THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT THUONG XUAN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DIVISION EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE A NUMBER OF TIPS TO CREATE EXCITEMENT IN TEACHING LISTENING ENGLISH SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT LUAN THANH SECONDARY SCHOOL Implementer : Duong Thi Huan Position : Teacher Place of work: Luan Thanh Secondary School Subject : English TABLE OF CONTENTS THANH HOA, 2019 INDEX Sections Page Index Preamble 1.1 Reasons for choosing the theme 1.2 Research purposes 1.3 Research subjects 1.4 Research methods Contents 2.1 Basis of issue 2.2 The reality of the problem 2.3 Solutions and implementation 2.4 Achievements Conclusions and recommendations 3.1 Conclusions 3.2 Recommendations References A list of teaching experience initiatives Preamble 1.1 Reasons for choosing the theme 2 2 2 3 3-4 4-12 13 13 13 14 16 17 The grower the society becomes, the more educators, parents are aware of the importance of learning a foreign language in general, especially learning English in particular English is an important key for young generation to open the future, the needed site to step out into the world and serve their future career It is also a mean for today young generation to exchange, learn with young people in all over the world, study about the customs, traditions, cultures as well as the progress of science and technology of many other countries According to the innovative method, English is no longer taught grammar but concerned more about the communication which is the main purpose in learning English Learn English in order to communicate with foreigners However, in the four skills of learning English, the listening skill must be said the most difficult In fact, most students are not interested in learning listening skill As a perennial English teacher, exposed to many students in many different locations, I really worry about the quality of learning English in general, how students learn English listening skill in particular So with the passion for my job, desire to learn, I'm researching solutions to improve the quality of learning English, especially the method of causing the excitement for students in learning listening skill So how to help students apply vocabulary and grammatical structure to listen effectively? How to teach listening to every school pupil to help them feel fascinated and loved the subject more? How to find some positive, simple, easy to understand, practical methods? Especially for students in grades and when the listening program has been classified into separate lessons with increasing difficulty level every day That’s the reason why I choose the topic: "A number of tips to create excitement in teaching listening English skills for students at Luan Thanh secondary school" 1.2 Research purposes: With the successful research these ideas will help teachers acquire the following experience: Organize to teach listening effectively The steps to conduct a more effective listening teaching Instruct students to practice, practice skills and techniques to listen to English 1.3 Research subjects: The subject of this experience initiative revolves around the study of the teaching and learning English listening courses of teachers and students at Luan Thanh secondary school 1.4 Research methods: The method of observation The method of exchange, discussion: Experimental methods: Methods of investigation Contents 2.1 Basis of issue In current socialization, learning English is a huge demand of students, especially in the period of integration, the need to communicate in English is essential The goal of education is currently focused on the development direction of the dynamism, creativity and positive in order to enable students to identify and solve the problem themselves How can students confidently apply an effective way the knowledge they have learned in their life? This is the goal that the education is always towards to Stemming from the above requirements, we may find that the importance of offering courses taught in English in education is undeniable But how can students acquire language in the most effective way, especially when catering facilities for teaching and learning this subject has not yet been fully met? This requires a lot of factors but the most important is still students’ passion to English and teachers must have appropriate, attractive and charismatic teaching methods to students English language teaching and learning is not just about "learning to learn", which is to be thinking, there is depth We not only aim to achieve significant grammar but also aim to reach and develop skills to use that language Grasp the essence of communication and be able to communicate as needed is what we desire Listening skill is considered as a more passive skill, but listening skill is often harder than reading skill as language through listening is the speech which has characteristics quite different from text 2.2 The reality of the problem English is a difficult subject with a huge amount of knowledge So, in the process of listening, students can't control everything they will hear The words in the tape are fast and unfamiliar The tapescript has many new words, the word stress, the accent is the negative sentence, the word association, the intonation… They are very different and difficult to understand, so students cannot understand all the content of the listening text These are the earlier survey results of the 2018- 2019 school year at Luan Thanh secondary school The number of The number of students students are not Number are interested in listening Order interested in listening class of English number English students Number % Number % 7A 36 16,7 30 83,3 8B 38 13,2 33 86,8 9A 35 20,0 28 80,0 4 9B 34 11,8 30 88,2 The most basic perspectives on innovation methods is how to promote positive be charged, the initiative of the learner, creating optimal conditions for learning and practice, developing the ability to use language to communicate rather than providing pure language knowledge With this perspective, the tricks and activities on campus were changed and diversified development The teacher needs to grasp the main principles of the method and learn the tricks and teaching activities from the standpoint of communication so that he or she can apply to be a flexible, consistent and effective 2.3 The solutions and implementation Basing on the above concerns, I have thought and found out a number of measures for the implementation of the project 2.3.1 The concept of teaching listening skills: Active listening is the most complicated language; it incorporated the constituent elements of the gain the awareness and knowledge of languages Listening is one of the primary purposes of teaching foreign languages Consists of two levels: - Level 1: (identify or discern): awareness of sounds, words, groups of words in relation to their structure Only when this possibility became automation, can the listeners regenerate, behave and respond to what is heard in the audio chain that - Level 2: (selected): listeners learned useful elements to understand the speaker At first listening comprehension, verbal sentences are short, simple then longer sentences 2.3.2 Studying of the listening activities: a Listening in everyday life: Listening not focus: is the acts listen to entertaining in nature, like when I listen to the radio, watch TV which still can proceed at the same time with doing another job Listening to focus: is the deliberate player, wants to capture the information of content would For example, hearing the news on the radio, the television, listen to the instructions, instructor lecture, interpretation, etc In this case, the listeners are primarily focused on the important points, needed for his intention Regular listeners know yourself what wanted to hear This helps the listener directs the attention to the right content should know, because so often capture the issues more effectively b Listen in the environment: in the environment, mostly listening activities that focus, and aims to develop different skills The type of hearing in learning foreign languages as follows: - Listen to main ideas - Listen to find the necessary information - Listen to affirm the previous conjecture - Listen to perform communication tasks are laid out - Listen to details (Both the contents and the structure of the language) * Note: students can reset the amount of information based on the following basis: - knowledge of the language (vocabulary, grammar, semantics, style, etc.) - The familiar with the topic being addressed - Observation, interpretation, communication context, including what happened before - Knowledge that they possess the same said - Understanding, the personal preference, speaker’s attitude - An understanding of the context, culture in communication - An understanding of the external signal language like: speed says, stop, gestures, looks… 2.3.3 Conduct the tips taught listening: a Building trust (Confidence building) b Identify the sentence accent (Sentence stress reception) c Resolved topics (Topic interpretation) d Listening comprehension for the main idea (Listening for gist) e Identification details (Recognising details) f Listen to capture the necessary information (Listening for wanted information) g Copy the spell (Dictations) h Event chain diagrams (Sequencing chart) i Grammar spelling j Listening and note-taking 2.3.4 Organize the different listening activities: a Help students listen effectively: in fact, listening skill still is a difficult one for today's school students To overcome these difficulties while listening, teachers can use the following measures: - Introduce the topic, the related content to hear; explain the concept if necessary - Questions help students anticipate the content will play - Introducing new words, reinforcing the vocabulary necessary for hearing - Question guide when listening - Divide the process of listening into each step, for example + The first time to listen: listen main ideas and answer questions + The second time to listen: listen to more details etc - If the listening lesson is too long, the teacher can simplify it or make it other specific listening requirements, so that students can hear it more easily Especially for difficult listening lessons, teachers can replace them by designing other lessons which are appropriate to the topic so as to create excitement for students For example 1: When teaching listening to unit 10- Life on other planets (English - page 86), teacher should ask suggestive question about the moon: What you know about the moon? Then the teacher instructs the students to listen to the tape and choose the correct option After receiving feedbacks from students, the teacher gives more questions and gets the students to answer to make sure that they have heard clearly through the tapescript Comprehention questions: Why are there no sounds on the moon? How many craters are there on the moon? How much will you weigh on the moon if you weigh 50 kilos on the earth? Will you sleep very well on the moon? Why? Why not? … For example 2: When teaching unit - Celebrations (English - page 68), teachers can remind students to listen to the song "Happy new year" at home Because the song "Auld Lang Syne" is not as popular as the "Happy new year" song and the melody is not really catching the listeners, replacing this song with "Happy new year" will make students enjoy it Even students can learn to sing this song, too b Getting things predictable, listen to: (predicting) the skills needed when listening is the ability to predict what is about to be heard So when teaching listening to students, teachers should give students guess things about to listen in a certain context This activity may proceed with listening to a plot or a conversation For example, when listening to a conversation, the teacher may stop following a sentence by a character in the conversation and ask students to watch the other characters will respond like? Will behave like? Agree or not? … For example 1: Tapescript: At 6.30 in the morning, the bus collected Ba and his family from their home (Where did they go?) After picking everyone up, the bus continued to the north on Highway Number It crossed the Dragon Bridge and stopped at the gas station (What happened? Why did it stop there?) to get some more fuel Then, it left the highway and turned left onto a smaller road westward (Please imagine the direction here: Which is the East? the West? the North? the South?) This road ran between green paddy fields, (What can you see though the bus window?) so the people on the bus could see a lot of cows and buffaloes The road ended before a big store beside a pond Instead of turning to the left towards a small airport, the bus went in the opposite direction (Did it stay there for a long or a short time?) It did not stay on that road for very long, but turned left onto a road which went though a small bamboo forest Finally, the bus dropped everyone off at the parking lot ten meters from a big old banyan tree It parked there (What for?) and waited for people to come back (When did they come back?) in the evening (English - Unit 3: A trip to the countryside - page 25) For example 2: Tapescript: Tim: Mom, I’m tired Mrs Brown: All right You go back to the hotel and we’ll go and look at the pagoda Tim: Okay, but how I get to the hotel? (What does he want to find?) Mrs Brown: Let me check the map Oh, yes It’s Phong Lan Road, just off the high way (Where is the hotel?) Tim: I remember See you later Mrs Brown: Bye Shannon: I’m hungry, Mom (How does she feel?) Mrs Brown: Can you wait until after we’ve seen the pagoda, Shannon? The restaurant is in Ho Tay Road (What’s on Tay Ho Road?) It’s in the opposite direction from the pagoda Shannon: Please, Mom I’m starving! Mr Brown: I’ll take you to the restaurant and get something to eat, Shannon We’ll let your mother go to the pagoda Shannon: Thanks, Dad Perhaps we can get some food at the restaurant and eat it beside the river Mrs Brown: As you are going in the direction of the bus station, can you book seat on tomorrow’ bus to HCM City? (What does Mrs Brown want Mr Brown to do?) The bus station is just opposite the tourist information center (What is just opposite the tourist information center?) Mr Brown: All right Mrs Brown: I’ll see you back at the hotel Shannon: How are you going to get to the pagoda, Mom? (Where does Mrs Brown want to go?) Mrs Brown: I’m going to walk over the bridge and take the first road on the left If I have time, I’ll also visit an old temple, which is just past the pagoda on the same road (Where is the old temple?) Shannon: Bye, Mom Have a nice time Mrs Brown: I will, bye (English - Unit 11: Traveling around Viet Nam- page 102) c Listen to confirm his speculations about article content, listen: this is the same truth applies to reading comprehension skills: before listening/reading teacher exploits suggestions of what students already know about the content issue would listen/read, what is unknown, what is known Then listen and relate the understanding with the content should look For example 1: When conducting a post about the media (English - Unit 5: The mediapage 43), the teacher would ask, suggest what students already know about the media, such as: name, birth, source, origin Then the request or questions to the students hear, find answers For example 2: When conducting a post about the festivals/public holidays (English Unit 7: The world of work - page 43), the teacher would ask, suggest what students already know about the festivals/public holidays, such as: name, birth, source, origin Then the request or questions to the students hear, find answers d Listen to retrieve required information: as mentioned, when conducting active listening, teachers have to send out the request, the task of listening; focusing on the primary content, it's important to let the listeners have the specific purpose The form of missions, diverse requirements, be it the form to answer the question or complete the tables For example 1: Listen and complete this pilot’s schedule with the correct place name Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday (English – Unit 16: People and places– page 156) For example 2: Listen to the report on how our oceans are polluted Then complete the notes HOW THE OCEAN IS POLLUTED Firstly raw sewage is pumped directly into the sea Secondly -dropped into the sea Thirdly oil spills Next Finally (English – Unit 6: The environment – page 51) e Listen to capture the main ideas: (Listen for gist, for main ideas), in many cases the student should be listening to understand the main ideas, essential items without the need for attention to detail For example 1: Listen to see the process how people make the compost - What is compost made from? - Where should we place the compost heap? - Should we water the compost? - How long does it take before we can use the compost? (English – Unit 10: Recycling – page 91) For example 2: Listen to the conversation and find information about Tim Jones and Carlo: - The food they ate? - The bus they went? - The sign they saw? (English – Unit 1: A visit from a pen pal – page 9) f Listen to the next communication activities: the listening activities, usually in the form of filling out tables or put the pictures in order you here for a communication activity that followed For example 1: Listen to a passage describing Hoa’s day then put the pictures in order you here (After ordering the pictures, teacher can ask students to retell Hoa’s day again) (English – Unit 10: Health and hygiene– page 100) For example 2: An expert is giving a talk on how to live with earthquakes Listen to the talk, then complete the table Living with earthquakes Heavy fixtures, furniture, and appliances: • Place heavy books on the (1) -• Block the rollers on your (2) - and (3) - Flying glass: • Check the (4) -• Don’t put your bed near (5) - Earthquakes drill: • Stay (6) 10 • • Sit (7) or (8) -Stand in the (9) -(English – Unit 9: Natural disasters – page 77) After completing tables for posting listen on, the student can continue to work with the next communication activity is talking back and/or said more about how to survive an earthquake 2.3.5 Practicing various forms of listening comprehension exercises: Listening comprehension exercises has various forms The popular exercises were: - Defining true – false questions - Checking the correct answer / information - Matching - Filling in the chart - Filling in the gap - Answering comprehensive questions 2.3.6 Assumes some basic principles when conducting active listening: Listening activities so as to achieve the desired goal, teachers need to implement some basic principles when conducting a listening post as follows: a Lead-in as mentioned above, when focused, listeners often have unintended, toward a focus on the need to hear, will know to pay attention to the content when listening So when teaching listening teachers also need to create the "intent" for students to prepare for the upcoming hearing through the activities before the hearing as: - Introduction of context, situation - The questions suggested, the guess about the content about to hear - The questions to create curiosity, create excitement about article content are about to hear - The questions that guide requirements for the necessity of listening comprehension etc b Listening tasks Listening activities necessarily have driven through the requirements, mission teacher-designed for students to perform The requirements, this task can be one or more of these forms of listening exercises as listed in section c Conduct follows three stages: pre listening, while listening and post listening * Pre – listening - Arouse interest - Set up the context 11 - Create reasons for listening - Pre-teach structures, new words - Introduce briefly the topic, content - Eliciting, guiding questions - Predict the text - Giving expectation The teacher who creates listening material to students by leading questions provoking talk about the topic of listening post, ask students to observe and guess what they are going to listen? Who's going to say? About whom? Where does the conversation take place? Teachers can ask students to work in a preliminary group to guess what the content is about, to look through the files or listening post's situation Maybe there are things students don’t say exactly with what the children are about to listen to but the problem is that the children get excited before listening, understand situations and themes are about to hear Teachers can help students anticipate the difficulties may be encountered in terms of pronunciation, the new structures, the knowledge or the knowledge of the culture, the country school Finally the teacher needs to enlighten students know that they will hear as many times (from to times) and guidelines require, mandate to hear (answering the question, select file or inset file) playback time and homework (3 or minutes) * While – listening Practice activities while listening are exercises done while students listen, or listen to them again to the exercises The form of training at this stage is to learn and listen to the content of the article Depending on the purpose and specific content of each post, there will be different types of questions and extraction requirements, possibly both content and language only Popular exercises and tricks during this period usually take the following form: Find the word / sentence that says ; Check / tick the correct answer; True – false; Complete the table; Fill in the chart; Make up charts / diagrams; Make a list of ; Matching; answer the questions The teacher plays the tape or reads the tapescript or times Students who are familiar with the listening include the content of the listening, the second time listen to get the correct information to complete the exercise, the third time listen and re-check the exercises that have done The main goal of listening is that students listen to the main content or get information, and understand the author's attitudes Therefore, teachers need to let students listen to the whole lesson so they can understand the general ideas to the exercises, then can replay each piece to check the results, or listen again the difficult sentences to confirm the feedback * Post – listening 12 After students listen and listening comprehension exercises, the teacher can continue to perform exercises that require students to have general knowledge; actual contact; converting knowledge or information, data received through listening, practice reinforcing important grammatical structures The form of exercises may refer to: Arrange the events in order; Find the sentence that summarizes the content of the tape; Give the title of the listening text; Disscussion questions; Gap filling; Guess the consequenses / results of the story Some students report before class or in a group the results which they have heard, other students listen and comment or correct the result Retelling, recording the basic content of the listening text or conducting development activities, expanding hearing ability is also a form of activity that deepens knowledge Example: When teaching listening of unit - Our past (English 8, page 41), before listening, the teacher should give titles first so that students have time to think Next, the teacher should ask them to anticipate the answers for the following questions: Where does the gold egg come from? What is the purpose of killing chickens of the farmer and his wife? How will the story end? Teachers can take notes the predictions of some students, then let them listen or times to check the information Finally, unifying the moral lesson from the story 2.3.7 Always apply these tips raise questions when teaching the English listening skills: In the course of teaching, the question has always been used as a common tool and is almost indispensable in every lesson For each lesson of teaching listening skill I usually use a variety of different questions, such as: Yes-No questions; Alternative questions; Wh-questions; Multiple choices; True-False… The types of questions to be answered by taking the direct hearing in the post or by implication in the article often easier but with questions that require the inferences, evaluation to answer the very difficult should the choice of questions for students to hear, guess and answer requires teachers to be flexible The different teaching methods have the viewpoints on TeachingLearning vary but can be summarized into two major perspectives: + Teacher dominated + Students centered In recent years, the teaching and learning of English at schools has turned to new teaching methods, but sometimes teachers are also confused Although 13 they have flexibly used innovative methods, they have not really promoted students' positivity Teachers should study good listening practices for students to use in practice And the students also have equally difficult tasks, that is the perseverance of learning, honing and having to find ways to overcome difficulties and find appropriate learning methods to achieve optimal efficiency 2.4 Achievements After a period of applying the teaching methods mentioned above, I have followed up and surveyed the quality of listening English skills at Luan Thanh secondary school and obtained relatively satisfactory results Specific data of the survey results at the end of the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year at Luan Thanh secondary school are as follows: Order class number 7A 8B 9A 9B Number of students 36 38 35 34 The number of students are interested in listening English Number 19 14 18 14 % 52,8 36,8 51,4 41,2 The number of students are not interested in listening English Number % 17 47,2 24 63,2 17 48,6 20 58,8 In comparision with the result at the beginning, it can be said that this result has improved a lot Moreover, by using these tips, students are more interested in learning They are always ready to receive every lesson with the highest excitement This also helps the teacher feel excited in teaching as well as finding new methods to help students learn a foreign language better and better Conclusions and recommendations 3.1 Conclusions After applying these methods for teaching and learning listening, the results are much higher than when I didn’t improve teaching methods, it has motivated me to constantly strive to achieve results further in teaching I have had my small contribution to the achievements of my school, put my school get the targets that we had set I will try to maintain the aforementioned methods and constantly learn and exchange with colleagues to spend time teaching more effectively In this project, I tried to explore teaching and learning methods in secondary school; at the same time with analyze the causes and factors affecting the teaching and learning methods in order to find and provide specific methods for students However, restrictions are inevitable 14 This is just my personal experience, but I find its feasibility is very useful for Luan Thanh secondary school students The way to apply in reality isn’t too complicated but effective I only use some simple ways but after changing teaching methods of teaching listening, I found the students were more excited during the lessons, faster understanding and they remember the lesson better Therefore, I hope that my experience itself will contribute to improve the quality of teaching and learning English in junior high school After many years of teaching as well as applying the subject, I can draw some following experiences: *For the teacher: For any other subject, the teachers also need to create excitement for the children at the beginning and especially have to guide them to self-study because time in each period is only limited within 45 minutes Intelligent students only try to remember the main knowledge Want to study well, they have to spend time self-learning and researching as well as reviewing lessons at home Studying time at home is primary but many students not have consciousness, and especially not know how to learn themselves Therefore every teacher should stimulate, motivate and guide them to learn Having done this task, teachers were successful in their teaching Especially while performing this topic, teachers also need to be noted: - Need to specify the tasks for each group, guide the tasks of each group, each individual student clearly, easily to understand - Teachers should act as a guide, always help students, help them answer questions whenever they need * For the students - Each individual should actively participate in the group that he had been assigned, actively carry out his duties - Must be united with other members in his group and specially must have passion for the subject 3.2 Recommendations English is a difficult subject but my school doesn’t have many reference books The facilities and teaching aids aren’t enough, especially no audio-visual room, so students not have many favorable conditions to learn English To achieve high results in teaching and learning English, I would have some following recommendations: Every year, the education division needs to organize seminars for teachers so that they have the opportunity to exchange experience and discuss ways to improve the quality of teaching English Our schools need to purchase additional references which are important, illustrations and other teaching materials for teachers to have additional reference materials, to serve the teaching and learning of English Besides, 15 school should facilitate, encourage and help teachers make good teaching aids to bring quality of teaching English is more and more increased Above is a subjective opinion of my own on enrichment a number of tips to cause excitement in teaching listening English skills for Luan Thanh secondary school’s students With my limited knowledge and experience, I am surely to have a flaw in my experience initiative I sincerely hope the leaders, the experts of division, department and colleagues comment on my experience initiative to achieve better efficiency in teaching I would like to thank! THE CONFIRMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL Luan Thanh, February 25, 2019 I assure this is my experience initiative, not copying the contents of the other people The implementer Duong Thi Huan 16 REFERENCE MATERIAL Teacher’s book and English (Ministry of Education and Training) Teacher’s book and English (Ministry of Education and Training) Teacher’s book and English (Ministry of Education and Training) English language Teaching Methodology (Ministry of Education and Training 2003) Some matters in renovating method in teaching English at Junior high school (Nguyen Hanh Dung) Innovative training materials in English secondary method (Nguyen Hanh Dung) Method of teaching English in junior high school (Nguyen Hanh Dung) 17 SOME EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES THAT WERE EVALUATED AND RANKED BY THE SCIENCE COUNCIL OF THUONG XUAN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DIVISION Full name: Duong Thi Huan Position and working unit: English teacher of Luan Thanh Secondary School Order Name English teaching techniques for Luan Thanh Secondary School’s students A number of measures to overcome the common phonetic errors which students often make when communicating English for Luan Thanh Secondary School’s students Some methods to improve English reading skill for Luan Thanh Secondary School’s students Evaluating council Level School year Thuong Xuan education and training division C 2009 - 2010 Thuong Xuan education and training division C 2011 - 2012 Thuong Xuan education and training division C 2015-2016 18 ... English (Ministry of Education and Training) Teacher’s book and English (Ministry of Education and Training) Teacher’s book and English (Ministry of Education and Training) English language Teaching... Methodology (Ministry of Education and Training 2003) Some matters in renovating method in teaching English at Junior high school (Nguyen Hanh Dung) Innovative training materials in English secondary method... more educators, parents are aware of the importance of learning a foreign language in general, especially learning English in particular English is an important key for young generation to open