applying different warm up activities in teaching speaking lessons for the 10th form students at nhu xuan high

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reasons to choose the theme
1.2. Purposes of the research
1.3. Methods of the research
1.4. Scope of the research
PART 2: CONTENTS
2.1. Theoretical basis of the problem
a.Definition of speaking skill
b.The importance of speaking skill

c.The role of warm- up activities in speaking lesson
2.2. Some problems before applying this experience
initative
2.3. Some solutions to the problem
2.4. The effect of experience initative
PART 3: CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1. Conclusion
3.2. Recommendations
4.REFERENCES

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The reasons to choose the theme.
English is one of the most dominating laguage of the world which is
having its impact on every field of work. It not only provides us an access to
world scholarship and world trade but also gives the youth a chance to get a
good job and join the international activities. Undoubtedly, English plays a
much greater role in the world that it is evitable for people to ignore it fully.
Nowadays, with the development of economy and relationship between
nations. English becomes an effective means of international communication. It
is used as the official language in many fields of life such as economics, politics,
science, technology, sports and many others. This leads to an increasing demand
for English learning, especially speaking skill. People need oral communication
in daily life more than written words. Therefore, the teaching of speaking has
recently been paid more attention to learners. It can‟t be deniable that the ability
to use verbal communication in a second language effectively contributes to the
success of learners at school time as well as in their lives. However, how to
teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both
teachers and students at many gigh school despite teachers‟s efforts to provide
students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills.
Nhu xuan high school is situated in a moutainous district where students
do not have many opportunities to communicate with foreign people. Therefore,
Their English is not good, especially English speaking skill. A great number of
students are afraid of learning to speak English and say that it is difficult for
them to be good at this skill and there is not a real language environment for
them to do their practice every day. Many students find it very difficult to
express their ideas in English due to nervousness and lack confidence in front of
the class. As a result, they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and

passive because students don‟t want to say out their thought.
All the aboved mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct
a research titled : “ applying different warm-up activities in teaching speaking
lessons for the 10th form students at Nhu Xuan High School”
1.2. Purposes of the research
- The major aims of the study are :
- To emphasize the role of warm- up activities in teaching speaking skill.
- To investigate the present situation of teaching and learning speaking of
th
the 10 form at Nhu Xuan high school.
- To provide some useful warm-up activities to get students in the right
mood for speaking and help them feel more confident and eager to speak
English in speaking lessons.
- To investigate the effectiveness of using warm-up activities in teaching
speaking lesson at the three classes 10 C3, 10 C5, 10 C8 of Nhu Xuan high
school.
1.3. The scope of the research
The study focuses specifically on some warm- up activities applied in
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teaching speaking lessons to the 10th grade students at Nhu Xuan high school,
namely, three classes 10 C3, 10 C5, 10C8.
1.4. The methods of research
- Studying materials : I have read some books and materials on internet
about how to motiavte students to speaking effectively by using warm- up
activities.
- Delivering survey questionaire and observing speaking lessons: To
fulfill this study, I have delived some survey questionaires to students and
teachers and observed some speaking classes to find out the teachers‟s and

students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning speaking.
- My real teaching at three 10th form classes at my school.

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2. CONTENTS
2.1.Theoretical background
a. Definition of speaking skill
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.
Speaking is being capable of speech, expressing or exchanging thoughts
through using language. “Speaking is a productive aural/oral skill and it consists
of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (Nunan, 2003,
p.48).” (Harmer, 2001) notes down that from the communicative point of view,
speaking has many different aspects including two major categories – accuracy,
involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practised
through controlled and guided activities; and, fluency, considered to be „the
ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously‟. Bygate (1991, p.3), also
emphasizes knowledge of the language, and skill in using this knowledge for an
effective communication. Language knowledge and skill in using it, are
considered two fundamental elements of an effective communication.

Speaking is the most important skill, corroborates: “ of all the four skills,
speaking seems intuitively the most important. People who know a language are
reffered to as “ speakers” of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds
of knowing, and many of not knowing, and many of not most foreign language
learners are primary interested to speak” (Ur, 1996, p. 120).
Speaking skill is an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and processing information. The peaking skill involves a
communication ability to use language to chat and transmit messages in
different and appropriate situations. It is to interact with participants and carry a
message . Petrie ( 1987 ) citied that : “ speaking is an activity which most of us
spend a great deal of time engaged in apparently without any effort and with not
very much thought”. People around the world produce a lot of words without
making great efforts, Brown in his turn ( 2000 )(Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce,
1997 ) defines speaking as “ an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and receiving and processing information”. 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 of speaking. It is often spontaneous, open- ended and
involving. Being skillful in speaking means to be able to decide what to say in
the situation, saying it clearly and being flexible during a conversation when a
difficult situation comes out, for that reason, speaking requires that learners not
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only how to produce specific aspects of language such as grammar,
pronunciation and vocaulary but aslo that they nderstand when, why, and what
ways to produce language? Finally, speaking has its own skills, structures and
conversations that the speaker should be aware(Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter &
McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). .
b. The importance of speaking skill

People express their ideas and interact with each other to give or ask for
informatiom through speaking which is so much part of daily life” (
Thornburry, 2005, p.01 ).
Concerning the importance of speaking skill ( Cambridge, p.07 ) claimed
that “ speaking is a highly channenging yet essential skill for most learners to
acquire”, in addition, ( Renandya and Richards, 2002, p.201) state that “a
large percentage of the world‟s language study English in order to develop
proficiency in speaking” . Many English foreign language students consider the
mastery of speaking skill a priority. Besides, they evaluate their success
according to their spoken language proficiency ( Richard, 2008,p.19).
For many teachers, teaching speaking is so important.( Burn and Goh,
1012, p.1-2) claim that “ teachers do much effort to help their students develop
their spaeking abilities. For them speaking skill is important of three reasons.
First, all language learners should be able to communicate well with the foreign
language speakers. Second, many students are good at reading and writing, but
thay have poor speaking and listening abilities. Third, many students memorize
words from dictionaries, but they could not use them to speak English or to
communicate in formal situations. Therefore, teaching speaking is a very
important part in English language teaching and learning.
c. The role of warm-up activities in speaking lessons
As we know, warm- up is an important part which contributes to the
success of a speaking lesson. Warm- up helps learners put aside their daily
distractions and focus on English. Warm-ups also encourage whole group
participant which can build a sense of community within the group and warmups can help to arouse students‟s interest in speaking.
Warming up activities can foster motivation and this is, in turn, an
essential component when planning warming up activities. According to
Dornyei (2001), teachers need to try and actively generate positive students'
attitudes toward learning. He also claims that the key issue in generating interest
is to widen the student's appetite; that is, to arouse the students' curiosity and
attention and to create an attractive image for the class so that they will get more

involved with it and a better learning process will take place.
The importance of having warming up activities was mentioned above,
but a question remains: What is a warming up activity? Allwright (1984)
considers that warm up activities are designed to attract students' attention, to
help them put aside distracting thoughts, and to get them ready to focus
individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow. They will cause
people to stop whatever they are doing or thinking and refocus their attention.
We could say a warming up activity is a motivating starting point that will lead
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students to become animated to work efficiently in the language class. For the
purpose of our study, it was the activity used to encourage students' involvement
and permeate the development of the whole lesson, so we avoided looking at
them as isolated activities.
Warm- up is an effective way to help the students begin to think in
English and to review previously introduced material. Different types of warm
ups help provide variety and interest in the lesson. A warm up to prepare
students for a period of concentration may involve physical movement with
activities that keep them active by standing up, walking, jumping, matching
pictures with sentences or vocabulary, drawing or writing personal experiences
or stories, and singing or listening to familiar songs and chants. These are,
among others, enjoyable and motivating warms up
2.2. Current status of the problem before applying innitiate
experience.
To begin with, Nhu Xuan district is considered a poor, mountainous
district of Thanh Hoa province. Although my school is located in the centre of
district, Students‟s English is in bad quality. There is not a real language
environment for them to do their practice every day. Students don‟t have many
chances to communicate with native speakers.

Secondly, there are too many students in a class. Normally, each class has
about 40 students. In addition, all of the classes are fixed with rows of desks.
This makes it difficult for teachers for teachers to oraganize communicative
tasks and keep control of the class.
Thirdly, most of the students are not good at the language, especially their
communicative competences are poor although they have been exposed to the
new curriculum since they were in secondary school. Normally, most of them
don‟t know how to talk about the topic about the topic given. They can‟t make
up the ideas to express in English because their vocabularies, structures are still
limited.
Many students find it very difficult to show their ideas in English due to
nervousness and lack confidence in front of the class. They feel shy, they are
afraid of being laughed at, being lost face with their friends when they have
mistakes. As a result, they are afraid of speaking skill, the class is tense and
passive because students don‟t want to express their thought.
A large number of students are afraid of learning to speak English and say
that it is difficult for them to be good at this skill .Moreover, their awareness of
importance of being good at this skill is not really made clear because speaking
skill is not usually included in their exams, so they often learn English only for
their written exams, not for communication.. According to the survey carried out
at the beginning of last school year at my school, more than 70% of the students
reported that they are worried about their English speaking skill. They said that
they could hardly make a simple conversation in English or express what they
thought. Importantly, most of them assumed that speaking is very difficult for
them to master. Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get
many opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de6


motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities
are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general

learner motivation and making the English language classroom fun and
dynamic.
2.3. Some solutions to the problem
UNIT 1 : A day in the life of..........
Warm-up: (4mn) : Matching
- Ask sts to close their books.
- Deliver the handout.
A
B
1. Civic education
a. Tin học
2. Technology
b. t l
3. Maths
c. Sinh học
4. Literature
d. Thể dục
5. Physics
e. Địa l
6. Biology
f. Giáo dục công dân
7. Chemistry
g. ăn học
8. Physical education h. Lịch sử
9. Geography
i. Công nghệ
10. History
j. Toán
11. Informatics
k. Hóa học

- Ask them to match one item in column A with one item in column B.
- Ask them to work in groups in 2 minutes, then check this exercise in
chorus.
- Ask sts to read aloud the names of these subjects in chorus
- Asks the class : when do you have English lesson?
- Gets the aswer from the class and lead in the new lesson: Today, we are
going to talk about timetable
Unit 2 : School talks
- Warm-up ( 4mn ) : Completing the dialogue
- Introduce the situation and write a short dialogue on board:
"Suppose that you meet a friend at the supermarket. You are very busy
.What will you say to open and end the conversation."
A: ............................... ( 1)
B: Hi Lan. How are you?
A: I’m fine. Thank you. And you?
B: I’m very well. Thanks. I haven’t seen you for a long time. Let’s go
somewhere for a drink
A: Sorry, ..................... ( 2)
- Ask sts to complete the dialogue in pairs.
- Ask some pairs to report.
- Ok, that‟s a short conversation between A and B (1) & (2) are two ways
to start and close a conversation
Today, we will practice speaking conversation having stating and dosing
sentences
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Unit 3 : People’s background
Warm-up (4mn): Game : Giving questions about people's background.
- Divides the class into four teams

- Aks students to discuss and give questions to know some information of
a person‟s background in two minutes.
+ family
+ education
+ experience
- The team has more correct and faster questions will win the game.
- Elicits the answers from four teams
- Gives feedback and declares the winner
Suggested answer:
Family:
- How many people are there in your family?
- What does your father/ mother do?
Education:
- Where did you study at primary school/ junior secondary school?
- What subject do you like best?
- What degree do you have?
Experience:
- How long have you been a member of our school's speaking club?
- Have you ever won any prizes?
Unit 4: Special education
Warm-up (4mn) Game : Network
- Asks sts to work in groups and make a list of words relating to school.
The words must be correctly spelled and related to the topic.

subjects
School

- Ask some groups to report.
- The group with the longest list will be the winner.
- Suggested words:

Subjects: English, maths, literature,...........
Tests, breaks, homework, teacher, students,.....Secondary school , high
school.......
OK, today, we will go to Lesson: Speaking to talk about school life of a
student
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UNIT 5 : Technology and you
Warm-up( 5mn): GAME: Write down the name of some modern
inventions
- Show Ss the pictures of a radio/ TV / computer / electric cooker / airconditioner / cell phone.

-

- Divide the class into 2 teams.
- Stick all the pictures and ask Ss to look at and remember within 1
minute, then go to the board, write down the name of each picture.
- The team winner is the one that has more correct answers.
- calls on two presentative of two teams to go to the board to write the
answer
- Checks and declare the winner.
- Leads in the new lesson : In our lesson today, we are talking about the
uses of some mordern inventions and information technology.
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UNIT 6: An excursion
Warm-up (4 mn) : Answering the questions
- Ask some questions:

1. Have you ever gone on a boat trip?
2. When?
3. Is it interesting?
4. Which seat do you think the most suitable for you?
- Gets the answer from students
Suggested answer:
1. Yes, I have.
2. Last summer
3. Yes, it is.
4. The seat on the sundeck…
- Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson by saying: “Ok, there are
many nice seats. Today, we study part B: Speaking to know how to choose the
best seat then we go on a boat trip”
UNIT 8: The story of my village
Warm-up (5 mn) : completing words
- Write the incomplete words on the board,ask sts to give complete words
RO_DS
M_DIC_L C_NT_E
CR_PS
SCH_OL
FO_TB_LL GRO_ND
- Divides the class into four groups to complete the words.
- The group having more correct and faster words will win the game.
- Calls on the presentatives of four groups to go to the board to write their
words
- Checks and declare the winner
Answer key :
ROADS
MEDICAL CENTRE
CROPS

SCHOOL
- Leads in : to make life in the country better, what should be done with
things mentioned above ?
Unit 9 : Undersea world
Warm-up: (5mn) : watching a video and answer the questions
- Plays a video of some polluted rivers/ beaches..., then asked sts what
you
can
see
in
the
video(
link
:
)
- Elicits the aswers from the students
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- Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson by saying : “ In our lesson
today, we are going to discuss the measures to protect polluted rivers/ beaches”
Unit 10 : Conservation
Warm-up :(5mn)
- Plays a video of a new kind of zoo
( link : )
- Asks sts what animals they can see in the video and list some features of
a zoo of the new kind
- Elicits the answer from the students
- Gives feedback and leads in the new lesson : “ Today we are going to
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of zoos of the new kind “

Unit 11 : National parks
Warm –up(3 mn):
- Ask sts some questions to lead in
1. Have you ever gone on an excursion?
2. Where? When?
3. How did you go there?
4. Tell me what you prepared for that trip?
5. Was it interesting?
- Gets the answers from students and gives feedback
Suggested answer
1.Yes, we have.
2. We went to SAM SON beach last summer
3. We went there by coach
4. We prepared food, drinks, tents, cameras …..
5. Yes, it was
Unit 12 : Music
Warm- up ( 3 ms): Saying aloud the name of singer/ band
- Give sts some pictures of singers/ bands and ask sts about their names.

- Gets the aswers from students and gives fee
- Asks students some question to lead in the n
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1. Do you like music ?
2.What kind of music do you like ?
3. When do you like music?
Unit 13 : Film and cinema
Warm up : (4mn) : Write down the kind of film for each film in the
picture

- Stick some pictures of some famous films on the board.
- Divides the class into four teams
- Asks students to look at the pictures and write down kind of film for
each picture in two minutes
- The team having more correct and faster answer will be the winner.
- Calls on the leaders of four teams to go to the board to write down their
answers.
- Checks and declares the winner.
- Leads in : “ In our lesson today, we are talking about the kind of film
you like and find out what your partners feel about each kind of film
Unit 14: The world cup
1. Warm- up ( 4 ms): Jumble words
- Divide the class into small groups of 3 or 4 and introduce the games: Sts
are to rearrange the letters into meaning words.
WERNNI
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SERCO
RURENN– UP
CHOPAMIN
HOTS COUYRT
- Write some groups of letters on the board.
- Ask sts to work in groups.
- Ask some goups to give answers .
- Gives feedback
Answers: winner, score, runner-up,host country, champion.
- Introduces the new lesson: Today we will talk about the World Cups.
Unit 16 :Hisorical places

1. Warm- up: (5 minutes) Saying the name of some historical palces in
Viet Nam
- Sticks some pictures of some historical places in Viet Namon the board.

- Asks students to give the name of each historical place in each picture.
- Each correct answer will get 8 marks.
- Gets the answers from students and gives feedback and marks
Suggested answer
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1. President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum
2. Van Mieu- Quoc Tu Giam
3. Thong Nhat Conference Hall
4. One pillar pagoda
5. Hue imperial city
6. Flag Tower of Hanoi
- Leads in the new lesson : In our lesson today, we are going to talk about
some historical places in Viet Nam.
2.4. Effects of the study
After a period of time of applying warm- up activities in teaching
speaking lessons for the tenth grade students at my school, to my expectation, I
have gained some satisfying results. I've found that my students‟ attitudes
towards speaking lessons have changed. Instead of being afraid of and bored
with speaking skills, my students have become more confident ,active and
interested in their speaking lessons. Many of them said that they no longer feel
their speaking lessons stressful and too difficult. Most of them admitted that
their speaking skill has been improved a lot day by day.

Class

10C3
10C5
10C8

The result before implementing new method
Total students tested: 105
9-10
7-8
Under 4
5-6 marks 4-5 marks
Total
marks
marks
marks
students
Total % total % total % total % total %
38
0
0 10 26.3 15 39,4 8 21,1
5
13.2
35
0
0
8 22.8 10 28.6 9 25.8
8
22.8
42
0
0

7 16.7 16 38.1 12 28.6
7
16.6
The result after implementing new method
Total students tested: 105

9-10 marks
Total
Class
students
Total %
10C3 38
3
7.9
10C5 35
1
2.85
10C8 42
2
4.76

7-8
marks
total %
15
39.4
10
28.5
12
28.6

Under 4
marks
total %
Total %
total %
15
39.4 4
10.5 1
2.8
16
45.7 6
17.1 2
5.85
20
47.6 7
15.6 1
3.44
5-6 marks 4-5 marks

It can be seen from the 2 above tables that the application of warm- up
activities in teaching speaking lesson in my real teaching has been effective.I‟m
so happy and satisfactory when seeing my students become interested in
speaking skills, which can help students develop their communicative skills in
English. The atmosphere of my speaking class has been more active. My
students were eager to express their thoughts although they still made a lot of
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mistakes. I believe I have made the right choice when using the new method to

stimulate my students to learn English, specially speaking skill.

3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1. Conclusion:
Speaking is an important part of second language learning to any learners.
The ability to communicate in English clearly and efficiently contributes to great
success of the learner in school and to far better success later in his life.
Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to helping
students develop their speaking skill rather than leading students to pure
memorization. Teachers should provide students with a rich environment where
meaningful communication takes place while teaching any other skills. With this
aim, various warm- up activities can contribute a great deal to students in
developing basic interactive skills necessary for life. These activities stimulate
students to be more active in the learning process and at the same time make
their learning more meaningful and fun for them.
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3.2. Recommendations:
3.2. 1. Recommendations to the education and training committee
division and my school:
- I recommend that the education and training committee division hold
more sample teaching lessons, using various useful teaching techniques in an
artistic way in order to attract students‟ enthusiasm in communication tasks.
- I suggest that the managing board of my school buy more and more
materials of methodology for the teachers of the school. As a result, the teachers
will have a better chance to develop teaching quality.
3.2.2. Recommendations to other teachers:
- Indeed, I know that I am not really full of experience in teaching
because the number of years I have involved in this job is still far smaller than

many of my colleagues. Therefore, I would need useful comments and
supplements from experienced teachers so that my initiative ideas would be
much better.
Sincerely!
CONFIRMATION OF THE HEAD
MASTER

Nhu Xuan, May 10th , 2019
I swear this is my experience initiative,
do not make the copy of the others.
Author

Le Thi Chung

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6. Grammidge, M. (2004). Speaking extra. Cambridge university press.

Harmer, J, (2001). Teaching and learning in the language classroom
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/>9. />10. )
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Trang.

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