MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
Stirring and Settling Activities in Teenage
Classes
Diploma Thesis
Brno 2014
Supervisor: Author:
Mgr. Irena Headlandovä Kalischovä, Ph.D. Be. Zuzana Dudkovä
Bibliographical Record
Dudkova, Zuzana. Stirring and Settling Activities in Teenage Classes Approach:
diploma thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English
Language and Literature, 2014. Supervisor of the diploma thesis: Mgr. Irena
Headlandova Kalischova, Ph.D.
Annotation
The diploma thesis approaches the topic of stirring and settling activities in teenage
classes and it presents them as an important part of the teaching and learning process.
Furthermore, the thesis aims to investigate whether these activities are exploited at
Czech upper-primary schools and to what extent they can influence channelling pupils'
energy, and also how they contribute to the smooth and balanced flow of the lesson. The
theoretical part provides a definition of a teenager as a language learner and it presents a
classification of stirring and settling activities. The empirical part is divided into two
parts. The first deals with the author's practical experience with stirring and settling
activities, and the second part is centred on the use of the above mentioned activities by
English language teachers at upper-primary schools.
Key words
Teenager, activities, motivation, to channel energy, stirring and settling, survey,
questionnaire.
Bibliografický záznam
Dudková, Zuzana. Stirring and Settling Activities in Teenage Classes: diplomová práce.
Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury,
2013. Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D.
Anotace
Diplomová práce pojednává o aktivitách, které podněcují dospívající žáky k vyšší
aktivitě a o aktivitách, které naopak dokážou žáky zklidnit a přimět je k soustředěné
činnosti a učení. Dále se zaměřuje na šetření, zda jsou tyto aktivity využívány na 2.
stupni základních škol, do jaké míry mohou ovlivnit soustředění žáků během vyučování
a jakým způsobem přispívají k plynulé a vyvážené hodině. Teoretická část definuje
dospívajícího žáka a prezentuje bližší klasifikaci použitých aktivit. Empirická část je
věnována vykreslení vlastních praktických zkušeností autorky s těmito aktivitami a také
je zaměřena na využití aplikovaných aktivit učiteli anglického jazyka na 2. stupni
základních škol.
Klíčová slova
Dospívající chlapec/dívka, aktivity, motivace, stirring and settling, vkládat energii,
průzkum, dotazník.
Prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím
pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s
Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se
zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem
autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.
Brno, 18. 4. 2014
Bc. Zuzana Dudkova
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Irena Headlandova Kalischova, Ph.D. for her
valuable advice and help during compiling this thesis, her friendly encouragement,
patience and valuable advice.
I would also like to thank to pupils and teachers participating in this study because their
friendly approach greatly contributed to the development of research on using stirring
and settling activities in English language classes.
Content
Introduction 8
Theoretical part 10
1 Second Language Acquisition: Acquisition and Learning 10
2 Teenagers as Language Learners 11
2.1 Features of Teenage Learners 12
2.1.1 Physical Changes 12
2.1.2 Social Changes 12
2.1.3 Cognitive Changes 13
3 Teaching Teenagers 13
3.1 Motivation 14
3.1.1 Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation 14
3.1.2 Motivating Teenage Learners 15
4 Stirring Activities 16
4.1 Mingle Activities 16
4.1.1 Practical Guidelines 17
4.2 Music and Songs 18
4.2.1 Adolescent Motherese 19
4.2.2 How to Use Music in the Classroom 19
4.3 Drama-Based Activities 20
4.3.1 Drama and Motivation 20
4.3.2 Types of Drama Activities 20
4.4 Technology 21
4.4.1 Computer and the Internet 21
4.4.2 Interactive Whiteboard 22
4.4.3 TV, DVD and Video 22
4.5 Movement Games 23
5 Settling Activities 24
5.1 Projects 24
5.1.1 Projects as Student-Centred Learning 24
5.1.2 Practical Guidelines 25
5.1.3 Projects in Practice 25
5.1.4 Possible Problems 26
5.2 Wordplay Activities 26
5.2.1 Relationship with Words 26
5.2.2 Ideas for Wordplay Activities 27
5.3 Activities Based on Listening 28
5.3.1 Learning to Listen 28
5.3.2 Criteria for Selected Materials 28
5.3.3 Types of listening activities 29
5.4 Activities Based on Reading 30
5.4.1 Considerations for Text Evaluation 31
5.4.2 Reading Suggestions for Different Text Genres 31
Empirical part 33
6 Practical Experience with Stirring and Settling Activities 33
6.1 Methodology 33
6.2 Description of the School 34
6.3 Target Group 34
6.4 Stirring Activities 35
Who is it? 35
Up and Down 36
Relay Race 37
Find Someone Who 38
Question-Question Improvisation 39
6.5 Settling Activities 40
Picture Dictation 40
Alphabet Snake 41
Tourist Guide 42
Mind-Map the Text 44
Alphabet Improvisation 45
6.6 Overall Feedback 45
7 Survey results 47
7.1 Methodology 47
7.2 Questionnaire Preparation and Design 48
7.3 Respondents 48
7.4 Data Handling 48
7.5 Research Findings and Their Interpretation 49
7.6 Stirring Activities 50
7.6.1 Do you use stirring activities in your English classes? 50
7.6.2 What are your expectations when you use them? 50
7.6.3 Which particular stirring activities listed do you use? 51
7.6.4 How do pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or different?.. 52
7.6.5 Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their
reactions? 52
7.6.6 If you were to compare the approach of the younger and older upperprimary
learners, in what aspects do they differ? 53
7.7 Settling Activities 54
7.7.1 Do you use settling activities? 54
7.7.2 What are your expectations when you use them? 54
7.7.3 Which particular stirring activities listed do you use? 55
7.7.4 How do pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or different?.. 56
7.7.5 Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their
reactions? 56
7.7.6 If you were to compare the approach of the younger and older upperprimary
learners, in what aspects do they differ? 57
7.8 Complex Analysis of the Questionnaires 58
Conclusion of the Empirical Part 59
Conclusion 60
Resume 61
References 62
Appendix 64
Introduction
Knowing how to work with and master the energy of teenage learners has
become one of the essential skills a teacher at the upper-primary school must possess. In
other words, every teacher should know when it is appropriate to encourage students'
enthusiasm in a particular situation during the class and on the other hand, when to calm
them down in order to succeed in maintaining balance in the class. Thus a teacher
mastering this skill will not likely have his or her teenage students either over-excited or
tired and passive during his or her lessons. After being inspired by this phenomenon, a
decision has been made to focus on this current and attractive issue. The thesis discusses
and analyses various types of activities used by the teachers of English at the upperprimary
schools. It also examines the way different activities affect teenagers'
motivation and willingness to cooperate and become actively involved during the
lessons. The emphasis is intentionally put on the teenage learners since they represent
the target group of the author's studies. This diploma thesis tries to disprove the myth of
teenagers being attributed for being restless, irritable and undisciplined.
The diploma thesis is divided into two parts: the theoretical part and the
empirical part. The necessity of using suitable and appropriate activities which make
English lessons interesting and balanced at the same time is discussed in the theoretical
part. This part is based on the classification and description of several activities used at
the upper-primary schools. More specifically, this thesis provides the analysis of the socalled
settling and stirring activities. Mingle activities, music and songs, drama
activities, technology-based activities and movement games cover the stirring activities.
As for the settling activities, the focus is shifted on reading and listening activities
which are highlighted together with the word-play activities and project work. The
theoretical part is completed with the depiction of a teenager as a language learner.
Additionally, the question of motivating teenage learners, teaching teenage learners and
their language acquisition is investigated as well.
The empirical part consists of two parts. The centre of the empirical part is
pointed at the description of the author's experience connected with the application of
these stirring and settling activities during the teaching practice. The empirical part is
also supplemented with the examination of the usage of stirring and settling activities by
the teachers of English at the upper-primary schools. So as to obtain this kind of
8
information, ten English teachers have been addressed to fill in questionnaires centred
on the activities mentioned above. The data gained from the questionnaires serve as a
solid ground to analyse how stirring and settling activities work in practice.
The work is written with the intention of gathering new information that could
help any future or practising teachers with the enrichment of teaching skills or it can be
regarded as the inspiration. Thanks to the data gained from the thesis they will have a
possibility of accommodating and modifying their lessons in order to make them more
balanced and effective.
9
Theoretical part
1 Second Language Acquisition: Acquisition and Learning
A number of current methodologists and theorists confine their attention to the
process of the second language acquisition. Diverse methods and techniques are being
investigated to help the learners to become proficient second languages users.
In his book, Language Acquisition and Language Education, Krashen (1989)
draws a distinction between acquisition and learning (p. 8). He suggests that the
acquisition represents "a subconscious process that is identical to the process used in
first language acquisition in all important ways" (ibid.). It is a process when learners
absorb the target language without even noticing it - to put it simply, they are able to
use it while having no concerns about the accurate usage of grammar items or about
picking up the appropriate vocabulary. Moreover, they can get the language, for
instance, from everyday situations (listening to music, watching series, chatting on the
Internet, etc.).
Krashen stresses the idea of acquisition over learning in second language since it
occurs to be of a vital effectiveness in the second language performance. The learners'
skill to master second languages is mostly derived from what they have acquired
unconsciously than from they have actually learned. Moreover, in his Input Hypothesis,
he emphasizes the idea that the second language acquisition goes hand in hand with the
suitable language input obtained by learners. This phenomenon that he named
"comprehensible input" consists in appropriate and understandable language that should
be exposed to the second language learners in the agreeable environment. In particular,
they are able to acquire a new rule under the condition that the rule is incorporated in a
comprehensible message (Krashen, 1989, p. 8-9).
Language learning, on the contrary, stands for "conscious knowledge"
(Krashen, 1989, p. 8) when the learners are supposed to thoughtfully process the
language they have learnt so far. This is more connected with the school environment
where the learners are exposed to the organised learning conditions and where they are
expected to work with and profit from their intentional knowledge while completing the
assigned exercises. Krashen is also influenced by the idea of Noam Chomsky. He
quotes Chomsky's definition of learning as "tacit competence" or a "feel" for languages
(as cited in Krashen, 1989, p. 8).
10
2 Teenagers as Language Learners
A teenager represents a term that has been depicted countless times. Many
authors, psychologists but also teachers have been interested in stages of development,
in mental abilities, physical changes or even in defining the age range. Following the
definition of Etymology Dictionary, the term teenager1
was originally derived from a
noun teenage. The previous word for this expression was teener, attested in American
English inl894. Before this time, in 1818 a teen had been put into use when referring to
a person between the ages of 13 and 19 inclusive, although the use of the word was not
frequent before the 20t h
century. Piatt (1993) promotes an idea that the term teenager
was basically required in order to define "these never-grown-up Peter Pans" and also to
address growing up human beings previously named "kids, boys and girls, young
people, adolescents, and youths".
The teenage age could be perceived as a breaking point before becoming an
adult and it includes almost the whole decade of our lifetime. Harmer (2007a), who uses
the term adolescence when talking about this particular period of life, expresses
uncertainty about the age range of adolescence due to the fact that "the onset of
adolescence is bound up with physical and emotional changes rather than chronological
age" (p. 14). Nevertheless, he specifies that "the term of adolescence tends to refer to
learners from the ages of about 12 to 17, whereas young adults are generally thought to
be between 16 and 20" (ibid.). In the same manner, G. Anderson (2008) maintains that
it is problematic to make a sweeping assumption when speaking about adolescence from
individual to individual and from culture to culture owing to the maturity levels that can
be considerably distinct even among the individuals within the same culture.
Teaching language to teenage learners is considerably distinct from teaching
children or adults. It is not just a learning potential that is becoming larger in
comparison with the learning potential of young learners but there is also bigger
importance attached to the manipulation with teenagers' motivation. Before entering a
teenage class, the teacher has to take many things into consideration. Additionally, he or
she should be aware of all developmental changes that the teenagers are supposed to
undergo during this particular period of life.
1 See "teenager." Online Ethymology Dictionnary
11
2.1 Features of Teenage Learners
On the foundation of Lewis' age range division into three groups (2007): young
teenagers (aged 12-14), middle teenagers (aged 14-17), late teenagers (aged 17-19), the
central point will be primarily moved to the young teenagers as this group refers to the
age of upper-primary learners representing the target group described in the practical
part later on (p. 6). A l l young teenagers have to experience and undergo many
complicated changes connected with their mind, physical appearance and social roles.
Another very important characteristic feature at this age is the perception of personality.
2.1.1 Physical Changes
The process of physical changes between the ages of 12 and 14 is characterised
as being dynamic, and teenagers usually attach a high importance to it. It is a period of
time when the physical transformation is intensively experienced. The perception of
physical appearance is consequently closely tied to the level of self-esteem and selfconfidence
which affects the position in the school society (Lewis, 2007, p. 7).
2.1.2 Social Changes
Taking responsibility for oneself is a part of the process of growing up. In order
to become an independent and confident person, parents begin to treat young learners
more seriously. The ability to live their life without being helped or influenced by other
people is however sometimes disclaimed by their urgency of being protected. As Lewis
(2007) explains, "Young teenagers waver between independence and a need for
security. They have one foot in the adult world and one in the world of their childhood."
(p. 7).
A tendency to become a part of a social group of peers and establishing broader
and longer-lasting relationships represents another important developmental task for
young teenagers. They broaden their experience in social interaction and peer
communication at a higher level than in previous years. They try to look at the events
from different points of view and empathize with other people. As a result, as they take
account of other peoples' needs and help each other, they succeed in strengthening and
maintaining the relationships. Nevertheless, the girl and boy division is still present. The
12
preference for same-sex friends or moving in same-sex groups is obvious (Lewis, 2007,
p. 7). Another important thing to note is that not every pupil is lucky enough to be
accepted by the particular group of peers. This can consequently lead to his or her
isolation and end up in bullying.
In her article, Piccollo (2010) adds another interesting statement related to the
social changes, claiming that despite their potential unwillingness to confess it,
teenagers are in need of authority and they prefer situations in which anything is likely
to be changed during a lesson. From her point of view, "the teenage learners have a
highly developed sense of what is right and what is not" (ibid.). Therefore, their general
expectation is that "they are treated with respect and fairness by their teacher even
though they are unsure of their own personal value with regards to their capacity and
intelligence" (ibid.).
2.1.3 Cognitive Changes
Between 12 and 14 years of age, young teenagers acquire the ability to think
abstractly. The transition from concrete to abstract thinking opens the door to think
critically about abstract ideas and concepts (Lewis, 2007, p. 8). Also Harmer (2007b)
points out that "teenage learners have a great capacity for learning, the critical thinking
about abstract ideas and concepts, enormous potential for creative and a passionate
commitment to things that interest them" (p. 15). As a consequence, good results at
school or in additional recreational activities help young teenagers to support their
confidence.
3 Teaching Teenagers
Becoming an adult also means taking responsibility for decision-making. G.
Anderson (2008) contributes with the theory that teenagers are accountable for their acts
and for their learning. Furthermore, they tend to take part in decision-making and they
want to be involved in what happens in the classroom. This is why a teenager needs to
experience a feel of being valuable when it comes to taking part in decision-making.
But after closer consideration, it could be suggested that the teacher can sooner or later
find himself or herself in a situation involving a lot of risk. As Piccollo (2010) specifies,
this decision issue might bring the teacher into a position of an unprofessional if he or
13
she does not take responsibility for decisions about learning and assessment. All these
arguments should invite the teacher to reach an appropriate compromise and if possible,
share the responsibility for important decisions and at the same time, have control over
the definite verdict.
The general opinion is that academic closeness is acceptable between teachers
and teenagers but the friendship closeness is not because it is regarded with suspicion
and derision (Picollo, 2010). Correspondingly, Lewis (2007) places a lot of emphasis on
a teacher as an authority figure in the teenage class. In order to preserve a good
relationship with the learners, the teacher needs to make a clear distinction between him
or her and the rest of the class (p. 6).
3.1 Motivation
The majority of experienced teachers find the motivation to be a pre-requisite of
both successful learning and teaching. Making the learners willing to learn is therefore
regarded as an influential part of the lesson. Otherwise, the whole learning process can
remain ineffective to such a degree that they possibly take nothing at all from the lesson
and the teacher's effort is wasted. In addition, becoming proficient in getting the pupils
motivated can result in increasing the pace of their learning.
Harmer (2007b) offers a definition of motivation declaring that "it is some kind
of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action" (p. 3). In
contrast, Ur (1996) inclines to the view that it is more effective to consider it in terms of
a motivated learner instead of the motivation as such. She describes the motivated
learner as a person "who is willing or even eager to invest effort in learning activities
and to progress" (274).
3.1.1 Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
In total, motivation can be divided into two further categories that appear to be
beneficial for the language teachers: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. They can exert
considerable effect on pupils' motivation in the classroom and they both fall under
teacher's influence (Ur, 1996, p. 276).
The extrinsic motivation is connected with the impact of what has been called
"external incentive" which usually involves factors outside the classroom (Harmer,
14
2007b, p. 3). They are related with parents' authority and pupil's wish to live up to their
expectations, peer-group power over the particular learner, desire to do well in exams,
etc. Common extrinsic motivation reached with the aid of the teacher in the classroom
consists, for example, of rewards for successful completion of tasks, penalties following
failures, authoritative demands, tests, or competition which extrinsically motivates the
pupil to beat his or her opponent (Ur, 1996, p. 276-279).
The intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, results from learners' genuine
interest and enthusiasm, and it occurs inside the classroom (Harmer, 2007b, p. 3). It is
closely linked to their own opinion about the language and whether they find it useful
and important enough for their future intellectual development. Engaging the intrinsic
motivation appertains to the teacher's competence. Ur (1996) attracts attention to the
importance of increasing intrinsic motivation every time the lesson starts and also
during the lesson without pupils becoming aware of it (p. 280). The factors which have
an impact on the intrinsic motivation include the physical conditions in which the
language learning takes place, the teaching methods employed in the lesson, the
teacher's personality and his or her approach to teaching but they also have an impact
on students' successful achievements (Harmer, 2007b, p. 4-7).
3.1.2 Motivating Teenage Learners
To acquire the technique of motivating teenagers can be regarded as a very
important part of the teaching process because motivation has a huge amount of
influence on their learning. Many contradictory conclusions have been drawn on the
subject of motivating teen learners so far. For instance, Puchta & Schratz (1993) hold
the opinion that the teenagers are frequently less motivated when it comes to the English
language learning (p. 1). On the contrary, Lewis (2007) offers the suggestion that he has
never encountered a teenage learner who would not be able to react on the issue related
to his or her interests (p. 6).
Harmer (2007b) gives an explanation that as far as the teenagers are concerned,
they have a stronger tendency to be motivated intrinsically "they can be highly
intelligent if stimulated and dedicated if involved" (p. 3). As a result, it is up to the
teacher to set the right conditions when working with teenage learners no matter how
sensitive this goal can seem. In other words, he or she needs to be aware of the fact that
for them, the challenge level represents the key factor of the successful language
15
learning. The challenge level cannot be exceeded so that the learners do not lose their
confidence and enthusiasm for the task fulfilment on one side and on the other, as soon
as the level remains depressed, the learners simply begin to flag their interest and they
are no longer willing to cooperate.
4 Stirring Activities
Teaching English as a second language can sometimes be boring and other times
monotonous. An efficient way to minimize these obstacles is to make profit from the socalled
stirring activities, as a way of lightening up the atmosphere in the classroom and
providing enough practice in exploring the English language. Stirring activities are
described as a teaching tool that helps learners to become more active and more
motivated. The teacher can integrate stirring activities at any time during the lesson
when the energy level is decreased. They also aim to overcome the poor motivation that
usually leads to the loss of learners' concentration (Clarke, 2010). According to
Hadfield & Maley (1993), this situation usually happens in the morning during the very
first lesson of the day. Learners come to the school in a sleepy mood, reflecting on the
things far from being related to the school lesson. In this case, it is advisable to present a
short activity stimulating their energy level (p. 20).
Following types of stirring activities have been based on the modified list
proposed by Clarke (2010):
Mingle activities
Music and songs
Drama activities
Technology-based activities
Movement Games
4.1 Mingle Activities
Mingle activities are regularly used in English language classes because of the
few minutes required to their successful completion. They also work as the effective
time-fillers in the case the teacher has to cover a short period of time when a lesson runs
faster than it was originally expected. The British Council - Teaching English website
(n.d.) provides a description of a mingle saying that it is an activity expecting learners to
16
walk around the class and communicate with the classmates. Commonly, the teacher
hands out questionnaires, matching worksheets or cards, and he or she allows pupils to
mingle and interact. In order to complete a mingle task they must talk to each other and
find out pieces of demanded information.
Evidently, in the real world situations, people do not mingle with worksheets in
their hands. Still, there is a convincing reason to introduce such a kind of stirring
activity to the English language learners as it is a good way to become skilled at
creating questions and to get rid of shyness while communicating with other people.
Additionally, not only does it help to build good relationships within the particular
class, but the learners are actively engaged all the time as well.
4.1.1 Practical Guidelines
In his article, Houston (2012) passes on some useful advice on conducting a
successful mingle. Before the activity starts, the teacher has to be assured that there is
enough space for everyone in the class. Also, the fundamental rules should be
formulated (only the English language can be used, nobody is allowed to sit down and
be passive; everyone mingles and interact with as many classmates as possible). The
teacher can actively participate but he or she needs to remain patient and attentive to
monitor the development in the classroom. Once the mingle activity is done, it is not
advisable to present another activity right away. Ideally, the report and feedback on how
the learners proceeded should be provided.
The following enumeration is a brief description of several mingle activities that
can be easily adapted to teaching foreign languages to teenage learners. The list of
individual activities is based on Houston's article and the web page Onestopenglish
which is a teachers' resource site published by Macmillan English Campus.
> Talk when the music stops
The whole class is divided into two groups that create two concentric circles.
The first outer circle moves in one direction and the second inner circle moves in the
opposite direction. The activity is accompanied by music and whenever the teacher
pauses the music, pupils stop to move. Then, as everyone faces a partner from the other
circle, the pairs are given a topic that is discussed. The whole procedure is repeated
several times.
17
> Snowball fight
Snowball fight can be put into practise for many purposes such as introductions,
revising learning from the previous lessons, test preparation and so on. When it is used
for the purpose of revising learning, pupils are invited to write a question centring on
the item that the teacher wants to review. They crumble the paper into the shape of a
snowball. The class is divided into two groups and the snowball fight can start. Once the
fight is over, each pupil one by one takes one snowball, reads the question out loud and
tries to think of the right answer.
> Fish and chips
This activity is based on well-known word pairs (film characters, well known
celebrity pairs or collocations such as fish and chips). These should be written on cards.
One card is given to each pupil in the class and it is stuck on his or her back without him
or her noticing what is written on it. Then, pupils begin to mingle and ask only yes or no
questions so that they could discover the word on their back. As soon as they find out
what is written on the card, they can start searching for the partners.
> Review
Pupils pick up an English word or phrase from their coursebook that they would
like to remember. Alternatively, they can choose a phrase from their favourite film or
TV series. They are asked to keep repeating it several times to themselves and as soon
as they finish, they walk around the class and share their words and phrases with the
classmates.
4.2 Music and Songs
Teenagers are keen listeners of music. Despite the general nature of this
statement, in closer examination, they are merely seen without the earphones in their
ears so that they can listen to recorded music privately. Owing to the fact that a great
majority of interprets sing their songs in the English language, the incorporation of
English songs into the lessons can have highly motivating effect on teenage learners.
Covering music in the English language classes offers the benefits of a wide
diversity. Firstly, it is the language as such, which is not difficult to understand, and
sentence structures are frequently repeated. Secondly, the learners are getting familiar
with spoken expressions. Thirdly, songs bring the fresh and encouraging air to the
lessons that have positive impact on learners' approach and lastly, songs are
18
distinguished by the so-called "the song stuck in my head" phenomenon enabling them
to improve the short-term and long-term memory (Murphey, 1992, p. 7).
4.2.1 Adolescent Motherese
Apart from all advantages stated above, Murphey (1992) points out that
whenever referring to the songs, he uses the expression "adolescent motherese", where
the "motherese" represents "the highly affective and musical language that adults use
with infants" (p. 7). During the period of becoming adult, teenagers are not exposed to
such amount of affective "motherese" any more. Consequently, due to the insufficient
number of this affective attention, it is their strong interest in popular music that
satisfies their need to get this kind of attention (ibid., p. 6-7).
4.2.2 How to Use Music in the Classroom
Songs serve as a source of authentic language and there are many possibilities
how to use them in the teaching process. Also, with the aid of the Internet, teachers can
get inspired by effective activities available for free. For illustration, here are several
activities frequently exploit in the teenage classroom: gap-filling exercises, translation
activities, spotting the mistakes, jumbled verses, matching pictures, listening
comprehension or picture dictation and others. Nonetheless, music in the English lesson
does not have to strictly cover listening to a song and working with the lyrics. Music
can be used in order to create relaxed atmosphere, to fill a break between exercises, to
set background music when pupils are supposed to complete "dull" exercises
(Scrivener, 2005, p. 339).
Even though the incorporation of music into the language lessons brings many
advantages, teachers need to be aware of its overuse since listening and singing songs
will not teach the learners to communicate in other language (Murphey, 1992, p. 6). In
addition, before presenting any song to the teenage learner, the teacher has to think
through the particular activity in great detail so that it remains useful and appealing at
the same time. For example, the song-based activities should not deviate from the
subject matter treated in the classroom, the teacher has to be sensitive to the choice of
the song, the aim of the activity has to be set in a clear manner and pupils should be
encouraged to accept them seriously without perceiving it as a "Friday afternoon" filler.
19
4.3 Drama-Based Activities
Exploiting drama stimulates learners to speak and it gives them opportunity to
communicate. Even the learners with limited language level can participate in the
drama-based activities for the reason that they allow to express thoughts through the
non-verbal elements comprising body language, facial expressions, gestures and others.
With reference to the teenage learners, G. Anderson (2008) puts forwards the
opinion that these learners begin to take interest in their own personalities and to
discover who they really are. Through drama they have a chance to freely venture their
opinions and inner feelings without being afraid of humiliation because their real
identity is actually hidden.
4.3.1 Drama and Motivation
Maley & Duff (1982) believe that in theory, the use of drama does not have to be
led by motivation. They explain that in this case, the feeling of delight in maintaining
the activity does not result from completing teacher's demand but from "the imaginative
personal involvement" (p. 13). On the other hand, an assumption could be made that the
drama-based teaching is used in order to increase learner's intrinsic motivation as pupils
usually participate without any apparent external rewards. In simpler terms, they are
willingly engaged to explore their language and expressional potential.
4.3.2 Types of Drama Activities
Activities involving drama features are defined as activities thanks to which the
speaking skill is developed. They are applied to make learners practise the language in a
realistic context. Maley & Duff (1982) give a detailed description of such a context that
embraces the setting, the role and status, the mood, the attitude and feeling and shared
knowledge (p. 9 -12).
All in all, the Scrivener's division to six different types of drama-based activities
(2005) appear to be the most appropriate for teenage learners (p. 362):
> Role-play is accomplished with the aid of role cards. Pupils are put in the shoes of
some other people and their task is to prepare short scenes.
20
> Simulation represents more complex type of role-playing. Learners work with the
guidance of the role cards as well.
> Drama games are small games where pupils' imagination and movement are
engaged.
> Guided improvisation is initiated by a teacher who invents a story. All pupils then
separately join the teacher so that the scene is successfully achieved.
> Acting play scripts stand for the short scenes that pupils act out while following
the orders and instructions given in advance.
> Prepared improvised drama is usually performed for the rest of class. Learners
think of a story that they consequently prepare in more detail.
4.4 Technology
Since we all live in times when the data transfer from one end of the world to
another has become a phenomenon number one, also the teacher has to be able to
respond to this tendency. Modern technologies in the teaching process, online teaching
materials, multimedia programs, interactive whiteboards, laptops, etc. begin to slowly
but certainly penetrate into the school environment. According to Dudeney & Hockly
(2007), these sorts of technology will become an inseparable component of English
language teaching practice in the upcoming years (p. 7). Having experienced the
teaching practice at different primary schools in the last three years, a conclusion can be
reached that the schools are equipped with more computers and interactive boards year
by year.
4.4.1 Computer and the Internet
Teenage learners are surrounded by the high-technical equipment and it plays an
important role in their lives. Since they are skilled users of computers, they welcome
any integration of technology into English language lessons with enthusiasm. Apart
from this, Lewis (2007) explains that the technology can contribute to the gaining
independence during learners' work which consequently has a positive impact on their
exploratory learning (p. 10).
Nowadays, rather than with a single computer in an ordinary classroom the
teacher can mostly profit from the computer laboratories where every learner has a
21
possibility to work with the machine individually. It provides a chance to succeed in the
objectives of experiencing different kinds of audio and visual computer programs,
creating small scenes, audio recording. As a result, "this ability to encourage multiple
senses through the computer medium can have a great effect on skills work making it
possible to do both specific and integrated skills work in authentic, motivating contexts"
(Lewis, 2007, p. 10-11).
Apart from positive features connected with the use of computers, several
negative ones should be pointed out as well. The technology sometimes does not work
as the user expects to and for this reason the teacher should prepare the lesson plan in a
great detail and check whether all equipment functions normally. Also teacher's or
pupils' lack of experience related with technology-based work can cause interrupted and
discontinuous flow of the lesson.
4.4.2 Interactive Whiteboard
The interactive whiteboards have noted a period of growth in the last decade and
even students at the faculties of education are trained to work with them in an efficient
manner. Yet, various reactions are recorded among the teachers. A great advantage of
this type of technology comes from a high level of motivation that is characteristic for
the learners when practising with the equipment.
However time-consuming the lesson planning with interactive whiteboard might
seem, the teacher can also take advantage of plenty of activities, games, and creative
exercises available on the Internet free of charge.
4.4.3 TV, DVD and Video
Even though it could be suggested that TV, DVD and video are outdated kinds
of technology equipment, they can still guarantee the diversification and enrichment of
the school environment since they can provide both visual and audio stimulations at the
same time. The bellow mentioned activities are inspired by the resource suggestions by
McKinnon (n.d.). Their procedure is related to the use of video sequences prepared by
the teacher in advance.
22
> Split viewing
Learners work in pairs. The first member of each pair represents an eyewitness
of a traumatic event and watches the video sequence with the sound on. The second
member is a radio reporter who only hears the sound. On the basis of the sequence, the
eyewitnesses are supposed to give a live interview from the scene of the crime and
convey their experience to the radio reporters. When they finish with the first interview,
the teacher prepares another sequence and pupils switch their roles.
> Vision on / Sound off
Before this activity starts, learners are divided into several groups. Then, they
watch a video scene with the sound off and their task is to guess the content of the scene
and perform their own adaptation. Once the performances are over, the teacher plays the
scene once again but this time with the sound on. Pupils consequently evaluate which
team has managed to perform the scene best.
4.5 Movement Games
Most learners associate playing games with entertainment, pleasure and fun.
Games represent a special teaching tool with energizing potential. Additionally, Clarke
(2010) points out the fact that any game increases the motivation because of the
"competitive element". This level is strengthened even more when the physical
movement is involved as well. Thanks to the research highlighted by Berman (2002), it
is proved that the attention begins to decrease when learners remain more than twenty
minutes stuck on their seats and do not move (p. 19).
When approaching the theme of teaching teenagers, G. Anderson (2008)
underlines that besides assuring competition, fun, and interaction, games can similarly
assure appropriate context in which the language is practised but the rules have to be
strictly obeyed by all the participants. Similarly, the teacher must consider teenagers'
"reticence" when he or she is planning to integrate games into the lesson. This is why
the games based on cooperation within the groups or pairs are recommended for this
target group (Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 1983, p. 2).
As with all the classroom activities, there is an uncertain aspect of introducing
movement games to the teenage learners, especially to the older upper-primary (the
eight- and ninth-graders) pupils who do not normally welcome any extra movement
23
during the classroom. Thus, before presenting any movement activity to a teenage class,
the teacher has to adapt the planning activity to fit their interests and liking.
5 Settling Activities
In comparison with stirring activities, settling activities have the precisely
opposite impact on the classroom dynamics. They are presented with the intention to
recreate the appropriate conditions for learning in the case that pupils' mood is far from
being concentrated. It is recommended to use settling activities whenever the energy
levels are generated by highly motivating exercises or by other unpredictable reasons
(Clarke, 2010).
Hadfield & Maley (1992) advance the argument that this calming pupils down is
also advisable so they have the opportunity to think about what they have learnt and
accomplished in the course of the lesson (p. 20).
On the grounds of Clarke's article (2010), four types of settling activities have
been adjusted to suit the needs of teen learners:
Projects
Wordplay activities
Activities based on listening
Activities based on reading
5.1 Projects
In relation with the English teaching, projects are described as "longer pieces of
work which involve investigation and reporting" where the emphasis is put on the "endproduct"
(Harmer, 2007a, p. 147). Although Harmer claims that projects are these
longer pieces of work, it has to be specified that in terms of settling activities the length
should be reduced so that they have the effect of calming pupils down.
5.1.1 Projects as Student-Centred Learning
Projects belong to the student-centred active learning (Fried-Booth, 1986, p. 5).
In order to extend this statement, Fried-Booth (1986) introduces two approaches of
language learning as follows:
24
1. Teacher defines language —> Students practise language task
This approach is more frequent in comparison with the following. A piece of
work is assigned by the teacher and pupils are supposed to perform it.
2. Students devise task —> Language needs evolve from task; students refer
to teacher when necessary. This time, the responsibility for learning is shifted from the
teachers to the learners. The learner becomes the one who is responsible for choosing
the particular work and the teacher occupies the role of an advisor (p. 8). Additionally,
pupils are responsible for collecting all the information on their own.
On the grounds of above mentioned explanation, it can be concluded that the
language output is received by the intention to communicate with the classmates who
want to achieve the same goal. Apart from this, the relationships among the pupils are
strengthened since they have to cooperate and reach the consensus in order to carry out
the results in a successful manner.
5.1.2 Practical Guidelines
If the teacher is unfamiliar with the exploitation of projects in English, it is wise
to investigate whether the project work and its completing will not disturb anyone,
either inside or outside the school. The teacher needs to be sure that pupils succeeded in
dividing their tasks within their teams and that they know what their responsibilities are
at each stage. It is also essential to allow sufficient amount of time and insist on the
simplicity of the projected outcomes (Edge, 1993, p. 96-97).
5.1.3 Projects in Practice
Scrivener (2005) suggests several ideas how to use projects in the English
language classes, the following enumeration introduces some of these ideas which could
be done with teenage learners (p. 365-366):
> Write a tourist guide for something in your local area. Use descriptions, photos,
diagrams, maps, etc.
> Invent a new country; draw the map; design the capital; write the basic laws.
Prepare a poster presentation introducing it to others.
> Keep a diary. Prepare a poster/booklet/presentation about "Your life", including
predictions for the future as well as details of your current life.
25
> Research and look for ideas to help solve specific real local problems, e.g. lack of
entertainment facilities, crime, environmental issues, shops, etc.
> Undertake some public research interviews to find and then analyse a range of
people's opinions on certain topics, e.g. attitudes to fashion, taste in music, wishes
for the locality, etc.
5.1.4 Possible Problems
Before the teacher introduces any project work to the pupils, he or she needs to
take into account the obstacles that might appear. Firstly, organization is more
demanding since the teacher has to dedicate more time to the preparation. Then, the
pupils' monitoring is sometimes impossible to accomplish because whenever the project
work is not completed within one lesson, pupils are asked to finish it outside the
classroom. Lastly, personal problems connected with the insufficient interest or
motivation might occur (Fried-Booth, 1986, p. 11-12).
5.2 Wordplay Activities
Learning vocabulary can be regarded to be a stepping stone for becoming a
competent speaker. Wordplay activities represent one of the effective means of
increasing the vocabulary knowledge. At the same time, they can have stirring effect on
the learners while establishing the prerequisite for learning.
5.2.1 Relationship with Words
Each pupil has different strategy how to learn new vocabulary, and each pupil
needs different amount of time to acquire the new words. It is a very sensitive process.
Morgan & Rinvolucri (2004) contribute the idea that as far as the perception of word is
concerned; it can by considerably influenced by (p. 5-6):
the sounds of the word
the kinetic sensation of lungs, throat, mouth, and nose
the shape on a page, on a poster, in the sky, on a TV screen or V D U 2
conventional associations:
2 Acronym V D U stands for Visual Display Unit
26
literary association
the associations the word has for you
the circumstances of meeting the word.
Taking into account these aspects, the teacher should explore diverse ways of
presenting the new words. Except for the common ways such as the translation, the
clear definition and providing examples, the teacher can take advantage of more
creative exercises such as wordplay activities including the crosswords, the word
searches, the jumbled sentences, the anagrams and others.
5.2.2 Ideas for Wordplay Activities
Knowing a word is not associated only with getting the right meaning. There is
also further information that the teacher should provide in the process of presenting a
new vocabulary item. Learners should be aware of the word form (pronunciation and
spelling), the grammar, the possible collocations, the aspects of meaning (connotation,
denotation, appropriateness and meaning relationships) and word formation. Becoming
familiar with such information, they will find the use of language in context less
demanding (Ur, 1996, p. 60-62).
> Brainstorming round an idea
The teacher presents a word and writes it on the board. Pupils are asked to think
of any related items that come to their mind when they hear that word. Every suitable
suggestion is written on the board with a line heading towards the very first words
suggested by the teacher so that the sun-ray shape is accomplished. The procedure of
the activity can be widened by inviting pupils to the create sentences comprising the
words suggested (Ur, 1996, p. 68-69).
> Down to one word
First of all, the teacher presents one or two long sentences on the board while
learners make pairs. The pupils' task is to reduce the whole sentence to one word. One
after another, pupils take out one to three words. Two or three words can be taken out
only under the condition that they are consecutive. Every time the reduction is made,
pupils have to read the sentence out loud so that they the reduced passage is checked.
The first person who manages to reduce the sentence to only one word is the winner
(Lindstromberg, 1995, p. 28-29).
27
> Alteration dictation
The procedure of the activity is built on the sentences prepared by the teacher.
He or she dictates the sentences one by one. Once a sentence is read out loud, pupils
have to rewrite it while altering the wording but at the same time, the meaning has to be
preserved. Before moving to the following sentence, the pupils' adaptations are
presented. Alteration dictation is successfully accomplished when the whole teacher's
text is changed (Lindstromberg, 1995, p. 33).
5.3 Activities Based on Listening
The effect of developing listening skills in the overall foreign language process
is largely acknowledged. Settling activities based on listening do not only contribute to
this phenomenon but they also affect the pace of the class as the full pupils' attention
plays a key factor whenever the listening activities take place.
5.3.1 Learning to Listen
Becoming an effective listener is closely linked with mastering a range of skills.
Apart from understanding the language structure, learners have to grasp the meaning
and also examine the relevant context (Underwood, 1989, p. 4). As soon as pupils learn
how to listen in an effective way, their communicative skills will be improved as well.
While providing the definition of the term "learning to listen", Underwood (1989)
stresses several abilities that should be developed: to attend to what they hear, to
process it, to understand it, to interpret it, to evaluate it, to respond to it" (p. 4).
5.3.2 Criteria for Selected Materials
When selecting the listening-based activities of a good quality, the teacher has to
take many factors into account. Firstly, the language has to be adequate to the pupilsH
language level and the comprehensible input should be present as well. On the other
hand, pupils are also opened to the challenges with listening tasks since they make
progress with the comprehension more quickly than with productive skills. Secondly,
the content should be thematically closed to the pupilsH interest. At the same time, they
should be exposed to a rich variety of languages. For instance, with the teen learners, it
28
is not sufficient to base the activity selection on pop-music related topics only; the
teacher has to be a good predictor and provides the teenagers with other enjoyable and
appealing challenges. Lastly, the care should be taken to the speed and style of the
delivery. The delivery should correspond to the ordinary speed with a fair amount of
spontaneity so that the listeners get practice with the rhythm and intonation of the
English native speakers (Underwood, 1989, p. 102-107).
5.3.3 Types of listening activities
> Listening to recorded materials:
News headlines
In order to integrate listening activities that provide the latest happenings, the
teacher can record the news headlines from the Internet or from the radio.
Consequently, the recording is played to the pupils and diverse tasks can be set:
defining the key word in the headlines, marking the stressed words, pointing out the
interesting headlines, guessing the full story that is hidden behind the headline, etc
(Scrivener, 2005, p. 181-182).
Jigsaw listening
During jigsaw listening pupils are grouped into three teams and in each team
they have a CD recorder at their disposal and listen to a different piece of a longer
recording. When the listening part is over, they work in threes or fours with classmates
from other teams. The task is to retell what they have just heard and put the pieces of
the story together so that the whole story makes sense (Scrivener, 2005, p. 182).
Jigsaw task ideas
The procedure of this activity consists in three or more similar recordings
depicting the same situation from different points of view. Once the recordings are
played, learners have to solve a puzzle and describe what happened. The events can
cover various themes: a detective story, reporting an accident, witnessing a mystery, a
birthday party, and others (Scrivener, 2005, p. 182).
> Listening to one another
Thanks to the survey conducted by Hadfield & Maley (1992), a conclusion was
made that pupils are not very good at listening to each other (p. 127). This is caused by
the fact that "students are viewing language learning as a narrowly individual affair"
(Hadfield & Maley, 1992, p. 127). Therefore, they provide a list of activities aiming to
29
help learners realize that communication relies on the reciprocity. A l l participants
involved should be attentive and listen to each other.
Body language and showing interest
The teacher asks pupils to work with a partner and distributes one set of role
cards to each pair. One member is given a role of a listener and the second member
becomes a storyteller. Storytellers' task is to tell the partner about his or her family, to
describe a story from his or her childhood, etc. On the other side, listeners are not
expected to talk at all. They listen to the storytellers and use body language as a sign
that they are attentive to their speech. When the task is complete, pupils switch the roles
and at the very end a feedback from pupils' side should be provided. They should
consider whether or not they managed to catch listeners' attention, whether or not they
felt encouraged to continue in storytelling, etc. (Hadfield & Maley, 1992, p. 131-133).
Bamboo telegraph
Bamboo telegraph should be put into practice at the end of a pair work
discussion. When the discussion is finished, pupils change their partners and they report
to the new one what the original partner said. At the end, the teacher asks the new
partner to sum up what he or she just heard to the whole class. The pupils whose
opinions are being described can make a correction in the case some discrepancies
occur (Hadfield & Maley, 1992, p. 130-131).
5.4 Activities Based on Reading
The reasons for using reading in the English language classes are numerous.
Firstly, reading is one of the most important sources of expanding and practising the
language as such. The enhancement of the reading skills helps the learners to extend
their vocabulary, practise grammar and understand how to use the punctuation correctly.
Moreover, they can acquire the way the sentences and paragraphs are constructed
without even noticing it. Secondly, reading books has also a beneficial effect on
expanding pupils' knowledge which can encourage their confidence to discuss
thematically diverse topics. The last but not least reason to include reading based
exercises in the lesson is their attribute to cool pupils down.
30
5.4.1 Considerations for Text Evaluation
When dealing with reading development, Nuttall highlights three criteria of the
text assessment that need to be satisfied. First criterion to reconsider is the suitability of
context. Pupils should be given texts which are appealing for them and which should be
linked to the English language curriculum. The second thing to assess is the
exploitability of the text involving the facilitation of acquiring the reading skills so that
all pupils become competent and independent readers. The readability represents the last
criterion. This is connected with the appropriate level of the text that should be neither
too demanding nor excessively simple (as cited in N. J. Anderson, 1999, p. 116-117).
5.4.2 Reading Suggestions for Different Text Genres
Pupils are exposed to the prose in the forms of the newspaper articles, book
extracts, short stories, etc. In order to help them to build up a relationship towards other
literary genres, it is recommended to provide them with the activities profiting from the
poetry and drama extracts. Harmer (2007a) expresses a number of propositions
concerning more reading ideas related to drama and poetry (p. 107-109):
> Poetry
A short exercise that apart from others meets requirements of a settling activity,
invites the learners to reassemble the poem by lining up the verses in correct order.
Pupils are grouped and every one of them gets a verse from a poem. Pupils cooperate in
their groups on the understanding that they are not allowed to show their lines to
anybody. The only way how to acquaint the classmates with their lines is to read them
aloud. The first group to reassemble the poem wins.
> Play extracts
This time, pupils are more concentrated on the phonetic features such as stress,
intonation, pauses, speed, and so on. In essence, students thoroughly read several
extracts from their favourite plays. They are obliged to study the language, its
construction and when they feel ready to perform what they have learnt, they can do so.
Both aforementioned types of settling activities (activities based on listening and
reading) belong to the group of receptive skills. The characteristic features of receptive
skills reside in receiving the language and consequently understanding it. In other
words, learners are not expected to produce the language at all and they absorb it. For
31
this reason, they are sometimes referred to as the passive skills. In the process of
learning a foreign language, learners start with developing receptive skills which are
followed by applying productive skills - speaking and writing (Edge, 1993, p. 104-105).
It is believed that making progress in listening and reading goes hand in hand
with processing larger quantity of the language input. The learners simply start to grasp
the meaning of the messages more easily and the language learning is thus more varied
on one side and more complex on the other (Edge, 1993, p. 105).
32
Empirical part
The empirical part is divided into two parts. The first part concentrates on how
stirring and settling activities work with teenage learners in practice and to what extent
they can influence the smooth flow of English classes.
The second part deals with the question whether the upper-primary English
teachers use stirring and settling activities in their English classes. To this end, ten
upper-primary English teachers are given a list of open-ended questions so that all
relevant information is collected and so that the analysis can proceed.
6 Practical Experience with Stirring and Settling Activities
In order to examine personally how stirring and settling activities work with
teenagers in practice, a decision has been made to apply several of these activities
during my teaching practice. For this purpose, five stirring activities and five settling
activities were picked up and consequently tested with the seventh and the ninth-grade
pupils.
6.1 Methodology
The effectiveness of stirring and settling activities was investigated during my
teaching practice in September 2013. Since the application of these activities depended,
in large part, on the current mood and energy level, the timing could not have been
planned precisely. As a consequence, every time a particular activity was used, I
carefully recorded pupils' reactions and the impact of above mentioned activities on the
flow of the lesson.
When focusing on learners' reactions I directed my full attention to how their
motivation developed, whether they succeeded in channelling their energy and if the
activity caught their interest. To describe the impact of the activities on the lesson
development, I concentrated on whether they contributed to the balanced lesson without
pupils becoming excessively energetic or passive and whether they set the right
prerequisite for learning.
The activities used with the upper-primary learners were selected from diverse
resources. Some of them were taken from Seth Lindstombergs' Language Activities for
33
Teenagers, Puchta & Schratz's Teaching Teenagers and Macmillan's resource web
page Onestopenglish. Then, they were adapted to the purpose needed and finally
integrated into the lessons.
6.2 Description of the School
The primary school where the observation took place was situated in the town
called Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The English language is taught there from the third
grade and the second foreign language is offered in the eighth grade when pupils have a
choice between the German and Russian language. For those who are interested to work
on their English language fluency there is a possibility to attend the English
conversation lessons. As for the other optional subjects, the primary school supports a
great number of pupils' activities such as sport games, media education, arts, etc.
6.3 Target Group
The efficiency of stirring and settling activities was studied in two ordinary
classes. The seventh-grade class consisted of 10 boys and 9 girls and the total number of
the ninth-grade pupils included 14 boys and 8 girls. The younger (the seventh grade)
and older (the ninth grade) upper-primary learners were chosen with the intention to
manifest possible differences in their approaches to the activities examined. In order to
get well prepared for the teaching, I asked my mentor teacher for further information on
the pupils. I was especially interested in problems related to the pupils' behaviour and
leaning difficulties. I was informed that two seventh grade pupils were hyperactive with
tendencies to get excited easily and not to stay still during the lessons. Additionally, my
mentor teacher gave me a warning that the ninth-grade pupils were demanding to get
motivated and that their approach to learning was frequently passive. As for the learning
difficulties, I had to take into account one boy who was diagnosed with having dyslexia
and one girl in the ninth grade who had problems with following the speed of the lesson
and needed more time to retain new pieces of information.
Since both of the classes were not divided during the English language lessons,
the average number of pupils in the class was high. At the beginning, it was quite
demanding to get used to monitor such a big group of pupils but fortunately, they
cooperated with no considerable difficulties.
34
The seventh graders worked with coursebook Project 2 which is targeted at the
learners with the beginner/elementary English level and the ninth graders used Project 3
corresponding to the elementary English level, both written by Tom Hutchinson.
6.4 Stirring Activities
Who is it? (technology-based activity)
Duration: 15minutes
Material: computer, short film excerpt, class set of handouts with the film script
excerpt
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
One of my personal goals when having investigated the impact of stirring
activities on the teenage learners was to examine how much the incorporation of
technology into the English language classes since it is claimed that the technology of
any kind brings diversification and enrichment of the school environment.
Unfortunately, I did not have a computer at my disposal in the classroom but I decided
to bring my own computer and take advantage from it nevertheless. To achieve this aim,
I picked up a stirring activity called Who can it bel
Preparation:
As for the preparation, it is important to explain that it was more demanding and
time-consuming than in most of the cases because I had to find a part of a film that
would be suitable and comprehensible for the seventh grade learners on one side but
still attracting and preserving their interest on the other. To meet all these requirements,
I chose a 2-minute-long sequence of the animation adventure comedy called
Madagascar and transcribed the lines the main characters were saying. Thanks to the
transcription, I could create a list of 15 sentences in the same order they were uttered.
Procedure:
Before I introduced the activity to the learners, they were acquainted with the
main characters with the aid of the excerpt which eventually caught their interest even
more because most of them had already known the comedy very well. Some pupils were
able to supply the pupils who had not seen the film yet with the information concerning
the place setting, characteristics of the main characters and so on. When I passed out the
copies of the list of lines, the pupils were given several minutes to go through the list
35
and to search for unknown vocabulary. Shortly afterwards, the excerpt was played three
times and the pupils were asked who was the author of the cited lines.
Reflection:
All in all, I found the activity appealing for the teenage English learners because
they seemed enthusiastic about completing the task. As for the motivation, Who is it?
helped the pupils to overcome the fatigue because although the activity was introduced
at the beginning of the first lesson of the day, the pupils looked tired and absent-minded.
Apart from a problem with the installation of the computer at the beginning of the
activity and a bit longer preparation before the lesson, it could be concluded that the
activity successfully promoted learners' motivation level.
Up and Down (music and songs)
Duration: 10 minutes
Material: song, CD player, class set of handouts
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
The occasion of putting into practise another stirring activity arose on a Friday
morning. Even though the pupils did not convey the impression of being uninterested in
the content of the lesson, the lack of energy and initiation was simply evident. This
specific mood in the class was probably caused by the fact that the end of the week was
approaching and the learners needed to be cheered up. With the intention to introduce a
totally different activity from those being practised in the class so far, I arrived at
conclusion to try a song-based exercise. Having taking into account the importance of
choosing the suitable song I decided to select one related to wishes of the pupils. I
founded vital not to prepare a gap-filling exercise because the learners already had a lot
of gap-filling in their course books and they seemed to be overwhelmed with the similar
exercises. Therefore, my plan was to choose a song-based activity involving pupils'
movement as well.
Preparation
For this purpose, I created a list comprising 20 words, out of which 10 could be
heard in the song.
Procedure:
At first, the learners were asked to listen to the song without the list and with
several clues proposed they recognised the group singing. Then, they were given the
36
handouts including the list of words. The recording was played once again and they
were supposed to put into a circle all words they could hear. During the third recording,
the cooperation in pairs was asked and when the pairs succeeded to discuss their
suggestions, the correct answers were identified while the recording was playing. For
the rest of the procedure, the pupils were divided into three groups and every group was
given one word from the list which frequently appeared in the refrain and each time
they could hear the particular word during the recording, they were obliged to quickly
stand up and sit down.
Reflection:
It is true that nowadays, the song-based exercises constitute an inseparable part
the English language course books however; the majority of them shift the focus mainly
on the grammar practising. To let the learners experience a song presentation in a
different way, engaging movement was proposed which consequently resulted in
creating pleasant and motivating atmosphere in the class.
Relay Race (movement activity)
Duration: 12 minutes
Material: two colourful pencils
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
Sometimes the introduction of stirring activities based on the movement occurs
as a highly risky idea because the situation in the class can be easily got out of teacher's
hand and he or she can lose the control over the learners. Yet, I took a decision to try
one movement game with the name Relay Race. At first, I was concerned whether the
activity can work with 19 pupils in the classroom since it demanded that the pupils were
divided into two teams standing in circles but then it did not appear to be the most
serious problem. I make the use of Relay Race when the mood in the class was clearly
influenced by some circumstance that remained undefined to me. It was evident that
their energy level was decreased.
Procedure:
At the very beginning, I had to offer a definition of the word relay race and
asked the learners what they knew about the rules of relays in athletics. Additionally, to
introduce the activity in an attractive manner, I pointed out that they had to try hard like
real athletes so that they could win a potential world championship. As it was already
37
mentioned above, the learners were standing in a circle and two of them (one pupil on
my right side and the other on my left side) were given a colourful pencil representing
the race baton. Consequently, an explanation was provided that the task consisted in
passing on the commands that the rest was obliged to do so. For illustration, I started
with an easy one (Clap your hands!) which the pupils in turns first did and then repeated
to the next person in the circle, furthermore another command was sent to the right. As
soon as a command returned back to me, I ended it and sent a new one. Shortly
afterwards, the pupils understood the procedure and the responsibility to start a
command was shifted to them.
Reflection:
Considering the activity's impact on the learners' mood, it should be emphasised
that after everyone took a turn, passed out, and carried out a command, the pupils
looked as if they put aside their distractions and tiredness. In other words, it helped the
learners to warm up and focus more quickly on a new topic. Except for some of them
who had difficulties with thinking of a command in such a short time and needed advice
from the classmates, the lesson remained fluent with no distinctive obstacle. Honestly
said, I succeeded in dealing with my concerns about presenting the movement games
with numerous pupils in the classroom. In this case, it also taught me a lesson that when
the rules of the movement activities are strictly established on the condition that any
violation of game rules would be penalised, the learners do not have tendency to disturb
or otherwise throw the flow of the game into disarray.
Find Someone Who (mingle activity)
Duration: 10 minutes
Material: class set of handouts
Learners investigated: ninth graders
Introduction:
The activity called Find Someone Who offers a great opportunity to stir pupils'
energy. The advantage of using this particular stirring activity is that the teacher can
learn more information about his or her learners. Furthermore, they are given valuable
practice of forming questions.
After observing the ninth-grade learners through two English classes, it was
quite obvious that their energy needed to be channelled in order not to lose their focus.
Find Someone Who was presented at the beginning of the English class since the pupils
38
seemed tired and their minds were not concentrated. Moreover, they gave impression of
having no interest in being actively involved in the lesson.
Procedure:
Each pupil was given a handout. The main aim of the activity consisted in
meeting and talking to as many classmates as possible within the time limit in order to
find a person by each of the characteristics; all pupils were expected to move around the
class.
Reflection:
Unfortunately, at the very beginning, the reaction from pupils' side was a little
bit contradictory due to the fact that they were not used to participate in these kinds of
activities. At first, they showed no willingness to cooperate but as the time went on,
they grew more and more enthusiastic about the activity. When analysing pupils'
approach, it could be claimed that the girls were shyer, kept asking questions among
girls only and they did not want to mingle a lot. On the other hand, the boys were more
talkative and they appreciated moving around the class.
To sum up, it could be stated that the majority of learners succeeded in
overcoming initial shyness and they completed the task with no difficulties. Although
the classroom noise level was much higher than usually, it was still worth it because for
the rest of the lesson, they were exerting energy while completing other tasks and
exercises.
Question-Question Improvisation (drama activity)
Duration: 8 minutes
Learners investigated: ninth graders
Introduction:
The second stirring activity named Question-Question Improvisation was
introduced in the middle of another English lesson as pupils' energy level dropped
because of the clarification and explanation of a new grammar item. The learners were
supposed to pay their full attention for about 15 minutes and it became obvious that
their motivation was gradually dissipated by this focused work.
Procedure:
The procedure of the activity was based on acting out small scenes in pairs. The
scenes were however different from the ordinary ones because the pupils were supposed
to carry on a conversation completely composed of questions. To make this activity less
39
difficult I offered several universal and useful questions that pupils could profit from
during the conversation (What did you say? Can you repeat it? Why do you ask?). The
learners were also encouraged to use body language as well in order to encourage the
authenticity of the scenes. As a result, they were able to hold the conversation as long as
needed.
By means of Question-Question Improvisation dialogues, a mastery of basic
language skills such as speaking and listening was practised which could be
acknowledged later in the real life situations. More importantly, the activity stimulated
their concentration so that they remain motivated.
Reflection:
The observation showed that both girls and boys were enthusiastic about asking
range of questions. However, it has to be specified that when the conversation begun,
the learners were struggling with answering in the form of question but after a few
moments, they got used to it and they were able to come up with questions more easily.
Even though several questions were spontaneous and sometimes contained some
grammatical mistakes, they managed to make a progress in the informal interaction that
can be seen as a part of ongoing training process.
To reach a conclusion, it should be pointed out that Question-Question
Improvisation had a positive effect on subsequent development of the class. Although
the beginning of the class was influenced by a lack of motivation, the activity
contributed to make pupils ready for the second half of the lesson.
6.5 Settling Activities
Picture Dictation (listening-based activity)
Duration: 10 minutes
Material: class set of blank papers
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
The seventh-grade pupils were much more energetic during the English language
classes. Getting them focused and concentrated became gradually more difficult task,
especially in one particular lesson. Probably, this fact was caused by the class of
physical education that preceded the English one. In order to establish the necessary
pre-requisite for learning, it was essential to calm the pupils down. As a reaction on the
40
situation in the class, I introduced the activity Picture dictation based on a receptive skill
- listening.
Procedure:
Before I start with the depiction of the activity procedure, it should be specified
that I profited from the theme that was treated the last lesson - Holiday. Since the theme
was already taught in more detail and the pupils were familiar with vocabulary dealing
with Holiday, I built the activity on a related issue. At first, I drew a simple scene of a
beach which was divided horizontally and vertically into squares on the blackboard. The
squares were added to make pupils' orientation in the scene easier. Next, I had to point
out and pre-teach several key sentences, mainly those of them centred on the spatial
prepositions and location (in the centre, on the left/right, in the sky, on the island, in the
sea, in the distance). Last, each pupil was given a piece of paper and supposed to listen
to the scene description. Following along the description, the pupils were allowed to
have a look on the black board in the case they were not one hundred percent sure.
Certainly, I had to monitor how the pupils were progressing with the activity and repeat
some of the instructions to the pupils who did not understand properly every description
they were provided but after all, they succeeded in creating pictures corresponding to
the instructions. As soon as they completed the task, they compared their drawing in
pairs.
Reflection:
In conclusion, it could be suggested that this activity is well-known and that it
cannot bring any "fresh air" into the English language lessons but surprisingly, the
result was more than satisfying. Even though, the energy level rose a little at the end of
the activity when the pupils were discussing and considering similarities and differences
in their pictures, the adequate conditions for learning were set out and the pupils seemed
well prepared for the rest of the class.
Alphabet Snake (wordplay activity)
Duration: 10 minutes
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
The activity called Alphabet Snake that belongs to the group of wordplay settlers
was presented before the test since the learners appeared to be enormously nervous and
41
worried about the test construction and the difficulty level. To dispel their fears, I
decided to use such a type of activity that was not originally embodied in the lesson
plan. However, this time I was allowed to dedicate only 10 minutes of the English
lesson to complete it because my mentor teacher asked me to finish all exercises in the
course book that were covered in the first lesson plan prepared before the lesson.
Procedure:
The procedure was based on the alphabet in a shape of a snake copied on the
black board. From the alphabet I took the letters J, K, Q, X, Y, Z and crossed them out.
Next, I pointed to the letter A and invited the pupils to come up with a word beginning
with the same letter that they remembered from the previous lesson. When they
managed to say a suitable word out loud, I circled the letter A and pointed to the letter
B. With the exception that allowed only 10-second time limit for every letter, we
continued through the whole alphabet on the same principle. If nobody came up with
any appropriate word within the time limit, we simply skipped the particular letter and
returned back to it at the end. As far as the letters crossed out at the beginning are
concerned, they were too difficult for the learners as the initial ones so when I pointed
to some of them, the pupils were supposed to suggest a word containing the letter
somewhere in the middle.
Reflection:
Without any intention, the activity helped the learners to revise almost all
vocabulary covered in the test. Moreover, as their mind was all of the sudden occupied
with searching for vocabulary items, they got over the nervousness and at the same time
they got ready to sit for the test. In deeper analysis, the settling activity Alphabet Snake
had a positive effect on channelling learners' energy. Nevertheless, it should be noted
that the time limit for each letter was raised as the pupils needed more time to come up
with the right word.
Tourist Guide (mini-project)
Duration: 20 minutes
Material: set of blank papers, small maps of the city, pictures and photos of interesting
places, scissors, glue
Learners investigated: seventh graders
Introduction:
42
The third opportunity to examine to which extent can settling activities
contribute to encourage the seventh-grade pupils in their learning occurred in the
moment when the pupils were given back the tests they wrote the last lesson. Not
unexpectedly, they began to exchange their comments and impressions and the
atmosphere in the class resembled to "a street market". To put it differently, they had
tendency to speak louder than wanted and they were slowly but surely losing their
focus. Apart from the primary intention to calm pupils down and make them focused,
the mini-projects were integrated into the lesson with the aim to engage their creative
thinking.
Procedure:
A settler based on a mini-project activity was tested during the last lesson of my
teaching practice. For the mini-project Tourist guide I reserved 15 minutes to be sure
that the pupils would be given a sufficient amount of time to successfully finished the
task.
Before the activity was presented to the learners, I took advantage of the town
tourist centre for gathering supporting materials, more specifically pictures, photos,
maps and so on. Since the current topic of the lesson was still focused on Holiday issue,
I started by eliciting information from anyone who was familiar with interesting places
or historical sights in the town that could be attractive for foreign tourists. Afterwards, it
was important to preteach the unknown vocabulary (view tower, open-air museum,
castle ruins) and I also added some complementary comments from which the pupils
profit a little bit latter. In order to support the cooperation among the learners, they
were divided in groups of three and asked to design a mini-project that would persuade
the foreign tourists from English speaking countries to visit the town. Of course, they
were provided with the materials I brought to the lesson. In total, three conditions were
imposed when completing the task: only the English language could be used, all
members in the groups were supposed to cooperate and participate equally and they
were obliged to put forward at least three interesting places with general
characterisation. For this purpose, one pupil was named a language person, the second
was named a design person and the third one was a consultant person.
Reflection:
An objection could be raised that the project activities are not suitable for a 45minute-long
lesson considering the fact that teachers are obliged to cover other
objectives stated in the curriculum during the lesson. It is true that the original plan was
43
to finish the activity earlier but since the learners seemed concentrated and respected all
three conditions, there was no reason why not to extend the duration. As a consequence,
they achieved great results and got prepared for the rest of the lesson.
Mind-Map the Text (reading-based activity)
Duration: 12 minutes
Material: set of blank papers
Learners investigated: ninth graders
Introduction:
Having taken into consideration the English level of a ninth grade pupil, a
settling activity based on reading called Mind-Map the Text was included in the English
lesson. As this settler required wider vocabulary, the older learners occurred to be a
suitable target group in order to test the potential effect on recovering pupils'
composure. All in all, only one settling activity was examined with the ninth graders
since their excitement level needed to be encouraged more frequently. The opportunity
to introduce it occurred after a physical education lesson that preceded the English
language lesson.
Procedure:
At first, it was essential to acquaint the pupils with the topic of the key text
which was that day centred on Great Britain. Fortunately, the theme was partly covered
in the preceding lesson so that they could acquire the basic information in advance.
Nevertheless, it is important to mention that the course of the activity was largely
influenced by reintroducing the method of mind-mapping by collecting information
related to the topic. For better illustration, the pupils could profit from a mind-map that
was pictured on the board. Once they understood the principle of mind-mapping, each
pair was asked to extend their mind-maps while reading the article about Great Britain
in the course book. They proceeded quietly and they cooperated within the pairs.
Reflection:
Mind-Map the Text made a positive impact not only on settling the learners
down but also on teaching them how to work with the mind-maps. As they never used
similar activity before, they found this learning strategy beneficial and useful. What is
more interesting, the pupils were engaged to such a degree that they came up with extra
words that were not mentioned in the article. On the other hand, it should be mentioned
44
that on the grounds of devoting more time to the mind-mapping phenomenon than
expected, the activity took about fifteen minutes.
Alphabet Improvisation (wordplay activity)
Duration: 15 minutes
Learners investigated: ninth graders
Introduction:
To gather valuable information concerning the use of settling activities with the
teenage English language learners, the activity called Alphabet Improvisation was put
into practice. Obviously, this activity belongs to the group of wordplay activities as it
involved pupils' creative thinking and the word consciousness. The activity was
presented to the learners at the moment when their attention was taken away and they
seemed distracted. It was the very last lesson of the day, their ability to concentrate was
already depleted and their focus of interest disappeared somewhere else.
Procedure:
The success of Alphabet improvisation relied on creating of the so-called
"alphabet" dialogues. The pupils worked in pairs and their task was to go through the
alphabet and for each letter as they follow suggest a phrase. In other words, when
Speaker 1 said something starting with the letter a, Speaker 2 was obliged to think of an
answer starting with the next letter in the alphabet that is b, and so forth. The activity
was accomplished as soon as a few pairs achieved the goal of going through the whole
alphabet.
Reflection:
Alphabet improvisation helped me to calm the pupils down and it prompted a
focused and systematic cooperation among them as the activity required more advanced
level of the English language knowledge. Moreover, a favourable environment for
learning was promoted.
6.6 Overall Feedback
On the foundation of the practical experience investigating the impact of stirring
and settling activities on the teenage English language learners I have reached to the
conclusion that in terms of channelling their energy and motivation, these activities did
45
stimulated the concentration span. For the reason that the stirrers and settlers supported
the pre-requisites for learning on one side and teaching on the other, it can be stated that
both learners and myself in the role of a training teacher derived benefit from their
integrating into the English lessons.
Comparing the approach of the seventh grade and the ninth grade learners to the
stirring and settling activities, it can be stated that the younger learners were more
opened to the introduction of above mentioned activities and they accepted them with
greater enthusiasm. To put it another way, they set about the activities with vigour and
they welcomed mainly the stirring activities involving the movement or competitiveness
and under those circumstances, the activity Relay Race shoved satisfactory results.
Identically, the song activity - Up and Down helped to liven an ordinary lesson up and it
took effect of engaging pupils' interest in the subsequent development of the lesson. As
for the settling activities which were, in this case, more needed because of the
constantly significant activity level, the seventh grade pupils appreciated the settlers
expecting the creative thinking. For illustration, Tourist Guide held their attention, and
the calm realisation of the project gave rise to adequate pre-requisite for learning. They
also enjoyed the activity based on listening called Picture Dictation.
When summarizing the effectiveness of stirring and settling activities used with
the ninth grade pupils, it should be pointed out that both types of activities helped me to
keep the lessons balanced. But in comparison with the seventh graders, I needed to
expend a constant effort to keep these older pupils motivated and to achieve positive
results. Still, one finding needs to be emphasised because as soon as the stirring or
settling activities thematically touched to pupils' interest, the success was achieved. As
far as the stirrers are concerned, the noise should not be taken negatively. On the
contrary, it could be claimed that rather a high noise level was a clear sign that the
pupils got actively involved in the activity. If we were to compare which one of the
above mentioned stirring activities was more efficient with the older learners, then Find
Someone Who would get better assessment because thanks to this activity, the pupils
were mingling and moving around the class which at the end resulted in raising their
excitement level. Considering settling activities, Mind-Map the Text based on the
reading skill could be evaluated more positively as creating of mind-maps contributed to
calm pupils down and made them stay focused.
46
7 Survey results
7.1 Methodology
The survey focused on the usage of stirring and settling activities was carried out
in winter 2014. In total, ten English language teachers at upper-primary schools filled in
the questionnaires. The aim of the research is to find out whether the teachers profit
from stirring and settling activities during their lessons, which particular activities they
use, to what extent they influence the flow of the lesson and what is their impact on the
teenage learners in terms of their motivation and energy level. On the basis of the aim,
the following research questions for the teachers were phrased:
The First Part: Stirring Activities
1. Do you use stirring activities in your English classes?
If not, could you please specify why (lack of time in the class, unmotivated and
misbehaving pupils, more demanding preparation ...)?
2. What are your expectations when you use them?
3. Which particular stirring activities listed above do you use?
4. How do the pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or are they different?
5. Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their reactions?
6. If you were to compare the approach of the younger (the sixth and seventh grade)
and older (the eighth and ninth grade) upper-primary learners, in what aspects do
they differ?
The Second Part: Settling Activities
1. Do you use settling activities in your English classes?
If not, could you please specify why (lack of time in the class, unmotivated and
misbehaving pupils, more demanding preparation ...)?
2. What are your expectations when you use them?
3. Which particular settling activities listed above do you use?
4. How do the pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or are they different?
5. Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their reactions?
47
6. If you were to compare the approach of the younger (the sixth and seventh grade)
and older (the eighth and ninth grade) upper-primary learners, in what aspects do
they differ?
In order to analyse the data gained from the questionnaires, both qualitative and
quantitative research approaches are used for the reason that "quantitative data can
throw light on qualitative insights and vice versa" (Wallace, 1998, p. 38).
7.2 Questionnaire Preparation and Design
The questionnaire is created in the manner to achieve the primary purpose of
gathering information dealing with the usage of stirring and settling activities in the
upper-primary classes. The focus is particularly increased on the formulation of the
questions so that they remain explicit and readily understandable. This was reached in
cooperation with the supervisor of the thesis who helped me to minimize certain
misleading question structures. Also, the text layout is designed in a straightforward
way to enable an easy orientation in the text. As far as the question type is concerned,
the majority is open since the respondents were expected to express their own thoughts
and suggestions.
7.3 Respondents
The number of the teachers who were willing to complete the questionnaire is
10. To be more precise, the upper-primary teachers from Brno, Praha and Rožnov pod
Radhoštěm agreed to participate in this study. Two criteria were established for the
closer characteristics covering their age and gender. Nevertheless, the final number of
participants contains only female teachers. 6 female teachers were under 35 years old
and 4 female teachers were 35 years old or older.
7.4 Data Handling
The questionnaires were distributed in January and February 2014. Five of the
teachers were chosen on the grounds of my experience from the teaching practice. The
rest of the teachers were firstly addressed via email and after their approval, I brought
48
them the questionnaires in person. Most of the meetings were carried out personally so
that all instructions were provided and teachers' additional questions could have been
answered. Each teacher was given enough time to think the questions through and write
down the answers but no more than 10-15 minutes were needed. The questionnaires
were also supplemented with a clear description of stirring and settling activities in the
case, the teachers were not familiar with these terms. It should be specified that 25
teachers were addressed but only one fifth of them responded in a positive way.
7.5 Research Findings and Their Interpretation
The data derived from the questionnaires are examined with the aid of
qualitative and quantitative methods in order to investigate teachers' exploitation of
stirring and settling activities with teenage learners. First of all, all the questions of both
parts are interpreted separately and then a complex analysis follows.
Apart from verbal interpretation, almost every question is supplemented with a
graph for better illustration of findings. The bar graphs are used with the questions by
means of which the respondents could choose from more than three possibilities. The
pie graphs are used with the questions, where the total number of possible responses
decreases to one and where the final of all responses is 100%.
The next chapter shows the results acquired from the questionnaires. It presents
teachers' answers and their comparison and it closely examines the findings of the
research. Moreover, their significance and effect on the process of language learning
are interpreted. Due to the fact that the questionnaires are designed in the form of open
questions, it was necessary to unify some of the answers and match them with the
categories that correspond to those stated in the theoretical part.
49
7.6 Stirring Activities
7.6.1 Do you use stirring activities in your English classes?
All respondents reach agreement on the use of stirring activities in their English
classes. 100% of teachers profit from these activities in their lessons.
7.6.2 What are your expectations when you use them?
Graph 1: Teachers' expectations when using stirring
activities
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to revise to relax to motivate to catch to make the to create
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attention interesting relation with
English
The teachers addressed use stirring activities because of the several reasons but
in consideration of their age, their reasons are always the same. The answers reveal that
their major expectations include motivating their pupils, making the lesson more
interesting and appealing for the target group and attracting pupils' attention. Only 20%
of respondents profit from stirring activities for the purpose of fostering learners'
relationships with the English language. However, it is interesting that 30% of teachers
put these activities into practice in order to let learners relax which is quite inconsistent
with the generally recognised principal of stirring activities to energize pupils when
their energy level decreases. Stirring activities can be used with intention to help the
learners to be less stiff but they should not cause anyone to become less active and more
calmed down. It can be assumed that no matter how widely they are used, this type of
activities is not fully utilized in the right way and at the right time, which may result in
the disruption of the flow of the lesson.
50
7.6.3 Which particular stirring activities listed do you use?
Graph 2: Stiring activities used
Mingle Song-based Drama Technology- Movement
activities activities activities based activities activities
When answering the second question, the respondents were asked to identify the
types of their preferred stirring activities used during the English language lessons. With
the aid of the graph, it is obvious that the most commonly used activities represent the
song-based activities (100%). This fact may be caused by several factors. First, the
pupils are more easily coordinated in comparison with the mingle activities or dramabased
activities which usually expect the pupils to be in contact with each other.
Second, this tendency may be caused by easy accessibility of song-based activities
because the teachers can get inspired by many Internet resources. The last factor may be
connected with the high popularity of music as such among the teenage learners.
On the other hand, despite the high learning potential, only 40% of teachers use
the drama-based activities. The low preference for the drama activities can be connected
with more time-consuming preparation before the lesson. Moreover, the teachers must
focus their efforts to make everyone involve in the activity equally. The reason can be
also assign to the potential unpopularity among the pupils and their unwillingness to
express themselves in front of the whole class. Although they can be hidden behind
someone else's identity, they still must manifest themselves as individuals and for some
of them this can lead to the unpleasant feelings. The learners can even afraid of being
humiliated and they can fear that their social status in the classroom will lower.
The mingle activities, the technology-based activities and the movement
activities are relatively popular. 60% of teachers integrate them into their lessons.
51
7.6.4 How do pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or different?
According to the findings, pupils' reactions on stirring activities are influenced
by various factors. Furthermore, the teachers explain that their reactions are dependent
on the attractiveness of the activities, the age, the language level, their current mood, the
topic, the time, but also the weather. However, despite these factors, the majority of the
teachers agree that the reactions are in most of the cases similar and that positive ones
predominate. This fact is commented by learners' willingness to be exposed to the
activities that are different from those usually covered in the English classes.
7.6.5 Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their
reactions?
Graph 3: Reactions on stirring activities dependent on
pupils' gender
• Similar reactions
• Different reactions
Different target group
described
When analysing their responses, the teachers can be divided into three groups.
The first group representing 20% holds the opinion that pupils' reactions are similar
regardless the gender. They think that the probable difference in their reactions is
caused by other factors, for example by the level of knowledge but also by the pupils'
personalities. The second group is the biggest one. It comprises 70% of teachers who
claim that the difference in learners' reactions is more or less visible. The main
difference resides in the types of stirring activities. The boys have tendencies to prefer
the activities accompanied by the technology and also the movement activities. On the
contrary, the girls have preferences for the song-based activities. The last group is
52
formed by a respondent whose answer does not correspond to the teenage target group
and it cannot be integrated to neither of the above mentioned groups.
7.6.6 If you were to compare the approach of the younger and older upperprimary
learners, in what aspects do they differ?
Graph 4: Reactions on stirring activities dependent on
pupils'age
• Similar reactions
• Different reactions
When interpreting the last question concerning the approach of the younger and
older upper-primary learners to stirring activities, it can be clearly deduced that their
approaches are dissimilar. 80% of respondents agree that the younger teenagers
participate with enthusiasm. The teachers make clear that the younger ones are more
playful, more joyful, less shy and do not afraid to be laughed at. The second group of
respondents do not attribute the origin of the different reactions to the age. They believe
that dissimilar approaches are dependent on the unsuitability of picking the right stirring
activity. Also, they suggest that if the learners are not used be involved in these types of
activities from the begging of their studies, they will feel more uncomfortable when
completing them. Pupils' shyness and fear of being embarrassed in front of the
classmates can result from the climate of the class as well.
53
7.7 Settling Activities
7.7.1 Do you use settling activities?
100% of teachers addressed use settling activities. However, three of them
emphasize that they do not use them so often in comparison with stirring activities.
7.7.2 What are your expectations when you use them?
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5: Teachers' expectations when using settling
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calm down to encourage to make the lesson to create a
individual work interesting prerequisite for
learning
The majority of respondents use settling activities with the expectation to calm
the pupils down. This group is formed by 60% of teachers. 50% of respondents use
these activities to prepare their learners for the upcoming learning process. These
finding are slightly below the expectations in comparison with the theoretical part where
an assumption is made that the use of settling activities should lead primarily to calm
the pupils down and to create the right pre-requisite for the learning. Thus, if we
consider that settling activities are largely used to encourage the individual work (40%)
or to make the lessons more interesting (20%), a conclusion can be reached that settling
activities are either not fully understood or not properly used in the lessons.
54
7.7.3 Which particular stirring activities listed do you use?
10 Graph
6: Settling activities used
10 -
ThenumberofrespondenThenumberofrespondenThenumberofrespondenThenumberofresponden
n
Mini-projects Wordplay
activities
Listening Reading
On the basis of the findings received, it can be pointed out that both wordplay
activities and listening-based activities represent the most frequently used settling
activities which is acknowledged by 90% of respondents. Right behind, the miniprojects
can be found with 70% of teachers. The reading-based activities are not used so
often because only 40% of respondents present them to their learners. This can be
caused by a large number of articles embodied in the learners' coursebooks. On the
other hand, it could be suggested that if the teachers use the reading-based activities less
frequently, the learners can be deprived of valuable practice centred on the work with
different texts than those treated in their coursebooks. This can have a negative impact
on some learners in the future because in order to pass the entrance exams to the
secondary schools, they are very often expected to demonstrate their skills connected
with reading comprehension and others.
Thanks to the comparison of the graphs number 2 and 6, it is evident that the
listening-based activities are the most frequently used settling activities and the songbased
activities are the most frequently used stirring activities. The tendency is
corresponding to the overall popularity of listening to music or to other recordings in the
teenage population as the headphones are becoming indispensable fashion accessories
and an essential part of teenagers' life.
55
7.7.4 How do pupils react? Are their reactions always the same or different?
When responding to the question dealing with whether pupils react on settling
activities consistently, 50% of respondents reach agreement that their reactions do not
differ and 50% of teachers do not give any opinion on this matter.
Thanks to the findings, it can be assumed that the teachers do not take profit
from all types of settling activities because 30% of teachers specifically states what
types of activities are omitted during their lessons. They do not use certain types since
they make the learners less attentive on one side and more tired and bored on the other.
With connection to this reality, the teachers list activities based on working with longer
written texts and listening to long audio-recordings. 50% of teachers respond that
settling activities are popular among the learners because they can assure the
diversification of the lessons.
7.7.5 Do the girls and boys react in a same way? Is there any difference in their
reactions?
Graph 7: Reactions on settling activities dependent on
pupils' gender
• Similar reactions
• More active girls
More active boys
When analyzing the answers to the question whether the girls and boys react to
settling activities in a same way, 60% of respondents claim that the reactions do not
depend on the gender but rather on the personality. 30% of teachers assess the girls to
56
be more active and better in cooperating. There are also some opinions suggesting that
the boys are difficult to motivate and more efforts need to be made to get them involved
in the lessons. The findings show that the boys have more problems with attention and
they are lazier. Only 10% of respondents believe that boys are more active in
comparison with the girls.
7.7.6 If you were to compare the approach of the younger and older upperprimary
learners, in what aspects do they differ?
Graph 8: Reactions on settling activities dependent on
pupils'age
• Similar reactions
• Different reactions
On the grounds of the answers received, a conclusion can be drawn that pupils'
reactions depend on the age. This is proved by 90% of respondents. The teachers think
that the younger pupils are joyful, easily motivated and more obedient and that they
prefer mini-projects and wordplay activities. According to the findings, with the older
ones the teacher has to be more cautious when choosing the right settling activity. It is
also more demanding to increase their motivation. 10% of respondents argue that the
reactions do not differ according to the age but rather according to the climate in the
class.
57
7.8 Complex Analysis of the Questionnaires
When analysing the findings in more complex manner, several contradictory
statements with connection to the theoretical part can be defined.
In the theoretical part, the drama-based activities are presented as stirring
activities which are suitable for the pupils of any English language level. Thanks to the
variability non-verbal elements, any learner can participate because his or her thoughts
can be communicated through the body language, facial expressions, gestures and
others. Nevertheless, in contradiction to this statement, for 10% of respondents those
activities appear to be inappropriate for the pupils with the lower level of English.
Furthermore, the findings in the questionnaires discover that even though stirring
activities should not be focused only on one certain group of pupils in the class, the
teachers have a tendency to work only with the learners who are more responsive. These
are the pupils with better language skills. In contrast, the learners lacking these skills
remain unnoticed in the background. Therefore, a hypothesis can be proposed. Although
all respondents incorporate stirring activities into their lesson, it is possible that the
potential of this teaching tool is not fully realized.
The third case indicating disagreement with the theoretical part resides in the
answer stating the preference to the introduction of stirring activities at the beginning of
the lesson because as the lesson gradually comes to the end, the pupils feel more tired
and they are less willing to cooperate with the teacher. This fact contradicts the basic
principles and purposes of integrating stirring activities into the lessons because they
aim to keep students active and focused throughout the whole lesson and as soon as the
pupils become apathetic and sleepy the teacher should react to this situation and
introduce a suitable stirring activity. It is evident that some teachers strictly follow the
plan of the lesson and that they are not flexible enough to react appropriately to the
stimuli that they are receiving from the learners.
58
Conclusion of the Empirical Part
In order to carry out the analysis in a complex way, it is important to compare
both practical experience with stirring and settling activities and the survey results. Due
to the practical experience, a simple but decisive conclusion can be drawn that the
applied activities meet with positive reactions from the teenage learners. This fact is
also acknowledged by the teachers involved in the survey who are of the opinion that
the stirring and settling activities are accepted with enthusiasm because in addition to
the primary purpose of getting the pupils motivated or calming them down, these
activities also help to enhance the stereotypical flow of the lesson. On the foundation of
the practical experience and the teachers' answers, the investigated activities are
integrated into the lessons frequently. However, it should be mentioned that according
to the personal experience, the variety is not so rich. The teenage learners react
favourably to the song-based stirring activities but also to the settling activities based on
listening which is also supported by the teachers' answers in the questionnaires (graphs
with numbers 2 and 6). Nevertheless, several differences between the practical
experience and the survey results can be found in the fact that during the teaching
practice the pupils had difficulties with the completion of the wordplay activities which
were slightly different from those ones covered in their coursebooks. This experience is
quite different from the data collected by means of questionnaires in which 90 % of the
respondents describe the wordplay activities as being the most frequently used type of
the stirring activities. Other dissimilarity can be identified with the reactions on the
stirring activities which according to some respondents are dependent on the pupils'
gender. On the grounds of the practical experience, it was proved that the boys were
more active and that they got easily involved in the activities whereas the girls'
behaviour appeared to be influenced by shyness. On the other hand, the survey results
classify the girls to be more willing to cooperate. Owing to the comparison of the
approach of the younger and older upper-primary learners, it has been revealed that the
younger ones were more cheerful, active and easily motivated in comparison with the
older ones. Nonetheless, it needs to be pointed out that the practical experience with the
stirring and settling activities should not set the precedent due to the fact that the
teenage learners were not accustomed to the mentor teacher for a very long period of
time which could have been reflected in their reactions.
59
Conclusion
Learning a foreign language represents a forceful experience including a large
amount of motivation as well as concentration. It is a process involving the times when
learners do not have enough energy, feel overwhelmed by new information, or they
reach the stage where no more learning can be gained; when they need stirring up or
settling down. To put it in a different way, the energy needs to be channelled so that the
learners do not become either too excited or passive and the learning process remains as
effective as possible. This falls within the teacher's area of competence. It is the teacher
who should possess the flexibility and who should be able to react to the learners'
current state of mind and their energy and motivation level.
Thus the problematic issue of teachers' responding to such a tendency became
the main reason to complete this diploma thesis with the aim to introduce stirring and
settling activities and their principle so that their full potential could be exploited during
the English language lessons. The work has proved that the integration of stirring and
settling activities may represent a powerful tool for improving the effectiveness of
teaching in teenage classrooms.
As it was mentioned in the theoretical part, teaching teenage learners can
become complicated because of all the cognitive, social and physical changes the
teenagers undergo. However, the findings presented in the empirical part have proved
the opposite. It has been examined that teaching English to teen learners is very
sensitive to the right timing of introducing the appropriate stirring and settling activities
which should be applied with regard to their interests so that they are willingly engaged.
The diploma thesis has revealed that if the teacher succeeds in selecting a suitable
activity (either settling or stirring one), the work with the teenagers is very effective and
intensive. As a consequence, this has disproved the myth characterising the teenage
learners as being undisciplined and difficult to work with when it comes to their
motivation and concentration span.
Evidently, it would be excessively demanding and in some way unwise to centre
all the teaching process on activities such as those described above. It would be equally
unwise to base all language work on the coursebook. Therefore, the teachers should be
more closely acquainted with the effects of the stirring and settling activities so that a
reasonable compromise can be reached.
60
Resume
The thesis showed the positive effect of stirring and settling activities in teenage classes.
The findings gathered with the aid of the survey as well as with practical experience
revealed that these activities had a positive influence on the pupils' motivation and
concentration span. Furthermore, the diploma thesis disproved the myth about teenage
learners describing them as being difficult to work with. It was revealed that due to the
activities that managed to address their interests, they cooperated with no difficulties
and they were willing to participate in the lessons.
Resumé
Diplomová práce pojednává o aktivitách, které podněcují dospívající žáky ke zvýšení
jejich motivace během hodiny a o aktivitách, které naopak dokážou žáky zklidnit a
přimět je k soustředěné činnosti. Vliv a používání aplikovaných aktivit byl podroben jak
kvalitativní, tak kvantitativní analýze formou vlastní praxe i dotazníků předložených
učitelům anglického jazyka na 2. stupni základních škol. Získané údaje zcela jasně
vyvracejí tvrzení o dospívajících žácích, jakožto o problematické skupině studentů.
Analyzované informace naopak dokazují, že správnou volbou a zařazením výše
zmíněných aktivit do vyučovací hodiny je možné tyto žáky přimět k dobré spolupráci
s učitelem a docílit tak vysoké efektivnosti výuky.
61
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Appendix
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