TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………… 2
CONTENT
Part 1: Theoretical and practical background
I.Theoretical background:
1: The definition of short story:………………………………3
2: The importance of short story to young learners

3. Students’ characteristics……………………………………………………..6
II. The practical background
1 Advantages………………………………………………………………….7
2. Disadvantages……………………………………………………………….8
Part II : The solution
1. Stages of a listening lesson…………………………………………………9
a. Pre- storytelling activities……………………………………………………………9
b. While – storytelling activities…………………………………………………………..12
c. Post- storytelling activties……………………………………………………………..13
2.Demonstration ……………………………………………14
3. Recommendations to teachers ……………………………18
a. Preparation……………………………………………………………………..18
b. Suggested techniques ……………………………………………………………………20
Part III: Finding and evaluation ……………………………………………23
CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………..25
1. Experienced lessons ……………………………………………………….25
2.Proposals…………………………………………………………………..25
APPENDIX 1 __ For teachers

APPENDIX 2__ For students

APPENDIX 3 __ The mid –second term test
 INTRODUCTION
English nowadays is used in a lot of fields in our life and it is considered as
the number one international language in the world. It is not only a means of
communication but also a "useful tool" and a "master- key" to discover the world
of science, technology, education, culture, business and diplomacy. With the
trend of strong global integration, teaching and learning English, therefore, is
achieving an important position and now it is a major subject in educational
systems in Viet Nam. Especially, it is taken to primary schools in most towns and
cities throughout the country.
As a teacher of English for primary students, I always try my best to find and
select interesting activities and suitable teaching methods with a view to taking
inspiration and enhancing the students' activeness and creativeness.
Through my practical teaching, I see that children enjoy listening stories very
much and ‘short stories’ in Tieng Anh 4 is very useful for our students. It not
only enhances listening skills, helping children develop an ear for the sounds of
the English language and it also helps students develop speaking skills and
increase vocabulary and understanding of language structure .
However, teaching short stories for young learners effectively is not easy. I
encountered many difficulties during short story lessons. Many of my students
were interested in short stories. They are always eager to listen to stories .But
most of other students felt bored and paid no attention to my lessons .Some
students seem not to understand sentences and words in the short story , they
easily get bored and make noise in the class. As a result, they do not demonstrate
well in the following exercises and they are not confident enough to perform in
front of the class . This has inspired me to conduct a study to explore some
techniques and activities to arouse students’ motivation and interest in short
stories, thus, help them to study short story lessons more efficiently .
Basing on my real teaching process , the research on students in grade 4 at
my school and the consult on my colleagues' experiences, I would like to
suggest " Some ways to motivate students’learning through short story lessons
in Tieng Anh 4
Be hopeful that I will contribute my small part to help teachers overcome
difficulties to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning short story
lessons at primary schools .
 CONTENT
PART 1. Theoretical and practical background
I.Theoretical background:
1: The definition of Short story :
Short story is a short work of fiction with narrative format, in which the theme,
plot, setting and characterization are unity at the aim of creating the most
communicative effect, as well as make its own difference from the other genres.
Story that always has introduction of setting, conflict and then solution.
However they are more simple than long story or novel.
Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses
on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a small number of
characters, and covers a short period of time.
- Form: Stories tend to contain certain core elements of dramatic structure:
exposition( the introduction of setting, situation and main characters);
complication( the event that introduces the conflict); rising action, crisis the
decisive moment for the protagonist and his commitment to a course of action);
climax( the point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point with the
most action); resolution( the point when the conflict is resolved); and moral.
- Length: Determining what exactly separates a short story from longer fictional
formats is problematic. In contemporary usage, the term short story most
refers to a work of fiction no longer than 20,000 words and no shorter than
1,000.
- Genres: Short stories are most often a form of fiction writing, with the most
widely published form of short stories being genre fiction such as science
fiction, horror fiction, detective fiction, and so on. The short story has also
come to embrace forms of non-fiction such as travel writing, prose poetry
and postmodern variants of fiction and non-fiction such as ficto-criticism or new
journalism
 ( From “ The short Oxford history of English literature, 2003, p.112
by Andrew Sanders)
Short stories seem to be the most suitable choice for this due to its potential to
help students enhance the four skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing—
more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories.
Short stories also are the most suitable literary genre to use in English teaching
due to its shortness, is supported by Collie and Slater (1991: 196) when they list
four advantages of using short stories for language teachers. First, short stories
are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in one or two class
sessions. Second, short stories are not complicated for students to work with on
their own. Third,   short stories have a variety of choice for different interests and
tastes. Finally, short stories can be used with all levels (beginner to advance), all
ages (young learners to adults) and all classes. Pardede’s (2011) study at Christian
University of Indonesia revealed that the majority of English teachers training
students basically found short stories interesting to use both as materials for self-
enjoyment and of as components language skill classes. The findings denoted that
only 0.37% of the responses went into “Disagree” criterion; and 18.4%,
“Neutral”. The other 81.5% went into the criteria of “Agree” and “Strongly
Agree”.
The use of short-story in English teaching should be aimed to encourage the
students to use what they have previously learnt. By doing this, the learning
process will be student-centered. However, the teacher plays a great role. She/he
must choose suitable techniques to use in class, and should help her/his students
understand the story with various activities.
2. The importance of short story to young learners

According to Mimi Rothschild in “ Short story in education”, in

English teaching, short stories play as an important role. Stories can
provide rich materials of language teaching, and stimulate children’s
study motives. They also help children to understand their world and share
attainments with others. Children always look forward to hear more
marvelous plots from the teachers and are always curious with stories.
When children concentrate their attention to listening to stories, it will be
the best encouragement and feedback for story teachers.
“…. Listening to stories build vocabulary, enhance memory, imagination,
and listening skill; help children think more complex, abstract and
creative ways; broaden children’s range of experience; and help children
develop phonemic awareness through rhythm and rhyme…” ( from
Thirteen core understandings about learning to read, Northwest Regional
Education Laboratory-1995).
Or “ Listening to stories is the easiest, most natural way for young
children to learn language, and it is language that follows us to organize,
structure, manipulate, think about and make sense of our world.” ( from “
The story of my life”, p.23 by Helen Keller
“…. Storytelling is an essential, perhaps an essential activity of human
being. It serves a myriad functions for the young child. Story allow
children to learn about their culture, but also serves as a kind of passport
into the culture” ( from The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Language and Literacy Team)
Followings are the benefits of short story to young learners :
- Establish good listening and speaking ability. For getting good listening
ability, children need to practice constantly. We should encourage children to
understand by themselves when they listen to stories. It is helpful if they have
active attitude.
- Be familiar with English when listening to stories, children would
be familiar with pronunciation, intonation and usage of English. They would
contact with vocabulary, phrase and grammar structure then could speak English
better. “….Children who listen to stories are exposed to many new words. They
may not know all the words mean, but hearing or reading stories helps them
to understand the meaning through the context. The teacher take advantage of
children’s curiosity to understand the story, and children are more motivated to
consult a dictionary or use the new words in the story of their own creation” ( by
Linda Fredericks – North Central Educational Regional Laboratory)
 - Arouse speaking and writing output. After finishing the story, teacher
may bring up some related questions, ask children to write down their
feelings, and encourage children to express their opinions. Teacher could
also stimulate higher- degree children to say the story, even arrange the
story. In the study process, the class could be divided into groups and they
would learn how to cooperate and communicate with others. It would be
meaningful on language learning.
3. Students ' characteristics :
Primary students in general and grade 4 students in particular are active
learners and thinkers .They are fun ,social, curious , energetic but easily
frustrated .They are eager to learn and eager to please but they have short
attention spans . They have great imaginations and a lot of questions , so
students need attention , repetition, routines , praise, movement and patience.
Children love stories. They are always eager to listen to stories, want to
understand what is happening and enjoy looking at storybooks by themselves.
In order to have successful and effective lessons, teachers must base on
these students’ characteristics while choosing and designing activities and
give students opportunities to be exposed the language as many as possible.

II, The practical background:

1. Advantages:
Firstly, Nghe An Service of Education and Training, as well as Vinh
Department of Education has had right policies in teaching English for primary
level. The vanguard application ‘English primary innovation project’ of the
Ministry of Education and Training has proved this. The new English textbook
that covers a systematic, helical and topic- based development of the basic
English language skills with emphasis on listening and speaking has oriented
concretely for teachers. This is one of advantage that help teachers to have better
teaching plans. Furthermore, the Education Department has held many teaching
method conferences, which helps teachers to improve their professional skill.
The Education Department has also equipped some modern facilities: such as
robot teacher, touch software board, computer. They are very useful in teaching
short stories .
Secondly, Teaching and learning English in Nghi Lien primary school
nowadays are prosper .The material facility and teaching aids are equipped
quite sufficiently .Especially , teaching and learning innovation movement has
been strengthened highly and school leaders are always willing to provide
teachers and students with good equipments such as radios, pictures, posters…
Thirdly, teaching staff are standardized. Most of them graduated from
Universities, two teachers of English had B1 and B2 degree .Especially, they have
had experienced in teaching English for primary students. Besides, they have ever
attended some English conferences in methodology. During this period of time
teaching, they are all active and creative teachers to find out more and more new
methods, techniques in order to get better result.
Finally, many students are very studious and obedient, they are very eager to
take part in learning English . They always show their interest in the lessons
during the learning process. They pay much attention to the teacher's lessons and
are enthusiastic to contribute their ideas to the lessons. They also tend to work in
pairs or small groups and really want to interact with other students. .Some
parents care about students' study. They provide their students with enough
school things.
Above are motivations that arouse our creativeness in improving teaching
method in order to have better lessons.

2. Disadvantages:
For teaching facilities: There is still a lack of teaching aids such as
reference books, pictures, puppets, posters and cards, which makes it difficult for
teachers to plan and design teaching activities.
For teachers: We have not invested satisfactorily in to short story lessons .
Many of us underestimate the importance of short story lessons to learning
process.
For students: Although they have learnt English for three years, . They find it
difficult to understand the content. It is not easy for me to elicit the answers and
check the information in short story. Some students do not have enough
knowledge of English to engage in learning activities actively, these students
often show their unwillingness and shyness when being asked to do the tasks or
answers because they have limited vocabularies, knowledge and experience. This
affected the teaching and learning quality.
I took a simple survey for students to know how interested they were in short
stories what their main difficulties were. And here is the result:
 Difficulty in Factors that cause problems in short story lessons
No Difficulty Too many Boring
CLASS short story
motivation to new content
lessons
understand words
4A 20/36 10/36 15/36 15/32 12/36
36
4B 19/38 11/38 16/38 17/38 10/38
38
4C 22/25 12/25 18/25 19/25 7/25
25

The result from the survey indicates that the problems come from both teachers
and students. Teachers seem not to provide students with sufficient activities and
encouragements , so students lack motivation and interest to short story lessons.
For students, the difficulty arises from limited vocabulary, background
knowledge, poor pronunciation, shyness and nervousness…
From this reality, I have noticed that my students have had lots of difficulties
in short story and students wish to get a great deal of support from their teachers
to overcome difficulties . I see that teachers should find out more and more
effective techniques and activities in short story lessons. This became a strong
inspiration for me to have a study on how to interest students to short story
lessons in Tieng Anh 4 through which I could help them to overcome their
difficulties , arouse students’ interest , activeness and creativeness in learning to
grasp knowledge .
I hope that it would help the teachers of English to work out possible
solutions to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning short story in
primary schools.

Part 2: The solution

Basing on the factors mentioned above, I would like to suggest some

activities and techniques that I have been applying to successfully and
effectively I short story lessons for students in grade 4 in my school and
 some recommendations for teachers with a view to increase students’
interest to short story lessons.

1. Stages of story telling

a. Pre-storytelling activities
This is the first and important step to begin telling story, just like many
other activities. Pre story-telling means before telling story, it is somehow
teachers’ preparation for what they are going to do with their students.
Before starting telling a story, I often do some of the following
activities and techniques to prepare my students:
- Capture their attention. Introduce the story in a fun and interesting way.
I often choose games, songs and chants to lead my students the story .
- Connect to prior knowledge and experiences. Brainstorm or web ideas
and concepts related to the story or the characters of the story in order
to connect students lives to the story.
- Review language students have learned. If the story contains vocabulary
and structures that students have learned, it can help to review this
language. This is especially important when the story is a part of a larger
thematic unit and recycles language previously learned.
- Pre-teach new vocabulary or expressions. If there are some key words or
structures that are necessary to comprehend the story and cannot be
inferred from the context, it is better to teach them before the
storytelling. Try to do this in the context of connecting to prior
knowledge.
- Predict what will happen in the story. Give students a chance to
think about what might happen in the story. It is a good critical
thinking skill to encourage. We can let them give answers in L1 if
necessary
- Give students a purpose for listening. Before you begin, try to give
students a purpose for listening in addition to pure enjoyment.
In short, by giving out some information beforehand, the students can
have a good back ground in both vocabulary and grammar. So that they
can keep track of the story better, as well as keep them in memory
longer.
bWhile - storytelling activities
Telling or reading stories to students is quite unlike the all other kinds
of reading. The difference is decided by the way or the action of
story-teller to attract or get attention from the students. There
are many ways or methods in telling stories, but whatever way, the
same rule is the story- teller must change his pitch of voice, emotion,
all the time and movement or body language are always effective.
The teachers can choose or consult one of these following activities
 and techniques to check comprehension of the story and encourage
students to practice new language:
-Tell the story using pictures, prompts, real objects….
-Use different voices for different characters.
- Q & A( questions and answer ). Prepare comprehension questions for
students to answer orally.
- TPR (Total Physical Response). If the story has movements, I often do a
TPR with the students.
-Elicit children’s reactions and opinions about the story.
-Get children to join in the repeated phrases in the story .
c Post –story telling activities
Apart from entertainment purpose, the teachers hope that their student can
learn something after listening to the stories. Many post_ story-telling
activities are being in used and they seem to be very effective. However in
order to help students get the most from story-telling time, it should be
practice times to times. Basing on the following Evidence of story-
listening skills, the teacher can step by step choose an appropriate activity
for students.
- Creative story-telling:
Joining to the story-telling time means the students can let their
imagination fly, they live with the stories-world in which their favorite
characters express their hope and dream. And we all know that almost the
folktale and fables have a moral lesson, the students can learn a lot from
them. So after telling the stories, why don’t the teachers let their students’
imagination continuing fly? _ By asking them to build up a new story in
their own word, mind, and expectation basing on the moral lesson of the
stories.
- Drama. Do a retelling by having students act out the plot of the story.
- Projects. Have students work together in small groups to create a wall
display for a story or put on a performance of a story. You could invite
students’ families or other classes to see the students’ work..
 2. Demonstrations:
Short story 3- Tieng Anh 4
Pre – story telling activities:

Activity 1: Game ‘ Slap the board ’

Aim: Revise vocabulary about jobs and places of work and create interest .

Time: 2 minutes.

Preparation: 6 cards of jobs

Procedure:

Step 1: Teacher sticks 6 cards on the board .

+ Explain how the game is played

+ Call on two teams of four students to the board
+ Call out a sentence ‘she ’s a nurse ’. The two representatives of the team
must slap the appropriate picture as quickly as possible
+ The representative who slap the right picture first score a point. The team
that scores more points will win.
Step 2 Teacher points to a card asks students : ‘ What does your mother do ?’
and ‘ Where does she work ?’
Students answer: ‘ She is a farmer .She works in a field .’
- Do the same with other students
Activity 2 : Setting the scene
Aim: Help students understand the context of the short story
Time: 1 minutes
Preparation: Three pictures of Mimi,Chit and Mary
Procedure:
Step 1 : Teacher shows of three pictures of Mimi,Chit and Mary and ask ‘ Who
are they?’
Students look and answer: Mimi,Chit and Mary
Step 2:
Teacher asks students to work in pairs,look at each pictures and ask ‘ What are
they doing? ‘ What are they talking about ?'
Activity 3: Prediction
Aim: Help students be familiar with the language used in the short
Time: 2 minutes
Procedure:
Step 1: Point to Mary and ask students to guess what her job is by asking
‘What does she do ?’
Students in turn answer: students, teacher, farmer,doctor,nurse, worker……
Teacher writes all their prediction on the board and ask different students to
mime the words and actions
Activity 4: Pre-teach new words
Aim : help students be familiar with the new words
Time : 2 minutes
Procedure:
Step 1:
Teacher shows a picture of a cook and says ‘ She is a cook’
‘ a cook’ and ask students to repeat for a few times
-Do the same step with ‘ a musician’
Step 2
-Ask students to make sentences with ‘ a cook and a musician’
-Students answer: ‘ My mother is a cook’
‘ My father is a musician’
Activity 5 Guessing the content and giving tasks
Aim: Give students a chance to think about what might happen in the story and
give the purpose .
Time : 2 minutes
Procedure:
Step 1:
- Ask students to work in groups of four to guess what will happen in the story
Students answer ‘ Mimi,Chit and Mary are talking about jobs

Step 2 : Teacher give tasks ‘ Now ,you read the story and guess the words to fill
the gaps’

Students answer : 1 works/teaches

2.works/plays

3taller/shorter

4.do/go/work

5.beach/seaside

Step 3 :Teacher says ‘ Listen and fill in the gaps to check your guess’

While – Storytelling activities

Activity 1: Telling the story

Aim : Help students to know the whole content of the story to fill the gaps

Preparations: pictures of the story ( page38/Tieng Anh 4)

Time: 6 minutes

Procedure:

Step 1:
Teacher show eachs pictures and retell the story (using different voice for
different characters

Step 2 :

-Teacher mimes jobs and ask students to do the same when saying the jobs

Step 3: Teacher asks students to give the answer to check their guess

Students answer: 1. works ,2 plays, 3 taller 4 do 5 beach

Activity 2:

Aim : help students to read some difficult phrases in the story

Time : 4 minutes

Procedure:

Teacher read some sentences and ask students to repeat

Some students read aloud before the class and students correct pronunciation

Activity 3 : Comprehension check

Aim: check students’ understanding

Time: 3 minutes

Procedure :

Teacher asks some questions and students answer

What does Mary’s mother do?

Where does she work?

What is her father’s job?

Where does he work ?

What does her mother look like?

Students answer:

She’s a cook
She works in a school

He’s a musician

He plays in a band

She’s tall

Post- storytelling

Activity 1: Retelling the story

Aim: Help students to retell the story

Time : 5 minutes

Preparaion : Pictures of the story without words

Procedure:

Step 1: Teacher shows the pictures and ask three good students to retell the story
in front of the class

Three students retell the story in front of the class

Step 2 : Ask students to works in groups of three to retell the story

Call some groups to retell in front of the class

Activity 2 : Drama

Aim: Help students act out the content of the story

Time : 6 minutes

Preparation : Nine hats of Mimi, Chit and Mary

Procedure:

Ask students to work in three groups of ten and role play the story

Students work in groups and do the task

Have each group to perform in front of the class

Teacher and students comments

Audio script

Chit : What do you do, Mary?

Mary : I’m a student in New York

Mimi : What do your parents do ?

Mary : My mother is a cook .She works in a school.

Mimi : And what about your dad?

Mary : He’s a musician.He plays in a band

Mimi: What are they like?

Mary : My mum is very tall

Mimi: Really? A tall mouse?

Mary : Well, she’s taller than me and my dad

Mary : Today is Labor Day in America

Mimi: Really? What do people do on Labor Day

Mary : They go to the beach

 3. Recommendations to teachers in order to have effective short story
lessons .
The teacher’s method of teaching is one of the important factors affecting
student performance. Thus, teachers must always effort to improve teaching
techniques to help pupils to overcome their problems in learning . I would like to
suggest some recommendations for teachers to have effective storytelling
techniques . They will be presented as follows.
a. Preparations :

Teacher should well prepare before presenting short story

- Careful preparation is needed to create a vivid experience for children. Allow

adequate time to learn the story thoroughly.

- Outline in your mind the story events in their sequence. Recall the characters,
the names and where they fit into the sequence of the events.

- Practice telling the story, but do not try to memorize the author's exact words.

- If visual aids will accompany the story telling, practice using them.

- Practice the appropriate gesture, perhaps in front of a mirror.

- Make a note of words or references the children might not understand, so that
you can make explanations before the story telling begins, so the story can
progress without interruptions.

b. Suggesting techniques:

- Use clear voice and delivery

- Vary the pace
- Use pauses to create tension and time for understanding
- Make eye contact
- Support understanding and create interest with action and gestures.
- Use facial expressions
- Use different voices
-Combine English with L1 until you and your students gain more confidents with
the process . Gradually build up your use of English.
-Use clear ,simple language
 PART III: Findings and evaluation
Applying this teaching experience in to teaching short story lesson for
students in grade four in my school has given satisfactory results. First, this
study is suitable for new English textbook curriculum and the dominant
view of language teaching and learning that favors a great amount of
student-centered learning with the purpose of enhancing students'
activeness, creativity and self- study in English language learning. Students
have more positive attitude towards English learning .They are more
interested in short story , active and creative to widen and grasp knowledge
, the learning atmosphere is ebullient and gentle. Learners have chances to
express themselves and feel more confident in communication. Now they
are more interested in short story lessons. The teachers are always
encouraged to find out more effective technique to enhance quality of
education. Students are motivated to get better result in studying and
practicing.
These are the reasons for the satisfactory results of my mid - second semester
test. This test was designed and marked basing on the criteria of the Ministry of
Education and training.

MARK
CLASS
4,5-5 3,5-4,25 2,5-3,23 < 2,5

4A 10 ps 14 ps 7ps 1ps
31,25%
36ps 43,75% 21,88% 3,13%

4B 9ps 13ps 9ps 2ps

38ps 27,27% 39,39% 27,27% 6%

4C 9ps 12ps 8ps 3ps

25ps 28,13% 37,5% 25% 9,38%

After applying this theme successfully, I have gained considerable results and
valuable experiences for myself .
 I see that we help our pupils learn language when what we ask them to do
is enjoyable, meaningful, supported ,social, purposeful and full of practice .
So teachers should use some following techmiques:
- If students are unfamiliar with storytelling, begin with short
sessions which do not demand too much from them and over-extend
their concentration span.
-If possible, have younger children sit on the floor around you, making
sure everyone can see you and the illustrations and can hear you clearly.
- Read slowly and clearly. Give your pupils time to relate what they hear
to what they see in the pictures, to think, ask questions, make comment.
However, do vary the pace when the story speeds up.
- Make comments about the illustrations and point to them to focus the
pupils’ attention.
- Encourage your pupils to take part in the storytelling by repeating key
vocabulary items and phrases. You can invite them to do this by pausing
and looking at them with a questioning expression and by putting your
hand to your ear to indicate that you are waiting for them to join in.
Then repeat what they have said to confirm that they have predicted
correctly and, if appropriate, expand by putting the word into a full
phrase or sentence.
- Use gestures, mime, facial gestures to help convey the meaning.
- Vary the pace, tone and volume of your voice. Are you going to
whisper to build up suspense? Are you going to introduce an element
of surprise by raising your voice?
- Pause where appropriate to add dramatic effect or to give children time
to relate what they hear to what they see, and to assimilate details in the
illustrations.
- Disguise your voice for the different characters as much as you can to
signal when different characters are speaking and help convey
meaning..
- Ask questions to involve children What do you think is going to
happen next? What would you do?
-Do not be afraid to repeat, expand and reformulate. This increases
opportunities of exposure to the language and gives children a second (or
third) chance to work out the meaning and have it confirmed. If you need to
walk around the class to show children the pictures, repeat the text

To sum up, the teachers, with their active role, need to train their students to
become efficient learners. The teachers have to adjust the time and efforts to
manage the class and make their students involve in the short story lessons in .

This study is done in the hope of finding out and contributing some activities
and techniques to interest students to short story lessons in Tieng Anh 4 for
teachers in improving the effectiveness of teaching short story lessons .
 Although this teaching experience is learned from the study on teaching short
story lessons of Tieng Anh 4 , it can be applied to any short stories , especially
for Tieng Anh 4 and 5. This is not the only way to interest students to short story
lessons , but it is a way that I have found to be effective and motivating for my
students.
As an English teacher, I truly believed that this study would be a great
contribution to my current teaching

CONCLUSION
1, Experienced lessons
Short story lessons are very effective for teaching English to young learner.
They offer children a world of supported meaning that they can relate to. They
can help children practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Therefore,
teachers should try their best to find out effective activities and techniques to
arouse students’ interest, activeness and creativeness. We should plan the short
story lesson carefully with various logical and interesting activities in order to
arouse students’ interest to short story lessons . This help students feel more
confident, interested and active and thus, help them to study more effectively.
It can not be denied that teachers’ creativity is a key to get students involved in
the lessons .
Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help
to the improvement of the teaching short story lessons to students .
Above are my ideas and experiences about carrying out teaching short story
lessons for students in grade 4 at my primary school. Although I have tried as
hard as I could, there are some limitations about applying time, experiences and
my qualification. Therefore, my research is not very perfect. I really expect the
jury and colleagues to give me some contributions.

2. Proposal:
The Department of Education should strengthen to organise more
training classes to improve knowledge about teaching method for teachers and
hold many conferences so that teachers have chances to exchange and foster
teaching experiences.
Besides this, the school leaders should promote to provide enough
teaching aids for English teachers such as reference books, pictures, cards,
posters....and facilitate for teachers to have chances to attend further methodology
training classes.

APPENDIX 1
QUESTIONNAIRE
(For teachers)
This questionnaire is designed to survey for a study on how to improve
motivation for primary students in general and for grade 4 students in particular
in short story lessons . Your contribution is of great importance to my experience
initiatives. I would be very grateful for your contribution.
Please read carefully and answer the questions below.
 1. What are the factors that contribute difficulty in short story lessons ?
□ Lack effective activities
□ Lack motivation
□ the content of the short story
□ All of above
2. What are the reasons if your students do not involve in your listening
lesson ?
□ Nervousness and shyness
□ Inefficient learning activities
□ Insufficient English knowledge
□ Not speaking English fluently
□ All of above
3. Do you encourage your students to use their own background knowledge
in pre-story telling activities ?
□ Yes □ No
4. Do you create comfortable environment for students to discuss and
exchange information before telling story ?
□ Frequently
□ Sometimes
□ Rarely
□ Never
5. What types of pre –story telling techniques do you often
organize in your classroom? (Tick more than one)
□ Prediction □ Eliciting
□ Discussion
□ Using pictures □ Songs ,chants
□ Reordering □ Games
□ Asking and answering questions
6. How do pre – storytelling activities enhance your students' learning ?
□ A lot
□ Quite a lot
 □ A little
□ Not at all
7. Which activities do you often use in post-story telling ?( please tick more
than one)
- Creative story-telling □ Project
□ Drama □ Role play
□ Game
□ Asking and answering questions
□ Problem- solving

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION

APPENDIX 2
QUESTIONNAIRE
(For students)

1.Các em có hứng thú với các câu chuyện ngắn trong sách Tiếng Anh 4 không?

Có Không
 2. Những lí do các em làm cho các em không thích các câu chuyện ngắn trong
sách Tiếng Anh 4 không?
Người nói có giọng khác.
Có nhiều từ mới em không hiểu.

Câu chuyện có nội dung không hay .

Em không hứng thú .

APPENDIX 3

Nghi Lien Primary School MID- SECOND TERM TEST

English 4
Name: ......................................... School year: 2015 - 2016
Class: .......................................... Time: 40 minutes

Marks Listening Reading and writing Speaking Total

Q.1 Q.2 Q.3 Q.4 Q.5 Q.6 Q.7 Q.8 Q.9 Q.10

PART I: LISTENING: (20 minutes)

Question 1. Listen and number. (1 pt)

A. B.

C. D.

Question 2. Listen and colour (1pt).

Question 3. Listen and draw the line. There is an example. (1pt)

A B
C

0 1 2 3 4

D E

Question 4. Listen and tick. (1 pt) Example: 1. C.

1. Jenny: What do you want? ٧
Scott: A. B. C.
2. Kate: Do you want ice-cream?

Andy: A. B. C.
3. Lan: Can you pour it?

Mai: A. B. C.
4. Lisa: What do you like?

Jenny: A. B. C

5. Nam: Do you like birds?

An: A. B. C.
Question 5. Listen and complete. (1pt)
1. Lisa: I'm hungry.
Jenny: What do you want?
Lisa: I want an ........................
Jenny: Here you are.
Lisa: Thank you.
 2. Jenny: What do you want?
Scott: I want cake and ....................
3. Kate: What's your favorite color?
Andy: I like ........................
4. John: What do you like?
Andy: I like .................

PART II: READING AND WRITING: (15 minutes)

Question 6. Look and read. Put a tick or cross in the box as examples (1pt).

1. V Mary can drink juice.

2. They don't like pizza.

3. This is a violin.

4. These are cats.

5. It can fly.

Question 7. Fill in the blanks (1pt)

favorite like about is
A: What’s your (1)……………………….color ?
B: It (2)…………..red. What (3)………………..you ?
A: I (4)……… green.
Question 8. Look at the pictures. Look at the letters. Write the words. (1 pt)

1. shif

2. ywidn

3. llab

4. risepd
Question 9. Look and insert a suitable word in the gap to complete the text. (1
pt)
I am Kathy. My favorite food is .................. I always drink ................ in the
morning. I like playing............................... very much. I like ........................., too.

PART III: SPEAKING: ( 5 minutes)

Question 1. Speaking (1 pt)
1. Listen and repeat. 2. Point, ask and answer.
3. Listen and comment. 4. Interview.

The End
REFERENCE DOCUMENT

I. Reference book
 How to interest students through ‘ short story’ in Tieng Anh 4

1. Campbell, Robin. (2001). Learning from interactive story-readings.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
2. Dickinson, David K, and Smith, Miriam W. (1994). Long-term
effects of preschool teachers’ book reading on low0income
children’s vocabulary and story comprehensions. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
3. Morrow, Lesley Mandel, & Smith Jeffrey K. (1990). The effects
of groups size on interactive story book reading. Cambridge
University Press.
4. Andrew Sanders. (2002). The short Oxford Of English
Literature.
Oxford University Press.
5. Sara Cone Bryant. (2000). How to tell stories to children and
some stories to tell. University of Virginia Library Press.

II. Websites:
1. www.story-telling.com
2. www.storyart.org
3. www.storyteller.net
4. www.aesopfable.com
5. www.libraryfairy.com

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 How to interest students through ‘ short story’ in Tieng Anh 4

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