USING GAMES TO HELP GRADE 10 STUDENTS ENGAGE, ACTIVATE
AND STUDY IN LISTENING PERIODS

PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Reason for choosing the topic
Teaching is said to be a hard job, especially the teacher of English. In order to
be satisfied and successful in teaching, teachers now need much more effort,
practice and experience than ever before.
Along with the development of cience and technology, English is considered a
must to enter the world today. It is undeniable that teaching English has centerd
upon helping students sharpening their reading and writing skills since these two
skills are tested in the exam. Now and then, speaking and listening are added to the
exam, which makes both teachers and students confused. As a result, teaching and
learning language changes dramatically, for most students, they find English in
general and listening in particular very important yet most difficult one. So they
want to have an active and effective atmostphere to practise the language. This
leads to the fact that teachers need to use modern methods and approaches and
various equipment to make the education process modern, pleasant and as exciting
as possible. And we all know that if students are engaged in the subject, they feel
more comfortable, learn better and can activate in an easier way.
However, teaching English and listening at many high schools is still a challenging
job. Typically, due to time limit in teaching and students’ low levels of proficiency
in term of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation skills, many teachers approach
listening period very simple and uninteresting. Teacher introduces the part of the
unit, asks students to write some vocabularies and then do the tasks passively while
he plays the tape. Therefore, students think that they do not do anything in
listening periods but prepare the vocabulary and some even copy the key of the
tasks before going to class. This is a harmful habit since it can leads to a passive
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transform and use knowledge.
As Harmer (1998: 25) says: Most students can remember lessons at school
which were uninvolving and where they were ‘switched off’ from what was being
taught to them. Frequently, this was because they were bored, because they were
not emotionally engaged with what was going on. Such lessons can be contrasted
with lessons where they were amused, moved, stimulated or challenged. It seems
quite clear that those lessons involved not only more ‘fun’, but also better learning.
Motivation is a vital element and strongly related to success in language
learning. If a learner is motivated, she will probably decide to undertake a
particular task with certain amount of energy and time needed for it. When
students are engaged and motivated, they learn better than they are partly or wholly
disengaged. Especially, in a listening lesson, as it is often considered as a boring
subject, teacher needs to arouse students’ interest, thus involving their emotions.

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3. The application of games in teaching listening
Games are said to help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest
and work. Games are very exciting for students, applying games in teaching,
teachers may enliven the class, change a little bit the monotonous classroom’s
atmosphere for a pleasant and an enriched environment. As a result, students will
find it interesting and challenging when learning listening in contrast with no
cooperation, no interaction in listening periods without games.
Applying games in class also helps teachers to generate situations and
contexts in which the language is practical, useful, functional and meaningful.
Students wants to take part in the process because they want to participate and
understand what others are saying or have written and they have to speak or write
in order to express their own ideas or give information.
Therefore, games are very useful and effective. It makes the learning process

Cooperative games: these games are very important. They create the
cooperation among students.
Code-control games: students must not make mistakes when playing these
games because they are controlled. If not, they will lose points.

PART III. THE STUDY
1. Tri An high school and current situation of teaching and learning English
at the school
Tri An high school was established 16 years ago. In spite of being located in a
rural area, it has many good students who gets high prize in the exam of Dong Nai
province taken place every year. The school is well-equipped with modern
technology, which helps to create its success. However, most of the students are
good at natural subjects and like to learn those subjects so the school is trying to
look for new methods which engage students in both natural and social subjects,
especially English.
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2. The 10th form students in class 10A1
The research was carried out at Trị An high school with the participation of
students of class 10A1. To these students, English is a compulsory subject in the
courses and it is included in the final exam. All of the students have studied
English for at least four years at lower secondary school, especially some of them
have studied English for nine years. Most of them can do grammar exercises very
well but they have difficulties in mastering four language skills. Of the four skills,
they find listening especially important yet challenging one. That was the reason
why most of the students feel bored and unmotivated in listening classes.
3. Analyzing results of class observation
The researcher observes 4 different lessons and carry out 4 experimental
lessons in class 10A1 ( 36 students), 2 lessons with designing games and 2 lessons

GINEMAZA
4.

5.

EWSNPERPA

NITERET
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3.

6.

KOBO

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Activity 2: While- listening

. Activity: TICK THE WORDS YOU HEAR
. Aim: to prepare students for the listening task (listen for the first time)
. Interaction: pair work
. When to use: When teaching Unit 7, part C- Listening
- WHILE- LISTENING
. Time: 7 minutes

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10


3

4

5

7

6

8

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9

suggested answers:
• Picture 1: The heavy rain has caused floods all over the country.
• Picture 2: Many people have left their home because the rivers have risen.
• Picture 3: The rain has stopped, but It's still cloudy.
• Picture 4: poeple can't go out to work because of the strong wind and bad
weather.
• Picture 5: A 90-year-old woman is still healthy.
• Picture 6: She has climbed Mount Whitney in California 23 times.
• Picture 7: At 4418 metres,Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in

1. Music sets the tone for important ___________s and special occasions.
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2. Beethoven was a famous___________ musician.
3. My Tam is a ___________
4. They are ___________ music singers. (The Beatles)
5. They are playing ___________ music.
6. Michael Jacson is called the King of ___________ music.
The vertical word: Van Cao, a famous Vietnamese musicican.
Teacher’ crossword and pictures
E

V

E

N

T

C

L

A

S

S


O

P

Z

14

C

A

L


Activity 2: Pre- listening
. Activity: Kim’s Game
. Aim: to introduce to students some songs written by Van Cao
and make them interested in the topic
. Interaction: Group work
. When to use: When teaching Unit 12, part C- Listening
- PRE- LISTENING
. Time: 5 minutes

Procedures:
+ Teacher explain the rule of the game
+ Teacher posts the poster on the board containing some songs written by Van
Cao: Ngay Mua, Suoi Mo, Buon Tan Thu, Tien Ve Ha Noi, Thu Co Lieu, Ca Ngoi
Ho Chu Tich, Ben Xuan, LangToi, Truong Ca Song Lo, Song Lo, Truong Chi,

d. - Can you tell us about the Vietnamese musician you like best, please?

Activity 4: Post- listening
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. Activity: LUCKY SONG GAME
. Aim: to help students activate in listening periods
. Interaction: group work
. When to use: When teaching Unit 12, part C- Listening
- POST- LISTENING
. Time: 5 minutes

Procedures:
+ Teacher asks students to work in 4 groups
+ Teacher introduces the game: There are 8 songs written by Van Cao. In these 6
songs, there are 3 lucky songs. If students choose the lucky song, they do not have
to answer the question but still get 10 marks. If they choose other songs, they must
give answer to teacher’ questions. Each correct answer will receive 8 marks.
+ The group with highest marks will be the winner.

Teacher’ poster

TRUONG CA

CUNG DAN

SONG LO

XUA

English, engage, activate and study in class is much (60%-70%).
Class atmosphere
When the teacher gives signals to stop, some students still try to answer the
questions so the class atmosphere is very lively and noisy. The cooperation and
competition is very high ( 75%- 80%). And they always eager to do more activities
in class.

* Not using games
Like an ordinary day of teaching, teacher introduces the new lesson and asks
students to answer some questions in the book, then students are asked to do the
listening activities. This process is like a listening test. Most of the time, students
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just listen and write down in their notebook. When the listening tapescript is
finished, teacher calls on some students to write down the answers to the questions
on the board and then teacher checks and gives feedback.

* Findings
Students’ English speaking time
Compared with lessons with games, here students have less chance to speak
English, only about

20%- 30% because they spent more time on doing and

rewriting the correct answers.

Class atmosphere
Class atmosphere here is serious and silent like they are in an exam room,
unlike the lessons with games.

games and would like their teacher to give them more games so that they can
engage, acivate and study better. When playing games, they are active listeners not
a passive listener. This also helps students learn more quickly, remember longer
and enjoy the lessons with so much fun.
From observing, the researcher finds that the ultimate value of games in
teaching and learning listening is very important for today’s education.

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2. Benefits gained through using games in teaching and learning listening
The researcher finds that in listening lessons that games were used, most of the
students use English to discuss, to communicate so they can develop their 4 skills
gradually. Besides, when using games in teaching listening, the teacher can create
the active, lively and meaningful environment with high motivation for students to
practise and use the target language. So using games in teaching and learning
grammar is a method that brings not only the effectiveness but also the
attractiveness.
In summary, the motivation of students in the lessons with games is higher that of
the lessons without games.

Motivation
Students’ English speaking
time
Class atmosphere

Using games

Not using games



. Activity: JUMBLED WORDS AND WHO IS HE?
. Aim: to warm- up and engage students in the new lesson
. Interaction: group work
. When to use: When teaching Unit 1, part C- Listening- PRELISTENING
. Time: 3 minutes

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Procedures:
+Teacher asks students to work in groups of 7 and rearrange these letters to
make a good word and fill the word in each sentence. Then they must guess who is
he.
+ For each correct word, they get 10 marks and for the correct guess, they get
20 marks.
+ The group with highest mark will be the winner.

Teacher’ letters and sentences

C C L O Y P N S S E G E R A F D O O S A L L T
1. He has a ___________.
2. He drives ___________ everyday.
3. He usually has meal at a ___________.

Suggested answer: CYCLO, DRIVE, PASSENGER, FOODSTALL
1. He has a cyclo.
2. He drives passenger everyday.
3. He usually has meal at a foodstall.
He is a cyclo driver