Using short activities to warm up and increase the 10th form students’ interest in the pre listening stage

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NGHI SON LOWER AND UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
-----------------------------------------------

INNOVATION

USING SHORT ACTIVITIES TO WARM UP AND INCREASE
THE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN THE PRELISTENING STAGE

Written by: Mai Thi Thuy
Function: Teacher
Subject: English

THANH HOA YEAR 2019

1


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reasons for choosing the study
1.2.Aims of the Study
1.3. Scope of the Study
1.4. Methods of the study
2.CONTENT
2.1. Theoretical background
2.1.1. The nature of listening skill.
2.1.2.Teaching speaking in Communicate language
teaching (CLT)

2.1.3. Stages of a speaking lesson
2.1.3.1. Pre- listening stage
2.1.3.2. While- listening stage
2.1.3.3.Post- listening stage
2.1.4. Motivation
2.1.4.1. Definition
2.1.4.2. Motivation in classroom setting
2.1.5. Short activities
2.1.5.1. What is an activity?
2.1.5.2. The role of short activities in language
teaching and learning process
2.1.5.3. Principles of using Short activities in listening
class
2.1.5.4. Common types of short activities used for the
pre-listening stage
2.2. Reality
2.2.1. To the teachers
2.2.1. To the students
2.3. Solution to the problems.
2.3.1. Some recommendations for using short
activities in the pre-listening stage.
2.3.1.1. Deciding which activity to use
2.3.1.2. Time
2.3.1.3. Preparation
2.3.1.4. Physical arrangement
2.3.1.5. Management
2.3.1.6. Giving instructions of short activities / rules

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of games
2.3.1.7. Correction
2.3.1.8. Some notes for some short activities.
2.3.2. Some suggested short activities to warm up
and increase the 10 th form students’ interest in the
pre-listening stage
2.3.2.1. Using pictures
2.3.2.2. Asking and answering.
2.3.2.3. Jumbled words.
2.3.2.4.Guess the missing letters
2.3.2.5. Open prediction or Brainstorming
2.3.2.6. True – False statement prediction
2.3.2.7. Matching
2.3.2.8. Eliciting
2.4. Effect of innovation:
3.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
3.1.Conclusion:
3.2. Recommendation:

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reasons for choosing the study
In the field of education nowadays, English has become one of the
most important and compulsory subjects at all levels of learning and
teaching in Vietnam. From elementary to university or even at higher level,
all students find English an important subject. In addition, in language
learning, learners have to master four skills, among which listening is an
essential skill for the aim of communication. However, in many years of
learning and teaching English, the author has realized the fact that, in high
school, the teachers and the students seem to pay more attention to the
grammar and reading skill than to listening skill. Moreover, in listening
lessons, the teacher often focuses more on the while- listening, and postlistening stage than on the pre- listening stage. As a result, the students start
the listening class with less interest. The author herself is really fond of
finding the attitude of the teachers and the students in high school towards
listening lessons in general and in the pre-listening stage in particular.
Additionally, motivation is perhaps the key that leads to consecutive
success in the learning process, especially in second language acquisition.
So, maintaining the students’ interest during the lesson is very important. If

the students do not have motivation, they cannot get the best result from
learning. As a foreign language teacher, the greatest desire is to help
students absorb the content’s lesson through the appealing and effective
communication. In order to do this well, besides coordinating teaching
methods, we must also know how to motivate students by warm–up
activities before beginning a lesson with motto
“Learning in playing,
playing in learning”. This will make a good impression on students and
attract students during the lesson. When we create warm–up activities,
students will promote their creativity and self-learning.
It raises a question for the teacher: “how to motivate students or how
to increase the students’ interest in the pre-listening stage?” Short activities
are one of good choices for this problem. For high school teachers,
especially for the less experienced teachers, if they know how to make use
of 3-5 minutes to warm up a new lesson, their teaching result will be more
beneficial. But in fact, many teachers still do not highly appreciate the
importance of short activities and games in the pre-listening. In addition,
they lack one effective way to motivate the language learners. This study,
4


however, does not aim at measuring students’ motivation of learning
listening but helps increase their interests in listening lessons through short
activities in the pre-listening stage.
Last but not least, teaching not only requires the teacher to know how
to “teach” but also how to “educate” nurture the learners’ soul. Hence, she
is keen on finding out the way to increase students’ interest in the prelistening stage. Through a full, if not profound, knowledge about short
warm-up activities, she would like to know how to make the pre-listening
stage more interesting for the students, and be a good and understanding
teacher to make her dream come true.

All of the above reasons and factors have inspired the author to
choose the study entitled: “Using short activities to warm up and increase
the 10 th form students’ interest in the pre-listening stage.”With the hope of
providing teachers of English in general and teachers at Nghi Son lower and
upper secondary school in particular a better understanding about using
short activities and games in the pre-listening stage. In addition, the study
was implemented with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality
of teaching and learning listening at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary
school.
1.2. Aims of the Study
For the reasons mentioned above, the study has been done with the aims to:
 Provide an overview on the Communicative Language Teaching
Approach and stages of a listening lesson.
 Present some general knowledge about motivation, listening
activities and short activities.
 Help teachers and students be aware of some advantages of
using short activities in the pre-listening stage.
 Investigate the reality of teaching listening at secondary schools,
especially the reality of using short activities in the pre-listening
stage.
 Indicate the effects of using short activities in the pre-listening
stage.
 Giving some suggestions and implications for the improvement
of listening teaching at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary
school by using short activities in the pre-listening stage.
1.3. Scope of the Study
This paper deals with a small part in using short activities to warm up
and increase the students’ interest in the pre-listening stage. Additionally, it
is too broad to carry out the thesis discussing all levels of students. Thus,
the study only focuses on students of the 10 th form at high school. All

provided activities and techniques are based on the target listening contents
in the 10 th form text book.
1.4. Methods of the study
5


To carry out the study, the following methods and procedures were
employed:
 Investigating methods
 Analytic and synthetic methods
 Descriptive methods
 Comparative and contrastive methods
Firstly, the author reviewed the theories related to the matter in
concern in order to shade up a framework for the analysis and then collected
information associated with the pre-listening stage and short activities from
different sources: references, books, and internet. Secondly, a survey was
conducted on the real situation at high school by using questionnaires for
students there. Thirdly, the selected information and data were analyzed,
and then the results were arranged into categories for comparison. Finally,
the information and data obtained were dealt with and analyzed so as to
come to conclusion, and accordingly, to provide some recommendations to
improve the situation.
2. CONTENT
2.1. Theoretical background
2.1.1. The nature of listening skill.
According to Byrne (1976), listening is the ability to accurately
receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is
key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listening
effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication
breaks down and the sender of the message can easily

2.1.2. Teaching speaking in Communicate language teaching (CLT)
CLT is an approach that aims at making communicative competence
the goal of language teaching and developing procedures for the teaching of
the four language skills. CLT emphasizes on the process of communication
rather than master of language forms.
2.1.3. Stages of a speaking lesson
2.1.3.1. Pre- listening stage
This stage is aimed at preparing students with everything necessary
for listening. At this stage, the teacher will use warm-up activities to warmup and increase the student’s interest.
2.1.3.2. While- listening stage
At this stage, the students will practice the new language in a
controlled way base on structures given in pre- listening stage.
2.1.3.3. Post- listening stage
The aim of this stage is to help students summarize what they have
learned or remember new vocabularies, or simple as making animated
atmosphere in class after the whole listening lesson.
2.1.4. Motivation
2.1.4.1. Definition
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According to Pintrich and Schunk (2002), a general definition of the
term motivation refers to “the process whereby goal-directed activity is
instigated and sustained”.
2.1.4.2. Motivation in classroom setting
Motivation is very important factor affecting the success in second
language learning. So it is important to make interesting, non- threatening
classrooms where relevant to students’ age and level of ability.
2.1.5. Short activities
2.1.5.1. What is an activity?

Jeremy Harmer (1999) said that: “Activity” is a loose term used to
give a general description of what will happen in class. It is important to
realize that here we are not talking about what, general and physically, the
students are going to do.
Short activity is a kind of activities which is short, simple and
interesting enough to motivate students to learn a foreign language better. It
happens in very short time, may be from four to seven minutes.
2.1.5.2. The role of short activities in language teaching and learning
process
Using short activities brings many benefits in the teaching and learning
process such as: changing the atmosphere in the class, making lesson
predictable, stimulating students’ interest, providing intense and meaningful
practice of language.
2.1.5.3. Principles of using Short activities in listening class
There some main principles: good preparation, short and simple
activity and game, presentation about the rules, variety, good organization
of class.
2.1.5.4. Common types of short activities used for the pre-listening stage
- Using pictures
- Asking and answering
- Jumbled words
- Guess the missing letters
- Open prediction or Brainstorming
- True – false statement prediction
- Matching
- Eliciting
2.2. Reality:
2.2.1. To the teachers:
Through the result of survey, the author realizes that the teachers’
attitudes are different among four skills: listening, speaking, reading,

writing skill.

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50
50
40

37.5
25 25

30
20

37.5

12.5

25

37.5
T he most
import ant

25

12.5 12.5

25

25

Import ant

Quit e import ant

12.5
12.5

12.5

t he least
import ant

10
0
speaking

list ening

Reading

Writ ing

Figure 1: The teachers’ attitudes towards
As can
be clearly seen from the chart, a half of the teachers (50%)
four
skills

think that reading skill is the most important skill among four language
skills. Listening skill is considered the least important skill (37.5%). This
shows the fact that the teachers in high school often pay more attention to
reading and writing skill than to listening skill. Due to less consideration on
the listening skill, the teachers do not really spend much time and
preparation on listening lesson. As a result, the students will feel bored and
uninterested in listening lesson.
2.2.1. To the students:
Similarly, the survey results from students’ questionnaire N o1 show
that the students also have different attitudes towards the listening skill.
59
60
50

39

40

27

30
20

28

15

23

T he37

most
import ant

26

12

13

10
0

30
Speaking

List ening

Import 24
ant25

20

Reading

Quit e import ant

8

14

t he least
import ant

Writ ing

Fig

ure 2: The students’ attitudes towards four skills
The chart shows that a large number of the students (59%) consider
reading skill the most important. Only 12% think that listening skill is the
most important. This causes a lot of difficulties for the teacher in teaching
listening. Obviously, the students are not well aware of the importance of
listening skill.
Due to the less awareness about the importance of listening skill, the
students’ interest in listening lesson is not high. The number of the students
who really like listening lesson is very low (19%). Most of them (43%) are
not interested in the listening lesson. It means that they lack motivation in
learning listening. As a result, they are not willing or eager to make efforts
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in listening activities. That is the current situation of learning listening skill
at high school in general and at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary school
in particular.
10%

very
much
much

43%

Figure 3: The students’ attitudes towards listening lesson
2.3. Solution to the problems.
2.3.1. Some recommendations for using short activities in the prelistening stage.
2.3.1.1. Deciding which activity to use
The teacher should consider the level of the short activity to fit their
students' language level, students' characteristics. The most important factor
is that short activities and games should be used when they can give
students both fun and educational meaning.
2.3.1.2. Time
The pre-listening stage often takes up from 5 to 7 minutes. So the
short activities and games should be carried out only from 4 to 7 minutes.
2.3.1.3. Preparation
The teacher has to consider how to choose the most appropriate short
activity or game for their class, prepare some equipment or materials
needed for the short activities and games.
2.3.1.4. Physical arrangement
Up to each kind of games, the teacher can conduct in individual, pairs,
groups, teams or the whole class. Individual teacher should decide herself
what arrangement will best suit her students in given situation.
2.3.1.5. Management
The teacher tries to make the class not to become chaos and make sure
that students get what we want them to get. They should move around to
check if the students really join the activities or just take advantage for
chatting. The teacher encourages and praises the students to motivate them
and makes them feel more confident and more interested in the activities as
well as in the lesson.
2.3.1.6.
Giving instructions of short activities / rules of games

The teacher must give clear, simple, explicit instructions or rules of
the games. The teacher must ensure that clear instructions are given before
the short activities or games are done to avoid making the students
confused.
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2.3.1.7. Correction
Due to the aims of using short activities and games in this stage is to
increase the students’ interest; sometimes the teacher can ignore
unimportant errors.
2.3.1.8. Some notes for some short activities.
Each type of short activities or games has its own characteristics, so it
is important for teacher to choose suitable students with the activity or
game.
2.3.2. Some suggested short activities to warm up and increase the 10 th
form students’ interest in the pre-listening stage
Some of the following activities were applied in the author’s
experimental lessons and they really worked.
2.3.2.1. Using pictures
Type: class work
Material: pictures
Time: 4-5 minutes
Preparation: print colorful pictures
Procedure:
 Teacher sticks the pictures on the board
 Ask student some questions about these pictures
 Students look at the pictures and answer the question
 Teacher introduces a new lesson
Advantage of this activity:

- This activity will make the lesson more vivid and increase students’
interest at the beginning of the lesson.
* Example for Unit 4: Special education -part C (page 48)( “tienganh
10”)
- Teacher sticks some pictures on the board and ask a question:
“Who are they?”

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- Students look at these pictures and answer the question:
“They are photographers and they are handicapped people.”
- Teacher introduces a new lesson: “Yes, they are very special
photographers. To understand more about their work today you are going to
listen to some information about a handicapped photography club”
* Example for Unit 7: Mass media – part C(page 77)( “tienganh 10”)
The
teacher
sticks
some
pictures
on
the
board :

- Teacher asks some questions:
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+ “what is this?”

+ “what is it used for?”
+ “How often do you listen to radio?”
+ “How many hours per week do you listen to it?”
+ “what topics do you like listening to and why?”
- After the student answer all the above questions, teacher will lead them to
a new lesson:“Radio is a useful mass media, we can get much information
by listening radio every day. Today, I would like you to listen to the two
radio news stories.”
2.3.2.2. Asking and answering.
Type: individual work
Material: none
Time: 5 to 7 minutes
Preparation: none
Procedure:
- Teacher asks student some questions relating the topic of the lesson.
- Students will answer the question following to their opinion.
- Teacher introduces a new lesson.
Advantage of this activity:
This activity will help students be familiar with the lesson’s content,
as the result, they will know what they are going to listen, which topic the
listening lesson will mention. Furthermore, the short activity “asking and
answering” will make the lesson more interesting and attracting. Besides, it
will make the atmosphere between teacher and students become friendlier.
Example for Unit 5: Technology and You – part C(page 54)( “tienganh
10”)
- Teacher gives a topic: “Talking about your experience of learning how to
use a computer.”
- Teacher asks some questions:
+ Can you use a computer?
+ Who teaches you how to use a computer?

+ Is this difficult to learn how to use it?
+ What will you do if you can’t understand the computer?
- After the students answer above questions, teacher introduces a new
lesson: “Computer is very useful machine. Now, you are going to listen to a
passage, which tells you about an old company director talking about his
experience of learning how to use a computer”.
2.3.2.3. Jumbled words.
Type: pair work
Material: chalk, black board
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: some words relating to the new listening lesson.
Advantage of this game:
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By using this game, students will excited about the listening lesson. In
addition, they not only can predict the topic of the lesson but also
approaching some vocabularies which relates to the listening lesson
Procedure:
 Teacher orders students to work in pairs.
 Then, teacher writes “jumbled words” on the board and asks
students to rearrange these words.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson
Example for Unit 1: A day in the life of…- part C (page 16)( “tienganh
10”)
- Teacher writes some “Jumbled words” on the board:
CCLOY
RIEDV
NSSEGERPA
DOFO SALLT

- Student rearranges these words:
+ CYCLO
+ DRIVE
+ PASSENGERS
+ FOOD STALL
- After student finish rearranging, teacher will give situation:
+ He has a cyclo.
+ He drives passengers every day.
+ He usually has meals at a food stall
- Then, teacher asks: “WHO IS HE?”
Student: “HE IS A CYCLO DRIVER”
- Teacher introduces a new lesson:
“Today you are going to listen a day in the life of a cyclo driver”
2.3.2.4. Guess the missing letters
Type: individual work
Material: chalk, black board
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: some words relating to the new listening lesson.
Advantage of this game:
This activity will help student approach topic of the lesson and make
the atmosphere in the class more comfortable and exciting.
Procedure:
 Teacher writes some words with missing letters on the board
 Student will find the missing letters and then complete the word.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson.
Example for Unit 6: An excursion – part C (page 62)( “tienganh 10”)
- Teacher writes a 6-letter word with some missing letters on the board:
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“P____C”
- Student complete word: “PICNIC”
- Teacher gives some questions:
+ “where do you often go for a picnic?”
+ “when do you often have a picnic?”
+ “what do you often do at a picnic?”
Where?
- park
………………
………………

When?
- Sunday
………………
………………

What (activity)?
- play games
………………
………………

- After student answer some above questions, the teacher will lead a new
lesson: “Today we will learn “unit 6: An excursion – part C”, in this
listening lesson, you will hear a paragraph about the weekend picnic at the
Botanical Garden”
2.3.2.5. Open prediction or Brainstorming
Type: group works
Material: handouts, pens
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: some handouts with key word in the listening lesson.

Advantage of this activity:
- motivate the student’s creativity.
- help student remember vocabularies they learnt.
- Student know how to co-operate with their classmates.
Procedure:
 Teacher divides the class into 4 groups
 Teacher delivers handouts with key word in the listening lesson for
each group and asks each group brainstorms to find some
vocabularies relating key word.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson.
Example for Unit 9: Undersea world – part C (page 98)( “tienganh 10”)
- Teacher delivers handouts with key word: “WHALE” for 4 groups:

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.
..
..
..
.

.
..
..
.
.

.
..

..
.

W
.
H
.. .
. .
.A
L. .
E
. .

. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
.

.
.
.
.

- Each group brainstorms to find some vocabularies relating key word, for
example:

w
g
h
i

a
v
l
e
i
b
n
i
r
g
t
h

W
H
l
a
A
r
L
g
E
e
a
n
i
m
a

m

a
m
m
a
l

l

- Teacher introduces a new lesson: “To know more information about
whales, I want you to listen a text which provides us with some important
information about whales”.
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2.3.2.6. True – False statement prediction
Type: pair works
Material: black board
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: some information about topic of the lesson.
Advantage of this activity:
- Student will be curious about new lesson.
- attract the student’s notice.
- make student more interested in a new lesson.
Procedure:
 Teacher asks student to work in pairs
 Teacher gives some situations relating the lesson’s content.
 Students will give their prediction whether these situations are true
or false basing on their knowledge and experience.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson.
Example for Unit 14: The world cup – part C (page 147)( “tienganh 10”)

- Teacher gives some situations:
T

F

1. Pelé was born in America.
2.He was good at kicking and controlling
the ball
3.He was an ambassador for the sport
4.He scored 1300 goals and he became a
national hero
- Basing on knowledge and experience, students discuss in pairs and decide
whether these situations are true or false:
1. False (Pelé was born in Brazil)
2. True
3. True
4. False ( He scored 1200 goals and he became a national hero)
- Teacher introduces a new lesson: “Pelé is a famous Brazilian football
player, to know more information about him you will hear a story telling
Pelé’s life.”
2.3.2.7. Matching
Type: group works
Material: colorful pictures, handouts
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: print some colorful pictures and handouts
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Advantage of this activity:
- make the class’s atmosphere more exciting.

- help student approach the lesson’s topic.
Procedure:
 Teacher asks student to work in group
 Teacher sticks the pictures on the board
 Ask student to match the picture with corresponding answer.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson.
Example for Unit 16: Historical places – part C (page 147)( “tienganh
10”)
- Teacher sticks some pictures about famous places and name of these
places on the board.
- ask student to match the picture with corresponding answer.

1

Noon Gate in Hue
Imperial City

Notre Dame
Cathedral in Ho Chi
Minh city
2

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3

The HucBridge
(HoanKiem Lake) in
Ha Noi

3

Ha Long bay

4
- Answer: + picture 1- Ha Long Bay
+ picture 2 - The Huc bridge (Hoan Kiem Lake) in Ha Noi
+ picture 3 - Noon Gate in Hue Imperial City
+ picture 4 - Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City
- Teacher asks more questions:
+ “which of the place have you been to?”
+ “which one would you like to visit most? Why?”
- Afterward, teacher introduces a new lesson:
“There are many beautiful destinations attracting you and me. Today I want
to introduce you an ancient town of Hoi An through unit 16: Historical
places – part C. Let’s start a new lesson!”
2.3.2.8. Eliciting
Type: individual work
Material: none
Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Preparation: some questions about topic of the lesson.
Advantage of this activity:
- Increase student’s interest
- help student approach the lesson’s topic.
 Teacher gives some questions
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 Student answer these questions base on their knowledge.
 Teacher introduces a new lesson.

Example for Unit 12: Music – part C (page 127) ( “tienganh 10”)
- Teacher asks some questions and student answer
Teacher: “Which song do all students always sing on every Monday
morning?”
Student: “Tien Quan Ca”
Teacher: “Do you know who the composer was?”
Student: “Van Cao”
Teacher: “where was he born?”
Student: In Nam Ha
Teacher: “Is he still alive?”
Student: “No”
Teacher: “what were some of his other songs that you know?”
Student: “ Suoi Mo, Truong ca song Lo, etc.”
- Teacher introduces a new lesson: “ Van Cao is a famous musician, to
know more information about him, you will listen to a dialogue between
Lan Huong and Quang Hung in unit 12: Music – part C.”
2.4. Effect of innovation:
In order to carry out the study, a survey was conducted with 10010 th
form students at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary school. According to
the data from the students’ questionnaire (after the experimental teaching)
shows that short activities and games really work effectively in English
classes at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary school. The students are
more interested in listening lessons than ever before. These short activities
and games not only make them more confident, excited, and relaxed in the
listening lessons but also create a relaxing, funny, and comfortable
atmosphere. Through these activities and games, the students can know
their classmates much better. This is the result of survey:

Answers
a.

Improve
listening skill
b. Provide you
opportunities
experience the
life situations
c.
Increase
confidence
listening

your

Strongly
Agree
(%)

Not
Agree sure
(neutra
(%)
l)
(%)

10

73

with
to

16
realyour
in 9

Disagree
(%)

Strongly
Disagree
(%)

12

3

2

69

11

3

1

66

17

5

3
19


d.
Increase
your
creativity and selfexpression
e. Bring a lot of fun
and laughter
f. create a relaxed
atmosphere
of
learning
g. Help you know
your classmate better
h. Help you interact
with others better
i. Engage (interest)
you
in
learning
process

11

70

10

7

2

15

71

9

4

1

36

57

4

3

0

29

60

6

3

2

17

74

7

1

1

18

75

5

2

0

I have applied these short warm-up activities and games in the prelistening stage for many years and I have got dramatic effects. The students’
result in English subject in general and in listening skill in particular
increase dramatically. Below is the 10 th form students’ result in listening
skill at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary school from 2016 to 2019 after
using these short warm-up activities and games in the pre-listening stage:

School year: 2016-2017 (Class: 10 A3, 10 A5, and 10 A6)
Total student
123 students

Excellent
22(17,8%)

Good
56(45,5%)

Average
40(32,5%)

Poor/ Weak
5(4,06%)

School year: 2017-2018 (Class: 10 A1, 10 A2, 10 A4, 10A5)
Total student
165 students

Excellent
34(20,6%)

Good
73(44,2%)

Average
51(32,5%)

Poor/ Weak

7(4,06%)

School year: 2018-2019 (Class: 10 A1, 10 A2, 10 A3, 10A7)
Total student
168 students

Excellent
36(21,4%)

Good
78(46,4%)

Average
52(30,9%)

Poor/ Weak
2 (1,19%)

3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
3.1. Conclusion:
Teaching listening skills to students in Vietnamese classrooms is at present
still a matter of much concern by language teachers due to current teaching
materials, characteristics of learners as well as teachers’ proficiency and
classroom methodology. How to motivate the students to learn listening
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skill is a big problem. This study, however, does not aim at measuring
students’ motivation of learning listening but helps increase the 10 th form
students’ interest in listening lessons through short activities and games in

the pre-listening stage. It investigates the students’ attitudes towards the
listening skill in general and the pre-listening stage in particular; to what
extent short activities and games in the pre-listening stage work in listening
classes of English at Nghi Son lower and upper secondary school. To
conclude, short activities and games are really effective tools for teaching
as well as learning listening. The effects of using short activities and games
are shown not only from the data collected from students’ questionnaire but
also from students’ comments in the form of valuation and reflection. All
students’ reflections, together with analyzed data from the survey, prove
that short activities and games really work in listening classes in the prelistening stage.
3.2. Recommendation:
- To Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, I suggest that there
should be some training courses or forums for the high school English
teaching teachers each school year to share their useful teaching experience
and techniques. Each time, a target teaching or learning topic is given and
discussed. Some modeling is done so that the teachers can see the fact of
teaching and how the techniques are carried out in the class. As a result,
they can adapt or adjust what they have learned.
- Teachers should take part in more professional meetings to update new
trend of learning and teaching and exchange the documents, lesson plans or
useful tips.
- Teachers have more chances to decide what to teach that is suitable for
teaching conditions and their students.
- Technological facilities are equipped for teachers as well as students to
help learning and teaching be carried out more effective and easier.
- Evaluation criteria should be changed so that it fits the new learning and
teaching focus - the communicative approach. The evaluation should focus
on the process more than the final results or marks. Four skills are all
assessed but listening should be paid more attention.
- The class size is a big problem that affects the quality of learning and

teaching in many classes. The teachers cannot carry out the activities
effectively if there are too many students in a class. Therefore, when the
students are divided into classes, the class size needs caring.
Above are my teaching experience in warming up and increasing the
th
10 form students’ interest in the pre-listening stage. I hope that the
colleagues will contribute ideas to my innovation so that it is more
completed and useful.
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Confirmation of the

Tinh Gia, date 20 month April

principal

year 2019
I assure that this innovation is
written by me without any copying.
Written by:

Mai Thi Thuy

REFERENCES
English:
1.

Bailey, M.K.& Savage, L. (1994). New Ways to Teaching Speaking. Illinois, USA.

2.

Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge
University Press.

3.

Dornyei, Z. (1998). Motivation in Second and Foreign Language Learning .
Blackwell publishers.

4.

Dornyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and Researching Motivation. Harlowperson
education.

5.

Garder, R.c. (1994). Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: the
Role of Attitudes and Motivations. London- Edward Arnold.

6.

Richards, T. & Rodgere, T. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

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7.

Rixon, S. (1981). How to Use Language Games in Language Teaching.
Macmillian Publishers Ltd.

8.

Wright, D. & Buck, M. (1990). Activites for Language Learning. Sidney
Cambridge University Press.

Vietnamese:
Hoàng Văn Vân. (Ed.). (2009). Tiếng Anh 10. Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục.
Websites:

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