(SKKN 2022) some suggested warm up activities applied for teaching english 10

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT THẠCH THÀNH 3
*************************

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

TÊN ĐỀ TÀI

SOME SUGGESTED WARM-UP ACTIVITIES APPLIED
FOR TEACHING ENGLISH 10

Người thực hiện: Trịnh Minh Tâm
Vị trí: Giao viên
SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực(mơn): Tiếng Anh

THANH HỐ, 2022

Contents
Page
I. INTRODUCTION: …………………………………………………………….
1


1.1. Reasons for choosing the research:……………………………………………2
1.2. Aims of the research:…………………………………………………………..2
1.3. Objects of the research: ……………………………………………………….2
1.4. Methods of the research:……………………………………………………....2
II. CONTENT……………………………………………………………………..
2.1.Rationale:……………………………………………………………………….3
2.2.Factual basis …................................................................................................3

2.3.Survey……………………………………………………………...................4
2.4.Some warm- up activities that have successfully been applied for teaching
English 10 at Thach Thanh 3 High School………………………............................6
2.6. Results after applying ………………..…........................................................15
III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
3.1 Conclusion:…………………. ………………………………………………..16
3.2. Recommendation:…………………………………………………..………...16
3.2.1. For teachers: ………………………………………………………….…….17
3.2.2. For school management committee:………………………………………..17
REFERENCES…………………………………………….……. ………………18

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1.The reason of choosing the topic
2


According to Article 28 of the education law: “The method of general education
must promote the students' activeness, self-awareness, initiative and creativity;
suitable to the characteristics of each class and subject; fostering self-study
methods, teamwork ability; practice skills to apply knowledge into practice; impact
on emotions, bring joy, interest in learning for students.”[1]
Documents ,however,about the innovation in teaching are not much, and often
only used in making requirements with testing and evaluation.Besides that,many
teachers still use the traditional method of transmitting knowledge, presentations,
and expainations.They have not really focused on innovating teaching methods to
create excitement for students. If the situation continues regularly, students will be
disgusted with the subject,which can result in Education targets will not be
achieved.
As an English teacher at Thach Thanh 3 High School,from my own observation, I
realize that the majority of the students of English classes don’t really have strong

motivation to study English while those in other classes such as
History,Math,Physics,Biology or Literature,etc… have motivation as well as
interest in learning the subject.That learners don’t find lessons interesting
enough,that the lessons in their course books,somehow,lack authenticity as well as
the amount of exessive grammar in each unit seem to be some of the reasons
accounting for this.It is from this fact,making students engaged in a subject can be
a real challenge. Having identified the problem, I have tried to search for sollutions
to make a boring lesson an interesting one so that students really show more
enthusiasm and excitement in engaging in the lesson. Thus,in this writing,I would
like to present my ideas “ways to get students excited about learning English
through warm-up activities” with the hope that my collegues can also consider
my teaching strategies as useful suggestions to help their students become more
interested and confident in learning English.
1.2. Aims of the research
This paper aims :
-To introduce some ways to create excitement for students and how to organize
the activities effectively.
-To improve the quality of teaching and learning English in high school
1.3. Object of the Research
This subject focus on students at Thach Thanh 3 High School to help them to
renew interest in learning the language.
1.4. Methods of study
- Finding out difficulties that students have in English classes.
- Reading reference books.
- Discussing with my colleagues.
- Attending classes of co-workers
3


- Applying ideas in teaching

- Observing and drawing out experiences.
2. CONTENTS
2.1.Rationale of the study.
Researches on Second Language Acquisition have shown that language is best
learned through the close collaboration and communication among students. This
type of collaboration results in benefits for all or both learners. In fact, learners can
help each other while working on different types of tasks such as writing dialogues,
interviews, drawing pictures and making comments about them, play roles, etc… to
breaking the monotony of learning,increasing the involvement of the students.
Dornyei (2001) highlights the importance of the "motivational flow" when talking
about the general rhythm and sequence of events in class and he considers that it is
important to make students active participants and suggests selecting tasks which
require mental or bodily involvement of each participant and creating specific rules
and personalized assignments for everybody. [2]
In language learning,excitement is generally considered to be one of the primary
causes of success and failure in language learning. Organizing activities and
creating English environment at the various stages of the lesson really appear to
promote students' involvement in the English class Moreover, boredom and
tiredness have been driven away by the fun during the lessons these kinds of
activities Realizing the important roles of motivational activities in teaching
English is the rationale of my study.
As an educator, wanting the best for the students, I understand that it is essential to
keep students motivated in order to achieve the best learning results as possible .
They are some of the reasons why I have the initiative : “Ways to get students
excited about learning English”
2.2. Practical basis.
Having teaching English at Thach Thanh 3 High School for many years, I have
noticed English is probably one of the most challenging subjects that often create
high levels of anxiety and stress among learners here. The fact is that those who
were usually bored or not interested in the English class did not engage enough in

class work, which leads to slow acquisition, unequal power in school. They seem to
feel discouraged and often neglect it.It is these problems that urge me to find out
the solutions to help students get over the challenges and hold interest in the
foreign languege in a flexible and easy manner. To know exactly about this
problem,I investigated in 5 classes 10C2,10C4 ,10C5,10C7 and 12A7 before
applying “ways to get students excited about learning through warm-up activities”
by asking them the following questions:
2.3.Survey Questionaire
4


1.

Do you like learning English by using traditional method?
A.very like
B.like
C.normal
D.dislike

And I got the bellow result
very like
Total
Grade student numbe
%
s
r

like
normal
dislike

numbe
% number %
number %
r
7,
26,
10C2
38
1
2,6 3
10
24
63,1
8
3
4,
27,
53,
10C4
43
0
0
2
12
23
6
9
4
9,
48,

10C5
41
2
4,8 4
20
12
29,2
7
8
7,
38,
10C7
39
2
5,1 3
15
19
48,7
6
4
27
27,
12A7
36
0
0
10
10
16
44,4

,7
7
As can be seem from the tables that most of the students seem not to
like English lessons with the current teaching method of their teacher and they
express their preferences with suggested learning strategies of activities in
classroom.From these reason,the study entitled “Using warm-up activities to get
students excited about learning English” has been conducted as a motivation and a
means of creating opportunities for simple communication in English lessons with
the objective of involving students' more participation .
2.4. Ways to get students excited about learning English through warm-up
2.4.1.Games-based learning
Learning requires constant effort and that can be tiring.Nowadays,there is an
interesting movement towards learning English through language games.According
to “ Six games for the ESL/EFL Classroom” written by Aydan Ersoz [3], two of
more good reasons why games should be included in the lesson are:
- Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating.
- Games allow meaningful use of the language in context
However ,the teacher needs to consider which games to use,when to use them,how
to link them up with the syllabus,texbook and programme and how,more
specially,different games with with benefit student in different ways.(Khan J,1996)
[4]
*Forms of playing
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-in pairs
-in small groups of four or five
-in large groups of two tables/each left or right hand side.
-in two groups(2 teams devided from the whole class)
-in individual with class/teacher

*Requirements:
The key to a sucessful language games is that the rule is clear,the ultimate
goal is well designed and the game must be fun
2.4.2 Some warm- up activities that have successfully been applied for teaching
English 10 at Thach Thanh 3 High School
Here I present some suggested warm-up activities that I have applied in the prestages and and got relatively satisfied results from my students.
Unit 1: A day in the life of…….
a. Lesson A: Reading
- Hang on some pictures in turn and ask students to say out what they can see

- Ask students to guess the content of the lesson
b. Lesson B: Speaking
Name: matching words
Type: group work
Materials: poster, large papers, board pens
Time: 5 mins
Procedure:
- Devide the class into 2 groups
- Provide each group with 1 large and 1 board pen
- Give instruction and time allotted
- Check groups’ work and declare the winner
Subjects in English
Subjects in Vietnamese
1. Civic Education
a. Văn
2. Technology
b. Toán
3. Maths
c. Địa lý
4. Phyics

d. Hoá học
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5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Geography
History
Chemisrty
Physical Education
English
Biology
Literature
Infomatics

e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.

Tiếng Anh
Công dân
Lịch sử
Thể dục
Công nghệ
Vật lý
Tin học
Sinh học

Lesson C: Listening
Name: Network
Type: class work
Material: board, chalk
Time: 3 mins
Procedure:
- Write the key word on the board
- Ask sts to think of the related words and say in English
- Lead in the lesson by some guiding questions:
+ Do you like travel by cyclo?
+ Do you think cyclo-driver is easy work?...
c.

d.Lesson D: writing: Writing a narrative
Name: Telling a story
Type: Individual work
Materials: Nothing
Time: 3- 5 mins
Procedure:
- Ask sudents to think of the most impressed story that they witnessed or heard

- Call on 1 advanced to tell in front of the class (Encourage him/ her to use
English)
- Give some other guiding questions:
+ What items are mentioned in his/ her story (Time, event, place……)
+ Which tense is used in the story?
+ “ Bạn …vừa dùng hình thức viết văn nào để kể lại câu chuyện đó?”
e.Lesson E: Language Focus:
Name: Describing pictures
Type: Class work
Materials: Pictures, chalk
Time: 2-3 mins
Procedure:
7


-

Hang the 2 pictures on the board and ask sts to speak out what they can see
in these pictures.
Write the 2 key words on the board
Call on some students to read the words
Write the phonetic forms of them and read the words aloud several times

Unit 2: School talks
a. Lesson A: Reading:
Name: Slap the board
Type: Group work
Materials: stick cards
Time: 3- 5 mins
Procedure:

- Divide the class into 2 groups
- Ask each group to send 5 presentatives and set in a queue
- Provide each group of students 7 stick cards and give instruction
- Read aloud sentence by sentence
- Give feedback
- Declare the winner
7 Suggested sentences:
+ I often play ………online when I have free time
+ After the school year, I’ll go on a summer…….
+ Soccer and badminton are my favourite……….
+ Do you usually watch…….at 6p.m everyday?
+ What is the ……….like today?
+ Students have to………hard for the exam.
+ My ………….is collecting stamps.
Keys : games/ holiday/ sports/ film/ weather/ study/ hobby
b. Lesson B: Speaking
Name: Jumbled words
8


Type: class work
Materials: Poster
Time: 5 mins
Procedure:
- Hang on the poster
- Give instruction and time allotted
- Check with the whole class
Jumbled words:
+ nice/ been/ has/ it/ meeting/ you
+ later/ you/ see/. Goodbye.

+ Hello. Are/ you/ how
+ Sorry, go/ to/ have/ got/ I. you/ catch/ later
Keys:
+ It has nice been meeting you
+ Goodbye. See you later
+ Hello. How are you?
+ Sorry, I have got to go. Catch you later.
c. Lesson C: Listening
Name: Missing words
Type: group work
Materials: Poster, chalk
Time: 5 mins
Procedure:
- Divide the class into 2 teams
- Give instruction
- Hang on the poster
- Call on 2 representatives of the 2 groups to come to the board and write
down the key words
Poster:
+ The duty of students is to S_ _ _ _
+ In summer, my family often go to the B_ _ _ _.
+ 30th April is Hoa’s birthdayP_ _ _ _.
+ My hobby is T_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ around the world.
+ He invites me to go out for a D_ _ _ _.
Suggested answers: STUDY/ BEACH/ PARTY/ TRAVELLING/ DRINK
d. Lesson D: Writing: Writing a form
Name: Brainstorming
Type: class work
Materials: Chalk
Time: 3 mins

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Procedure:
- Write the key word in a circle on the board
- Ask sts to list as many things relating to this word as possible
- Write on board what the students say out
- Lead in the lesson by using some more questions:
+ Where do you often see these information?
+ Have you ever used these informaion? When
Private information

Lesson E: Language Focus
Name: Describing pictures
Type: class work
Materials: Pictures, chalk
Time: 3- 5 mins
Procedure:
- Hang on the 2 pictures and give the questions:
+ What is the boy doing?
+ What is the girl doing?
- Write down the 2 keys word on board
- Call some sudents to read aloud
- Read as model 3 times
- Write the phonetic forms of them
e.

Unit 3: People’s background
a. Lesson A: Reading
Name: Game: Who am I (3 persons)

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Type: Group work
Materials: pictures, some pieces of paper
Time: 5 mins
Procedure:
- Divide the class into 2 teams
- Give instruction
- Read aloud the 3 clues for 1 person in turn
- Declare the winner
Who am I?
+ I was born in Nghệ An
+ I am the greatest leader of Vietnam
+ My birthday is May 19th 1890
 UNCLE HO
•

Who am I?
+ I live in America
+ My name begins with letter B
+ I am the boss of the company
Microft
 BILL GATES
•

Who am I?
+ I am a famous female scientist.
+ I was born in Germany
+ My name begins with letter M

 MARIE CURIE
•

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Lesson B: Speaking:
Name: Listing words beginning with the letter I
Type: Group work
Materials: Large papers, boardpens
Time: 3-5 mins
Procedure:
- Divide the class into 2 teams
- Deliver each group with 1 large paper and 1 boardpen
- Ask students to write down the words beginning with I in 3 minutes
- Check with the whole class and declare the winner
c. Lesson C: Listening
Name: Name some Olympic champions
Type: class work
Material: none
Time: 2-3 mins
Procedure:
- Give the question: “Can you name some famous Olympic champions in the
world?”
Suggested names: Michael Phelps (swimming – 2008), Nastia Liukin (Athletes2008)…
d. Lesson D: Writing: Filling in a form
Name: Matching
Type: Group work
Materials: posters, board pens
Time: 3-5 mins

Procedure:
- Divide the class into 2 teams
- Provide each group with 1 poster containing the matching task
- Ask students to match in 3 minutes
- Hang groups’ work on and check with the whole class
- Declare the winner
A
B
1. name
a. Lien Truong village
2. date of birth
b. Hau Loc I
3. place of birth
c. 22/ 01/ 1985
4. school attended
d. Music and dancing
5. exams passed
e. Private tutor
6. previous job
f. English
7. interests
g. Hoang Thi Hoa
b.

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Lesson E: Language Focus
Name: Drawing pictures
Type: Classwork

Materials: Chalk, board
Time: 3 mins
Procedure:
- Draw some unclear things on the board and ask sts to guess what the teacher
is going to draw next
- Complete the pics of 3 faces with sadness on them
- Ask students these questions:
+ Who are they? Men or Women?--> Men
+ Are they sad or happy? --> Sad
- Write the 2 words on board and read them aloud 3 times
- Write the phonetic forms of them and ask students to read
Unit 4: Special Education
a. Lesson A: Reading
Name: Questionaire
Type: class work
Materials: none
Time: 3 mins
Procedure:
- Give questions and ask sudents to answer:
+ Can all of you hear/ speak/ see?
+ What are people who can’t hear/ speak/ see called? THE DISABLED
+ Is it easy or difficult to teach the disabled?
+ May they have normal education?
- Lead in the lesson: SPECIAL EDUCATION
b. Lesson B: Speaking
Name: Noughts and crosses
Type: group work
Materials: poster
Time: 5 mins
Procedure:

- Divide the class into 2 teams
- Give instruction: each group take 1 turn to choose the number they like, each
number carrries 1 word, the group have to make sentence with this word.The
group which complete 3 sentences on the same horizontal or vertical line
first will be the winner.
e.

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Monitor the game
Declare the winner
Subjects ( 1)
Activities( 4)
Friends( 7)
Test
(2)
Lower secondary( 5)
Time- table( 8)
Homework( 3)
Break ( 6)
Teachers( 9)
c. Lesson C: Listening
Name: Network
Type: Classwork
Materials: Chalk, board
Time: 2-3 mins
Procedure:
- Write the key word on the board
- Ask sts to say the name of the school for the disabled in Vietnam

- Lead in the lesson
Schools for the disabled
-

d.Lesson D: Writing
Name: Describing pictures and questions
Type: classwork
Materials: pictures
Time: 3-5 mins
Procedure:
- Hang the pictures on and give questions:
+ Who are they in these pictures?
+ How do they feel? Happy or angry?
+ What kind of letter do you write if you feel angry or dissatisfied with
something/ someone? A letter of complaint or a thank-you letter?
- Lead in the lesson

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e.Lesson E: Language focus
Name: Using realia
Type: Classwork
Materials: A box, some chalk
Time: 2 mins
Procedure:
- Take a box and ask sudents what you are holding BOX
- Take some chalk and ask sudents what is in your hand CHALK
- Write the 2 words on board
- Ask some students to read aloud the words

- Read aloud the words as model
- Write the phonetic forms and lead in the lesson
Unit 5: Technology and you
a. Lesson A: Reading
Name: Matching words and pics (names of hardware)
Type: Group work
Materials: Pictures, stick cards
Time: 3-5 mins
Procedure:
- Divide the class into 2 teams and give instruction
- Hang pics on board
- Call on the representative of each group to stick cards with the right words
on the pics
- Declare the winner

Lesson B: Speaking
Name: Network
Type: classwork
Modern inventions
Material: none
Time: 3 mins
Procedure:
- Write the key word on board
- Ask sudents to say out the names of modern inventions that they know
b.

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Lead in the lesson by some more questions:

+ Do you have……?
+ What is a/ an………..used for?
-

2.6. Results after applying the research in teaching
With the method of applying warm-up activities as shown above I have found
the lessons more vibrant and lively. Students are interested in participating in the
study voluntarily. Most children including those who are weak pay more attention,
be attracted to all activities, acquire knowledge teachers provide much better and
easier. Many students who were shy to speak in class are now more confident in
communication. Students are keen to learn the English language particularly in the
pre-stages. Many students learn more excitingly and lively. Therefore, the results of
the subject study have a considerable improvement.
The results are as follows:
Thanks to new methods of teaching in general and the various, interesting, useful
warm-up activites I have applied in teaching English 10 in particular, the average
quality of the second semester of 2 classes that I take charge in school year 20202021 has been significantly improved:
Class

sizes

10C2
10C4
Total

38
43
81

Exellent-Good

15
20
35

40%
46%
43%

Average
18
13
31

47&
30%
38%

Weak (bad)
5
10
15

13%
24%
18%

As can be seen from the tables, the number of students that are interested in
English increases considerably while the ones who lack excitement about this
subject decrease dramatically.
3.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

3.1. Conclusion.
I agree with what D. Blocher means: “ If you want to master English, get
involved and practise as much as possible.” [10]. In fact,language
games,videos/clips and presentations give practice in all the skills (listening,
speaking, writing and reading) and in all the stages of teaching and learning that
occur in a lesson (introduction, repetition, etc.). But one of the main reasons to
use them in foreign language lessons is that they are very enjoyable for both
teacher and students. Games and entertainment activities in a foreign language
lesson are very successful due to the fact that the process of learning becomes
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more active, encouraging students and involving them in the class to sustain
their interest and work, and, therefore, making retention to improve enormously.
However, it is not easy to get fluency in the second language. It is a long and
hard process
3.2.Recommendation:
3.2.1.For teachers:
To achieve the best effective method in teaching English, teachers should
have creativity, enthusiasm and love for the job they are teaching. Thus, inorder
to use teaching techniques appropriately to inspire students to learn English,
each teacher should constantly explore, and learn experiences from colleagues,
and in books . In addition, teachers need to create a favorable environment for
students to practice communicating in every English lesson.
3.2.2. For school management committee:
I would like the Department of Thanh Hoa Education and Training to expand
attending scientific conferences to discuss the teaching and learning experience,
organize annual training for teachers to improve their knowledge of access to
new teaching methods so that they can apply in teaching to get more success.
Above are some suggested warm-up activities in English 10 that I have used

and found it very effective. I would like to receive contribution from teachers
and colleagues to help my theme better in the teaching process.
I sincerely thankyou!

PRINCIPAL'S CONFIRMATION

Thach Thanh, May 17, 2021.
This is my own research,
I do not copy other people's content.
Written by

Trinh Minh Tam

17


REFERENCES
[1]. Article 28 of the education law
[2]. Dornyei (2001)
[3]. “ Six games for the ESL/EFL Classroom” written by Aydan Ersoz
[4]. Harmer, J (1991), How to teach English, London- Long man Press
[5]. Pictures on the Internet
[6]. Clips on youtube
[7]. Texbook English 10(Basic) - Viet Nam Education Publisher
[8]. Website: www.teachingenglish.org.uk
[9]. Texbook English 10(Pilot-2017) - Viet Nam Education Publisher
[10]. An article “19 motivation quotes to keep you learning english” on the
Internet.

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