Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm The importance of using games in English Teaching and list eight types of games to practise students' speaking

Nội dung tài liệu: Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm The importance of using games in English Teaching and list eight types of games to practise students' speaking

1. 1 Part 1. INTRODUCTION 1. The Aims of the Study Many have been said about the weaknesses of the traditional English teaching method in Vietnam, and the strengths of the communicative language teaching approach. However, the general situation of Vietnam’s English teaching and learning at present is not very satisfactory, as “dumb English” is still stubbornly rooted in a large number of English learners. So it is safe to say that there is still a long way to go in English teaching reform and improving the English teaching quality of Vietnam. Sometimes it is easy to get a new method like the communicative language teaching approach heard but difficult to get it accepted, understood and applied to practical classroom teaching in the end. Therefore, it is not out of date to discuss the techniques of applying the communicative language teaching approach to classroom teaching. In this document, on the basis of pointing out the disadvantages of the traditional teaching method, I discuss and explore one way to teach students effectively – using games in teaching English speaking skill, which is often considered as one of the best way to get the students involved in the classroom activities in which their communicative ability is practised and improved. Language games, as one of the most valuable and effective techniques in English language teaching, have been used for a long time by many western teachers. However, they are less used in Vietnam, especially in High School English Teaching classrooms. Most teachers and students think games are a waste of time or just a fun activity for students. In this article, I propose to talk about the importance of using games in English Teaching and list eight types of games to practise students' speaking. Finally, some considerations are put forward on using games and the success of using games is stated. 2. New Points and Benefits Bringing Innovations - These suggestions focus on explaining how to design activities for some speaking tasks in the textbook to facilitate teaching speaking skill to students at
2. 2 low level basing on the theory of adaptation and principles as well as approaches of teaching speaking. - The measures have been applied in teaching and preparation for the tests and exams at Tien Du 1 high school over the past two years. They may be useful reference materials for students as well as colleagues in teaching and learning in new ways. 3. Contributions of the Study The measures help my students not only practise speaking English better but also feel more confident in communication. It also contributes to improving the quality of English subject in school and bringing students themselves good study results. With a core knowledge base limited to the current textbook curriculum content, the measure proves to be accessible to a wide range of students. Therefore, the ability to apply these measures in practice is feasible and easy to implement. In the future, the author hopes to receive the comments from colleagues and students to continue improving the study further, turning the measures into a valuable reference material for the work of teaching and learning.
3. 3 Part 2. CONTENT Chapter 1: STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM For years, the main method of teaching English in Vietnam is like this: firstly, the teacher explains the new words in the vocabulary list by giving definitions and examples. Then he/she will give a brief introduction to the background of the task. When dealing with the task, the teacher always explains and translates it sentence by sentence or even word by word, sometimes with a few questions which seldom elicit answers or responses from students. Finally, a reciting task or translation exercise is given to the students. In short, the traditional way of English teaching is teacher-centered and language-knowledge-focused. The way of teaching English is similar to that of teaching mathematics: new words presented, related grammar explained, and then written exercises assigned; if students can do the exercises well, it means that they have learned the language knowledge well, and then the lesson moves on. Under such pattern of teaching, students are passive information receiver and written exercises doer. They can remember large numbers of words and grammatical rules, and they can do very well in exams, but they scarcely have chances to express themselves in the target language and test their understanding of the received information about the language. And they are found having a lot of difficulties in communicating with others in English. This phenomenon is ironically defined as “Dumb English”, which is the “product” of long hard work of both teachers and students. As you know, our students have learnt English at primary and secondary schools. However, English is still the most difficult compulsory subject for them as it is a foreign language. Besides, they are not good at English so many of them find studying this subject difficult. The reason for this is that they come from low- income families in a rural area and do not have the chance to use English outside classrooms. Their parents are mainly farmers who cannot help them at all in studying English and they do not have enough money to support their children to learn English in extra classes in Foreign Language Centres. As
4. 4 a result of this, these students have no motivation and encouragement, no good conditions to study and they do not find English useful and important. They are not well supported in their study. This means that their levels and motivation to learn English are rather low. Actually, most students have no good conditions to study, so English learning is still limited. And students rarely get access to good studying orientation, especially to learning English skills. For the past few years, the school's enrollment scores have been very low as it is a rural school. In fact, no one in my school has ever got mark 10 in English subject in the GCSE exams. The number of students getting marks from 4 to 5 has accounted for the large proportion in some recent school years. From 2019, I am in charge of teaching English for grade 10, 11 and 12 students. I love teaching and I want to be a good teacher. I know my students’ difficulties when studying English. In other words, I want to help the students achieve the goal that they set in their lives. During the time of teaching English, I have realized that it is significant to change my methods of teaching and my students’ view about learning speaking skill through useful games.
5. 5 Chapter 2: THE PROBLEM SOLUTIONS 1. The Real Situation and the Reason to Choose This Study We can see that English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum as well as in the GCSE exams in our country. Students have to learn English from grade 3 until grade 12. But only reading, writing skills and grammar are tested in the national exams. So listening and speaking are not really paid much attention by the teachers and the students. The problem we have to face is how to raise students’ awareness of speaking skill and make speaking lessons more interesting so that they will learn it better. In the international relationship, English speaking ability is very important to be able to participate in the wider world of work. The speaking skill is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language. This really makes teachers and parents think that speaking ability should be mastered by their students and children. Basing on the fact, I focused on doing research on methods to teach and learn speaking skill that will help students improve their speaking skill and help my teacher colleagues have more practice teaching methods in speaking classes. My school uses the new national English syllabus for high schools by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) named Tieng Anh for Grade 10 students. It aims at helping students to achieve pre- intermediate communicative competence. In this school year, the textbooks, Tieng Anh 10 (new), 11 and 12 all consist of 10 units. For every unit of English lesson, four language skills such as reading, listening, speaking and writing as well as language (vocabulary and grammar), communication and culture and project are included and taught in 8 periods. The speaking lessons are also theme-based and task-based. However, as a matter of fact is that tests of all levels at secondary schools are almost in written forms. Although speaking skill accounts for 20% of the test at the end of each term, there is no period given for students to do the speaking tasks during the term. So the teachers often use time in different lessons to consolidate to evaluate students’ speaking skill.
6. 6 Knowing the drawbacks of teaching and learning English at the current time, I have done research to find out solutions to improve the students’ speaking skill through games. However, before applying the solutions, I looked more closely at conveniences and obstacles for the implementation of games in teaching English. * Conveniences: + The recent renewal of tests and assessments of English has strongly raised the sense of individual learners. + In the current context, more and more attention is focused on the creativity of students in learning towards the promotion of qualities and abilities. + The interaction between students and teachers when using active methods in the teaching process often flashes the students with wonderful ideas. + The input quality of English of Tien Du 1 High School’s students is low, but in recent years it has been improved. * Obstacles + It was the non-interest of students in achieving communicative competence or working in groups. + Speaking skill is not tested in all exams, that’s the reason why it is ignored by students and, sometimes, teachers. + Large class-size of mixed-level students causes difficulty in teaching speaking. + It is students’ inhibition. Students feel ashamed when they are unable to answer teacher’s or friends’ questions correctly. I still expect to promote potential students’ capacity through my study: “Using games to teach speaking skill effectively”. 2. Solutions to Improve the Students’ Speaking Skill through games 2.1. Solution 1: Suggestions on using games There are four elements which should be taken into consideration when playing games in English class. Teachers should keep them in mind and apply the above
7. 7 discussed games to the practical situation appropriately in order to achieve the best results. 2.1.1. Time The amount of teaching time devoted to games depends on the individual teaching content, but it will probably be a relatively small proportion of the total teaching time. They can be used to open or close a lesson in a stimulation way, to punctuate a lesson, to relieve tension after a test or concentrated practice session, or at any time that the teacher feels appropriate. It is important that they are used positively, to give students enjoyment and useful practice. 2.1.2. Choice In each category of game mentioned above, there are different kinds of games. So the teacher must take many factors into account when deciding which game would be most appropriate and most successful with his or her students at any time. He or she should consider the level of the students, the main aim of having a game, the interest of the students, the appropriate time to use a game and the availability of aids and materials. 2.1.3. Preparation Games may be good fun but they need to be carefully prepared and organized. Firstly, the teacher should find a good game in a book or invent one. Then he or she must be sure that the necessary facilities are available. An overhead projector can be very useful if one is available. If not, a typewriter and cards and the objects needed should be prepared in advance. Also, the teacher should ensure clear handwriting on paper or cards so that the students will take the teacher's intentions seriously. Finally, the teacher must work out how the game is to proceed, what the students will need to do and how they will be instructed in what to do. It is important to try to anticipate any logistic or linguistic problems that may occur in order to be able to deal with them effectively. 2.1.4. Management The teacher must decide in advance how to organize the students and the classroom so that the setting up of a game can be carried out as quickly and
8. 8 smoothly as possible. It is advisable to encourage pair and group work where possible, as this will increase student participation and the amount of language practice offered to each student will be much greater. While the students are working, it is useful for the teacher to keep a close eye on pairs or groups to help, correct or stimulate less active students. The teacher should stop a game and change to something else before the students become tired of it. In this way, their willingness and concentration are retained. 2.2. Solution 2: Using some Typical Games As stated above, the main purpose of using games in English classes, especially in speaking sections, is to practise students' different skills, especially their communicative ability. Here, eight types of games from published sources (Carrier 1980, Ellis 1986, Harmer 1985, Kallsen 1982, Klippel 1984, MaCallum 1980, Porter-Ladousse 1987, Stern 2002, Willis 1982, etc.) are identified, discussed and explored. 2.2.1. Guessing Games The basic role of guessing games is very simple: one person knows something that another one wants to find out. The thing to be guessed can differ greatly from game to game. It can be a word, an object, an activity or many other things. Guessing games are useful in helping students practise logical thinking and asking questions. 2.2.2. Picture Games Picture games include several types: Comparing and contrasting pictures; Considering differences or similarities; Considering possible relationships between pictures, such as narrative sequence; Describing key features so that someone else may identify them or represent them in a similar way; Making a story according to the given picture. Most of these picture games involve the learners in the relatively free use of all the language at their command and at the same time give them the opportunity to practise their speaking and listening. 2.2.3. Sound Games
9. 9 Sound effects can create in the listeners’ mind an impression of people, places and actions. There is a demand for the listener to contribute through the imagination. This inevitably leads to individual interpretations which mean that the listeners can exchange their points of view and express opinions and ideas. This kind of games can stimulate students' imagination and thinking, and offer them a chance to practise their listening and speaking. Students can make guess at the object described by sound, or make dialogue or a story. 2.2.4. Mime Mimes can be done in pairs, groups or even by the whole class. One side has to perform the mimes for the other side so that the answer can be found. It can be an object, action or person. So miming activities are valuable language-learning situations. Guessing something is linked with the real desire to find out and thus is a true communication situation. Miming trains the students' skill of observation and improvisation. It emphasizes the importance of gesture and facial expression in communication. 2.2.5. Fact-finding Games This mainly deals with general knowledge and is a very practical exercise. Every day, there is something important happening, so the students can be asked what happened on a day in history. It may be a historical accident, a birthday of a famous person, or something strange or marvelous. Then further details can be asked. The students can discuss in pairs or groups in order to find much more information. 2.2.6. Debates In this activity, a topic is given and two sides are set up, one supporting the idea and the other opposing it. Then they argue giving their evidence. The aim of this activity is to get the students to talk and stimulate their interest and competitive spirit. Such activities make the students think about their values and priorities. There is no doubt that this activity will improve students’ conversation and eloquence.
10. 10 Class Debates are the best alternative methods to improve students’ speaking skill when they do not have enough time to do all of the tasks in the speaking sections in their textbooks. Each and every student possesses his or her own opinion. Classroom debates enable students to voice their opinions. A debate provides the students with an opportunity to conduct themselves in a professional manner. According to the International Debate Education Association, “Debate is, above all, a way for those who hold opposing views to discuss controversial issues without descending to insult, emotional appeals or personal bias. A key trademark of debate is that it rarely ends in agreement, but rather allows for a robust analysis of the question at hand.” The whole class can play some games in the classroom leading up to the debate, and allow the competing teams to play against each other building a productive rivalry through words. 2.2.7. Jigsaw Games Each participant in a jigsaw task holds one part of a solution, which may be a story, a factual text or a picture. They are equally important. They should work together to fit their pieces together to find the solution. They, therefore, improve co-operation and mutual acceptance within the group. Participants in this game have to do a lot of talking before they are able to fit the pieces together in the right way. Wright (2006) also claims that these games practise two very different areas of skill in the foreign language: “Firstly, the students have to understand the bits of information they are given and describe them to the rest of the group.” This helps them realize the importance of pronunciation and intonation in making oneself understood. “Secondly, the students have to organize the process of finding the solution and a lot of interactional language is needed.” 2.2.8. Role Plays Role plays often consist of short scenes, which can be realistic or pure fantasy. Role plays may be enacted around everyday situations as well as around topical problems. One easily-obtained role play is from the text, which may be actual
11. 11 role play material. After learning the text, students can be asked to give a performance of it. This can improve their oral performance generally and, of course, help students to understand what they have learned in an easy way. Furthermore, role plays are useful for generating free expression and the feeling of spontaneity in the language classroom. 2. 2. 3. Practical Application of the Solutions at Tien Du 1 High School. The study involved 45 students from 10th grade at Tien Du Number 1 High School, Bac Ninh province. Those students took part in the study during speaking sections in the school year 2022- 2023. Sample 1 (Guesing game) Lead in the lesson Unit 1: Language (English 10) GAME: Guess the words The teacher gives instructions: + There are 8 pictures related to the topic “Family life”. + Students have 5 seconds to think, then guess the word/ phrase corresponding to the picture. + The guessing members have to use their questioning skills to get the answer. To give an example, the teacher gives the students a question to explain the word/ phrase. The students have to widen their thinking instead of being occupied in a narrow way and be told to think of more than one sense of a word or a sentence. Then after a period of thinking, they are likely to find the answer. + Correct answer +1 + Wrong answer -1 Then, the teacher counts the points, decides the winner, asks some more questions and leads in the lesson. * 8 words/ phrases given. 1. homemaker 2. groceries 3. heavy lifting 4. housework 5. breadwinner
12. 12 6. do laundry 7. wash dishes 8. clean the house Sample 2 (Picture game): Lead in the lesson Unit 1: Speaking (English 10) WARM-UP: Matching time Teacher divides the class into groups of four. There are ten pictures of household chores on the slides. Teacher asks students to match the pictures with the corresponding names of chores. Teacher throws the ball to the team which raise hands the fastest. If the answers are correct, the round ends. If not, the round continues until there is a winner. Students discuss in their teams and match the pictures with the name of chores. Students raise their hands when they finish. Teacher confirms, checks the answers from the fastest team and then recaps the vocabulary and leads in the lesson. Key: 1 e. cook 2 c. do the laundry 3 a. do the washing-up
13. 13 4 d. do the heavy lifting 5 b. shop for groceries 6 g. feed pets 7 h. water the plants 8 j. clean the bathroom 9 i. clean the house
14. 14 10 f. put out the rubbish Sample 3 ( Fact - finding game): Lead in the lesson Unit 2: Getting Started (English 10) Games: Listen to some pieces of music and guess the name of the songs. Find out the name of the artist mentioned. Teacher gives instructions, plays the recordings. Students listen and guess the names of the songs. Students may discuss with other members in their teams. Teacher confirms the correct answers: Song 1: Love yourself Song 2: Sorry Song 3: What do you mean? Song 4: Where are you now? Song 5: Stuck in the moment Teacher asks students some questions and leads in the lesson. + Whose songs are these? (>They are Justin Bieber’s.) + Is he a talented singer? (> Yes, he is considered the Prince of Pop.). After that, more work can be done by drawing a typical picture of him and describing his appearance. At last, the teacher can ask the students to think why Justin Bieber is loved by people all over the world and why his songs are so
15. 15 popular. Now the students have had a chance to really think about what they know about the person. Sample 4 (debating game): Unit 5: Inventions - Speaking (English 10) Debate activity should be adapted to be taught because time is limited and some inventions are so popular for students. Students can list a lot of inventions and their benefits. Teacher should choose some inventions that are popular and easy for students to talk about. The purpose of this activity is to allow students to talk about the uses and benefits of inventions. Students can develop their confidence in speaking by giving personal opinions on the invention topic. Students vote or do not vote to the statement by giving evidence and proof to support their ideas. Statement: A laptop is more useful than a smartphone for learning English. Preparing for the debate Teacher showed images of some inventions: a 3-D printer, a smartphone and a laptop. A 3- D printer A smartphone
16. 16 A laptop Teacher shows the models, structures and expressions to the students to talk about the uses and benefits of these inventions by asking: “What is a 3-D printer used for?” Students answer the questions with their own ideas. Teacher helps students with some suggestions: Eg: - A 3-D printer is used for producing solid objects similar to the originals. - A 3-D printer can help you to produce solid objects similar to the originals. - You can make things like a cup, a spoon, or even a toy car with a 3-D printer.
17. 17 Chapter 3: Effectiveness of the Teaching Experience The solutions have been applied at Tien Du 1 High School in school year 2022- 2023. These are some achievements that have been made in learning speaking skill among the students. + Enhance students activeness and creativity, student-centered learning and student orientation to knowledge acquisition and other related life skills. + Help students apply knowledge in many aspects to solve problems. + Teaching’s aim is also to contribute to reform the organization of teaching, innovation teaching methods, innovation methods of examining and evaluating learning results, enhancing the effective application of information technology, promoting the group's intellectual ability, teamwork skills, leadership skills, etc + Develop students’ capacity to collect, analyze information, give presentations, and strengthen teamwork, as well as to be more confident speaker. + Offer an opportunity for teachers to encourage students to work together, to apply course material, and to assume increased responsibility in the classroom. + Promote students’ critical thinking and oral speaking skills. + Create a positive classroom environment during debate. * The social and economic efficiency + The most remarkable success is the improvement of students' studying skills. + Students have gained their confidence with the activities that teacher designed for the lesson. + Create healthy playground for students. + Develop the spirit of self-conscious and the ability to work group. + Make students' progress in being inquisitive and creative. + Develop students’ other life skills (Be open-minded, have the need to communicate with friends, establish positive relationships, see problems in multiple dimensions.
18. 18 Part 3. CONCLUSION 1. Major Points of the Solutions There are many good ideas about English teaching. Among these, using games in the English class is the one which is most easily accepted by students and which is also a very useful and helpful aspect of communicative method. As known to everyone, game is an activity providing entertainment or amusement; it is a competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules. “A game is an activity carried out by co-operating or competing decision-makers, seeking to achieve, within a set of rules, their objectives”. A game is an activity that both the teacher and students enjoy doing. It is student-centered and as appealing as playing in the playground. Using games in English class can get students relaxed and enjoying using the language. It may be argued that college students, unlike children, having grown up, do not need games to relax themselves. On the contrary, adults sometimes feel more nervous than children when they face new things, and they are more afraid of losing their face as the sense of face develops with their age. In this sense, they do need games or any other activity that help them relaxed and innocent like children to the new language without being afraid of making mistakes. According Stephen Krashen (1982), second language acquisition is influenced by affective factors either positively or negatively. One of the teacher’s tasks is to create a situation where students’ affective filter is lowered so that the comprehensible input could be taken in. The first aim of using games in class is just to create such a situation. Games are communicative in essence, and so using game in English teaching and learning can well realize the fundamental idea of the communicative language teaching approach. Using games is a good way to improve students' various skills, as Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (2006) say, "Games can be found to give practice in all the skills, in all the stages of the teaching and learning and for many types of communication". In playing language games, students have to know and well understand the rules of the games, and should be
19. 19 clear about what has been, is being and will be done or said, and what is more important, they have to take some actions – doing or saying something, to compete in the games. In so doing, they can practise their skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing comprehensively, and especially they get more practice in listening and speaking, which are poor in the traditional teaching method. Professor Littlewood proposed that through games, teachers should help learners go beyond the mastery of structures, to the point where they can use them to communicate meaning in real situations. Game playing is effective in developing students’ communicative ability in that it is a dynamic process of communication in which students as thinking beings, emotional beings and communicators instead of knowledge receptacles, try to get their ideas, concepts, thoughts, emotions and feelings expressed, based on their own life experiences. Psychologist Piaget proposes that movement produces “thought”. He believes that movement is the beginning of learning, and that cognitive frame is built up step by step whose joint is the movement but not the consciousness. In addition, games may help and encourage many learners to support their interest and work. Games can increase motivation to learn the language as students, especially the weaker ones, feel a real sense of achievement when they manipulate a game. Games can provide quite extensive knowledge input. Games can increase students' communication and co-operation with each other. And games can act as a testing mechanism through which they will expose areas of weakness and the need for remedial work. Furthermore, games can be used at any stage in a lesson: at the beginning to diagnose what the students can or cannot do; during the lesson for language practice purposes; or at the end as reinforcement and reward. Students playing language games are encouraged to express their ideas for certain purpose, and they can use different types of games at different stages appropriate for different types of language learning.
20. 20 2. Practical Effectiveness The research has helped improve my own knowledge, abilities and skills in teaching English at a high school. These suggested games have been applied in my teaching speaking skill at Tien Du 1 High School and they seem to be useful to my students. Most of the students find it easier and more comfortable with speaking tasks. This is shown through their high motivation and interest in learning and practising speaking English, their active participation in activities and many students at low levels can carry out speaking tasks by themselves. As a result, students’ speaking skill, to some extent, has been improved during the school years. To improve students’ communication competence, it is likely that debating activities should be combined appropriately with other activities in different skills such as reading, writing and listening. And the students will work better with good grammatical and lexical knowledge. Furthermore, it is necessary that the teacher should not always pay attention to the students’ mistakes. Instead, the teacher should encourage them to use English as much as possible during the lessons and create a friendly learning environment so that the students will be more confident and be ready to receive the new knowledge and methods. In this paper, I share my experiences with the teachers of English in my school and in our province with the hope that we can design better lessons to help the students improve skills in learning English in general and speaking skill in particular. The solutions have been applied at Tien Du 1 High School in this school year. These suggested games have been applied in my teaching speaking skill and they seem to be useful to my students. Most of the students find it easier and more comfortable with speaking tasks. This is shown through their high motivation and interest in learning and practising speaking English, their active participation in activities and many students at low levels can carry out speaking tasks by themselves. As a result, students’ speaking skill, to some extent, has been improved during the school years. Here are some evidences of the efficiency of solutions.