How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

CONTENTS
A. INTRODUCTION

Page
1

I. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH

1

II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

1

III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD

2

B. DISCUSSION

2

I. MOTIVATION
1. Definition of Motivation

2

2. Motivation and Language Learning


22

C. CONCLUSION

22

I. CONCLUSION

22

II. RECOMMENDATIONS

23

D. REFERENCE BOOKS

25

2

4

0


How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

A. INTRODUCTION

widely going to deal with the significance of teachers in motivating the learners
in EFL classrooms. Importantly, teaching strategies are what the teachers need
to know to help their students to sustain their self-confidence. All mentioned
above, I have decided to suggest activities I have ever taught my grade 10
students at my school.
II. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
- To introduce how to teach speaking skills.
- To show ways of motivating students to speaking in English.
- To show how activities can be designed to arouse students’ speaking
English in grade 10 at Le Loi upper-secondary school.
- To build up students’ confidence.
III. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English 11 at Le Loi
upper-secondary school.
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of designing activities in the
class.
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

- Researching method: Teaching speaking reference books , discussing
with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out
experiences.
B. DISCUSSION
I. MOTIVATION
1. Definition of motivation
Motivation as a term is derived from the Latin word ‘moveo-movere’
which means ‘to move’ in English. In his research, Walker (2011) states that

a Second Language (ESL) or as a foreign language not only in the Arab World
but also elsewhere.
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

Motivation in the ESL/EFL classroom is easily one of the most important factors
as I'm sure most teachers would agree with me. The main reason I'm coming to
this point of view is that most of our students have low motivation to learn
English. In addition to that, while most of them have a vague sense that whether
"English will be useful for my future" or not, they don't have a clear idea of
what that means, nor is that a very strong motivator; it's too vague and too far
off.
4. Types of Motivation
Many scholars acknowledge the importance of motivation in learning as “it can
influence what, when, and how we learn” (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002, p. 6).
Whereas motivated students tend to engage in activities that they believe will
help them learn, unmotivated students are not able to be systematic in making
an effort in learning, as are motivated students. The importance of motivation is
often emphasised in the field of language and linguistics. According to Cook
(2000), three main factors explain the speed of learners’ learning in second
language acquisition (SLA): age, personality, and motivation. He also stated
that motivation is the most important among these three elements. Masgoret
and Gardener (2003) supported this point and claimed that motivation is
responsible for achievement in a second language. In addition, many
reserachers have noted that 99% of language learners who show strong
motivation were able to achieve a reasonable working knowledge regardless of
their language aptitude.

hence lead to undesired learning outcomes. The purpose of the present study was
to analyze the effective factors on demotivation for English language learning
among a group of Iranian university students.
De-motivating Factors in English Language Learning
5.1. Lack of perceived individual competence.
5.2. Lack of intrinsic motivation.
5.3. Inappropriate characteristics of teachers’ teaching methods and course
contents.
5.5. Inadequate university facilities.
5.6. Focus on difficult grammar.
II. WAYS OF MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS
1. Ways of motivating students in speaking lessons.
While they excel in the other skills, they find it difficult to speak, not
because they do not know how to, but because they are afraid to do so. This is
even more problematic when it comes to older learners and adults as there is the
common fear of making a fool of themselves in front of their peers. There are, of
course those more unique learners who will try to dominate the ESL classroom
when it comes to speaking, however, more often than not this is not the case and
when it does happen it also limits the less confident learners. What they need
more than instruction is confidence and the motivation to speak out in class and
not be afraid to do so.
As ESL teachers it not only our duty to teach, but it is also our duty to motivate
our learners to speak out and participate. We need to help reduce their fears and
provide a comfortable environment for them to learn and to make them feel
more at ease. Speaking is by far the most important skill needed when it comes
to ESL learning. Speaking is everywhere in real life and even though the
learners may be able to avoid skills such as reading and writing English in real
life, it is not the case with speaking. So how can we motivate our learners to
really love speaking English? What can we do to help reduce fear and give them
the confidence they really need? Those students who have more of a positive

an incredible difference to group coherence and student satisfaction, and I’ve
seen many other cases where seating has been a crucial element in the success or
failure of the lesson.The seating pattern you use may, in some cases, not be fully
under your control – if for example the desks are fixed to the ground or the
school has strict rules about not moving the furniture. Student numbers are also
going to be an issue.
I’ll talk about average size classes – anything from 35 to 40. Teachers have
different preferences for seating arrangements – groups seated round small
tables is often one choice. This is probably the best option for the larger classes
in this range, but for smaller numbers and with adult or teenage students I think
the horseshoe shape, which I find has all of the advantages of groups, and none
of the disadvantages. A horseshoe may be desks in a U-shape with a hollow
centre, students in a semicircle on chairs with arm-rests and no desks, or
students seated around three sides of a large table, with the teacher at one end. In
any case, whatever seating pattern you choose or is imposed on you, the class is
likely to be more successful if you keep the following principles in mind:
a) Try and maximise eye contact.
Both teacher to student and student to student. In full class phases of the lesson,
if the person who is speaking does not have eye contact with the others, then
attention is likely to drop. This is the main reason I personally think the
horseshoe shape to groups is better.
b) Make sure students are seated at a comfortable distance from each other.
Make sure you don’t have one student sitting alone or outside the groups.
Besides, try to leave a fair empty, but not so much a space because large
distances between the students will tend to lead to a “muted” atmosphere, low
pace, and less active student participation in the lesson.
c) Think in advance about how you will organise changing partners or changing
groups.
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patient conversation, etc…
1.5) Using realia, flash cards, Stories and songs in teaching
Realia and flash cards are considered as important tools in teaching especially a
foreign language, since they play the role of a facilitator in teaching new
vocabularies such as fruits, vegetables, clothes items, etc…Besides, they are
very helpful in drawing especially beginners’ attention to follow and match new
words to items. In addition, realia is an authentic material that helps the teacher
to overcome classroom artificiality.Creating stories with the students is another
way of developing speaking and writing skills. Actually, creating stories is
grounded in the students’ ability to create a story from their personal experience.
In creating stories some issues are revealed such as: a) fluency, b) whether the
students have enough language to create the story, and c) accuracy.
Teachers are able to demonstrate techniques of using songs in different ways to
teach grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and community building because the
students like songs and they motivate the students to learn the English language
in an interesting way. Teachers can elicit students’ ideas about the song through
activities such as prediction, mind maps, word splashes, etc. Students discuss
6


How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

questions such as the feelings in the song, what will happen next, etc. and write
their responses in an interesting manner. Students may write and present how the
song makes them feel and then draw a picture of their feelings while listening to
the song. Teachers respond to this presentation and ask questions. Then,
feedback is provided from the group.
1.6) Using audio visual material: cassette player, video, computer…
Since our schools are equipped with various audio visual materials such as

reformulate it for them.- When students need to combine the two languages, for
example in those lessons whose focus evolve around translation and
interpreting.
2. Demonstration of ways of motivating grade students at Le Loi uppersecondary school in speaking lessons.
2.1. Pair work:
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

Examples : Unit 1 – Friendship - Part B: Speaking
Task 1(controlled practice): Look at the people below and describe their
physical characteristics.

Lower students:
Teacher: Aks students to work in pair to ask and answer questions about the
people in the pictures.
Students: Prepare the questions related to the physical characteristics of the
people.
Student 1: Can you describe the man/ woman / girl/ boy in the picture?
Student 2: The man/ woman/ girl/ boy is____. He/ She has got____.
Good/advanced students:
Teacher: Aks students to work in pair to ask and answer questions about their
mother/ father/ brother/ sister/ closest friend.
Students: Prepare the questions related to the physical characteristics of their
relatives/ closest friend.
Student 1: What does your mother/ father/ brother/ sister/ closest friend look
like?
Student 2: My mother/ father/ brother/ sister/ closest friend____. He/ She has

2.2 Group work
Unit 6 – Competition – part B: Speaking
Task 3 (production): Work in groups. Talk about a competition or contest you
have recently joined using the suggestions below.
- Where and when did you see or take part in it?
- What type of competition or contest was it?
- Who organized it?
- Who participated in it?
- Who won the competition/ contest?
- Did you enjoy it? Why/ Why not?
Teacher: - Ask students to work in groups of 6 (one advanced student, two good
students, 3 low students) to talk about a competition or contest .
Students: - Use the structures of puposes to talk talk about a competition or
contest they have recently enjoyed or seen.
Low students: talk about the name, the place and the time of the competition or
contest.
2.3. The seating of the students
Here are som suggestions:

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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

Unit 11 – Sources of energy – Part B : Speaking
Task 3: work in group. Express your belief on the increasing use of alternative
sources in the future.
Teacher:
- Aks students to work in groups of 6 with different levels.

Try using another tense
Please look at this sentence again “like” and “likes”
Look at the difference between “like” and “likes”/ compare
This sentence is off topic
Pay attention to the verbs
Remember the irregular form / Don’t forget….
Compare your work to the example
Check spelling
Please revise this sentence. You need to review the example
You need to pay attention to the model
2.5. Using realia, flash cards, stories and songs in teaching
In language teaching, realia are actual objects, which have a purpose outside
the classroom and can be used in the classroom. This speaking lesson is
based around the use of realia.
Materials: A collection of everyday objects from around the house and a large
bag to put the objects in. Here is a sample list of the kind of objects that work
well for this activity:
A coat hanger, some diskettes, a bread knife, a can opener, a hammer, some
lipstick, a comb, a paintbrush, some string
Warmer
Tell the students that to imagine the following situation: they were all on a cruise
ship when there was a terrible storm. The boat sank, but they have managed to
reach a small tropical island. There is abundant fruit on the island and lots of
fish too. However, the only things they have with them are these objects, which
have washed ashore.
Stage One
Bring out the objects and make sure the students know what they are in English.
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Realia: stamps, books, …
2.6. Role play
Unit 1 – Friendship – Part B: Speaking
Task 3 (production): Talk about a famous friend.
Designed task: Role play. Imagine one of you a journalist and the other will be
interviewee. Ask and answer questions with a partner, using the suggestions (on
page 17 of the Textbook Tieng Anh 11).
Teacher: - Ask students to role play: a journalist and an interviewee.
Students: - Prepare questions and answers using the cues on page 17 of the
Textbook Tieng Anh 11.
Low students:
+ What is his/ her name?
+ Where is he/ she from?
+ What does he/ she look like?
+ What is his/ her hobby?
Good students:

+ What is his/ her name?
+ What is his/ her nationality?
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

+ What does he/ she look like?
+ How did you know him/ her?
+ What is he/ she like?
+ What does he/she like doing in his/ her freetime?
+ How do you keep contact with each other?

- Work in groups of three or four
Competition game – Word search
to play word search game.
- T divides the class into small groups of 3 –
4 Ss. Then T distributes the following
puzzle handout for Ss to do in their own
groups. Which group finishes first and has
all the correct answers will be the winner.
- A variant of this activity: T draws or
prepares 2 big copies of the word search and
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

hangs them on the board. T calls 2 pairs of
Ss to go to the board and ask them find all
the adjectives as quickly as possible. The
pair with the quickest and most correct
answers will be the winner.
The adjectives in the box below are hidden Find and circle the words.
in the puzzle. Find them as quickly as
possible.
Tall
beautiful
Caring
H
U
M

N
D
S
O
M
E
M
C

medium
honest
understanding
E
H
G
D
L
G
E
I
U
F
U
A
U

S
R
G
E

E
H
E
H
A
R
E
A
U
L
N

G
N
R
B
D
O
N
E
R
A
H
R
S

handsome
sincere
humorous
N

E
M
N
N
M
S
I
M
M
M

D
C
A
R
I
N
G
U
O
D
H
A
S

2. Presentation:( 9 mins)
- Aims: to teach some vocabualaries and
introduce the way to describe a person.
2.1 Vocabulary
- Present the new vocabulary:

verb“to be, to look, to have got,
to be like” to describe their
brother/ sister.
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

My friend is tall.
He looks handsome.
He has got an oval face.
He is like warm-hearted.
- Ask sts to make examples using the
verb“to be, to look, to have got, to be like”
to describe their brother/ sister.

S: The question begins with "
What time..........?"
S: What time does Mai go to
school?
S: Give more examples

3. Controlled- practice:( 20 mins)
- Aims: Sts practise speaking in pairs
+ Task 1: Look at the picture below and
describe their physical characteristics.
Instruction: You are going to look at the - Listen to the teacher.
picture of 4 people on page 15 and describe
them in pairs.

shoulder-length(ngang vai)
+ style: straight, wavy,
curly, crew-cut (đầu cua))
+ colour: black, grey, red,
brown
Others: a fringe (mái), a
bun (búi tóc), plait(s) đuôi
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

Face

Eye
Nose
Chin
Lips
Forehead
Skin

General
Appearanc
e
Age

sam)( to wear one’s hair in
a
bun/a

good-looking, plain
She was in her late teens /he
was in his early twenties
(21-23 tuæi)/she was about
thirsty years old/his twelveyear-old son/a middle- aged
woman/a man in his sixties.

Lower students:
Teacher: Aks students to work in pair to ask
and answer questions about the people in
the pictures.
Students: Prepare the questions related to
the physical characteristics of the people.
Student 1: Can you describe the man/
woman / girl/ boy in the picture?
Student 2: The man/ woman/ girl/ boy

- Ask and answer questions
about the people in the pictures
using the sample.

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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

is____. He/ She has got____.
Good/advanced students:
- Ask and answer questions

- Work in groups of 6

- Report the results to the class.
Ss’ answer may be: My group
thinks that being caring is the
most important in friendship
because when friends care about
each other, they will know when
to share happiness or difficulty
with their friend ....

- T elicits feedback from the class and gives
final comments.
4. Free practice:( 10 mins)
- Aims: sts practise speaking freely, they
can express their own ideas.
Talk about a famous friend.
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

+ Task 3. Role-play: Talk about a famous
friend.
Instruction: Imagine that you have a friend
who has just won the first prize in
Mathematics. A journalist is going to
interview you about your friend . Act out the
interview in pairs.

2. Knowledge:
- General knowledge: Asian Games.
- Language:
- Words concerning sports, Asian Games.
- The way to tell about sports and Asian Games.
II. Methods: integrated, mainly communicative.
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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

III. Anticipated problems:
- Problems: Some of students may have little knowledge about sports and
Asian Games.
- Solutions: The teacher provides some general knowledge about sports and
Asian Games before they practise speaking.
IV. Teaching aids: - picture, board, chalks, textbook, handouts
V. Procedures:
Teacher's activities
Students' activities
1. Warm-up:( 5 mins)
- Aims: to revise the names of Asian
countries.
Game: Stop the bus
- Put Ss in teams.
- Play the game in teams
- Draw two lines on the board and label
them with 2 categories.
Group A

- Guess the word(s) related to the
letter(s).

- Write down one word for each
category should shout: "Stop the
bus". If the words are correct, give
the team one point then choose
another letter.

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How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

C: Cambodia - Chess
M: Malaysia / Myanmar - Mountain
biking/ climbing
S: Singapore - snookers/ Squash
Declare the winning group.
2. Presentation:( 9 mins)
- Aims: to introduce the simple past
tense, and the passive voice of the
verbs in the simple past tense.
Useful Language:
- revise the simple past tense and the
- Use simple past tense to talk about the passive voice of the verbs in the
events in the past.
simple past tense.
- Passive Voice can be used to talk

- Give examples about the events in
the past.

- Work in pairs.
- Look at the table in the textbook
and read through it.
- Look at the dialogue on page 139
and repeat the conversation

20


How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

B: 18
A: How many sports were there at the
games?
B: 8..,
- Some pairs come to the front of the
Feedback: Ask some pairs to come to class and act out their coversation.
the front of the class and act out their
coversation.
+ Task 2: Work in groups
- Ask sts to work in groups of 6 with
different levels.
- Ask sts to take turns to talk about the
sports results of the Vietnamses athletes
at 14th Asian games, using the
information from the table on page 140

- Talk about the Vietnamese athlethes
-Give sts some suggested names:
they know.
Bodybuilding - Ly Duc, Pham Van
Mach; Wushu: Nguyen Thuy Hien,
Nguyen Thi My Duc; Shooting:
Nguyen Manh Tuong, Hoang Xuan
Vinh; Billiard: Tran Dinh Hoa, Luong
Chi Dung, etc.
- Ask some of sts to present.
- Some of sts to present.
5. Homework: ( 1 min)
- Find some more information about
21


How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

Vietnamese athlethes.
- Prepare the next lesson

IV. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Class
11A2
11A5
11A10

Term
1st term

C. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
I. CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY
As indicated in this paper, motivation is a crucial factor in learning a
foreign language, which is influenced by different variables: personality
variables, the attitudes of learners, their learning styles, and even the power
relationships between languages.
The whole study emphasizes the goal from Foreign Language
learning/teaching. The subject of the current study is the role of motivation to
enhance learners’ speaking ability in FL classrooms. Teachers should use
modern and different strategies during classes and teach their students learning
strategies to meet their needs and styles. They also have to give the individuals
sufficient opportunities to practise their speaking skill. Apparently, the good
relationship between the teacher and his/her students may help in creating a
comfortable atmosphere where there is a respect among learners themselves, so
they will be motivated to speak without the fear of being criticized.
The investigation is about the effect that motivation has to stimulate
learners to have self- confidence in order to speak in front of their teacher and
classmates. In addition, the study have concentrated on the influence of using
different teaching strategies on learners’ desire to learn English, and how to help
students to overpass their difficulties in speaking so they would be more
stimulated to practise their speaking skill.
Consequently, the main objective of the teachers is to make their students
speak English. To achieve that, they need to try different ways to motivate the
students so they will participate in the classrooms.
II. RECOMMENDATIONS
Each teacher has their own ways to motivate students in learning how to
speak English. Whatever ways are used the suggestions which may help teachers
are followings:
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OF THE SCIENCE COUNCIL

Tho Xuan, May 25th, 2019
I hereby declare that this research is

The chairman of Le Loi upper-

due to the experience I myself have

secondary school

written, do not copy from anybody. I
sincerely thank you.
The writer

Đỗ Thị Hồng Hạnh

Đỗ Viết Định

23


How to motivate grade 11 students
at Le Loi upper-secondary school in speaking lessons.

D. REFERENCE BOOKS
1. English Language Teaching Methodology (edited by Hanoi university)
2. />3. Alderson, J.C. (1984). Reading in foreign language: A reading problem or a
language problem. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Alderson, J. C. (2000). Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge