CHAPTER І
Background and Purpose
1.1. Introduction
Speaking is the most demanding skill among English learners and over the past decades, increasing interest in different aspects of improving speaking ability has triggered a variety of investigations, and theoretical discussions that have shed light on improving this ability. Icebrekars will be used in this study to improve speaking ability in adult upper-intermediate EFL learners. Ice breaking means breaking the ice among learners and using ice breakers to encourage students to interact all together.
1.2. Statement of Problem
The lack of proper speaking activities to improve oral production in adult EFL students of upper-intermediate level, results in a poor performance when speaking. This project expects finding valuable information that contributes to overcome the problems adult EFL students of upper-intermediate level face when speaking in the target language in the classroom.
1.3. Theoretical Framework
Speaking skill is as crucial as any other language skills. Shumin (1997) states that learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its grammar and vocabulary. Learners should acquire the skill through interaction with each other. However, it is difficult for EFL learners to speak appropriate English in the classroom because of the limited language use in their real lives.
Ice breakers are discussion questions or interaction activities used to help participants relax and ease in learning situation (Dover, 2004). The primary goal for an ice breaker is the development of an environment that is anxiety reducing and which allows individuals to "break the ice" or get acquainted by having fun.
Pillai (2007) mentions the purpose of ice b...
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3. To reduce the subject anxiety during the speaking, the examiner was the students' own teacher.
1.8. Outline of the Study
Chapter one provides a general introduction to the study. In this chapter the purpose of the study, research questions, hypotheses, and limitations of the study were discussed and key terms were defined. In chapter two, the researcher reviews the literature related to the theoretical and empirical background to speaking, ice-breakers, and their effects and functions. Chapter three deals with methodological issues such as participants, data collection, procedures, research questions and hypotheses, etc. Chapter four is concerned with data analysis and discussion of the results. In the final chapter we draw some conclusions from our analysis, discuss conclusive results, and provide implications for further research.
These discussions need to be meaningful and have purpose to create a higher chance of student engagement and participation. The article states, “cooperative learning is a natural way to provide opportunities across the curriculum” (Wright, 2016, p. 28-29). The smaller the group, the more likely the ELL student is to add to the conversation, as native English speakers typically dominant whole group discussions. It is important that every student in the small group contributes so the ELL student can hear and practice their own oral language. There are many activities that could be used to ensure this engagement, such as think-pair-share, that requires students to work together and actually get information from each other. Activities that cannot be completed alone and require the thinking of another student would be best for this
Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from 1-8 we must keep in mind that everyone is unique and process things within their own time table.
Ice Breaker: Due the goals of this stage (see below), the ice breaker will include funny video clips. The instruction is that group members are not allowed to laugh should they find something funny. The aim of this ice-breaker is to make the members aware that some of the things that will be shared in the process could be funny, but one needs to hold it back as a way of showing respect and non-judging (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2014). However, it is important for the registered counsellor to explain that there will be funny times- but those are not when individuals share their stories.
racie Allen of the comedy team of Burns and Allen was once asked how one should speak French. She replied, “Well, you speak it the same way you speak English; you just use different words.” When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation, building background, and comprehensible input, we can indeed teach our future English language learners all the right moves with all the right words.
Being different from other species in the world, we, the human, occupy our own language and thought. We use the words that we have learnt to express what is in our mind, as well as the emotion since we learnt how to talk. In modern days, the conversation skills is more and more emphasized and it becomes one of the skills that we need to possess in order to survive. Therefore, learning how to speak and why we need to speak appropriately becomes the tasks that we need to consider in our live.
The session began with a brief introduction of everyone in the room which was followed by an ice breaker activity. During a previous classroom demonstration, markers were used as an ice breaker with a young family (D. Baker, personal communication, March 18, 2014). It was a simple action that created a connection so I adopted the practice. According to Patterson, ...
English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
This ice breaker helps people work well together, whether it is in a work or school situation. This is how it goes, First, you have a leader and the leader gets to pick some sort of situation such as, marriage, baby sitting, or being a leader of a company. The leader will put everyone into teams and ask if they could ask one question to discover if this person could work right for you or not, what would it be? So, if the leader picked the marriage example, then that team would ask each other one question to see if they are a good person to marry. Them if the leader chose babysitting, they would also ask a question to see if this person is right to watch over your children. This ice breaker doesn't have to be these exact situations you can come up with your own real life situations. It can be difficult but fun, it really just depends on the situation you are
Before this course. I had learned some public speaking skills in the previous classes, such us how to manage my eye contact, facial expression, gestures
Elvis Wagner investigated the use of video texts in testing the listening of ESL students within the experiment exhibited in his article, “The effect of the use of video texts on ESL listening test-taker performance.” While the article itself was based heavily around the experiment conducted to test the effectiveness of video texts in testing listening, Wagner posed very interesting questions which he hoped his findings would portray. Wagner’s first question was the most interesting and asked,
Lennon, P. (2006, October 27). Investigating Fluency in EFL: A Quantitative Approach*. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb00669.x/abstract
According to Hallidays approach combining both practical speaking and communication as well as attend theory classes very important towards improving the learners understanding of the language syntax thus allowing them to begin practicing to rearrange working to fit the native way of speaking a 2nd language. Failure to do this would result in seriously impairing the meaning of the language resulting in serious complication communicating with the public which may also feel offended when communication is
“DA-DA!” Who would have known that a simple word like that could be so powerful and strong enough to make a grown man like myself cry. In every job setting, a great way to represent ourselves is through communication. Communication is stemmed from the act of speech, in which plays a huge role, not only at a workplace but in reality as well. Speech is simply a higher form of communication between two or more people. Great speech practices may enhance a person’s opportunity of moving up within the company he or she works for, as well as venturing off to higher positions in a professional field. Having the ability to speak well is closely related to the ability to listen well. Speaking well in a professional setting can cause one to stand out over others more and help interpret a great first impression of who that person is.
Speaking is a natural ability given to most reluctant individuals. Since the beginning of time, it has been assumed that we have a right to speak and use words, thus we naturally begin our development of language during the early stages of live. After years of grasping and perfecting our vocabulary and language, it seems unnecessary to study the purpose of our development. Why, then, should we study “oral communication?” There are many purposes, benefits, and institutions that branch from oral communication. Of course, communication is the basis of interaction with other individuals through the use of expressions and words; however, through studying oral communication, one can take the words and expressions being used and apply them to his or her own life. After all, the most effective and useful knowledge is applied knowledge.
...before she introduced the new terms and vocabulary. Finally, Bruner investigated how adults use language to mediate the world for children and help them solve problems. Children learn effectively through scaffolding by adults. This technique is based on taking step by step for building knowledge. It suggests that a teacher can scaffold children learning in different ways. For example, students face difficulties in reading lessons in the first stages; therefore, the teacher has to use visual and auditory materials before she enrolls in the lesson, such as realia, pictures, and videos. This will helps the child to predict what the story is about. In addition, she has to introduce the new terms which are difficult for a child to pronounce it. These techniques and instructional strategies are most effective for teaching English as a foreign language for young learners.