Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Some effective measures to improve speaking skills in teaching speaking at Chau Khe secondary school

Nội dung tài liệu: Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Some effective measures to improve speaking skills in teaching speaking at Chau Khe secondary school

1. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page PART I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 3 PART II. THE PROBLEM SOLUTIONS 4 1. THE REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING 4 ENGLISH. 1.1. Advantages. 4 1.2. Disadvantages and difficulties. 5 1.3. The method necessity. 6 2. SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS IN TEACHING 6 SPEAKING AT CHAU KHE SECONDARY SCHOOL. 2.1. Solution 1: Organizing group work or pair work in speaking 6 activities. 2.2. Solution 2: Encouraging students to use simple language. 6 2.3. Solution 3: Choosing interesting topics to create excitement for 6 students. 2.4. Solution 4: Giving specific instructions in discussion activities. 7 2.5. Solution 5: Games. 7 3. EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING. 7 3.1. Describe the experimental methods. 7 3.2. The results achieved. 16 3.3. The adjustment and supplement after the experimental teaching. 17 4. CONCLUSION. 18 5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS. 18 5.1. For English groups. 18 5.2. For School Leaders. 18 5.3. For the Education and Training Division; The Education and 18 Training Department. PART III. REFERENCES 19
2. 2 PART IV. EVIDENCE OF EFFICIENCY OF THE MEASURES 19 PART V. COMMITMENT 21
3. 3 PART I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM As we all know that English has become an international language. The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education. In the tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for everybody. Communication is an important skill for every modern student to master. Being aware of the importance of English so the society is becoming more and more interested in teaching and learning English at schools, the curriculums and the methods of teaching English are innovated to better the needs of learners. Teachers have to use these skills and activities to promote positive, proactive students and create optimal conditions for students to train, develop and enhance skills to use language for purposes of communication. So we have to create the environment for students to communicate in the classroom, especially, in speaking lessons and this raises for teachers is to organize various activities to improve the efficiency of the speaking lessons and make students feel easier with the subject. According to Penny Ur, people who know a language are called speakers of that language. Through this, we can see the importance of developing speaking skills in teaching and learning English. In recent years, the curriculum has focused on the application of communication-oriented teaching methods, shifting the focus from teaching language knowledge to teaching language skills. After many years teaching English, I have noticed the fact that the majority of students especially students at Chau Khe lower secondary school are still feeling embarrassed and shy when speaking in front of the class. Most of them are afraid of learning English, and they often have a heavy feeling in the English lessons and especially in speaking lessons. So what must we do to make students have a real enthusiasm about learning a foreign language, namely English subject and make students look forward to and hope for this subject without feeling bored? How can they hear and speak simple English sentences in a natural way? Those are some of my concerns in the teaching process, so I'm
4. 4 always trying to find out the most effective solutions to make my lectures attractive to students, and is also aimed at improving the quality of this subject on the purpose of renovating teaching methods is that “learner –centered”. Therefore, I boldly recommend some effective measures to improve speaking skills in teaching speaking at Chau Khe secondary school. In this report, I have applied a number of measures to improve students' English speaking skills in speaking lessons for students in classes 8A, 8H, 7C and 7I in the school year 2021-2022 at Chau Khe Secondary School, Tu Son city, Bac Ninh province. When writing this report, I just wish to offer some ideas to find useful teachniques to generate excitement for students and bring optimal efficiency. - Through this research, I myself will have more experiences in teaching speaking lessons. - Promoting active learning of students in English class, especially in speaking lessons - Guiding students to practice themselves, practice to have skills and speaking skills in English. - Improving students' speaking skills in communicative situations. PART II. THE PROBLEM SOLUTIONS 1. THE REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH. 1.1. Advantages * For students: - Most students at Chau Khe Secondary School have studied English since they were in primary school and the knowledge they are provided at this level of education is relatively high on grammar, vocabulary and communication skills . - Most students are obedient and aware of studying. - Students themselves and their parents have realized the importance of learning English so they have had the interest and considerable investment in many
5. 5 aspects to this subject, and it is no longer considered a subordinate subject. - Some students are invested by their parents to study in English centers from a young age, so they are quite confident in communication and have relatively good English speaking skills. * For teachers: - Teachers have satisfied with the school’s demand as well as education and applied the new teaching methods. - Colleagues in the school, in the English group always support and help each other, often exchange experiences, improve teaching quality. * For school: - The school has been equipped with full conditions about facilities for study like language laboratory, books, audios, active boards and projectors. - The school management board always cares, encourages students to study, and creates favorable conditions for teachers to develop their own abilities. 1.2. Disadvantages and difficulties * For students: - There are so many different students in class and the quality of each student is uneven. - Many students haven’t determined the importance of English in the current period, so they aren’t aware of their own learning. - Some students have limited vocabulary so they can’t know how to speak a correct sentence. - Classrooms are crowded, and the activities of speaking lesson often practice in pairs or in groups so the classrooms are easily noisy. * For teachers: - There are still some teachers who have difficulty in teaching speaking skills and choosing suitable topics for each lesson. - Sometimes, teachers don’t assign the tasks to students clearly. - Some teachers don’t create the environment to encourage students to speak English effectively.
6. 6 1.3. The method necessity Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13)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 participants themselves, their collective experiences. Being a teacher of English for many years, I realize that to form and practice skills for students, teachers not only pay attention to imparting knowledge in textbooks, but also need to pay attention to the organization of the teaching process. It helps to promote the active and creative role of students in learning; organize for students to acquire knowledge by their own activities. Thereby, it can be seen that the application of some measures to improve the quality of English speaking lessons for students is really necessary and practical. 2. SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS IN TEACHING SPEAKING AT CHAU KHE SECONDARY SCHOOL. 2.1. Solution 1: Organizing group work or pair work in speaking activities. This helps increase the opportunity and time for students to practice speaking English. In addition, some students may be afraid to speak in front of a class but feel comfortable speaking in a small group or they may feel more confident when they are supported by their partner in some necessary situations. 2.2. Solution 2: Encouraging students to use simple language. In general, the requirement for difficulty in using spoken language should be lower than the requirement for difficulty in using reading and writing language. If students can easily use vocabulary and grammatical structures, they will be confident and able to express ideas fluently. 2.3. Solution 3: Choosing interesting topics to create excitement for students. Teachers can use interesting topics in daily life as topics for students' discussion in speaking lessons such as: your hobbies, your favorite games, what do students usually do when they are bullied or stress?, and so on. They will be certainly
7. 7 more interested in topics that are familiar to them than the ones about things that are unfamiliar. 2.4. Solution 4: Giving specific instructions in discussion activities. It is necessary to ensure that all group members are aware of their responsibilities and contribute to the discussion. 2.5. Solution 5: Games. Some effective games for teachers to organize in speaking class. - Changing partners - Spot the Differences - Tic Tac Toe - Tell Me a Story - What a Life! - Who am I? - What’s what? 3. EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING 3.1. Describe the experimental methods. A successful speaking activity should have the following four characteristics: - First, learners can talk a lot; - Second, the participation of members is relatively even; - Third, learners have a lot of interest in speaking activities; - Fourth, the language used is appropriate to the level, easy to understand, and has high communication efficiency. To design and organize a successful speaking activity, teachers need to consider the following issues: 2.1. Solution 1: Organizing group work or pair work in speaking activities. 2.1.1. Group work Group work is exactly what the term implies: students work together in groups to complete assessments and projects. It refers to a collaborative learning environment where students work through problems and assessments together. Students are able to delegate roles and responsibilities, pool their knowledge and
8. 8 skills and receive support from one another. There are a few important things to pay attention to when organizing group discussions, to improve efficiency, to make the discussion go better. That is: - Give participants time to prepare for individual or group discussions. Don't just give students a topic and say, "Let's start". This is one of the important principles in effective ways of learning English in general and group discussions in particular. - Choose topics that you believe students will be interested in - Ask people to brainstorm ideas before starting a discussion - Use a variety of styles or forms - Change the size of the group: it is recommended to vary the size of the discussion (groups of 4, groups of 5 or groups 6 depending on the topic) Example: English 8- Period 6: Unit 1: LEISURE ACTIVITIES Lesson 5: Skills 1 Activity 5: Ex5: Role-play: WHAT’S THE SOLUTION ? - Before the role-play starts, arrange students into three groups: the group that plays Quang, the group that plays Quang’s parents, and the group that plays his teacher. - Asks each group to brainstorm how they are going to express their opinions. When they are ready, put students into new groups which contain Quang, Quang’s parents, and Quang’s teacher.
9. 9 - Tells students that they can use the language in 4 for their role-play, and emphasize that the phrases in the Study skill box should be used in their discussion. - If time allows, teacher calls on two or three groups to repeat their role-play for the class. 2.1.2. Pair work Pair work is students working together in pairs. One of the main motivations to encourage pair work in the English language classroom is to increase the opportunities for students to use English in the class. In the classroom, teachers can evaluate the impact and effectiveness of pair work on their students by using action research tools such as asking the students how they feel about working like this or by actually participating in an activity in a pair and evaluating this experience afterwards. Procedures of Pair work: Pair work is a learning activity which involves learners to work together in pairs. It means that every students works with his or her partner and all the pairs work at the same time. In teaching speaking by using pair work can create the new idea and the students enjoy speaking English. And procedures of teaching speaking using pair work are: - Make a list of names before the lesson starts or while the student are coming in, or just tell them when the time comes (one group consist of two persons) - The teacher gives the material which will be discussed with his or her partner. - The students start to make conversation and create the new idea what they want to use in their own language. - The teacher asks the leader of each group to make summaries about what they decide in the conversation. Or teacher may ask both of them to present in front of the class about the topic they have discussed. Example: English 8- Period 40: Unit 5: FESTIVALS IN VIET NAM Lesson 5: Skills 1 Activity 3: Ex 3a (P.54) Work in pairs
10. 10 - First, teacher asks students to work in pairs, choosing one of the two places: Huong Pagoda or Hung King Temple to go to. - T reminds students to give a reason for their choice like in Example 1. - Now, teacher asks students to think about what to take with them. Ask them to use the suggestions in the pictures. Encourage them to add any other items they think necessary and give reasons. - Teacher goes around, monitors, and either contributes or keeps out of the way whichever is likely to be more helpful. Teacher may provide general approval and support, help students who are having difficultly. - Ask students to report their decisions to the class and decide which location is more popular. - Remember to ask students to say why the chosen location is more popular. 2.2. Solution 2: Encouraging students to use simple language. In the speaking activities, teachers should let students speak simple sentences or dialogues so that students have communicative opportunities . In classroom, teachers can give some exercises to students to explain or talk on the themes and afterwards, teachers and the whole class will remark by asking questions or assessing and this will help students make faster progress because: - Assessment helps students become more confident about assessing language ability used by others.
11. 11 - Teachers must create a routine for your own classroom - where speaking English in the classroom can turn into daily conversation, even compulsory for students. It is also important to establish classroom routines (such as greeting and saying goodbye) at the beginning and the end of the lessons. Asking for permission, using common classroom expressions (e.g. I don’t understand. Could you say it again, please? May I ask you a question?), or answering a question (e.g. I don’t know, I think/ I guess ,Perhaps ) are important language tasks for students to practice daily. - Teachers can use this activity to help students retell the stories or conversations in front of the whole classroom. - Teachers should create situations, contexts, themes for students to practice speaking in pairs or groups. In this section teachers can use pictures, photos in and out of a textbook or topics close to them as their school, their home, and their friends, and so on 2.3. Solution 3: Choosing interesting topics to create excitement for students. Teacher chooses the topics that are close and familiar to students' daily lives so that they have background knowledge and ideas to talk about on these topics. Familiar topics such as hobbies, health, leisure activities, favorite sports, favorite kind of music, favourite fairy tales, pollution Example: Task 6 – Unit 7: POLLUTION – Skills 1 – English 8
12. 12 - Teacher asks students to complete the diagram of water pollution. - Then teacher asks students to give a presentation about water pollution based on this diagram. - Teacher may change the topic “water pollution” into “air pollution” to be closer to the environmental situation in Da Hoi iron craft village, Chau Khe commune. Then, students can suggest practical solutions for the locality where they live. Thanks to that, it is also possible to raise people's awareness through propaganda that is the students themselves. 2.4. Solution 4: Giving specific instructions in discussion activities. a. Give clear and simple instructions. Use simple words and phrases in the present simple, imperative, or be going to depending on your intention. Good examples of simple and clear instructions are: “I would like you to work in groups of 4” or “You are going to work in groups of 4”. Another way is by being direct “Work in groups of 4, please”. b. Break too long instructions into smaller ones. Sometimes you have lots of instructions to give, so break them into parts. Instead of saying: “You are going to sit down, open your books to page 18 and do activity 6. You are going to put the name of an activity you like and draw it on the side”, say this: “I want you to sit down and open your books to page 18. (wait for students to do what is asked) Look at activity 6. Write the name of the activity you like most and draw it on the side“. Can you see the difference? c. Demonstrate. Use the words “for example” to make the intructions easier to understand for students. If you feel that the instructions are too complicated, simply invite a volunteer and model the activity to the class. d. Ask Instructions Checking Questions (ICQs). It is not good to use “Do you have any questions?” at all times. Sometimes the students lie and don’t tell you that they didn’t get anything – not because they are bad students, but because they feel embarrassed to be in the spotlight. So try using ICQs, for example: “Are you going to first draw or write your name?“
13. 13 e. Ask “Do you have any questions?”. But sometimes using this question is not wrong, specially if you tried ICQs first. f. Say, “Please start”. Last, but not least be polite! Whenever you want them to do things, say “please“. People will enjoy it and they tend to do it faster and happily. 2.5. Solution 5: Games. Games is a very popular activity that teachers frequently used. Any activity is also considered games when we want students to do and want to find out the winner. It is clear that Games are very positive and have a high motivation. Teacher can design the games such as “changing partners”, “Tic Tac Toe”, “Who am I?” and so on to suit each specific class, each specific object to encourage more students to participate in. Example of using games. (changing partners) Task 4 (Unit 1 – Getting started - English 8) - Students choose one leisure activity from 2 or 3. - In pairs, students talk about it. Try to keep going for one minute each. When the time is up, find a new partner and talk about another activity.
14. 14 Students may: - describe the leisure activity; - say if they have done this activity or not; - share their feelings about the activity. Example of using games. ( TIC TAC TOE) Task 4 (Unit 4: MUSIC AND ARTS – Skills 1 - English 7) With a partner, draw a TIC TAC TOE board, like the one below. Then, write numbers 1 to 9 in the boxes. You can put the numbers anywhere you like! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Give the names of two Vietnamese musical instruments. 2. Sing a song in English. 3. Who is your favourite singer? Why? 4. Talk for 30 seconds about what you see when you visit an art gallery. 5. How often do you go to a concert? Tell your partner about the last concert you went to. 6. Who is your favourite Vietnamese musician? Why? 7. Talk for 30 seconds about your favourite instrument. 8. Name one of your favourite painters. 9. Who can draw the best in your class? What does he/she often draw? Decide which partner is 'X', which is 'O' and who will go first. The first player chooses a box and calls out a number. Example: Player 1: I want number 2. Player 2: OK, sing a song in English! Then he/she has to sing a song in English to get that box. Example of using games. ( Who am I?) Task 6 (Unit 6: FOLK TALES – Skills 1 - English 8)
15. 15 Work in groups. One student imagines he/she is a character in a story in 4. The others can ask three Yes/No question to guess which character he/she is. Example: Student 1: Are you evil? Student 2: Do you live in a castle? Student 3: Do you have long hair? Student 4: Do you have a tail? Student 5:
16. 16 Teacher may go round to provide support if necessary. 3.2. The results achieved. After applying these measures to teaching speaking skills in class, I noticed that: - Most of the students enthusiastically participated in learning English. They are active and more confident in speaking lessons. They can freely express their ideas, be active in group discussion, then of course they achieve obvious positive results. I have conducted a survey of students in grades 8A, 8H, 7C, 7I at Chau Khe Secondary School, Tu Son city, Bac Ninh province in the school year 2021- 2022. Mostly, the quality of the tests has improved compared to the period before the experiment. * The results of the test on speaking skills at the beginning of the school year (10 score scale) Total >= 8 >= 5 = 8 >= 5 < 5 < 2 Class number quantity (%) quantity (%) quantity (%) quantity (%) 8A 35 4 11,4 19 54,3 16 45,7 10 28,6 8H 38 10 26,3 26 68,4 12 31,6 4 10,5 7C 39 4 10,3 20 51,3 19 48,7 9 23,1 7I 40 8 20 25 62,5 15 37,5 6 15 * The results of the test on speaking skills at the end of semester II(10 score scale)
17. 17 Total >= 8 >= 5 < 5 < 2 Class number quantity (%) quantity (%) quantity (%) quantity (%) 8A 35 10 28,6 25 71,4 10 28,6 3 8,6 8H 38 25 65,8 33 86,8 5 13,2 0 0 7C 39 15 38,5 26 66,7 13 33,3 3 7,7 7I 40 25 62,5 29 72,5 11 27,5 1 2,5 3.3. The adjustment and supplement after the experimental teaching. Through the process of implementing measures to improve speaking skills for students when studying English at Chau Khe secondary school, I personally realized that teachers must be the ones who inspire the students, arouse their love of the subject to be able to create excitement for students to participate in the learning process. If the lesson can attract students, the teacher must really seriously invest time in the process of teaching preparation, design, and organization of learning activities. Researching materials and teaching methods to have quality lessons, suitable for students. The process of organizing students to participate in pair and group activities in classes will not only help students much in improving their speaking skills but help them improve the teamwork skills as well. I myself as a teacher will continue to search for more practical solutions to improve the learning quality of students. As for the students, after the experiment, I also want them to be able to put their experiences into practice more. For example, when participating in the lesson on the topic "Local environment", I want students to have practical experiences about one of the famous handicraft villages of Bac Ninh province such as Phu Lang Pottery Village, Dong Ho Painting Village to get more information to talk about these traditional craft villages.
18. 18 4. CONCLUSION In short, to develop speaking skills for students, it requires preparation from both sides, teachers and students. The design and organization of English speaking activities for classes with a large number of students always pose difficulties and challenges for teachers. However, if teachers follow the teaching process in the direction of communication, learning to understand the needs, interests and characteristics of learners, then they can completely design speaking activities close to the needs of students and objectives of the lesson. This helps to achieve the set objectives of the lesson. The suggestions on how to use some measures in teaching English speaking that the above report hopes will partly help teachers in the process of designing teaching activities to improve the quality of teaching and learn English speaking skills. 5. RECOMMENDATONS AND PROPOSALS 5.1. For English groups. - Maintain regular group meetings twice a month to come up with suggestions and solutions to improve the quality of English teaching. - Regularly innovate in the way of preparing, teaching, applying information technology to teaching, diversifying methods and forms of teaching organization to attract students to the learning process. - Encourage the English group members to be proactive, learn and apply information technology applications in teaching to make lessons more lively. 5.2. For School Leaders. The school management board should - pay attention to encouraging teachers and students to actively innovate teaching and learning methods to improve the quality of teaching English. - organize extracurricular activities related to English speaking in school such as “Ringing the golden bell”, or “English speaking contest” to encourage students to use English more and more. - timely encourage and reward students who have won prizes in English speaking contests organized by the school, the Education and Training Division,
19. 19 the Education and Training Department. 5.3. For the Education and Training Division; The Education and Training Department. - Organizing English playgrounds such as “English Speaking Contest” to help students from different schools exchange and learn from each other and improve their English speaking skills. - Continuing to organize professional activities in the direction of studying lessons, discussing measures to improve the quality of teaching for each type of lesson and class. - Organizing inter-school professional activities to discuss and share experiences about effective measures to improve the quality of English teaching classes, especially speaking lessons. PART III. REFERENCES 1. Ministry of Education and Training- Hoang Van Van- The student’s course book, the teacher’s book (English 7, English 8) 2. Penny Ur (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. Brunei. C. (1984). Communicative methodology in teaching. Cambridge University press. 4. The purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999) PART IV. EVIDENCE OF EFFICIENCY OF THE MEASURES 1. Some images of pair work activities in speaking classes.
20. 20 2. Some images of group work activities in speaking classes. 3. Some images of confident students speaking in front of the class.
21. 21 PART V. COMMITMENT I commit that what I have written and presented in the report are the measures I have taken and applied in my school. The results I have achieved when applying the above measures are consistent with the learning results of students at the school in the school year 2021-2022. Tu Son, January 2nd , 2023 CONFIRMATION OF THE SCHOOL TEACHER (signed and sealed) HA THI HOAI