Some methods of teaching how to communicate in learning English effectively at Nga Nhan primary school

A. INTRODUCTION.
I. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THEMES:
 	 As you know, English is an international language. It is spoken in many corners all over the world. It is not only the first language of many countries but also the compulsary subject in the schools in all countries in the world. So, it is becoming more and more important in modern life. In Viet Nam, English is more popular nowaday and a lot of VietNamese people know how English is important. Therefore, English became an important subjects. It contributes to the overall development of students, moreover it also contributes to the integration of economy, society, culture, education. Today, the purpose of education trains people a comprehensive way so the renewal of the content of teaching methods is indispensable. Specially, the media has developed fast. It created many opportunities for people with learning opportunities and learning facilities.
 	Nowadays, adults want to talk to foreigners fluently. Young children also want to communicate in English with international friends. Therefore, the education and training sector has made a comprehensive renovation of the curriculum and teaching methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning. As for me, being an English teacher at a primary school, I not only take pride in my job but also assume responsibility for students’ improvement in learning English. I wonder what teaching method is best for today’s students and how classroom diversity influences teacher.
 In my opinion, The purpose of learning English is to communicate it with the speakers. Speaking is the most difficult skill of all, especially for students living in the countryside or in the remote region, such as our school. At Nga Nhan Primary School, we have been applying the English program according to the book of the Ministry of Education and Training, published under the program of 2 periods per week. Through the years of teaching English in elementary school, I found that the English communication skills of the students are still limited. To overcome this situation, I have researched some measures to improve the speaking skill of primary students. The primary environment is the fundamental place forming habits and communication capacities. Frequent communication results in braveries for students without fears of making mistakes in public speaking. As for students lacking proficiency in the mother tongue language, they had a lot of difficulties in getting access to a foreign language. Their timidity makes oral communication limited greatly. This is why I chose the theme of experience initiative: “Some methods of teaching how to communicate in learning English effectively at Nga Nhan primary school” to record the results in our school. I hope I will get more and more my colleague’sideas which I can complete my knowledge and my subject. It can help my students improve the communication.
II. RESEARCH PURPOSES:
      	 I am an English Teacher in a primary school, I constantly research, actively, actively innovate teaching methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning. I wrote this topic to share my small experience with my colleagues to help students improve the knowledge and quality of English in communication.
	 - Find out the current status of teaching speaking skills.
	 - Building the basis of teaching English and the methods help students communicate.
	 - Evaluate empirical results and draw up useful pedagogical lessons.
 III.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF RESEARCH:
 	 As a result of the fact teaching and learning English at Nga Nhan primary school, I only study my topic at Nga Nhan primary school. 
IV. RESEARCH METHODS:
     	In order to implement my measures effectively, I have combined the following measures:
   	- Research method: To get information effectively about teaching methods, I used books and materials... especially through regular training courses of the Ministry of Education and Training, Department Provincial Education and Training organizations.
   	- Observation method: direct teaching hours in classes are assigned, combined with other classes not directly taught through the class time and class visits.
  	 - Conversation method: Direct communication with students in class, outside class to find information.
   	- Product research methodology: Through the test and the results at the end of the semester and the double work process - student groups in classroom activities.
B. CONTENT
I. IN THEORY:
 English is an international language. It is very important in modern life now. However, English is not compulsory in primary schools but it helps students communicate and get the knowledge about economy, society, culture, in the world, especially in the field of education. It requires English teachers to equip the modern teaching methods. Learning English will not only help students master the theory but also help students practice communicing. 
 For years, the teaching method for children has been similar to one for adults apart from supplementing some songs and games into lectures. It’s clear that the receptive process of our mother tongue language and the next process in the school period are natural. Language capacity is generated by imitating, unconscious learning through different forms such as communicating with relatives, reading stories, connecting with communicating, singing, reading poems, painting, etc. The difference of children’s receptive process in comparison with adults is that adults’ receptiveness is conscious and annalistic but children’s one is natural via intuition. 
There are two kinds of material languages which almost every learner needs develop: Receptive language and productive language. Receptive language is the language factor possibly realized and not produced by learners. Productive language is the language factor possibly used in speaking or writing. Students will become familiar with realizing new factors through situations if those are repeated many times. To practice using the receptive language, students have to learn how to reflex with new words naturally. In curriculums, grammars are sentences or questions and answers practiced more than once. It is essential that samples are given clearly and fully for students to understand what they have to do in some class activities. 
II. IN REALITY:
 	 As you know, learning and teaching English in Viet Nam are very difficult especially learning and teaching English in primary schools. According to the regulation of Ministry of Education and Training, there are only two lessons per week that do not have enough time for students to develop communication skills well. Several qualified schools could have more lessons, four lessons per week. Hence, the period for students to get access to English is obviously short in comparison with the total communicating hours every week. Moreover, English environment is restricted in classroom hours and students use Vietnamese when lessons end. Children don’t actually need to use English except for the requirement of studying and examination. All the requirements using English are practical and there isn’t other natural English environment for children. Moreover, English is a optional subject in primary schools. English subject isn’t also used to select the result of the students in primary schools so some students do not pay much attention to English. Their vocabulary is not rich. They are difficult to communicate.
Children are so unable to concentrate on what teachers are delivering in a long period. Consequently, they should be engaged in different activities, to perform various tasks by themselves with exercise types always changed and diversified communication situations.
 Children often obtain and imitate knowledge quickly and also forget what have learned quickly. They are naturally curious, dynamic and creative. Children always demand to discover outside environment and interact with others. It cannot be denied that they are interested and creative in games.
 Because of the above reasons that led to the quality of education is not high. Through the survey on the quality of pupils at grade 3, 4 and 5 at Nga Nhan Primary School in the beginning of school year 2015-2016 achieved as follows:
Total No. of students
Excellent 
Quite good
Medium
Bad
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
39 (grade 3)
8
21
9
23
18
46 
4
10 
50 (grade 4)
12
24
15
30
20
40
3
6
57 (grade 5)
13
23
16
28
25
44
3
5
 With the result above, from early school year, I always try to find the best methods to design interesting lectures inspiring students so that they could turn what they have learned into productive language via oral communication, integrate with the developing tendency of foreign language subject: learning a foreign language is learn how to communicate but not focusing on grammar as in the past. 
III. SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM:
Solution 1: Improving the students’ awareness about learning how to communicate in English.
 Propaganda is the first method chosen to raise awareness for students.
As you know, some primary students don’t pay more attention to learn and communicate English because it is only a optional subject in primary schools. It is also a difficult subject at school. Therefore I always persuade my students about the importance of communicating English. If the students speak English well, they can communicate English with the speakers, they can travel over the world, they can be easy to make friends with the foreigners, they can chat with the foreigners on facebook or zalo, they can be easy to find a good job with the high salary in the foreign company in the future, they can read books, newspapers, stories or watch films in English. Thank to my persuasion, my students can understand why they should communicate in English. When they understand the important role of speaking, they will be hard-working to take part in communicating English effectively.
Solution 2: Teachers should communicate in English much more than Vietnamese in the classroom language:
 To help students speak English well, Teacher should encourage students to use English as much as possible. Classes should provide opportunities for students to communicate in a variety of forms: T- Whole class, TS, S-S. The teacher is the person who guides the children to make simple situations and subject-based conversations.
Beginning of lesson:
 *Good morning. How are you?
 *Did you have a nice weekend?
 *Have you done your homework?
 *Let’s play a game now, shall we?
 *Are you ready?
Ask for repetition:
*Would you mind repeating?
*Could you say it again?
*Pardon?
Asking for clarification:
*What is it? Please tell me again. 
*What do you mean?
*Could you explain more about..?
Ask for ideas/opinions
*What do you think about that(name)?
*Do you have any ideas/opinions?
*How about you?
Checking:
*Is that clear?
*Okay so far?
*Have you got it / that?
	During English lessons, Teacher should speak English much more than Vietnamese and use a mixture of the two languages.
English
Vietnamese
Both
Introducing the lesson
ü
Checking attendance
ü
Organizing
ü
Classroom control / discipline
ü
Giving praise
ü
Presenting new language
ü
Introducing a new text
ü
Asking questions on the text
ü
Correcting errors
ü
Setting homework
ü
 Solution 3: Improving communication through using pictures.
 Nowadays, modern teaching methodology encourages the use of as many media, especially pictures as possible in classroom. At the same time, the innovation in English teaching at general education level demands that the schools should provide students with a good communicative skill in English. However, nowadays teaching English speaking at many Lower primary school as well as the using of pictures in English speaking classrooms to motivate learners haven’t been paid due attention to. Therefore, this article aims at researching the use of pictures in English speaking classes at lower primary schools and put forward some practical suggestions to improve the quality of English speaking teaching and learning. I usually use the pictures to help my students practice communicating in all of the lessons. My students are very practical when I use the pictures, my students can be easy to talk and understand.
English 3 –Unit 17 –Lesson 2( Point and say and Let’s talk )
 	To practise the structure: How many .. do you have ? - I have ..
I ask my students to look the picture ask and answer about quantity.
Example: picture a picture b
S1: How many dogs do you have ? S1: How many goldfish do you have ?
S2: I have two dogs. S2: I have three goldfish.
English 4 –Unit 16 –Lesson 2( Point and say )
 	To practise the structure: Why do you want to go to the ?- Because..
 	I ask my students to look the picture ask and give reasons for going somewhere.
Example: picture a
S1: Why do you want to go to the zoo?
S2: Because I want to see the animals. 
English 5 –Unit 16 –Lesson 1( Point and say )
To practise the structure: Excuse me, Where’s the.? – It’s ..I ask students to look the picture to ask and give directions.
Example: picture a
S1: Excuse me, Where’s the bus stop?
S2: It’s next to the stadium.
English 5 –Unit 16 –Lesson 1( Let’s talk )
To revise the structure: Excuse me, Where’s the.? Ask students look the picture, ask and answer questions about directions. Example you are in the bus.
 S1:Where’s the park?
 	S2: Turn right. It’s opposite the stadium.
 S1: Where’s the stadium?
 S2: Turn right. It’s on the corner of the street. It’s opposite the park.
 I always try to use the pictures to teach my students how to communicate in the part “pre and post” for reading, listening and writing skills. This helps my students speak English everywhere and everytime.
Example: English 3 –Unit 14 –Lesson 3( 5. Read and write)
- Pre-reading and writing: Ask students to look at this picture to answer my questions. 
Teacher: What room is it?
 Ss: It is a dining room.
T: How many tables are there?
Ss: There is a table.
T: How many chairs are there?
Ss: There are six chairs.
.
- Post- reading: “Chain game”: Students work in group of 5 to talk about their dining room.
Examples: S1:This is a dining room. It is not very big but nice. There is a TV. 
S2: This is a dining room. It is not very big but nice. There is a TV, a cupboard under the TV.
S3: This is a dining room. It is not very big but nice. There is a TV, a cupboard under the TV and many pictures on the wall.
Example: English 4 –Unit 17 –Lesson 1(3.Listen and tick)
- Pre-listening: Ask Ss to discuss in pairs to talk about the colour and guess the price of these clothes.
Students talk: The jacket is yellow. It is 60,000 dong. The T- shirt is red. It is 75,000 dong. The jumper is blue. It is 60,000 dong.
- Post -listening: Ask Ss to work in pairs to ask and answer the price of these clothes.
S1: How much is the yellow jacket?
S2: It is 60,000 dong. 
S1: How much is the red T- shirt ?
S2: It is 75,000 dong. 
S1: How much is the blue jumper ?
S2: It is 60,000 dong. 
 To sum up, my students are primary students so they can’t think of complexly. The pictures are easy for them to imagine. They will be confident to communicate. 
 Solution 4: Improving communication through work in pairs and groups.
 With this method, it is necessary for students to develop their ability to learn in a positive, active and creative way. They have to show themselves, find out, find out and conquer the self. And in my opinion, through group work in some activities, when students have learned how to work in groups, they have the conditions to cooperate, learn from each other and take responsibility. Responsible for special group members who self-dominate knowledge if the teacher organizes and guides well. Team teaching is an active method in which, the number of students is divided into groups in certain ways. In each group, students have chances to boost listening and speaking skill and learn from one another. They will be more confident in communicating in a foreign language.
Example: English 4 –Unit 16 –Lesson 1(Point and say)
	+ Teachers ask students to work in group in part “Point and say” to suggest some places to go and say why. Then, a pair of representatives in each group go to the board, point to the picture, suggest. 
	+ Each group understands what they have to do is applying a sentence structure: “Let’s go to the .I want to ..” to practice suggesting some places to go and say why.
- Under the assignment of group leaders, each member in the groups have to understand what he/she has to perform and actively participate in group activities at the same time.
	+ According to the request of the above practicing exercise, a class is divided into some certain groups (6 students per group) and is organized as following:
	+ The group leader assigns as:
- Pair 1: suggest some places to go and say why in picture A: bakery/buy some bread.
- Pair 2: suggest some places to go and say why in picture 
B: pharmacy/buy some medicine.
- Pair 3: suggest some places to go and say why in picture 
C: pharmacy/buy some medicine.
- Pair 4: suggest some places to go and say why in picture D: sweet shop/buy some chocolate.
 	+ The group leader asks Pair 1 to practice and the rest of groups to listen. Then, take turn to group 2, 3, 4. Therefore, every member could listen and practice the whole lesson. If any member in one group is confused and unable to practice fluently, he/she will be supported by the group leaders and other members in the group. Teacher should divide the class into groups with students’ relatively equal learning capacity. In each team, communication skill of members has to cover all of 4 levels: good, quite good, medium and weak. Appointing students with very good English capacity to different groups for controlling the practicing process. Teachers should care for, encourage students with weak learning capacity and give complements, reward ones with good performance. 
 Work in the group in class 3a at Nga Nhan primary school
Solution 5: Improving communication through activities.
 Nowadays, many students have a lot of good vocabularies and grammar but they can not speak English very well. Teacher should spend many times for students communicating. So I used lots of activities to help them listen and speak.
1.Mapped Dialogue. 
Example: English 5 Unit 15 Lesson 2 (Let’s talk)
 To revise how ask and answer questions about their future jobs. I use this Mapped Dialogue.
 You your friend
What- like- be- future? A writer 
 Why – a writer? 
 Because- write stories. Would- a writer
No- a pilot 
Because- fly a plane Why – a pilot?
 	I ask my students to look the mapped dialogue ask and answer questions about their future jobs.
 	Example dialogue
 You: What would you like to be in the future ?
 Your friend: I’d like to be a writer.
 You: Why would you like to be a writer?
 Your friend: Because I’d like to write stories for children. Would you like to be a writer?
 You: No. I’d like to be a pilot.
 Your friend: A pilot? Why?
 You: Because I’d like to fly a plane.
2. Survey
* Survey: English 3 –Unit 14 –Lesson 2 ( Let’s talk)
To revise how ask and answer questions about the quantity. I use the survey table.
fans
mirrors
doors
windows
2
3
5
4
I ask my students to ask and answer about the quantity.
Example exchanges
S1: How many fans are there?
S2: There are two.
*Survey: English 4 –Unit 11 –Lesson 2 (Let’s talk )
To revise how ask and answer questions about the time of the daily activities/routines. I use the survey table.
Name
get up
 have breakfast
Have dinner
Go to bed
Mai
6.00
6.30
7.30
9.00
I ask my students to ask and answer about the time of the daily activities/routines.
 	S1: What time do you get up ?
 	S2: I get up at 6.00.
3. Visuals.
 English 3 –Unit 8 –Lesson 1( Point and say)
 	To introduc