SKKN Some strategies to develop students’ listening skill in English 11 basic program

INDEX
Page
I. INTRODUCTION
1.Reasons for research 	
2.Purposes 
3.Subjects 
2
4.Methods
3
II. CONTENTS
1.Theoretical background
3
2 .Realities before applying the research
3
3. Solutions : Guessing information, brainstorming, getting the main idea, using many activities in a listening lesson, and combining many tips to make the lesson more effective.
+ A Model lesson plan: English 11: Unit 6: Competitions 
Part C Listening
4
 11
4.Effectiveness of the research
14
III. CONCLUSION
1.General conclusion
15
2.Recommendation
16
 IV. REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION 
Reasons for the research
 English is, nowadays, used as an important tool in communicating with other countries in the world. Learning English has always been very essential for every student to study. However, it is not always easy to use English as an effective means of communication without practicing listening skills. The more we listen, the more quickly and efficiently it helps us to understand and communicate with others. Thus, listening skill is one of the most necessary parts in English language program at high schools. To be skillful listeners, all students require not only great motivation but also good teachers’ methods of teaching. To do well in teaching English requires that the teacher of English spend a lot of time on preparing thoroughly to be able to master the contents of the teaching lesson. Furthermore, practicing English skills for students at Hau Loc I high school is really challenging because of their poor vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation. Therefore, students are afraid of listening skill. Being a teacher of English, I always pay attention to helping the students feel simple and excited about their listening lessons.
Purpose.
Currently, we are adopting innovative teaching methods of English teaching and learning to achieve the best efficiency, especially focused on communicative skills. What teaching techniques are the best and suitable for language teachers? In fact, most students have learned a number of relatively words, but they often feel it very hard to listen and master the language according to situations happened. Therefore, how to make students enjoy the listening lesson and have the ability to use their listening skill to communicate actively is a problem every teacher has concerns. Based on the innovation of the teaching methodology of the Ministry of Education and Training , I would like to give some experiences in : 
“Some strategies to develop students’ listening skill in English 11 basic program”
3. Subjects.
 In my research, I study with 11th grade students. In this grade, students are mature enough to understand some concerned facts about the learned topic . Therefore, the ways to motivate them to listen is the most important thing in teaching process. From my practical teaching experience, I’ve found that if we use suitable methods, most of the students will be very interested in the class and doing the exercises more perfectly.
4. Methods
To make my listening lessons effectively, I have used some following methods:
Firstly, I always ask the students to search for information about the topic before coming to class. 
Secondly, I always get advice from colleagues through co- working. I can learn from both their good and bad points by attending their lessons.
Thirdly, I apply science and technology in teaching. For example, I use the software which applied to pronounce vocabulary to help students be accustomed to listening to native speaker accent.
Next, I study through the internet, use new methods in teaching English such as: using pictures to teach vocabulary, using the bingo-game to check up new words; Finally, I use a variety of activities in the listening lesson to get students involved in my activities without being bored.
II- CONTENT
1.Theoretical basis:
 In the current high school program, listening skill is one of the four main skills for students to learn. But in fact, both teachers and students must be ready to practice listening skill in all parts of the lesson. In examinations for English certificates, listening exercises are more and more stressed. Therefore, to have an effective listening skill, students should be encouraged to practice that skill in every lesson of each unit.
 2. Realities before applying the reseach: 
 Teaching and learning English at high school in Vietnam still faces many problems such as: lack of teaching equipment, and adequate teaching methods. Furthermore, that the majority of students do not pay attention to acquiring knowledge is also a serious problem causing difficulties in raising the quality of teaching and learning English.
 The innovative way of teaching and learning English has been conducted for a long time, but only in the process of teaching formulas, many teachers still follow the path of reading and copying, not really apply active teaching methods to stimulate students’ creativity, self – promoting students to learn, explore and acquire knowledge. Besides, teaching and learning English at schools also take place in the communicative environment of teachers and students which has so many limitations: Teaching in a large group ( usually each class has about 40 students or more) , the levels of awareness are different. Many students have difficulty in learning a foreign language because they don’t realize the importance of it. These things not only distract students’ focus on the lesson but also have a huge impact on skills trained for students. They make the students’ process to acquire knowledge slow. Moreover, in listening lessons, problems students often encounter are:
Speed of Speaking: what listeners hear seems to be spoken too quickly; they can’t control the pace at which the speaker speaks .
Phonology: listeners often can’t hear or pronounce letters/sounds that don’t occur in their mother language; they often can’t decode reduced forms . 
Difficult to grasp the main idea of the listening.
Limit vocabulary, and lack of concentration when listening.
How can we help learners who have such difficulties improve their listening comprehension ? 
Solutions: 
 Using some strategies in teaching listening lessons for students of grade 11.
 From the practical teaching experience of the subject and the requirements to achieve when teaching students in the English listening lesson, I myself have applied some strategies available that match the characteristics of students’ age and English programs to help students have the right skill to learn the listening lessons more effectively. 
 3.a . Guessing information.
Actually, when we listen to people talking, we may not understand all the words. However, we can use all the words we know and the context of the conversation to help us guess the words we do not know. Guessing information is an important listening skill. It can help us do well on standardized listening tests.
Example: 
When teaching Unit 2 “ Personal experiences” Part C: Listening: Before listening, I prepare some picture and let students do some exercises
EX 1: Look at the picture and guess what is hapening in it .
 Students may guess the content of the story, teacher write down the information, and lets students check after they listen to each part.
 A fire / burn /destroy/ terrible......../ firemen/ a little girl and her mother.
EX 2: Have any of these things happened to you ? Tick the right column.
 What happened 
 Yes 
 No
1. You experienced a fire. 
2. You got stuck in an elevator and couldn’t escape
3. You were terrified and screamed
4. Someone rescued you
 Students can easily give some related words to the topic such as: burn, escape , terrified , scream, rescue....,and guess the content of the listening task.
3 .b. Brainstorming.
 It is important that teachers prepare enough data for the listening lesson by providing some cues and brainstorming the knowledge from students. To motivate students to listen teachers should have some guided methods which can make it easier for them to understand the foreign language.
For example: 
 When teaching Unit 11: Sources of energy Part C- Listening, before listening teachers can ask students to look at the pictures and give the names of each type of energy.
Then ask them to decide which sources of energy are limited and which ones are unlimited . 
Solar energy
Wind power
Water power
One kind of Fossil fuels.
In this process, teacher can also elicit the advantages and disadvantages of these sources of energy. Base on the information given from the students, teacher can make the listening lesson get closer to their daily life and easier for them to understand.Therefore this activity can motivate students’ listening skill.
3.c. Getting the main idea
In this case, teacher helps students identify the important words which are stressed. Notice that these words are spoken louder, longer or higher than other unstressed words. Stressed words usually give the most important information.
Example:
Herb: Say , Mike. Can you give me some help with my math homework this
 afternoon ?
Mike: Umm, I’d like to but I really can’t. I have to go into the city and do 
 alot of things. 
Herb: Oh yeah ? Like what ?
Mike: I have to go to the bank and open a checking account, I have to mail 
 a package at the post office, and I might get a hair cut too.
Herb: Well, that’s not much. When are you going to come back ?
Mike: I’m not sure. I might eat downtown if the traffic looks bad. 
Herb: How are you going to get around ?
Mike: I don’t know. I think I’ll take a taxi. 
(The underlined words are stressed in the conversation )
Or sentences with unstressed words are often reduced.
Example: Long form reduction
Can you give me some help ?
I’d like to but I can’t. 
When are you going to come back ?
Could you get me some stamps ?
Kinya gimme some help ?
I’d liketa, but I can’t
Whenaya gonna come back ?
Couldja get me some stamps ?
By listening and paying attention to the stressed words, students can easily summarize the main ideas of the conversation.
Note the cues: in listening to a passage or a speech, the phrases often used to give main ideas are:  I would like to emphasize, The general point you must remember is, It is important to note that, I repeat that, Another thing is, Finally, That is, Now,...
3. d. Using many activities in a listening lesson .
 To encourage and promote students to learn more effectively and positively, students need great concentration. Taking part in many activities gives students a chance to express their language abilities because it makes students enthusiastic and excited. In this step, students will pay more attention to the lesson and they’ll feel more confident to express their opinions, which promote their creative thoughts. Therefore, I have applied some activities such as : group discussion , role play or questions and answer. These activities widen students’ knowledge about the topic they have listened. Not only can they help students understand the lesson deeply but they can have chances to practise their communicative skills. 
3. e. Combining many tips to make the lesson more effective.
Tip 1: Use a Hand Signal
A wonderful way to sharpen those listening skills is to use a non-verbal hand signal. It can go something like this, "After I read the following statement, I would like to you to hold up one finger if you agree with it, or two fingers if you disagree with it.” This strategy asks all students to fully participate and it will be obvious if a student wasn’t paying attention at the end of the statement.
Tip 2: Talk Less
Most of the time teachers spend the majority of their day talking and lecturing to students. But listening to teacher talk does not ensure that students are actually learning. What we want to do is talk less and have students talk more. Try several mini-lessons through the day where students listen for shorter periods of time, and talk amongst their group about what they are learning.
Tip 3: Have Students “Check-in” with Each Other
There will be times when students miss what teacher said and instead of interrupting us to find out what that is, we can have them “check-in” with a partner. Each day give students a few moments to compare notes or talk with their partners about anything that they may have missed.
Tip 4: Hold All Students Accountable
If we really want our students to listen to us when we talk then we must hold them accountable for listening. Instead of giving them all of the notes or key concepts that they need to know, only give them half of them. The other half they will have to listen to us to get. By providing only an outline for them to follow, we are ensuring that they will listen to us as we speak.
Tip 5: Break the Monotony
Breaking the monotony is the key to success of a good listening lesson. If we design lessons suitably, we’ll make the students active and motivated. Be sure to break the monotony of our lessons and our school day to ensure students are always on their toes. If they think they can be called upon at any time to answer a question, they will be more apt to listen.
4. A model lesson plan for a listening lesson.
English 11: Period: 31 Unit 6: Competition
Part C: Listening
I/ Aim: Listening for specific information
II/ Objectives: By the end of the lessons, will be able to:
listen and understand the summary history of Boston Marathon in The United States
listen and decide whether the right or false information 
ask and answer about the content of dialogue
III/ Materials:
 Textbook, cassette player, tape, projector.
IV/ Anticipated problems:
 Students may have difficulty in catching exact meaning of words and phrases to understand the conversation.
V/ Procedure
Teacher’s activities
Students activities
I/ Warm-up:
Show the pictures and ask the questions
1.What are they doing?
2. Have you ever taken part in the marathon race?
3. Do you know what kind of contest is 
“ Marathon”?
4.What do you know about Marathon ?
5. Who can take part in it ? 
II/ Pre-listening:
 Pre-teach Vocabulary: Use pictures, and translation.
-formally /’fomli/ Adv: chính thức
-clock /klok/ (v): ghi được = (n)
- reach the finish (v) =come to the destination
-join (v) = take part in: tham gia
-association /əsousi’ei∫n/ (n): hiệp hội
Teacher plays the tape and asks students to practice them 
Teacher calls some students to read the words.
CHECKING VOCABULARY
Teacher instructs: The game called “Bingo” 
Teacher tells students to write 5 words/ phrases what you have learnt randomly
Teacher plays audio with 7 words
Students listen to their pronunciation to tick the word which they have heard on their lists
Teacher declares the winner. 
III/ While-listening:
Teacher sets the scene: You are going to listen to the dialogue about the Boston Marathon and do some tasks:
 Task 1: Before listening, teacher tells students to read all the sentences in task 1 and try to work out what are going to listen. Then anticipate the grammatical form well vocabulary.
Teacher elicits some cues:
held / every year
began/ 1897
2 hours 15 minutes and 10 seconds.
Women / allowed/ 1957
1984/ 34 countries / took part
Rules/ through / centre of Boston.
Teacher plays the tape twice and asks students to decide.
Teacher checks the answer by asking students to write down.
Task 2: Teacher introduces: we are going to listen to the tape again and answer the questions. I have 4 questions for you. 
 Teacher has students read the questions carefully and understand them.
The whole class read the question and underline the key word 
1.Wherefrom?
2. When . ?
3. How many women?
4. How many runners.?
- Check the answers
IV/ Post-listening:
Teacher asks students to work in groups to fill in the blank using the given words
Teacher gives handout.
Filling in the missing words: 
The Boston Marathon is held (1) ______ in the USA . John McDermott was the 1st man to win the (2) ______ Boston Marathon in 1897. He was emerged from 15 runners and he (3) _____ 2 hours 50 minutes and 10 seconds. At first , it was only for (4) ____ runners. Women weren’t (5) ____ accepted to take part in the Boston races until 1967. Kuscsik, the 1st woman, became the 1st official champion as a (6)___ runner in 1972. Eight women started and (7)____this race . According to its (8) ___, the Boston race is about 26 miles, or 42 kilometres.
- Teacher calls 2 students to write down the answer on the board 
- Teacher gives feedback
V/ Wrapping:
Teacher asks students to take turn to talk about the Boston. 
 Suggested ideas: where ? when ? your favorite things, your impression about it, .........
Teacher summarises the main points.
Homework
Write a paragraph about some of famous runners in Vietnam and say what is special about them.
Some cues: name / famous for/ achievement
Listen
Do as directed
Group work
-Pair work.
1..
2..
3 It is a running contest.
4. It is the oldest road race in the U.S. It is held every year in middle of April.
5. Both men & women can take part in it.
Whole class
Listen
Repeat
Copy down
Read the words
Whole class
Students write 5 words as teacher’s requirement.
Tick the word which they have heard on their lists
The whole class read the statements in pair and try to guess the information.
Students focus on listening to the tape and do the task.
Teacher gives students 2 minutes to compare their answer in the pair. 
Students discuss their answer 
Correct answers:
1.T – It is held every year in the USA
2. T – It began in 1897
3. F – not “ 15 minutes” -> “ 50 min
4. F – not “in 1957 -> “1967”
5. T – 34 countries
6. F ( pass the center of Boston” -> “ go through 13 towns during the race. The race ends in the center of Boston”)
-Whole class.
The whole class read the questions carefully and understand them.
Underline the key word 
Listen
Pair work
Give answers.
1.	New York
2.	1972
3.	8 women
4.	6164 runners
Students work groups.
Students write down the answer on the board 
1.every year 2. first 3. clocked 4. male 5. formally 6. female 
7. finished 8. rules
- Students discuss, prepare the talk and speak out.
- Note down the information about the Boston Marathon 
- Do the homework & prepare for the writing lesson .
5 . Effectiveness of the research:
 With the method of teaching and practicing listening skill as shown above I have found the lessons more effective. Students are interested in participating in the study voluntarily. Most students including those who are weak pay more attention, be attracted to all activities, acquire knowledge teachers provide much better and easier. Many students who were shy to speak in class are now more confident in communication. Their listening skill is significantly increased. The weak students can make simple sentences. Students can use various words in more complex sentences. Students can use rich vocabulary in communication and get effective results of learning English. Many students learn more excitingly and lively. 
 From the results of applying my new solution in teaching, I realize that most students understand and do well. Besides, most of them are interested in learning the lesson. Below is the statistics I have collected from the school year 2017-2018 that my experiences have been done in two classes 11A6, 11A9 at Hau Loc I high school
Class
Mark
Before applying
After applying
Numbers of students
Rate (%)
Numbers of students
Rate (%)
11A6(41sts)
Lower 5
17
41,4 %
12
29,2%
5- 6
19
46,3%
19
46,4%
Upper 7
3
7,3%
10
24,4%
11A9(44sts)
Lower 5
21
 47,7%
12
27,2%
5- 6
18
 41%
18
40,9%
Upper 7
5
11,3%
14
31,9%
III. CONCLUSION 
1. General conclusion:
 In the process of teaching English, motivating students to listen and communicate has a very important role. Using these strategies, I can see that most of students understand and communicate with each other