skkn using some language games in some speaking periods to create excitement and motivate learning english for grade 12 students

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................2
1.1. Reason for choosing the study........................................................................2
1.2. Aims of the study............................................................................................2
1.3. Objects of the study........................................................................................2
1.4. Methods of the study.......................................................................................2
2. CONTENT......................................................................................................3
2.1.Theoretical back ground...................................................................................3
2.2.Real situation of teaching and learning English at Tho Xuan 4 high school...4
2.3.Some speaking activities applied in teaching English 12 (basic)....................5
2.3.1. First riddle................................................................................................5
2.3.2. Who takes on?..........................................................................................6
2.3.3. How much do you know about this?........................................................6
2.3.4. How you say in this situation?.................................................................8
2.3.5. Win her heart............................................................................................9
2.3.6. Which school?........................................................................................10
2.3.7. Magic wheel...........................................................................................10
2.3.8. Complete the words................................................................................11
2.3.9. Daily work..............................................................................................12
2.3.10. Exhibition.............................................................................................14
2.3.11. Guessing game.....................................................................................14
2.3.12. Stop the bus..........................................................................................15
2.4. Result............................................................................................................15
3. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION..........................................................16
3.1. Conclusion....................................................................................................16
3.2. Suggestions...................................................................................................16
REFERENCE......................................................................................................18

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reason for choosing the study
Learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried
will agree. One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition
from the classroom to the 'real' world. In the classroom, everyone knows you are a
student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe.
Speaking another language outside the classroom is completely different and often
students are lost at sea as soon as they step outside the door. Lists of memorized
vocabulary are suddenly useless when ordering in a restaurant.
The problem becomes more complicated when it comes to Vietnam setting.
English teachers in Vietnam have just adopted communicative approach for just a
few years since the using of the new textbooks. However, they have not paid
enough attention to speaking skill. The speaking tasks are simple, and more
importantly, impractical.
How to create excitement for students during English speaking lessons?
Through out five- year teaching experience, studying materials as well as observing
the other teachers' class, I realize that stimulating students to practice speaking
actively during English lesson majorly bases on designing teaching-learning
activities of each teacher in each lesson plan. And, games in general and speaking
games in particular are very useful in teaching and learning English speaking
because it not only encourages, but improves and teaches students’ ability in using
English fluently as well. Therefore, I think this study is necessary and the result of
using games in teaching speaking will bring many practical benefits to the students.
As an English teacher, I really want to clarify the topic here with my
knowledge to analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at
high school; the application of games in teaching English at the school. Thanks to
it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and make a small contribution to
enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject. Thus, in this writing, I would
like to present the study entitles:
"Using some language games in some speaking periods to create

excitement and motivate learning English for grade 12 students".
1.2. Aims of the study
The aims of this study are:
- To introduce some language games in teaching speaking
- To show how to organize games effectively and how to deal with initial
problems that may arise.
- To create excitement and enhance learning English for students.
1.3. Objects of the study
This subject is concerned with ways of using some language games as well
as their effectiveness on teaching speaking.
1.4. Methods of the study
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Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in
teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
2. CONTENT
2.1. Theoretical back ground
Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of
verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13).
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its
importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English
language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or
memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of
teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in
that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and
cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach
second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking
activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom
settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.

Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak
in the second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and
collaborative learning serve best for this aim. Communicative language teaching is
based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in
ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other
in the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom
environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and
meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students
collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.
There is an interesting movement towards teaching speaking with games. It
creates students’ motivation in learning English, especially speaking English g. Just
immage when coming in class the teacher annouces that it is time for speaking
lesson with games instead of moans and whinning, the teacher and the students get
smiles and excitemment.
Aydan Ersoz, author of "Six Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom" also explains
more reasons why games do work for teaching speaking. Learning a language
requires constant effort and that can be tiring, but Ersoz outlines two good reasons
why games should be included in the classroom:
* Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating.
* Games allow meaningful use of the language in context.
Students may wish to play games purely fo fun. Teacher, however, need more
convincing reasons. “ Teacher need to consider which games to use, when to use
them, how to link them up with the syllabus, textbook and programme and how,
more specially, different games with benifit student in different ways” (Khan,
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J,1996). 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.
2.2. Real situation of teaching and learning English at Tho Xuan 4 high school

From applying new English teaching methods, "language games" have
been become main activity in teachers' lesson plans, especially in speaking plans.
Some teachers have paid attention and prepared careful game. They know how to
make the class time pleasant and comfortable so they create excitement and
motivate speaking English for their students. However, some others are not aware
much about the importance of language games as well as speaking skill. They still
think that these games for this part waste time and make class noisy. Thus, instead
of having better preparation for speaking period, they often explain the grammar
rules and ask students to do exercises. This makes students stressful and the class
time boring.
Moreover, for students at Tho Xuan 4 high school, they have approached
new teaching methods, but they seem to be embarrassing when they take part in
speaking activities. To know exactly about this problem, I have investigated 90
students in 2 classes 12A5 and 12A6 by asking them the following questions:
Please tick your choice to answer the following questions:
1. Do you like speaking activities in English lessons?
Very like
Like
Normal
Dislike
2. Why do (don't) you like speaking activities in English lesson?
...................................................................................................................
And I get the bellow result:
Total
90 students

very like
like
No
%

No
10
11.1 15

Normal
%
No
%
16.7 25
27.8

Dislike
No
%
40
44.4

As can be seen from the result that most of good students are interested in
speaking activities while lower students are shy because they have no ability to take
part in .Student's level of understanding is unequal in a class to cause difficulty for
teachers to choose activities which are suitable for whole class. Many activities can
be applied well in this period but they also are boring in the other ones. Lots of
speaking activities make good students excited while bad students could not
participate in. And vice versa, some activities attract lower students but make good
ones bored.
Besides, my school is located in half-plain and pure agricultural area so
students `have less chance to communicate in foreign language in daily life. They
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are so shy to speak as well as express ideas, so the lessons often end with chatting
in mother tongue.
From those reasons, the study entitled ""Using some language games in
some speaking periods to create excitement and motivate learning English for
grade 12 students" has been conducted with the hope to make teachers and
students have a good chance to practice speaking English.
2.3. Some speaking activities applied in teaching English 12 (basic).
2.3.1. First riddle
Aims: find key word related to the topic of the lesson
Unit 1: Home life
Time:: 4 minutes
Preparation: 6 pictures
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- Teacher (T) divides class into 2 teams A and B
- T hangs the pictures prepared on the board and asks students (Ss) to find out the
name of each picture and then take the first word of each word to make key word.
Which teams finding the key word fastest will be the winner.
- Ss work in group and find the key word.
- T declares the winner and leads in to the new lesson.
* Key word: FAMILY
* 6 cue pictures:

Fish

Ice cream

Armchair

Lamp

Mushroom

Yard
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2.3.2. Who takes on?
Aim: practice talking about house works
Unit 1 Home life
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: handouts printed the information in the textbook
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into groups of 4 students
T gives Ss handouts
Each student in each group will go to other groups to interview about the
information in the handout
After 2 minutes, Ss return their group to report the information of the friend
who they have interviewed.
T calls some groups to present their work in front of the class
T gives feedback
*Model dialogue:
Student A: Can you tell me who works in your family?
Student B: Both my parents work. My father is a doctor. My mother is a worker.
Student A: Who does household chores?
Student B: My mother does most household chores.
Student A: What is your responsibility in the family?
Student B: I help my mother do the washing up and clean the floor. I help my
brother with his homework.

Student A: What interest do your family members share closely?
Student B: our schoolwork and TV programmes are what we share closely.
Student A: Who do you often share your secrets with?
Student B: I often share my secrets with my mother
Student A: Who do you talk to before making an important decision?
Student B: I talk to my parents before making an important decision.
Report
I talked to Mai. Both her parents work. Her mother does most household chores
but she helps her a lot. Her responsibility is doing the washing up, cleaning the
floor and helping her brother with his homework. Her family members share the
schoolwork and TV programmes closely. She often shares her secrets with her
mother. She talks to her parents before making an important decision.
2.3.3. How much do you know about this?
Aims: practice talking about diverse culture
Unit 2: Cultural diversity
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: 8 pictures
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Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into 8 groups. Each group chooses a representative
T lets groups choose one of 8 pictures in random. Each picture expresses one
of different cultural features which are concerned in the textbook page 22,23
Ss will observe the picture and express the their ideas about the cultural
feature in it
After 2 minutes, T calls representatives of groups to present their ideas in
front of the class
T gives comments

*8 cue pictures

1

2

3

4

5

6
7


7

8

*Answer
1. People go shopping once a week
2. Lovers hold hands and kiss in public
3. Children sleep in their own bedrooms
4. Three generations live under the same roof
5. People ask questions about age
6. people celebrate their birthdays
7. Christmas is a national holiday
8. Marriage is based on love
2.3.4. How you say in this situation?

Aim: practice giving and responding compliments
Unit 3: Ways of socializing
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: some situations
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into 2 team (A &B)
- T gives some situations on the board
- One student in group A will give a compliment following the situation given by
teacher and one students in group B will respond. After that, one student in
group B will give compliment and student in group A respond.
- This response must be done continually in turns. Whoever stop s in 5 seconds (
the whole class counts one, two , three….) has to stand up. Which team has less
students standing up will be the winner.
- T gives feedback
Example:
Situation 1: a girl is wearing a new dress
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Student A: You look very nice in your new dress.
Student B: Thank you. That’s a nice compliment…
2.3.5. Win her heart
Aims: warm- up activities for talking about the topic of the lesson
Unit 4: School education system
Time: 3 minutes
Preparation: pictures about kinds of school
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into 2 teams "Son Tinh" and "Thuy Tinh"

- T hangs 6 pictures in turn on the board
- 2 teams raise hand to have right to guess "what is kind of school?" in the picture.
If guessing is correct, they will one step to win Mi Nuong's heart. If wrong, they
will spend right to answer to the left team. Which team stepping to the top first will
be the winner.
- T gives feedback for each guessing and marks for each team
- T declares the winner and leads in to the lesson
*Cue pictures: Kindergarten, Primary school, Secondary school, High school

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2.3.6. Which school?
Aim: practice talking about school education system in Vietnam and England
Unit 4: School education system
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: a note of vocabulary cards for each pair
Work arrangement: pair works
Procedure:
- T lets Ss work in pair
- T puts vocabulary cards on the desk and covers them
- Ss take turn to choose card and talk about the tissue in it. Student A will talk about
school education system in Vietnam and student B will school talk about education
system in England. After that, two students will find the similarities and
differences between two school education systems.
- T asks Ss to discuss in 3 minutes and then calls some pairs to present their work
in front of the class
- T gives feedback
 Vocabulary cards
Levels of education

The age at which children start grade 1
The terms
Compulsory education
Academic year
The grades at primary school
School fee
curriculum
School system
National examination
2.3.7. Magic wheel
Aim: practice talking about the process of applying to a tertiary institution in
Vietnam
Unit 5: Higher education
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: a wheel of 12 numbers (from one to twelve) indicating 12 months in a
year
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into teams
- Each team will take turn to choose the number by turning the wheel. Then, Ss will
have to talk about what they will do in that month to prepare for going to
university
- Ss can using the cues in task 2 page 55
- Each presentation will get one point. Which team has more points will be the
winner.
- Ss plays game and T gives feedback
*Expected answer:
10

Month
October
November
December
January
February
March
May
June
July
August
September

Work
Learn for the first semester at high school
Do 15 minute and one period tests
Learn for the first semester at high school
Do 15 minute and one period tests
Take first term examination
Get first term results
Start second semester
Attend meetings introducing universities
Choose the favourite university or college
Fill in the application form
Send the application form
Take the GCSE examination
Get the GCSE result
Take the entrance examination to the university of
Get the entrance examination result
Get a letter of acceptance from the university

Go to university as a university student

2.3.8. Complete the words.
Aim: review some vocabularies related to job
Unit 6: Future jobs
Time: 7 minutes
Preparation: handout
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
T divides class into four groups
T gives handout including 17 words. There is a key letter of the key word “
choose the right job” in each word
Ss will work in group to find the words by reading the given cues
T lets Ss to discuss in 4 minutes and then calls them to give their answers on
the board. Which group has more right answers and find the key word in the
shortest time will be the winner.
*Handout
SHEET 1
Read the clues and find out the right words. The dashes show you the number of
letters of each word. Some of them are two- word.
1.
____C________
2.
___H_____
3.
_O___
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4.

5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.

_O__
S_____
_E________
__T______
___H___________
___E____
___R______
_I_____
____G____
_H___________
__T
____G_____
__O_______
____B__

SHEET 2: Clues.

1. He can arrest criminals ( two words )
2. He designs houses, buildings…..
3. She wears and shows her new styles of clothes
4. He prepares food in the restaurant
5. He spends most of his working time at sea
6. She makes people’s appearance more beautiful
7. He travels into space
8. He designs clothes (two words)
9. He makes people laugh a lot by his performance on stage
10. He writes articles for some newspapers
11. He stops fire
12. She takes groups of tourists around the city
13. He sells you things in a shop(two words)
14. He cures animals when they are ill
15. He plays records at a jazz club at night
16. He plays football professionally
17. He repairs things like water pipes in your house
Answer:
1. police officer 2. architect
3. model
4. cook
5. sailor
6. beautician
7. astronaut
8. fashion designer
9. comedian
10. journalist
11. fireman
12. tour guide
13. shop assistant 14. vet

15. disc jockey 16.footballer
17. Plumber
2.3.9. Daily work
Aim: practice talking about the work features of some common jobs
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Unit 6: Future jobs
Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: pictures of some common jobs
Work arrangment: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into groups of five students and gives them a set of pictures.
- T asks them to talk about daily activities of the job in each picture. One student
in each group will take note the ideas of their group.
- After 5 minutes, T calls the representative of each group to present their ideas in
front of class. Other students can give more ideas if necessary.
- T gives feedback.
*Cue pictures

Example:
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Picture 1: A policeman directs the traffic, helps people in the streets with
information about traffic laws, prevents crimes, and catches criminals….
2.3.10. Exhibition
Unit 10: Endangered species
Aim: express their own ideas about endangered species as well as protecting them.
Time: 10 minutes

Preparation: some big pieces of paper, markers, color pencils
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into 5 groups and delivers 5 big pieces of paper and markers,
color pencils to each group.
- T asks them to draw a picture of endangered animals and then introduce some
facts about them
- Ss discuss in group to discuss the information about the animal in their picture
- After 4 minutes T has Ss stick their pictures on the board, one representative of
each group will present their group’s idea.
- T and other Ss give comments and choose the best-designer poster and the best
presentation to praise.
*Model:
Pandas live in bamboo forest in the mountains
in central land western China. They are big animal.
Pandas can grow up from to 1.5 meters high and
weigh up 160 kg. Bamboo is their main diet.
The life span of pandas can be about 20 to 30 years.
Now there are only about 600 pandas left in the world.
Pandas populations are at risk due to hunting and illegal
trading.
2.3.11. Guessing game
Unit 12: Water sport
Aims: practice talking about some water sports
Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: some small gifts
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into 4 teams
- T asks them to prepare a talking about some water sports you have known in 5

minutes. Ss can use cues in the textbook page 131
- T lets each group to choose the best student to represent
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- A representative of each group will stand in front of the class and tell about the
type of sport you have talked. Other teams have to listen and give the name of
the sport.
- The team who gives the correct answer first will win and gets 10 marks.
- T gives feedback after each presentation and declares the winner.
*Example:
It is played in a pool. It is played with a ball and people play it in a team.
Key: water polo
2.3.12.

Stop the bus

Unit 12: The 22nd Sea Games
Aim: introduce some country in Southeast Asian and some popular sports
Time: 5 minutes
Preparation: some alphabet cards
Work arrangement: group work
Procedure:
- T divides class into three teams
- T draw three lines on the board and label them with two categories.
Team A
Team B
Team C
Country:
…………

………….
…………
Sport:
…………
………….
…………
- T gives Ss a letter from alphabet. As quickly as possible, Ss should think of a
word connected with each category beginning with this letter and write them
down.
- The first team to write down one word for each category should shout “stop the
bus”. If the words are correct, T gives them one point then chooses the other
letter.
*Model:
1. Letter M
Country: Malaysia
Sport: Mountain climbing
2. Letter T
Country : Thailand
Sport: Table tennis/ Tennis
2.4. Result
All above things are some speaking activities which I applied for grade 12
students at Tho Xuan 4 high school. After applying those activities, I see that
students' learning English have been improved. The table below expresses clearly
the change in the students’ behavior in speaking activities:

15


Total
90

(12A5,12A26)

very like
No
students 30

like

%
No
33.3 40

normal
%
No
44.4 15

dislike

%
No
16.7 5

%
5.5

In fact, almost students seem to be more excitement as well as indulging in
learning English. Lots of shy students are more confident. They begin speaking
English together in the classtime. Especially, they are very interested in speaking
activities. This makes them more active and more enthusiasm to take part in

learning activities. Thus, their learning result has been clearly increased in
comparison with the beginning semester.
Learning result in 2016-2017: (before applying project)
Total
excellent good
fair
bad
90 students
No %
No %
No No
No
(12A5,12A6)
3
3,3 15 16,7 30
33,3 42
Learning result in 2017-2018: (after applying project)
Total
excellent good
fair
bad
90 students
No %
No
%
No
%
No
(12A5,12A6)
10 11,1 30

33,3 40
44,5 10

%
46,7

%
11,1

3. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
3.1. Conclusion
Language games help teachers combine 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading
and writing during giving the games and form the habit to play them. Therefore,
teachers only need to prepare a little, they can make class atmosphere lively and
effectiveness of learning high because both teachers and students are familiar to the
way to play games. During the game, most students feel interested, ready to
cooperate to take part in the game. When playing the games, students express their
motivation. Moreover, students can revise the old structure and learn new one
without being nervous or tired. In summary, learning speaking through games is a
method both effective and attractive, and can apply in any classes.
3.2. Suggestions
It can be said that teaching English by new methods at high school especially
at schools which is located in pure agricultural area is very difficult. However,
teacher can apply new methods effectively if they really have love with teaching
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career and always study suitable teaching methods for each student, gradually solve
difficulties of this subject. Through this writing, I want to share my little experience
about using some new speaking activities to stimulate students to learn English

with the other teachers. I really hope that it is a useful reference to help teacher
have the most effective lessons. `

XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh hoá, ngày 20 tháng 05 năm 2018
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình
viết, không sao chép nội dung của người
khác.
Người viết

LÊ THỊ HOA

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REFERENCE
1. Sách giáo khoa Tiếng anh 12, NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam
2. Thiết kế hoạt động dạy & học Tiếng anh 12, Kiều Hồng Vân- Cao Thị Thu
Hương- Cao Hồng Liên, NXB Giáo dục.
3. Thiết kế bài giảng tiếng anh 12, Trần Thị Ái Thanh- Hồ Thị Tân Hoa- Huỳnh
Thạnh- Trần Thị Diệu Hòa, NXB Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội.
4. Phương pháp giảng dạy Tiếng Anh trong trường phổ thông – Nguyễn Hạnh
Dung.
5. Tài liệu bồi dưỡng giáo viên cốt cán môn Tiếng Anh THPT – 2003.
6. Methodology handbook for English teachers in Viet Nam.
7. Teach English by Adrian Doff.
8. Harmer, J( 1991), How to teach English, London- Long man Press

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