Some stimulating activities to improve english speaking skills for the 10th form students at Quảng Xương 1 upper secondary school

 Së gd&®t thanh hãa
 Tr­êng THPT Qu¶ng X­¬ng I
 EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
 SOME STIMULATING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE 
 ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE 10th FORM 
 STUDENTS AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG 1 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
 ( Một số hoạt động khích lệ để nâng cao kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh cho học 
 sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Quảng Xương 1)
 Teacher: Nguyễn Thúy Hằng
 Group: Foreign Language
 Thanh Hoa, May 2018
PART I: INTRODUCTION
Reasons for choosing the topic
As a teacher of English at Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School in Thanh Hoa, I also have the same difficulties. I find the new textbooks more effective than the old ones that were used years ago. However, my teaching seems to encounter a significant problem:
	The first reason, which is a basic one for every high school student, is the motivation for studying. It is undeniable that passing examinations is one of the most important motivations in studying. However, according to the policy from MOET, the semester and final examinations only focus on reading skills through the multiple-choice format. The graduating student often has five other subjects in the examination, therefore they only pay attention to practising reading skills and grammatical points as well as vocabularies and structures. Teachers of English themselves take advantage of the little time they have to provide reading practice and help with solving problems in grammar exercises in order to achieve the short-term goal of passing the final examination.
The lack of background knowledge is also a basic reason for students having poor speaking skills. Most students at my school received their primary and secondary education from different communities of Quang Xuong district and few students came from Thanh Hoa city. Therefore, the learning conditions are poor and they are deprived of chances to speak English. While most urban students start learning English in primary schools, my students do not start until secondary schools and then they learn in difficult conditions. In addition, outside class time, the communicative environment in English is limited. An annual survey in my school of English speaking skills for the 10th graders has given a low result: more than 60% of students have difficulties when answering simple questions about their names, addresses, age or their hobbies. As a result, they feel scared of speaking English, of making mistakes, and of not conveying their sentiments to listeners. It indicates that my students have limited vocabulary. They often use mother tongue. Hence, most of the students are not confident to use English in speaking class. For instance, when I asks them to come forward to have a conversation with their friends, they refuse it. They are shy to perform English conversation in front of their friends. Thus, most speaking classes are monotonous and unsuccessful. Sometimes, in speaking classes, I have to guide the ideas in Vietnamese, and then help the students translate the ideas into English. In reality, these classes are the most ineffective ones. 
Against the problems above, some stimulating activities should be used to overcome them. I am interested in applying these activities to improve the speaking skills of Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary school students in English classes based on the syllabus of MOET so that I will conduct the research entitled “Some stimulating activities to improve 10th form students’ English speaking skills”. My objective is to find the most effective ways of helping them to overcome the barrier of low self confidence when studying speaking skills. I want to help them become familiar with English and to enjoy learning it more and more. Furthermore, training cadres for suburdareas is the aim of Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School in Thanh Hoa province, so being good at English will be a gateway leading to opportunities to work with international projects for developing economics or cultures
2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
- To study the use of three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities at Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School in Thanh Hoa province.
- To suggest some recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities: games, video, role play to enhance their learners in speaking skills and develop communicative skills.
3. Scope of the study
- The study only focuses on using three stimulating activities: games, video, role play to improve English speaking skills for 10th form students at Quang Xuong 1 Upper Secondary School in Thanh Hoa province.
- The reasons for choosing only three activities for 10th form students are as follows:
+ The students are not experiencing final examination pressures;
+ The topics in Tieng Anh 10 are still basic and simple;
+ The students have time to master speaking skills step by step and consider speaking as an essential skill in an English learning.
4. Method of study
 To conduct the study, a lot of methods are used. However, the main ones are descriptive statistics, observation and analytical method.
 PART II: DEVELOPMENT
1. Theoretical background
1.1.Factors affecting English speaking abilities
There are many factors that influence the success or failure in learning English speaking. However, the three most important factors are motivation, attitude and learning strategies.
	Motivation is the first important factor affecting a language learner. According to Gardner (2001), motivation refers to the driving force in any situation. In the socio-educational model, motivation to learn the second language is viewed as requiring three elements. First, the motivated individual expends effort to learn the language. That is, there is a persistent and consistent attempt to learn the material by doing homework, by seeking out opportunities to learn more, by doing extra work and so on. Second, the motivated individual wants to achieve the goal. Such an individual will express the desire to succeed, and will strive to achieve success. Third, the motivated individual will enjoy the task of learning the language. Such an individual will say that it is fun, challenging, and enjoyable, even though at times enthusiasm may be less than at other times.
1.2. Stimulating activities
According to Jeremy Harmer (2001), students need frequent changes of activities: they need activities that are exciting and stimulating their curiosity: they need to be involved in something active. The span of concentration of our students is less. Thus, we have to assign some interesting activities to draw their attention.The students become comfortable to speak everything and get opportunity to develop their communicative competence more freely. In other words, stimulating activities can be considered effective tools that teachers should benefit from to stimulate their students to raise much more voice in class. That is the new setting of a modern language classroom where students are the center of attention in class.
1.3. Role play
According to Stephen D. Hattings (1993:165) based on his observation in the conversation class, the role play would seem to be the ideal activity in which students could use their English creatively and it aims to stimulate a conversation situation in which students might find themselves and give them an opportunity to practice and develop their communication skill .
Simulations
For others, simulations stimulate student (Joan Andorfer, 2008). Burns & Gentry (1998) state that the teacher must take on some additional responsibilities in role playing/ simulation. In particular, the teacher must keep learners motivated by stimulating their curiosity and keeping the material relevant, creating a "tension to learn". 
1.4. Games
According to Carrier (1980:6) “Games stimulate students’ participation and give them confidence.” This is when students free themselves in order to participate to get the best score or even to be the best in the class. They usually feel much more confident with their performance and this makes them learn and practice new structures, learn from their mistakes, and fulfill the goals of the class, indeed. 
1.6. Video
It is universally recognized that videos as visual aids have a lot to contribute to the process of language learning and teaching, combining education and entertainment. Supporters agree that videos stimulate student interest to acquire the target culture, as well as language (e.g., Stempleski, 1992; Tomalin, 1992). Video is supposed to communicate meaning better than any other media (Tomalin, 1992). Here it will be useful to look at the advantages of video in language classes from different perspectives. 
1.7.Three most stimulating activities used in speaking class
There is a variety of stimulating activities to use in the teaching and learning process. Each stimulating activity has its own advantages and using the right activities in the right way to teach, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place. In this study, in reality of my teaching and talking with my students the researcher suggests using some kinds of stimulating activities to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities.
1.8.Games
A structure—that— has rules, goals and agreement of players on the surface, and wonderful hidden processes underneath (Turtledove, 1996: 3).
An activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun (Hadfield, 1990: 5). 
An agreeable way of getting a class to use its initiative in English and as it is gently competitive, it increases motivation. It is also a contrast to periods of intensive study (Haycraft, 1978: 94).
1.9.Videos /DVDs in language teaching and learning 
 Learners are extremely excited about the programs which combine foreign language learning with entertainment. By listening to English songs, watching films or cartoons, it stimulates students to practice English effectively, getting themselves involves in the foreign language environment naturally. At the same time, they have a lot of fun, they start finding out that learning English is far from boring but very easy and interesting with video programs which are specially designed for language learning purposes. 
1.9.1.Role play 
It has been mentioned before that role play is one of the activities to promote speaking. Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words or sounds of articulation. 
Larsen Freeman (1986) explained that role plays are important in the communicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and different social roles. 
1.2 Some stimulating activities help the 10th form students at Quang xuong 1 Upper secondary school in Thanh Hoa.
By using stimulating activities (games, video and role play) in teaching speaking, the students had a chance to be active and cooperative in speaking activity. Stimulating activities (games, video and role play) was a different method that can be effective to teach the students in a big class. Finally, speaking skill of 10T5,10T6 students were improved. This result had answered the second research question that the use of stimulating activities (games, video and role play) in teaching speaking was quite effective. 
The use of stimulating activities (games, video and role play) made the speaking and learning activity more enjoyable and interesting. It was because games, video and role play helped students felt relax and interested. Most of the students were actively participated in the games, video and role play. In addition, it was fun and most students would agree that enjoyment led to better learning. 
Example 1:	 	 Unit 12: MUSIC Part B: SPEAKING
	Objective: Helping students to ask and answer about music..
	Activity: Some following activities 
õUsing Hangman game to warm-up the lesson
R: Do you like to play a game?
Ss: Yes
R: I give you a game “Hangman game”. This game is Shack Attack. You choose a letter from letter A to letter Z. If you guess right, you’ll get a present. If you have a wrong answer, the Shack will attack you. Ok?
Ss: Yes
R: Now, the first letter. Can you guess?
S1: (raised their hands) Letter M
R: Shack will attack letter M
Ss: No
R: It has letter M ..
õ Using games and video
R: Do you want to play a game?
Ss: Yes
R: Now, divide our class into two groups. You listen to these songs and you choose a number from number 1 to number 8. And you tell the kinds of music based on video clips on the slides. You have 1 point for each correct answer, the group has more mark will be the winners.
 .
R: Which number do you choose, group Tom
Tom: (raised their hands) number 1
R: Look at number 1 and tell me what kind of music do you know? Tom group, can you guess?
Tom: listen and raised their hands to give the answer: pop music
R: very good, 1 point for group Tom. How about you, group Jerry? .. 
 Using role play
õACTIVITY 2: Asking and answering about music taste
R: Now, I give you some handouts and you look at the first column. If you want to ask about your favourite kind of music, what questions can you ask? ..(See Appendix 3).
R: Now, you work in group of 3 and one of Ss will be a journalist who wants to interview high-school Ss about their music taste. The journalist has to ask two Ss some questions to get information to complete the table below for his/ her article. Now, journalist-what does it mean? ..................................
ð Group 1 (raised their hands)
Hanh: Good afternoon, 10T5 student. My name is Hanh. I am a journalist for MTV magazine. I want to interview you about their music taste.
Dung: Good afternoon, Mrs Hanh. Welcome to our class. .
õ Using shack attack game
WARM-UP	
R: Do you like to play a game?
Ss: Yes
R: I give you a game “Hangman game”. This game is Shack Attack. You choose a letter from letter A to letter Z. If you guess right, you’ll get a present. If you have a wrong answer, the Shack will attack you. Ok?
Ss: Yes
R: Now, the first letter. Can you guess?
S1: (raised their hands) Letter M
R: Shack will attack letter M
Ss: No
R: It has letter M
S2: (raised their hands) Letter A
R: Can Shack attack letter A
Ss: (in chorus)Yes
R: No letter A here-Another person?
S3: (raised their hands) letter U
R: letter U, now look at. Yes, it has letter U- And what else?	
S4: (raised their hands) letter S
R: Yes, it has letter S- And what else?	
S5: (raised their hands) letter I
R: Yes, letter I. very good. And the last, you, please?
S6: (raised their hands) letter C
R: letter C. Yes, very good. Congratulation!
R: (raised their hands) Now, who can tell me what kind of music do you know?
S1: (raised their hands) Pop
R: And what else?
S2: (raised their hands) Jazz
S3: (raised their hands) classical music
S4: (raised their hands) pop music
S5: (raised their hands) Rock n  roll
S6: (raised their hands) Folk music
R: very good
õ Using games and video
R: Do you want to play a game?
Ss: (in chorus) Yes
R: Now, divide our class into two groups. You listen to these songs and you choose a number from number 1 to number 8. And you tell the kinds of music based on video clips on the slides. You have 1 point for each correct answer, the group has more mark will be the winners.
R: Your group, give me a name
Ss: Tom
R: And your group, give me a name
Ss: Jerry
R: which group will play first?
Ss: Tom
R: Which number do you choose, group Tom
Tom: number 1
R: Look at number 1 and tell me what kind of music do you know? Tom group, can you guess?
Tom: listen and give the answer: pop music
R: very good, 1 point for group Tom. How about you, group Jerry?
Jerry: number 8
R: What kind of music?
Jerry: listen and give the answer: jazz
R: Now, let me check. Yes, very good-1 point for Jerry
R: Now, group Tom
Tom: Number 4
R: ask Tom group to listen
Tom: listen and give the answer: Rock and jazz
R: Are you sure?
Tom: yes
R: No rock and jazz, only Rock music
R: Group Jerry, which number do you choose?
Jerry: number 2
R: Now, listen. What kind of music do you know?
Jerry: listen and answer: Rock n  roll
R: Are you sure?
Jerry: Yes
R: No, it’s hip hop. Now, group Tom
Tom: number 3
R: listen and tell me what kind of music?
Tom: rock
R: very good. One point for Tom’s group- Group Jerry, which number do you choose?
Jerry: number 7
R: What kind of music?
Jerry: listen and give the answer: classical music
R: Now, let me check. Sorry, country music- Group Tom, which number do you choose?
Tom: number 6
R: listen and give your answer
Tom: folk music
R: very good. One point for Tom’s group
Jerry: number 5
R: listen and answer
Jerry: classical music
R: very good. One point for Jerry’s group
R: Which group has more mark?
Ss: Tom
R: Congratulation to group Tom!
õ Using role play
ACTIVITY 1: Give the reasons why you listen to music
R: Give me the reasons why you listen to music?
S1: (raised her hands) music makes me happy, comfortable
R: How about you, Dung?
Dung: (raised her hands) it helps me relax, forget troubles and reduces my stress
R: very good
R: give the reasons on the slide and read aloud
R: ask Ss to writes these reasons on their notebooks.
ACTIVITY 2: Asking and answering about music taste
R: Now, I give you some handouts and you look at the first column. If you want to ask about your favourite kind of music, what questions can you ask?
S1: (raised her hands) What kind of music do you like?
R: yes-and the second question? Who can make a sentence? 
S2: (raised her hands) Why do you like it?
R: very good- favourite band/ musician?
S3: (raised her hands), Who is your favourite band/ musician?
R: very good-number 4, favourite song/ piece of music-what questions can you ask?
S4: (raised her hands) When do you listen to music?
R: Yes, very good. T gives the prompts on the slide
R: Now, you work in group of 3 and one of Ss will be a journalist who wants to interview high-school Ss about their music taste. The journalist has to ask two Ss some questions to get information to complete the table below for his/ her article. Now, journalist-what does it mean?
Ss: phóng viên
R: now, work in group of three and play the role 
Ss: work in group of 3 
R: Have you finished?
Ss: Yes
R: Now, time is up- go back to your seat. Who can talk about it?
Ss: raised their hands
R: Yes, your group, please
ð Group 1
Hanh: Good afternoon, 10A student. My name is Hanh. I am a journalist for MTV magazine. I want to interview you about their music taste.
Dung: Good afternoon, Mrs Hanh. Welcome to our class.
Hanh: What are your names?
Dung: My name is Dung
Uyen: My name is Uyen
Hanh: What kind of music do you like?
Dung: I like pop music
Uyen: I like pop music
Hanh: Why do you like it?
Dung: Because it’s interesting and it reduces troubles.
Uyen: Because it’s exciting
Hanh: Who is your favourite singer?
Dung: My favourite singer is Big Bang
Uyen: Backstreet Boys
Hanh: What is your favourite song?
Dung: Get down
Uyen: Only love
Hanh: When do you listen to music?
Uyen: after going to school
Hanh: Thank you. Good bye. See you again.
Uyen & Dung: Thank you.
T: very good. Now, the second group?
Ss: raised their hands
ð Group 2:
Mo: Good afternoon, 10A students. My name is Mo. I am a journalist for MTV magazine. I want to interview you some favourite music taste.
Nga: Good afternoon, Mo. Welcome to our class.
Mo: What are your names?
Thuy: We are Nga and Thuy
Mo: What kind of music do you like?
Thuy: I like pop music
Nga: I like classical music
Mo: Why do you like it?
Nga: Because it’s interesting
Thuy: Because it makes me relax
Mo: Who is your favourite singer/ musician?
Thuy: My favourite singer is My Tam
Nga: My favourite singer is Big Bang
Mo: What is your favourite song/ piece of music?