Skkn improving the efficiency of teaching english reading skill for grade 8 at nguyen van troi secondary school

CATEGORY

1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................1
1.1. The reason for choosing the topic. ...................................................1
1.2 The purpose of research. ....................................................................1
1.3. Study subjects......................................................................................2
1.4. Research Methodology. .....................................................................2
2. CONTENTS OF THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE .................................2
2.1. Rationale of the initiative experience ……………………………...2
2.2. Status of the problem before applying the initiative experience....3
2.3. The solutions were used to solve the problem……………………..4
2.4. The effect of initiative experience for educational activities, with
myself, the colleagues and the school……………………………………….....9
3. CONCLUSION AND REQUESTS ……………………………………….10
3.1. Conclusion……………………………………………………..…...10
3.2.Requests……………………………………………………………..10
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………..11

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The reason for choosing the topic.
In learning English, listening is an important skill. Students can not
develop English speaking skill if they do not develop listening skill. To succeed
their conversation, students must understand what other people say. The ability
to hear and understand the natives’ words in the actual conversations, on tapes
or disks is also important for students in learning English as well as

communicating.
The fact that students have difficulties in hearing English, most of them
originally are not very interested in listening lessons because it is difficult to
hear, especially listening to the tapes. Through research and practical teaching, I
have realized the obstacles in their English listening as follows:
- Students lack background knowledge and linguistic knowledge which
help them guess and understand the content of the listening.
- Obstacles to recognize sounds: pronunciation, stress and intonation
taught by teachers seems to differ from what the natives say.
- Students tend to try to understand each word of the listening: they try to
hear every word in the listening because they think all of them are important, but
in fact they can’t hear every word. If they do not have the ability to hear
important words or key words, it will be difficult to achieve the listening. This
has made students feel frustrated and bored with listening comprehension skills.
- While listening, students cannot catch up with quick and natural
speaking speed of natives and often impatient in fostering listening skills.
Listening lessons are often found difficult and tedious. Creating the
excitement for students in these lessons is essential. Teachers must know how to
apply flexible approaches, listening teaching tips to increase the efficiency of
teaching English listening skill to help students improve their English listening
skill.

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Through practice teaching, I have tried to apply the methods and
techniques as well as listening activities that I have accumulated to teach
listening. Besides, I have gradually strengthened and edit the mispronunciations

and language structures for students to help them listen more easily.
In this writing, I would like to present a few experiences on "improving
the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade 8 at Nguyen Van Troi
secondary school Thanh Hoa City.
1.2. The purpose of research.
To improving the efficiency of teaching English listening skill for grade
8 at Nguyen Van Troi secondary school Thanh Hoa City.
1.3. Study subjects.
Method of teaching English listening skill to improving the efficiency of
teaching English listening skill for grade 8 at Nguyen Van Troi secondary
school Thanh Hoa City – shool year 2020-2021.
1.4. Research Methodology.
-Researching through the documents: textbooks 8, teacher book, exercise
book and related documents.
-Observing colleagues' teaching lessons.
-Researching from the actual teaching and learning of each student object.
-Researching Methodology of actual survey, gathering information and data
processing.
2. CONTENTS OF THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
2.1. Rationale of the initiative experience
Nowadays, when the economies of the countries in the world are
developing more and more, the cultural, political, and social exchanges between
countries are increasingly expanding.
To communicate with each other requires different countries in the world,
to know how to use a common language in addition to their native language.
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Among the most common languages of communication in the world, English is
considered the most popular common language.
For many years, learning foreign languages, especially English subject is
increasingly popular and this subject is becoming a compulsory subject in
schools. Therefore, the requirement is how to make the English lessons succeed
with high quality and efficiency, especially English listening skill, which helps
to communicate successfully. This requires teachers to always perfect
themselves not only in terms of expertise but also in teaching methods and
teaching tips.
2.2. Status of the problem before applying the initiative experience.
- In fact, students do not have conditions to listen to English around them
in everyday life. Moreover, listening skill is the most difficult to achieve and
requires students to practice a lot. Teachers should give students the opportunity
to listen to as much English as possible through cassettes. Therefore, in the
process of teaching English, I often use the tapes so that the students can hear
the voice of indigenous people and ensure that they become familiar with
pronunciation, intonation in communication which help them promote good
listening skills in English. Besides, I try to seak English as much as possible
during the lesson. However, the result is not as I expected.
* Survey results at the beginning of the school year 2020-2021:
Number of
Class
students

Percentage of
Students have good
listening skill

Percentage of Students
don’t pay attention to

practise listening

8A5

45

25 students = 55,56%

20 students = 44,44%

8A6

47

27 students = 57,45%

24 students = 42,55%

With the above situation, I have decided to apply the following measures
to improve the effectiveness of teaching English listening skills to 8th grade
students at Nguyen Van Troi Thanh Secondary School in Thanh Hoa.
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2.3. The solutions were used to solve the problem.
First, teachers need to understand the nature and importance of the
English listening comprehension skill.
Listening - receiving skill (receptive skill) is an important skill. It is the

dynamic skill of the spoken words because it includes many different knowledge
such as phonics, vocabulary, grammar, culture, the experiences of students about
the listening topics, the ability to predict and respond to the words of the
speaker, etc.
Listening is divided into two categories: Real-life listening and Classroom
listening. Listening in classroom is divided into deep listening (intensive
listening) and extensive listening. In classroom, students practice listening under
the organization of teachers.
In fact, listening is still a difficult skill for students. To overcome these
difficulties while listening and to ensure the good result of a listening lesson
within a limited time, I often take the following procedure:
- Introduce the topic, things involving listening, the concept will be heard
in the listening, ect.
- Introduce the new words or revise and consolidate the vocabulary
needed for the listening.
- Pose questions to help students predict the content of the listening.
- Pose guiding questions for the listening.
- Divide the process into steps : first listening ( listening for main ideas,
answering the general questions. Second listening ( listening for details,
addressing specific exercises ).
- If the listening is long, I divide it into short terms with the specific
requirements for the students to listen.
- After completing the listening exercise, I get students to listen to it again
to check and consolidate the content of the listening.
The above process is manipulated flexibly on the structure of teaching
listening involving the following steps:
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+ Warm up
+ Pre - listening
+ While -listening
+ Post-listening
* EXPERIMENTAL METHODS:
2.3.1. Warm up:
The first task when entering the classroom teacher has to do is the general
pedagogical purpose to stabilize class, psychological preparation, knowledge of
subjects. With Foreign Language subject, too. Warm up ( Part boot) has a very
important significance, without it will make the next step less vivid. These
activities often take a role in the situation, set out the purpose of teaching
activities - this is the necessary condition for effective lessons.
Depending on the purpose and characteristics of each post, I choose the
form and appropriate tips to focus their attention, create the excitement. For
example, after greeting and asking questions about health, weather, etc, I talk
about things relating to the topic of listening (for new/old English textbooks) or
I create excitement by some short games such as: bingo, pelmanism,
brainstorming, guessing game, Kim’s game, chain game, crossword puzzle,...
In short: I can apply multiple tips, a variety of methods in the
REVISION / WARM UP efficiently, and perform many different tasks in order
to draw students’ attention and create class stability, at the same time to check
the previous leson. This also helps students prepare their psychology for the
lesson.
2.3.2. Pre – listening
a. Purpose :
Help students become familiar with the topic and introduce them some
new words, new terms which may appear in the listening.
b. Steps :
- Help students to have their state of mind by attracting them to the

content or theme of the listening: inspiring students, suggesting to mobilize
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available knowledge of students about the topic and listening, this can help
students base on that knowledge to understand the content of the listening more
easily.
- Introduce the topic of the listening briefly to draw students’ attention.
Students prepare for the listening and guess what will be listened and while
listening, students will check the accuracy of prediction. This helps students
listen in a focused way.
- Preresolve some difficulties that students may encounter in listening
such as knowledge of cultural background, language knowledge such as words
and grammar structures, difficult sounds, etc to help students understand the
listening easily.
- Give one or two guiding questions to students to lead them to the main
idea of listening before they listen.
Ex: You will listen to a passage/text about ... Listen and try to answer these
questions:
Question 1: .................................. ?
Question 2: What ... about: ... or ... ?
- Teacher sets tasks for students to hear when listening: Listen for what ?
Listen to and conduct any kind of exercise?
c. The tips
+ Open prediction:
Teachers help students guess by giving some suggesting questions. Let
students watch the pictures. Teacher can tell a story and stop at some of the
content for students to guess what will happen then, or make students visualize

the story to which they are about to listen, etc.
Teachers just raise the topic of the listening and let students guess what
the contents of the listening will be like. To inspire students, teachers can
introduce the topic of listening by using pictorial, or real objects, etc.
+ True/False statements prediction:

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Teachers make some comments on the main content of the listening or
give out some sentences for students to guess true/ false ones.
+ Ordering:
Teachers let students observe some Pictures or teachers read some
sentences and ask students to sort them in the correct order.
+ Pre- questions:
The teacher gives a few questions about the topic of the listening, the
students based on the available knowledge to answer these questions
+ Wordstorm:
Remind students of the vocabulary relating to the topic to which they are
about to listen. Inspire students to build "the network" vocabulary relating to the
topic of listening, including new words and difficult words that students will
encounter in the listening. To inspire students, teachers should use some tips to
refresher vocabulary such as “ Word Square” or “ Noughts and Crosses”, etc.
Attention: Avoid lecturing or providing right knowledge for students.
Teachers should have some suggestive questions to help students to think and
find out the answers.
- To create a live atmosphere at the beginning of the lesson, students
should work in groups / pairs.

- Use pictures to introduce key vocabulary to reduce the use of
Vietnamese in classroom.
- In all the activities before listening, teachers only encourage, inspire
students to speculate and perform required assignments, not give the right
answers. Students will have to find out the answers while listening.
2.3.3. While – listening
a. Purpose :
Students

perform

the

tasks

of

listening

to

develop

listening

comprehension skills.
b. Steps :

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- First listening: Students listen to the whole tape script for the main idea
basing on leading questions that the teacher has made. After the first listening,
the teacher can ask: What did you hear ? or What is the listening about ?
- Second listening: No pause. Students listen and complete the tasks
while listening. This section aims to test the ability and listening speed of
students and ask the students to give the answer after listening.
- Third listening (Check and consolidation):
Check and consolidate the content of the listening, occasionally the
teacher can pause at the highlights to see if students can keep up, and to give
students time to finish the rest of task.
Check students listening comprehension level by offering them a number
of questions about the content of the listening. Check out how students have
made the task of listening.
c. The tips
+ Listening is different from reading: while reading, students can adjust
their reading speed. If they do not understand any sections, the students may
slow down reading or go back to read again. But in listening, students depend
entirely on the speed of the tape. So listening skill is considered more difficult.
In first listening or second listening the teacher lets the students listen to the
whole tape to get the main ideas or the layout and do exercises. If students find
it difficult to listen, the teacher can stopping at some difficult places. However,
this should be limited. Don’t often let students listen to each sentence, as this
will make bad listening habits when listening to understand every word or every
sentence. This also slows down students’ listening speed.
+ Teachers should give students determined time to complete the
exercises. Then ask the students to compare their answers. Teachers observe if
the majority of students answer correctly, call a few students to examine and

determine the correct answers; if the majority are unanswered, guide students to
listen again, focusing on passages or sentences that contain the answers and
suggest students find the right answers.
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Attention:
- Ensure that students understand the messages without listening through
out each word.
- Ensure that students understand the messages without listening through
out each word.
- Teachers should focus on teaching listening skill for students rather than
checking students' listening skill.
- Teachers should give students strategies to recognize sounds like a
repetition, restated, judge, make use intonation, stress and stopping distances.
- If the listening is long to hear, teachers need to split the parts and check
students' comprehension levels partially.
2.3.4. Post-listening
a. Purpose :
Consolidate listening comprehension skill through such summary form,
including the form of listening, oral or written, or by contacting the topic with
real life (Students use the information they heard to practice).
With the experimented English textbooks, after the listening is part
writing. Students can rely on the results of the listening or use the target
language from listening to cater to writing.
b. Steps :
- Requirements: Students must understand the listening and language
production. Language production focusing on fluency. ( fluency = producing

what has been listened, retelling the story, giving comments, role-play, ending
the story, ect. )
- To implement:
+ Teachers recommend students to speak or write (using production
techniques) to summarize and review the information they have heard.
+ Ask the students to give their opinion or comment on some details of
the listening.

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+ Teacher helps students discuss in pairs / groups about the problems in
the listening.
+ Teachers make a similar problem for students to solve.
+ If the listening is a conversation, teachers can recommend students to
act out the conversations they have just heard.
Attention: The activities in this phase are varied and plentiful, it requires
teachers to apply properly for each post. Depending on the level of English of
students, teachers can build or diversify the activities in this period.
c. The tips
+ Summarize the listening: This is the common operation after hearing all
the tapescript. It both reinforces students’ understanding and helps them practice
using the knowledge and language they have learnt in the listening. Do not just
make a general request but need meticulous guidance. Teachers can give some
suggestive words which students can use to write the briefs, or write the
beginnings of sentences and students just complete them; or teachers can give
some questions about the gist of all, students write a brief by answering those
questions, etc. Summary activities can also be made through talking.

+ Students write or talk about a similar problem on themselves or those in
similar situations in the listening.
+ Group discussion, exchange of feelings, opinions and comments on the
problem they have heard.
+ Role-play: the teacher gives a few hints, the students work in pairs /
groups playing the role in the listening or asking and answering about the
problems they have just heard, etc.
* SAMPLE LESSON PLAN:
UNIT 2: LIFE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
Lesson 6. A Skills 2
I. Objectives: By the end of the lesson Ss will be able to:
- Listen for specific information about changes in the countryside.
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- Write a short paragraph about changes in the countryside.
1. Knowledge:
a. Vocabulary: brick houses, earthen
b.Grammar: Comparative forms of adj/adv
2. Competences : Linguistic competence, cooperative learning and
communicative competence.
3. Qualities: Students love talking about some nomadic activities.
II. Teaching aids:
1. Materials: Text book, plan, extra-board
2. Equipment: computer accessed to the Internet, projector, loudspeaker
III. Procedures:
1. Checkup attendance
2. Checkup the old lesson

3. New lesson
Teacher and students’ activities
The main contents
Activity 1. Warm- up
Aim: Help Ss attend to the lesson.
* Groupwork
- Divided the class into two groups.
In the past
Now
- Put the phrases into the corect
- use oil lamp
- Use electric light
column.
- ride a horse
- travel by
- Call each group go to the
- walk to work
motobikes
board and write.
- live in earthern - live in a brick
- The group which write right
house.
house
sentence is the winner
- live far from
- Use electric fan,
- T: In the past, means of
school
air-conditioner.
transports is animal such as:

- play with the
- live near school
horse, buffaloes… Now they
nature
- play video games
travel by motobikes and cars.
- have TV
Now, we don’t use oil lamps any
more. We have electric lights.
- T introduces the lesson
Activity 2. Presentation
Aim: Help Ss listen to the information about changes in the countryside and
do exercises
- T asks students to listen to the
tape and tick the changes he
mentions.
- T calls one to read all of the

1- LISTENING
Ex 1. Listen and tick(v) the change he
mentions.

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sentences before the class.
- T plays the tape twice.
- Ss do it then answer the question

in speaking.
- T gives the key.

A. the roads in the village
B. electrical appliances in the homes v
C. means of transport

v

D. entertainment
E. school

F. visitors
Ex2. Listen again and say if the
- T asks them to read the
sentences and guess: True or False. sentences are true (T) or false (F).
1 –F;2–T;3–F;4–T;5–T
- T plays the tape again.

v
v

- Ss listen and do exercise.
- T gives the key.
- T asks students to listen again
and answer the questions.
- Ss listen and answer

Ex3. Listen again and answer the
questions no more than Four words.

1.His parents.
2.Life outside their village.
3.Nearby the village / Near the village.
4.A nomadic life.

Activi ty 3. Practice.
Aim: Ss can write ab out the changes in their village.
- T asks Ss to write some changes
in the village.
- Ss write
- T corrects the mistakes

2. WRITING
Eg: My hometown has some changes.
- They have a better life because they have
electricity, TV, hospital, school supply.
- There are good places for children to
play.
Eg:a park, stadium, entertainment center...
- They travel to work by car…
- The roads are widened

Activity 4. Further practice.
Aim: Ss can talk about the changes in their village.
T asks some students to talk some
changes in the village.
Ss talk some changes in the
village. T corrects the mistakes

Eg: I am going to tell you about the

changes in their village.

* Homework.
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- Talk and write about the changes in their village
- Prepare for the next lesson: Looking back & Project
UNIT 4: OUR CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS
Period 31: Skills 2
I. Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to:
- Listen to get specific information about a traditional dance of an ethnic
group in Viet Nam.
- Write a description of a traditional Japanese dance.
1 . Knowledge :
- Vocabulary: spiritual, private, reunion, conical hat, reflect.
2. Competences: Linguistic competence, cooperative learning and
communicative competence.
3. Qualities:- Students are aware of protecting “custom and traditions”.
- Students love talking about our customs and traditions.
II. Teaching aids:
1. Materials: Text book, plan
2. Equipment: computer accessed to the Internet, projector, loudspeaker
III. Procedures:
1. Checkup attendance
2. Checkup the old lesson
3. New lesson
Teacher's and students’

activities

The main contents

Activity 1. Warm- up
Goal: Help Ss to pay at tention in the lesson .
T lets Ss watch a video about
1. Questions
traditional song and answer the What tradition do you think it is?
question.
Ss watch and answer. Share
their ideas with a partner.
T introduces the listening
Activity 2. Pr esentation
Goal: Ss can listen to get specific informati on about a traditional
dance of an ethnic group in Viet nam.
T introduces the new words. Ss
take notes.

*New words
Spiritual: thuộc tinh thần, tôn giáo
Private: riêng tư cá nhân
Reunion: sum họp
Conical hat: có dạng hình nón
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T asks the Ss to listen to the tape

Reflect: hành động phản xạ tự nhiên
twice.
2 . Listen and complete the sentences
Ss listen.
* Keys
T asks the Ss to listen and
1. happy and wealthy
complete the table.
2. private gatherings
Ss do it.
3. 30
T asks them to compare their
4. the circle dance
answers with their friends.
5. social
Ss do it.
6. fire
T asks some to read the answers.
7. music
Some Ss read.
8. culture and lifestyle
T checks and corrects.
T asks the Ss to do task 3.
3 . Listen to the passage and tick(v)
Ss do it.
true or false
T asks them to compare their
answers in groups.
* Keys
Ss do it.

1 –T ;2–F ;3–F ;
T asks some Ss to read the
4 –T ;5- T
answers.
Some Ss read.
T checks and corrects.
Activity 3. Practice
Goal: Ss can ask and answer about the Ob on dance is a traditional Japanese
dance.

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T asks the Ss to do task 4 in pairs.
Ss do it.
T asks them to compare with
their answers.
Ss compare.
T asks some Ss to talk in front
of the class.
Some Ss read.
T checks and corrects.

4 . Make complete the sentences
Example:
A: What’s the tradition?
B: The Obon dance is a traditional
Japanese dance.

A: What does the dance express? B:
People have the honour of their ancestors.
A: When does people perform the Obon
dance?
B: The Obon festival takes place in midAugust in many regions of Japan and in
mid-July in other regions.
-There are many forms in different
regions.
-The most typical form is circle dance.
-People make a circle around a yagura, a
high wooden stage; some dancers move
clockwise, and some counter-clockwise.
-This is one of most important tradition. A
lot of people come back to reunite with
their families during the Obon festival.

Activity 4. Fur ther practice
Goal: Ss can write a description of a traditi onal Japanese dance.
5 . Write about the Obon dance
T asks Ss to work individually Example:
There is a traditional in Japanese that
to write about the Obon dance.
Ss do it.
people perform the Obon dance during
T asks them to compare with
the Obon festival. The festival happens in
their answers.
mid-August in many
Ss compare.
regions of Japan. There are many

T asks some Ss to talk in front different forms of Obon dance in different
of the class.
regions. In order to perform it, people
Some Ss read.
make a circle around a yagura, a high
T checks and corrects.
wooden stage; some dancers move
clockwise, and some counter-clockwise. I
really like this dance.
* Homework:
- Rewrite the descriptions about the Obon dance
- Do the exercises in workbook.
- Prepare for the next lesson: Looking back- Project.
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2.4. The effect of initiative experience for educational activities, with myself,
the colleagues and the school.
After testing the above methods in classes 8A5 and 8A6, I found the topic
really workable. On the basis of the results of the 2021 - 2020 school year and
the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year, I see a marked improvement in
the quality of teaching.
* survey results at the end of the school year 2020-2021:
Number of
Class
students

Percentage of

Students have good
listening skill

Percentage of Students
don’t pay attention to
practise listening

8A5

45

42 students = 93,3%

3 students = 6,7%

8A6

47

43 students = 91,5%

4 students = 8,5%

With this result, I boldly bring this topic to discuss, share and draw
experiences to contribute to improving the quality of teaching English listening
skill.
3. CONCLUSION AND REQUESTS
3.1. Conclusion.
Listening is one of four key skills in order to develop thinking language
ability for students in the process of teaching and learning English. This is a

difficult skill and very boring for students. Therefore, to have an effective
method of teaching listening which inspires students and promotes their
diligence in listening lessons, teachers should always research, study new
methods and have a flexible and creative process of employing new methods as
well as the skills and techniques in order to accumulate experiences for
themselves.
During the renovation process in general teaching methods, teaching
English in particular, there are many methods, skills and techniques of subject
teaching was introduced to help the quality of teaching is increasingly high.
Through teaching, accessing new teaching methods with many skills, tricks , I
myself have concluded the English teaching listening skills in secondary school
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to help me take the time to teach effectively high. We can see, with new
methods available today, there are many ways to conduct a listening leson, but
the method I described in this writing, in my opinion it not only meets the
requirements of a listening lesson but is also simple to apply.
Above is a small share of myself to my colleagues. I sincerely hope you
read it, references and comments so that I get the better method.
3.2. Requests.
3.2.1. For students:
- The learning attitude should be positive
- Be skillful and fluent to creatively apply the learned knowledge to life
3.2.2. For teachers:
- Need to learn age psychology to have methods of educating students.
- Choosing the method of education in class and demonstrated in many
different ways.

- Need to explore and create practical teaching aids.
Confirmation of the head of
Nguyen Van Troi secondary school.

Thanh Hoa, April 5th, 2022
I certify that this is my initiatives
and experiences.

Trần Thanh Sơn
CONFIRMATION OF THE HEAD OF
THANH HOA CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

REFERENCES
1.

A training course for teachers – Adrian Doff ( Cambridge University
Press)

2.

A Practical English Grammar – A. J. Thomson
– A. V. Martinet ( Oxford University Press)
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3.

English Book 6 – Education Publish House

4.

English Book 9 – Education Publish House

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