A STUDY ON THE USE OF STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR SEVENTH GRADERS IN AN ENGLISH CENTER

BÙI THỊ NHÂMA STUDY ON THE USE OF STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR SEVENTH GRADERS IN AN ENGLISH CENTER Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TESOL Code: 60.14.01.11

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY

VINH, 2017

BUI THI NHAM

A STUDY ON THE USE OF STORYTELLING

TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR SEVENTH GRADERS IN AN ENGLISH CENTER

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

BÙI THỊ NHÂM

A STUDY ON THE USE OF STORYTELLING

TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR SEVENTH GRADERS IN AN ENGLISH CENTER

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ KIM ANH, Ph.D

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor Ph.D

Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, vice dean of Foreign Language Department at Vinh

University, for her invaluable guidance, constructive suggestions, cooperation and constant encouragement during the period of the study

I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to all the teachers of the Foreign Language Department at Vinh University, some teachers from Vietnam National University as well as the staff of the Department of Postgraduate studies, whose lectures and ideas have inspired my thesis and who it is impossible to thank individually

I highly appreciate the supports I receive from the teachers as well as students

in my workplace for their cooperation in giving me information

Last but not least, I duly acknowledge the authors whose ideas are borrowed and cited in this study

Due to limited scope, it is sure that in this paper, mistakes are inevitable I hope to receive further comments and advice to make it better

ABSTRACT

This research work entitled “A Study on the Use of Storytelling to Improve

Speaking Skill for Seventh Graders in an English center” aims to explore the

effect of storytelling on students’ speaking skill

This research was conducted at the seventh grade of an English center in Vinh city The study involved 48 students in two classes of seventh grade in “the New Star English Center” The instruments used were speaking tests (pretest and posttest)pilot teaching and questionnaires

Based on the findings, it is recommended that the teachers need to use

storytelling technique to teach speaking skill This study believes that storytelling is very important in teaching English speaking skill because it motivates students and creates chances for students to speak It also allows students to be creative and actively participate in speaking lessons More importantly, it is proven that the use ofstorytelling improved the students’ pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii

ii i

LIST OF TABLE vii

LIST OF FIGURE viii

Chapter 1 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research question 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the study 4

Chapter 2 5

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

2.1 Review of Previous Studies 5

2.2 Speaking skills 6

2.2.1 Definition of speaking skills 6

2.2.2 Elements of speaking 7

2.2.3 Historical overview of the teaching of speaking skills 8

2.2.4 The importance of speaking skills in language learning 10

2.2.5 The characteristics of speaking skills 11

2.2.6 Principles of teaching speaking skills 12

2.2.7 Problems in teaching speaking skills 15

2.2.8 Stages of teaching speaking skills 16

2.2.9 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 17

2.2.10 Activities to develop speaking skills 18

2.2.11 Ways of organizing speaking activities 19

2.3.1 Definitions of storytelling 21

2.3.2 Types of stories 22

2.3.3 A variety of telling activities 23

2.3.3.1 Five- finger telling stories - Prompts for stories 23

2.3.3.2 Oral telling story using prompts 24

2.3.3.3 Chalk talk 24

2.3.3.4 Dramatizations 24

2.3.4 The advantages of storytelling 24

2.3.4.1 The advantage of storytelling in learning speaking skill 24

2.3.4.2 The advantages of storytelling in teaching speaking skill 25

2.3.4 Ways in building up storytelling ability 26

2.3.4.1 Single-word story 26

2.3.4.2 Sentence story 26

2.3.4.3 Writing story in big circle 26

2.3.5 Applying storytelling in teaching and learning 27

Chapter 3 30

METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Participants 30

3.2 Materials 30

3.3 Procedures 31

3.4 Tools for Data collection 32

3.4.1 The questionnaires 32

3.4.2 Experimental plan 33

3.5 Data analysis 33

3.6 Research procedures 33

Chapter 4 34

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.1 Teachers’ responses 34

4.1.1 Teachers’ profiles

4.1.2 Teachers’ perception towards speaking skill and teaching speaking skill 34

4.1.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill 36

4.1.4 Teachers’ opinions about the use of storytelling in teaching English 37

4.2 Students’ responses 38

4.2.1 Students’ profile 38

4.2.2 Students’ perception towards four skills andspeaking skill 39

4.2.3 Students’ difficulties in speaking lessons 43

4.2.4 Students’ perception towards storytelling technique 44

4.2.5 Students’ participation in speaking lesson 47

4.2.6 Benefits of storytelling to students’ speakingskill 48

4.2.7 Difficulties encountered in telling stories 48

4.2.8 Pretest and posttest score 49

4.3 Discussion 52

4.3.1 The effectiveness of storytelling technique 52

4.3.2 Difficulties 55

4.4 Summary 56

Chapter 5 57

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 57

5.1 Conclusions 57

5.2 Implications 58

5.3 Suggestions on using storytelling to develop speaking skills for students in speaking class 58

5.3.1 How to choose a good story? 58

5.3.2 How to organize storytelling? 58

5.4 Limitations 59

5.5 Suggested further research 59

REFERENCES 60

Table 4.1 Teachers’ profile 34

Table 4.2 The teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills 36

Table 4.3 Teachers’ suggestion on encouraging students to speak 37

Table 4.4 Students’ profile 38

Table 4.5 Students’ difficulties in speaking class 43

Table 4.6 Students’ feeling of personal enjoyment 46

Table 4.7 Benefits of storytelling in speaking class 48

Table 4.8 Students’ difficulties in telling story 49

Table 4.9 Distribution of pretest score 50

Table 4.10 Distribution of posttest score 51

Table 4.11 The increase of students’ score in four aspects of speaking 51

Figure 4.1 Teachers’ opinion about the speaking skills 35

Figure 4.2 Teachers’ perception about teaching speaking skills 35

STT : Storytelling technique Q1 : Questionnaire number one Q2 : Questionnaire number two

SA : Strongly agree

A : Agree

N : Neutral

D : Disagree

SD : Strongly disagree

Ss : Students

T : Teacher

% : Percent

Figure 4.3 Teachers’ perception about the use of storytelling in speaking class 38

Figure 4.4 Students’ awareness about language skills 39

Figure 4.5 Students’ attitude towards speaking skills 40

Figure 4.6 Students’ attitudes towards speaking lesson 41

Figure 4.6.1: How interesting? 41

Figure 4.6.2: How difficult? 42

Figure 4.7 Students’ opinion about participating in speaking class 43

Figure 4.8 Students’ attitudes towards the use of storytellingin classroom 44

Figure 4.9 Students’ perspectives towards stories 45

Figure 4.10 Students’ attitudes towards telling stories 45

Figure 4.11 Students’ participation in speaking lesson 47

established all over the country.

It is important to use English in conversation, especially in learning speaking The mastery of speaking skill is priority for many second and foreign language learning as their success in learning is evaluated on the basic of how fluent they are

in English conversation Therefore, in order to speak English well, learners must paygreat attention to learning well (Richards, 1990)

The notion of English as an international language has prompted the

importance of speaking skill The Ministry of Education and Training has introducedthe new pilot English textbook which not only focuses on 4 skills equally but also provides student knowledge about English speaking cultures It would be better if learners can speak it for communication in different contexts and situations

However, how to teach and learn English in Vietnam has still been encountering many problems Many students from elementary school to senior high school and even university have trouble in speaking English or have limited ability to use English as a communicative tool in real life, even though the National curriculum has put English as a compulsory subject and obliges students to learn English

There are internal and external factors which cause this problem The former

factors come from students themselves They are afraid of making mistakes, are shy

to speak or do not want to speak The later ones are mostly related to the teachers themselves and their abilities in handling the teaching- learning process, such as teaching technique, motivation, mastering of materials and class management

These days, it is fundamental to communicate in second language in which speaking skill is an important element in the process of communication Brown and Yule (1983) believe that many language learners regard speaking skills as the criteriafor knowing a language In other word, it is a priority for learners in evaluating their success in learning, on the basic of how fluent they feel that they become in their spoken English foreign language

To improve the speaking ability of the students, there are several different techniques that can be used such as role playing, giving speeches, group discussions,storytelling etc Storytelling is one of the techniques commonly used and one of interesting technique which can be employed in language learning However, it is not fully exploited by secondary school teachers in my center

This is reason why I choose to conduct the research titled “A study on the use

of storytelling to improve speaking skills for seventh graders in an English center” I hope my study will make some contributions to the improvement of

speaking ability

1.2 Aims of the study

The aims of this research are to find out whether the implementation of

storytelling technique would help improve students speaking ability and how

effective of this technique is on four aspects of speaking skills, namely

pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency

1.3 Research question

There are two research questions to be addressed in this study:

1 What are students’ attitudes towards the use of the storytelling technique in their speaking class?

2 What are the benefits of storytelling for 7th graders in the classroom?

3 Can storytelling improve student’s fluency, grammar, vocabulary,

pronunciation and comprehension?

1.4 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of time and knowledge, the study focuses specifically on using storytelling in teaching speaking skills for secondary school students So the study restricts itself to the teaching and learning speaking only and the subjects of the study are students from an English center in Vinh city

1.5 Method of the study

This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaires, experimental plan and class observation

Firstly, for its versatility and straightforward data processing, the survey questionnaires were employed to collect data quickly from a large number of

participants

Secondly, an experimental plan was conducted, in which there was an

experimental group which was taught speaking skill with storytelling technique and

a conventional group In the study there was a pretest and a posttest to evaluate the implementation of storytelling

Lastly, class observation was used to investigate the issue in practice with an objective view

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of 5 chapters

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the topic of the study by stating

rationale, aim, scope, research questions, method and organization

Chapter 2 reviews the theoretical background concerning teaching and learningspeaking skills and storytelling

Chapter 3 includes the setting of the study, participants and techniques for collecting data

Chapter 4 deals with the findings and discussions from statistical results

Chapter 5 draws conclusion by explicitly answering the research questions, give some recommendations for English language practitioners and proposes topics for further research

The study ends up with ‘References’ providing a list of sources of materials which are used during the process of writing the study and ‘Appendix’ with the survey questionnaires for students

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter shapes the background that is relevant to teaching and learning speaking skill as well as storytelling

2.1 Review of Previous Studies

Related to the implementation of Storytelling Technique (STT) in teaching, several previous studies have been conducted First, a research was done by Fikriah (2016) This study was designed as Classroom Action Research project to study the effectiveness of using storytelling to improve English speaking skill of primary school students The purpose of this study was to give meaningful results either for theoretical or for practical concerns for improving teaching for ESL speaking or for other skills This research was conducted in two cycles with each circle consists of three meetings The instruments used for collecting the data were observation sheets for the teacher and students, and a speaking test and questionnaire for students After analysis, it could be concluded that the implementation of STT for teaching with narrative texts was effective not only to improve students speaking ability but also the ability to produce fluent and comprehensible grammatical correct sentences.Another study was done by Herminda (2013); this experimental design aimed

to study the effect of storytelling on improving speaking skills of second year

students at SMPN 1 Boyolangu, Tulunggagung The purpose of the study was to findout if there were any significant differences in students speaking ability before and after using storytelling technique The data analysis used a t-test The results of the test showed that students speaking ability was improved after using this technique.Another study, by Kusumastusi (2010), was an exploratory study to study the effect of storytelling on growth reading interest among kindergarten students in

Pabelan, Semarang The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of the effect of storytelling on growth in reading interest of children in a kindergarten 52 kindergarten children involves in this The data collection technique used

questionnaires and interviews The results that students really enjoyed the

storytelling activities with 91% of participants showed that the use of storytelling gave a great boost to the growth in reading interest

2.2 Speaking skills

2.2.1 Definition of speaking skills

Speaking skills refers to communication in the light of linguistics It is

supposed to be one of the most important practical skills Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode Speaking skills of a second or foreign language is regarded as

a very complicated task So far there are different ways to define speaking Each wayfocuses on one aspect of speaking However, they all state speaking involves in speech and through speak speaker expresses his ideals, feelings, etc Brown and Yule

(1983) define “speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that

involves producing, receiving and processing information”.

Sharing the same idea, Chaney (1998) considered speaking as “the process of

building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbol in a variety of contexts”.

A comprehensive discussion of the nature of speaking is provided by Bygate (1987), who shows that in order to speak a foreign language, it is obviously

necessary to have micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together to form sentences However, these motor perceptive skills, as Bygate call them, are not sufficient since while producing sentences, we often have to adapt them to the circumstances He

then presents the second set of speaking skills: the interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic motor-perception skills in deciding what to say and how

to say it, while maintaining the intended relation with others

Kramsch (1993) claims that “speaking means negotiating and adjusting one’s speech to produce the desired effect on the listener” To hold the interaction in speaking, both speaker and listener have to work together and they must pay

attention to what is being said to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation during the speaking In this case, the speaking interaction between a speaker and listener is an event that provides information which they must pay attention to tackle well to ensure understanding of the oral communication

Different linguistics define concepts of speaking in different ways but they all agree that if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking

in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner participation as well as motivation,making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be

2.2.2 Elements of speaking

Harmer (2001) claimed that some elements should be included in spoken

language: the first one is being connected speech, the second one is an expressive

device, the third one Lexis and grammar and the last one negotiation language Being connected speech refers to the ability to sound words correctly and connect the

sound to words to each other Expressive devices include pitch change, intonation,

and stress to convey different meaning The third reflects the ability of using phrases

in appropriate way depends on the language function The last elements means that the speaker can make clarification and display good talking structures by creating

effective speaking.

Brown (2001) also indicated that rhythm and intonation, fluency and accuracy

are three aspects of speaking Speaking fluency means being able to communicate one’s ideas without having to stop and think too much about what one is saying Accuracy reflects the speaker’s ability in using the word naturally

2.2.3 Historical overview of the teaching of speaking skills Throughout

history of foreign language teaching, speaking skills have not always been central in second language teaching methodologies although the practice of speaking in

classroom is a key element in the development of second language

The Grammar Translation Method grew up in the early eighteenth century to the nineteenth century This method traditionally focused on reading texts and sentences,translating them from the L1 to the L2 and vice versa Richard and Rodgers (2001) state that “Grammar Translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language, first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by

application of this knowledge to the tasks of translating and sentences and texts into and out of the target language” Hence, the progress in language was measured by the ability to read prestigious literacy texts as well as the translation of passages fromone language to another

Moving on, the Reform Movement (Howatt, 1984) considered that resorting to comparison with the L1 was not the best way to achieve fluency in L2 use Instead, speech was seen as a key element in the teaching of language Speech as a medium for learning therefore came to be used in a variety of different approaches which embraced the scope it offered for immediacy, correction and repetition

In the end of the nineteenth century, the Direct method appear to compensate the lackcommitted by the Grammar Translation method, it supported the idea that any

foreign language could be taught without translation or the use of the learner’s

mother tongue if the meaning is conveyed Richard and Rodgers (2001) claimed that the native speaker’s language is the model, but it supports creating an oral based methodology Its emphasis was placed very firmly on the spoken language which can

be successfully realized through a systematic attention to pronunciation The Direct method takes oral communication as fundamental and pronunciation is emphasized from the outset; as opposed to the grammar translation method, the student’s native language is not used in the classroom

The Audio-Lingual method has appeared by the entry of USA into the World War II.This method was based on a bending of principles, of behavior psychology and percepts of structural Linguistics It emphasizes language structures with vocabulary and grammar structures tending to be presented through dialogue which are learned

by imitation and repetition

In the early 1970s the Silent Way method appeared The basic tenets of the approach are that learning is facilitated if the learner discovers rather than remembers or repeats In other word, it supports the idea that student must take part in their

learning by taking their responsibilities to choose their own strategies rather than repeating inputs from teacher In the Silent Way, the personal aspect of speech can

be seen in the focus on the use of language for self-expression and on developing independence from teacher

The Total Physical response was developed by James J Asher This method relies

on the assumption that learning a foreign or a second language is through a process similar to the first language development

Communicative language teaching, in turn, followed a functional approach and favored the pragmatic functions of speech The focus of this method lies on

becoming communicatively competent so as to use the language appropriately in given communicative language contexts It takes the position that linguistic

competence must develop along with the ability to convey intended meaning

appropriately in different social contexts Current interactionist and socio-cultural approaches also focus on the negotiation of meaning in face to face interaction

2.2.4 The importance of speaking skills in language learning

The important of speaking skills is enormous for the learners of any languages since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Language is a toolfor communication and it is used in a variety of situations It is an important skill thatmakes you a more fluent language user; speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say; it is a chance to test hypothesesabout language

Nunan (2003) states that teaching speaking means to teach students to produce the English sounds and sounds pattern, to use words and sentences stress, intonation patterns, and the rhythm of the second language, to select appropriate words and sentence according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject

matter, to organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence, to use

language as a mean of expressing values and judgments, to use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency

Additionally, Nunan (1992) states that the success in an oral conversation is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language

If a student does not know how to speak and has no chance to speak in the language classroom, he will lose interest in learning In the speaking class, on the contrary, if the teacher does not organize right and positive activities, the speaking of a language will become less and less interesting

Brown and Yule (1983) point out that speaking plays an ever important role in

a very transactional intention, that is, to make clear what they want to say Speaking

not only helps students to communicate well and exchange information and culture with others but also promotes the integration of speaking, listening, reading and writing in the way that reflect natural language use.

The active engagement in attempting to communicate will facilitate learning to speak

in a second or foreign language Speaking is closely related to selfrealization; much

of impression about people comes from what they say and how they say it For the reason, the teaching of speaking skill should be able to give contribution to the improvement of students’ speaking ability

2.2.5 The characteristics of speaking skills

Spoken and written language makes different demands on language producers, (Brown and Yule, 1983) Unlike readers or writers, speakers may need patience and imagination They take turns by turns in a conversation After a speech, the speaker should let a gap time for the listener to say Communication rarely works when two

or more people are speaking at the same time To have an integral and equal

relationship, each person needs to feel that others are listening to their problems and speech, and they need to be able to do the same for others

The following are characteristics of speaking:

The context in which it occurs creates its form and meaning, including the participants themselves their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes of speaking It is often unlimited, open- ended, and evolving

Nevertheless, speech may be predictable Language roles which tend to repeat in some discourse contexts can be recognized and painted

Speaking offers that participants know how to use and give out certain points

of language called “linguistic competence” such as vocabulary, grammar, intonation,

as well as they understands when, why, and in what ways to produce language

(sociolinguistic competence).

Not the same as written language, speech has its own colors, structures, and conventions A good speaker unifies the statistics of skills and knowledge to get through a given speech act

Bygate (1987) confirms speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways As thefact that almost all people can speak, and so they take speaking skill too much for granted He also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skilled Learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions Bygate also highly appreciates speaking by stating that speaking is the medium through which much language is learnt

In conclusion, it is reasonable that speaking is a way to communicate with people By studying what a speaker should do, what activities should be used in a speaking class, and what students needs and suggests, teachers can help learners enhance their speaking skill and oral competence

2.2.6 Principles of teaching speaking skills

According to Larsen Freeman and Anderson (2011) the challenge for the teacher is to create a classroom environment which does not look like a normal classroom” so “ the teacher should try to provide as relaxed and comfortable an environment as possible”, because he believed that “Language learning is more effective when it is fun” and “learning is facilitated in a relaxed, comfortable

environment”

Ur (1996) also set some principles as follow:

Firstly, teacher should take account of the student as a person It means that the

teachers should be sensitive, sympathetic and encouraging They should select

material that is motivating and within students’ ability.

Secondly, teachers should reduce anxiety by moving from easy to less easy It

means that teachers should provide a familiar, private environment and help students

to take short turns

Moreover, teachers should maintain a careful balance between fluency and

accuracy It requires that the teachers should provide practice in pronunciation, word

stress, sentence stress and intonation Besides, the teachers should also provide students with opportunities for fluent use of speech

Additionally, teacher should provide good model for students to imitate They

should consciously teach correct pronunciation and repeatedly use target speech patterns

Providing appropriate stimuli for eliciting speech is also another aspect should

be taken into account The teachers can use a wide variety of sources such as: books, radios, audio and video cassettes, etc as well as pictures, stories, songs

Additionally, the teachers should vary classroom interaction modes They can

arrange the class activities in different ways: individual to whole class, in pair work

or group work

Moreover, to give clear instructions, teachers should speak loudly, slowly,

clearly It is a good idea that teachers should demonstrate the proposed tasks

themselves

Teachers also had better monitor students’ activity continuously They should

encourage those who find the activity difficult and praise students who perform well

or try hard to fulfill the task

Also, teachers should prepare well for the class They should make a checklist

of things to obtain and a checklist of things to do

Finally, teachers should handle errors sensitively and effectively They should ignore performances errors and ignores that are repeated.

Brown (1994) presents some speaking techniques that teachers should considerdeeply before designing a lesson His principles are followed:

Techniques should cover learners’ needs, from focus on accuracy to

interaction, meaning and fluency Students now still follow the traditional learning

ways, that they learn how to the grammar correctly first to do the test well, and then notice the others factors They believe that grammar focus will add them to pass highly the exam; interaction and fluency are only used after graduating Good study result at school consequently is hoped to achieve first Therefore, teachers should know that and help them to get accuracy integrating with communicative skills and fluency shortly after

Techniques should be intrinsically motivating The student’s preferences to the

lesson depend much on techniques Teachers should take students’ interests and goals into consideration to appeal them in lesson Teachers should also help learners recognize the effectiveness of activities by telling them why they organize those activities

Techniques should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts Authentic materials are close and useful to students They can help them to

understand easier and quicker as well as relate problems to life effectively

Therefore, they can help motivate participations

Provide appropriate feedback and correction In most ESL situations, learners

are totally dependent on teachers for useful linguistic feedback It is important that teachers take advantage of their knowledge of English to produce the kinds of

corrective feedback that are appropriate at the moment

Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening Many speaking

activities consist of listening so teacher should integrate these two skills Besides, these two skills can reinforce each other

Encourage the development of speaking strategies Teachers should make the

classroom as the place for learners to be aware of and have a chance to practice their personal strategies for accomplishing oral communicative purposes

2.2.7 Problems in teaching speaking skills

Although speaking is perceived as the most fundamental skill to acquire, it is also a commonly recognized fact that achieving proficiency in foreign language speaking in classroom conditions is not an easy task The first problems are related toindividual learners’ personalities and attitudes to the learning Ur (1996) lists out the following:

• Inhibition: Different from reading, writing and listening activities, speaking

requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience Students are frightened ofmaking mistakes when teachers ask them to try to express something in front of the whole class, or afraid of criticism, losing face, or simply shy of the attention their speech attracts

• Nothing to say: learners have problems with finding motives to speak, or

have no motivation to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak Besides, they have an idea but they can speak out, they have trouble in

formulating opinions or relevant comments

• Low or uneven participation: this problem is often caused by the tendency of

some learners to dominate in the group One participant can talk at a time in a large group This means that one have only little time in a large group

• Mother- tongue use: It is easy to find in less disciplined or less motivated

classes Learners feel more natural and easier to express themselves in their native language.

Burns and Joyce (1997) identify three factors that may cause students’

reluctance in participating in classroom tasks which involve speaking They said cultural factors, linguistic factors and psychological or affective factors lead to the

student’s unwillingness Cultural factors rooted in student’s prior learning

experiences and consequently from the expectations that are formed on their basic

Linguistic factors that hinder students from speaking consists of the difficulties in

phonetics and phonology of the target language, poor knowledge of the grammar patterns or low awareness of the cultural or social knowledge required to process

meaning in the target language Psychological or affective factors include low

motivation level, shyness or anxiety in class, negative social experiences and culturalshock

In conclusion, all these findings reveals that students might encounter

difficulties in the teaching-learning process, especially the feeling of anxiety

Teachers, therefore, should always encourage students to speak when teaching speaking

2.2.8 Stages of teaching speaking skills

There are three stages in a speaking lesson: pre-speaking, while- speaking and post- speaking In each stage the teacher and student has their own activities and in each stage speaking activity has its own characteristics

The Pre- speaking stage: at this stage, teacher dominates class activities, her/histalking time is much It begins before students actually speak Teacher introduces topic and gives students clear instructions on what they have to do This stage can be seen as the preparation for the students With some activities such as brainstorming,

discussion task and vocabulary tasks or pre-speaking questions, students will find it familiar to the topic they are going to speak Moreover, this is the step in which teachers motivate students and raise the interest in the lesson.

The While- speaking stage: this stage is often called controlled speaking Teachers can design the activities basing on the tasks in the textbook or adapt some more activities to raise the communicative factors in this stage Students are

supposed to do the tasks in pair or in group work This stage aims to develop

students’ speaking skill by doing the controlled tasks and activities themselves The task and activities also supply opportunities for students to practice the fluency and accuracy Teacher needs to monitor the activities and provide help for the weak students who have difficulties completing the tasks

The post speaking stage: like the follow-up stage, after students have practices speaking skill in the while-speaking stage, they do an extension speaking activities Students are required to use the language knowledge to produce their speaking communicatively At this stage, teacher plays the role as observer, assessor who provides appropriate feedback to students

2.2.9 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity Student’s speaking

skills can improve considerably when teachers keep in mind the following principles

of successful speaking activities suggested by Ur (1996)

• Learners talk a lot: Learning to speak a new language requires students to

speak a lot both in class and outside As much as possible of the period time allotted

to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with the teachers’ talk and pauses

• Participation is even: During any speaking activities, every student should

have an equal opportunities to speak Classroom distribution is not dominated by a

minority of talkative participants, all get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed.

• Motivation is high: when students are highly motivated to participate in

classroom discussions, they overcome fear and eventually develop stronger speaking skills Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

• Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterancesthat are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the criteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned-above criteria

2.2.10 Activities to develop speaking skills

• Picture-based activities: Pictures are great ways to start students

talking Pictures-based activities can be as simple as having students describe what they see in pictures That will help lower-level students develop speaking accuracy skills Pictures for discussions can be used with intermediate and advanced students

to help build their speaking fluency Picture-based activities can be used with all levels of classes Teachers need to adjust the nature of the activity according to students’ level

• Information-gap activities: In this kind of activity, students always work in pairs One person has information that the other does not have Students then ask questions to each other to find the missing information Information-gap

activities help build both accuracy and fluency and can be used with all levels of English class.

• Dialogues: Dialogues and drama are another way to get students

talking With dialogues, students are assigned roles and given script for their parts Then practice reciting their lines and perform when ready This is a good way to build confidence in their learners because they know that they are saying correctand that they know exactly when to say what Students notice structures and leam new vocabulary, which helps develop their speaking accuracy Students also get to practice speaking fluently as they focus on pausing and using intonation in the right ways to deliver authentic performances

• Role-play: Role-plays are like dialog performances and they act

accordingly using language they have learned previously It helps to review the words and phrases they might need in the role-play before they start Role-playing is

a good way for students to practice using spoken language It is helpful for all levels

of students and develop both accuracy and fluency

• Conversations: Participating in classroom conversations is a common way for students to develop speaking skills During conversation sessions, students and teachers talk about topics that are interesting to them and at the right level for their language skills As students speak extemporaneously, they build speaking fluency Conversations are most suitable for use in intermediate and higher level classes

• Rehearsed and presentations: to build students’ speaking accuracy and fluency, teacher may assign them to give short speeches on various topics They should have a chance to think, research, plan, and rehearse their speeches Rehearsed presentations are usually most successful when students are at intermediate and

higher level because they usually requires stronger speaking skills.

• Songs and games: Using songs and games in teaching English is also good for developing students’ speaking skills Songs and games can be used for developing either accuracy or fluency

2.2.11 Ways of organizing speaking activities

The way in which a classroom is organizing can have a significant influence

on language learning processes Student- centered learning has dominated second language learning processes instead of the traditional teacher- dominated

classroom The teacher-centered classroom characterized by the teacher’s speaking most of the time, leading activities, and constantly passing judgments on students’ performance, while in a highly student-centered classroom, students will be

observed working individually or in pairs and small groups The following are different ways of organizing classroom activities:

• Pair work: the teachers divide the whole class into pairs Every student

works with her or his partners, all the pairs work at the same time

• Open or public pair work: as with the pair work, the class will be

divided into pairs, and each pair of students speaks in turn in front of theclass

• Group work: the teacher divides class into small groups to work

together, as in pair work, all the group work at the same time

• Whole class activity: the whole class takes part in activity together An

example of this activity is Circle games These games involve the

learners sitting in a circle and work as the whole class

Choosing different ways of organizing the class depends on many things such as the leaners’ level, the activity, personal characteristics of the students, the

teacher, subject matter, and so on For certain types of activities, pair work and groupwork have a number of advantages over working with the whole class The benefits are as the following:

• Pair work and group work give students far more chance to speak English

• Working in pairs or groups encourage students involve and

concentrate on the tasks

• Students feel less anxious when they are working in group than work

privately in the front of the class

• Pair work and group work encourage the students to share ideas and

Besides, Caine et al (2005) considered storytelling for ages has been the primary way that people and cultures access, express, and retain information and knowledge Studies have shown that storytelling has made significant contributions

to speaking and listening in building language skills For examples, Fox (1993), Davies (2007), Bloch (2010) have demonstrated the confidence with which children can structure narrative orally and experiment with language through storytelling Based on his study, Haven (2007) identifies storytelling to be powerful, motivating and effective, stating that “factual and conceptual information is learnt faster and better, and will be remembered longer, recalled more readily and applied more accurately when that information is delivered as a well-told story”.

Blaine (1990) articulates storytelling approach focused on speaking skill The storytelling guides teachers to tell personalize stories to the learners in their foreign language, in this case, this language teaching method is implemented by teachers all over the world especially in the field of Teaching English as a foreign language Thispowerful foreign language teaching method empowers teachers to find that they can teach the language holistically without having to teach grammar rules

McDury and Alterio (2003) summarize that if educators and students practice reflective learning through storytelling, the learning result will be more meaningful, challenging and stimulating Furthermore, the creating transformative selfknowledge and personal growth will be additional benefit offered through storytelling

2.3.2 Types of stories

Different linguistics use different ways to classify stories Helen and Berice (1996) classify stories into ten subcategories:

• Fable: a short moral story not based on fact, using animals as characters, such

as, Aesop’s Fables- the Wolf in Sheep’s clothing, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and

others.

• Fairytale: a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy

characters, such as Cinderella, Frog-Prince, etc.

• Folk tale: a traditional story, in which ordinary people gain special insight,

transforming them and enabling them to overcome extraordinary obstacle Like The

Three Little Big or The Magic Orange Tree.

• Legend: a story based on the life of a real person in which events are

depicted larger than life, for instance, The Story of Robin Hood or King Arthur and

The Knights of The Round Table.

• Myth: any traditional stories consisting of events that are ostensibly

historical, explaining the origins of a culture practice or natural phenomenon For

example, Psyche and Eros, Zeus, Hera and Little lo and Hermes and Apollo.

• Parable: a fictitious story told to point to a moral, for example, The Sower and The Seed from the New Testament of the Bible

• Personal story: a life story from your own or your family’s experience, such

as, Streets and Alley by Syd Lieberman.

• Religious story: an historical and philosophical story based on a particular

culture and religious persuasion, for instance, The Story of Lazarus from the Bible.

• Tall tale: a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and

factual Some stories such as these are exaggerations of actual events, for example

Fish Story, Australian Bush Stories.

• Traditional tale: a story handed down orally from generation to generation,

such as the Polynesian stories- Maui and the Coming of Maori.

2.3.3 A variety of telling activities

2.3.3.I Five- finger telling stories - Prompts for stories

A simple five-finger technique can help guide students through telling stories Each finger represents one of the following questions:

Who was the characters in the story?

What happened in the story?

Where did the story take place?

When dis the story take place?

Why did the action happen the way it did?

2.3.3.2 Oral telling story using prompts

When telling a story, student’s thought can be organized through visual

prompts Prompts such as finger puppets and felt boards provide a concrete structure

to frame the stories (Owocki, 1999) Make simple puppets by photocopying or drawing the main characters from a story and gluing them to crafts sticks Teachers can also use these with a felt board- a small board covered in felt - using adhesive or Velcro

2.3.3.3 Chalk talk

Morrow (1989) describes chalk talks as retelling in which students draw

aspects of a story while telling about it This technique is great for older students, andworks with both fiction and nonfiction texts Chalk talks are most effective when students have enough room to see how their retelling is evolving as they draw Usingchalk (on chalkboard or the sidewalk) allows students to erase and redo elements of the retelling as needed Teachers can also use mural or chart paper with markers

2.3.3.4 Dramatizations

The students’ favor of dramatic play provides them with a natural way to recreate a story Teachers can group students into small one and divide them with certain character from story Older students, who might be reading more complex stories, can choose a particular part of the story to act out, such as the emotions of a particular character or what a character might have been thinking and why

2.3.4 The advantages of storytelling

2.3.4.1 The advantage of storytelling in learning speaking skill.

The act of storytelling generally brings advantages to the learners

Jack McGuire listed the benefits of the use of storytelling technique in his

book, creative storytelling, “specific educational and social benefits to storytelling

from a child’s point of view are numerous and well documented” Some of the value McGuire touched upon are “helping a child recognize patterns in language,

stimulating a child’s powers of creativity, providing a child with problem solving anddecision making activities, strengthening a child’s capacity to form objective,

rational and practical applications, assisting a child to develop skills in dialogue and cooperative interpersonal behavior” It also familiarizes and introduces a child to symbols and, and traditions of different cultural heritages shared among the people around them There are tremendous gains to be made through storytelling as a

strategy to increase the oral language of second language learners in particular

Similarly, Margaret Read Macdonald states in her book “The storytellers

Start-up Book” the values that storytelling instills into its participants “it hones our

literary and imaginative skill We improve our ability to listen, speak, imagine, compose phrases and create stories” Macdonald continues on in her book to say that

“storytelling broadens our awareness of our own as well as other cultures, allow us tounderstand ourselves better, gives us a sense of belonging to a group and increases our vocabularies’

2.3.4.2 The advantages of storytelling in teaching speaking skill

Storytelling has great value for teachers in fostering a relaxing and intimate atmosphere in the classroom It is an important way to attract students’ attention It makes students pay attention to learning, so they engage more on the lesson

According to Fisher (1985), storytelling is a creative art form that has

entertained and informed across centuries and cultures and its instructional potential continues to serve the teachers There are many reasons a teacher uses storytelling

techniques in teaching speaking Storytelling provides fun and relaxes while

remaining very much within the frame work of language learning

2.3.4 Ways in building up storytelling ability

Rohmah (2012) provides beneficial solution to improve the learners’ ability in storytelling that is asking learners to read the stories and make brief notes for the important events in the story, which leads the learners to tell the story using their own words Also, she suggests 3 main activities that can train learners to be

creatively constructing their stories, namely single-word story, sentence-story, and writing story in big circle

2.3.4.1 Single-word story

This is a simple activity where learners contribute word by word to construct the story This means that a learner is expected to say a single word that is

appropriate to keep the story continue Technically, learners are asked to stand in line

or in circle, sequentially say a words to continue the story If every learner has

contributed a word in the story while the story is still in progress, the activity will still continue by turning to the first learner to continue the story then followed by the next learner until the story finishes

2.3.4.2 Sentence story

The sentence story is applied by asking learners to contribute their ideas in the form of sentences So, a learner will say a sentence to continue the story until the story is complete In term of technique, the process is the same as in the single word story The only main difference is that this activity requires every learner take turn tomake a sentence to improve the flow of the story until the story complete

2.3.4.3 Writing story in big circle

The process of writing story in this activity is done in a circle Therefore, the

first activity is that students form into circles In the process of constructing story, thelearners will contribute their ideas in form of sentences The process is done by writing sentences to continue the story Technically, a learner will write his/her sentence in the paper then gives to the next learner to contribute their sentence The turn will continue to the first learner if the story is not complete.

From the three ways above, we can conclude that the storytelling technique requires learners to be actively contributing their ideas for the improvement of the story

2.3.5 Applying storytelling in teaching and learning

Choosing a simple story with only a few characters and an uncomplicated plot

to start speaking class is the best The story should have action, the plot should be understandable to the students, and the events of the story should have a definite climax that leads to a conclusion the students will find satisfactory According to Ramey (1986), folk and fairy tales are the easiest kinds of stories for beginning storytellers to communicate In selecting these or any story, it is important to keep in mind the characteristic of the students

The students listen to some stories and repeat as they listen This gives them anopportunity to improve their speaking ability They are offered three stories each time and required to practice the one they like best A competition is held every two weeks When every student has learned to tell three to five stories naturally and expressively, they feel much more confident in telling stories in English than before.Activity 1

Divide the students into groups and each group prepares a story Each member

of the group says two to three sentences and the next one continues until the end of the story This process could gradually increase from two or three minutes Before

the lesson, the students could divide their tasks in advance and practice their own parts They could also be given a few minutes to practice in class the whole story if necessary The teacher moves among the groups and chooses two or three groups to present their stories before the class Because the students have enough time to prepare and they are working together, this helps them build confidence and create a lively and brisk atmosphere.

Activity 2

Divide the students into groups with four to five members and each group is given an opening of a story and asked to finish the story in about 20 minutes Then select one student from each group to tell their story in the class and the best one wins 10 points for their group To get everyone fully involved and avoid the liability that each group just asks their best storyteller to do the job, the storyteller are

selected by drawing lots instead of being chosen by them This is also helps enliven the atmosphere of the classroom So each group must work together to make the story as interesting as they can An alternative way is to ask each member of the group to tell a part of the story and make a whole

Activity 3

Ask each group to hand in an incomplete story and redistribute them among thegroups Give the students 20 minutes to read their stories and finish them After each group presents their story, compare it with the original one The most interesting one and the one closest to the original would win the competition

Activity 4

The teacher gives the first sentence to the class and then each student adds one more sentence to make a whole story impromptu Because there is no preparation and nobody has an idea about what the next person will say and where the story is

going, there are often lots of fun and surprise in the game.

There are a few examples of using storytelling technique in speaking class arranged in order of difficulty At first, if the students are not confident in their speaking skills, it is recommended that the students be given enough time to prepare

As the students build their confidence and the classroom language environment becomes more free and active, the teacher could gradually increase the difficulty and make the game more versatile To motivate and encourage the students, points and prizes are granted to good tellers and groups each time

In the process of using stories, the teacher could in different cases, choose to encourage the students to rewrite the stories, using their own language or ask them tokeep the original language as much as they can The former way encourages the students to understand the stories and the latter prompts them to learn to use new words and expressions Besides, pictures, movie and other materials would also be great help in storytelling After a few months, the students speaking ability can be improved to considerable degree