Applying some techniques to teach speaking skill through adapting activities for while -Speaking part in English 10 at bim son upper Secondary School

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
 BIM SON UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
&
Applying some techniques to teach speaking skill through adapting activities for while -speaking part in English 10 at Bim Son UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
 Teacher: Vu Thi Thanh Nhan
 Post: The leader of the foreign language group
 School: Bim Son upper secondary school
 Subject: English
THANH HOA, YEAR 2018
Part A- INTRODUCTION
I. Reasons for choosing the research
	Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widely used in many parts of the world. In the tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for everybody. The role of English is considered to be indispensable in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education, and more and more people want to learn English for communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc.
	According to the project "Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in the National Education System for the period 2008-2020", with the objective is that by 2020 most Vietnamese youth graduated from secondary schools, colleges and universities, can use foreign language as a second language to speak independently, to be confident in communication, to learn, and to work in an integrated, multi-lingual, multi-cultural environment; Foreign language becomes Vietnamese’s strength serving the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country.
	Speaking is one of the most important and essential skills that must be practiced to communicate orally. By speaking, people are able to know what kinds of situations the world. People having ability in speaking will be better in sending and receiving information or message to another. Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the uses of verbal and non verbal symbol in various contexts
	And speaking skill is an important part of the curriculum in language teaching and speaking has its own way of assessment; according to the Common European Framework of reference for languages (CEFR), describing students’ level. They are C2, C1, B2, B1, A2, A1 and students graduating from high school gain A2
	Recognizing that importance, so teaching and learning English in the society are increasingly concerned; programs and teaching methods are increasingly innovative in order to meet the needs of the schools. The teachers have applied teaching tips and activities to promote the positive and proactive of the students and create optimal conditions for teaching students, developing and enhancing language skills. However, for various reasons, most teachers make use of the textbooks, not invest for the design of a variety of useful activities. Learning English is to communicate; however, in while - speaking lessons, students are mostly passive, only write and hardly say, after the Speaking lesson, students do not know how to apply the knowledge in specific situations. This imposes a requirement for the teachers is that people have to organize a variety of activities to improve English speaking effectively and make Sts feel easier and more interested in this subject.	For those reasons, With all my effort in thinking, exploring, exchanging, discussing with other colleagues in the education sector along with the rubbing practical work experience in teaching English in high school for nearly 18 years, I strongly share some ideas, thoughts through the initiative: 
Applying some techniques to teach speaking skill through adapting activities for while -speaking part in English 10 at Bim Son upper secondary school.
Hopefully that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study.
II. The objectives of the study: 
+ Improve the quality of teaching and learning of English at Bim Son upper secondary school.
+ Increase the duration of the student says (students' talking time) during school hours in the classroom and check out the old lessons
+ Improve communication skills of students.
+ Promote the central role of the learner.
+ Develop thinking language for students not only in English but also in the learning activities and other activities in daily life.
III. Scope of the study
The study focuses on some classes of the 10th grade students (from 2014 to 2016 at Bim Son upper secondary school.
IV. Measures carried out:
Study the textbook English 10, read the relevant documents, design some while- speaking activities in English 10, practice on classes, observation, get feedback from students, based on the results achieved, learn by experiences.
PART B - CON TENT
I. Theoretical basis:
1. Material Adaptation
. Definition of Adapting
Naturally, adaptation is the action or process of adapting or fitting or the stage of being adapted or fitted. Being considered in the points of view of linguistics and educators, course book adaptation means changing existing course books in order to make them more suitable for specific learners, teachers or situations (Tomlinson, 2000). In addition to this issue, Peacock (1996) states that adaptation is essentially a process of ‘matching’ to maximize the appropriateness of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit particular circumstances.
	1.2. Reasons for adapting textbook
The textbook is a stimulus or instrument for teaching and learning. Cunninsworth (1995) makes the statement that:
Textbooks are an effective resource of self-directed learning, an effective resource for presentation material, a source of ideas and activities, a reference source for students, a syllabus where they reflect pre-determined learning objectives, and support for less experienced teachers having yet to gain in confidence.
However, there is no perfect suitable material. Therefore, teachers adapt textbook to match it with their teaching environment, their learners, their own preferences, the course objectives and the text, tasks and activities. 
	1.3 .Types of textbook adaptation
Tanner, R & C Green (1998) estimate that changes of some sort made by teachers are inevitable in order to fit a book with their aims, their setting and most of their learners. These authors also give various actions teachers can take to tailor a selected textbook to fit their teaching situation.
You can’t always get what you want
Changes of some sort are inevitable if you want take a book to fit your aims, your setting, and most of all your learners. There are various actions you can take to tailor a selected textbook to fit your teaching situation.
CHANGE
Make small changes to the existing materials in the textbook.
REMOVE
Remove a textbook activity from the lesson.
REPLACE
Replace one activity	with another related one which is more suitable.
ADD
Add an extra activity in an area not covered sufficiently in the textbook.
(Tanner, R& C Green 1998 Tasks for Teacher Education Harlow: Longman, p. 122)
 2. An overview on the teaching of speaking
In order to help students to develop their English speaking ability we need insights about the nature of spoken discourse, so we will be able to find a useful methodology to select and design appropriate classroom activities.
2.1. Principles for Teaching Speaking 
In the communicative model of language teaching, the teacher helps the students in real life communication. They help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts. According to Nunan (2003), there are some principles for teaching speaking. Some of which are described below: 
2.2. Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy 
At the beginning and intermediate level of studies, learners must be given opportunities to improve their fluency as well as accuracy. Accuracy means using the target language correctly and fluency is using language quickly and confidently. The teacher should not emphasize on any one aspect of speaking. Rather, students should get practice on both accuracy and fluency. 
2.3. Use group work or pair work 
To improve students’ speaking, they should be given enough opportunities to speak in class. So, teachers talk time should be less and students talk time should be more. It is important for language teachers do not take up all the time. According to Nunan also, “Pair work and group work can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lesson.” In this way, the students will get chance to interact and practice the language with other students.
3. Challenges in the English Speaking Classroom and the solutions
3.1. Students do not want to talk or say anything 
One of the problems is students feel really shy about talking in front of other students, they are suffer from a fear of making mistakes and therefore “losing face” in front of their teacher and their peers. Speaking in front of other people needs courage, motivation from inside, and outside such as joyful atmosphere in the conversation and interesting topic. Further is because there are students who dominate and almost intimidate. Another reason for students silence may simply be that the classroom activities are boring or pitched at the wrong level. Many people have a good ability in English language skills but when they should communicate with English, they fail in expressing their ideas. They are afraid and anxious of saying something wrong or incomprehensible. One way to encourage students to speak in English is simply to speak in English as much as possible in classroom. 
3 .2. Students keep using their own language. 
One problem may teachers face is that students use their native language rather than English to perform classroom tasks. This might happen because they want to communicate something important, and so they use language in the best way they know. They have difficulty saying something and because they do not want to lose their face in front of their peers, they think that they better use their native language and so others can understand them. This problem also connected with students do not want to talk or say anything in the foreign language but they keep using their own language. In this situation, teacher can create an English environment and keep reminding them always use English. 
3.3. It is difficult to handle students in large classroom. 
If the classroom is big, for example 30 or 40 students in a classroom, it is clearly that the students hardly got a chance to practice the language, and difficult for them to ask and receive individual attention they need. It is hard for the teacher to make contact with students at the back, to keep good discipline, also to organize dynamic and creative teaching and learning sessions. But there are advantages of a large classroom: when there are many students in a classroom they can share many different ideas, interesting life experiences, learn to share responsibility and help each other during project work which can bring variety and speeds up the work. 
3. 4. Students are not discipline in classroom. 
Some students do not pay attention to the lesson given; they just talk with each other and make some noises. The problems may be because the students are bored with the activities or they feel unable to cope with the task given. They show their frustration by disruptive behavior and loud outbursts. The discipline of the students in the classroom is related also to the motivation of the students themselves. If they have low motivation, it means they have low enthusiasm in following the classroom which makes them indiscipline in the classroom. In this situation, the teacher can create activities that make students feel enjoy themselves in the class. 
3. 5. The materials do not fulfill the need of students 
Language teacher should attempt to associate the language they are teaching with the situation outside the classroom. Smith (1983) in Freeman (1999) has explained that people do not learn if they are confused or bored. When school topics do not relate to students‟ lives, they may find themselves confused or bored. Moreover, when students cannot understand the language instruction, they may become frustrated. Good teaching-texts for classroom use are not there simply in order to be read, they lead to comment and interpretation by learners, and illustrate typical pragmatic uses of lexis and structure. They have to be fairly short, so that other activities besides comprehension can occur. They have to be “appropriately accessible”. This means ''not too difficult for learners to understand but difficult enough to encourage them to develop further in the language”. There are four alternatives when the teacher decides the textbook is not appropriate. The teacher can omit the lesson, teacher can replace the textbook lesson with one of the teacher’s own, teacher can add to what is in the book, and the last is teacher to adapt what is in the book (Harmer, 1998:111).
3. 6. Students have low motivation to learn English 
Nunan (1991) wrote in Lawtie (1999), “Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language”. Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. Nevertheless, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking classroom can be a lot of fun, raise learner motivation and make the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to study English. Their motivation is more likely to increase if the students can see how their process of classroom learning achieves the objective, and helps them to accomplish the success. The development of communicative skills can only take place if learners have motivation and opportunity to express their own identity and to relate with the people around them One key to increasing motivation is to use activities matched to the personalities, learning styles and characteristics of the learners as often as practically possible. 
4. How to encourage students to speak 
It is very important for teachers to encourage students to speak in the classroom. If they do not encourage them to use the language the students’ speaking ability will never improve. Students usually do not use the target language beyond classroom. That is why they need to speak up in the classroom. If the students make any mistake, the teacher can help to correct their mistakes. According to Philips, the teacher can do the following things to help their students to speak: 
4.1. Encourage students interact 
Most of the students feel very shy to speak because they do not acquire the target language and they are not used to take part in classroom discussion. Students do not even interact with other students or keep silent when they are asked to speak English all the time. Therefore, it is important to create a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom where students are not afraid to speak and enjoy communicating with the teacher. Students have to be given such atmosphere where they can speak without any pressure and stress. 
4.2. Make speaking activities communicative 
Speaking activities need to be very interesting to encourage meaningful interaction between students. If the speaking activities are not interesting enough and do not provide opportunity for students to speak then there is no use of giving speaking activity. According to Philips, “The aim of communication activities is to encourage purposeful and meaningful interaction between students. Communicative tasks are designed so that students have a reason or purpose for speaking.” Therefore, teacher should give such activities so that students can share their thought, express their feeling, find out the real information, discuss and argue. 
4.3. Plan speaking activities carefully 
According to Philips, “Speaking activities need to be very carefully structured at first at lower levels, thus the students have few demands on them.” At the beginning stage, activities should be easy but good enough for students can use the target language. Students might not be fluent and accurate in speaking but they should not remain quite. When they get used to communicate then the teacher can introduce more difficult activities such as role-plays, discussions, debate and problem-solving tasks.
4.4. Speak, speak and speak
No matter what vocabulary or pronunciation you have, you should be as confident and speak as possible when you have the opportunity. Nobody laughs when you make a mistake, otherwise they can be more enthusiastic to help you fix more. The only way to practice as much as possible is to help you improve fluency, vocabulary... Remember that speaking skill is like playing music or playing sports, you will be better if you practice more
II. Practical basic
	1. Rationale
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Therefore, the aim of teaching and learning in the classroom is developing students’ ability in speaking. The goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skill because students can express themselves and learn how to use language.
However, the fact shows that most of the students have difficulties in speaking. The problems are: (1) the students have low motivation to speak English, (2) the students are too shy to express their ideas in English, (3) the students feel worried if their friends will laugh at them, (4) the students have low ability in mastering grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, (5) only few students have great willingness to speak in front of the class, and (6) the monotonous teaching approach used by the teacher.
	The ultimate goal of language learning is communication. Grammar and other skills are also important but high achievement is also intended to support this objective. The main testing, evaluation has grammar, reading comprehension and writing are invisible obstacles to teaching and learning for skills, this led to learning and teaching the deadly. 
	Teachers adapt while - Speaking in speaking lessons because of the following basic reasons:
- Ask sts to practice skills, apply the knowledge they have learned in class.
- Help students to deepen knowledge.
	- To help students become familiar with the work in the big topic, the method, in pairs, in groups, to share ideas demographic interactive, these activities take time and need to search external sources of information (such as information on the library, on the website, or information from the students)
	2. Current status of teaching and learning English at Bim Son upper secondary school.
Bim Son upper secondary school is located in Bim Son town, which is convenient for students to learn English . But, in fact hardly almost of the students are aware of learning English because they think that English is a difficult subject and only learn to pass the national exam so just learn to cope, subjective leads to loss of the root, and are getting worse and worse. In English, many students do not know how to write and say a word in English, even distinguish words of type: noun, verb, adjective. Most of students are surprised and unresponsive, only a few students know how to answer. Therefore, teachers’ teaching is extremely difficult.
	First, except for lessons with the teachers attended observing, teachers often cling to the Tasks of textbook. With this request form, the students are all passive, under develop thinking language, abuse of "good book" to cope, or students using the old books have answers already, even the teachers are doing on behalf of the students, too.
	Secondly, sometimes teachers have organized a number of activities to support but does not test, do not score, or check but fail to attract all students.
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