Response-Stimulating English Camp Activities

Transcription

1 463 Response-Stimulating English Camp Activities Sangvatanachai, Woralap, Khon Kaen University, Thailand Abstract: The main aim of an English camp is to get students to react to a stimulator. Prompt reactions are often a camp problem. This action research wanted to find highly motivating, response-stimulating speaking activities. Eight different activities were organized for students in groups of Two evaluators rated the activities by observing, using a rating scale to rate speaking, the promptness of reactions, and language levels. The scale used was a linear 0-10 scale where 0 stands for totally negative answer and 10 for totally positive answer. The activity that received the highest overall score was story-telling. In this activity students studied certain words and phrases, drew an object from a bag, listened to the beginning of a story by the teacher, and created their own stories using the words and phrases. It has been concluded that fun activities, time frames, and the personalities of the teachers can get students to give very quick responses. Success also depends upon the students language outputs that demonstrate the level of their English usage. Keywords: Response-stimulating English camp activities, promptness of reactions. Introduction The problem of low English proficiency of the average Thai university students has become one of the most important national educational issues. The Ministry of Education and English language teaching institutions all over the country are well aware of the problem. Attempts have always been made on the part of English language program administrators and teachers at school and universities to improve the English language skills of Thai students. Along with these attempts, which emphasize innovations in curricular design and teaching methods, extra activities are also being taken into consideration. It has been seen that lessons and practices in class are not enough for students to be able to master the language skills we want them to. Practice, on one s own and with others in both real and virtual situations, is always beneficial for them. However, since the country of Thailand still uses Thai as the official and everyday language, real situational opportunities to practice English are not likely for many students. With this in mind, many universities organize virtual English practices such as camp activities for their students, with an aim to at least provide opportunities for students to be exposed to English use. The skills that are most appropriate for camp activities are speaking, which is productive, and listening, which serves as an input. Since the main aim of an English camp is to get students to speak or use English that is based upon fun activities, an input is very important. By this we mean any stimulators (the activity itself, the instruction, the rules, the language, etc.) that will elicit reactions or answers in English. There is also a problem of prompt reaction since it may be necessary for students to take time to think before they can give any answers. This research, therefore, wanted to find efficient response-stimulating speaking activities for an English camp for university students. Preferred activities for English camps mostly and generally involve speaking and listening. At some camps, reading and writing skills may be incorporated. However, there is usually a

2 464 tight time frame for each station, which makes most camp organizers choose speaking activities more often than others. Designing situations where students will speak a foreign language should be based on the notion of the act of communication through speaking, which is achieved by face-to-face interaction in dialogues or exchanges of conversation (Widdowson, 1978). means oral participation of the individuals involved that is both receptive and productive. The receptive part of oral communication can be the asking of questions, instructions, directions, and/or any input that elicits a reaction. Therefore, it is important that there is a requirement or a task for students to do, and it should be one that they want to do. The designed task should be motivating enough so that students will do their best to complete it. Many language teachers use games as a means to achieve targeted language. In fact, both researchers and theorists have been interested in the areas of language humor and language play for some time now (Cook, 2000). The idea of language play, language learning has been proposed by Guy Cook, who states that play involves adaptation to a foreign language environment and that play and language are closely connected (Cook, 2000). Games can be used to attain behavioral objectives, and there is no need to fear making errors from language use. Play is highly suitable in all L2 classrooms; if students are performing communicative tasks that are meaningful, then the language will be learned (Harmer, 2007). There are difficulties affecting the promptness of responses from students. The first of these is the knowledge itself. The second is the skill in order to get fluent answers the knowledge should be there in order to automate reaction. When these two are missing, students will lack confidence as a result and so fluency cannot be achieved (Thornbury, 2008). Klippel (2008) suggests two communicative activities: information gap and opinion gap. However, activities should be concerned with the learners themselves. Learning is effective if learners are actively involved in the process, and effectiveness depends on the type of materials used (Klippel, 2008). It can be seen that motivation is a very important element that language teachers have to bear in mind when they design classroom or camp activities. Students are not always inspired by learning per se. If they are, they are said to be internally or intrinsically motivated and if they are not, then they are only extrinsically motivated. The latter is the case when students have a need to master the second language (Wilson, 2008). Strategies that will bring motivation among learners (p.98) are: 1) the use of questions, 2) differentiated tasks, 3) jigsaws, 4) buzz groups, 5) gapped handouts and worksheets, and 6) quizzes and games. In teaching speaking to beginning learners, something should be provided for learners to talk about and teachers should also accept the learners preferred topics (Bailey, 2005). Bailey suggests provision of manipulables which is a fancy word for things that can be handled, moved, or manipulated in some way. Dornyei (2008) also provides a number of techniques for designing communicative activities; namely, challenge, interesting content, novelty element, intriguing element, exotic element, personal element, competition, tangible outcomes, and humor. After we have decided on the activities and how to motivate the students, we might have to consider acceptance of lexical phrases as the students may not be able to produce complete sentences as being normal in camp activities where there are always

3 465 time constraints. Nattinger and DeCarrico (2009) state that social conversation is interactional and many times it only requires lexical phrases or language chunks of varying length. Montha Songsiri (2007) conducted an action research study on promoting students confidence in speaking English, with an aim to improve Thai students motivation to speak English through a range of materials and activities. The study was conducted on a group of engineering students during one semester to use new student-centered techniques: self introduction, an English movie, a popular song, my favorite story, foreigner interview, and a coffee break discussion. The results were recorded to develop materials, activities, techniques and roles of teachers. Then the study was carried on for another semester with another group of students. She found that students perform better because of the teaching and learning strategies used. Students are able to speak when there is a positive atmosphere; they have positive attitudes and the activities are not threatening. Nurisnaini (2000) found out that games and songs are effective strategies in improving students participation in activities. Huyen and Nga (2003) also agreed with this by saying that games bring relaxation and fun and help students to earn, and games involve friendly competition and interest among students. Objectives This study aimed at finding what stimuli effectively prompt language reactions of students. By reactions, we mean verbal reactions, and by prompt we mean the reactions were given after the stimuli were given with no delay or like they should have naturally been given. This action research study investigated different camp activities that were arranged for 85 students. The reason for choosing English camp activities for this study is because an English camp is the best venue for English speaking practices. While other skills are also practiced in English camps, speaking is mostly emphasized on the grounds that it is the best, and it effectively creates fun, liveliness, and vitality. Methodology The students were divided into eight groups of 10 or 11 students. There were eight activities arranged in a rotation, each of which took minutes. The eight activities were arranged around the scheme, Western Festivals, the details of which are given in the following section. Two teachers rated the students performance as a group. The tool used was 10 linear measurement 0-10 scales for ten questions. The 0 score of the scale means not at all or totally negative, whereas the 10 scores means totally positive. The eight groups of students were randomly observed. Two teachers, who were not involved in the activities of any station, traveled around the camp to observe and rate the stations one by one. At least two of the eight groups were rated at each station. The eight stations activities The eight stations were based upon Western Festivals, namely, Valentine s Day, St. Patrick s Day, April Fools Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Carnival.

4 466 At each station, two to three teachers were responsible for encouraging students to participate in the activities. Details for each of the eight station s activities are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Details of the 20-minute activities at each station Station Number and Name Kits Activities (in steps) Skills Practiced 1 Valentine s Day 2 St. Patrick s Day 3 April Fools Day 4 Easter Idiom cards Meaning cards Note pads Tape recorder A song Info board Info cards Green hats Crossword Puzzles Paper Colored pens Leprechaun masks prizes Info board Real objects in a black bag Expression cards hung around the place False Easter eggs with a word inside Baskets Note pads Worksheets Prize Tape recorder A song 1 Ss listen to two teachers speaking about Valentine s Day and take notes. 2 T asks questions, Ss answer. 3 Ss match idioms with the right meaning. 4 Ss listen to a song and fill in gaps on Worksheet. 5 Ss sing songs together. 1 Ss are divided into 2 groups. 2 Ss wear the green hats. 3 Ss read the cards and study info on the board. 4 Ss do crossword puzzles. 5 T gives correct answers, relate story about St. Patrick s and teaches Ss to sing a song. 6 Ss make a commercial in their group to invite people to come to St. Patrick s festival. 7 Ts judge the best commercial and give the prize 1 Ss study the information on the board. 2 Ss are divided into pairs. 3 Ss answer questions about April Fools Day. 4 Each pair draws an object from the bag. 5 Each pair prepares a story about the object using the expression on the cards. 6 T starts a sentence for a story. 7 Each pair take turns completing the story. 8 Ts give points and award prizes to the best storytellers. 1 Ts hide Easter eggs around the place. 2 Ss are divided into 2 groups. 3 Ss pick as many eggs as they can (each word in an egg counts 5 points). 4 Each group takes a turn to come in front and draw an egg at a time. 5 One S from a group looks at the word and gives hint until the group can guess the word. The group that gets the most correct words wins. Writing Listening Average Total Score by Evaluators 81 Writing Listening 75 Reading 86 (at a word level) 82

5 467 5 Halloween 6 Thanksgiving 7 Christmas 8 Carnival Vocabulary board Cards indicating characters Word cards Pictures Note pads Hats songs Info posters Christmas decorations Mock hammer Word cards Santa hats Picture board Idiom cards Meaning cards Note pads Worksheet 6 The two groups sing a song together. 1 Ts explain about what people do on Halloween Day and go over words on the board. 2 Each S is attached with a card on the back. 3 All Ss move around asking Am I..? and Do I to the others. 4 Other Ss answer their friends questions until everyone gets the answer. 1 Ts explain about Thanksgiving. 2 Ss write down what each of them is thankful for and their reasons why. 3 Ts give out pictures. 4 Ss match pictures and words. 5 Ss make a story from a selected card. 6 Songs are played and hats are put on all throughout the session. 1 Ss are divided into 2 groups. 2 Ts collect word cards from the board and put them on the floor. 3 One S in a group sits in the hot seat. The rest lines up and takes turn giving the clue related to the word shown by T. 4 S has to use a relative clause in giving the clue. If not, s/he will be punished by the mock hammer. 5 Each group has 5 min to guess the word. 6 The group getting the most words correct wins and is rewarded. 7 The losers noses are painted red like Rudolf s. 1Ts explain about Carnival. 2 Ss are divided into 2 groups. 3 Cards are laid face down on the floor. 4 Ss find two cards that match each other and read the words. 5 The team that gets the most words correct wins. Pronouncing (very simple structures) Pronouncing Writing Pronouncing Reading 70 The activities for all of these stations lasted for a total of 4 hours (roughly 30 minutes for each station) because between stations it was necessary for students to walk from one station to another. Results and Discussion Two evaluators rated the activities by observing each station once. Therefore, two groups of students were randomly observed by two evaluators. Guided questions in the rating scale included the level of practices, especially in speaking and promptness of reactions or answers given to each of the stimuli. The in-house constructed scale used was a linear 0-10 score

6 468 where 0 stands for totally negative answer and 10 for totally positive answer. The ten items for rating are as follows: 1. Overall success of the station. 2. Students are speaking English. 3. Students use their listening skills. 4. Students use their reading skill. 5. Students use their writing skill. 6. All students are participating. 7. All students give prompt reply/reaction. 8. Students learned and/or use some new words. 9. Students learned and/or use some expressions. 10. Students learned and/or use some sentence structures. Besides these questions, the observation form also includes evaluator s preference of the station and the suggestions for improvement. The results showed the station activities that encouraged and prompted students to react quickly to stimuli in the order from highest to lowest as follows: 1. April Fools Day Christmas Easter Thanksgiving Valentine s Day Halloween St. Patrick s Day Carnival 7.0 These scores showed that five out of the eight activities were rated at over 8.0, which could be considered successful in encouraging students to speak or give reactions to stimuli. Only three of the activities were rated below 8.0, yet they all received a score higher than 7.0. We then studied the details designed by the top-score station, i.e., April Fools Day, to see why the station was rated at 8.6. The details are as follows: The evaluators rated this station as the most successful in prompting students to speak because 1) the activities were fun, 2) the students were excited when they made stories, 3) the students created their own ideas, 4) the students composed sentences themselves and spoke them out, 5) the teachers were very active, and 6) overall, the station was lively. However, it should be noted that camp activities should not only be fun, but they should also encourage students to speak and use other language skills. Conclusion We have concluded that in order to encourage students to speak, the following should be taken into account:

7 Students should be provided enough chances to speak. 2. Students should be divided into and work in very small groups. 3. Students should be able to create their own ideas, without having to incorporate knowledge from any sources. 4. The teacher should be active. 5. Students should be provided with vocabulary and expressions that they can see easily and use. 6. The atmosphere should be lively and fun (not very formal). Provided things are planned, designed, and prepared effectively, this could also be applied in English classrooms. In addition, we found that students who participated in the activities shared approximately the same level of English proficiency. In fact, they were not good at English. The English camp that was held this year did not enlist students majoring in English. When students are at the same level, it is more likely that they will try to participate in activities. It could be argued that these students had applied for the English camp, so at a certain level they were ready to participate. We believe this to be true. Therefore, we are left with a future research question to be answered, How can students be motivated to use English more? In organizing an English camp one important factor has been observed in the planning process - station teachers are asked to design fun activities. This can lead to unwanted results because teachers focus upon activities that are fun at the expense of good English practice which is appropriate for the level of students. Students at university level should not be practicing pronouncing words or guessing a character (a single word answer). They should be enabled or allowed an opportunity to use English at a suitable proficiency level. We can see that the April Fools Day activities were very successful in this respect. References Bailey, K.M. (2005). Practical English language teaching:. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cook, G. (2000). Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dornyei, Z. (2008). The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Klippel, F. ( 2008). Communicative fluency activities for language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching, Fourth Edition. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Huyen, T. & Nga, T. (2003). Learning Vocabulary Through Games. ASIAN EFL Journal. December Nattinger, J. & DeCarrico, J. (2009). Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

8 470 Nurisnaini, A. (2000). Using Games and Songs to Improve Students Participation and Classroom Situation for Fourth Grade Students at SDN Arjosari III Malang. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. Universitas negeri Malang. Songsiri, M. (2007). An action research study of promoting students confidence in speaking English. Other Degree thesis thesis, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Thornbury, S. (2008). How to teach speaking. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Longman. Widdowson, H.G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wilson, L. (2008). Practical Teaching: A Guide to PTLLS & CTLLS. London: Delmar Cengage Learning.