Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING BUREAU OF DO LUONG
LY NHAT QUANG LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL
******************

EXPERIENCE AND INNOVATION
THEME:
SOME ACTIVITIES TO HELP
GRADE- 7 STUDENTS AT
LY NHAT QUANG LOWER
SECONDARY SCHOOL
DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILL
IN EXTRA LESSONS IN THE
AFTERNOON
SUBJECT: ENGLISH
Teacher: Dang Quang Tam
Tel: 0976808268
Group: Social Science

School year: 2013-2014

1
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
2
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
TABLE OF CONTENT
A. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.

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. In order to teach foreign language
learners how to speak in sensible ways, some speaking activities are provided below,
that can be applied to English as a foreign language classroom settings, together with
suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.
When teaching speaking, we all know some common activities such as
Discussions; Role Play; Simulation; Information Gap; Brainstorming; Storytelling;
Interviews; Story Completion; Reporting; Picture Narrating; Picture Describing;
Find the Difference.
However, if students, especially grade 7 - student, want to perform the activities
mentioned above, they need to acquire a quite a large range of vocabulary and
grammar. In addition, to enable students to perform above activities, teachers have to
create interesting, sensible speaking activities so that all students can feel relaxed
when involving the activities. Teachers also need to motivate students by giving them
good encouragement, compliments.
4
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
B. PRACTICAL BACKGROUND.
In fact, very few students can speak English fluently after studying it for 4
years at lower secondary school. I have observed some of colleagues' teaching lessons
and through observation, I have realized some difficulties that teachers and students
have.
1. To teachers:
- In most of extra lessons in the afternoon, teachers just help their students do
grammar exercises, reading, writing and listening. They ignore speaking skill so day
by day, month by month and year by year, students find it really hard to speak English

skill.
- My collogues as well as other teachers in my school always give me good
encouragement and support.
b. Disadvantages:
- When I applied my experiences and innovations, I also have some certain
difficulties as following:
- The number of students who can speak English and wants to improve their speaking
skill is very limited.
- My experience is more or less still limited.
- Teaching aids and time are also a big problem as I still need more time and teaching
aids to prepare a contented lesson for extra class in the afternoon.
- Quite a few students are too weak to speak English as they don't know much
lexicology as well as lacking grammar structures.
- The number of students in a class is still big while we can't move chairs and desks as
the way we want.
C. SOLUTIONS
To help my students improve their speaking skill, I can't do it in a day or two. On the
contrary, it took me months, even years to draw some following experiences and
innovations.
I. Pair- work on topics given.
Aim: To help students ask and answer using questions from brainstorming stage to
create communicative activities.
Time to carry out: 20 minutes.
Preparation:
+ Teacher: Vocabulary of jobs, good questions to explore personal information.
+ Students: Get to know some information about the person they want to act.
1. Asking and answering about personal information.
As we know, teachers of English often ask their students to work in pair asking and
answering about their personal because this activity is quite important and interesting.
6

Quyen: My name is Quyen.
Huyen: How old are you?
Quyen: I'm 11 years old.
7
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
Huyen: What do you do?
Quyen: I'm a student.
Huyen: Where do you live?
Quyen: I live in Da Son
Huyen: How far is it from your house to school?
Quyen: It's about 1 km.
Huyen: How do you go to school?
Quyen: I go to school by bike.
Huyen: How many people are there in your family?
Quyen: There are four people in my family.
Huyen: What's your telephone number?
Quyen: 0383 871 256
Huyen: What do you do in your free time?
Quyen: I play badminton.
Obviously, two students named Huyen and Quyen made a good dialogue
because they could use all questions needed to ask about personal information. But
they still felt bored with this activity since they have been in the same class for nearly
two years and they have known each other very well. That's why when listening to
Quyen's answer, Huyen showed no surprise or not much interest because she could
guess what Quyen's answers were.
* Next, I observed 2 students named Nam and Hai
Nam: What's your name, Hai?
Hai: My name is Hai. And your name, Nam?
Nam: My name is Nam. How old are you?

The I asked students to act if they were new to each other. So each student have three
minutes to note down the name, job, accommodation they liked. They may act if
they were famous singers, actors or actress Then I asked students in class 7D
to change their seats so that they could ask the person they wanted to know more. I
also reminded students to use phrases given to ask his/ her new friend to increase
communicative target and encouraged them to be creative in using questions.
And here are two dialogues I noted down:
(Dialogue made by Sang and Duc. Duc is A. Sang is B)
A: Hi. Nice to meet you.
B: Hi. How do you do. What's your name?
A: My name is Messi. And your name?
9
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
B: My full name is Ngo Kien Huy. How old are you?
A: I'm 27 years old. How about you?
B: I'm 24. What do you do?
A: I'm a soccer player. And you?
B: I'm a singer. Where do you live?
A: I live in London. And you?
B: I live in Ho Chi Minh city. How do you often go to work?
A: I go to work by bus. How about you?
B: I go to work by car, sometimes by bus. How many people are there in your family?
A: There are three people in my family. How about your family.
B: There are two people in my family. My mother and I. So what do you so in your
free time?
A: I play basketball. Sometimes I go swimming. And you?
B: I sometimes play video games. Sometimes, I play table tennis.
With the way I used for students in class 7D, I found that all students were
eager to work together to make dialogues. Although they couldn't cover all personal

Where will you stay there?
How long will you stay there?
What will you do there?
Will you buy any souvenirs and take any photos?
Then, I asked all students to work in pair simultaneously. I walked around class to
check and help but I found that most of students in class 7B said they would go to
Cua Lo as they hadn't been to anywhere else and they didn't know much about other
famous places. Therefore, their dialogues were almost the same. They didn't talk
about other places as I expected. When I carried out the same lesson in class 7A, I
asked students to say out the place they wanted to visit such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh
city , then I provided some information about those places.
you can get there by car/ bus/ train / plane (from Vinh city)
Hanoi: you can visit: Sword lake, One Pillar pagoda, Ho Chi Minh's
Mausoleum, Ba Dinh Square,
you can try: Hanoi Pho, Com cakes,
Similarly, I provided some flashcards containing some necessary information about
some places to my students so that they can use.
After students had worked simultaneously, I asked some pairs to present their
dialogues and I was very glad to find that some pairs made very good dialogues. Here
is one of those.
I noted down a dialogue between Hoang and Nhung as following:
11
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
Hoang: Hi, NHung. Where will you go this summer?
Nhung: I will go to Ho Chi Minh city.
Hoang: How nice! Who will you go with?
Nhung: I will go with my parents and my brother.
Hoang: How will you go there?
Nhung: We will go there by train.

Report is also an excellent way for students to improve their speaking skill as
well was their confidence because if one wants to report something, he will have to
stand up in front of class to do it.
In order to have a good report activity, teachers need to set tasks to students
before asking them to report something. Report activity is often used after pair work.
Teachers also need to provide cards so that students can take notes.
After students in class 7 B finished their open pairs (asking and answering
about personal information), I asked some students to come to black board to talk
about themselves and about a friend he has talked with. Unfortunately, many students
can't remember information about their friends, some even forget information about
themselves. Furthermore, all students in class 7B have known each other very well so
they were not interested to hear about their friends.
When I carried out pair- work activity about personal information in class 7 D,
I had some more experience so before I asked students to adapt their role, I drew a
table as below and asked them to fill in during their discussion. Students first fill in
information in column (me) then ask a friend to fill in column (My new friend) but
not to write anything in column (My online friend)
Name (me) Huy (My new friend)
Messi
(My online friend)

Age 27 24
Job singer soccer player
Accommodation Ho Chi Minh
city
London
Family two people three people
Means of transport car/ bus bus
In free time play video
games, play

speaking skill in extra lessons because in extra lessons, students have more time to
speak and they can speak about their own pictures, not only pictures given by their
teachers.
1. Describing houses.
Aim: To help students revise vocabulary and structures of describing a house and talk
about their house or a house they know. (There is / There are )
Time to carry out: 20 minutes.
Preparation: vocabulary on houses and main things in a house, pictures of houses,
three small presents.
14
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
After learning Unit 3 (At home- English 7), In an extra lesson, I asked students
in class 7C to describe their house but they did not come up to my expectation
because most of the house they describe were so similar. They just described their
own house so there was nothing special as most of their houses were small ones in the
countryside.
Realizing that better descriptions should be made, Therefore, before I taught
students in class 7 A, I asked a teacher of Fine Art who also teaches class 7A to help
me. That is, in her Fine Art lesson, she asked each student to draw a house they dream
to have in the future. Luckily, pictures of houses they drew were so amazing. I asked
the teacher of Fine Art to lend me those pictures and when I taught class 7 A the topic
"Describing a house", I delivered their pictures to them and told them to present their
description. With the help from own pictures, students were eager to show off their
pictures and fluently talked about their houses in dream. After students have finished
their talk, I asked students to choose the most beautiful house and a present was given
to the owner of that house and a gift for the best description was given and a gift for
the best presenter. No one can guess how happy the students in class were!
IV. Retelling story .
Aim: To help students develop their speaking skill and talk about past events using

up some ideas, the reasons they used were sensible.
VI. Interview.
Interview is an interesting activity for students to develop their speaking skill in
front of other people.
Aim: To help students know how to use some questions to interview other people
(famous people)
Time to carry out: 20 minutes
Preparation: + Teacher: Pictures / information about some famous people such as
scientists, inventors, singers
+ Students: Pictures and information about their idol.
When I first used this activity in class 7C after students had learnt part B-
Famous People (Unit 16) three years ago, I let students interview their friends who
acted as famous people but I found that the questions students used were not sensible
and they made some funny mistake like: Where were you born?
Who born you? / When did you die? or some questions relating too detailed personal
information such as: How many children do you have? / How much money do you
have? Then I asked some pairs to interview their idol in front of class, they did not
know how to introduce them and start or end their conversation naturally.
When I taught class 7 D, before students carried out their interview, I asked the
whole class to brainstorm some good questions to interview some famous people.
Then I wrote down the questions on the board for students to put them in good order
for an interview.
Some questions about Thomas Edison as following:
16
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
When and where were you born?
What school did you go to?
Where did you establish the first central power station?
How many things did you invent?

+ Students: Revise adverbs of manner.
When I asked students in class 7C to work in pair to ask and answer how their friends
do something by using adverbs of manner they had learnt before. I asked my students
to retell some common adverbs of manner such as carefully, carelessly, well, badly,
skillfully, slowly, quickly,
Here are some of the dialogues made by my students.
Nam: How do you cook?
Ha: I cook slowly. And you?
Nam: I cook badly. How do you play soccer?
Ha: I play soccer carefully. And you?
Nam: I play soccer badly.
Obviously, Nam and Ha made some mistakes in using adverbs of manner. From the
mistakes students in class 7C made, when I taught class 7B, I tried a new way and
found it much better.
First, I asked students in class 7 B to do a matching exercise as following:
A B
cook skillfully
play soccer, well/ badly
swim carefully/ carelessly
ride a bike safely
run fluently
speak English fast / quickly

Then, I asked my students to draw a table like this:
18
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
me my friend ( )
cook
play soccer

- Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing
a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks,
and shared knowledge.
- Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice
different ways of student participation.
- Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step
back and observe students.
- Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking.
Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
- Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
I think that all teachers can use the ways I use for my students as long as they
simplify speaking tasks so that they are suitable for their students' levels.
I am looking forward to receiving sincere comments from all collogues and anyone
who is interested in reading my writing.
Do Luong, 28
th
, April 2014.

20
Some activities to help grade - 7 students at Ly Nhat Quang improve their speaking
skill in extra lessons in the afternoon.
21