Some suggestions on how to use language games in speaking lessons for 11th grade students

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................. 1
A. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................ 2
I. Rationale of the study....................................................................................................................... 2
II. Aims of study...................................................................................................................................... 2
III. Scope of the study......................................................................................................................... 3
IV. Research questions......................................................................................................................... 3
V. Methods of the study...................................................................................................................... 3
B. DEVELOPMENT.......................................................................................................................... 4
I. Literature review............................................................................................................................ 4
1. Communicative language teaching..................................................................................... 4
1.1. Definitions of CLT....................................................................................................................... 4
1.2. Characteristics of CLT............................................................................................................... 5
2. Speaking............................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Definitions of speaking.............................................................................................................. 5
2.2. The importance of speaking.................................................................................................... 6
2.3. Common speaking activities................................................................................................... 6
3. Motivation........................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1. Definitions of motivation.......................................................................................................... 7
3.2. Types of motivation..................................................................................................................... 8
4. Overview of language games................................................................................................... 9
4.1. What are language games?....................................................................................................... 9
4.2. Types of language games....................................................................................................... 10
4.3. Why use games in language teaching............................................................................... 11
4.4. When to use games.................................................................................................................... 12
4.5. Language games as a motivator for students to speak........................................... 12
II. Sample games used in speaking lessons....................................................................... 13
1. Warm-ups............................................................................................................................................ 13
2. Pre-speaking stage.......................................................................................................................... 15
3. While- speaking stage................................................................................................................... 15

4. Post- speaking stage...................................................................................................................... 16
III. Results.............................................................................................................................................. 17
IV. Recommendations..................................................................................................................... 17
C. CONCLUSION AND PROPOSALS.............................................................................. 18
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................... 19

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A. INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Nowadays, English assumes as a more and more important part as a
means of international communication than ever. Therefore, in some recent
years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to
the Students’ needs for effective communication.
However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and
learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does
not come up to the study aims. In spite of teachers’ efforts to provide students
with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn
speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students
at many high schools in Vietnam.
At Nguyen Quan Nho high school, for most students they find speaking
especially important yet most challenging one. It has been proved that some
students got into a habit of learning “mute English”, which is obviously harmful
to a language learner. It also seems to me that the techniques exploited during a
speaking activity such as: role plays, simulations, discussions… are not really
effective. Therefore, it is a necessity to find a supplementary technique used in
teaching speaking. Games can help teachers to create contexts in which the
language is useful and meaningful. It can be realized that the common tendency
of these methodology writers is that teachers should be more active in using

classroom activities to help students recycle lexical items. One of the most
recommended activities is games.
According to many teachers, games are highly motivating, competitive
and fun. Games also bring a relaxing atmosphere and create more opportunities
for students to practice . Through games, students will enjoy themselves, be
stimulated and get involved in speaking. As a result, they can learn new lexical
items faster and remember better.
With so many advantages, games seem to be an effective way in teaching
and learning a foreign language in general and speaking.
All the above mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct
a research titled "Some suggestions on how to use language games in
speaking lessons for 11th Grade students ”.
II. AIMS OF THE STUDY
The study is aimed at:
- Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to the 11th graders
in classroom.
- Investigating the effectiveness of using games in teaching speaking to the 11 th
graders at Nguyen Quan Nho high school.
- Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of speaking
teaching at Nguyen Quan Nho high school by using games in addition to other
techniques.
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III. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study focuses specifically on using games in teaching speaking to the
11th graders at Nguyen Quan Nho high school in Thieu Hoa, Thanh Hoa. So the
study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of
the study are students from two classes (11B3 and 11B4) studying “Tieng Anh
11” textbook at Nguyen Quan Nho high school.

IV. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
With the above objectives, the research questions are:
- How to motivate the students in English speaking lessons?
- How often are games used in teaching English speaking lessons at 11th graders
at Nguyen Quan Nho high school?
V. METHODS OF THE STUDY
1. Observation method: The subjects performed self-exploration research project
conducted classroom visits, attended colleagues’ lessons.
2. Experimental Methods: Teachers teach test conducted on each specific
purpose requires some speaking lessons.
3. Investigation method: Teachers ask questions to check understanding content
assessment of the students’ lessons.

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B. DEVELOPMENT
I. LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical background relative to the topic and surveys of articles, books
and other resources relevant to a particular study topic will be presented. This
part will also provide description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work
quoted.
1. Communicative language teaching
The history of language teaching has shown a lot of changes in
approaches and methods, which reflects the recognition of changes in the sort of
proficiency learners need. Teaching a second language used to be aimed at
enabling learners to read and appreciate class of literature. Therefore, any
teacher who was able to reach this aim was thought to be a good teacher.
Most learners of English nowadays desire to be able to communicate with
others in the language they learn. Parallel with this change in the aims of

learning English, methods of teaching has to be changed. For a long time, many
language teaching methodologists have constantly looked for the most
appropriate way to teach English efficiently. As a result, many language
teaching methods and approaches have come into being such as:
- Grammar-translation method.
- The Direct method.
- The Audio-lingual method.
- The Audio-visual method.
- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
Mackey (1965) remarks that most of the methods which have ever been
developed still continue to exist in one form or another as each method has its
advantages and disadvantages. For example, grammar-translation method is easy
to implement and cheap to administer, which makes it still be used in many
classroom situations.
In my study, I only focus on Communicative Language Teaching
Approach (CLT) as it is considered the current methodology and one of the most
effective approaches to teach learners to speak in a second language.
1.1. Definitions of CLT
So far, CLT has been viewed differently by different authors such as
Wilkins (1972), Nunan (1989), etc. According to Nunan (1989: 194), “CLT
views language as a system for the expressions of meaning. Activities involve
oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is
meaningful to the learner. Objectives reflect the needs of the learner including
functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learners’ role is as a
negotiator and integrator. The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the
communication process”. It is thought that this definition contains aspects that
are common to many other definitions.
Margie S. Berns (1984), an expert in the field of communicative language
teaching, writes in explaining Firth’s view that "language is interaction, it is
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interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light,
language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its
linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse)
and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles
are, why they have come together to speak)" (Ann Galloway. “Communicative
Language Teaching: An Introduction and Sample Activities”. cal.org ).
1.2. Characteristics of CLT
The communicative approach can be said to be the product of language
educators and linguists who became dissatisfied with the Audio-lingual and
Grammar- translation, which could not enable learners to communicate in the
culture of the target language. David Nunan (1991) points out five features of
CLT:
- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target
language.
- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but
also on the learning process itself.
- An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important
contributing elements to classroom learning.
- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities
outside the classroom.
These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they
are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the
connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it is used
outside the classroom. Under this broad umbrella definition, any teaching
practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an
authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction.
Thus, in the classroom CLT often takes the form of pair and group work

requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities
that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students
practice and develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar
and pronunciation focused activities.
2. Speaking
2.1. Definitions of speaking
Speaking, as Bygate (1997) definites, involves not only the use of the
right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of
words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.
Speaking, a productive skill, is known to have two main types of
conversation namely dialogue and monologue, which are rather different. In
monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you
interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and interaction
purposes.
It is noticeable from the two productive language skills that speaking is
different from writing in both processing conditions and reciprocity conditions.
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“First, spoken language is affected by the time limitations, and the associated
problems of planning, memory, and production under pressure. Second, it is
reciprocal activity, which has crucial effect on the kinds of decisions to be
made” (Byagte, 1997: 11-12).
2.2. The importance of speaking
In social contexts, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn
and know how to speak, but not by those who do not have this skill. In language
learning, speaking plays an utmost important role among the four language
skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) since it helps to identify who
knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) confirms that when people
mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean that they are able

to speak the language. It can not be denied that speaking deserves as much
attention than written skill. In order to carry out many of the most basic
transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence.
2.3. Common speaking activities
A variety of activities can be used to develop speaking skills. Below are
some common ones.
* Role play
“Role-playing” is one method of getting the students to imagine they are
someone else and play the part (Shi Zheng, 2006). Doing role-play activities is a
way to practice, or rehearse, situations that may happen in real life. The purpose
of this is to prepare the students for the real-life language use (Gu Yueguo, 1998:
89).
In addition, role- play will be the most commonly used method to ensure
that the students can use effectively what they have learned in the real
communication (Gu Yueguo, 1998: 239). Richards suggests that collaborative
communication activities such as role-plays have the following characteristics:
They provide opportunities to practice strategies for opening, developing,
and terminating conversational encounters.
They require learners to develop meanings collaboratively. They
necessitate the use of turn-taking rules.
They practice use of conversational routines and expressions.
They involve learners in different kinds of roles, necessitating use of
different styles of speaking.
They require negotiate completion of tasks.
They involve information sharing.
They focus on comprehensible and meaningful input and output.
They require a high degree of learners’ participation. (Richards 1985: 83)
* Information gap activity
Teachers are often searching for activities to make their classroom more
interactive; language teachers in particular are also looking for activities that

promote target language use. Info Gap activities are excellent activities as they
force the students to ask each other questions; these activities help make the
language classroom experience more meaningful and authentic. This section will
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explain in more detail what Info Gap activities are and why they are useful, it
will also give some examples of Info Gap activities for any language classroom.
What is an Info Gap activity?
An Info Gap activity takes place between students, not between a student
and a teacher, though a teacher can certainly demonstrate the activity. The two
students will be asking each other questions to which they don’t know the
answer; these questions are called referential questions. The goal of the activity
is for the students to discover certain information, whether about the other
person or related to a specific activity.
What are referential and display questions?
A referential question is a question to which the person asking does not
know the answer. For example, you might ask a new student: “Where are you
from?” or “What is your name?”. The teacher does not know the answer to these
questions; the purpose of asking these questions is to discover information,
similar to the Info Gap activities.
A display question is a question to which the person asking doesn’t know
the answer. For example, you might ask a student: “What colour is my sweater?”
or “Do I have long or short hair?”. The teacher clearly knows the answer to
these questions; the purpose of asking is to promote student speaking, or to
prompt students to remember certain information (whether it be vocabulary,
grammar, etc.)
Why are Info Gap activities useful?
Info Gap activities are useful because they are very meaningful. All
students are involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a

specific purpose. Each student has the task of finding out certain information,
and therefore must find a way in which to ask for this information. Motivation is
usually quite high in these activities. These activities help move the students
from working in a more structured environment into a more communicative
environment. They are hopefully using lots of the target language, and in the
process discovering where they have gaps. Knowing where these gaps are gives
them a direction in which to improve.
3. Motivation
3.1. Definitions of motivation
There have been so far many researchers on the theory of motivation.
Each author has his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since they
look at motivation from different angles. However, motivation is generally
defined as an abstract concept used to describe the willingness of a person to
expand effort to reach a particular goal. For language learners, mastery of a
language may be a goal. In linguistics, sociolinguistics and second language
acquisition, a number of language learner motivation models have been
postulated.
Motivation is an important affective variable in SLA, and it has a positive
correlation with second language achievement and proficiency, that is to say,
motivation of high levels often leads to high L2 achievement and proficiency.
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The motivated learners are usually more active in learning, while unmotivated
learners are more likely to cause classroom disturbances. However, motivation
is extremely difficult to define and measure. Atkinson (cited in Arnold, 2000:
13) defined motivation as “a cluster of factors that “energize” the behavior and
give it “direction”.
Thus, in Atkinson’s point of view, motivation is a term used to describe
what energizes a person and what directs his activity, energy and direction.

While Dornyei and Otto regarded motivation as a function of a person’s thought
and defined it as “the dynamically changing cumulative aroused in a person that
initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates and evaluates the cognitive
and the motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected,
prioritized, operationalised and acted out” (cited in Dornyei, 2001: 9). In his
word, Ellis stated that “motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that
influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2” (Ellis, 1997:
75). Woolfolk (2001: 366) also defined motivation as “an internal state that
arouses, directs and maintains behavior”. Similarly, Brown (2000: 160) indicated
that “motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things
in order to achieve something”.
It can be seen that different researchers approach motivation definition in
different ways. However, they all share the same point of view that motivation
combines effort and desire plus favorable and occurs as a result of a
combination of internal and external influences. This research, therefore, will
follow the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner (1982: 132-147) that
motivation is perceived to be composed of three elements. These include effort,
desire and affect. Effort refers to the time spent studying the language and the
drive of the learner. Desire indicates how much the learner wants to become
proficient in the language, and affect illustrates the learner’s emotional reactions
with regard to language study.
3.2. Types of motivation
Gardner and Lambert (1972) introduced the notions of instrumental and
integrative motivation. Instrumental motivation refers to the learner’s desire to
learn a language for utilitarian purposes (such as employment or travel or exam
purposes) in the context of language learning. On the other hand, integrative
motivation refers to the desire to learn a language to integrate successfully into
the target language community.
A learner with integrative motivation has a genuine interest in the second
hand language community. He wants to learn their language in order to

communicate with them more satisfactory and to gain closer contact with them
and their culture.
A learner with instrumental motivation is more interested in how the
second language can be a useful instrument towards furthering other goals such
as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employment prospects.
(Gardner and Lambert in William T. Littlewood, 1984: 57).
It can be seen that the two kinds of motivation do not exclude each other.
Most learners are motivated by a mixture of integrative and instrumental
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reasons. In later research studies, Crook’s and Schmidt (1991), and Gardner and
Tremblay (1994) explored four other motivational orientations: (a) reason for
learning, (b) desire to attain the learning goal, (c) positive attitude toward the
learning situation, and (d) effortful behavior. Motivation can also be divided into
“intrinsic” and “extrinsic” ones in general learning theory. (Arnold, 2000: 14).
Intrinsic motivation is what learners bring to the learning environment
that is their internal attributes: attitudes, values, needs, and personality factors.
Extrinsic motivation involves performing a behavior as a means to an
end, that is, it originates outside the individual and is concerned with external
environmental factors that help shape students’ behavior (Dornyei, 2001: 27).
Extrinsic motivation comes from the learners’ desire to get external
reward or the cognition of the peers and parents, or the avoidance of
punishment. While intrinsic motivation comes from the learners’ internal factors
because the learner regards second language learning as a means to acquire
knowledge and satisfy his curiosity and interest. Studies show that - learning,
especially long- term learning, is mostly influenced by intrinsic motivation,
though extrinsic motivation is also beneficial to learning.

4. Overview of language games

4.1. What are language games?
Language games can be used in language classes. So what are games and
what are language games?
First of all, what are games? Games are forms of entertainment derived
from a set of artificial rules, typically with a known goal to be reached. Games
can be in the form of physical activities, mental, or a mixture of the two. Also,
games can be classified as cooperative, solitaire or competitive. Hadfield (1987)
defines “a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun”.
Similarly, according to Rixon (1981), “a game consists of governed by rules”.
This is summed up very well in Gibb’s definition (1978) of a game as “an
activity carried out by cooperating or competing decision markers, seeking to
achieve, within a set of rules, their objectives”.
Different the definitions are, they share the same opinion that a game has
three main characteristics. They are: a goal or objective, a set of rules which
govern a game and games involve a contest either between players or between
players and the goal.
So, what are the language games? Language games mean games related to
language. If games help to improve different aspects such as intellectual ability,
patience, then language games help to develop language skills. When playing
these language games, students not only have fun but can also practice English
enjoyably, which helps to motivate students. Greenal (1984) defines as one kind
of “activity which is used to consolidate language already taught or acquired and
occurs during the free stage of lesson or during occasions such as English club
meeting…”.

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4.2. Types of language games
Classifying language games into categories can be very difficult because

categories often overlap. Therefore, different linguists use different ways to
classify language games. According to Hadfield (1987), “language games can be
divided into two further categories: Linguistic games and communicative
games. Linguistic games focus on accuracy, such as applying the correct
antonym. On the other hand, communicative games focus on successful
exchange of information and ideas, such as two people identifying the
differences between their two pictures which are similar to one another but not
exactly alike. Hadfield (1987) also classifies language games into many more
categories as follows:
a. Sorting, ordering, or arranging games. For example, students have a set of
cards with different products on them, and they sort the cards into products
found at a grocery store and products found at a department store.
b. Information gap games. In such games, one or more people have information
that other people need to complete a task. For instance, one person might have a
drawing and their partner needs to create a similar drawing by listening to the
information given by the person with the drawing. Information gap games can
involve a one-way information gap, such as the drawing game just described, or
a two-way information gap, in which each person has unique information, such
as in a Spot-The-Difference task, where each person has a slightly different
picture, and the task is to identify the differences.
c. Guessing games. These are a variation on information gap games. One of the
best known examples of a guessing game is “20 Questions”, in which one
person thinks of a famous person, place, or thing. The other participants can ask
20 Yes/No questions to find clues in order to guess who or what the person is
thinking of.
d. Search games . These games are yet another variant on two-way information
gap games, with everyone giving and seeking information. Find Someone Who
is a well known example. Students are given a grid. The task is to fill in all the
cells in the grid with the name of a classmate who fits that cell, e.g, someone
who is a vegetarian. Students circulate, asking and answering questions to

complete their own grid and help classmates complete theirs.
e. Matching games. As the name implies, participants need to find a match for a
word, picture, or card. For example, students place 30 word cards, composed of
15 pairs, face down in random order. Each person turns over two cards at a time,
with the goal of turning over a matching pair, by using their memory. This is
also known as the Pelmanism principle, after Christopher Louis Pelman, a
British psychologist of the first half of the 20th century.
f. Labeling games. These are a form of matching, in that participants match
labels and pictures.
g. Exchanging games. In these games, students barter cards, other objects, or
ideas. Similar are exchanging and collecting games. Many card games fall into
this category, such as the children’s card game Go Fish: />quartet/gofish.html.
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h. Board games. Scrabble is one of the most popular board games that
specifically highlights language.
i. Role play games. The terms role play, drama, and simulation are sometimes
used interchangeably but can be differentiated (Kodotchigova, 2002). Role play
can involve students playing roles that they do not play in real life, such as
dentist, while simulations can involve students performing roles that they
already play in real life or might be likely to play, such as customer at a
restaurant. Dramas are normally scripted performances, whereas in role plays
and simulations, students come up with their own words, although preparation is
often useful.
4.3. Why use games in language teaching
Games have long been advocated for assisting language learning. Here
are some of the reasons why:
a. Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting.
Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (Thiagarajan,1999; Wright,

Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). After all, learning a language involves long-term
effort.
b. Games provide a context for meaningful communication. Even if the game
involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful
communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game
and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game
(Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005).
c. This meaningful communication provides the basis for comprehensible input
(Krashen, 1985), i.e, what students understand as they listen and read,
interaction to enhance comprehensibility, e.g, asking for repetition or giving
examples (Long, 1991), and comprehensible output, speaking and writing so
that others can understand (Swain, 1993).
d. The emotions aroused when playing games add variety to the sometimes dry,
serious process of language instruction (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000)
Ersoz, 2000; Lee, 1995).
e. The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety (RichardAmato, 1988) and encourage shyer learners to take part (Uberman, 1998),
especially when games are played in small groups.
f. Games can involve all the basic language skills, i.e, listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, and a number of skills are often involved in the same game
(Lee, 1995).
g. Games are student-centered in that students are active in playing the games,
and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with
teachers as facilitators.
h. Many games can be played in small groups, thereby providing a venue for
students to develop their skills in working with others, such as the skill of
disagreeing politely and the skill of asking for help (Jacobs & Kline Liu, 1996).
To achieve the above-mentioned benefits some thought needs to be given
to when and how to use games.
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4.4. When to use games
Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some
time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be
regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and
class have nothing better to do" (1979: 3). Games ought to be at the heart of
teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of
the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen”.
“Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners
recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this
article agree that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students,
they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since
they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate
fluency”.
“Games have been shown to have advantages and effectiveness in
learning vocabulary in various ways. First, games bring in relaxation and fun for
students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily. Second, games
usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested. These
create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate
actively in the learning activities.
Third, vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom, and
enhance Students’ use of English in a flexible, communicative way”.
“Therefore, the role of games in teaching and learning vocabulary cannot
be denied. However, in order to achieve the most from vocabulary games, it is
essential that suitable games is chosen. Whenever a game is to be conducted, the
number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic,
and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account”.
“In conclusion, learning vocabulary through games is one effective and
interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of this
research suggest that games are used not only for mere fun, but more

importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading
toward the goal of improving learners” communicative competence”.
4.5. Language games as a motivator for students to speak
The importance of motivation second language teaching and learning has
been discussed for many years. Motivation is a key consideration in determining
the preparedness of learners to communicate. Motivation refers to the
combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language
plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language. That is, motivation to
learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual
works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the
satisfaction experienced in this activity.
Therefore, those who are motivated participate actively in class and
usually get good study results.
Since motivation is something very personal, it is not easy to develop.
However, according to Lightbrown and Spada (1999): “If we can make our
classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the atmosphere is
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supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students’
motivation to learn”. With a view to creating such a learning atmosphere, using
language games, which have long been advocated for assisting language
learning, in speaking classes seems to be a good choice for the following
reasons:
- Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting. Language
learning is hard work. Effort is required at every moment and must be
maintained over a long period of time. Games help and encourage many
students to sustain their interest and work. Sustaining interest can mean
sustaining effort. After all, learning language involves long term effort.
- The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety and encourage

shyer students to take part in speaking class positively, especially when games
are played in small groups.
- Games also help the teachers to create contexts in which the language is
meaningful and useful. The students want to take part and in order to do so they
must understand what others are saying and they must speak in order to express
their own point of view or give information.
II. SAMPLE GAMES USED IN SPEAKING LESSONS
1. Warm-ups
A warm up activity is often a short and fun game which the teacher can
use with his students. The purpose of warm up activities is to stimulate the
student’s minds before studying a new lesson. Warm-ups should last about three
to five minutes.
Unit 6: COMPETITIONS
Period 31: Speaking
Type of games: Matching games Classroom management: Group work
Material : Pictures and cards
Time: 3 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher divides the class into groups of four or five students. The
teacher gives each groups a set of pictures of competitions and cards containing
the names of the competitions. Students work in groups and quickly match each
competitions with their name. Which group finishes first and has the correct
answers will be the winner. Then the teacher asks students: “Do you like taking
part in competitions like these?”, “ Which competitions do you like to win?”
Pictures:
Cards:
Card 1: Sao Mai Television Singing Contest
Card 2: Quiz: “Road to Mount Olympia”
Card 3: Olympic Games
Card 4: London Marathon

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Unit 11: SOURCES OF ENERGY
Period 68: Speaking
Type of games: Sorting, ordering or arranging games
Material: energy posters and hand out
Class management: Pair work
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher asks students to work in pairs. Teacher sticks the following
posters on the blackboard or alternatively print these posters and distribute them
to students. Teacher then gives the handouts to the pairs and asks students to
match the energy with the correct picture. After 5 minutes, teacher asks some
pairs to present in front of the class.
Sources of energy Pictures
Solar energy
Water energy

Wind energy

Fossil fue

Geothermal heat

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2. Pre-speaking stage
This stage is carried out before students speak. The pre-speaking activities

are aimed at preparing students with everything necessary for speaking. They
also involve thought and reflection, and provide opportunities for students to
plan and organize for speaking. Normally, pre-speaking stage often lasts from
five to fifteen minutes depending on each lesson.
Unit 3: A PARTY
Period 15: Speaking (Task 2)
Type of games: Labeling game Class management: Whole class
Material : Picture
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher prepares a set of pictures of parties such as: wedding party,
birthday party, Christmas party and Easter party and ask students to match the
pictures with the name of cards. And then let them tell about the party. Using
some questions :
What do you often do at the party?
What kind of presents do you often bring to the party?
What kind of clothes do you often wear at the party?
Birthday party

Easter party

Wedding

party

Christmas party

3. While- speaking stage
This stage is the main part of a speaking lesson in which students use
language input provided in pre- speaking stage to express personal feelings,

ideas, or viewpoints, to converse and discuss or to describe one event, to tell a
story, etc…
Time spent on this stage is nearly twenty to thirty minutes.

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Unit 1: FRIENDSHIP
Period 4: Speaking (Task 3)
Type of games: Role- play Class management: Group work
Material: handouts
Time 15 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher asks students to work in pairs : one plays the role of the
journalists and the other plays the role of interviewee. Teacher distributes the
interview form to each pair and asks them to interview a friend of his or hers
who has just won the first international prize in Mathematics and takes notes the
answers. The students can change their roles and make another interview. Then
the teacher asks some students to report what they have gained from the
interview.
INTERVIEW FORM
1.What is his/her name?
2. When was he/she born?
3. What is he/she like?
4.What does he/she do in his/her free time?
5. How is he/she like? Is he/she friendly?
6. Can you tell me something about his/her interest in Maths?
7. How much time does he/she spend on Maths every day?
8.What made him/her successful?
9. What makes him/her a good friend?

4. Post- speaking stage
It is the last step of a speaking lesson so it’s time for Students’ production.
The activities in this stage are for students to reflect upon their performance.
Post speaking stage should last ten to twelve minutes.
Unit 6: COMPETITIONS
Period 31: Speaking
Type of games: Role play Class management: Group work
Material: handouts
Time: 10-12 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher asks students to work in pairs: one plays the role an MC in
“Sao Mai Television Singing contest”, while the other plays the role of a singer.
Teacher distributes the interview from each pair and asks them to interview the
singer and takes notes the answer. The students can change their roles and make
another interview. Then the teacher asks some students go to the blackboard to
talk about the competition that they have attended from the interview.
INTERVIEW FORM
1. What is your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. Where and when did you take part in it?
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4. Who organized it?
5. Who participated in it?
6. Who won the contest?
7. Did you enjoy it?
8.Why did/ didn’t you enjoy it?
III. RESULTS
The number of students who desire speaking lessons

Classes
11B3 (Frequently using
11B4(Rarely using games
Time

games in speaking lessons)

in speaking lessons)

At the beginning of

15/39

12/38

the school-year
2018-2019
At the end of the

(38.46%)

(31.57%)

30/39

18/38

school-year 20182019

(76.92%)

(47.36%)

The data from the table shows that by using language games in teaching
speaking skills for the students, I have obtained many positive results. It is really
the motivation to all students when taking part in speaking lessons. The
observation also reveals that the way I applied in speaking lessons attracted a
large number of students. They are no longer shy when participating in speaking
activities and therefore, much more interested in the games, activities, or
pictures that I gave them. The students are able to speak English in a real
competitive and friendly atmosphere, which encourages them to speak English
more. They were excited in some speaking activities such as role play,
interview… From these activities they can speak and understand English better.
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS
I do hope that the teaching strategy of using cooperative learning in oral
communication classrooms will much benefit my students as they have more
chances to engage in speaking activities. Students who are timid, shy and feel
less motivated when joining in speaking classes of this kind will feel more
confident. More importantly, competition among the groups was an important
factor to motivate students to work as a group, because it is important for them
to be the best and to be recognized. Students will be aware of their responsibility
in the speaking process. They should understand that one way to improve
speaking is practicing with others, interacting with others, and learning from
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others.
C. CONCLUSION AND PROPOSALS
Speaking is one of the important language skills to students, to master it
requires a lot of time and efforts. The problem for both teachers and students in

the learning process is to find teaching methods and how to practice speaking
skills effectively.
The experience initiatives carried out with the purposes mentioned above
have already provided several effective suggestions of using games for students
in speaking lessons in English 11. In my teaching English, this experience
initiative motivates my colleagues and me more creatively and actively in
teaching because teaching speaking skills in English at high schools is not a
simple job that requires a lot of effort and patience. Thanks to it, students have a
positive outlook on language learning in general and learning speaking skills in
particular. The results need a relatively long time.
The scope of application of this experience initiative can be extended to
all students at different levels because speaking skills exist in all units of the
textbooks.
Although the study has accomplished the objectives set at the beginning,
it can not avoid some limitations.
Due to the short time, limit of knowledge and the scope of the study, the
study can not cover all the uses of language games in four skills and language
elements. Therefore, further study can focus on the use of language games as a
motivator in reading classes, writing classes, listening classes and language
games as an effective technique to teach vocabulary and grammar.
Obviously, mistakes are unavoidable, all comments and remarks on this
research will be highly appreciated. I would like to hear the comments of all
colleagues to make my subject more complete!
I hereby declare that this initiative is due to the experience I myself
have
written, not copy anybody’s. I sincerely thank you!
COMMENTS AND ASSESSMENT
OF THE SCIENCE COUNCIL

Thieu Hoa, April 15th, 2019

The author

Trịnh Ngọc Tý

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27. The text book of English 11.

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