– CASE ANALYSIS REPORT –

TOPIC: How to make students more interested in English

I. CONTEXT
My internship took place at Quoc Hoc High School, which is a high school with a
long-lasting history and high quality of educating ability expressed through the
achievements and prizes the students have got. Moreover, it is one of the schools with the
most students studying at top-class universities of Vietnam, some even at the top of the
list of candidates. At Quoc Hoc High School, the classes in each grade are divided into 2
major groups, natural science group, which emphasizes the subjects such as Mathematic,
Physics, Chemistry and Biology and social science group, which emphasizes the subjects
such as Literature, History, Geography and Foreign Language.
II. PROBLEM
My class, 11A7, belongs to the natural science group, which means that they were
hardly interested in English. Only some of them really loved this language, while the rest
did not seem to pay much attention in English classes. They prepared the lessons by
copying the answers of the questions on the internet with little understanding. When I
called some students to read the text in textbook, their pronunciation was even below
average.
III. THE CAUSES
There were many causes for the problem. First, of course, was the thought problem.
English was believed to be important for only social science students, whereas the natural
science students merely needed to master the subjects such as Math, Physics, Chemistry
and Biology. Secondly, the English teaching and learning strategies in secondary school
got stuck in pressure of achievement, which aimed to improve the result of tests and
exams, not to guide students how to communicate fluently. Thirdly, the time pressure in
classes did not allow teachers to organize the interesting communicative activities, which
limited the chances of increasing the speaking skills and being corrected in pronunciation
of students or to explain particularly about the students’ difficulties of learning a straight
but important language. And last but not least, the topics of the lessons did not cover
every level of students. The low-level students were confused and unable to understand
the content of the lessons.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES
Loss of interest and motivation in the subject makes students feel that learning is
like a torture for themselves, especially for weak students. Gradually, these students
become passive, sluggish and entrust everything to other outstanding students.
V. THE SOLLUTIONS
 To deal with this issue, I have already carried out three following solutions in turn:
 Solution 1: Using gift and reward as a kind of “bait” to get students involved
into the activities
 Solution 2: Punishing lower-level students by giving them bad marks and
asking them to stand still until the end of the lesson.
 Solution 3: Organizing the activities covering every level of students and
taking advantage of free time of class activities explaining the problems and
difficulties.
After a process of experimentation and observation, I obtained the following results
1. Inappropriate solutions
 Solution 1: Using gift and reward as a kind of “bait” to get students
involved into the activities
 This solution seemed to work pretty well. However, the effects of this
solution were temporary and short-term, as gradually, the students got
“addicted” to the rewards, which were their aim and objective of studying.
 Solution 2: Punishing lower-level students by giving them bad marks and
asking them to stand still until the end of the lesson.
 This solution is not really any better. It affected students' mentality. It
made them feel more stressed and bored in taking part in their groupwork.
2. Appropriate solutions
 Solution 3: Organizing the activities covering every level of students with
the topic dear to students’ hearts and taking advantage of free time of class
activities explaining the problems and difficulties.
 This solution motivated lower-level students to enhance their teamwork
and individual working skills. The close topics gave them more
opportunities to express their opinions to others instead of just receiving
their friends' ideas. It is a better way to develop their learning.
VI. THE CONCLUSION
Student interest in a topic holds so much power. When a topic connects to what
students like to do, engagement deepens as they willingly spend time thinking, dialoging,
and creating ideas in meaningful ways. Making learning contextual to real-world
experiences is a key learning technique with differentiating for student interests. Often
the core content and concepts are represented in the world beyond the classroom or
school building - in ways that students cannot see, as if they're walking through life
wearing a blindfold. When teachers plan for content, processing, and product,
differentiating by interests helps remove the blindfold so that learners can see those
invisible concepts made visible.