue the class Be an interesting

and enjoyable activity

Prepare students for a period of concentration

Help students begin to work

Focus students’

attention

Go at the begining of the class

Principals for warming up activities

b disadvantages.

- Most of students in the mountainous area find learning English quitedifficult so they usually feel bored and tired Most of them are not interested intaking part in each part in the lesson Teachers are always busy at school andteaching profile, so they do not have enough time to apply educational games inorder to motivate the students With such situation, as aprimary school Englishteacher, I think it is imperative to improve the ability of rememberingvocabulary for students and we need to start as soon as possible

Besides, warm up activities play an important part in teaching English.Both teachers ans students like exciting activities However, teachers have somedifficulties in designing and organizing activities to make student more excitedabout the lessons:

- Because of being primary students, their bodies are in a period ofchange, the organs are not perfect, the endurance is low, so they cannot focus onlessons for a long time in class As a result, they will be rapidly bored withlessons

- The students are very interested in the types of exercises and gamesdivided into a group in emulation of other groups to win

- Visual images, real objects, actions and gestures always attract attention

of students The more they’re practiced, the more they like to learn

- Grade 3 students who are English beginners so they write very slowlyand lack of the confidence in this subject

Realizing students’psychology, curiosity and difficulties I have collected,created and selected the best suitable contents to impart to them

Here are the results obtained in the first term test in classes 3A, 3B, 3C in Thanh Van Primary School before I applied the method

WELL ACHIEVED ACHIEVED

NOT ACHIEVED

2.3 The situation used to solve the problem.

As I know, there are a variety of new ways of teaching English that I canapply in practical class During the time I have done this topic, I chose and usedmany methods of teaching in order to develop the positive and creativity of thestudents Furthermore, stimulating curiosity from students into the lesson sothat they feel like learning English is very essential to the teacher Thus, I choosesome of the teaching methods according to teaching argument below

Some teaching methods be used in this topic:

in designing various activities to interested

In this topic I also use some new methods of The Model of New School

At the beginning of the lesson, I use the method of watching videos, listening tomusic, playing games to present the topic of the lesson Moveover, I use themethod of brainingstorming for getting ideas from the students

Creating an exciting atmosphere at the begining of the lesson is one ofthe new ways, a new findings I applied because I am alsways interested inteaching and applying according to new methods Innovation is totally essentialfor the teachers so that I will have many creative lessons

2.3 Solutions used to solve the problem.

Since motivation is not only a vital but also a highly complex factordetermining more or less successful language learning, it is necessary toexamine approaches to motivation in learning in order to bring about betterinsights into it Learners’ motivation can change overtime and effect on theirlanguage learning Various studies have found that motivation is strongly related

to success in language learning There is an interesting movement towardsteaching English with games It creates students’ motivation in learning English

2.3.1 Games.

a Basic games.

1 “ Let’s play basketball”

Procedure :

- Divide class into two groups : Tom and Jerry.

- Each team looks at the pictures and choose the best answer.

- If your team’s answer is right.the ball will go to the goal, your group get

1 score If it’s wrong, the ball will go out of the goal and other team havechance to anwer and get 1 score After finishing the games Which team getmore sores is the winner

- Students who do not have the words "Simon says:" will be excluded

- At the end of the game, students who are disqualified will receive a form

of discipline such as singing a song or hopping around the classroom

- This game applied to the whole class

- Illustrating images:

3 Using visual aids

Checking vocabulary

- Show the pictures/ objects one by one

- Call students say aloud the words

- After that, teacher passes the pictures as quickly as possible for studentsread aloud

4 Lucky number.

- Dividing the class into 2 teams, each team in turn select each box andanswer the teacher's question (What is it ?, What's its name? The correct answergroup will be scored

- The group that selects the lucky number will be awarded points withoutanswering the question

- This group is wrong, the other group has the right to answer and scorepoints

- The group that scores higher wins

- Illustrating images:

5 Bingo.

- Each student get a large card with squares containing words Everybodygets the same words but in a different order

- Each time the teacher calls out a word, the students search and mark it

- Students who are lucky to hit 3 horizontal or vertical or diagonal lineswill shout "Bingo"

- Teachers give awards to students who win, re-pronounce words

- Illustrating images:

6 Racing car