Improving students’ ability to describe charts Tieng Anh 11 through question systems combined with games

CONTENTS
Page
Content
3
I. Introduction
4
II. Content
4
Chapter 1: Theoretical and practical background
4
 1.1. Charts and describing a chart
5
 1.2. The situation
9
Chapter 2: The solution
13
Chapter 3: Discussion
13
 3.1. Effect
15
 3.2. Comments from teachers and students
15
III. Results of the research 
16
IV. Conclusion
17
Reference
18
Appendices
CONTRACTED WORDS
etc
et cetera
ICT
Information and Communication Technologies
IEPs
Individualized Education Programs
inc
Incorporated
LSAs
Low Specific Activities
mins
Minutes
Ss
Students
T
Teacher
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The reason for choosing the subject:
Nowadays, in the integration period and with the globalization trend, foreign languages, especially English, play a very important role in society. English becomes an international language. It is used in many fields such as business, trade, communications, tourism and diplomatic activities, etc... . More than fifty countries in the world use English as their official language and it is used as the second language in nearly eighty nations. Therefore, English is an ology which is never saturated due to its newness and popularity in all fields. Our Party and government showed their particular interest in teaching and learning foreign languages.
English is considered as a main subject at upper secondary school.
Teaching English with the communicative approach is our aim. How to improve all skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) completely for our students is our duty. All skills are important and it is necessary for us to develop them. Curriculum and textbooks are issued with a view to carrying out this aim successfully. However, writing skill seems to be one of the most difficult skills for students. Most writing tasks, for example describing charts, are not interesting enough to attract them. They do not even know how to deal with these tasks. Their writings are only simple descriptions without comparisons. “What can I do to help my students?” “In what way do my students describe them well?” “What should I do to make these writing tasks easier and more attractive?” The best way I did to assist them is that I used the eliciting questions combined with games to guide them. 
I would like to share my teaching experience “Improving students’ ability to describe charts in Tieng Anh 11 through question systems combined with games” in the hope that my colleagues can apply in teaching and we can discuss more to get the best result in teaching how to describe charts.
2. The objective of the study:
As an English teacher at high school for many years, I am always concerned about the current situation of foreign language teaching and learning of students in the province.Our students seem inferior to students in other provinces about foreign language capability. So what is the cause of this situation? Is it because teachers are not qualified? Or those students do not have the ability to learn foreign language by local accent and direct communication skills are not flexible? May be due to improper care level of the school for this subject? All these questions have yet to be answered. These obstacles not only are in our province. Why other provincial students study foreign language bettwe than our
students ? The main responsibility belongs to teachers who teach in school. In addiction, the headmastr, the leaders of the education sector in the province. Everyon must identify targets clearly and strive to achieve that goal. My objective in work is going on learning, finding out experience to improve the quality of teaching, make students trust in teachers and have more and more successful students. More specifically, I want my work to achieve success in my own ability. During the process of teaching a foreign language in high school,I alwways accumulate, find out experience, inovate teaching methods to suit each student object and generate excitement in learning so that they have more passion, more inthusiasm in studying. And the goal of this project is to draw on experience in teaching describing charts in English for students 11th grade through question system combined with games and shere ideas with collegues.
3. The object of the study:
In the framework of the subject and with limited ability, I will present a few teachniques taught to describe charts (through question system combined with games) as requred under the high school programs and textbook. With the criteria of a good description, it includes: tigh layout, accurate grammar structure, pure prose, expressive and flexible wording, I think that this is not easy for many high school students. In this theme I will refer to how to describe charts as required, how to use flexible words and how to compare the infotmation better to make a good description for students 11th grade.
4. Study method:
 The method of describing charts is the one of the topic that I am very interested in the teaching process. Through many years of working with students, I find that when students have to describe a chart, they often feel confused and do not know where to start. The idea or no idea, or unclear ideas. Hence, students are often afraid to describe a chart. Understanding the difficulties and psychological concerns of the students, I alwways try to help my students to give the problem, solve the problem and end the problem to make describing a chart more effective,. Descring techniques must be practiced every day to help students describe them skillfully. Teacher must stimulate students to explore their own potential and help them learn how to present their ideas, their concerns things by foreign language that they are learning. 
II. CONTENT:
1. The theoretical background
Charts and describing a chart
Charts
A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabular numeric data, functions or some kinds of qualitative structure and provides different info.
The term "chart" as a graphical representation of data has multiple meanings:
A data chart is a type of diagram or graph, that organizes and represents a set of numerical or qualitative data.
Maps that are adorned with extra information for some specific purpose are often known as charts, such as a nautical chart or aeronautical chart.
Other domain specific constructs are sometimes called charts, such as the chord chart in music notation or a record chart for album popularity.
Charts are often used to ease understanding of large quantities of data and the relationships between parts of the data. Charts can usually be read more quickly than the raw data that they are produced from. They are used in a wide variety of fields, and can be created by hand (often on graph paper) or by computer using a charting application. Certain types of charts are more useful for presenting a given data set than others. For example, data that presents percentages in different groups (such as "satisfied, not satisfied, unsure") are often displayed in a pie chart, but may be more easily understood when presented in a horizontal bar chart. On the other hand, data that represents numbers that change over a period of time (such as "annual revenue from 1990 to 2000") might be best shown as a line chart.
b. Describing a chart
In textbooks at upper secondary school, there are bar charts and pie charts so I only mention two these types. These types of charts are usually used for comparison purposes (unlike line charts, which describe changes).
When you write about a bar chart it is important to look first at the Chart Title. This tells you what information the chart displays and you can use this information in your description.
Then look at the X and Y axes. The titles of these axes sometimes give you information you can use in your description. It is important also to look at the UNITS. 
Bar charts show similarities and differences. When describing these charts you need to make comparisons. You also need to group together any columns which have broad similarities.
To write a short description of the chart ask yourself (and answer!) the following questions:
What exactly does the chart show? (Use the chart title to help you answer this question)
What are the axes and what are the units?
What similarities are there?
Is it possible to put some of the columns into one or more groups?
What differences are there?
Answering these questions will help you to write a short description of this 
simple bar chart.
Pie charts normally show proportion, which can be measured in percentages or fractions. This type of charts shows the relative size of something. So we can only make comparisons; we cannot say anything about change.
2. The fact of the matter before applying the experience: 
In the writing tasks in Tieng Anh 10 and Tieng Anh 12 textbooks there are eliciting questions so students can have some ideas for their writings to make comparisons but in the tasks in Tieng Anh 11 there is not any eliciting questions for them to write except for the chart, useful language and the requirements. Students find it difficult to write.
In writing section of Unit 7 – World population (Tieng Anh 11-Page 86), a pie chart is given with the requirement “Study the chart carefully then write a paragraph of 100-120 words, describing the information in the chart”. 
South Asia
32%
East Asia
26%
Europe
15%
Africa
11%
Latin
 America
 8%
Northern
 America
 6%
Oceania
2%
Students have to do the task with the following suggestions of useful language:
It can be seen that
distributed unevenly
account for per cent
more than double the population of
half as much as/ nearly half of
rank first/ last
And the beginning “The chart shows the distribution of world population by region. ”
With all these cues, Hoang Minh Quang - class 11A5 - wrote:
Hoang Minh Quang’s writing
Errors
The chart shows the distribution of world population by region. It can be seen that population distributed unevenly. South Asia account for 32 percent and more than double the population of Europe. Latin America more than double the population of Europe. Northern America nearly double the population of Africa. Oceania account for 2 percent. Rank first South Asia, second East Asia and seventh Oceania.
→ lack “the world” and verb 
→ form of the verb
 → lack the verb and wrong 
 information
 → form of the verb
→ spoken language
In Unit 11 – Sources of energy (Tieng Anh 11-Page 130), a bar chart is given for students to write the description of it.
In Task 2, they are required to write the same writing as Task 1. However, they gave some mistakes in their writings.
Dao Thi Lien - class 11A4 - wrote:
Dao Thi Lien’s writing
Errors
The chart shows the energy consumption in Highland in 2005. As can be seen, the total energy consumption was 170 million ton. 
Petroleum made up the largest amount of this
 figure (50 million tons). This was followed by the consumption of smallest (45 million tons). Nuclear and hydroelectricity made up the biggest amount of energy consumption (75 million tons)
→ spelling mistake
→ wrong information
→ wrong answer
→ wrong word
Chu Van Kien – class 11A5 – also wrote:
Chu Van Kien’s writing
Errors
The chart shows the energy consumption in Highland in 2005. As can be seen, the total energy consumption was 170 million tons. Petroleum made up the largest amount of this figure (75 million tons). This was followed by the consumption of nuclear and hydroelectricity (50 million tons). Coal made up the smallest amount of energy consumption (45 million tons)
→ wrong information
→ wrong information
And many students did like these.
After doing Task 1 and Task 2 with the requirements in textbook, students did Task 3 by combining two these tasks in turn.
3. The solution:
In order to improve writing skill in describing charts for students, I carried out a few techniques at classes 11A4,11A5 and 11A6 in this school-year (2016-2017). I gave out posters and handouts with the eliciting questions for these writing tasks. In order to make them more interesting and help students concentrate to the lessons, I used these eliciting questions in games such as “lucky number” or “typhoon”.
Lucky number
 - Divide the class into two teams.
 - Representatives of each team choose the numbers in turn
 - If they get a “lucky number”, they will have 2 points without any questions.
 - If they have a correct answer, they will get 2 points.
 - If they don’t answer the question, the chance will be for the other team.
Typhoon
 - Divide the class into two teams.
 - Representatives of each team choose the numbers in turn.
 - They will get 5 points with a correct answer.
 - If they get a “star”, they will get 5 points without a question.
 - If they get a “plus”, the point given will be added for them when they have a correct answer.
 - If they get a “minus”, they will lose the point which the number gave.
 - Unluckily, they will lose all the point they got when they get the word “typhoon”
3.1. Unit 7: World population (Page 86)
 - Aim: help students have comparisons among the regions about the distribution of world population.
 - Time: 15 minutes
 - Preparation:	+ a poster and handouts with eliciting questions
	+ a poster presenting game “Typhoon”
 - Procedure:
Stage
Procedure
Interaction
Pre-writing
Activity 1: Discussion (5’)
Deliver handouts. (Appendix 1)
Eliciting questions (Tieng Anh 11 – Unit 7 – Page 86)
How great is the percentage in total?
Which region contributes the largest in world population? What is the proportion of it?
Which region makes up the smallest in world population? What is the percentage?
Which region ranks second? What percentage is it?
How is Northern America in comparison with Oceania?
Which region has nearly double the population of Northern America?
Which region has the contribution to the world population more than that of Africa?
Which region makes up nearly half of Europe?
Discuss to find out the information which the questions ask. (Appendix 2)
Suggested answers:
100%
South Asia contributes the largest in world population. It accounts for 32%.
Oceania makes up the smallest in world population with 2%.
East Asia ranks second, accounting for 26 %
Northern America has three times of the population of Oceania
Africa has nearly double the population of Northern America
Europe has the contribution to the world population more than that of Africa
Latin America makes up nearly half of Europe
Activity 2: Game “Typhoon” (10’)
Hang the poster with eliciting questions out. (Appendix 1)
Stick the poster presenting game “Typhoon” on the board.
Divide the class into 2 teams.
Ask Ss to play the game.
Feedback
T
Pairs
T
Teams
T-Ss
3.2.Unit 11: Energy sources (page 130)
 - Aim: help students have comparisons about the energy consumption between two certain points of time.
 -Time: 15 minutes
 - Preparation:	+ a poster and handouts with eliciting questions
	+ a poster presenting game “Lucky number”
 -Procedure:
Stage
Procedure
Interaction
Pre-writing
Activity 1: Asking and answering (3’)
Ask Ss some questions to recognize the chart. (Appendix 3)
What exactly does this chart show?
How many colors are there?
What color stands for coal, nuclear and hydroelectricity and petroleum in turn?
How many points of time are given? What are they?
Observe the chart and give the ideas.
Expected answers:
It shows the energy consumption in Highland in 2000 and 2005.
Three
Green stands for coal, red for nuclear and hydroelectricity and purple for petroleum
Two. They are 2000 and 2005
Activity 1: Discussion (4’)
Deliver handouts. (Appendix 4)
How was the trend in energy consumption between 2000 and 2005?
Which energy made up the largest amount of energy consumption in 2000? How was it in 2005?
Which energy had the smallest amount of this figure in 2000? Did it increase or decrease in 2005? How did it increase/decrease?
What about coal? Did it rise/fall dramatically or slightly?
What does this trend in energy consumption mean?
Discuss to find out the information which the questions ask. (Appendix 5)
Suggested answer:
The total energy consumption of 2005 (170 million tons) was higher than that of 2000 (117 million tons).
In 2000, petroleum made up the largest amount of energy consumption (57 million tons) while in 2005 it decreased slightly of 7 million tons.
Nuclear and hydroelectricity had the smallest amount of this figure in 2000. It increased quickly from 20 million tons (in 2000) to 75 million tons (in 2005), which was the highest amount.
Coal had a slow rise from 40 million ton to 45 million tons.
People in Highland had the trend of using unpolluted sources of energy.
Activity 2:Game “Lucky number” (8’)
Hang the poster with eliciting questions out. (Appendix 4)
Stick the poster presenting game “Lucky number” on the board.
Divide the class into 2 teams.
Ask Ss to play the game.
Feedback
T-Ss
T
Ss
T
Pairs
T
Teams
T-Ss
4. Effect
4.1. Practical effect
After practicing these changes in my lectures, my students has made some progress in their writings. Their writings not only contained fewer mistakes but also showed a clear comparison. They know how to describe a chart and are confident to write as well.
Unit 7 – World population (Tieng Anh 11-Page 86)
In this writing lesson, Le Xuan Hieu – class 11A5 – wrote:
Le Xuan Hieu’s writing
Comment
The chart shows the distribution of world population by region. It can be seen that world population distributed unevenly. South Asia ranks first and accounts for thirty two percent in population. And South Asia is more than double the population of Europe which accounts for fifteen percent. Latin America accounts for eight percent in world population and it is nearly half of Europe’s population. East Asia is over twice as much as Africa with twenty six percent in world population. Oceania ranks last with two percent in population and it account for one-third of Northern America’s population.
A good comparison
Unit 11 – Sources of energy (Tieng Anh 11-Page 130)
Nguyen Thi Nhung – class 11A5- described the chart in this writing section like this:
Nguyen Thi Nhung’s writing
Comment
The chart shows the energy consumption in Highland in 2000 and 2005. As you can see from the chart, the total energy consumption of 2005 (170 million tons) was higher than that of 2000 (117 million tons). In 2000, petroleum made up the largest amount of this figure (57 million tons) while in 2005 it decreased slightly of 7 million tons. Besides, nuclear and hydroelectricity increased quickly from 20 million tons (in 2000) to 75 million tons (in 2005), which was the highest amount. In 
addition, coal had a slow rise from 40 million ton to 45 million tons.
To sum up, people in Highland had the trend of using unpolluted sources of energy.
-Use vocabulary perfectly
-Compare well
4.2. Comments from teachers and studens
I made a survey to know what students find about writing lessons by the questionnaire (Appendix 6) and had some replied information as below.
Most students know that writing lessons help them not only practise writing skill but also develop all skills fully. They also stated that writing is very important but it is sometimes difficult. As a result, although they prepared the lesson before the class, they still had difficulties when doing the task. Therefore, they did not participate in writing lessons actively.
When I carried out the survey with class 11A5 – a rather good at English class with 37 students, 26 students believe that the writing lessons are very important - containing 70.3%, 9 students think they are not very important - containing 24,3,% and no one finds they are not important at all. While only 2 students in this class n