innovating teaching learning methods, building friendly schools active students

Teaching and learning betweenteachers and students is repeated throughout the school year; Time in class islimited, so teachers can only ask students to practice as required by textbooks

TABLE OF CONTENTS Part A : Introduction.

I Reasons for raising the study 2

II Aims of the study 3

Part B: Contents . I Theoretical background 4

1 The importance of extracurricular activities 5

2 The importance of using games and competitions to motivate students . 5

II The reality of learning English in my school 7

III Scope of the study 8

IV Methods of the study 8

V Advantages and disadvantages of carrying out the study 8

VI Solutions to the problem 9

1 Preparations for the activities 9

2 Details of the extracurricular activities held 10

2.1 Opening performance 10

2.2 Part 1: Introduction 10

2.3 Part 2: Crossword 11

2.4 Part 3: Speed 12

2.5 Quiz for the audience 14

2.6 Part 4 : Painting 16

2.7 Part 5 : Speech 17

3 The effect of the study 17

Part C: Conclusion I The applicability of the study 20

II Experiences from applying the study 20

III Suggestions 20

Reference 20

Index 21

Professor Joshep Foley - Thailand said: “For millions of English learners, theability to communicate in English is a passport to enter a prosperous economy,into a dynamic society that is always changing and into progressive education ” Infact, many students are experts in their profession, but their Englishcommunication ability is still weak, so they have to break up with their dreamjobs It can be said that English is the first and most important standard for anemployee who wants to work in businesses Not only foreign companies but manydomestic companies also appreciate this requirement of staff Therefore, it isrequired that our country must have a human resource, besides beingprofessionally trained in a systematic and quality manner, also meeting therequirements of international communication.

With the same requirement, English is one of the compulsory subjects at school aswell as in graduation exams in Viet Nam In the general education program, theEnglish subject is built in the direction of communication Formingcommunication skills is the ultimate goal of the teaching process To formcommunication skills, the learning environment in general and the English practiceenvironment in particular play a very important role Learning and practicing in afavorable and positive language practice environment will help students practice,apply the knowledge they have learned and increase confidence and excitement forstudents when using English

However, teaching foreign languages in general and teaching English in particular

in Vietnam in recent years has encountered many difficulties, such as inconsistenttextbooks, the low and uneven qualifications of teachers, outdated and ineffectiveteaching methods, lack of teaching facilities; students’ lack of motivation to learn Especially the lack of communication practice environment leads to the lowquality of teaching

From the above facts, we can confirm that the renovation of English teachingmethods in general and creating an environment for students to practice their ownlanguage is very necessary This contributes to the realization of educational goalsand human development in Vietnam in the period of national industrialization andmodernization It also contributes to improving the quality of human resources forthe country in the process of integrating into the world economy.

2 Subjective reasons.

Over the years I have been directly teaching English in an upper secondary school,

I have noticed the fact that most high school students are very afraid to learnEnglish Studying the lessons in the textbook for an entire school year will makethem bored and pressured, especially very passive in the process of practice.Teaching in textbooks, teachers often have to logic in the order of the programcontent, according to program distribution Teaching and learning betweenteachers and students is repeated throughout the school year; Time in class islimited, so teachers can only ask students to practice as required by textbooks,which cannot help students develop natural communication skills Aftergraduating, they cannot communicate in the foreign language that they havestudied Often when starting a new level of study (University, College) or whennecessary, they have to start over again In particular, due to the extremely limitedcommunication environment, when accidental communication occurs (such asmeeting a foreigner, or unexpectedly asking questions in English), they oftencannot communicate Many children even said that they were ashamed and afraid

of being wrong when speaking English

Similarly, when studying English, most students at Nguyen Duy Trinh high schoolonly pay attention to grammar and exercises on paper to get high marks in exams.They take no care of English extracurricular activities although these activities areimportant for English learners Besides, the way English teachers organize outsideclassroom activities play an important part in drawing students’ interest in English.However, in my school, there have not been any activities that appeal to thestudents In this study, we would like to work with our colleagues to find asuccessful method that can make the students eager to join extracurricularactivities

II Aims of the study.

From the above reasons and with the help of the Board of Directors, thecontributions of friends and colleagues, the research through the media, we studiedcarefully and organized some extracurricular activities to create an outdoorclassroom environment for learning English as well as motivate the spirit oflearning English among the students at Nguyen Duy Trinh high school

The competition we organize helps promote the movement of speaking andlearning English at school through fun ,contributing to supplementing and

consolidating general knowledge about the topic It also create a useful playgroundfor students to practice English communication skills, create passion, interest inlearning for students with English

Besides, the activities bring a chance for students to apply soft skills such aspresentation skills, theater mastery skills, team collaboration skills, skills to exploitinternet knowledge for learning and life…

When carrying out the study, we would like to contribute to emulationmovements: "innovating teaching-learning methods", "building friendly schools -active students"

PART B : CONTENT

I Theoretical background.

1 The importance of extracurricular activities.

Talking about holistic education, Rabowle (1494-1533) Renaissance thinker andeducator once emphasized “Education must include educational, moral, physical,aesthetic contents, … In addition to studying at home, there are also visits toworkshops, shops, contact with writers, parliamentarians, especially once a monthteachers and students come back to live in the countryside one day ”

Makarenco - the famous Russian teacher of the early twentieth century, also said:

“I persistently say that the issues and the method of education cannot be limited inteaching matters It is even more impossible to let the educational process becarried out only in the classroom but should have been per square meter of ourcountry That means, under any circumstances, there is no conception thateducation is conducted in class only "

In Vietnam, “extracurricular activities” is probably not a strange phrase toVietnamese schools as well as parents and students Uncle Ho was very interested

in education In the "Letter to the National Conference of Officers in charge ofChildren", he wrote: "While children are studying, we also need to make themhappy, while they are happy we also need to make them learn Whether in school

or in society, the children are all happy and they all learn ”

Extracurricular activities in school combine both elements of fun and learning,helping students to be more excited to participate in school, and at the same time,they also appreciate the student's initiative Extracurricular activities create afriendly learning environment between students, classroom-to-classroom, andteacher-student learning Extracurricular activities depending on each school can

be done in different forms Some schools set up clubs of culture, arts and sports toencourage students to participate Some schools organize extracurricular activities

on holidays, New Year, traditional school day Extracurricular activities, therefore,are both educational and aesthetic activities, “Contributing to creating a culturallifestyle and the ability to enjoy cultural arts for students Through extracurricularactivities, students develop a balanced intellectual, ethical, physical education andaestheticism ”(Phan Trong Luan, teaching methods, National UniversityPublishing House 1996, p 381)

2 The importance of using games and competitions to motivate students 2.1 Games in education.

Using games is an important tool that allows language teachers to add colours totheir teaching by providing challenge and entertainment El Shamy defines agame as a “competitive activity played according to rules within a given context,where players meet a challenge to achieve an objective and win” Language

games comprise many factors such as rules, competition, relaxation and learning

in particular Using games in the process of language teaching-learning is notrestricted for any language level; it helps all students to feel comfortable and moreconfident in acquiring a new language In addition to the personal challenge,younger students also enjoy competing with their peers, and introducing a gameelement is a way of livening up any material

Prabhu offers two main reasons why teachers should use games in teaching asecond language The first reason is based on spontaneous interaction that gamescan generate amongst the children, ‘creating opportunities for the deployment oftheir emerging internal systems’ A second major reason for using games is thesupportive environment that is created Interaction between learners is lessthreatening than interaction with the teacher Game-like activities provide choicesfor the learners ‘They allow teachers to add variety and flexibility to the teachingmenus’ Sometimes educators feel weighed down by assigned curricula and need

to come up with new ideas and interesting activities Another advantage, inlanguage classes, learners feel stressed because they think that they have tomaster the target language that is unknown to them Besides, learnersbecome too anxious about being criticized and punished by their teachers whenthey make a mistake (Sugar, 2002) Games are advantageous at this pointbecause they reduce anxiety, increase positive feelings and improve self-confidence because learners are not afraid of punishment or criticism whilepracticing the target language freely

2.2 Competitions in games.

One of the elements that makes games fun is competition Competition is a rivalrybetween two or more individuals or groups In this rivalry they all compete to bethe best Competition can be found in many parts of our lives One way to use ourcompetitive instinct is games Although some may disagree, competition is a veryimportant, if not essential, part of playing a game (Shaffer 2006; Akili 2007;Michael and Chen 2006) For competition you need two different components.First you need groups or individuals who have some kind of rivalry with eachother (Michael and Chen 2006) Second you need a goal where the peoplecontesting can work for (Michael and Chen 2006) The contestants need to knowwhat this goal is, what they need to do to reach it and what happens if they reach

it They need to know this because it will motivate them to go on with thecompetition Competition is the part of the game that makes you want to performbetter, you want to reach the goal earlier than your opponent

One way for a teacher to motivate his students is to add competition to the learningprocess Competition arises when one of the students achieves a certain goal whichthe other student fails to meet (Johnson & Johnson 1991) In the case of languagelearning the question is what the effects on the language learner are when theyhave competition as a motivator to learn a new language

Although education is far more important than either “winning” or “losing,” Dr.Sylvia Rimm, director of the Family Achievement Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio,suggests competition can be a great motivator for students in certaincircumstances Dr Rimm notes several benefits of teaching healthy competition,and while she acknowledges the motivation of winning and being the “best” in acompetition, she also explains how the experience of losing is important forstudents “When failure occurs, they can identify the problems, remedy thedeficiencies, reset their goals, and grow from their experiences,” says Dr Rimm.This is an important talking point for educators because even though the mainfocus is on helping students feel successful, it’s also necessary for students to feeland learn from loss

II The reality of learning English in my school.

We teach English in an upper secondary school Students at this level mainly studyfor their final exam to win a place at university, not for the use of knowledge indaily life To get good marks in English in that exam, what students need is to doEnglish paper tests as much as possible This means that they do not need to listen

to and speak English well

To form and develop communication skills for students, the practice environment

is a very important factor To assess the current status of English practiceenvironment at Nguyen Duy Trinh High School today, I have conducted a surveywith the results shown in Table 1.1:

Table 1.1: Current status of English practice environment at Nguyen Duy Trinh High School

ST

T

Expression of the current

state of the high schools of

high school, Nguyen Duy

Trinh

PercentageVery

often

Regularly

Quite often

Less often Rarey

1

Most teachers and

students use the foreign

skills (such as making

to have a practice environment are not regularly and strictly organized; studentshave not actively communicated in English; Students have not been trained in softskills through lessons

So, from the above survey results, it shows that: It is essential to create an Englishpractice environment for students to give them opportunities to practice, fromwhich they can form and develop communication skills, That is also the ultimategoal of the foreign language teaching process

III Scope of the study.

In this study, we organize themed extracurricular activities in the form of acompetition We only apply the method to grade 10 students and to the topicCELEBRATIONS that the students learned when they were in lower secondaryschool

IV Methods used to carry out the study

1 Documental analysis method: Reviewing documents related to research issues,

analyzing and drawing conclusions about previous studies, thereby building atheoretical basis for the topic

2 Method of conversation: Exchanging with students about the current situation

of the language practice environment at Nguyen Duy Trinh High School

3 Method of survey by questionnaire ( Anket method) : Construction of ANA

system including questions We use this method to find out the current situation ofthe English learning environment of students at Nguyen Duy Trinh High School,and at the same time propose solutions to improve the communicationenvironment for students

V Advantages and disadvantages of carrying out the study.

When proceeding with the issue, the most difficult step we had was designingappropriate activities for each part It took us lots of time to build up activities andsearch for information about the topic To create excitement for the students, weneed to find out celebrations which are both popular and interesting for teenagersand easy to know Furthermore, with the aim of stimulating the spirits of studyingEnglish among students, we have to discuss the topic that is closely related to the

topics of the lessons For example, we found a very wonderful topic aboutcelebrations in Unit 8 and we had to spend nearly a week searching for itsinformation and images

Besides some disadvantages, we also found some advantages when we werestudying issues First, our students were always excited about having a chance tospeak English They were willing to coordinate and answer our questions Second,our colleagues were usually ready to give us useful advice and comments Theyalso helped us with the design of appropriate activities It was those things thathelped us apply our study successfully

VI Solutions to the problem.

To overcome the above situation , we have applied the solution:

" Organizing English themed extracurricular activities in the form of a competition "

1 Preparations for the activities.

1.1 Choosing the time and the topic :

- Time to organize the activities : January 6th, 2020, two weeks before Tet holiday

- Topic : celebrations

1.2 Determining the objectives of the activities:

- The activities will create a chance for the students to speak English, show theirknowledge about celebrations in Viet Nam and in the world as well as improvetheir team working skills

- The extracurricular session as a competition will bring students at Nguyen DuyTrinh upper secondary school an exciting atmosphere and make them keen onlearning English It will also help students revise and enrich their knowledge of thetopic celebrations in Viet Nam and in the world

1.3 Designing the format and the questions of the competition.

- There are two teams of six members taking part in the competition

- The competition has four parts as follows

and a quiz for audiences

- The questions will be shown in detail in the following parts

- To make the atmosphere of the session more exciting, some students are chosen

to prepare some singing and dancing performances

2 Details of the extracurricular activities held.

- Name of the extracurricular session :

CREATIVE EXPERIENCE ACTIVITIES

+ The awards for the winning team and the rewards for the audience

- Participants: two teams of students from grade 10, all students in grade 10, all

teachers of English and all administrators in Nguyen Duy Trinh high school

- MC : two students from grade 11, one in Vietnamese and the other in English.

2.1 Opening performance:

- At the beginning of the session, one of the administrators will give a talk aboutthe importance of English to youngsters, especially for the students in NguyenDuy Trinh high school

- To warm everybody up, there will be an English singing and dancingperformance of students who are good at dancing and singing English songs

2.2 Part 1: Introduction.

- Aims: To prepare for this part, students have to work in groups, discuss the way

and the information needed, then they have to write the script and rehearse for it It

is a time for the students to improve team working skills, practise speakingEnglish together and build up the most creative way to introduce their team

- Rules:

● In this part, each team has got from 3 to 5 minutes to perform theintroduction.

● The judges will observe and score your ideas, accuracy, fluency and timeduration

2.3 Part 2: Crossword.

- Aims: The aim of this part is to check two teams’ knowledge about Tet holiday

in Viet Nam It also helps other grade 10 students revise the information andvocabulary for the topic “Tet in Viet Nam” that they learnt at lower secondaryschool

1, one thing that children are usually given on New Year Days

(2 words-10 letters) > lucky money, the key letter is N

2, one of the ingredients used to make chung cake

( 2 words-9 letters) > green bean, , the key letter is N

3, An indispensable ingredient used to make candied fruits

( 1 word -5 letters) > sugar, , the key letter is R

4, one kind of tree with deep orange fruits that are usually used to decorate on

Tet holiday (2 words-11 letters) > kumquat tree, the key letter is U

5, one kind of trees that are usually used to decorate houses in the North on Tetholiday

(2 words-12 letters) > peach blossom, the key letter is A

6, one kind of trees that are usually used to decorate houses in the South on Tetholiday

(2 words-14 letters) > apricot blossom., the key letter is A

7, an ingredient from which Chung cake is mainly made.(2 words-10 letters)

> Sticky rice, the key letter is Y

8, one of the indispensable things put on the altar at Tet ( 2 words- 9 letters)

> Chung Cake, the key letter is E

9, People always do this in front of the ancestor’s alter on New Year Eve with the hope of having a Happy New Year.( one word – 4 letters) > pray , the key

letter is R

10, what people always exchange when they meet each other during New Year

Days (one word-6 letters) > wishes, the key letter is W

11, one thing used to decorate streets during Tet holiday ( 2 words-9 letters)

> red banner, the key letter is E

12, twinkling things with different colours usually used to decorated houses,

trees or streets.(2 words-14 letters) > coloured lights, the key letter is L

Key words : LUNAR NEW YEAR

- PowerPoint presentation : In this activity, we choose to design the crossword

with the key words not in a vertical line and the key letters jumbled It is becausethe key words are easy to guess and we want to make it more challenging forstudents to find out