Some methods for improving speaking skills of 10th grade students in english at chu van an high school

PART ONE : INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE:
As we all know that English has become an international language because and
communication is an important skill for every modern student to master. In the
tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective
communicative tools for everybody. Communication is an important skill for
every modern student to master. Advances in digital media, changing career
landscapes, and greater competition in colleges and workplaces makes improving
student communication skills a must. Cramming tips the night before a big
interview won’t do the job if students are trying to make an impression in the
collaborative workplaces of the future. When it comes to acquiring indispensable
communication skills, there’s no time like the present.
The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of
economics, politics, science, culture and education. Being aware of the
importance of English so the society is becoming more and more interested in
teaching and learning English at schools, the curriculums and the methods of
teaching English are innovated to better the needs of learners. Teachers have to
use these skills and activities to promote positive, proactive students and create
optimal conditions for students to train, develop and enhance skills to use
language for purposes of communication. So we have to create the environment
for students to communicate in the classroom, especially, in Speaking lessons
and this raises for teachers is to organize various activities to improve the
efficiency of the speaking lessons and make students feel easily with the
subject. However, the majority of students are still feeling embarrassed and shy
when speaking in front of the class. To help students overcome these
problems, I boldly give the subject “Some methods for improving speaking
skills of 10th grade students in English at Chu Van An High School ”

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II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
When writing this initiative, I just wish to offer some ideas to find the best
teaching methods generate excitement for students and bring optimal efficiency.
- Through this research, I myself will have more experiences in teaching
speaking lessons.
- Promote active learning of students in English class, especially in
speaking lessons
- guiding students to practise themseves, practise to have skills and
speaking skills in English.
III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHODS
- SCOPE: Researching in the process of teaching speaking lesson at CHU VAN
AN HIGH SCHOOL
- OBJECT: Students in grade 10 A13, 10 A1, 11 A6 at CHU VAN AN HIGH
SCHOOL
- RESEARCHING METHODS:
1. Observation method:
Reading reference books, summarizing material research and visiting
classes of colleagues.
2. Exchange method, discussion:
Discussing with other colleagues after visiting their classes to draw out
experiences.
3. Experimental method:
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Teachers can carry out experimental teaching according to the aims of
specific request in speaking lessons
4. Survey method:
Teachers ask questions to test and evaluate the content of the students’
lessons.

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PART TWO : CONTENT
I. Theoretical and practical basis
1. Theoretical basis:
Pressure to speak in English to the learners, both at school and in the dormitory
has demanded language instructor to take into account the best methods fitting
the learners’needs and the school’ expectation. As a result, language instructors
have designed an oral speaking class separated from literacy developmentwhich
means the students have to attend two English classes. The first is a speaking
class focusing on speaking and listening and language features (pronunciation)
and a literacy class focusing on developing reading and writing skills and on
language features such as grammar and vocabulary. This context puts teacher in
more flexible way in managing his class. Also, in developing the learners’ oral
communication skills, teacher plays an important role in structuring students’
learning experiences so as to support their speaking development in and outside
the classroom,
2. Practical basis:
After many years teaching English in high school , I have noticed the fact
that the majority of students in high school are afraid of learning English, and
they often have a heavy feeling in the English lessons and especially in
speaking lessons. So what must we do to make students have a real enthusiasm
about learning a foreign language, namely English subject and make students
look forward to and hope for this subject without feeling bored ? How can they
hear and speak simple English sentences in a natural way ? Those are some of
my concerns in the teaching process, so I'm always trying to find out the most
effective solutions to make my lectures attractive to students, and is also aimed
at improving the quality of this subject on the purpose of renovating teaching

methods is that : “learner –centered”.So I decide to choose this research subject.

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II. The status of the research subject:
1. The advantages of teaching speaking lesson:
1.1. For students:
Most students in Chu Van An high school have studied English since they
were in secondary school and the knowledge they are provided at this level of
education is relatively high on grammar , vocabulary and communication skills .
Most students are obedient and aware of studying.
Students themselves and their parents have realized the importance of
learning English so they have had the interest and considerable investment in
many aspects to this subject , and it is no longer considered a subordinate
subject.
The school has been equipped with full conditions about facilities for study
like language laboratory, books, tapes, and radios
1.2. For teachers:
Teachers have satisfied the school’s demand as well as education and
applied the new teaching methods.
The facilities of the school like language laboratory , books , tapes , and
radios are full and Administrator is interested and facilitates the teaching of the
teachers so that they can prove their abilities in the best way.
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2.The disadvantages of teaching speaking lesson:
2.1. For students:
There are so many different students in class and the quality of each

student is uneven.
Many students haven’t determined the importance of English in the current
period, so they aren’t aware of their own learning.
Some students have a limited vocabulary so they can’t know how to speak
a correct sentence
Classrooms are crowded, and the activities of speaking lesson often
practise in pairs or in groups so the classrooms are easily noise.
2.2. For teachers:
There are still some teachers who have difficulty in teaching speaking
skills and choosing suitable skills for each lesson.
Teachers don’t assign the tasks to students clearly.
Teachers don’t create the environment to encourage students to speak
English effectively.
2.3. Specific survey in classes 10A1, 10A13
Class
Students
Excellent-good Average
Weak (bad)
10A13
100%
15%
55%
40%
10A1
100%
13%
67%
20%
III. Some solutions to the research subject:
1. General requirements:

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 an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves
producing and receiving and processing information (Brown,1994; Burns &
Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it
occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences,
the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999)
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.
However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should
improve students' communicative skills
The selection of teaching speaking techniques must be determined on the
basis of the lesson content to build the activities for study.
Through research process and practice in different classrooms I offer some
solutions to guide students to develop communication skills.
2. The main solutions:
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of
language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning
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process. To guide students to develop communication skills in English, teachers
can teach students speaking strategies such as providing a dialogue, spoken word
actions, using minimal respones, practising grammar structures and applying
groupwork or pairwork in speaking skills and games.
2.1: Providing a dialogue:
Thanks to the guidance of teachers, students themselves can create the
dialogues and then practice, practice instead. This activity is quite simple and
will be familiar so students are interested in learning.
2.2: Spoken word actions:
In these actions teachers should let students speak simple sentences or

dialogues so that students have communicative opportunities .
In classroom, teachers can give some exercises to students to explain or talk on
the themes and afterwards, teachers and the whole class will remark by asking
questions or assessing and this will help students make faster progress because:
- Assessment helps learners become more confident about assessing language
ability used by others
- Teachers must create a routine for your own classroom - where speaking
English in the classroom can turn into daily conversation, even compulsory for
students.
- Teachers can use this activity to help students retell the stories or
conversations in front of the whole classroom .
- Teachers should create situations, contexts, themes for students to practise
speaking in pairs or groups. In this section teachers can use pictures, photos in
and out of a textbook or topics close to them as their school, their home, and
their friends, and so on ..
2.3: Using minimal responses:
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate
successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking.
One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build
up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges.
Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that
conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and
other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such
responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying,
without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2.4: Practising grammar structures:
Unlike other languages , English has a word order and grammar rules to be
followed . The implementation of the structures and grammar principles in
practising speaking English is not simple. Therefore, when communicating in

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English, try to use the grammar structures that you have been learned and
mastered . If you just master the structures and simple sentences , you should
only use them until you can be sure of the correct use of more complex
structures.
2.5: Applying groupwork or pairwork in speaking skills:
This is the basic and efficiency activity to practise speaking. Teachers
need to give careful instructions and know exactly how to divide the class. Pair
work and group work can become a routine. Once students are used to it and
have regular working partners, it can be organized quickly and easily. After that
group chief may give topic to say and members discuss. Some activities such as
paintings, plays, telling story should be applied.
2.6: Games:
Games is a very popular activity that teachers frequently used. any
activity is also considered games when we want students to do and want to find
out the winner. It is clear that Games are very positive and have a high
motivation. Teachers can design the games such as “chain games”, “lucky
number”, “find someone who” and so on.. to suit each specific class, each
specific object to encourage more students to participate
3. Organization steps:
For a speaking period, there are often three stages which are: Preparing
for speaking – Controlled practice – Free practice/Production. This learning
process not only helps students understand the material but also understand their
speaking skills used in practical communication. But the prerequisite problem is
that teachers need to clearly define the purpose of each speaking lesson to
orient for the students perform the tasks in the next steps.
3.1:Preparing for speaking:
- The instructions that are given at the beginning are crucial. If the students do

not understand exactly what they have to do, there will be time-wasting,
confusion, lack of effective practice, possible loss of control
- Select tasks that are simple enough to describe easily; and in monolingual
classes, you may find it cost-effective to explain some or all in the
students’mother tongue.
- Teachers encourage students to contribute to the general ideas for speaking
lessons ( Brainstorming activity)
- Teachers can ask students some questions to check their understanding
3.2. Controlled practice:
- Need to comply with the guideline from easy to difficult. Teachers should give
different types of exercises such as Substitution drills, using Prompts or picture
cues or language games for students to form structure they have just studied.
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- Teacher goes from group to group, pair to pair, monitor, and either contribute
or keep out of the way whichever is likely to be more helpful.
- Providing general approval and support;
- Helping students who are having difficultly;
- Keeping the students using the target language(in many cases your mere
presence will ensure this!)
- Tactfully regulating participation in a discussion where you find some students
are over dominant and others silent.
- Correcting mistakes and language problems that students have such as
pronunciation or grammar. Teachers should provide some new words that relate
to the subject. However, teachers shouldn’t correct unimportant mistakes and
should encourage other students to find out the mistakes and correct them.
3.3:Free practice/production:
This is the last activity of the lesson so teachers should give the general
requirement and shouldn’t limit students’ideas as well as language so that

students can speak freely.
Teachers can create the situation, the context and the topic for students to
practise speaking in pairs or group.
Teachers can use pictures and photos in textbook and outside it or the
topics that is close to students such as describe their school, house or their
friends how to ensure the requirements of the lesson effectively, and how to
stimulate student’s enthusiasm.
4. Demonstration:
Example of providing a dialogue.
Task 2 ( Unit 8 Part B: Speaking English 10)
From the information provided in the textbook, students will combine
into a dialogue and then make many other dialogues by substituting and then
pracrise.
A: I know what we should do first. We should widen the roads
B: That’s a good idea. If the roads are widened, cars and lorries can get to our
village.
C: Yes. And if lorries can get to the village, we don’t have to cart heavy loads of
farming products to the city.
A: And we should also resurface and raise the roads.
B: And if we resurface and raise the roads, they won’t be flooded and muddy
when it rains
C: And the villagers will be able to get around more easily, too.

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Example of group work.
Task 2 (Unit 10 – Part B: Speaking - English 10)
This is a free activity and aims to develop fluency in speaking. The
procedure may be:

Divide students into groups of four or five.
Read through the instrutions and make sure that each group understands what to
do. Choose one “secretary” in each group to write the list but emphasis that
everyone in the groups should agree on what to write.
While the activity is going on, move from groups, but do not interrupt
more than is necessary.
When some groups have finished their discussion, stop the activity, ask
one person from each group to report on what they decided
Give feedback: - Content
- Popular mistakes

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Example of using games. ( chain games)
Task 2 (Unit 11 – Part B: Speaking - English 10)

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Teacher: If we hadn’t gone by coach
Student 1: If we hadn’t gone by coach, we couldn’t have got carsick.
Student 2: If we hadn’t gone by coach, we couldn’t have got carsick, we could
have more money for lunch
IV. Result after applying the research in teaching:
Students are more active in English speaking lesson
Students communicate with each other better.

Class
10A13

10A1

Students
100%
100%

Excellent-good
30%
32%

Average
60%
55%

Weak (bad)
10%
13%

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PART III: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
1. Conclusion:
To develop speaking skill for students, it requires preparation from both
sides, teachers and students.
First, teachers have to identify the focus of the lesson to select appropriate
content, then there is a clear plan
Second, students need to be prepared at home well, actively learned.
If they do well with the above requirements, certainly teachers will develop
speaking skill for students.

2. Suggestion:
To teach a speaking lesson higher efficiency, the first thing to have good
facilities, full intuitive full furniture, vivid pictures for teachers to have the time
to invest in new initiatives and prepare for speaking lesson better.

Thanh Hoa, the fifteeenth of May,
The Headmaster’s identification

2019
I ensure that this study has been written by
me
The writer

Tran Thi To Hoa
:

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REFERENCE BOOKS
1. The teacher training materials – English 11 ( Hoàng Văn Vân)
2. "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998)
3. Brunei. C. (1984). Communicative methodology in teaching. Cambridge
University press.
4. The purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999)

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