Some ways to enhance ha van mao high school's 10 th form students' activeness in leaning english

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL
INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE
SOME WAYS TO ENHANCE HA VAN MAO HIGH SCHOOL'S 10 TH FORM STUDENTS' ACTIVENESS 
IN LEANING ENGLISH 
Researcher: Vu Phuong Mai
Occupation : Teacher
Organization : Ha Van Mao High School
THANH HOA, 2016
CONTENTS
PAGE
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1
Reasons for choosing the research 
1
Aims of the research 
2
Scope, object and researching methods 
2
PART II. CONTENT 
3
Chapter 1. Theoretical background
3
Active Learning 
3
Promoting student's activeness in learning activities
4
Chapter 2. Practical background 
6
2.1. Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English
6
2.2. The learning activities developed in the English 10th textbook 
6
2.3. Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language 
Learning 
8
Chapter 3. Solutions to the problems 
11
3.1. Textbook Renovation 
11
3.2. Making Writing Activities much more Meaningful and Interesting 
14
3.3. Improving the Teacher's Classroom Management 
15
3.4. Other Suggestions 
17
Chapter 4. Effectiveness of the teaching experience 
18
PART III. CONCLUSION 
18
REFERENCES
20
PART I: INTRODUCTION
 1.1. Rationale 
 English nowadays has become more and more popular and has been widely used in Viet Nam. It is one of the major subjects in many schools and an indispensable means of communication at present. With such a trend of development, learning English is, therefore, more important than ever before. All learning is active in a certain sense, but some kinds of learning are more active than others. Here, active learning is defined in one sense to mean that the learner uses opportunities to decide about aspects of the learning process. The stimulation of learning activities and regulation processes, or teaching students how to learn, is likely to lead to the best performance in the long run.
It is of great importance that we should take students' English language learning into consideration. However, at Ha Van Mao High school, many students are not fully interested in learning English in class. On the one hand, they seem to be shy and fearful of making mistakes. On the other hand, we lack a language environment and sufficient learning activities. In that reality, there have many problems catching pedagogues' attention, i.e, how to organize learning activities effectively, how to develop interesting study atmosphere in the classroom in order to enhance students' activeness in English language learning. Being aware of this urgent problem, I have a great desire to study the current activeness of students especially the 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school and to investigate the learning activities in the English textbook which contribute an important role in enhancing students' activeness in learning English. That is the reason why I choose the topic "Some ways to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English" for my experience initiative. I wish friends and colleagues would refer to additional comments .
1.2. Aims of the study
 The study aims at studying on how to enhance Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English through some learning activities in the English textbook.
This paper is intended to: 
- Investigate the activeness of 10th form students at Ha Van Mao high school. 
- Suggest some learning activities in the English 10 textbook for enhancing students' activeness in learning English.
1.3. Scope, object and researching methods 
- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Ha Van Mao high school.
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of enhancing students' activeness in learning English.
- Researching methods: Reading reference books , discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, classroom observation, questionnaire and drawing out experiences.
PART II.	 CONTENT
Chapter 1. Theoretical background 
1.1. . Active Learning
Like many terms used to describe teaching or learning, active learning is defined in many different ways. This notion has developed over the last dozen years or so.
"Learning is conceived of us something a learner does, not something that is done to a learner" [Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991, P7].
"Learning is an action in which students act on object and interact with others' ideas and events to construct new understanding"[Luckner and Nadle, 1997, P13].
According to Meyers and Jones (1993), active learning has been defined as providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk, listen, write, read and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject. There are two basic assumptions of active learning:
That learning is by nature an active endeavor.
That different people learn in different ways. This definition was modified by Silberman(1996):
- What I hear, I forget. 
- What I hear and see, remember a little.
- What I hear, see and ask questions about or discuss with someone, I begin to understand.
- What I teach another, I master 
To learn something well, it helps to hear it, see it, ask questions about it and discuss it with others. Above all, students need to do it by themselves, try out skills and do assignments that depend on knowledge they already have or must acquire.
Silberman also states that "When learning is active, students do most of the work. They use their brain...to study ideas, solve problems and apply what they learn. Active learning is fast - faced, fun, supportive and personally engaging" 
In addition, in an active learning environment, students are individually encouraged to engage in the process of building their own mental models from the information they are acquiring. In such an environment students become active participants who engage in a dialogue with their teacher.
Moreover, active learning is an approach to learning that involves the student as his/her own teacher and involves putting students in situations which force them to read, speak, listen, think and write. In an active learning, knowledge is directly experienced, constructed, acted, tested or revised by the learner working together in and outside of class. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in higher - order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, evaluation of information within the context, students also are expected to do things and think about what they are doing.	
In short, in order to help learners participate in the learning process actively, the role of the teacher is of paramount importance to organize learning activities appropriately since it is a great opportunity for students to practice English effectively.
1.2. Promoting student's activeness in learning activities.
a. Climate variables: creating a motivation environment
As students spend time in classroom, they get feelings about whether they are safe and welcome and whether the classroom is a desirable place to learn. Classroom climate refers to "teacher and classroom characteristics that promote student's feelings of safety and security, together with a sense of success, challenge and understanding. Raviv and Riesel (1990) stated that climate is important because it creates an environment that encourages both motivation and achievement. Students learn best in a safe and orderly environment that promotes success on meaningful task. According to Brophy (1987) and Clifford (1990), in a healthy climate, students are treated as competent people. They understand the requirements and learning tasks and perceive them as challenging and believe they will succeed if they make reasonable efforts.
b. Instructional variables: Developing interest in learning activities.
In learning activities, interest is very important. According to Krapp, Hidi and Renninger (1992) quoted by Eggen and Kauchak, the Interest like engagement, has been linked to learner attention, comprehension, elaboration and the seeking of additional information. From an instructional perspective, Stipek (1996) stated that a motivated student can be viewed as "...someone who is actively engaged in the learning process". But how to promote and maintain active engagement?. Eggen and Kauchak suggested that teachers have to think about engagement using the concept of Interest. In order to increase learners' interest, our goal is to initially capture learners' attention and then maintain their involvement in the learning activity.
c. Teacher characteristics: Personal qualities that increase motivation
According to Eggen and Kauchak (1999) teachers create learning environments, implement instruction and establish learning _ oriented or performance _ oriented classrooms.
Moreover, Eggen and Kauchak indicate four personal qualities including: teacher's modeling, teacher's enthusiasm, teacher's caring and teacher's expectation. Hence, teachers have an important positive effect on students.
Chapter 2. Practical background
2.1. Ha Van Mao High School's 10th form students' activeness in learning English
Classroom observation is carried out at 8 classes in two school- years during my weeks of teaching time.
 It can be easily realized from table 2.3 (appendix 3) that students now are quite active. Half of the teachers (40%) agree with this. According to the teachers, many students now tend to be more active in the lesson because of their awareness of the importance of learning English and its benefits. With this extrinsic motivation, the students seem to learn English better.
Also from the table 2.3, it can be seen that among 76% of the students who show their activeness in learning English, 26% of them are highly active. They always show their interest in the lesson during the learning process. They pay much attention to the teacher's lesson and are enthusiastic to raise their hands to answer the teacher's questions or contribute their ideas to the lesson. They also tend to work in pairs or small groups and really want to interact with other students.
However, there are still some students who are a little active or not active at all. Those students are often passive in the classroom. They rarely take part in classroom activities and prefer to work individually. Moreover, these students often show their unwillingness and shyness when being asked to do the tasks or answer the questions; they just do what are required, listen and write down. They do not want to cooperate with others.
2.2. The learning activities developed in the English 10th textbook.
 * Learning activities: 
 The learning activities in the English textbook are divided into three categories: controlled activities (lead- in, setting situation, role- play demonstration, question- answer...); partly controlled activities (brainstorming, story- telling, cued narrative/ dialogue, information exchange....); free activities (role- play, game, problem- solving, simulation, discussion...). Among these activities, asking and answering questions, lead- in, language skill activities are the most frequently designed learning activities since they focus on four main language skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) and initiate interaction between teacher and students and among students as well. Following these, small group discussion, cued dialogue, matching and gap- filling exercises are also designed at the high frequency, and then come to information exchange and role- play. Language games, problem- solving, interview, and story- telling are also designed, though not much because they are quite new and difficult for students to do.
*	Skill focus:
Different from the old textbook, this English textbook mainly focuses on four main language skills. Speaking, listening, reading, writing activities are designed in all the lessons. Speaking skills are developed through some learning tasks such as discussion, interview, role- play, etc. Listening tasks are designed based on theme/ topic. One of the most important strategies of listening in this textbook is selective listening. Students often listen to a text or dialogue, sometimes a song for relaxation. Reading and writing tasks also appear frequently in the book. Activities for reading are varied such as brainstorming, answering questions, discussing, etc. Writing is paid much attention in this textbook. This kind of activity is rather new to students. Many kinds of writing activities are designed, for example writing a letter (letter of invitation, letter of requirement, etc), writing a report, an announcement, etc. However, these activities seem to be difficult for students at grade 10th, thus they are not very effective.
*	Interaction patterns:
 Pairwork and groupwork are designed frequently in almost every lesson. In this way, students have a chance to interact with each other and with teacher as well. Individual work and whole- class work are also designed, though not much.
2.3. Teacher's role in enhancing students' activeness in English Language Learning
The first and most important characteristic that students expect their teacher to show is "having an interesting and flexible method" . It can not be denied that the teaching method of the teacher is extremely important. Students will be motivated or demotivated depending on the teacher's ways of teaching and organizing the activities in the class. If students find the method boring they will probably become demotivated. But what is a good teaching method ?, what can teacher do to enhance motivation and activeness in the learners? See the values from the Miller's statement, we see that an effective method consists of such four criteria: arouse students' interest, explain the tasks clearly, encourage patience and let students be themselves. They are very necessary and indispensable for a good language teacher. Hence, the teacher should take these criteria into consideration.
The second expected characteristic is that teacher cares students' learning. It means that teacher should pay attention to students' needs, interests,expectations, etc and listen to their concerns so that students have a feeling of comfort and friendliness between teacher and students and their studying will be more effective.
What is more, students expect their teacher to have a rich source of knowledge. It can be easily seen that, knowledge is very necessary for making the lesson more interesting and understandable. This will create an active and productive class that makes students learn more actively. Thus, teachers should build up not only specific knowledge but social knowledge as well.
Last but not least, teacher is expected to help students to become more independent. This reveals that teacher plays an important role in helping students do the work by themselves. Some students, who are active in learning, have a consciousness of independence in order to learn better. Hence, teacher should be flexible in teaching to the mobile activeness of students.
With regard to the teacher's management, teacher plays an important role in enhancing the students' activeness. One of the most expected roles that the teacher takes over in the class is "organizer". This role seems to be widely played by most of the teachers because the success of many activities depends on a good organization and such a good class organization plays an important part in creating an active class. Students cannot perform the tasks satisfactorily if the tasks are not well- organized or they do not know what and how to do. Students need help and clear instructions from the teacher so that they can do the tasks easier. Thus, a good organizer is very important to increase the students' activeness.
Another expected role of the teacher to enhance the students' activeness is facilitator. Students need teacher to help them to develop a positive self- concept and teach them how to work with themselves. This means that as a facilitator, the teacher maintains a low profile in order to make the students' own achievement of a task possible.
Other functions like learner, counselor, prompter, manager and an assessor are also expected. However, these roles seem less important than the roles mentioned above in enhancing the students' activeness.
However, the information from classroom observation about the teachers' activities shows that the teachers just sometimes give clear instructions or feedback to students. This makes students feel confused and demotivated because they do not understand the tasks clearly and they are not very satisfied if their teachers do not give any feedback. Moreover, although the teachers often organize pair works and group works, they are not active when the activity is going. They do not move often. As the result, some students do not do their task; they take time to chat and make jokes or do exercises of the other subjects. What is more, the teachers still talk a lot. In other words, they still dominate class. This does not create interest in the learners.
Obviously, the role of teachers is very important to students' language learning. Hence, teachers should be flexible to play the roles that stimulate the interest in students and enhance the students' activeness in learning English language.
Chapter 3. Solutions to the problems
	In this part, I would like to suggest some solutions that I have applied in the teaching different units in the textbook " Tieng Anh 10" at Ha Van Mao High school .
3.1. Textbook renovation 
The English 10th textbook is applied for 10th form students in high schools. This textbook is designed on the basis of a task-based syllabus for the purpose of developing students' communicative competence and language skills. The communicative approach and learner- centered approach are dominant. Students are supposed to play an active role in the learning process. They are often put in pairs or small groups to do the tasks and to practise communicative activities. In addition, the textbook consists of a variety of contents of culture, history, geography, etc to aim at expanding and improving the knowledge of the high school students. However, 10th form students still keep in their mind an old method of learning - teacher - dominated. Furthermore, the old syllabus in previous school years mainly focuses on Grammar, vocabulary rather than on language skills and its language content is at low level. What is more, some learning activities in the English textbook need much time to carry out, so a 45- minute period is not long enough for those activities to be implemented successfully. Consequently, this English textbook seems to be new, difficult and "overloaded" to students at grade 10th .
Following are some things that need to be taken into consideration to improve the English textbook.
The first thing is time allocation. In high schools, the learning time is not sufficient for teachers to carry out the learning activities effectively and satisfactorily. It should thus be allocated appropriately for each kind of learning activities so that teachers can implement these activities more effectively.
Secondly, most students are fond of listening to English songs; it is recommended that more English songs should be taught in listening periods. This not only creates a relaxed class but helps students learn English language through these songs as well.
What is more, since some learning activities in the English textbook are new and at the high level while 10th form students' knowledge of English language is insufficient; it is suggested that the learning activities in this textbook should be designed at the right level and be more varied to meet learners' need, abilities and learning styles.
Furthermore, the textbook should include meaningful real- life dialogues which allow students to be familiar with different situations outside the learning situation rather than mechanical ones so that students can express their ideas and t