Using some language games in some speaking periods to create excitement and motivate learning English for grade 12 students

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reason for choosing the study
Learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree. One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition from the classroom to the 'real' world. In the classroom, everyone knows you are a student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe. Speaking another language outside the classroom is completely different and often students are lost at sea as soon as they step outside the door. Lists of memorized vocabulary are suddenly useless when ordering in a restaurant. 
The problem becomes more complicated when it comes to Vietnam setting. English teachers in Vietnam have just adopted communicative approach for just a few years since the using of the new textbooks. However, they have not paid enough attention to speaking skill. The speaking tasks are simple, and more importantly, impractical. 
How to create excitement for students during English speaking lessons? Through out five- year teaching experience, studying materials as well as observing the other teachers' class, I realize that stimulating students to practice speaking actively during English lesson majorly bases on designing teaching-learning activities of each teacher in each lesson plan. And, games in general and speaking games in particular are very useful in teaching and learning English speaking because it not only encourages, but improves and teaches students’ ability in using English fluently as well. Therefore, I think this study is necessary and the result of using games in teaching speaking will bring many practical benefits to the students. 
As an English teacher, I really want to clarify the topic here with my knowledge to analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at high school; the application of games in teaching English at the school. Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and make a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject. Thus, in this writing, I would like to present the study entitles:
"Using some language games in some speaking periods to create excitement and motivate learning English for grade 12 students".
1.2. Aims of the study
The aims of this study are:
- To introduce some language games in teaching speaking 
- To show how to organize games effectively and how to deal with initial problems that may arise.
- To create excitement and enhance learning English for students.
1.3. Objects of the study
This subject is concerned with ways of using some language games as well as their effectiveness on teaching speaking.
1.4. Methods of the study
Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
CONTENT
. Theoretical back ground
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 a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.
Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim.  Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language.  In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.
	There is an interesting movement towards teaching speaking with games. It creates students’ motivation in learning English, especially speaking English g. Just immage when coming in class the teacher annouces that it is time for speaking lesson with games instead of moans and whinning, the teacher and the students get smiles and excitemment. 
	 Aydan Ersoz, author of "Six Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom" also explains more reasons why games do work for teaching speaking.  Learning a language requires constant effort and that can be tiring, but Ersoz outlines two good reasons why games should be included in the classroom:
* Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating.
* Games allow meaningful use of the language in context.
Students may wish to play games purely fo fun. Teacher, however, need more convincing reasons. “ Teacher need to consider which games to use, when to use them, how to link them up with the syllabus, textbook and programme and how, more specially, different games with benifit student in different ways” (Khan, J,1996). The key to a sucessful language games is that the rule is clear, the ultimate goal is well designed and the game must be fun. 
 2.2. Real situation of teaching and learning English at Tho Xuan 4 high school
	From applying new English teaching methods, "language games" have been become main activity in teachers' lesson plans, especially in speaking plans. Some teachers have paid attention and prepared careful game. They know how to make the class time pleasant and comfortable so they create excitement and motivate speaking English for their students. However, some others are not aware much about the importance of language games as well as speaking skill. They still think that these games for this part waste time and make class noisy. Thus, instead of having better preparation for speaking period, they often explain the grammar rules and ask students to do exercises. This makes students stressful and the class time boring. 
 Moreover, for students at Tho Xuan 4 high school, they have approached new teaching methods, but they seem to be embarrassing when they take part in speaking activities. To know exactly about this problem, I have investigated 90 students in 2 classes 12A5 and 12A6 by asking them the following questions:
Please tick your choice to answer the following questions:
Do you like speaking activities in English lessons?
 Very like Like
 Normal Dislike 
 2. Why do (don't) you like speaking activities in English lesson?
 ................................................................................................................... 
And I get the bellow result:
Total 
very like
like
Normal
Dislike
No
%
No
%
No
%
No
%
90 students
10
11.1
15
16.7
25
27.8
40
44.4
As can be seen from the result that most of good students are interested in speaking activities while lower students are shy because they have no ability to take part in .Student's level of understanding is unequal in a class to cause difficulty for teachers to choose activities which are suitable for whole class. Many activities can be applied well in this period but they also are boring in the other ones. Lots of speaking activities make good students excited while bad students could not participate in. And vice versa, some activities attract lower students but make good ones bored. 
	Besides, my school is located in half-plain and pure agricultural area so students `have less chance to communicate in foreign language in daily life. They are so shy to speak as well as express ideas, so the lessons often end with chatting in mother tongue.
From those reasons, the study entitled ""Using some language games in some speaking periods to create excitement and motivate learning English for grade 12 students" has been conducted with the hope to make teachers and students have a good chance to practice speaking English.
Some speaking activities applied in teaching English 12 (basic).
2.3.1. First riddle
Aims: find key word related to the topic of the lesson 
Unit 1: Home life
Time:: 4 minutes
Preparatioṇ: 6 pictures
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- Teacher (T) divides class into 2 teams A and B
- T hangs the pictures prepared on the board and asks students (Ss) to find out the name of each picture and then take the first word of each word to make key word. Which teams finding the key word fastest will be the winner. 
- Ss work in group and find the key word.
- T declares the winner and leads in to the new lesson.
* Key word: FAMILY 
* 6 cue pictures: 
 Fish Armchair Mushroom
 Ice cream Lamp Yard
Who takes on?
Aim: practice talking about house works
Unit 1 Home life
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: handouts printed the information in the textbook
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into groups of 4 students
T gives Ss handouts
Each student in each group will go to other groups to interview about the information in the handout
After 2 minutes, Ss return their group to report the information of the friend who they have interviewed.
T calls some groups to present their work in front of the class
T gives feedback
*Model dialogue:
Student A: Can you tell me who works in your family?
Student B: Both my parents work. My father is a doctor. My mother is a worker.
Student A: Who does household chores?
Student B: My mother does most household chores.
Student A: What is your responsibility in the family?
Student B: I help my mother do the washing up and clean the floor. I help my brother with his homework.
Student A: What interest do your family members share closely?
Student B: our schoolwork and TV programmes are what we share closely.
Student A: Who do you often share your secrets with?
Student B: I often share my secrets with my mother
Student A: Who do you talk to before making an important decision?
Student B: I talk to my parents before making an important decision.
 Report
I talked to Mai. Both her parents work. Her mother does most household chores but she helps her a lot. Her responsibility is doing the washing up, cleaning the floor and helping her brother with his homework. Her family members share the schoolwork and TV programmes closely. She often shares her secrets with her mother. She talks to her parents before making an important decision.
How much do you know about this?
Aims: practice talking about diverse culture
Unit 2: Cultural diversity
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: 8 pictures 
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into 8 groups. Each group chooses a representative
T lets groups choose one of 8 pictures in random. Each picture expresses one of different cultural features which are concerned in the textbook page 22,23
Ss will observe the picture and express the their ideas about the cultural feature in it
After 2 minutes, T calls representatives of groups to present their ideas in front of the class
T gives comments
*8 cue pictures
 1 2
 3 4
 5 6
 7 8
 *Answer
People go shopping once a week
Lovers hold hands and kiss in public
Children sleep in their own bedrooms
Three generations live under the same roof
People ask questions about age
people celebrate their birthdays
Christmas is a national holiday
Marriage is based on love
How you say in this situation?
Aim: practice giving and responding compliments
Unit 3: Ways of socializing
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: some situations
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into 2 team (A &B)
T gives some situations on the board 
One student in group A will give a compliment following the situation given by teacher and one students in group B will respond. After that, one student in group B will give compliment and student in group A respond.
This response must be done continually in turns. Whoever stop s in 5 seconds ( the whole class counts one, two , three.) has to stand up. Which team has less students standing up will be the winner.
T gives feedback
Example:
Situation 1: a girl is wearing a new dress
 Student A: You look very nice in your new dress.
Student B: Thank you. That’s a nice compliment
Win her heart
Aims: warm- up activities for talking about the topic of the lesson
Unit 4: School education system
Time: 3 minutes
Preparation: pictures about kinds of school
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into 2 teams "Son Tinh" and "Thuy Tinh" 
- T hangs 6 pictures in turn on the board 
- 2 teams raise hand to have right to guess "what is kind of school?" in the picture. If guessing is correct, they will one step to win Mi Nuong's heart. If wrong, they will spend right to answer to the left team. Which team stepping to the top first will be the winner.
- T gives feedback for each guessing and marks for each team 
- T declares the winner and leads in to the lesson 
*Cue pictures: Kindergarten, Primary school, Secondary school, High school
 Which school?
Aim: practice talking about school education system in Vietnam and England
Unit 4: School education system
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: a note of vocabulary cards for each pair
Work arrangement: pair works
Procedure:
T lets Ss work in pair
T puts vocabulary cards on the desk and covers them
Ss take turn to choose card and talk about the tissue in it. Student A will talk about school education system in Vietnam and student B will school talk about education system in England. After that, two students will find the similarities and differences between two school education systems.
T asks Ss to discuss in 3 minutes and then calls some pairs to present their work in front of the class
T gives feedback
Vocabulary cards
Levels of education
The age at which children start grade 1
The terms
Compulsory education
Academic year
The grades at primary school
School fee
curriculum
School system
National examination
Magic wheel 
Aim: practice talking about the process of applying to a tertiary institution in Vietnam
Unit 5: Higher education
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: a wheel of 12 numbers (from one to twelve) indicating 12 months in a year
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into teams 
Each team will take turn to choose the number by turning the wheel. Then, Ss will have to talk about what they will do in that month to prepare for going to university
Ss can using the cues in task 2 page 55
Each presentation will get one point. Which team has more points will be the winner.
Ss plays game and T gives feedback
*Expected answer:
Month
Work
October 
Learn for the first semester at high school
Do 15 minute and one period tests
November 
Learn for the first semester at high school
Do 15 minute and one period tests
December 
Take first term examination
January 
Get first term results
Start second semester
February
Attend meetings introducing universities
Choose the favourite university or college
March
Fill in the application form
Send the application form
May 
Take the GCSE examination
June 
Get the GCSE result
July 
Take the entrance examination to the university of
August
Get the entrance examination result
September
Get a letter of acceptance from the university
Go to university as a university student
Complete the words.
Aim: review some vocabularies related to job
Unit 6: Future jobs
Time: 7 minutes
Preparation: handout
Work arrangement: group work 
Procedure:
T divides class into four groups
T gives handout including 17 words. There is a key letter of the key word “ choose the right job” in each word 
Ss will work in group to find the words by reading the given cues
T lets Ss to discuss in 4 minutes and then calls them to give their answers on the board. Which group has more right answers and find the key word in the shortest time will be the winner.
*Handout
SHEET 1
Read the clues and find out the right words. The dashes show you the number of letters of each word. Some of them are two- word.
 _ _ _ _ C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ _
 _ O _ _ _
 _ O _ _
 S _ _ _ _ _
 _ E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ T _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ E _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ R _ _ _ _ _ _ 
 _ I _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ _ G _ _ _ _
 _ H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ T
 _ _ _ _ G _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ O _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 _ _ _ _ B _ _
SHEET 2: Clues.
He can arrest criminals ( two words )
He designs houses, buildings..
She wears and shows her new styles of clothes
He prepares food in the restaurant
He spends most of his working time at sea
She makes people’s appearance more beautiful
He travels into space
He designs clothes (two words)
He makes people laugh a lot by his performance on stage
 He writes articles for some newspapers
 He stops fire
 She takes groups of tourists around the city
 He sells you things in a shop(two words)
 He cures animals when they are ill
 He plays records at a jazz club at night
 He plays football professionally
 He repairs things like water pipes in your house
Answer:
	1. police officer	2. architect	3. model	 4. cook
	5. sailor	6. beautician	7. astronaut	 8. fashion designer 
	9. comedian	10. journalist	11. fireman	 12. tour guide
	13. shop assistant	14. vet	15. disc jockey 16.footballer	
 17. Plumber
Daily work
Aim: practice talking about the work features of some common jobs
Unit 6: Future jobs
Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: pictures of some common jobs
Work arrangment: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into groups of five students and gives them a set of pictures.
T asks them to talk about daily activities of the job in each picture. One student in each group will take note the ideas of their group. 
After 5 minutes, T calls the representative of each group to present their ideas in front of class. Other students can give more ideas if necessary. 
T gives feedback.
*Cue pictures
 Example:
Picture 1: A policeman directs the traffic, helps people in the streets with information about traffic laws, prevents crimes, and catches criminals.
 Exhibition
Unit 10: Endangered species
Aim: express their own ideas about endangered species as well as protecting them.
Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: some big pieces of paper, markers, color pencils
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into 5 groups and delivers 5 big pieces of paper and markers, color pencils to each group.
T asks them to draw a picture of endangered animals and then introduce some facts about them 
Ss discuss in group to discuss the information about the animal in their picture
After 4 minutes T has Ss stick their pictures on the board, one representative of each group will present their group’s idea.
T and other Ss give comments and choose the best-designer poster and the best presentation to praise.
*Model: 
	Pandas live in bamboo forest in the mountains 
in central land western China. They are big animal.
Pandas can grow up from to 1.5 meters high and 
weigh up 160 kg. Bamboo is their main diet.
 The life span of pandas can be about 20 to 30 years. 
Now there are only about 600 pandas left in the world. 
Pandas populations are at risk due to hunting and illegal
 trading.
 Guessing game
Unit 12: Water sport
Aims: practice talking about some water sports
Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: some small gifts
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into 4 teams
T asks them to prepare a talking about some water sports you hav