INTERESTING STUDENTS THROUGH POWERPOINT
Abstract: This study presents a detailed report of the project implemented to foster students’ interest in English learning, through PowerPoint instruction. Based on the assumption that PowerPoint can help the students understand teaching materials quickly and easily and thus interest the students to learn English happily, a twelve-week program was adopted. Data were collected through questionnaires, analysis and discussion of which shows that PowerPoint really contributes to student’s interest in language learning. However, the program seems to be powerless to a certain number students. Further research is needed for her measures to interest the learners.
This methods used in this study include analytic method, Socratic dialogue cause analysis, questionnaire, and brainstorming.
Introduction
As is commonly accepted, interest is the key to success, and interest is the best teacher. What the teacher is to do in class is to provide conditions for learning to take place. I am now teaching junior grade one students. After one semester, I found that the classroom atmosphere was getting less and less active. A quite part of students idled in class. They were taking a less active role in classroom activities. A few students even dropped out. Based on some approaches that I have learned form “English Language Teaching Methodology”, and considering the characteristics of my students, I decided to adopt PowerPoint in my lessons to interest the learners, and help them keep up their English learning. In this project, I used PowerPoint instruction land some new teaching methods that provided students with some new activities to try to change the situation. Before and after I carried out my teaching plan, I colleted date by questionnaires and observations.
Problem Analysis
Teaching which appeals to learners’ needs can facilitate learning. It is necessary to investigate why the students were showing less and less interesting, and devoting less and less effort. So interviews were held and questionnaires were issued. It is found that:
A. Those poor students report that, due to their lack of vocabulary cannot follow the teacher in class, and many times can’t complete the tasks.
B. Some good students report that vocabulary instruction tends to be so mechanical. And it is this mechanical practice, in which the students were asked to read and re-read, write and re-write the new words and expressions that deprived the students of their interest.
C. Quite a number of students report that they are afraid of being criticized and thus withdraw from classroom activities.
D. The teacher’s methods lack variety.
E. The students don’t have a good English learning environment. The students just like a duck that wants to learn to swim among chickens. The teachers didn’t create the language environment properly, they only taught students English, not communicate with students.
Possible Solutions
Taking the above factors into consideration, the following solutions were proposed:
A. Employing interest PowerPoint to help the students understand and learn new knowledge.
B. Organizing interesting activities to interest the students to memorize the words and review the texts.
C. Creating the comfortable safe classroom atmosphere and a good teacher-student relationship.
Project Objective
By the time I have implemented my project, my students’ English listening, speaking, reading and writing ability should be increased by PowerPoint instruction and better designed activities.
Project Hypotheses
Considering the age factors of the students, PowerPoint can help students understand teaching materials quickly and easily and thus interest students to learn English happily, and then students’ English ability will be increased.
Project Rationale
According to Williams and Robert Burden, interest refers to a state of longitude and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal. Interest is one of the most important factors in learning a foreign language. As Darwin said Just as eating without liking does harm to one’s health, learning without liking harms memory and retains nothing it takes in. Former experiments show that among the factors contributing to success of students, interest accounts for about 50%.
Psychological studies indicated that human beings mainly depend on eyes and ears to obtain information. Experiments indicate that the information received by ear will remain 60% in memory after 3 hours and only 40% after 3 days, while the information obtained both by ear and eye will remain 90% in memory after 3 hours and still 75% after 3 days. Another students indicated that the development of human’s ideation is a process from thinking in images to abstraction. The teenagers in middle school have developed thinking more in images than in abstraction. Application of PowerPoint in English teaching will create language circumstances for students and mobilize their enthusiasm in thinking in images, for the abstract language materials to turn into concrete images. Hence the PowerPoint is suitable for the psychological development of teenagers. It is not only a better way to interest the students, but also helpful to their memory.
Research Design
A. Subjects
For this research, I chose the two classes of my students as subjects, one as the Target Group, the other as the Control Group. The target and control groups were randomly selected through PowerPoint. Throughout the project, the Target Group will receive special designed PowerPoint instruction, while the control group goes on with its routine instruction.
B. Procedure
This project lasted two months from March to May. It is divided into six stages.
1.From April 3 to 9, identify a problem.
2.From April 10 to 16, analyze the problem using scientific methods.
3.From April 17 to 23, design a problem solve project.
4.From April 24 to May 14, implement the project.
5.From May 14 to 20, evaluate the project against a checklist.
6.From May 21 to 28, write to project report.
C. Principles to follow
1. Accord the students’ interest and practicability with the contents of the teaching materials and the age of the students.
2. Adapt the PowerPoint to student’s range of knowledge.
3. Create a good teacher-student relationship, interest and encourage them without forcing.
4. Provide a stress-free and learner-centered environment.
D. Techniques for Data Collection
During this research two techniques were adopted, namely questionnaire and test. To gather information for the design of the research and to test whether the research is effective, two questionnaires will be issued, one at the beginning of the research and the other at the end. Two tests will be included (one as the pretest, the other as the post test for comparison) to test the co-efficiency between interest and school recording.
Project Implementation
A. Demonstrate the pronunciation essentials by PowerPoint
The students always feel dull and difficult when they first learn the phonetic symbols. This time, I gave students some example of antithesis, and let them realize the characteristic of the pronunciations.
[i] [j]
From the profiles the students can see clearly how [i] and [j] is produced, which saves much effort on the part of the teacher to explain.
[b] [m]
Many students sound [b] as [m]. A pair of profiles by PowerPoint will help them distinguish between [b] and [m].
When teaching [b] and [m], the students can see the profiles clearly how [b] and [m] is produced, which sounds them easily.
B. Use PowerPoint to teach vocabulary
For the students of the first year, the biggest problem is vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary with PowerPoint can interest students and make them learn English with interest.
I adopt three forms to teach vocabulary through PowerPoint.
1) Arranging words on cline, or degrees of the same quality.
I do the same with some adverbs of frequency. Put them on a cline according the degree of frequency they express.
sometimes always often never usually occasionally seldom almost always rarely frequently quite often
I put some personal expressions of quality along a cline from the worst (at the bottom) to the best (at the top).
terrible quite good great weak terrific
good not bad
2）Grouping words around a headword.
What about using a spider diagram to illustrate a headword and then different examples of it. An example of a headword might be fruit; then the examples might include: apple, pear, orange, banana and so on.
3）Word categories.
Word categories can be a way of eliciting known vocabulary items from the students, in this way the names of professions, and can also be a way of recording the names of new ones for them. So every time they learn the word for a new profession they can add it to the list. They can also add different categories, or change the categories altogether.
manual: farmer builder mechanic
professional: doctor lawyer teacher nurse
service: waiter travel agent
C. Use PowerPoint to present vocabulary
When teaching hospital and hotel, I showed the pictures by PowerPoint. Then I pointed to the pictures and asked them what they are. In this way, I presented hospital and hotel, the learning of English explanation or Chinese translation through PowerPoint. And this helps students acquire the vocabulary learning strategy of imaging.
For words like fat and thin, it is also very convenient to use sketches. First, I gave the students to show some photos of fat men and thin men and let the students think the images of a fat man and a thin man through PowerPoint. Then I selected one of the best photos from the shows by PowerPoint. Then we talked about the images of fat and thin. The student said that in the word fat is the letter a, which like a man with big belly, while there is the letter i in the middle of the word thin, which looks like a slim person.
The wonderful idea of this student attracted others greatly. All the students smiled and memorized the words in a relaxed atmosphere.
D. Use PowerPoint in vocabulary revision
I like a red apple / a yellow pear / a white egg / a brown cake / some bread / hot dogs / vegetables / meat / rice / noodle / dumpling / fish / fruit …
E. Use PowerPoint to help distinguish concepts
Students in the junior middle school often confuse meanings of some words，for example prepositions of place. With the PowerPoint, the meaning will be easy to express.
When prepositions in, on, under and by were taught, PowerPoint was applied. The situation of proposition clearly demonstrated the concept of each preposition.
The students tend to be confused about in front of and in the front of. So in classroom instruction, I showed to demonstrate their differences by PowerPoint.
From the showing the students found that we are in front of the truck. That is very danger, so the driver, who is in the front of the truck, is criticizing us. The differences between the two phrases are clearly demonstrated.
My students usually feel puzzled about on, over and above. In classroom instruction, I first showed three pictures by PowerPoint. Then asked the students to observe the three pictures and find what are the differences. Then I gave them three sentences without preposition and asked them to complete the blanket with the words on, over and above.
There is a bridge the river.
There is a cup the desk.
There is a bird the house.
When the students had finished, I asked a student who did correctly to tell the class why he filled in the answers. The student explained his thinking: The bridge is over the river, because the bridge is over the water; the cup is on the desk and the cup touches the desk; the bird is flying over the house but not stop on it, so the bird is above the house.
English is full of sentence patterns. If the students only look at the book and read the sentences after the teacher, which is what I used to do, they can hardly be interested and the structures will be difficult to master. When the PowerPoint was applied in sentence-patterns instruction, the situation was changed.
When teaching the JEFC Book 1B L107, I adopted the PowerPoint approach to explain the new sentence patterns.
First several pictures were shown through PowerPoint.
Then the students listened while looking at the pictures.
What time / When does Mrs Morison get up in the morning on Sunday?
What’s she doing now?
She gets up at 7:30 in the morning. She is getting up now.
What time does she have breakfast?
At 8: 30 in the morning.
What does she go to the park with her dog?
At 9:40 in the morning.
What time does she go swimming?
At 10: 50 in the morning.
What time does she have lunch?
At 1:00 in the afternoon.
What time does she go shopping?
At 3:00 in the afternoon.
What time does she begin to work in the garden?
At 4:25 in the afternoon.
What time does she have supper with her friends?
At 6:30 in the afternoon.
What time does she go to bed?
At 10: 30 in the evening.
After listening for several times, the students were invited to speak aloud themselves according to the pictures. All the students could concentrate their attention in class and everyone spoke boldly. Within only several minutes, all the students were able to utter these sentence partners, including the worst students.
G. Use PowerPoint to teach dialogues
Almost every unit of the JEFC Book 1B has a dialog, and every dialog is designed in a small scene. Integrating the dialog with the PowerPoint will produce a wonderful effect.
During the research, when teaching L96 (to see Appendix B), I designed two scenes with PowerPoint, each of which includes relevant information. Looking at the pictures, the students could easily associate the contents of the dialogue and make dialogues freely.
Data Analysis
In order to assess the effectiveness of the above-mentioned solutions, data were gathered mainly from two sources: two questionnaires and two tests at different times, which will be analyzed respectively in this section.
Data from the questionnaire
Two questionnaires were issued in this research, one at the beginning of the project, the other at the finish of the project. Questionnaire 2 was designed partly based on questionnaire 1 so that comparisons could be made to see the improvement after the implementation.
Question 1: The attitude towards the English lesson.
In both questionnaires, the students were requested to answer questions concerning their interest in English lessons. It is found that 21% of them were afraid of English before the implementation of the research, while only 3% of them had the same idea after it. From Table 1, we can see more clearly that the students’ feeling changed after the application of the new designed learning procedures.
Table 1: comparison of students’ interest in learning English
|
Degree of interest |
Like a lot |
Like |
Just so so |
Dislike |
Dislike very much |
|
Before The research |
3% |
29% |
42% |
21% |
5% |
|
After the research |
17% |
51% |
19% |
|