Within this background, the author would like to conduct a study dealing with the problems of creating a good lead-In during the listening teaching process in “Tieng Anh 11” at high schools in Thanh Hoa in order to propose appropriate warm-up activities t

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Page
PART 1: INTRODUCTION	
1
1.1. Rationale
1
1.2. Aims of the Study
1
PART 2: CONTENT
2
2.1. Theoretical background
2
* Stages of Teaching Listening Skills
2
a) Pre-listening
2
b) While-listening
2
c) Post-listening
2
* Warm-up activities
3
a) What are warm-up activities
3
b) Why do you use warm-up activities
4
2.2. Practical background
4
2.3. Solutions to the problems
5
2.4. Effectiveness of the Teaching Experience
12
PART 3: CONCLUSION	
14
REFERENCES
15
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Of four language skills, listening has long been considered the most challenging and difficult one by both foreign language teachers and students. In reality, in many high schools in Vietnam in general and in Nghe An in particular, teaching English listening skills has not been paid much attention to. As a result, the qualities and effectiveness of teaching and learning this skill are not really as good and high as expected. From the fact that most EFL teachers at high schools in Thanh Hoa have faced a lot of problems in teaching listening. 
It has been found that although teaching and learning English listening skills was significant, it was not taken carefully considerations by higher administrators, educators, teachers and students. In addition, lack of well-equipped facilities, teachers’ unsuitable teaching listening methods, poor listening methodology and approaches and students’ low level of proficiency, boredom, indifference as well as de-motivation are obstacles in most high schools in Thanh Hoa. Many students claimed that they felt tired of listening to the tape from beginning to the end with controlled exercises in the textbook. Without interest, motivation and variation in teaching and learning students found it hard to study in listening class. So it is necessary for teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting and to know how to motivate students so that they can make progress in listening comprehension.
Using effective warm-up activities can stimulate students’ spirit in learning. Sometimes, a picture or a humor story can do great deal towards arousing interest among students. However, many teachers seem to neglect or donot pay much attention to the pre-listening stage or warm-up exercise which can be a good step for the next stage of the listening lessons. It is believed that how well students had done in class depends much on how well they had been warmed up. From this point of view, teachers should take into consideration the methodology they can apply in their listening courses and try to improve their teaching of listening lessons. Some techniques should be employed in pre-listening stage with appropriate warm-up activities.
Within this background, the author would like to conduct a study dealing with the problems of creating a good lead-in during the listening teaching process in “Tieng Anh 11” at high schools in Thanh Hoa in order to propose appropriate warm-up activities that can motivate students before the new lesson and facilitate the English listening teaching and learning.
1.2. Aims of the Study
The aims of the study are as follows:
	- To investigate EFL teachers' problems in creating a good lead-in of a listening lesson in "Tieng Anh 11".
	- To suggest warm-up activities for some listening lessons in “Tieng Anh 11”.
PART 2: CONTENT
2.1. Theoretical background
Stages of Teaching Listening Skills
Teaching listening text can be divided into three main stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. Each stage has its own aims and activities.
a) Pre-listening
Pre-listening stage aims at preparing students with everything necessary for listening and understanding the listening text. This stage is of great importance since it leads students to the listening passage that they are going to listen, arouses their interests and provides students with the purposes of listening as well as the input before they listen. 
Some activities at this stage are:
v Warming up the class: 
The teacher may motivate the class, gradually set up a context for listening text to be presented by asking questions to elicit students’ experience, or ideas concerning the coming text or by using some sort of visual aids or their imagination.
v Introducing the topic of listening text: 
The teacher briefly introduces the topic of listening text so that the students may get their mind already for it.
v Presenting key words: 
The teacher only presents any word that is necessary for students to understand the text.
v Giving guiding questions: 
These guiding questions will help focus the students’ attention on the main points of the text. They will guide the students to the better understanding of the text. Students should be allowed to make guesses at the answer to the questions before listening.
	These activities may give students a chance to get some knowledge which helps them to follow the listening text. Therefore, when choosing an activity, the teacher should consider factors that Underwood (1989) states: The time, the material is available or not, the interests of the class and the teacher, the place where the work is being carried out, the nature and the content of the listening text itself. If one of these factors is ignored, the whole process of the activity can be failed. 
b) While-listening
The aim of this stage is to facilitate students’ listening and check their comprehension. While the students are listening to the text for the first time, they can check their guess and give the correct answer to the guiding questions. Then the teacher gives the students some tasks to do while they are listening for the second time. They can do some of the activities such as: gap-filling, true or false statements, answering comprehension questions, matching, multiple choice, reordering, etc. While-listening stage gives students a guide to practice listening because they need a reason to listen which helps them to focus their attention. As Rixon (1986) mentions, the purpose of while-listening stage is to challenge and guide students to master the information and the message from the passage. To facilitate students’ comprehension, the teacher should provide useful techniques such as clear instructions, playing tapes on purposes, classifying levels of difficulty of task from easier to more difficult, and so on.
It is advisable that while-listening activities should meet students’ different levels and needs so that they are encouraged to listen better.
c) Post-listening
	At this stage, students can have opportunities to practice using what they have got from the listening text. Post-listening activities are performed after the listening is finished. According to Underwood (1989), the first purpose of those activities is to check how well the students understood and whether they have finished the listening task. The second one is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or miss parts of the passage. Moreover, post-listening activities aims at expanding the topic or the language of the listening text. Students are also given an opportunity to consider the attitude of the speaker in the listening text because they can realize the purpose of the speaker based on his/her attitude.
Students can do some following activities:
v Summarizing the text orally or in written form
v Re-telling the content of the listening text
v Role-play: 
Students play the roles of the characters in the text.
v Discussion:
 	The teacher should make up and vary the activities for students to do at this stage depending on their level of English. In addition, the teacher should pay more attention to the following factors in selecting post-listening activities:
The amount of language work the teacher desires to do related to the listening text
The time limitation
Speaking, reading and listening skills should be integrated in post-listening activities
Pair work and group work should be encouraged
The designed activity should be motivating to students
Warm-up activities
Teachers of English may use many different activities to promote students’ engagement. Among these, warm-up activities can be used flexibly before students jump into learning. It is true that proper warm-up activities ensure that your students are ready to move into the next tasks of the lesson.
What are warm-up activities
It is said that warm-up activities, which are also called icebreakers or motivator activities, are structured activities that are designed to relax learners, introduce them to each other, and energize them in what is normally an unduly formal atmosphere or situation.
Warm-up activities should be designed to get students’ attention and prepare them the right mood before focusing on whatever activities follow. They usually last in 5 or 10 minutes which create a sense of excitement in classroom. It has been found that students were usually drawn into the activity, finding the questions and listening to the answer when they discover solutions to the puzzles or questions which were set by teachers in warm-up activities.
Why do you use warm-up activities
It is believed that warm ups set the tone of the lesson, get students to begin thinking and focusing on English, provide a transition into the topic, allow teacher important opportunities to assess character and ability
 The aim of these activities is various which depend on teacher’s purpose before the lesson. Teachers may try to connect students’ prior learning, review a lesson from the previous day, assess skill level or lead students into the topic of the lesson. With effective warm-up activities, students come into the classroom and immediately begin their job for the day-learning. For these reasons, warm-up activities require more consideration from teachers with careful planning before class.
2.2. Practical background
The reasons affecting the effectiveness of a listening period in EFL classrooms lie in the teachers and the students themselves. Besides, the listening section in the book “Tieng Anh 11” also causes difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning process. 
As for the teachers, although they are aware of the fact that teaching listening skill is not easy and the listening section in the textbook is sometimes not appropriate for students’ levels, they do not often adapt given tasks. Many of the teachers just follow the requirements of the textbook without making any changes to any of the tasks. In addition, there are many problems the teachers often encounter when designing and carrying out activities for a listening lesson such as limitation of time for preparation and for curriculum, students’ levels, students’ background knowledge or lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids, etc. Especially, lack of the teachers' background knowledge and suitable ways to lead their students into the new lesson is one of the important factors that can make students bored and ignore the listening lesson. 
Many teachers may fail to meet their students' needs and interests before they start the listening lesson. That is because they do not create an exciting classroom atmosphere and provide their students with background knowledge related to the listening content so that they can feel easier to understand the new lesson. It is crucial for students to bare something related to the listening contents in their mind before listening.
In one word, it is undeniable that there still exist the problems originated from omitted or confused warm-up activities in a listening lesson. However, these problems can be solved to make the listening section more simple and interesting for both teachers and students by applying the techniques of adaptation made by the teachers’ flexibility. 
2.3. Solutions to the problems
In this part, I would like to suggest some warm-up activities for some listening lessons in different units in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” from my practical teaching as solutions to the difficulties that are often encountered in teaching listening. Most of these activities are used at pre-listening stage. 
WARM-UP ACTIVITIES
– Unit 1: Friendship (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.17)
Game: Song Guessing 
- Divide the class into 2 groups: Group A and group B
- Let Ss listen to 5 pieces of popular songs relating to friendship (e.g. Ngồi lại bên nhau, Mong ước kỷ niệm xưa, Season in the summer, You and I, Tiễn bạn lên đường)
- The group that can name more songs will win the game.
- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game.
- Play the game and score the points
- Declare the winner. 
– Unit 2: Personal Experiences (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p. 27)
Game: Guessing Game: "What is it?"
 Divide the class into two groups A and B and ask Ss to guess.
 Read aloud some cues one by one. If students can give out the correct answer for the first cue, they will get 30 points, 20 points for the second one and 10 points for the last one. 	
 + It can destroy buildings, houses, forests and even kill people.
	 + It makes a lot of smoke.
 + You need water to put it out.
 The group giving the correct answer and get the most points first wins
	Expected answer: A fire
– Unit 3: A Party (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p. 36)
Game: Drawing
- Divide the class into two groups: group A and group B.
- Invite one student from each group who is good at drawing to join the game.
- Tell Ss the rule: "I will write down the words about items on the paper one by one so that only two students from each group can see. The two students have to draw a picture of the item as quickly as possible for their group to guess what it is. The first group that gives the correct answer will get one mark. If they are wrong, the other group will take a turn to answer. At the end, the group with more marks will win the game".
- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions and let them start the game.
- Play the game and score the points
- Declare the winner. 
Keys: cake, candle, gift/ present, candy, flower.
* Alternative: 
Kim’s Game
- Divide the class into 2 teams.
- Let the two teams look at the pictures in 30 seconds and then T puts away the pictures and asks them to write down as many items as possible on the board. At the end, the group with more correct items will be the winner.
- Show the pictures: 
- Control the activity
Answer keys: 
+ Cards + Gift/ Present
+ Chocolate + Candles
+ Flowers + A cake
– Unit 4: Volunteer Work (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.51)
Game: Finding One’s Other Half
- Divide the class into 2 teams: team A and team B
- Hang on 2 posters on the board
- Stick pieces of paper with different shapes and colors on each poster
- Ask Ss in each team to combine pieces of paper with the same shape or color together
- The team who first finishes will win the game.
- Check Ss’ understanding of the instructions.
 Supporting
Keys: supporting charities/ raising money / helping the poor / helping the elderly / making donations
(Collected from Thiết kế bài giảng Tiếng Anh 11, 2007, p. 64)
– Unit 6: Competitions (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.70)
Game: Picture Guessing (Picture of a marathon race)
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2
3
4
- Divide the class into 2 groups and let students guess the picture behind the numbers.
- In order guess the picture, students have to choose the number they want. If they have a lucky number, they will get 1 point without answering any question and one piece of picture will be opened. If they choose an unlucky number, they have to answer the question of the teacher. One point will be for them if they answer correctly and they can open one more piece of picture. If not, they will have no marks. The group guesses the picture correctly will get 3 points. At the end the group with more marks will be the winner.
 - Declare the winner.
 - Keys: 
+ Number 1: (unlucky number): "She is an athlete champion who lives in Hue and got a lot of gold medals. Who is she?" (Do Thi Bong)
	+ Number 2: (unlucky number): "Who is the Vietnamese champion in body-	building at the 14th Asian Games?" (Ly Duc)
	+ Number 3: Lucky number
	+ Number 4: (unlucky number): "What do you call an athlete who practices gymnastic exercises?" (Gymnast)
* Alternative: 
- Ask Ss to watch a video clip about sport news and name the competition in it. (The Boston Marathon)
– Unit 7: World Population (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.84)
Game: Bingo
- Have students list the populous countries in the world.
- Note down their names on the board (about 10 or more).
- Ask students to take out a piece of paper and copy down 3 countries from the list on the board.
- Read out 3 countries which were chosen randomly by teacher.
- Right after the T says the last country, any students who have all the same choices as the teacher will say “Bingo” and they win the game. 
– Unit 8: Celebrations (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.94)
Competition Game — Guessing Game
- Divide Ss into 4 groups.
- Tell Ss the rule of the game: Each group give a word related to holidays, the other groups will guess what holiday is. The group with the quickest and correct answer will get one point for their group. After some turns, the group with more points will be the winner.
E.g: Tet holiday: lucky money/ peach blossom, sticky rice cake
 Mid-autumn festival: masks, moon cake
 Valentine’s Day: chocolate/red rose
* Alternative: Song Guessing 
- Divide the class into 2 groups.
- Play the first part of the song "Happy New Year" and ask Ss to guess the name of the song. The first group answers correctly will be the winner. 
– Unit 9: The Post Office (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.105)
Game: Stop the Bus!
Question: Find 4 things that you use to contact with your friends.
- Divide the class into four groups.
- Each group tries to find words as quickly as possible after T’s question.
The group that finishes firstly will shout: “Stop the bus!” and go to the board to write down the answers. 
If the group gives the right answer, they will get one mark. 
The group that gets more marks will be the winner.
Keys: Cell phone, telephone, letters, the Internet, email.
– Unit 10: Nature in Danger (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.119)
Game: Animal Guessing
- Prepare an audio-tape with various sounds of animals such as monkey, lion, snake, pig, etc.
- Divide the class into 2 groups: Group A and group B
- Play the tape for Ss to listen to the sound one by one. The group that gives the correct answer first will get 1 mark. If not, they have no marks and the other group will take the turn to answer. At the end, the group with more points will be the winner. 
- Organize the game and score the marks of each group.
- Declare the winner.
– Unit 11: Sources of Energy (Tieng Anh 11, 2006, p.128)
Game: Lucky Stars (For high-leveled students)
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5
- Divide class into 2 groups: group A and Group B.
- Tell Ss the rule of the game: Choose the star you like. If you choose a lucky star, you can get the mark behind the star without answering any questions. If not, you have to answer the question corresponding to the star within 15 seconds. The mark behind the star will belong to you if you answer correctly. In contrast, you will have no marks and the other group will be allowed to answer your question to get the mark. At the end, the group with more marks will win the game.
- Organize the game and score each group’s points. 
- Declare the winner.
Star 1: What are they?
Star 2: Jumbled Word
Recorder the letters into a meaningful word related to “Energy”: Fossil fuels 
Star 3: Can you list 3 names of things in which you use energy at home?
Star 4: Double the points (x 2)
Star 5: Listening to the song, and then tell the name of the song
Star 6: Subtract half of the points. (: 2)
Keys: 1. Windmill - Solar panelue
	 2. Fossil fuels
	 3. Gas stove, cooker, television, electric fan
	 5. Earth song
* Alternative: (For lower-leveled studen