Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Using language games to motivate the 11th Graders in English speaking classes

Nội dung text: Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Using language games to motivate the 11th Graders in English speaking classes

1. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VAN THANH USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO MOTIVATE THE 11TH GRADERS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES (Sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ nhằm gây hứng thú cho học sinh lớp 11 trong các giờ học nói) MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2011 1
2. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VAN THANH USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO MOTIVATE THE 11TH GRADERS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES (Sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ nhằm gây hứng thú cho học sinh lớp 11 trong các giờ học nói) FIELD: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.10 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2011 2
3. STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using language games to motivate the 11th graders in English speaking classes ” is the result of my own work, and that the minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted to any university or institution. Vinh, September 2011 Author’s signature Nguyễn Văn Thành 3
4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowlede with all my greatest attitude the support, guidance and invaluable critical feedback which I have received from my supervisorMr Ngo Dinh Phuong. `My sincere thanks are due to the teachers and students at Ha Huy Tap high school where I have been teaching in and gather information for my study. Without their help, this study could not have been successful. I am also indebt of my lectures, my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments, criticism and encouragement. Last but not at least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved people , my parents, my wife, and my daughter for their love , care, tolerance, and encouragement. 4
5. ABSTRRACT Speaking always plays an important part in teaching and learning English. However, How to motivate students to speaking English in classroom is not simple. In order to improve the quality of speaking classes, the study limits itself to the study on using language games to motivate the 11th graders to speak. The study has been conducted for the purpose of testing the effectiveness of using language games to motivate students at Ha Huy Tap high school in speaking classes. Thus, two sets of survey questionnaire including pre-task survey questionnaire and post-task survey questionnaire are used to investigate students’ attitudes, perspectives towards speaking skill and language games adapted during speaking lessons, to find out the students’ preferences for employing this technique in mastering speaking skill. The study consists of five chapters. Chapter I presents the factors as the plan of the study such as: aims, scope, methods as well as the design of the study. Chaper II named Literature Review is the display of theoretical background. The next chapter , Research Methodology is the presentation of the hypothesis, subject of the study, the textbook and data collection. Chapter IV is one of the most important chapters in the study deals with the collected data, and to infer some suggestions on using language games, which are presented in the last chapter. 5
6. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 8 1.1. Rationale 8 1.2.Aims of study 9 1.3. Scope of the study 9 1.4. Research questions 9 1.5. Methods 9 1.6. Organization of the study 10 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1. Communicative language teaching 11 2.1.1. Definitions of CLT 12 2.1.2. Characteristics of CLT 12 2.1.3. Principles of CLT 13 2.2. Speaking 16 2.2.1.Definitions of speaking 16 2.2.2. The importance of speaking 17 2.2.3. Phrases to teach speaking 17 2.2.4. Common speaking activities 18 2.3. Motivation 20 2.3.1. Definitions of motivation 20 2.3.2. Types of motivation 22 2.3.2.1. Integrative and instrumental motivation 23 2.3.2.2. Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation 24 2.3.2.3. Resultative motivation 25 2.3.3 The role of motivation in foreign language learning 26 2.4. Overview of language games 27 2.4.1. What are language games? 27 2.4.2. Types of language games 27 2.4.3. Produres of games 29 2.4.4. Opinions on using games in teaching and learning process 31 2.4.5. Why use games in language teaching 32 2.4.6. When to use games 34 2.4.7.Language games as a motivator for students to speak 35 CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37 3.1. Background to the study 37 3.1.1. Hypothesis 37 3.1.2. Subject of the study 37 3.1.3. The textbook 37 3.2. Research questions 38 3.3. The instruments 38 3.4. Data collection 39 3.4.1. The data collection instrument 39 3.4.2. Procedures and methods of data collection 39 6
7. CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40 4.1. Presentation and analysis of data 40 4.1.1. Pre-task questionnaire 40 4.1.1.1. Presentation of the data 40 4.1.2. Post-task questionnaire 51 4.1.2.1. Presentation of the data collected from post- task questionnaire 51 4.1.2.2. Data analysis 51 4.2. Descriptions of types of games used the class 58 4.2.1. Finding from the questionaires 58 4.2.2. Positive factors 58 4.2.3. Challenges 59 4.2.4. Sub - conclusion 60 4.3. Some suggestions for using games to motivate students in speaking classes 61 4.3.1. How games are used? 61 4.3.2. When games are used? 61 4.3.3. How to organize a game? 62 4.4. Sample games used in teaching speaking 64 4.4.1. Warm-ups 64 4.4 2 Pre-speaking stage 66 4.4.3. While- speaking stage 68 4.4.4. Post- speaking stage 72 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 74 5.1. Summary of the study 74 5.2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 74 REFERENCES 76 7
8. CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale Nowadays, English assumes as a more and more important part as a means of international communication than ever. Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to the Students’ needs for effective communication. However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come up to the study aims. In spite of teachers’ efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many high schools in Vietnam. At Ha Huy Tap high school, for most students they find speaking especially important yet most challenging one. It has been proved that some students got into a habit of learning “mute English” which obviously harmful to a language learner. It also seems to the writer that the techniques exploited during a speaking activity such as: role plays, simulations, discussions are not really effective. Therefore, it is a necessity to find a supplementary technique used in teaching speaking. Games can help teachers to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. It can be realized that the common tendency of these methodology writers is that teachers should be more active in using classroom activities to help students recycle lexical items. One of the most recommended activities is games. According to them, games are highly motivating, competitive and fun. They also bring a relaxed atmosphere and create more opportunities for students to practise . With games, students will enjoy themselves, be stimulated and get involved in speaking. As a result, they can learn new lexical items faster and remember better. With so many advantages, games seem to be an effective way in teaching and learning a foreign language in general and speaking. 8
9. All the aboved- metioned reasons and factors have inspired the writer to conduct a research titled " Using language games to motivate the 11th graders in English speaking classes ” 1.2.Aims of study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to the 11th graders in classroom. - Investigating the effectiveness of using games in teaching speaking to the 11th graders at Ha Huy Tap high school. - Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of speaking teaching at Ha huy Tap high school by using games in addition to other techniques. 1.3. Scope of the study The study focuses specifically on using games in teaching speaking to the 11th graders at Ha Huy Tap high school in Nghe An. So the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the study are students from two classes studying “Tieng Anh 11” text book at Ha Huy Tap high school. 1.4. Research questions With the above objectives, the research questions are: - How to motivate the students in English speaking lessons? - How often are games used in teaching English speaking lessons at 11th graders in Ha huy Tap high school? 1.5. Methods In the process of carrying out this study, the survey questionnaire is used to collect data for the study. The survey questionnaire including pre-task survey questionnaire and post- task survey questionnaire is for 80 eleventh form students from two classes of Ha Huy Tap high school. 9
10. 1.6. Organization of the study The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I, Introduction, includes rationale for the study, the aims, methods, scope, and design of the study. Chapter II comes the second, in which a theoretical background was presented. Chapter III on research methodology comes next with the responsibility for specifying the factors for the researcher to collect and process the study data. Following is Chapter IV namely ‘Findings and Discussion’, in which the data is described and discussed. Chapter V comes last with the responsibility for the solutions to the weaknesses. A summary of the findings, the limitations of the study, are also mentioned in the last chapter. 10
11. CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical background relative to the topic and surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular study topic will be presented. This part will also provide description , summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted. 2.1. Communicative language teaching The history of language teaching has shown a lot of changes in approaches and methods, which reflects the recognition of changes in the sort of proficiency learners need. Teaching a second language used to be aimed at enabling learners to read and appreciate class of literature. Therefore, any teacher who was able to reach this aim was thought to be a good teacher (Le, 2004). Most learners of English nowadays desire to be able to communicate with others in the language they learn. Parallel with this change in the aims of learning English, methods of teaching has to be changed. For a long time, many language teaching methodologists have constantly looked for the most appropriate way to teach English efficiently. As a result, many language teaching methods and approaches have come into being such as: - Grammar-translation method - The Direct method - The Audio-lingual method - The Audio-visual method - Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Mackey (1965) remarks that most of the methods which have ever been developed still continue to exist in one form or another as each method has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, grammar-translation method is easy to implement and cheap to administer, which makes it still be used in many classroom situations. 11