USING OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO IMPROVE EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT’S SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

Students’ feeling and attitudes towards learning speaking skill with Graphic Organizers Table 4.2.1.. The benefits of using Graphic Organizers in learning speaking English Figure 4.1.5

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NGHE AN 2017

I would like to thank Assoc Prof Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong, my supervisor, for hisencouragement and enthusiasm He was willing to spend his time giving me good advice and making corrections many times in order for this research paper to be

TABLES OF CONTENT

Pages

ACKNOWLEDEMENTS

i TABLES OF CONTENT

ii

TABLES AND FIGURES

iii

ABSTRACT

v Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale

1 1.2 Aims of the study

4 1.3 Research questions

4 1.4 Scope of the study

4 1.5 Methods of the study

4

1.6 Design of the study

5 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The nature of speaking

7 2.2 Speaking performance

8 2.2.1 Characteristics of speaking of speaking performance 8

2.2.2 Factors affecting Speaking Performance

9 2.2.3 Types of classroom Speaking Performance activities 11

2.3 The teaching and learning of speaking 14

2.3.1 Stages of a speaking lesson 14

2.3.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson/ activity 16

2.4 Graphic Organizers

17 2.4.1 Definition of graphic organizers

17 2.4.2 Types of Graphic Organizers

19 2.4.3 Previous researches related on the effect of Graphic Organizers on student’s performance 23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions

27 3.2 Participants

27 3.3 Material

28 3.4 Research method and Procedure

30 3.4 1 Methods

30 3.4 2 Procedures

30 3.5 Instruments of Data Collection 32

3.5 1.Tests 32

3.5.2 Questionnaires 33

3.6 Data Collection Procedure 33

3.7 Analytic Procedure 34

Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results 35

4.1.1 Students attitudes towards using Graphic Organizers in speaking

lesson 35

4.1.2 The effects of Graphic Organizers on students’ speaking 39

4.2 Findings 46

4.3 Discussion 47

4.4 Applying Graphic Organizers in speaking class 49

LISTS OF TABLES Table 4.1.1 Students’ feeling and attitudes towards learning speaking skill

Table 4.1.2 Students’ feeling and attitudes towards learning speaking skill

with Graphic Organizers

Table 4.2.1 The pre-test result of two groups

Table 4.2.2 Mean and SD in the pre English speaking test

Table 4.2.3 Mean and SD in the post English speaking test

Table 4.2.6 The number of students in pre test and post test results of two groups Table 4.2.7 The incidental probability (p) in pre test and post test results of

two groups

Table 4.4.3 The compare and contrast matrix of kinds of music

Table 4.4.6 KWL Graphic Organizer of lizards

LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking English

Figure 4.1.4 The benefits of using Graphic Organizers in learning speaking English Figure 4.1.5 Students’ feeling about the motivation and interest of using

Graphic Organizers

Figure 4.2.4 Scores in experimental group before and after using Graphic Organizers Figure 4.2.5 Scores in Control Group before and after using Graphic Organizers Figure 4.4.1 A Venn diagram of comparing the characteristic of whales and guppies Figure 4.4.2 Web Graphic Organizers of characteristics of dogs

Figure 4.4.4 The net word tree of disadvantages and disadvantages of zoos

Figure 4.4.5 The problem and solution Map of discussing the problem and solutions

that may occur in ocean environment

Speaking plays an important part in teaching and learning English and it isrecognize as the principle objective of language courses However, how to improvestudents’ speaking performance in classroom is not an easy task In order to improvethe quality of speaking classes, the study just focuses on using Graphic Organizers toimprove EFL 10th grader’s speaking performance It is, therefore, the need for teachers

to instruct the students Graphic Organizers and apply them into speaking period Thestudy has been conducted for the aim of testing the effectiveness of using GraphicOrganizers at Chau Thanh High School Students are divided into two groups calledExperimental Group and Control Group The Experimental Group are taught speakingskill with Graphic Organizers while normal way is still applied in the Control Group.Both groups have to take the pre test and post test After that a set of questionnaireincluded 8 questions is used to investigate students’ attitudes, perspectives towardsspeaking and Graphic Organizers While the study provides some implications forteachers and researchers in general, it is not free from limitations The limitations arefound in the data collection instruments and the number of strategies to be taught

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale

Speaking is considered one of the most important skills, especially in learningEnglish as a foreign language It may be the best way to express the learners’ abilityduring learning English process The integral part of English teaching is to makestudents able to communicate well By speaking, people are able to discuss or raisetheir opinions about events happening around the world People who have ability inspeaking will be better in sending and receiving information or message to another.Therefore, students are often evaluated their success in English language learning onhow well their improvement on speaking the language

It seems that the concept of speaking is quite familiar to everyone; however, notanybody can give an exact definition of speaking In order to clarify this concept, theresearchers define speaking as a hard skill to be mastered by the learners

Speaking in a foreign language is very difficult and competence in speaking takes along time to develop Brown and Yule (1983) defined speaking as “a skill by whichpeople are judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is

an important skill which deserves more attention in both first and second languagebecause it reflects people's thoughts and personalities Johnson (1995) argued

“Speaking skill is the ability in using oral language to explore ideas, intentions,thoughts and feelings to other people as a way to make the message clearly deliveredand well understood by the hearer.”

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involvesproducing, receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are depending

on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, theirexperiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is oftenspontaneous, open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable.Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points oflanguage such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"),but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language("sociolinguistic competence") (Nunan,1999:216)

The learning of language involves acquiring the ability to compose correctsentences and it involves an understanding of which sentences or parts of sentences areappropriate for a particular context (Krashen, 1982) We do speaking in order tocommunicate with each other Better communication means better understanding ofothers and themselves Communication is a continuous process of expression,interpretation, and negotiation The opportunities for communications are infinite andinclude systems of signs and symbols (Baker, 2003) Communication requires asender, a receiver and a medium It can be said that both hearers and speakers dointeractions by giving responds to what they have heard and listened to

Generally, people who encounter others through this oral communication have acertain goal that they want to achieve, the goal that underlies people to do thecommunication Spoken language is a primary phenomenon We speak a great dealmore than we write, that is why language should be taught initially through speech.Spoken language is essential to any language learning Learning to speak a foreignlanguage is a learning that requires knowledge of the language and its application Inmastering the speaking skill, the teacher must train and equip the learners with acertain degree of accuracy and fluency in understanding, responding and in expressingthemselves in the language in speech

In language classroom, it is significant to develop students’ speaking ability.However, speaking skill is one of essential skills but it is also the most difficult skill todevelop According to Lukitasari (2003), there are some common problems that thestudents at high school face with during learning English speaking The first problem

is that the environment does not support the students to speak English frequently.Second, students do not want to talk or say anything because they suffer from a fear ofmaking mistakes Third, students have low motivation to learn English, which may beone of the main difficulties of teaching speaking

Speaking lesson actually causes many difficulties to both teachers and learners inVietnam In traditional method, grammar and vocabulary were emphasized more thanother skills at Vietnam’s high schools Students do not pay attention to speaking andlistening skills because these skills were not usually required in national graduation

exams or university entrance exams In addition, they have very little chance topractice speaking in class and the problem is they usually feel unconfident when beingasked to perform their ideas in front of the class For instance, they occasionally readsample conversations in the text books and try to remember the structures in a passiveway They seem to find difficult to express their ideas, discuss and exchange theirthoughts with their friends Especially when being asked to make a speech or apresentation, they often feel confused as they do not know how to organize and presenttheir ideas: which ideas should come first and which one will be followed; whichwords should be selected for presenting; how to connect the ideas with others duringpresentation To help the students improve their speaking skills, it is necessary to findways to help them overcome their problems

A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationshipsbetween facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task (Robinson,1995) It nowwidely applied in many fields, including teaching language It may help students totake note, learn vocabulary, review the lesson, and logically organizer idea Byapplying Graphic Organizers in teaching speaking, the aim of this paper is to helpstudents improve their speaking performance As a tool to support students’ thinkingand learning processes, many research students have shown that Graphic Organizershelp students:

- Brainstorm ideas

- Develop, organize, and communicate ideas

- See connections, patterns and relationship

- Assess and share prior knowledge

- Highlight important idea

- Learn vocabulary

- Classify or categorize concepts, ideas and information

- Improve social interaction between students and collaboration among peers

The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “Using graphic organizers to improve EFL high school’s speaking performance” It is hoped that this

study will provide teachers with a deep understanding the role of Graphic Organizers

in speaking and help students develop their speaking skill which lead to their learningsuccessfully as well as it will help the English teacher to overcome some problems inteaching speaking

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims to use Graphic Organizers to improve speaking performance for

10th grade students at Chau Thanh High school The specific objectives of the studyare:

- to investigate the students’ attitude towards using Graphic Organizers inspeaking lessons

- to suggest way to use graphic organizers to encourage the 10th graders in ChauThanh High School in speaking lessons

- to examine how 10th graders’ speaking performance may be improved whenapplying Graphic Organizers on speaking lesson

1.3 Research questions

The study is to answer two following research questions:

1 What are the 10th graders’ attitudes towards using graphic organizers in speakinglesson?

2 How may the use of Graphic Organizers improve the 10th graders’ speakingperformance?

1.4 Scope of the study

There are many ways to encourage students to learn English, but all these issuescan not be fully covered in this paper Due to the limit time and length of the minorthesis, this paper only focuses on exploiting the using of Graphic Organizers as a way

of improving 10th graders’ speaking performance at Chau Thanh High School

1.5 Methods of the study

The main method is experimental method and questionnaires

Procedure:

80 students of two classes 10 A5 and 10 A6 at Chau Thanh High Schoolparticipated in this results They were divided into two groups: The control group and

the experimental group Before the treatment, both groups had to do a pre-test whichhad the format of PET speaking test and it included three parts.

After that, the experimental group would be taught speaking with GraphicOrganizers while the control group adopted traditional methods Post test whichanother PET speaking test was used to investigate how the use of graphic organizersinfluences on their speaking performance The pre-test was used at the start and posttest was used at the end to determine whether students improve their speakingperformance

The results of both pre-test and post-test were collected for analyzing theinformation

The questionnaires to survey students’ attitudes are delivered after introducinggraphic organizers in speaking performance They were just delivered for theExperimental Group

Data is collected and compared from the pre and post test to show whetherstudents improve their speaking performance

1.6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of the following main parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and the scope of the

thesis The research questions, method and the design of the study are also included inthis chapter

Chapter 2: Literature Review covers the concepts relevant to the study:

theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills, definition and advantages of usinggraphic organizers as well as suggested ways to introduce graphic organizers inspeaking lessons

Chapter 3: In this chapter the methodology of the study is described

Chapter 4: Finding and discussions presents and discusses findings of the

difficulties in teaching and learning speaking in Chau Thanh High School and somesuggestions to use graphic organizers to solve these problems

Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the findings and addresses the summary of

the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews theories related to speaking strategies as well as teachingspeaking in general and applying Graphic Organizers in speaking in particular All ofthese serve as a basis for measuring the effectiveness of using Graphic Organizers toimprove the learners’ speaking performance which is carried out and presented in thenext chapter

2.1 The nature of speaking

The nature of speaking has been discussed by many researchers

Little Wood (1981) states that oral communication is two-way processesbetween speaker and listener and it involves the productive skill of speaking and thereceptive skill of understanding (or listening with understanding) For him, speakerand listener participate in oral communication process, and they use a productive skillwhich is speaking and receptive skill which is listening

Nunan (1999) shows that speaking also requires learners not only know how toproduce language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also they have tounderstand when, why, and in what ways to produce language It means the learning oflanguage involves the ability to make correct sentences which are appropriate for aparticular context

Additionally, Richards and Renandya (2002) states that effective oralcommunication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in socialinteractions that involves both verbal and nonverbal communication such as gestures,body language, and expressions are needed in conveying messages directly Brown(1994) agrees that -body language; gestures, eye contact, physical distance and othernonverbal messages play an important role in communication and successful oralcommunication involves:

a the ability to pronounce the words clearly

b mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns

c an acceptable degree of fluency

e skills in taking short and long speaking turns

f skills in the management of interaction

g skills in negotiating meaning

h conversational listening skills

j using appropriate conversational way

Generally, spoken language is a primary phenomenon We speak more than wewrite, that is why spoken language should be taught at first Learning to speak aforeign language requires knowledge of the language and its application in everyparticular situation Therefore, the teacher should teach learners with a certain degree

of accuracy and fluency in understanding, responding and in expressing ideas in thespoken language

2.2 Speaking performance

2.2.1 Characteristics of speaking performance

In speaking performance, both fluency and accuracy are important Learnersshould be developed speaking skill through classroom activities

Fluency

Fluency is the main characteristic of the speaker performance and it is theessential goal that teachers aim to achieve in teaching speaking skill It means peoplespeak easily, quickly, and few pause in order not to break down the Brown & Yule(1983) also states that “the term fluency relates to the production and it is normallyreserved for speech It is the ability to link units of speech together with facility andwithout strain or inappropriate slowness, or undue hesitation.”

Accuracy

The second characteristic of speaking performance is accuracy Learners oftenneed to be not only fluent but also accurate in the speaking foreign language If peoplespeak English with a high level of accuracy it means they speak correctly with veryfew mistakes So, second language teachers emphasized accuracy in their teachingprocess Learners should pay attention to the correctness and the completeness oflanguage form when speaking For instance, they should focus on the grammaticalstructure, vocabulary and pronunciation

- Repetition: spoken language is produced spontaneously, in real time, and we

do not have time to plan what we are going to say This often results in repetition andadditions

- Vagueness: It is more likely to be a sign of a skilled speaker Some examples

of vagueness in spoken English include: ish, kind of/ kinda, …, or something,…and things like that.

- Discourse markers: it is used in spoken English differently than those in

written English (E.g Well…, anyway…, I mean…, You know…)

Vocabulary

To achieve accuracy in terms of vocabulary means to choose the appropriateword in the appropriate context Learners often use the same word or expression indifferent context which does not mean the same thing Thus, learners have to be able touse words and expressions accurately

Pronunciation

Canale & Swain (1980) stated that “the lowest level of knowledge speaker draw

on is the pronunciation” (p.24) Therefore, to speak the English language accurately,learners need to be knowledgeable about its phonological rules For example, theyshould be aware about the different sounds and their articulations Also, they shouldknow about the stress, intonation, pitch…etc All these components help them to speakthe language effectively and for better performance

2.2.2 Factors affecting speaking performance

In order to help students overcome problems in learning speaking, it isnecessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance.Students’ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come fromperformance conditions (time pressure, planning, standard of performance and amount

of support), affective factors (such as motivation, confidence and anxiety), listeningability and feedback during speaking activities

Performance conditions

Students perform a speaking task under a variety of conditions Nation &Newton (2009) believe that performance conditions can affect speaking performance.The four types of performance conditions include time pressure, planning, the standard

of performance and the amount of support

Affective factors

One of the most important influences on language learning success or failure isprobably the affective side of the learner Krashen (1982) states affective factorsinclude a variety of affective factors which are influence to success in second languagebut most of those studies examined the three categories: motivation, self-confidenceand anxiety

Listening ability

According to Doff (1998), speaking skills cannot be developed if we do notdevelop listening skills Students must understand what is said to them to have asuccessful conversation Shumin (1997) shares the ideas of Doff (1998) by stating thatwhen one person speaks, the other responds through attending by means of thelistening process In fact, every speaker plays the role of both a listener and a speaker.Therefore, one is certainly unable to respond if he/ she cannot understand what is said

It means speaking is closely related to listening

Topical knowledge

Topical knowledge is defined as knowledge structures in long-term memory(Bachman & Palmer, 1996) In other words, topical knowledge is the speakers’knowledge of relevant topical information The information that topical knowledgeprovides enables learners to use language with reference to the world in which theylive Bachman & Palmer (1996) state certain test tasks may be easier for those whopossess the relevant topical knowledge and more difficult for those who do not.Bachman & Palmer (1996) believe that topical knowledge has effects on speakingperformance

Feedback during speaking activities

Most students want and expect their teachers to give them feedback on theirperformance However, all speaking production should not be dealt with in the sameway Harmer (1991) asserts that the decisions that the teachers make about how toreact to students’ performance will depend on the stages of the lesson, the activities,the types of mistake made and the particular student who is making that mistake If theteachers correct whenever there is a problem, the conversational flow as well as thepurpose of the speaking activity will be destroyed (Harmer, 1991) If the students arecorrected all the time, they can become afraid to speak They suggest that the teachersshould always correct the students’ mistakes positively and with encouragement

2.2.3 Types of classroom speaking performance activities

Speaking should be practiced in class through activities Therefore, teachersshould apply different oral activities in speaking lessons to encourage their students tospeak Language learners need to practice the language regularly inside the classroomthrough performing different activities The finally aim of communicative activity inclass is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in real life.According to Davies & Pearse (2000), there are many different activities that can bedone in classroom to help the learners to develop their speaking skill Those below aresome of the common one

Discussion

The most common activity used in speaking classes is discussion This activitygives the students the opportunity to talk and share their interests, opinions, andexperiences Students often are unwilling to give their opinions in front of the wholeclass So, to avoid such problems, the teacher should divide the class into groups.When getting into groups, students will easily to exchange ideas or give suggestions.Teachers should be careful in planning and setting up a discussion activity First of all,the topic must be interesting, easy to talk about, and touching their real-life situations.Celle-Murcia & Olshtain (2000) stated that “students need to be clear about what theyare to discuss, why they are discussing it, and what outcomes is expected” Second,well grouping or pairing students is a step for a successful discussion, and finally

every student should participate in the discussion in order to make all the studentsspeak and use the target language

Role-play

It is an enjoyable activity for most of the students particularly those who like toimitate the others Role play is an authentic technique because it encourages a largenumber of students especially if it is based on real-life situations; moreover, it helpsthem to reduce their fears in front of the whole class because usually it should beperformed in pairs or groups Thus, each student has to perform a role In addition, roleplay activity gives the students the opportunity to practice and develop variety ofsocio-cultural speech acts that are appropriate to the situation and to the characters Forexample, when requesting, apologizing, complaining, thanking… etc This activity can

be performed from prepared scripts, student's imagination or experience The success

of the role play depends on the choice of the topics and to the teacher's motivation

Communicative tasks

Those activities are very entertaining for both students and teachers becausethey make a sense of humor in the classroom In addition, they are directed to achievesome extra linguistic goals Canale & Swain (1980) showed that communicativeactivities are characterized by some features:

- The tasks should be from real-life situations

- Achieving some outcome by using language in funny way

- Make the students practice and interact

- The students use their language without limitations

Therefore, those are some of the communicative tasks that can be used inclassroom to make the students speak and engage in classroom interaction

Jigsaw activity

This activity should be done better in groups rather than individually, in suchtasks the teacher arranges four flashcards and tells the learners about the general ideathat these cards uphold Then, s/he distributes the cards for four subgroups (one pereach) After a moment the teacher asks the members of all the subgroups number one,for instance, to describe what s/he has seen Later on, the teacher and subgroup

number one members decide upon the idea that this card upholds

Find the differences

Here, the teacher gives each two students two pictures about the same thinghowever there are a slight differences about them So, the students will stand in front

of their classmates and each one describes a piece from his picture than the audiencetry to guess where the difference between them is The teacher role here is to create asense of competition between the audiences

Chain story

This activity is so funny because the teacher tries to create a story with his/herstudents First of all, the teacher must make their students motivated to do suchactivity Then he will begin the story after that he gives turns to the students Eachstudent should create a new sentence from his imaginations and by the end they finishwith a new story

Academic presentations

This type of activity gets the learners present academic presentations withformal characteristics It can be presented individually, in pairs or in groups Adiscussion takes place when the students finish their presentation For instance,students will be divided into small groups and each group will choose and prepare atopic before presenting Each group can select a group leader; he is a person who givestasks for each member After preparing their own topic, they can take turn to present infront of the class This activity is useful in developing team spirit and responsibility ofeach member

2.3 The teaching and learning of speaking

2.3.1 Stages of a speaking lesson

A simple speaking activity consists of three main stages: Setting up, Speakingpractice and Feedback (Richard, 2000)

Setting up

The teacher introduces students the speaking topic The specific steps are:

- Explaining (The teacher has to breaking instructions into small steps.)

- Demonstrating (It is especially important in speaking activities, when studentsare often working in pairs or groups that they know exactly what to do.)

- Double checking is step to make sure every student knows what to do

- Practicing the language with the whole class

- Giving clear signals when to start and stop

- Circulating and listening (Teacher goes around while students are speaking andlistening)

- Not interrupting but carrying a piece of paper and noting down mistakes andproblems

- Controlling the activity (Teacher makes sure that it’s not too noisy and English

is spoken.)

Feedback

Students may report to the rest of the class on what they have talked about intheir pairs or groups The teacher gives feedback and deals with any problems Theteacher may go through with the following steps:

- Bringing the class back together

- Asking a few students to report back

- Giving feedback on the language practiced/ correcting mistakes

 The teacher writes mistakes taken during practice on the board

 Students try to correct them

 The teacher explains again if necessary

 The teacher focuses on pronunciation if necessary

The stages of speaking lesson are also divided into three different main stages:pre-speaking, while-speaking and post speaking There is no exact time for each stage

in a skills lesson in general and a speaking lesson in particular; however, the teachershould notice that most of the time must be for while stage, which gives studentsenough time for practicing speaking skill

Pre-speaking stage (Presentation stage)

The stage prepares students for getting them to think about the topic or situationbefore they speak about it Pre-speaking tasks can be:

- Discussion or brainstorming (where students collect all their ideas on thetopic)

- Vocabulary preparation (where the teacher teaches key vocabulary to aidcomprehension)

- Prediction (where students guess what they may learn about)

A good pre-speaking is also necessary to involve integrating skills, maybelistening and sometimes reading (for example, an information gap text) This stageshould be kept short, about 10 minutes equivalent the presentation stage of a Grammarlesson, but giving enough time for students to assimilate to what they are going to

speak Warm-up activities may be included in this stage In this stage, the teacher’s

role is to get students think about what they are going to speak before they speak Theteacher will have to set up the Pre-task and his/her clear instructions are required

While-speaking stage (Practice stage)

This stage is the time for students to practice speaking The teacher does nothave to do a lot of things because students will be working on the while tasksindividually or in pairs, in groups When working on the tasks, they may have somedifficulties because of a lack of language variety; therefore, during this stage, theteacher may monitor and assist weaker students with their difficulties in completingwhile tasks instead Also, the teacher needs to evaluate how well students havecompleted the tasks and whether they are ready to go to the next stage or not.Activities called communicative ones are truly essential to be applied in this stage forthe purpose of helping students practice speaking skill They can be a role play, a game

or a discussion Depending on the lesson and the classroom condition, the teacher willchoose and set up the suitable activities for students

Post-speaking stage (Personalization stage)

After students have practiced speaking skill in the while stage, they may do anextension activity in this stage This helps students take the information or whateverthey have produced in the previous stage and do something meaningful with it Thepost task is usually “an information transfer” – a production type of exercise wherethey respond to what they have just learnt They respond in the way that relating what

10 they have learnt to their own experience For instance, if they talk about a worldfamous football player in the while stage, they may talk or write about their ownfavorite one in this follow-up stage Writing is a very appropriate integrating skill forthis stage If students conduct a questionnaire on their friends in the while task, theymay write up the results in a short paragraph, for example

2.3.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

According to Richard (2000) some advice for teachers is suggested to create agood speaking lesson plan:

- Learners talk a lot: Learners should be speaking for most of the lesson oractivity

This helps to achieve the goal of teaching English for communication

- Participation is equal: All of the students should be grouped and organized sothat they can participate in the lesson/ activity not just a minority of talkative students

- Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested inthe topic and they want to contribute to the lesson/ activity

- Language is appropriate: Learners’ discussion should be relevant, easilycomprehensible to each other, and at an acceptable level of language accuracy

- Teacher monitoring and modeling: The teacher should be walking around andmonitoring conversations to ensure that the lesson is meeting its objectives and that thelevel of the activity is appropriate

2.4 Graphic Organizers

2.4.1 Definition of graphic organizers

A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationshipsbetween facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task (Hall and Strangeman, 2001).Miller (1998) describes graphic organizers as diagrams or illustration of written or oralstatements Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps,concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers, or conceptdiagrams They include semantic maps, semantic feature analysis, cognitive maps,story maps, framed outlines, and Venn diagrams (Kim et al., 2004)

Graphic Organizers include words, images or symbolic patterns (conceptual,hierarchical, cyclical and sequential) They present verbal, visual, and logical learningstyles

Graphic Organizers have different lay outs but they usually have a similarpurpose They depict the relationships between facts and figures or key concepts andideas within a learning task According to Robinson (1995), a variety of types oforganizers are chosen for their appropriateness for the content They are the effectivetool in planning, instruction, and assessment They can enhance and facilitate students’understanding and develop their full potential

Graphic Organizers can be classified either in terms of their design or theirfunction Functionally, Graphic Organizers can be grouped into two categories: thosethat depict basic information structures (whole-to-part, cause/effect, etc.) and thosethat serve specialized needs (project planning, goal setting) For the languageclassroom, the most common functions are:

For example, if the speaking presentation focuses:

 on sequential manner, a list or a timeline is often used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

 a compare/ contrast mode, a 2-column chart or Venn diagram is used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

 a central theme, a mind map or a network tree is used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

2.4.2 Types of Graphic Organizers

There are a wide variety of designs for depicting the same basic informationstructures, but all serving the same basic purpose of visually revealing to learners howthe information is structured According to Bromley (1999), some common designsinclude:

Clock, Cluster/Word Web, Describing Wheel, E-Chart, Fact and Opinion, Five W'sChart, Flow Chart, Four-Column Chart, Goal-Reasons Web, Hierarchy chart, IdeaWheel, KWL/KWHL Chart, Ladder, Observation Chart, Persuasion Map, PlanningChart, Progress Report, Sequence Chart, Spider Map, Step-by-Step Chart, Story Map,T-Chart, Time Line, Tree Chart, Venn Diagram.

Choosing the appropriate organizers involves consideration of function,purpose, the nature of the material/information, the classroom activity and personalpreference Some initial questions to consider are:

 Is only one topic involved, or are there many?

 Is it a complex topic?

 Is the information linear or cyclical?

 Are there similarities and differences, pros and cons?

 Is this time involved? Are there hierarchical level?

After considering these questions, in this research, the researcher focuses on sixbasic Graphic Organizers which are able to apply to teaching speaking skills in theEnglish textbook for grade 10 in Vietnam

Venn diagram

Description

A Venn diagram consists of two (or sometimes as many as five) overlappingcircle It is used to help students compare and contrast two characters, setting, events,

or other literary element

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Cause and effect map

Description

A cause and effect map is one of the effective organizers used to showrelationships of all factors (causes) that lead to the given situation (effect) It is usuallypreceded by cause and effect analysis

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Problem and Solution Map

Description

One of the organizers to promote critical thinking, a problem and solution map

is applied to teaching speaking in which problems and solutions for a problem arediscussed This reading guide also helps students improve productive skills by talking

or writing clearly and persuasively about the anticipated results if solutions are carriedout

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Compare and contrast matrix

Description

The compare and contrast matrix is used as a means of comparing differenthistorical events, geographical regions, cultural and traditional differences or politicalsystems It is best suited to speaking presentation that is full of details and requires thestudents to learn many facts about different people, places, or events (Miller, 2011)

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Network tree

Description

A network tree is a type of graphic organizer that shows connections of factsand information related to the speaking topic It is made of a series of oval of two orthree different sizes connected by many branches to show how facts and informationbranch off of a main idea or topic

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

K-L-W chart

Description

A K-L-W chart helps students understand what they know (K), what they want

to know (W), and what they learned (L) when speaking or researching a topic

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

2.4.3 Previous researches related on the effect of Graphic Organizers on Students’ performance

The idea of Graphic Organizer is based on Ausebel’s assimilation theory ofcognitive learning (Ausebel et al., 1978) According to them, the information isorganized by mind in a hierarchical top-down fashion The cognitive approach tolearning seeks to understand how incoming information is processed and structuredinto memory (Weinstein & Mayer,1986) Cognitive learning is that the memorysystem, which its short term and long term sorting and encoding components, guidethe learning process Learning is the best achieved when the information is presentedsystematically and store in the students’ brain in an organized, meaningful and useablemanner (McElroy & Coughlin, 2009)

Studies have shown that meaningful learning can be assisted through the use ofGraphic Organizers (GOs) Students who used Graphic Organizers as a learningstrategy performed better than the students who used underlining ( Amer, 1994), note-taking ( Reader & Hammond, 1994), discussing with co-students (Chularut, DeBacker, 2004), or outlining (Robinson & Kiewra, 1995) McElroy and Coughlin(2009) state that there were several examples of GOs for how professor can applycognitive learning theory to their classroom teaching of counter analysis using GOs.GOs also can be used in all phases of learning from brainstorming ideas to presentfindings They can be used individually or in large group

This part will provide a review of the literature concerning the use of GraphicOrganizers in the classroom to aid in the comprehension of social studies content

Hall and Strangeman (2001) believed that different varieties of graphic organizersimprove their effectiveness for learning The following six graphic organizers havegreat utility in the classroom because they correspond to six common patterns intowhich most information can be organized: descriptive patterns, time-sequencepatterns, process/cause-effect patterns, episode patterns, generalization/principlepatterns, and concept patterns Graphic organizers provide speakers with newapproaches to speak that build on their schema and extend their knowledge Thespeakers are given a clearer, more distinct, visual method of organizing information(Chang et al., 2002) In speaking performance, they assist learners to:

(1) Clarify and organize information into categories (main ideas, supporting ideas,topic sentences, facts, opinion, etc.)

(2) Organize information for better understanding

(3) Construct meaning of difficult words and sentence dividing into lexis

(4) Understand the topic by associating with prior knowledge

Moreover, a Graphic Organizer (also known as a concept map, mind map orrelationship chart) is usually a one-page form with blank areas for learners to completewith ideas and information which are connected in some way Some organizers arevery specific; others are versatile According to Griffin, the information on a GraphicOrganizer could just as easily be written on a form or list, but the organizer offerscertain advantages:

(1) Graphic Organizers provide the learner with a different way of seeing andthinking about information

(2) Language barriers (words, grammar) are removed, so that learners can focus onthe connections between information

(3) The visual display conveys complex information in a simple-to-understandmanner Showing (as opposed to telling) how information is structured is a way

of facilitating understanding In most cases, dual-presentation (visualrepresentation plus is more successful than either approach alone, regardless ofwhether the student is a visual or auditory learner

(4) Analytical, critical, planning and creative thinking skills are developed Tocreate the map, the learner has to identify the relationships between items,examine the meanings attached to them, and priorities the information anddecide where each item should be placed on the map Students are more likely

to become strategic learners

(5) A lot of information can be converted into a structured, easy-to-read, graphicdisplay A large amount of information can be displayed to provide the "bigpicture" of a topic

(6) Changes can easily be made to allow learners to take different perspectives andclarify their thoughts Organizers are easy to edit, revise, and add to

(7) Creating the map helps the learner to generate ideas and see the possibilitiesassociated with a topic as the map grows

(8) Graphic organizers have multiple uses They can be used to structure writingprojects, summarize reading texts, organize and store vocabulary, and help inproblem solving, decision making, studying, planning research andbrainstorming

(9) Subject-matter is comprehended faster and more efficiently Because thedemands of processing the language are reduced, content can be considered atmore sophisticated levels

(10)While organizers often represent an individual's arrangement of information,they can also be used at group or class levels A class flow-chart of the storyline

of a class reader may help all the students to follow the plot

(11)Since most graphic organizers use short words or phrases, and sometimesdrawings, they can be used with all levels and with young and less-ablelearners

(12)The teacher is given a record of the learner's thinking process Graphicorganizers can be used to assess students' knowledge and understand of thecontent, thinking skills and creativity

Graphic organizers are communication devices that show the organization orstructure of concepts as well as relationships between concepts, which give variety ofbenefits to teachers and learners From above given advantages, teachers shouldchoose appropriate ways to introduce Graphic organizers to their classes.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter has presented a literature review which is a necessarytheoretical background for present study This chapter presents the methodology usedfor the data collection and analysis in the study

3.1 Research questions

The study aimed to find out the answer for these following questions:

1 What are the 10th graders’ attitudes towards using graphic organizers in speakinglesson?

2 How may the use of Graphic Organizers improve the 10th graders’ speakingperformance?

3.2 Participants

This study will be carried out at Chau Thanh high school in a rural area in Long

An, a province in the South of Vietnam The school has about 600 students whose ageranges from fifteen to eighteen Most students come from small villages of ChauThanh district English is taught in this school as a foreign language In generally,students in this school have several difficulties when studying English The problem isthat most of students do not have good command in English and this number ofstudents is the majority Students are often scared about learning English and learnEnglish with the aim to pass the exam They frequently concentrate on easier skillsthan others such as vocabulary or grammar Speaking and writing are mostly ignoredduring English classes Therefore, it is very difficult for the teachers to make abalance in teaching these classes

In Chau Thanh High School, the tenth graders range from 15-16 years of age.The school includes about 220 students from 6 classes which are ranged from 10A1 to10A6 In this study, the researcher chooses two classes 10A5 and 10A6 to participate

in this research 10A5 with 40 students is assigned as a control group with thetraditional speaking approach, and the other 10A6 also with 40 students is theexperimental group which will be taught graphic organizers in speaking lesson

They all are living in Chau Thanh district All of them have been learning English forfour years at secondary schools They have also learnt and got to know speaking skill

at secondary school In many speaking lessons, they have also learnt to present a topic

or report their group’s work to the whole class However, only few of them can presenttopic required in the English text book 10 in front of the class This means that theyseem to be beginners in speaking English when they entered high school Afterinterviewed, Most of them said that they had never been introduced GraphicOrganizers before Therefore, teacher, also the researcher, explains carefully to themabout the Graphic Organizers before applying it in teaching speaking lesson

3.3 Material

The material used for this study is The TIENG ANH 10 text book which consists

of 16 units:

Unit 1: A day in a life of

Unit 2: School talks

Unit 3: People’s background

Unit 4: Special education

Unit 5: Technology and you

Unit 6: An excursion

Unit 7: The mass media

Unit 8: The story of my village

Unit 9: Undersea world

Unit 10: Conservation

Unit 11: National parks

Unit 12: Music

Unit 13: Films and cinema

Unit 14: The world cup

Unit 15: Cities

Unit 16: Historical places

The content of the English text book is designed on particular topics which is thebasement to choose and organize the content and materials According to this view,students are considered as the central and the major subject of the learning process.They may actively and creatively participate in the activities; the tasks with help

learners improve communicative English skills Teachers play roles as a controller,counsellor and organizers of the teaching and learning process Each unit is separatedinto 5 parts:

Part A Reading

Reading lesson is often the first to be taught in order to develop reading skillsfor learners such as scanning, or skimming This also helps students to get to knowwith the topic and provides them knowledge, vocabulary, information…to speak, listen

or write A reading passage is often from 190-230 words in length Teaching andlearning process are divided into three stages: Before reading, while reading, and postreading

Part B Speaking

Speaking is a productive skill Topic relating to the topic of the unit will bepresented for students to speak This part helps students develop speaking skillsthrough daily conversations, dialogue, report or presentation Teaching and learningprocess are divided into three stages: Before speaking, while speaking, and postspeaking

Part C Listening

Similarly with reading lesson, it is also divided into three stages: beforelistening, while listening, post listening Listening skills such as intensive listening,extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for main idea, ect

Part D Writing

As being a productive skill, writing lesson is also divided into three stages:Before writing, while writing, and post writing A model of writing like: letter,narrative, a report, or a paragraph is often presented so that learner can see the model,the structure and other language items to be used for their writing

After every three units, there is a “Test yourself” which provide some exercises for thestudents to do in order to test how good they are every period There is variety oftopics in “Tieng Anh 10” and these topics are familiar to students’ daily life such asroutine activities, environment issues, and places of scenic beauty or moderntechnology It is also included integral grammar points which are useful for students

However, students often get boring and tired in some speaking periods The speakingtasks seem to be more difficult than other skills The design of speaking tasks quitesimple but their requirement is not easy especially in post speaking period Studentsare usually asked to report or present the topic, which can sometimes not be coveredwithin a period of only 45 minutes Therefore, it is very necessary for teachers toorganize, arrange and apply some new activities to avoid boredom in the classroom.

Part E Language Focus

Learners’ language competences are consolidated in this lesson There are twomain parts in this section: Pronunciation and Grammar

There are four lessons a week for each class: three main lessons and one optionallesson The school year includes two semesters The first semester lasts 19 weeks with

57 periods and the second semester lasts 18 weeks with 54 periods Students have tofinish tests during the school year: two final exam tests, four 45- minute written tests,four 15 –minute written tests, two speaking tests, two or three oral tests

3.4 Research methods and procedures

3.4.1 Methods

This research used pre-test and post-test experimental design, which wasconsider testing the effect of the study Quantity approaches were utilized to measurethe effect independent variable on dependent variable

3.4.2 Procedures

The research lasted during 8 weeks in the second semester at Chau Thanh HighSchool At the first stage, 80 students from the class 10A5 and 10A6 took part in thestudy They were divided into two groups: Group 1 (Experimental Group) and group 2(Control Group) Before the treatment, the lesson plan had been prepared carefully andall participants in two groups have to participate in the test The first test for two

groups is a pre speaking test (See Appendix 2) Every student in two groups chooses a

given topic and speaks for 3 or 4 minutes The marks of the speaking test were based

on the rubric for speaking performance (See Appendix 3)

There were 80 students who were taken part in my experience They had similarlevel of English and knowledge They were sixteen years old and they learn English as

a second language The speaking component in the program was performed in aconventional way: first, the teacher provided pre-speaking activities which providedexplanations of vocabulary and structure The second activity was for studentsspeaking tasks The third activity was using Graphic Organizers for the experimentalgroup while the control group did not use The control group followed the speakingtasks in the text book The last activities students had presented the given topic for twogroups.

At the beginning of teaching in experimental group, the teacher showed theparticipants vocabulary or structure related to the speaking topic After that, the teacherdelivered the Graphic Organizer templates and required them to collect the ideas forthe topic and the students had to follow it to think more ideas that helped themunderstand deeply the main topic of the speaking task To do this activity, the teacherdivided the students into 8 groups Each group had a copy of graphic organizertemplate and they had to try to complete the template with their own ideas Each grouphad a group leader, he or she had responsibility to divide the tasks and control othersmember’s activities in his or her group Each group also had their secretary and he orshe had responsibility to write down group’s ideas Then, the teacher showed theirstudents some advice make their speaking more coherent For example, they could usetransition words, connectors and the teacher went around helping students Aftercollecting ideas, the students tried to connect the ideas to create a complete speakingpresentation The next step was every group would take turn to present the topic infront of the class Other groups listened and gave their comment or added theinformation to the topic During 4 lessons applied Graphic Organizers, every studentshad to take part in presenting in front of the class Their presentation was carefullyrecorded for analysing the data The teacher’s feedback was given at the end of everylesson

In the fact that there were three similar ways in teaching speaking but the thirdstep had different between Group 1 and Group 2 In Group 1, the teacher used GraphicOrganizers for students collecting main ideas of the topic For example, in lesson 1,the teacher used “Problem and Solution Map” In lesson 2, “Net word Tree” was

implemented while “Timeline” was conducted in lesson 3 The last lesson “Compareand Contrast Matrix” was used Meanwhile, the teacher used the same strategy fortheir students Therefore, both groups practised different strategy It means the teachercan compare the advantages of using Graphic Organizers to check student’s speakingperformance improvement

At the third stage, when the teacher had finished teaching the task, the teacherrecognized the level of increasing students’ speaking performance easily by collectingthe results of the speaking test that students had done after two months The results of

two groups were calculated by the mean and standard, the average of the entire test

which was described on the charts in Chapter 4

In the fourth stage, the important problem of the treatment was how to havegood results from the speaking test Motivation plays an important role in successfulresult It means that when the teacher had finished teaching lessons, the teacher hadalso ten questions for students answer about the advantages and disadvantages oflearning Graphic Organizers The learning Graphic Organizer strategy was theproblem which the students must discuss more and more because this is the newmethod to help them easy organize the speaking coherently and logically

3.5 Instruments of Data Collection

In order to satisfy all the criteria for a good test, in this study the tests weretaken from the Sample PET Tests, which is also known as Preliminary English Test It

is thought to be suitable for the participants’ level of language proficiency At the time

of the study, their English proficiency was at elementary level, so simple speakingtasks were chosen to be more appropriate for the subjects All of these tests areincluded in Appendix 2 The reason for choosing these test items is that all of them can