SKKN Measures to improve listening skill for 9th grade students - Đỗ Thị Hiền

Nội dung text: SKKN Measures to improve listening skill for 9th grade students - Đỗ Thị Hiền

1. 1 PART A. INTRODUCTION As we all know listening is one of the four important skills of learning a foreign language. We can't communicate without listening. To be successful in communication, we must understand what others say. When we speak English, we have time to think about what we're going to say, how to use words. When we listen, we have to pay attention to listening. In fact, learning to listen is one of the four most difficult skills. Why is listening a difficult task? When students listen to their teachers , they get used to the teachers’ tone. In addition, teachers can read slowly, use gestures or actions to suggest difficult listening parts. Therefore, it becomes easier to listen.However, when listening to the recording, students face the following difficulties: They can't control what they'll hear. The speech in the recording is too fast. There are a lot of new words. The voice sounds different. Students who don't listen often won't recognize the words they have already known. So how do we help them expand their listening range, how can we make a lesson less stressful but more enjoyable? That's what a lot of teachers are worried about. To help 9th grade students use their vocabulary and grammatical structures to listen effectively, pass the listening part in the exam , especially the final exam to high school. I boldly applied "Measures to improve listening skill for 9th grade students" in my teaching process. PART B. PROBLEM SOLVING I. Current situation of teaching and learning English in Xuan Phu secondary school. 1. Advantages In 2020-2021 school year, I worked in Xuan Phu Secondary School, most students are conscious of learning and capable of getting knowledge. Moreover, they also have accessed to new teaching methods in most lessons, this makes it easier to guide and control students. Besides, I have been a teacher for many years, so I have gained some experience in imparting knowledge to students. Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
2. 2 The school's facilities meet the requirements of listening lessons such as discs, stereos, projectors .etc Under the direction of Yen Dung Education and Training Department, the school also organized for students to set up English clubs. Through club activities, teachers and students had the opportunity to exchange and train their listening and speaking English skills, so their listening ability was much improved. 2. Disadvantages and their causes 2.1. Teachers Sometimes teachers had certain difficulties in applying listening techniques, and choosing suitable techniques to teach listening skill. Teachers did not kow how to deal with mistakes that students often make while listening. Teachers have not actively explored useful and suitable listening materials for the students’ competence. 2.2 Students The motivation to listen in English is limited. Many students have little opportunity to listen, they have not actively accessed to the mass information through which they can improve their listening skill. Some children are afraid of listening and speaking in English, for fear of making mistakes. Students are not used to the speed of reading, speaking in English recordings. They don't have the opportunity to interact with foreign teachers Students have a small number of vocabulary.The foundation knowledge and understanding are still limited, the ability to judge and grasp the content of the recording is not good . There are many students who do not have the same levels in a class, so it is difficult for teachers to cover all the students. II. Educational initiatives From the above challenges, I thought about how to do deal with them, what methods to apply as well as what tricks to improve listening skill for students, in order to help them to have higher results. I've been looking for different solutions to this situation. So I came up with "Measures to improve Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
3. 3 listening skill for 9th grade students" with a view to finding the best way to strengthen listening skill for themselves and helping them understand the importance of the subject and they are also more interested in this subject. At the same time, we can remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of teaching skills. 1. Initiative 1: Rules for teaching listening skill An effective listening lesson must ensure some of the following basic principles: Introducing topics, contexts, situations related to the listening task clearly so that we can see what students already know and what they still do not know about the content, this makes students inspire curiosity, create interest in the content of the coming lesson. The instructions for students must be simple and understandable, because we want students to focus on listening, not complex, or long-term knowledge. Let students guess, think in advance about things that are about to be heard in a certain context. This helps students pay attention to the lesson and their interest in the lesson. Explain some of the necessary words and structures: However, there is no need to introduce all new words, we should let students guess the meaning of the word in context. If students do not understand the meaning of the words after hearing it, the teacher will interpret it by eliciting or give examples. Listening must be followed three stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post- listening. 2. Initiative 2: Some tips for teaching listening skill Listening is a language skill related to other skills. When we teach students a foreign language, we must teach them to listen in different ways. Some of the extra skills involved in listening are: It is necessary to remind students to be always careful with the “ traps” in the listening lessons. The speaker can say a wrong answer and then come back to negate that wrong answer, so not every information heard at the first time is the right answer During the listening process, if students can not hear a part clearly, they should skip it and don’t worry about that part. While they are thinking about the answer of the previous question, the recording continues and they will miss the next questions. Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
4. 4 Teachers need to provide students with words which often make students confused while they listen to help them be able to recognize the differences between phonetics. For example, we must notice the difference between /g/ and /k/ in the words: "pig" and "pick", these two words have only one different ending sound between them. However; they have different meaning. Some other pairs of words are "sheep and ship," "run and sun" etc. Each of these pairs of words, the difference between words with only a single syllable has formed a new word with a completely different meaning. In addition, we need to distinguish the pronunciation of the following pairs of letters: " A-R", " E-I", " Y-I", " H-X", " H- 8", " P-B", " G-J", " W- double U", " H-A" Teachers guide students how to read and write days and ordinal numbers in English. For example: February 3rd or 3rd of February, first – 1st , second – 2nd , third – 3rd , forth- 4th , fifth -5th ,etc. Teachers emphasize the pronunciation of some pairs of numbers such as 13 (thirteen)- 30 (thirty)/ 14 (fourteen)- 40 (forty)... Teachers show students how to speak time in English, pay attention to different ways of speaking time, and especially the numbers 15 and 30 when talking about time. 15 minutes (a quarter), 30 minutes (half an hour). Examples: 7.45 : seven forty five/ forty five past seven/ a quarter to eight. Note students the currency units in English. Examples: £10 - "ten pounds", £1.50 - "one pound fifty", $10 – “ten dollars”... Show students how to read phone numbers. For zero we can read oh or zero. For 2 identical numbers located next to each other, use double + number. Examples: 0913 764 775: oh nine one three, seven six four, double seven five 105 - one oh five It also involves getting a firm grip on the sentence structure. For example, when listening to "Would you pick the phone up?" the listener must realize that "pick" is a verb of a sentence and "phone" is a noun. In addition, the listeners must be aware of the order of the word and the intonation of the sentence, and must determine what kind of sentence it is: nagative or affirmative. Teachers should note students the words which are nagative: didn't, isn't, won’t or can't. Another skill of listening is the ability to guess information that is not directly indicated in the recording. From the language they can understand many things that are not said directly. Example: "Yesterday, after getting up and having breakfast, Peter went to school." Students have to understand "Peter went to school in the morning." Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
5. 5 3. Initiative 3: Some basic types of exercises in 9th grade exams Type 1: Multiple -Choice In this exercise, students have to read the questions and the keys given. They must pay attention to the words that have affirmative meanings like ok, yes, right, or nagative meanings such as: isn’t,won’t, haven’t, agree, disagree, never, no, don’t, doesn’t etc because normally the recording mentions all the answers, students will choose the word they hear clearly, they do not notice the content of the listening section. It’s easy for them to choose the wrong answer Example: Listen and choose the correct answer. 1.What are they going to buy for Pam? A. a book B. a plant C. some chocolates 2. When is the man’s appointment? A. Wednesday B. Friday C. Thursday Keys: 1. B: Students will hear the three answers “ a book”, “ a plant”, “some chocolates”. However, they can not choose “A” because they hear “ not a book again”, students can not choose “C “ because they hear “ doesn’t like sweet things”, in short, students have to choose “B” becase there is a sentence “ get her something to put in her garden”. 2. C: Students will hear the three answers “Wednesday”, “Friday” and “Thursday” but they can’t choose “B” because they hear “ On Friday, I am going to go to France”. Students can’t choose “A”, either because there is a sentence “ I’m afraid I have a meeting all day Wednesday”. Type 2: Gap- Filling Students have to carefully read the requirements of the listening test, pay attention to the given situation, topic so that they can guess type of information to fill in the gaps: numbers, colors, jobs, dates, months etc. Students must know the required number of words to fill in the blanks. They don’t try to listen to the entire content of the listening passage, only focus on main ideas While listening, students should use Vietnamese to take note quickly or use their own symbols, after finishing listening part, students complete the draft and then guess the answer. Example: Complete the following notes with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or A NUMBER for each of the blanks. Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
6. 6 PARK ZOO Opening: Monay – Saturday From 9.00 a.m to (1)________________ Nearest station: (2)______________Station Elephant house: Close on (3)_____________ May Keys: 1. 7.30p.m: Students have to guess the word in number 1 must be a number related to time. “The zoo is open from Monday to Saturday from nine in the morning to seven thirty at nine” 2. North: Students have to guess the word in number 2 must be a noun related to place and focus on the word before “station”. Students hear “You should take the train to North station”. 3. 3rd : Students need to think of a word about a day of a month before listening and pay attention to the word “May”. There is a sentence in the recording “The elephant house won’t be open on the third of May” Type 3: “ True/ False statements” As the other types, students have to read the sentences carefully, focus on the verb tenses, adverbs of time, place, key words, affirmative and negatitive words. They also have to pay attention to conjunctions such as but, however, although etc. Example : Listen and check if the statements are T ( True) or F ( False) 1. Lan has finished her exam. .. 2. She is sure that she passed her exam. .. This exercise has some key words: Yes, sure, passed. Keys: 1. T : When students listen, they recognise that “ Hey, Lan! Have you finished your exam?- Yes , I have 2. F: students notice there are negative words “ Did you pass?- I’m not sure. The examiner didn’t tell me. Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
7. 7 PART C. EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INITIATIVES After applying the above measures, I see that students are more interested in learning, actively creative to expand their knowledge. The learning atmosphere is more exciting. Students have the opportunity to assert themselves, they are no longer embarrassed and concerned about listening lessons. These are also the reasons for the positive results of the tests. The test before applying new measures. Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
8. 8 The test after applying new measures. The result before applying new measures Mark 0- 0.75 Mark 1- 1.5 Mark 1.75-2 Total of Class students Amount % Amount % Amount % 9A 33 20 60.6 10 30.3 3 9.1 9C 29 25 86.2 4 13.8 0 0 Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
9. 9 The result after applying new measures Mark 0- 0.75 Mark 1- 1.5 Mark 1.75-2 Total of Class students Amount % Amount % Amount % 9A 33 3 9.1 13 39.4 17 51.5 9C 29 10 34.5 15 51.7 4 13.8 PART D: COMMITMENT I promise: I do not copy or infringe copyright the initiatives of others. Initiatives which were taken are truthful. The evidence of students’ progress is honest. Canh Thuy, January 20th 2022 TEACHER (Sign and specify full name) Do Thi Hien Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school
10. 10 PART E. SCHOOL REVIEWS AND COMMENTS 1. Reviews and comments of the subject group leader ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... Assistant to subject group leader (Signature and full name) Dao Thi Tuyen 2. Reviews, comments and confirmation of the Principal The Principal of School (Signature and seal ) Nguyen Nhat Hung Do Thi Hien - Canh Thuy secondary school