TABLE OF CONTENT
Sr. No.
I
1.1
1.2

Topic

Page No.

INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Purpose of the study

3
3

1.3
1.4

Scope of the study
Methodology of the study

3
3

II

DEVELOPMENT

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10

2.6

Results

16

III

Conclusion

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ABBREVIATION
YD2SS: Yen Dinh II secondary school
Sts: students
T: Teacher

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I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In our modern society, English plays an integral part in many sectors
including medicine, engineering, education, advanced studies, business,

Secondly, class observation has been carried out with ss to find out
barriers among sts while they are speaking English. Based on what I have
collected, I would like to give some ways to improve this problem.

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II. DEVELOPMENT
2.1. Theoretical background of English speaking skill and its importance
This second chapter provides readers with the relevant literature of the
study by introducing some key concepts necessary for the best understanding of
this research, as well as the review of previous studies related to the topic. There
are some most crucial concepts chosen to be clarified in this part such as English
speaking skill, its importance in communication,
2.1.1 What is speaking skill ?
Speaking is an act of making vocal sounds. We can say that speaking
means to converse, or expressing one's thoughts and feelings in spoken
language. To speak often implies conveying information. It may be from an
informal remark to a scholarly presentation to a formal address. Speaking skills:
Speaking skills are the skills that give us the ability to communicate effectively.
These skills allow the speaker, to convey his message in a passionate,
thoughtful, and convincing manner. Speaking skills also help to assure that one
won't be misunderstood by those who are listening.
2.1.2. Importance of English speaking skill for EFL learners
2.1.2.1. Language is a tool for communication. We communicate with others, to
express our ideas, and to know others’ ideas as well. Communication takes
place, where there is speech. Without speech we cannot communicate with one
another. The importance of speaking skills, hence is enormous for the learners of
any language. Without speech, a language is reduced to a mere script. The use of
language is an activity which takes place within the confines of our community.

This year, the number of English periods increases from 3 to 4 periods
every week, one of them is spent on the piece of knowledge that is thought to be
necessary for their students. While many of my colleges chose grammatical
structures, I taught my sts speaking skill because they are learning grammar and
vocabulary all the time at school, at home and at extra classes whereas they can’t
gain the final vital aim, which is to communicate in English. That’s why I chose
my own speaking curriculum for optional English periods. It will be clarified in
the next part.
2.2.2. The students’ background and their English levels
The 10th form students at YD2SS are aged from 15 to 16. They came from
different places of Yen Dinh district. Most of them have learnt English including
the speaking skill since they were at grade 6. However, the students’ level in
English is very low. They don’t take part in any English speaking club. Besides,
most of their families live on agriculture so that they do not have the best
conditions to learn English. Moreover, they don’t have the habit of practicing
speaking skill to improve their pronunciation. It is grammar that is focused so
that Ss can pass the exams
2.3. What are obstacles when students speak English?
2.3.1. Environment
The environment does not support the students to speak English
frequently. The environment here means the people outside the class. Those
people may think that the students just want to show off when they speak
English for daily conversation. The response that the students get makes them
loose their self-confidence to improve their speaking. Since the students do not
want to be rejected by the people around them, so they use their native language
in daily conversation. That makes the students unable to communicate in
English fluently outside the class.
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speaking, which results in a meagre development of this skill. Besides,
vocabulary items are taught in isolation, and listening materials are not used by
the majority of school teachers because of the large number of teachers
compared with the number of cassettes available. Teacher-training programs
were found to be not very successful in changing the teachers’ methodology.
The lack of a target language environment can be considered another problem,
which of course results in a lack of involvement in real-life situations.
2.4. Suggestions for teachers

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2.4.1. Establish your 100% goal from Day 1.
On the first day of class make your expectations clear to your students. I
usually have my students make a pact with both me and themselves. The
students read the promises (see below) and I elaborate on each a bit. Next, the
students sign their names in agreement.
My Promises
I promise to try to speak as much as possible.
I promise not to be afraid of making mistakes.
I promise not to speak any Vietnamese.
I promise to use English to communicate.
I promise to ask questions when I do not understand.
I promise to try to have fun!
If sometimes my students forget their promises, we will go back to these
promises from time to time throughout the course
2. 4.2. Teach Classroom English
In the second or third lesson students should be taught useful classroom
English. The students should thoroughly memorize and practice using these
expressions. It is essential that you explain that these expressions are not just for

during this time! Possible topics are yesterday, TV, movies, sports, etc. This
simple tasks usually last 2-3 minutes at the beginning of the lesson. Free
conversation works because it warms the students up, and it gives them the
comfort to speak the whole period.
2.4.4. Setting Clear Lesson Goals
It is crucial that teacher be clear about what he wants students to learn
during each lesson. If teacher cannot quickly and easily state what he wants the
students to know and be able to do at the end of a given lesson, the goal of the
lesson will be unclear. Clear lesson goalshelp teacher (and students) to focus
every other aspect of lesson on what matters most.
2.4.5. Showing & Telling
Teacher should normally start lessons with show and tell. Put simply,
telling involves sharing information or knowledge with the students while
showing involves modeling how to do something. When teacher has cleared
about what he wants students to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson,
a teacher needs to tell them what they need to know and show how to do the
tasks.
2.4.6. Questioning to Check for Understanding

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Research suggests that teachers typically spend a large amount of teaching
time asking questions. However, few teachers use questions to check for
understanding within a lesson. However, a teacher should always check for
understanding before moving onto the next part of their lesson. Techniques such
as randomized sampling, student answer-boards and tell-a-friend are helpful.
2.4.7. Summarizing New Learning in a Graphical Way: Graphic outlines
include things such as mind maps, flow-charts and Venn diagrams. Teacher can
use them to help students to summarize what they have

2.4.12. Teach SS Strategies Not just Content Teachers can increase how well
students do in any subject by explicitly teaching them how to use relevant
strategies. When teaching children to read, teacher needs to teach them how to
attack unknown words, as well as strategies that will deepen their
comprehension. When teaching them Mathematics, you need to teach them
problem-solving strategies. And, just as with content, you need to tell students
about these strategies, to show them how to use them and to give them guided
practice before asking them to use them independently.
2.4.13. Amp up the competition
There’s nothing like competitions to motivate reluctant speakers. Games
or reward-based speaking activities are very useful tools that allow students of
all ages to practice valuable skills. And you don’t have to teach students to
incorporate games into your ESL class; adults love games too! If you really want
to up the ante, you can always offer the winner a point on the next test.
There are plenty of games to choose from, such as 20 Questions, Catch
phrase or Two Truths and a Lie. Look for games that require students to say a lot
in order to accomplish the objective, especially games that encourage students to
ask questions or describe things in English. Plus, having fun is motivation in and
of itself.
2.5. Applying suggestions
I myself have applied these suggestions in teaching speaking skill,
especially in independent English periods. Firstly, I have my students research a
topic of interest because I can choose speaking topics (in optional English
periods, you can teach any skill, any aspect of English that is necessary for your
students as long as it relates to the lesson in textbook you are teaching them).
For example, Unit 1 in the textbook has the theme In the life of…….” , so we
decide to study the speaking topic Daily activities
In particular, my curriculum includes the following subjects (I only teach
17 optional periods for the 1st term. We only have 3 English periods each week
during the second term)

3. Structures: "I ... at (8 o'clock in the morning)", "What time do you ...?",
"When do you ...?"
4. Target Vocab: morning, afternoon, evening, night, wake up, get up, eat
breakfast, eat lunch, eat dinner, go to school, start school, go home, arrive home,
watch TV, do homework, go to bed.
5. Lesson Materials:
Flashcards: morning, afternoon, evening, night, wake up, get up, eat breakfast,
eat lunch, eat dinner, go to school, start school, go home, arrive home, watch TV, do
homework, go to bed.
Supplies:
- 5 cardboard boxes
- Blue-Tack or tape
- a clock with hands that can be moved (either real of a craft clock)
- board with markers / chalk
II. Procedure
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T’s activities
A. Pre speaking
* Warm up: T divides the class into 2 teams, ask them to think as
as many words as possible about their daily actions . Then, Sts
take turns to speak out their words. Team A speak one word, team
B continue to speak (they mustn’t repeat the words are mentioned).
The team which has more word will be the winner.
T asks sts the question: Which tense is used for daily routines?
T repeats the present simple tense

Sts’ activities
- Take part in the

lunch break and talk with my friends.
At around 12 noon I continue teaching classes until 4: 20 then
I drive home.
When I get home, I usually watch some TV and chat with my
family. At 9 o’clock I read a book and go to sleep.
T asks Sts to speak out these sentences after they finish the
task
4. Play the "Daily Routines Memory Game"
Erase the chart from the board and take off the flashcards. Put
students in pairs and get them to swap charts. Students are
going to test each other on the times they do things.
Make sure T models with 2 students first:
Student A: selects a sentence on Student B's worksheet (e.g. I
do homework at 6 o'clock). S/He does the action of doing
- Work in pairs
homework (e.g. writing in an imaginary notebook).
Student B: must guess the action and say the exact sentence on
their chart (e.g. "I do homework at 6 o'clock in the evening").
Then it is Student B's turn to select a sentence and do the
action. Pairs keep going until they have done all of the

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sentences on their charts. Make sure students don't allow their
partners to get away with mistakes - if they get the time wrong,
make them guess again!
5. Do the "What time do you ...? (Survey)" exercise
Give each student the survey worksheet and explain that they
are going to ask 6 people in the class (or less, depending on

Erika: (Pretends to eat cereal, drink juice, etc.)
etc.
T encourages sts to make their plays funny and also allow them
to add extra parts (e.g. play video games, read a book, ride a
bike, etc.).
At the end, get everyone to vote for their favorite play.
3. Wrap Up:
1. Wrap up the lesson

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2. Talk about one of their friend’s daily routines.

- Do the task

2.6. Results
This year, I taught 10A, 10A2, 10A9 in 10th grade. All of these classes
couldn’t do well in speaking skill. (Although students from A1, A2 are excellent
at grammar)
After I applied some methods to motivate them to speak in optional English
periods, I asked my sts to do an oral English test. The result is satisfactory.
Class Time
Exellent sts Quite good Average Bad
sts
sts
sts
st
10A1 The beginning of the1 term
1%

situation of learning English speaking skill here. Therefore, I have conducted
this with a view to finding out obstacles encountered by the 10th form students.
However, to improve the situation is not easy and it needs a lot of time and T’s
patience. As I mention in this study, only some basic and simple ways are found
out to motivate Sts to speak
Although I have tried best to offer some insightful findings through the
study; however, the limitations are unavoidable. I only have taught for several
year so that I do not have much experience. Besides, as I mention in this study,
only some basic and simple ways are found out to motivate Sts to speak. I would
like to receive ideas from my colleges.
2. Suggestions for further research
On the basis of the findings and the limitations of the study, several
suggestions for further research are made.

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Because speaking skill involves a lot of pronunciation aspects, many other
researches should be carried out such as common mistakes in pronunciation,
outdoor activities to motivate students to speak English or activities outside
classroom to help students speak English confidently.

XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG Thanh Hóa, ngày 20 tháng 5 năm 2019
ĐƠN VỊ
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khác
Lê Thị Sáu

REFERENCE



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2. Daily activities

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