SKKN Some methods for improving speaking skills of 10th grade students in English at Chu Van An High School

PART ONE : INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE:
As we all know that English has become an international language because and communication is an important skill for every modern student to master. 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. Advances in digital media, changing career landscapes, and greater competition in colleges and workplaces makes improving student communication skills a must. Cramming tips the night before a big interview won’t do the job if students are trying to make an impression in the collaborative workplaces of the future. When it comes to acquiring indispensable communication skills, there’s no time like the present.
The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education. 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 easily with the subject. However, the majority of students are still feeling embarrassed and shy when speaking in front of the class. To help students overcome these problems, I boldly give the subject “Some methods for improving speaking skills of 10th grade students in English at Chu Van An High School ”
II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
When writing this initiative, I just wish to offer some ideas to find the best teaching methods generate excitement for students and bring optimal efficiency.
- Through this research, I myself will have more experiences in teaching speaking lessons.
- Promote active learning of students in English class, especially in speaking lessons
- guiding students to practise themseves, practise to have skills and speaking skills in English.
III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHODS
- SCOPE: Researching in the process of teaching speaking lesson at CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL
- OBJECT: Students in grade 10 A13, 10 A1, 11 A6 at CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL
- RESEARCHING METHODS: 
1. Observation method: 
Reading reference books, summarizing material research and visiting classes of colleagues.
2. Exchange method, discussion: 
Discussing with other colleagues after visiting their classes to draw out experiences.
3. Experimental method: 
Teachers can carry out experimental teaching according to the aims of specific request in speaking lessons
4. Survey method: 
Teachers ask questions to test and evaluate the content of the students’ lessons.
PART TWO : CONTENT
I. Theoretical and practical basis
1. Theoretical basis: 
Pressure to speak in English to the learners, both at school and in the dormitory has demanded language instructor to take into account the best methods fitting the learners’needs and the school’ expectation. As a result, language instructors have designed an oral speaking class separated from literacy developmentwhich means the students have to attend two English classes. The first is a speaking class focusing on speaking and listening and language features (pronunciation) and a literacy class focusing on developing reading and writing skills and on language features such as grammar and vocabulary. This context puts teacher in more flexible way in managing his class. Also, in developing the learners’ oral communication skills, teacher plays an important role in structuring students’ learning experiences so as to support their speaking development in and outside the classroom,
2. Practical basis:
After many years teaching English in high school , I have noticed the fact that the majority of students in high school 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 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”.So I decide to choose this research subject.
II. The status of the research subject:
1. The advantages of teaching speaking lesson:
1.1. For students:
 Most students in Chu Van An high school have studied English since they were in secondary 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 aspects to this subject , and it is no longer considered a subordinate subject.
   The school has been equipped with full conditions about facilities for study like language laboratory, books, tapes, and radios
1.2. For teachers:
Teachers have satisfied the school’s demand as well as education and applied the new teaching methods.
The facilities of the school like language laboratory , books , tapes , and radios are full and Administrator is interested and facilitates the teaching of the teachers so that they can prove their abilities in the best way.
2.The disadvantages of teaching speaking lesson:
2.1. 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 a limited vocabulary so they can’t know how to speak a correct sentence 
 	Classrooms are crowded, and the activities of speaking lesson often practise in pairs or in groups so the classrooms are easily noise.
2.2. For teachers:
There are still some teachers who have difficulty in teaching speaking skills and choosing suitable skills for each lesson.
Teachers don’t assign the tasks to students clearly. 
Teachers don’t create the environment to encourage students to speak English effectively.
2.3. Specific survey in classes 10A1, 10A13
Class
Students
Excellent-good 
Average
Weak (bad)
10A13
100%
15%
55%
40%
10A1
100%
13%
67%
20%
III. Some solutions to the research subject:
1. General requirements:
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, 
the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999) 
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills
The selection of teaching speaking techniques must be determined on the basis of the lesson content to build the activities for study.
Through research process and practice in different classrooms I offer some solutions to guide students to develop communication skills.
2. The main solutions: 
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. To guide students to develop communication skills in English, teachers can teach students speaking strategies such as providing a dialogue, spoken word actions, using minimal respones, practising grammar structures and applying groupwork or pairwork in speaking skills and games.
2.1: Providing a dialogue:
Thanks to the guidance of teachers, students themselves can create the dialogues and then practice, practice instead. This activity is quite simple and will be familiar so students are interested in learning.
2.2: Spoken word actions:
In these actions 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 learners become more confident about assessing language ability used by others
- Teachers must create a routine for your own classroom - where speaking English in the classroom can turn into daily conversation, even compulsory for students.
- 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 practise 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: Using minimal responses:
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners. 
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response. 
2.4: Practising grammar structures:
Unlike other languages ​​, English has a word order and grammar rules to be followed . The implementation of the structures and grammar principles in practising speaking English is not simple. Therefore, when communicating in English, try to use the grammar structures that you have been learned and mastered . If you just master the structures and simple sentences , you should only use them until you can be sure of the correct use of more complex structures. 
2.5: Applying groupwork or pairwork in speaking skills:
This is the basic and efficiency activity to practise speaking. Teachers need to give careful instructions and know exactly how to divide the class. Pair work and group work can become a routine. Once students are used to it and have regular working partners, it can be organized quickly and easily. After that group chief may give topic to say and members discuss. Some activities such as paintings, plays, telling story should be applied.
2.6: 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. Teachers can design the games such as “chain games”, “lucky number”, “find someone who” and so on.. to suit each specific class, each specific object to encourage more students to participate
3. Organization steps:
For a speaking period, there are often three stages which are: Preparing for speaking – Controlled practice – Free practice/Production. This learning process not only helps students understand the material but also understand their speaking skills used in practical communication. But the prerequisite problem is that teachers need to clearly define the purpose of each speaking lesson to orient for the students perform the tasks in the next steps.
3.1:Preparing for speaking:
- The instructions that are given at the beginning are crucial. If the students do not understand exactly what they have to do, there will be time-wasting, confusion, lack of effective practice, possible loss of control
 - Select tasks that are simple enough to describe easily; and in monolingual classes, you may find it cost-effective to explain some or all in the students’mother tongue.
- Teachers encourage students to contribute to the general ideas for speaking lessons ( Brainstorming activity)
- Teachers can ask students some questions to check their understanding
3.2. Controlled practice:
- Need to comply with the guideline from easy to difficult. Teachers should give different types of exercises such as Substitution drills, using Prompts or picture cues or language games for students to form structure they have just studied.
- Teacher goes from group to group, pair to pair, monitor, and either contribute or keep out of the way whichever is likely to be more helpful. 	 
- Providing general approval and support;
- Helping students who are having difficultly;
- Keeping the students using the target language(in many cases your mere presence will ensure this!)
- Tactfully regulating participation in a discussion where you find some students are over dominant and others silent.
- Correcting mistakes and language problems that students have such as pronunciation or grammar. Teachers should provide some new words that relate to the subject. However, teachers shouldn’t correct unimportant mistakes and should encourage other students to find out the mistakes and correct them.
3.3:Free practice/production:
 	This is the last activity of the lesson so teachers should give the general requirement and shouldn’t limit students’ideas as well as language so that students can speak freely.
Teachers can create the situation, the context and the topic for students to practise speaking in pairs or group.
Teachers can use pictures and photos in textbook and outside it or the topics that is close to students such as describe their school, house or their friends how to ensure the requirements of the lesson effectively, and how to stimulate student’s enthusiasm.
4. Demonstration: 
Example of providing a dialogue. 
Task 2 ( Unit 8 Part B: Speaking English 10)
 	From the information provided in the textbook, students will combine into a dialogue and then make many other dialogues by substituting and then pracrise.
A: I know what we should do first. We should widen the roads 
B: That’s a good idea. If the roads are widened, cars and lorries can get to our village. 
C: Yes. And if lorries can get to the village, we don’t have to cart heavy loads of farming products to the city.
A: And we should also resurface and raise the roads.
B: And if we resurface and raise the roads, they won’t be flooded and muddy when it rains 
C: And the villagers will be able to get around more easily, too.
Example of group work.
Task 2 (Unit 10 – Part B: Speaking - English 10)
This is a free activity and aims to develop fluency in speaking. The procedure may be:
Divide students into groups of four or five.
Read through the instrutions and make sure that each group understands what to do. Choose one “secretary” in each group to write the list but emphasis that everyone in the groups should agree on what to write.
While the activity is going on, move from groups, but do not interrupt more than is necessary.
When some groups have finished their discussion, stop the activity, ask one person from each group to report on what they decided
Give feedback: - Content
Popular mistakes
Example of using games. ( chain games)
Task 2 (Unit 11 – Part B: Speaking - English 10)
Teacher: If we hadn’t gone by coach
Student 1: If we hadn’t gone by coach, we couldn’t have got carsick.
Student 2: If we hadn’t gone by coach, we couldn’t have got carsick, we could have more money for lunch
IV. Result after applying the research in teaching:
 Students are more active in English speaking lesson
 Students communicate with each other better.
Class
Students
Excellent-good 
Average
Weak (bad)
10A13
100%
30%
60%
10%
10A1
100%
32%
55%
13%
PART III: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
1. Conclusion:
 To develop speaking skill for students, it requires preparation from both sides, teachers and students. 
      First, teachers have to identify the focus of the lesson to select appropriate content, then there is a clear plan 
      Second, students need to be prepared at home well, actively learned. 
If they do well with the above requirements, certainly teachers will develop speaking skill for students.
2. Suggestion: 
 To teach a speaking lesson higher efficiency, the first thing to have good facilities, full intuitive full furniture, vivid pictures for teachers to have the time to invest in new initiatives and prepare for speaking lesson better.
The Headmaster’s identification
 Thanh Hoa, the fifteeenth of May, 2019
 I ensure that this study has been written by me 
 The writer
 Tran Thi To Hoa
: 
 REFERENCE BOOKS
1. The teacher training materials – English 11 ( Hoàng Văn Vân) 
2. "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998)
3. Brunei. C. (1984). Communicative methodology in teaching. Cambridge University press.
4. The purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999)