Improving english speaking skill for students of to hien thanh high school through the outdoor activities

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL
------------------------------
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL FOR STUDENTS OF TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH THE OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
IMPLEMENTED BY: LE THI THU LOAN
POSITION: TEACHER
WORKPLACE: FOREIGN LANGUAGE GROUP
SCHOOL: TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL
THANH HOA, NĂM 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Contents
Pages
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Reason of choosing the theme. 
1.2. Purpose of choosing the theme.
1
1.3. Researched Participants:
1.4. Methods of conduct the theme.
2. ISSUE RESOLUTION 
2.1. Argument foundation.
2.2 Real situation of the issue.
2.2.1. Real situation of the school.
2
2.2.2. Real situation of students in learning English speaking. 
2.3. Solution and implementation organization.
2.3.1. Survey of speaking skill quality of 10th grade students.
3
2.3.2. Implementation organization.
4
2.3.3 Using well, flexibly the skills in a period of teaching the speaking skill.
2.3.3.1.Pre- speaking
5
2.3.3.2. While - speaking. 
6
2.3.3.3. Post- speaking. 
3. Speaking practice in overtime period and outdoor activities.
12
4.TEST.
4.1.Requirements and skills used for speaking test
4.1.1. For average and weak students:
4.1.2. For good and excellent students:
4.2. Free talk part: 
4.3. Achieved result: 
16
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Conclusions.
5.2. Recommendations.
17
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Reason of choosing the theme. 
As you know, English has been one of the most popular languages and a means of communication in the world. In the modern society, the world is changing quickly - with the explosion of information, science, technique and technology which develop like rain and storm. Many countries have been entering our country in general but Thanh Hoa in particular to cooperate and develop the economy and tourism. 
Being aware of the actual importance of learning English with the purpose of communication, nowadays, the students, parents, teachers, education sector and the whole country attach special importance to English, especially in the city areas. In recent years, Thanh Hoa is also a province where many groups inside and outside the country come to invest, develop strongly in economy and tourism such as Nghi Son Economic, Sam Son tourist area of FLC group and in the coming time, Thanh Hoa will be invested into the construction of the biggest tourist area of South East Asia by Sungroup in Ben En in Nong Cong district, etc. Therefore, there are many students who have tendency of studying according to the specialty of tourist guide, interpretation but in fact I realize that the students of To Hien Thanh high School where I am teaching are very timid, lack of confidence and weak in using English for communication. The students of To Hien Thanh High School naturally are ones who have very low input quality of English. At secondary school level, they did not orient the purpose of learning English. Their vocabularies were little, the practice of speaking and presentation was very limited during the learning. In the process of directly teaching English for students at 10th grade of To Hien Thanh School, I teach and study, observe the students, I realize that the speaking ability of the pupils is still very limited. Most of students did not know how to practice speaking skill, the speaking ability of the students was very slow.
The program of English textbook at present has been deployed the implementation all over the country for many years. The outstanding renovation point of this program content is to create the maximum opportunity for the students to practice 4 skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing on the topics and situations or contents of communication relating to many fields of the life domestically and abroad. However, in reality, the practice of English skills for students and teachers meets many difficulties, especially the speaking skill. Therefore, I would like to write this subject of experience initiative with the hope that it will be applied well and efficiently during the teaching. Sharing this method to the colleagues to facilitate the students to have more opportunities to communicate to the friends and teachers in order to practice the language, be active in participating in the actual situations.
1.2. Purpose of choosing the theme.
How to help the students apply their vocabulary and grammar structure to speak efficiently. During the teaching process, I myself searched some simple, practical methods to create the interest and develop the speaking ability of the students. Therefore, I am brave to put forth the feasible methods in order to have an experience initiative for students of To Hien Thanh high School,namely: “ IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL FOR STUDENTS OF TO HIEN THANH HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH THE OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES.”
1.3. Researched Participants:
10th grade students.
1.4. Methods of conduct the theme.
1.4.1. Surveys
1.4.2. The teaching periods at my school.
1.4.3 The outdoor activities lessons.
2. ISSUE RESOLUTION 
2.1. Argument foundation.
The method of teaching and learning had basic changes “take the learner as center” for many years. The teacher is not the unique person to grasp the knowledge and transmit the knowledge, the teacher is only instructor, supporter, adviser, checker, etc. The learner is no longer the person who passively acquires the knowledge, the learner is the center of teaching process, active, creative in the process of learning to achieve the teaching purpose of the teacher. For teaching foreign language in general, English in particular, the renovation of teaching method is very clear and especially important in communicating by language. From the arguments above, the students directly participate in the learning process, specifically playing the role and using the dialogue naturally and flexibly will create the joy and excitement in learning English.
For High School students, learning English, to achieve good result in the learning to speak English is more difficult due to specific difficulties such as ability of pronunciation, stress and standard sound connection; furthermore, they do not have confidence, this is also a very important factor during the process of learning to speak English for communication development. In fact at my school, as starting to learn English, most of the students learn actively, but gradually the students are not interested in learning.
2.2 Real situation of the issue.
2.2.1. Real situation of the school.
Foundation, material and expenditure of the school are still limited, there is no separate listening room for the pupils learning foreign language, the students are difficult in economy, it leads to the fact that it is difficult to support the teachers to hold the visit to economic areas, tourist areas for students.
Most of students are in rural areas, they did not contact to the language environment, the classroom often has from 40 students or more, the quantity is over-crowded for a period of learning foreign language.
Although the teacher has applied a lot of skills to support the teaching hours, used e-lesson plan at some teaching hours, in general it is still traditional, not bring many channels vividly for students to practice effectively.
2.2.2. Real situation of students in learning English speaking. 
Through observing the students’ English learning, it shows that most pupils do not have effective learning style, the students still learn to deal with them, just learn new words, do not create situations to practice with friends, there is no sentence structure commonly used by native speakers, not apply to the situations in life, it is only restricted to books, during the lessons. Their sense of learning is still limited, and most of them are not interested in learning English.
The method of learning is not scientific, modern: In learning new words, the students often have the habit of learning vocabulary in a single learning type, writing and rewriting it many times, not have habit of practicing the words in the context or in combination with other words. This way of learning takes a lot of time, but the effect of remembering the words is very limited, it does not promote the thinking, creativity and long memory.
The attitude and sense of participating in practice activities during the lesson, activities outside class time, learning to speak are still rigid, not flexible, depend on a predefined topic.
In general, with the way of preparation and practice of communication activities like that, they will lose their swift wit as well as their reactions, which affect the ability to think in English of the students.
2.3. Solution and implementation organization.
2.3.1. Survey of speaking skill quality of 10th grade students.
At the beginning of the school year, to understand the situation, learning ability, speaking skill of 10th grade students, I did a step of experiment survey at the beginning of school year as follows:
I choose 2 forms of test : Writing test and speaking test.
Writing test: I gave them the writing test from English exercise book of 10th grade
Complete the following dialogue:
Mary: .....................................................................................................?
Peter: I have ever gone to Ha long Bay in Quang Ninh,Ba Na hill in Da Nang, Ho Guom lake in Ha Noi and Lam Kinh in Tho Xuan district Thanh Hoa province .
Mary:......................................................................................................?
Peter: I often go with my family and sometimes with my classmate .
Mary: ......................................................................................................?
Peter:They are beautiful places. 
Mary: ...........................................................................................................?
Peter: We often have a lot of activities, you know. 
Mary: ..........................................................................................................?
Peter: They are very friendly.
Mary: ...........................................................................................................?
Peter: Well, I prefer Sai gon. Because Sai Gon is exciting and people there are very friendly.
 Through the test, I achieved the result as follows: 
Class
No. of students
Excellent
Good
Average
Weak
Very weak
Q.ty
%
Q.ty
%
Q.ty
%
Q.ty
%
Q.ty
%
10C5
41
0
0
5
12,1
20
36,5
10
29,2
6
14,3
10C7
42
3
6,0
7
16,3
23
53,5
7
16,3
2
4,7
The above results show that the number of students with speaking skill at weak levels is very high, while the good level is very low and there is no excellent level.
Speaking test: Speaking according to the topics to be drawn lot with prior notice about the topics and direct communication with the teacher without prior preparation.
The speaking topics include:
- Talk about a location which you have ever gone to in Thanh Hoa
- Introduce about the place where your family is living.
- Talk about the one of your working days.
- Talk about the specail holidays in the years.
- Talk about the career which you wish to do in the future.
In this part, the students almost did not have ability to speak, they only spoke some simple sentences.
 On part of direct communication exam: The teacher will base on the topics which the students draw lots to ask, widen the information or suddenly ask any question according to the topics which the pupils learn. The levels of questions raised by the teacher are average, normally met and the pupils learnt them.
2.3.2. Implementation organization.
In each class, the level of knowledge and thought of the students cannot be even absolutely, as applying the active teaching method, it is forced to accept the division on strength, level, progress of completing the learning task, especially as the lesson is designed in a series of independent activities. Therefore, the divided teaching method in combination to the cooperative learning is very important in the school. The classroom is teacher - pupil and pupil - pupil communication environment, it creates the cooperative relation among the individuals on the way of occupying the learning content.
The teaching according to renovated method like present attaches much importance to the initiative and creativeness of pupils. The majority of communication time is the time when they think actively, practice English. In order to have a good learning hour, the pupils must prepare the lesson at home carefully. Furthermore, to learn well a speaking hour, they must speak much. In addition, English is also a difficult subject, the knowledge volume is much, learning time is little, and during the speaking, they are actually active in the speaking situations. The speaking skill also depends largely on listening skill, especially when there are many new words, word stress, sentence stress, the intonation is very different and it is difficult for the pupils to understand the content. On the other hand, because they are in rural area, the English communication environment is still limited. Therefore, they have few opportunities to practice speaking.
Therefore, to overcome the weaknesses above to contribute to improving the quality of learning the speaking skill, help the pupils be more confident in communication, fluent in each word, sentence, especially for pupils of our school, to achieve a highly efficient speaking learning hour, the teacher should instruct the pupils according to the steps as follows:
Prepare new lesson: receive the topic, exploit new words, new structures, practice the speaking at home.
Approach, study new lesson: new words, structures, sample dialogue
Discuss, practice according to the information outlines studied by the pupils and provided by the teacher.
Extended practice: Active in speaking, way of processing new words, new structures in the speaking lesson.
Each speaking lesson has a different teaching method. The key matter is to create high interest for the pupils in acquiring new knowledge and more importantly, help to be engraved on pupils’ memory in the operation sessions of the club and develop their English language ability flexibly and efficiently.
2.3.3 Using well, flexibly the skills in a period of teaching the speaking skill.
The practice of speaking skill in a learning period is implemented through 3 periods.
2.3.3.1.Pre - speaking
 The purpose of the activities in this period is to help the students concentrate in the topic, especially predict the information of the topic to be spoken. To overcome the difficulties as speaking during the learning period, the teacher needs to introduce the topic, context, content situation relating to the speaking lesson, exploit whether the students have known yet and what they have known about the content to be spoken, create the demand, interest in presenting or speaking for the activities of the lesson.
 Teaching the vocabulary, sentence structure according to the topic, however, pay attention to not introducing all new words, or sentence structures in a rambling way, let the students guess the meaning of words in the context as well as be flexible in expressing the their intention of speaking.
Provide the speaking purpose, prepare the task requirements and exercise about the speaking content.
While introducing the topic of speaking lesson, should be natural, not rigid like grammar learning lesson. With difficult topics, the teacher should have images, video clip to help the students see that the speaking period is attractive and stimulates the aspiration of participating in the activities of students.
 2.3.3.2.While speaking:
Some teaching technical in this period: Students make small talks on the following topics by using some teaching skills in this period on the class.Teacher can do in different ways to arouse students’interest by using variuos teaching technique such as discussion,chatting, brainstorming.
 Pictures and visuals. As carrying out the speaking activities, the use of visuals, illustrative pictures will support very well the clarification of context, suggest the content to be spoken. The picture is also means to test the explanation level of the students. The teacher let the students look at the pictures or questions in the exercise to predict the topic, necessary information for speaking.
For example in unit 6 in the text book of grade 10, topic about the excursion, I gave the pictures, the students looked at the pictures and spoke in groups.
Groups of weak and very weak students will have direct instruction of the teacher and the teacher will mutually participate.The students will be divided into small groups.
Group of average students will have sample questions.
Example:
Do you often go for a picnic ?
Which of the place would you like to visit?
How many people take part in?
What activities will you organize?
Have you ever come to there ?
What do you think of the.................?
Where is it located?
Do you like Tet holiday in VietNam? Why?
What are some popular activities at Tet?
Which of activities do you enjoy doing most at Tet?
Group of good and excellent pupils can ask and answer together and the teacher may have extended questions.
Discussion: Let the students discuss in groups, or in pairs about the information to be spoken, it is possible to practice to speak quickly to each other.
Chatting: The teacher and students chat a bit according to a topic which the teacher intends to organize in the speaking lesson.
Braintormings. The students can put forth the activities according to a certain topic so they can focus on the structure of speaking lesson.
For example, the teacher gives the speaking topic about the activities of Tet holiday in Vietnam then show the picture. The students have topic, then think, remember to develop the topic.
Celebration
 Tet Holiday in Viet Nam
Excellent students can speak correctly the requirement or expand, but for average, weak and very weak students, they can speak moderately, the teacher even encourages weak and very weak students to speak each sentence, provided that they can speak complete sentences.
The selection of activity to implement in this period depends on some factors such a time of carrying out the speaking exercise,document,whether the information is available or not, level and habit of the students. 
To lead in the speaking, I show some pictures connected to the topics and provide the students with information. 
Ben En National Park, one of the most relaxing parks in the North of Viet Nam.
Location:.
Characteristics:
Biodiversity:
The best time to visit:.
Activities for Visitors:
Vinh Lang stele.
Lam Kinh Relic Site
Location:
When and where recognized:
Characteristics:..
Activities for Visitors:
.
Citadel of the Ho Dynasty.
Location:
When and where it was built:
Number of tourists visit every year:..
Characteristics:..
Sam Sơn beach.
Location:.
How about the sightseeing :
Attractive Tourism Spot:
Sea food:.
People here:
The best time to have a holiday:.
Tet in Viet Nam
The meaning of Tet holiday:
Activities before and after Tet:
Traditional food:
2.3.3.3.Post- speaking. 
In this period the students make their own talks,using the information that was given by the teacher and the given cues above..
The first students called are the captains of the groups they will present in front of the class then the others.
After the students complete the talks teacher can correct clearly to them how pronounce, press the stress of the words and the sentences.
3. Speaking practice in overtime period and outdoor activities.
After students prepared the steps of speaking through the periods in the class such as the vocabulary, the content of topics.The students will take part in the outdoor activities at the school and have practical exp