Some techniques to attract interests and involvement of the 9th graders in a speaking lesson at nghi xuan secondary school in nghe an

These factors mentioned above have aroused my ambition to carry out the study of “some techniques to attract interests and involvements of 9th graders in a speaking lesson at Nghi Xuan s

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

PHAN THI THANH XUAN

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

SOME TECHNIQUES TO ATTRACT INTERESTS AND

AT NGHI XUAN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NGHE AN

Class: MA23-TESOL

Supervisor: Assoc Prof : NGO DINH PHUONG

VINH,2017

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

SOME TECHNIQUES TO ATTRACT INTERESTS AND

AT NGHI XUAN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NGHE AN

By: Phan Thi Thanh Xuan Class: MA23TESOL Supervisor: Assoc.Prof: NGO DINH PHUONG

VINH, 2017

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the support of Mr Ngo Dinh Phuong, my supervisor, for her guidance, great suggestions and advice in each step of the study Who have been supportive of my career goals and who worked actively to provide me with the protected academic time to pursue those goals Without her precious comments, academic instructions and wholehearted help, my research would have never been accomplished

Also,I am really grateful to all teachers in Foreign Language department, Vinh University for their useful lectures and suggestions

Besides, I would especially like to thank all teachers and students in Nghi Xuan secondary school for their enthusiasm in finishing the survey questionnaires

Last but not least, I am grateful to my family and friends who have given

me much encouragement during the time I carried out this paper

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the students ‘attitudes

toward a speaking lesson and suggest some effective techniques for teaching

speaking skill The research was carried out at Nghi Xuan secondary school

over 160 tenth grade students divided into two groups The experimental

group was taught in the lessons using suggested techniques The control

group was taught in the lessons used current techniques

Data for the research was collected from reference, questionnaires, and

interviews Finding from these instruments reveals that using interesting

techniques can increase students ‘motivation in speaking lesson It is

recommended that teachers should use many techniques to motivate students

in learning

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 1

Abstract 1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6

1 Reason of study 6

2 Aims of the study 7

3 Scope of the study 8

4 Methods of the study 8

5 Reseach questions 8

5 Design of the study 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

I Speaking skill: A general view 10

1 Definition of speaking skill 10

2 Types of speaking 11

2.1 Form-focused speaking 11

2.2 Meaning-focused speaking 11

2.3 Opportunities to improve fluency 12

3 Features of a successful speaking activity 12

3.1 Students talk a lot 12

3.2 Participation is even 12

3.3 Motivation is high 12

3.4 Language is of an acceptable level 13

II Teaching speaking 13

1 The importance of speaking skill 13

2 Why don’t students feel much interested in speaking skill? 14

2.1 Being compulsory 14

2.2 Getting so embarrassed trying to speak English in class 14

2.3 Being boring 14

2.4 Teachers’ pronunciation 14

3 Factors to attract students’ involvements in English speaking lessons 15

4 Activities to promote students’ speaking 15

4.1 Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking activities? 15

4.2 Simple tips for teachers to have a successful speaking activity 16

4.3 Activities to promote speaking 16

4.3.1 Discussion 17

4.3.2 Role Play and Simulation 17

4.3.3 Interviews 17

4.3.4 Reporting 17

4.3.5 Prepared Talks 18

4.3.6 Dialogue 18

CHAPTER III :METHODOLOGY 18

I Real situation 19

1.1 Students 19

1.2 Teaching speaking methods in Nghi Xuan secondary school currently 19 1.3 Teaching and learning condition 19

1.4 English teaching teachers 20

1.5 The English textbook 20

II Survey questionnaires 21

1 Participants 21

2 Aims of the survey questionnaires 21

3 Structure of the survey questionnaires 21

CHAPTER IV Findings and discussion 28

I Data and analysis 23

1.1 Students’ opinions on English skill in general and speaking lessons in particular 24

4.2.1 Student’ interests in learning English skills (Question 2) 24

4.2.2 Students’ opinions toward speaking lessons 24

4.3 Students’ opinions on current used techniques and their effectiveness in teaching speaking ( Question 4) 26

II: Some suggested techniques to attractinterests and involvement of the 9th graders in a speaking lesson at Nghi Xuan school in Nghe An 19

1 Making sentence 30

2 Face to face activity 31

3 Hot seat activity 33

4 Pictures description 34

5 Discussing 36

6 Teaching through songs 37

7 Comparing pictures 39

8 Explaining the words 41

9 Role play 42

10 Speaking in topic 44

11 Telling story 44

12 Debate 46

13 Talk show 46

CHAPTER 5: Conclusion 23

Attachment 61

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1 Reason of study

English has become a vital and mandatory communication language in Vietnam since the opening of its doors to the world in 1986 Many English-speaking foreigners from across Asia, Australia, America and Europe started coming to invest in Vietnam This has motivated the people of Vietnam to learn English to facilitate efficient and effective communication among their counterparts The importance of English was immediately acknowledged by the Vietnamese government and as a result the English language programs were made compulsory beginning with the secondary schools and subsequently the high schools and finally university

The teaching of English in secondary and high schools strongly focus mainly on grammar, sentence structures and vocabulary In such a teaching format, conversational English was not taken into consideration In addition, English learning and teaching is purely examination-based Examinations were mainly grammar-focused As a result, the teachers and academicians teach only the bare necessity which is required to pass the examination and is not linked to the learning needs of individual students This has caused students to become de-motivated because English is just another subject at school, not part of their life Many students eventually fail to see the importance and pride in being able to speak fluent English

Today, of the four English basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), it is thought that speaking seems to play the most important role: knowing-language-people are considered “speaker” of that language as if speaking included all four kinds of knowing Classroom activities that help to

develop learners ability in expressing themselves would play an important part in a language course

The goal of teaching speaking, surely, is to improve the oral production

of the students Along with international integration trend, students should improve and promote their communication skill so that they can express themselves and learn to follow the social and cultural rules appropriating in each communicative circumstances In order to do that, language-teaching activities in the classroom should aim at maximizing individual language use Teachers’ role is not only to create a warm and friendly classroom but also to provide students with effective and plentiful activities Only by such way can those activities encourage students to speak and attract them to speaking lessons

These factors mentioned above have aroused my ambition to carry out the study of “some techniques to attract interests and involvements of 9th

graders in a speaking lesson at Nghi Xuan secondary school in Nghe An province”

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out to research:

* Firstly, the study studies the different aspects of speaking skill that

serves as overview, the features and characteristics of teaching speaking skill

* Secondly, the study surveys the real situation of teaching

English-speaking skill in 9th form in Nghi Xuan secondary school

* The last also the most important aim is to suggest some effective

techniques that can be applied in Nghi Xuan secondary school to attract students’ interest sand involvements in speaking lessons

3 Scope of the study

* Actually, attracting students’ interests and involvements needs to be

done in teaching all four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) However, it is impractical to overspread such a large scope I a

graduation paper Thus, the study limits itself to:

* Finding out the reality of teaching English speaking skill for 9th form students in Nghi Xuan secondary schools

* Offering appropriate techniques to attract 9th graders in Nghi Xuan secondary school in speaking lessons

4 Methods of the study

First, a survey is conducted for three 9th classes in Nghi Xuan secondary school with a point of view to find out their difficulties they encounter and what are their favorite activities in learning speaking skill

Second, reference books about speaking and methodology are reviewed

to get background knowledge of what speaking is, successful and interesting techniques in teaching speaking

Third, more information needed for the findings of the survey will be gathered from formal and informal interview with the surveyed teachers and students

6 Design of the study

The study consists of five chapters

Chapter I: Introduction

This chapter shows reasons to choose the study, the aims, scope,

methods, and design of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

This chapter aims to answer the questions related to speaking that introduces the speaking skill and its features

Chapter III: Methodology

The real situation of teaching speaking skill in Nghi Xuan secondary school and a study on how speaking lessons are thought by students in Nghi xuan secondary school in Nghe An

Chapter 4: Finding and discussion

The analysis and the findings obtain from survey questionnaires made to

9th form students of Nghi Xuan secondary school

“Suggested techniques to attract students ‘interests and involvement in

a speaking lesson” mention techniques and a sample lesson of using different

activities in each part of a speaking lesson to attract secondary students to a speaking lesson”

Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the discussed parts in the paper and

somesuggestions for further study

As a result, Chapter I has mentioned the content of the study In the

next part, the author will present the focus of the study including her literature review on the understanding of speaking skill and the survey questionnaires for students of Nghi xuan secondary school which help examine the real situation of teaching and learning speaking

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

I Speaking skill: A general view

Speaking skill is the art of communications and one of four productive skill, that must mastered in learning foreign languages Good speaking skill is the act of generating words that can be understood by listeners A good speakers is clear and informative

1 Definition of speaking skill

Speaking is the skill that students will be judged most in real life situations It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person is based on his or her ability to speak fluently and comprehensively However, speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill This, perhaps, is because we can almost all speak, and so have the low opinion of it Speaking is often thought of as a popular form of expressions Speaking, on the contrary, is a skill which deserves attention a bit as much as literacy skill Our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their basic transactions “Speaking”, as Harris (1977:81) says, “is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of different abilities developed at the different rates”

John (1982) believes that speaking ability is regarded the measure of knowing a language The learners define speaking as the most important skill they can acquire They assess their progress in term of their accomplishment

in spoken communication

Besides, Bygate observes: speaking is the skill by which learners are most frequently judged and through which they make or lose friends It is the medium through which much of language is learnt and which for many is particularly conductive for learning” Bygate emphasizes the importance of

speaking, not only for performing basic translations, but also for establishing and maintaining social relationships

In general, speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participant themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment and the purpose for speaking

2.2 Meaning-focused speaking

Meaning-focused instruction, that is, opportunities to produce

meaningful spoken messages with real communicative purposes

In addition to form-focused speaking, language learners should be exposed to and given chances to practice and use meaning-focused

communication, in which they must both produce and listen to meaningful

oral communication

2.3 Opportunities to improve fluency

Elements of all these above should be presented throughout a speaking program with emphasis on form-focused instruction at the elementary levels and as the learners progress on meaning-focused instruction at the higher level

3 Features of a successful speaking activity

According to the book: 1987 Testing Spoken Language London: Cambridge University Press, a successful speaking activity is characterized as below

3.1 Students talk a lot

As much as possible period of time allotted to the activity occupied by students talk This is obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talks or pauses It means the students must be active to speak with their friends as much as possible It is very clear that the students are busy, but they seldom spent their time to talk with their teacher

3.2 Participation is even

Classroom discussion is not dominated by a monitory of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed It means that the classroom discussion is not dominated by one participant only, but all of participants get a same chance to speak

3.3 Motivation is high

Students are eager to speak: because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieve an objective task It means that the students have high motivation to speak English By having a high motivation, the students will be interested in

learning English, especially in speaking They often try to deliver their own idea confidently

3.4 Language is of an acceptable level

Students express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy It means that they use the components of speaking which are relevant with the acceptable level of language such as, pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and comprehensible So, the students often try to speaking English correctly in real communication

II Teaching speaking

1 The importance of speaking skill

Language is a tool for communication We communicate with others, to express our ideas, and to know others’ ideas as well Communication takes place, where there is speech Without speech we cannot communicate with one another The importance of 3/10speaking skills, hence is enormous for the learners of any language Without speech, a language is reduced to a mere script The use of language is an activity which takes place within the confines of our community We use language in a variety of situations People

at their work places, i.e researchers working either in a medical laboratory or

in a language laboratory, are supposed to speak correctly and effectively order to communicate well with one another Any gap in commutation results

in-in misunderstandin-ings and problems

As you know, the speaking skill is quite difficult so the teaching of skill has become increasingly important Since when we communicate, we use the language to accomplish some functions such as greeting, asking, arguing or promising within social context

If the students don’t learn how to speak or don’t get the chance to speak, they will soon get de-motivated and lose interests in learning Therefore, the

teaching of speaking should start right from the first lesson of English that students have which can make the lesson more interesting, dynamic and even funny for the students

2 Why don’t students feel much interested in speaking skill?

2.1 Being compulsory

Most students realize how important it is for their future The real problem is providing choice and differentiating instruction Teachers need to allow students more control and allow them to study how, what and even when they want

2.2 Getting so embarrassed trying to speak English in class

Most language classrooms have very differing levels of language learners Those not at the top of the fluency ladder get very ashamed and stressed when trying to speak English in a classroom

2.3 Being boring

Despite all the talk online and among innovative language teachers, the truth is that the grammar syllabus and approach still rules in this world Millions of students each day start by repeating endless lines of correct grammar and continue by filling in reams of fill in the blanks worksheets Language is taught as a subject not a skill like art, gym, typing or music This

must stop

2.4 Teachers’ pronunciation

Pronunciation also plays a very important role in learning a language, as Derwing and Munro (2005) claimed that, "having good pronunciation of the language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility" (as cited in Nation & Newton, 2009 p 75).When teaching English speaking lesson, the way that teachers pronounce will impress students in some extends and contribute to lesson success Students are often confused with soft dull voice of teachers It will become worse if teachers pronounce words

incorrectly because it leads to students’ mistakes And if teachers‟ teaching methods are not attractive at all, students will rapidly feel bored with speaking lessons and teachers as well Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to pay attention to their pronunciation

3 Factors to attract students’ involvements in English speaking lessons

“Teaching is one of the easiest jobs in the world Teaching well is one of the most difficult”

(From: Teachers Joe-Super teachers –Book for Middle school and High school Teachers of English.mht-Teaching idea for the ESL classroom)

+ Reduce your TTT (Teacher Talking Time) in the classroom, by giving simple and clear instructions, by asking one or two students to show (by means of speaking) that they understood the task instructions, and also by asking other students to answer a student's question

+ Increase STT (Student Talking Time), again, by asking other students

to answer a student's question, by showing pictures related to the topic of the class and, without saying a single word, eliciting students' participation

+ Avoiding yes/no questions; prefer those questions that make students speak in order to make themselves clear

+ Attention to your way of correcting students Sometimes, even when your intention is simply to help a certain student, you may make things even worse to them

+ When watching student A for mistakes, don't be so close to them because this will make them even shier Instead, get close to another student

or simply stand back or pretend being interested in something different, picking up a book or going back to your

4 Activities to promote students’ speaking

4.1 Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking activities?

It is important to provide the students with a variety of speaking activities because: A variety of speaking activities will enable students to cope with different situations in reality

Variety helps keep motivation high because any kind of activity, if overused, may become less interesting

Variety may suit students of different learning styles because each student has his own learning style so some kinds of activities may suit some students while others may suit other students

4.2 Simple tips for teachers to have a successful speaking activity

Here are four ways you can generate interest in a speaking activity :( provided by http://www.nclrc.org )

+ Make competition by dividing class into some groups This will

motivate the competitive ability of students and will be less stressful for shy students than speaking in front of the class

+ Create the funny and attractive speaking activities with clear purposes

by using the pictures The students must see a reason to communicate with others This can encourage students to talk well

+ Change the dynamics of the classroom, change the layout or ask the students to move into different groups

+ Explain the activities carefully and clear If students don’t understand the rule of activities, they will be less likely to talk

If you follow these simple tips, you're sure to have a successful speaking activity

4.3 Activities to promote speaking

To make students fluency in speaking English, they must regard English

as matter of habit Therefore, they must have appropriate activities Here are some activities which can help student to be great in speaking English

Kayi (2006: 2) states that there are some activities to promote speaking They are explained as follows:

4.3.1 Discussion

The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Here the teacher can form groups of students and each group works on their topic for a given time period, and present their opinions to the class Fauziati (2002: 134) states that the main aim of group discussion is to improve fluency, grammar in probably best allowed functioning as a naturally communicative context

4.3.2 Role Play and Simulation

Role play has appeal for students because it allows the students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while (Richard, 2003: 222) While simulation is very similar to role-play but here students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, he or she can bring a microphone to sing and so

on

4.3.3 Interviews

Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present the result to the class

4.3.4 Reporting

In class, the students are asked to report what they find as the most interest news Students can also talk about whether they have experiencedanything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class

4.3.5 Prepared Talks

A popular kind of activity is the prepared talk where a student makes a presentation on a topic Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation; because they are prepared, they are more ‘writing-like’ than spoken orally However, if possible, students should speak from notes rather than from a script (Harmer, 2001: 274)

4.3.6 Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the media in teaching speaking It helps the students practice in speech, pronunciation, intonation, stress Dialogue also increases students’ vocabulary The primary objective of using dialogue is developing student’s competence (pronunciation, intonation, stress) in teaching speaking like native speaker Therefore, in teaching-learning uses dialogue (short and long), the students are motivated by the teachers question to reason rather than to recollect Dialogues is two sides communication, it means we just not have to express something but we should have to understand what another peoples said (Podo and Sulaiman, 1995: 25) When we teach young learners

we constantly have to keep in mind the fact what he have in front of us is a mixed class with varied abilities, expectations, motivation level, knowledge and last but not least, different learning styles Thus, we need to vary our approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold on to, expand and grow (Klancar, 2006)

To sum up, Chapter 1 has provided us with the background knowledge

of speaking in general and teaching speaking in particular In the Chapter 2,

we will investigate how speaking lessons are dealt with by teachers and students in Nghi Xuan secondary school in Nghe An province thanks to survey questionnaire

There are about 650 students that divided into 17 classes, in which about

170 students in 4 classes are learning in 9th grade Most of them have been learning English from 3rd grade; moreover, some students got acquainted with English from their primary education

Besides, they are quite good at learning English even English skill They know the importance of English language in their life; however, they seem to pay attention to written English form more than speaking form This is partly due to the fact that all of them have to learn in order to pass the exam

1.2 Teaching speaking methods in Nghi Xuan secondary school currently

Teachers don’t use any other teaching aids such as power point, pictures

or projects, exception for textbooks Therefore, I found that the current methods in each English period seem to be poor and the atmosphere find a little bit boring

1.3 Teaching and learning condition

The teaching and learning condition in Nghi Xuan secondary school is fairly good with a system of the new blackboards, the equipments are modern: the furniture is right in size However, there aren’t many illustrations English pictures for studying, that is why in English periods the class atmosphere is not funny In this school, there is also a library where teachers and students

can borrow books, magazines and newspapers However, teaching aids to study English in this school are inadequate In class time, teachers often use visual aids but they are not rich That’s why their lectures don’t attract students’ attention ant it appears quite boring to the students

Furthermore, there are 4 of 9th grades; each of them consists of about 38

to 43 students so it is a little bit difficult for teachers to keep discipline in class

1.4 English teaching teachers

Nghi Xuan secondary school has 6 English teaching teachers, all of them graduated from university and have experience in teaching English All

of them always prepare their lectures carefully and thoughtfully, however, sometimes they still keep the traditional teaching methods: focusing on teaching grammar not communication, so this at times prevents students from developing their communicative skill

1.5 The English textbook

The textbook adopted by the school for 9th graders is designed by Ministry of Education and Training, with 9six clear parts:

Getting started: introduces the overall of lesson by using pictures, suggesting knowledge, discussing in group, questioning…

Listening and reading : presents a 200 words text that helps students get acquainted with the theme of the unit

Speaking: improves speaking skill by using group work, pair work, individual work… Of course, students communicate up to linguistic function and the theme of each unit

Reading: it gives a reading text with some exercises to help students improve their reading skill

Listening: it gives a text or a dialogue related to the topic of the unit It helps students to check pronunciation and develop listening skill

Writing: this part has many exercises that can support students‟ writing skill to different types of paragraphs such as: letter, narration, data description….

Language focus: it shows the grammar refers to grammatical structures and vocabularies that focused in that unit is

Every lesson is edited to have three steps: pre-, while-, post-, each o which has different functions and acquires different techniques

II Survey questionnaires

1 Participants

18 survey questionnaires were completed by 170 9th graders in Nghi Xuan secondary school in Nghe An province

2 Aims of the survey questionnaires

With a view to provide a thorough insight into the real situations of teaching speaking, survey within the scope of the study is conducted in Nghi Xuan secondary school The main aim of the study is to collect and analyze data regarding the recognition and utilization of speaking The survey questionnaires are designed for the following purposes:

To make out the attitude of students and teachers toward English teaching and learning in general and a speaking lesson in particular

To get more information about the situation of teaching speaking skill in 9th form classes in Nghi Xuan secondary school

To get to know students’ problems as well as expectations toward techniques applied in the speaking classes

Finally, thanks to these, techniques on using funny activities to attract students‟ interests and involvements in speaking periods will be found out

3 Structure of the survey questionnaires

The survey questionnaires consist of 5 questions are raised to students learning speaking skill in Nghi Xuan secondary school Students were asked

to tick the most suitable answers which correspond with their opinion The questionnaires are designed as below:

Question 1+2: studying on students‟ attitude toward Englishlessons in

general and speaking lessons in particular as well as kinds of working in speaking activities

Question : Students’ opinions on current used techniques and their effectiveness in teaching speaking

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter mentions the results and analysis of the data from survey

questionnaires and Some suggested techniques to attract interests and involvement of the 9th graders in a speaking lesson at Nghi Xuan school in Nghe An

I Data and analysis

1.1 Students’ English learning time (Question 1)

Table 1: Students’ English learning time

The table above indicates how long the 9th graders studied English in Nghi Xuan secondary school The data shows that almost students have been studied English early from elementary school Only a few students have just got access to English

4.2 Students’ and teachers’ opinions on English skill in general and speaking lessons in particular

4.2.1 Student’ interests in learning English skills (Question 2)

The aim of this question is to research which English skill students like most We can easily see that among the four skills is speaking with the percentage of 60% while the listening skill is only made up 10%

The data show that speaking skill get attention from students while the two skills reading and writing make up: 17% and 13% It means that the importance of speaking skill is highly appreciated by students From the figures, it’s clear to see that almost students have been acquired to study English early from elementary school Very few students have just learnt English It is likely there would be not many differences in their levels

1.2 Students’ opinions toward speaking lessons

(Question 3)

Because more than half of students prefer speaking lesson, it is clear that a large number of students find the speaking lesson interesting, even very interesting Thus, teachers can find the ways and activities to encourage

Table 1: The most favourite lesson to students’ view

students in learning speaking skills However, there is only a small percentage

of students who prefer other skills instead There are many reasons for this figure First, in every secondary school, most teachers pay much attention to teach grammar but not to listening Second, Vietnamese teachers’ voice makes students not very interested in Moreover, when learning listening in class, students often hear from CD, cassette… in which the native foreigners speak quite fast with so many homophones, accents… so it is very difficult for students to catch the words and understand what the speakers mean

It raises a questions whether speaking lessons make students pleasant or excited or not

Chart 2: Students’ opinions toward speaking lessons

1.3 Students’ opinions on current used techniques and theireffectiveness inteaching speaking ( Question 4)

The table 4 will give us the answer of effectiveness of adopted techniques

in speaking

Students Techniques Effective Normal Not very

Pictures description

Learning by songs

Table 4: Effectiveness of adopted techniques in pre-speaking

This question is to find out how effective teachers’ techniques are Based

on the answer, games are the most effective techniques 90% students want to join in the games in learning Besides, the number of students choosing learning by songs is quite high with 65% Pictures description and matching especially matching pictures and names seem to be more effective The specific percentage: 68% students like matching and 65% students expect that listening to songs can be applied more in pre-speaking Rather low numbers (30% and 45%) belong to answering question, information gap

In short, through the statistics, we have an overview on the techniques teachers use in teaching pre-speaking, its frequency as well as its effectiveness I hope that it can be the suggestions for teachers to find out the most effective ones to teach in pre-speaking

1.4 Students’ opinions about students’ difficultieswhenspeaking inclass (Question 5)

I don’ t have enough vocabulary to express what I want to say 81% I’m scared of making mistakes such as pronunciation or

I don’t understand what other people talk to me 38%

Table 9: Students’ and teachers’ opinions about students’ difficultieswhen speaking in class

The table above indicates some difficulties that students often cope with such as vocabulary, shyness… from student’ view, many admit that their incompetence in speaking caused by poor vocabulary: 137 students among the total of 170 (makes up 81%) 85 students say that they are afraid of making mistakes such as pronunciation and grammar when they are speaking The fear of making mistakes are also popular, makes up 45% and 38% in turn Some others say their friends don not cooperate with them (25%)

The difficulties which students encounter when learning speaking in class are mostly poor vocabulary and psychology barrier (in-confidence, shyness…) Actually, these difficulties are popular for learners It is suggested that they can use simple words instead of thinking about complicated ones which are new or they don’t know Grammar mistakes are unavoidable in speaking and it takes time to overcome it For most, they have

to get over their own shyness and laziness by the help of teachers and friends especially themselves When we know what our problem is, we certainly find the ways to overcome it With the guidance of teachers and the efforts of students, they will be more interested and involved in speaking lessons

II Findings and discussion

Although the survey are conducted to only small number of students and surely the result partly reflect the real situation of teaching speaking skill at Nghi Xuan secondary school Nevertheless, I hope that my findings and discussions following can give useful information to some extents

In regard to students, they express their good attitudes toward speaking lessons Most of them find speaking interesting for them It, obviously, means that students soon realize the importance of speaking skill With this positive attitude, they will have an effective way to learn English because English is not only their favourite subject but also necessary for their future job

However, a small percentage of students consider that speaking lessons are not exciting This means not all speaking lessons satisfy and meet the needs of students Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to find out their students‟ demand and carry out activities that attract their students‟ interests

As well, a majority of students (77%) prefer working on group while taking part in speaking lessons It proves that students can learn better from working with their friends Then it is clear that working in group is the most students‟ favourites Evidently, the findings raise the demand that teachers should apply some activities using group work to attract students‟ interests and involvements into speaking lessons

According to students, the least frequently used techniques seem to be the most effective ones, to some extents (pictures description, discussion…) Especially, playing games is the techniques students wish to be applied the whole lessons

Students have an unexpected respond to their choice of improving among accuracy, fluency and pronunciation More than half of students (55%) expect to improve fluency This is out of my predictions because it is common that students are taught mainly grammar, not communication skill and students often learn English just for passing final exam Another reason is

that students often encounter trouble with grammar Therefore, students‟ expectation has changed our thought now about our goal in teaching speaking that is not accuracy dominance but fluency in stead of Moreover, pronunciation is also paid more attention than it was in the several previous periods (making up 10%)

It is hope that those findings and discussions will be useful to help more people to acknowledge the situation and the techniques of teaching English speaking skills to stimulate students‟ learning

III Some suggested techniques to attract interests and involvement of the

1 Making sentence

•Objectives: This activity can force students to speak in natural way

• Procedures: Teacher give a list of words which is usually the verbs Each student has to make sentence for each words

•Example given: Unit 3 – A trip to the countryside

- Teacher gives a list of verbs appearing in the unit 3

- For the first word above, students can make sentences such as:

I really admire Uncle Ho because he is very great president of Vietnam

Do you have any comment for my song?

My family often gather in the living room at night to chat together

Can we exchange the toy?

I like to go hiking at the weekend

This pagoda is located in Nghe AN province

My father takes a rest because he is so tired

In the summer holiday, my family often go travelling to relax

2 Face to face activity

•Objectives: Face to face activities motivates students to think a lot in a

logical way,use imagination as quickly as possible to pick out the ideas Or this activity can check the students’ memory of new words

•Procedures: Teachers give the topic word and students have to find as

much as possible things related to the given words

•Example given 1:Unit 9: Natural disasters

- This speaking part of lesson aims at providing students the name of some natural disasters such as earthquake, storm, tsunami and so on

- Before beginning the new lesson, teacher writes the phrase “natural disaster” on the blackboard and asks students find as much as possible things related to it

- Two students stand face to face The student who can say more words will be the winner

•Example given 2:Unit : Clothes

- This speaking part of lesson aims at providing students the name of some clothes

- Before beginning the new lesson, teacher writes the phrase “kind of clothes” on the blackboard and asks students find as much as possible things related to it

- Two students stand face to face The student who can say more words will be the winner

3 Hot seat activity

• Objectives: Students have chance to apply the grammar into speaking

skill so that students will be able to improve both speaking and grammar

• Procedures:

- Teacher write three names of tense on three chair

- Teachers say one time marker of any tense Students have to sit down the chair having the tense in accordance with that time marker

- Then, students have to make one sentence with the time marker teacher said

• Example given: in Unit 1+2: past simple + present perfect

- Teacher put two chair with name of tense on each chair in front of class

Past simple

Present perfect

- Teachers call 2 students

- Teachers say “ yesterday” The student run and sit down the chair with the name “past simple” And then he/she has to make sentence with the word

• Procedures: Teacher shows some pictures on the board or divides class

into small groups and distributes each of them a picture and then asks students

to describe what is in the picture After all groups have finished their discussions, teacher calls some students to speak in front of the class

Example given 1:

- Teacher displays pictures on the blackboard as below: