(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) USING DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCESGRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Thị Hạnh USING DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSI

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Hạnh

USING DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HANOI, 2019

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Hạnh

USING DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D.

HANOI, 2019

The research reported in this thesis was approved by Graduate Academy

of Social Sciences

Author’s Signature

Lê Thị Hạnh

Approved bySUPERVISOR

Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D.

Date:………

Although only one name appears as the author of this work, writing a thesis is indeed a collaborative effort I would like to express my sincere thanks

to the many people who made it possible.

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my M.A thesis’s supervisor, Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D for all of her encouragement, timely guidance and useful comments.

I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D and the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable supports.

I also would like to express my colleague and my students to help me with valuable data for the study.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved family and friends who always support me during the progress of conducting and finishing this thesis.

2.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 7

2.4.1 Oral tests 14

2.5.3 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning 21

4.1 Survey questionnaire 1: Student’s motivation in learning English 36speaking lessons

4.1.1 Levels of interest in English speaking lessons and discussion 36activities

4.1.3 Students' difficulties in learning speaking English

4.1.4 Students' preferences for types of discussion activities

4.2 Survey questionnaire 2: Student’s attitude toward discussion

activities after implementation the action

4.2.1 Level of interest in learning speaking lessons

4.2.2 Students' attitude in speaking lessons

4.3 Class Observation Findings

4.4 Students' speaking proficiency

4.4.1 Results of Pre-test

4.4.2 Results of Post-test 1

4.4.3 Results of Post-test 2

4.5 Reflection

4.5.1 Reflection after Cycle 1

4.5.1 Reflection after Cycle 1

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires

Appendix 2: Class observation sheet

Appendix 3: Oral tests

Appendix 4: Speaking band descriptors

Appendix 5: Lesson plans

383840

404142454547505353545657575858596061IIXXIXIVXIX

The study was written based on the research done by the writer as a teacher

at Dong Nai Technology University The study was carried out by usingdiscussion activities with two aims They are: (1) to investigate the EFLstudents’ attitudes towards discussion activities in their speaking classes and (2)

to evaluate the effectiveness of discussion activities applied to English speakingskill teaching and learning

The subjects participating in the research were 25 students (ElementaryLevel) from many Faculties of Dong Nai Technology University To achieve thedesired aims of the study, action research was used as the method to carry outthe study

Classroom observation and survey questionnaires were used to measure thestudents' motivation level before and after the implementation Besides, toclearly see the change in students' speaking proficiency after applyingdiscussion activities in speaking lessons, oral tests were also used as a datacollection technique

The results of the study show that discussion activities helped increase most

of the students’ motivation in speaking lessons In addition, the findings of thestudy also reveal that after using discussion activities in speaking lessons, some

of the students could improve their scores in the post-test Although there wasnot too much change, it was proved that discussion activities played a certainrole in improving the students' speaking proficiency

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral 28Figure 4.1 Students' levels of interest in English speaking lessons 38and discussion activities

Figure 4.2 Students' difficulties in learning speaking English 40Figure 4.3 Students' preferences for types of discussion activities 41

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 2.2.a Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Grammar 16Table 2.2.b Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Vocabulary 17Table 2.2.c Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Comprehension 17Table 2.2.d Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Fluency 18Table 2.2.e Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Pronunciation 18Table 2.2.f Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Task 19Table 3.1 The schedule of the action implementation 32Table 4.1 Students’ speaking opportunities during speaking lessons 39Table 4.2 Students' level of interest in learning speaking lessons 42Table 4.3 Students' feelings in speaking lessons 43Table 4.5 Overall class motivation scores for all students 45

Table 4.6.b Results of students' speaking performance in the pre-test 49

Table 4.7.b Results of students' speaking performance in the post-test 1 52

Table 4.8.b Results of students' speaking performance in the post-test 1 55

LISTS OF ABBREVIATION USED IN THE THESIS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

DNTU: Dong Nai Technology University

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

It is clear that speaking is one of the most important skills amongother foreign language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) Evenwhen learners are good at vocabulary, grammar or listening they still cannotspeak well With the mission “to become an applied university, to trainquality human resources in order to meet the needs of socio-economicdevelopment and international integration” (from www.dntu.edu.vn), English

is one of priority subjects at Dong Nai Technology University

As a teacher at Dong Nai Technology University, I found that speaking is

so hard for non-native English Foreign Language students The teacher alsonoticed that they did not know how speak English well and they wereembarrassed to practice And they are always afraid of making mistakes inspeaking English and keep silence during the lessons So, how to stimulatethem to be active in the speaking classes is a difficult question to answer Tofind the answer to this question, it is necessary to investigate what motivatesand de-motivates students in English learning in general and in speaking inparticular

For the mentioned reasons, I would like to conduct a study on “UsingDiscussion Activities to Improve the EFL Students’ Speaking Skills At DongNai Technology University (DNTU)” The study is to investigate whatmotivates and de-motivates students in English speaking learning

1.2 Aims of the Study

The aim of the study is to improve the EFL students’ English speakingskill at Dong Nai Technology University

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to achieve thefollowing objectives:

- Investigating the EFL students’ attitudes towards discussion activities in their speaking classes.

- Evaluating the effectiveness of discussion activities applied to English speaking skill teaching and learning

1.4 Significance of the Study

In particular, the researcher expects that students will be able toimprove their speaking skill by using discussion activities and the teacher willdevelop her teaching methods in speaking class for other classes In general,the results of the study is hoped to be useful for other teachers and help otherteachers to enrich their teaching method in speaking classes

1.5 Scope of the Study

There is so many discussion activities can be used in speaking classrooms.Due to the limitation of time and human resources, this study only attempts to

do research on random samples of 25 students at DNTU in Dong Nai with twotypes of discussion activities: comparing and ideals from the central theme.The students are non-English majored students The study is conducted in thesecond semester of academic year 2018- 2019 with 2 months The studyfocuses on examining the effectiveness of using discussion activities inincreasing motivation in learning speaking skill and exploring how muchdiscussion activities can increase speaking proficiency of the students

1.6 Research Methods

In order to achieve the aims, action research procedures are used in thestudy The data will be collected via survey questionnaires, class observations,and oral tests

1.7 Structure of the Study

In addition to the references and appendices, the thesis is composed offive chapters:

Chapter one: Introduction - presents the rationale, the aims, the significance,

the scope, and the organization of the study

Chapter two: Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study,

and the review previous researches on using discussion activities to promotestudents’ motivation in learning speaking

Chapter three Methodology - includes the methods and procedures used in the study, which consist of survey questionnaires, classroom observation and tests Chapter four: Findings and Discussions - deal with the findings drawn out from the analysis of data.

Chapter five: Conclusion- draws some the conclusions of major findings,

recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking Skill

2.1.1 Definition of speaking

There are plenty of definitions of the word “speaking” that have beengiven by many researchers in language learning According to Chaney (1988,p.13), speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through theuse verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts

Scott (1978, p.18) states that “speaking can be typified as an activityinvolving two or more people in which the participants are both hearers andspeakers having to react to what they hear and make their contribution.” Thehearers and listeners are required to reflex the information that they haveheard and contribute their ideals

In 1976, Byrne (p.8) claimed that speaking is a two-way process betweenthe speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speakingand the receptive skill of understanding In the two-way process, speakingrequires speaker(s) having productive skill to encode the message andlistener(s) having receptive skill to decode the message

Brown (1983) also noted that speaking is an interactive process ofconstructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processinginformation

Speaking skill is defined as “the range of exercise types and activities with

a communication approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises andactivities enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of thecurriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of suchcommunicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, andinteraction” (Richard and Rodgers, 1986: 165)

To summarize, different researchers have different definitions of the

word “speaking”, however, they all agree with one very important feature of

speaking Speaking is one of the most important skills of all the fourlanguage skills because individuals who learn a language are referred to asthe speakers of that language (Ur, 1996).

2.1.2 The Importance of Speaking

Among the four skills in English (speaking, listening, writing, andreading), speaking skill is one of four skills in English (speaking, listening,writing, and reading) which plays an important part in helping learners learn alanguage effectively Flohr and Paesler (2006) points out that speaking skill isthe most important one in learning a foreign language Flohr and Paesler(2006) also emphasize that "the focus in learning a foreign language is oncommunication activities and expressive abilities and the goal is to become afluent speaker."

Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language,they mean being able to speak the language More than this, speaking isregarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language

Ur (1996) shows that people who knows a language are referred to as

“speaker” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing.According to Brown, G and Yule, G (1992) point out that speaking plays

an ever important role in a very transactional intention, that is, to make clearwhat they want to say

To many language learners “mastering the art of speaking is the singlemost important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, andsuccess is measured in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in thelanguage” (Nunan, 1991, p 39) It can be inferred from Nunan’s view pointthat speaking is a very important skill among the four basic ones Therefore,having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching andlearning is essential that language teachers should pay more attention toteaching speaking skills In order to carry out many of the most basic

transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence.

In conclusion, as Efrizal (2012) Pourhosein Gilakjani (2016) claimedthat speaking is of great significance for the people interaction where theyspeak everywhere and every day Speaking is the way of communicatingideas and messages orally For those all above conceptions of importance ofspeaking, it is necessary for students to learn speaking skill

2.1.3 Problems with speaking activity

There are so many problem that English learners may get such as lack ofvocabulary, not good at grammar or not confident to practice,… All factorseffect to learners in speaking and their respond And it is not easy to be masterfor EFL students to speak English Ur (1996) points out some commonproblems existing in practicing speaking activities:

Inhibition

Learners often have a shy a nervous feeling while speaking, especially infront of class or other people; they worried about making mistake, fearful oflosing face, criticism Unlike reading, writing or listening activities, speakingrequires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience EFL students areoften inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in theclassroom: worried about mistakes or simply shy of the attention that theirspeech attracts

Nothing to say

When learners do not have anything to say due to the lack of knowledgeand low language proficiency or no motive to express themselves beyond theguilty feeling Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complainthat they cannot think of anything to say They have no motive to expressthemselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

Low or uneven participation

When only a few participants dominate discussion at a time in a large

group meanwhile others speak little or not at all In some cases, some studentshave not any chance, intentionally or unintentionally, to speak for a long time.Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In a largegroup this means that each one will have only very little talking time Thisproblem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate whileothers speak very little or not at all.

Mother tongue use

Learners often share the same mother tongue and abuse it in secondlanguage learning class because they feel the native language is easier to useand it is not natural to speak to other in a foreign language In classes whereall, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend

to use it because it is easier In addition, they feel unnatural to speak to oneanother in a foreign language and they feel less ‘exposed’ if they are speakingtheir mother tongue If they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult

to get some classes, particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones, tokeep to the target language.

In conclusion, speaking is considered as one of the most challenging skills

in learning any foreign languages Therefore preparing activities for speakingclass, teachers should pay much attention to above problems, so that thespeaking activities will be successful and useful to students

2.2 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity

There are four main characteristics of a successful speaking activity,which are introduced by Ur (1996)

Learners have to talk a lot As much as possible of the period time

allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seemobvious, but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses

In other words in successful speaking tasks, the students talk a lot in theforeign language One common problem in speaking activities is that students

often produce one or two simple utterances in the foreign language and spendthe rest of the time chatting in their native language Another commonproblem is that the teacher talks too much of the time, thus taking awayvaluable practice time from the students.

Participation is even It is the fact that classroom discussion is not

dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speakand contributions are fairly evenly distributed Whether the task takes placeamong the whole class or in small groups, a successful task should encouragespeaking from as many different students as possible The task should bedesigned in a way so that the outspoken students do not dominate discussions.When necessary, the teacher may interfere to guarantee equal opportunitiesfor students of different levels

Motivation is high It means learners are eager to speak because they are

interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because theywant to contribute to achieving a task objective Research has shown thatmotivation is one of the most important variables in successful languagelearning Teachers can do a lot to increase and maintain the motivation ofstudents by the types of tasks that they organize in class Students are eager tospeak, when the topic is interesting or there is a clear objective that must bereached Again, great care should be taken to make sure the task is in line withthe students' ability to deal with the task If the task is too easy, the studentsmay think it is childish and thus lose interest

Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of anacceptable level of language accuracy In a successful speaking task, thelanguage is at the right level The task must be designed so that students cancomplete the task successfully with language that they have If the studentslack too much vocabulary, the task will become frustrating and the students

are likely to give up or revert to the native language.

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all thecriteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make greatefforts to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of thementioned-above criteria The two discussion activities applied in this study -comparing and layout problems, can help increase students' participation inspeaking tasks, and language used in these activities is of an acceptable levelbecause it is based on what they have learned in the lessons

2.3 Discussion

2.3.1 Definition of Discussion

According to Byrne D (1980) defines discussion as “any exchange ofideas and opinions either on a class basic, with the teacher as mediator, orwithin the context of the group, with the students talking among themselves”.Gulley (1960, p 4) states that discussion occurs when a group with grouporientation purposefully interacts orally for enlightenment or policy-determination If the aim is enlightenment, members systematically define,analyze, and exchange information When the end is problem solving,members systematically define, analyze, evaluate possible solutions, andattempt to agree upon a high quality decision to which all or the majority will

be committed

Regarding to the language teaching, Brown (2001) claimed thatdiscussion is one of the techniques used in language teaching Furthermore, inteaching speaking or teaching oral communication, discussion belongs to one

of the activities to promote teaching speaking in the classroom (Kayi, 2006)

In short, discussion is one kind of speaking activities which students have

a chance to express their ideas in front of their partners

2.3.2 Types of Discussion Activities

There are many discussion activities which has been used; however,

focusing on task-centred discussions Ur (1981, p 25) suggests that theactivities should be divided into three sections - brainstorming, organizing,and compound.

2.3.2.1 Brainstorming Activities

Brainstorming is the techniques whereby members of the group let loose ahail of possible solutions or suggestions, in random order as they occur tothem There are some common activities as the following ones:

● Guessing Games

Guessing is one of the simplest and most well-known brainstormingactivities that exist, and is very easily transformed into a group discussiongame There are always two sides, called here the 'knower(s)' and the'guesser(s)' The guessing game lends itself to use by classes whose English iscomparatively limited, since it is based on the simplest types of utterances:simple questions or statements, brief phrases, single words

The thinking basis here is the search for common denominators or linksbetween different items Unlike guessing games, these activities areunsuitable for the very earliest stages language learning; they can be usedonly with students who have a wide enough vocabulary to cope with the veryextensive imaginative invention required, and who have a reasonable mastery

of the tense system

● Ideas from a central theme

This in a way is the converse of the process of finding connections.Instead of the students being given elements and looking for a common base,the base is given and related elements sought The language needed may bevery simple, hence some variations of this exercise are suitable for elementarylevels

● Implications and interpretation

It is really a slightly more sophisticated version of Ideas from a central theme

It consists of exploring the implications and interpretations of a more or lessambiguous stimulus, which may take the form of an imaginary situation, apicture, a noise, or a doodle The language may be relatively simple, but it isnot limited to specific structures or vocabulary

2.3.2.2 Organizing Activities

These exercises are based on contrast and analogy: that is to say, theyrequire students to discuss and define differences and similarities betweenvarious elements in order to carry out a task of classification As regardslanguage input, advanced students need no preparation for these activitieswhereas elementary ones should be familiar with some certain expressionsused in comparing

● Detecting differences

Also based on contrast and analogy, these exercises are, however, slightlydifferent from those just described The material does not consist of acollection of simple discrete items, but of compound, sometimes complicated,stimuli: pictures, descriptions, stories Two, or possibly three, such stimuli aregiven to the students in such a way that not observe all of themsimultaneously: they have to detect differences by remembering what hasbeen said before or by comparing someone else's version with their own

● Putting in order

This task requires students to evaluate connected pieces of evidence andrecognize causal, temporal or professional relationships between them Thegroup is given several pictures, sentences or passages and asked to put theminto some sort of logical order The picture-sequence exercise is moreappropriate for younger or more elementary classes while the

sentence-sequence for older or more advanced ones.

● Priorities

A specific application of the concept of ordering is that of definingpriorities The language used consists mostly of comparisons, and lower-levelclasses may benefit from a little practice in comparative and superlativeconstructions beforehand

This is another exercise which requires assessment and comparison, buthere participants are asked to choose only one item for a certain purpose.Many different language functions may be needed and the number of differentstructures needed is correspondingly large

These are exercises involving some preliminary reading, and are suitablefor mature, advanced students The basic procedure is similar to that ofchoosing candidates

● Combined versions

This activity begins rather like picture differences, but here texts are usedinstead of pictures, and the identification of differences is only the preliminary.The main task before students is to compare the different variations and decidewhich is right, on the basis of common sense and consistency

2.3.2.3 Compounding Activities

● Composing letters

The task is to compose appropriate responses to letters that are in someway provocative: advising, insulting, appealing, complaining, threatening -anything, in fact, which stimulates a reaction from the recipient Such lettersare not hard to prepare, no specific set of language items need preparation,and also the organization of this exercise is very simple

There are some limitations and disadvantages of the conventional class debate

as a vehicle for fluency practice: the limited scope of its subjects, and therelative lack of participation However, many students particularly the moreadult and intellectual enjoy this kind of discussion because the skills oforatory and dialectics are learner and exercised in a debate better thananywhere else

Most students are familiar with opinion polls or surveys, so they are easilyadapted for use in this type of discussion In order for this to be done in theclassroom, the sources of information or the population samples to be takenare limited to the actual members of the class

Some discussion activities are often used in speaking class at DNTU.They are guessing games, layout problems, debate or detecting differences.The two discussion activities used in this study are comparing and ideals fromthe central theme The students were supposed to work in small groups andthen discuss with the whole class The first activity is comparing which mayhave some disadvantages including the relative lack of participation.Therefore, to increase students' involvement in the activities, the researcher -teacher divided that her class into at least 6 groups This activity is suitable forthe students whose low level at English Moreover, holding the character ofthe students the researcher chose the activities because the students can

prepare at the class only.

2.4 Assessing Speaking Skill

2.4.1 Oral Tests

Sárosdy (2006, p.146) states that "testing speaking ability is an importantaspect of language testing, but it is very difficult to test, as it is a complexskill, moreover speaking skills cannot be separated from the listening skills inmany tests of oral production This interdependence of the speaking andlistening skills makes it difficult to analyze precisely and reliably what istested at any one time."

How to evaluate students' speaking ability is always a question of anyteacher According to Sárosdy’s opinions, in term of oral production speakingskills can no separate from listening skills

In term of oral testing, Asif (2011) claimed that there are three types oforal tests which are: monologue speaking, dialogue speaking, and multiloguespeaking According to the author, a monologue (monolog) is implementedwhen the speaker speaks his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing anothercharacter or speak to the audience, especially the former The author alsostates that dialogue speaking is the most common type of oral test which isused to test students' production dialog material In this type of speaking,hearing recitation of memorized dialogues was the most often used And thelast types of oral test is multilogue speaking In this type, there should bepicture description or discussion on any topic

2.4.2 Speaking Proficiency Testing Criteria

According to Ur (1996, p 135), students' oral speaking ability should bemarked based on the two criteria: fluency and accuracy as followings:

Little or no language produced 1 Little or no communication 1

Poor vocabulary, mistakes in 2 Very hesitant and brief 2basic grammar, may have very utterances, sometimes difficult

Adequate but not rich 3 Gets ideas across, but hesitantly 3vocabulary, makes obvious and briefly

grammar mistakes, slight

foreign accent

Good range of vocabulary, 4 Effective communication in 4occasional grammar slips, short turns

slight foreign accent

Wide vocabulary appropriately 5 Easy and effective 5used, virtually no grammar communication, uses long turns

mistakes, native-like or slight

foreign accent

Total score out of 10:

Table 2.1 Students' oral evaluation criteria

Furthermore, according to Brown (2004, pp.172-173), there are sixcomponents usually used to analyze speech performance, they are grammar,vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, pronunciation and task The band score

of oral proficiency scoring categories in speaking skill can be seen on the

tables below:

Errors in grammar are frequent, but speaker can be

1 understood by a native speaker used to dealing with foreigners

attempting to speak his language

2 Can usually handle elementary constructions quite accurately

but does not have thorough or confident control of the grammar.

Control of grammar is good, able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy to participate effectively in3

most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics

Able to use the language accurately on all levels normally

4 pertinent to professional needs Errors in grammar are quite rare

5 Equivalent to that of an educated native speaker

Table 2.2.a Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Grammar

Speaking vocabulary inadequate to express anything but the most

3 that be rarely has to grope for a word

Can understand and participate in any conversation within the range of his experience with a high degree of precision

Speech on all levels is fully accepted by educate native speakers in

5 all its features including breadth of vocabulary and idioms,

colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references

Table 2.2.b Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Vocabulary

Score Proficiency Description

Within the scope of his very limited language experience, can

1 understand simple questions and statements if delivered with

slowed speech, repetition, or paraphrase

Can get the gist of most conversations of non-technical subjects2

(i.e., topics that require no specialized knowledge)

3 Comprehension is quite complete at a normal rate of speech

4 Can understand any conversation within the range of his experience

5 Equivalent to that of an educated native speaker

Table 2.2.c Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Comprehension

No specific fluency description refer to other four language areas1

for implied level of fluency)Can handle with confidence but not with facility most socialsituations, including introductions and casual conversations about2

current events, as well as work, family and autobiographicalinformation

Can discuss particular interest of competence with reasonable3

ease Rarely has to grope for words

Able to use the language fluently on all levels normally pertinent

4 to professional needs Can participate in any conversation within the range of this experience with a high degree of fluency

Has complete fluency in the language such that his speech is5

fully accepted by educated native speakers

Table 2.2.d Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Fluency

1 Errors in pronunciation are frequent but can be understood by a

native speaker used to dealing with foreigners attempting to speak his language.

2 Accent is intelligible though often quite faulty

Errors never interfere with understanding and rarely disturb the3

native speaker Accent may be obviously foreign

4 Errors in pronunciation are quite rare

5 Equivalent to and fully accepted by educated native speakers

Table 2.2.e Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Pronunciation

Can ask and answer questions on topics very familiar to him Able

to satisfy routine travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements.(Should be able to order a simple meal, ask for shelter or lodging,

1 ask and give simple directions, make purchases, and tell time)

Able to satisfy routine social demands and work requirements;

2 needs help in handing any complication or difficulties

Can participate effectively in most formal and informal

3 conversations on practical, social, and professional topics

Would rarely be taken for a native speaker but can respondappropriately even in unfamiliar situations Can handle informal

4 interpreting from and into language

Speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native

Table 2.2.f Oral Proficiency Scoring Categories Task

According to Kent (2001), some oral evaluation criteria are Fluency ofspeech, Grammar use, Listening comprehension, Pronunciation andVocabulary appropriateness and complexity He also states that for each point

of evaluation, students are graded on a Likert-type scale (1: being poor, 2:

below average, 3: average, 4: above average, 5: excellent.)

It is also written in IELTS speaking band descriptors (published version)that students' English speaking proficiency should be evaluated on fourcriteria such as: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical rangeand accuracy and pronunciation

In summary, there are many criteria to assess students' speakingproficiency However, to choose a suitable technique to assess speakingproficiency is part of the problem At Dong Nai Technology University,candidates are tested is based on IELTS speaking band descriptors (publicversions) but it has been made suitable for the situation of teaching andlearning English speaking there Particularly, it also has four criteria that arefluency and coherence, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation Eachcriterion will be given mark with 2.5 points Therefore, the maximum scorefor the test is 10.0 points in accordance with marking scale required by theUniversity (see Appendix 4)

2.5 Motivation

Motivation in foreign language learning plays an important role Recently,motivation has become a familiar term in learning language There are alsoclassifications and important factors affect students’ motivation

extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because

of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in the activity

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) defined motivation is in terms of learner'sinterest in and enthusiasm for the teaching method used in class, their activeparticipation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels ofconcentration and enjoyment Learning process can only make sense ifstudents enjoy activities and work hard

According to Gardner (1985, pp.50-51), motivation involves four aspects:

a goal, effortful behaviour, a desire to attain the goal and favourable attitudestowards the activity, and motivation is a diffuse concept and is often tied toother factors that influence the energy and direction of behavior factor such asinterest, need, value, attitude, aspiration, and incentives

In summary, from the definitions of the above researchers, motivation isone of important factors to encourage students in learning a foreign language

2.5.2 Types of Motivation in Language Learning

There are many types of motivation in language learning, however, thisresearch only focus on the main ones The most popular classification ofmotivation has been made in cognitive terms as whether it is internal orexternal to the learner In this respect, according to Dornyei (2001a, p 27)intrinsic motivation is to do with "behaviour performed for its own sake inorder to experience pleasure and satisfaction" Concerning learning, it can besaid that the stimulation for learning comes from the spirit of the students,hence, the teacher or instructor does not need to "manipulate" the students tostudy It is an inner desire of the students to fulfill a positive learning outcome.Intrinsic motivation itself is goal related, therefore, it is independent of anykind of external value

Dornyei (2001a, p 27) also indicates that extrinsic motivation is about

"performing behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic

reward or to avoid punishment" This motivation arises from the use ofexternal rewards such as food, praise, free time, money or points toward anactivity These incentives are all external, in that they are separate from theindividual and the task.

In short, intrinsically motivated people fulfill a task for an internal interest;meanwhile extrinsically motivated people accomplish an activity because of anexternal interest

2.5.3 Factors Affecting Motivation in Foreign Language

Learning The learners

As Lightbown and Spada point out in their book "How languages arelearned" (1993), leaners' motivation can be influenced by some certain factorswhich are intelligence, aptitude, personality, preferences, and age ofacquisition Specifically, intelligence is related to students' performance oncertain kinds of tests Aptitude involves the ability to identify and memorizenew sounds, to understand the function of particular words in sentences and tofigure out grammatical rules from language samples The next factor ispersonality that covers a number of personal characteristics such asextroversion, inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance, andresponsiveness Another thing that affects learners' motivation is theirpreferences in acquiring new knowledge In conclusion, age of acquisitionalso influences learners' motivation It is a fact that children are believed to bebetter in acquiring a foreign language and in speaking the new language thanadults

As the authority in the class, whether a teacher supports autonomousstudy in the class or not is very important A teacher who offers learnersoptions and choices of learning tasks and allows learners to have the right tomake decisions in the learning process will enhance learners' sense of self-determination and their intrinsic learning motivation.

The teaching and learning conditions

The teaching and learning conditions can be divided into two main partswhich are physical conditions and classroom atmosphere Physical conditions

in the classroom, including the classroom size, chairs, desks, tables, lights,boards and even bulletin boards, affect learners' motivation either positively

or negatively In addition, it should be noticed that the classroom is not only apsychological but also physical environment Therefore, posters, flowers orfunny objects can have a strong influence on the classroom atmosphere

Besides, classroom atmosphere also plays an important part in the process

of learning It is the teacher's task to create a pleasant and supportiveclassroom atmosphere A number of various components contribute to make

up the ideal classroom climate such as teacher's rapport with students,students' relationship with each other and the norm of tolerance; which helpsstudents feel safe and comfortable to take risks

In short, learners' roles, teachers' duty, and teaching and learningconditions have great influence on students' motivation in learning a foreignlanguage in general and in speaking skill in particular

the study After implementing the action, she claimed that most of herstudents showed their interest in the role-play activities and their speakingskill had been improved significantly.

Honang Adi Ryyanto (2015) did a research on "Improve speaking skillthrough speaking discussion” There were 3 aims of the research The first is

to describe the procedure of implementation of small group discussion toimprove the students’ speaking skill for third grade of Vocational SecondarySchool Pancasila Salatiga The second is to find out whether there isimprovement of students’ speaking skill through small group discussion ornot And the last is to find out to what the extent the use of small groupdiscussion improve the students‘ speaking skill The research method that isused in this research is classroom action research The subjects of the researchwere 14 students in third grade at Vocational Secondary School PancasilaSalatiga The researcher uses two cycles; each cycle consists of planning,action, observation and reflection The result of his research shows that there

is an improvement of students’ speaking skill using small group discussiontechnique It can be seen from T-Test calculation in cycle 1 is 5.91 and cycle

2 is 6.31 And also the increasing percentage of the oral test from cycle 1 tocycle 2 with the standardized score (the minimum of passing criteria) is 75, atthe cycle 1 is 57.14 % students and 78.58 % in the cycle 2 who pass in oraltest The increasing of oral test from cycle 1 to cycle 2 is 21.44 % Thisindicates that by applying small group discussion technique, the students’speaking skill can be improved

In addition, Phạm Thanh Mai (2007) did research on group discussion andits impacts on speaking ability of the EFL students in Military ScienceAcademy To make the research study more reliable she divided the 16selected students randomly into four groups, all of whom are at the samelanguage level Besides distributing two questionnaires before and after the

implementation of the study, the researcher carefully recorded group workand individual presentations on a weekly basis for a period of two-monthstudy The results of the study show that group discussion has great impact onspeaking ability of the students Most of them found that their speaking abilityhad been improved after working in group discussion.

For those researches mentioned above, it is clear that discussion activitiesare very important in improving speaking skill Moreover, the teacher isfacing with non - majored students’ attitude in participating speaking lessons,therefore, she want to do this research to motivate students in learningspeaking English lessons as well as their speaking proficiency

2.7 Chapter Summary

In this chapter, the research reviewed main theory which related to theresearch In the first part, the author reviewed definitions of speaking skills,the importance of speaking, problems with speaking activity, andcharacteristics of a successful speaking activity The next part is aboutdefinition of discussion, types of discussion activities In addition, how toassessing speaking skill was reviewed in the next part with definition of oraltest and speaking proficiency testing criteria The last part, which wasmentioned in this chapter, is motivation with definition of motivation andtypes of motivation in language learning

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a review of methodology of the study It describes indetail the research design, the setting and subjects, the procedures, and theinstruments

3.1 Research Design

In order to conduct the study, classroom action research was used.According to Dick (2002), action research is a natural way of acting andresearching at the same time It is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can beutilized by teachers in order to improve the rationality and justice of their ownpractices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in whichthese practices are carried out (Carr & Kemmis, 1983) It was effective to usethis method because this study dealt with classroom setting Furthermore,action research is proved to have a lot of benefits to education According toGay & Airasian (2003), when applying this method, teachers can investigatetheir own practice in new ways, looking deeper in what they and theirstudents actually do and fail to do; teachers can develop a deeperunderstanding of students, the teacher learning process and their role in theeducation of both teachers and students; in most cases, solutions for identifiedproblems are arrived cooperatively among teachers; teachers are viewed asequal partners in deciding what works best and what needs improvement intheir classroom or classrooms

Therefore, by using this design in implementing the discussion activities

in teaching speaking in the researcher's specific class, the researcher hopes tofind out good method to improve students’ motivation and increase thestudents’ speaking proficiency

According to Kemmis and McTaggart (2000, p 564), the following figureillustrated an action research's cycles which the author used in the study

Figure 3.1 Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral

According to these authors, each action research cycle should involve:

- acting and observing the process and consequences of the change

- reflecting on these processes and consequences and then replanning for the next cycle

Particularly, this study underwent the following steps:

● Conducting preliminary investigation

● Planning the action

● Implementing the action

● Observing the action

● Reflecting the action

3.2 Setting and Subjects of the Study

The study was conducted at Foreign Languages Center - DNTU, located

at Nguyen Khuyen Street, Trang Dai Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Inorder to meet the needs of socio-economic development and internationalintegration, English is a compulsory subject at the university At DNTU, there

are 5 modules (General English 1, General English 2, General English 3,General English 4, General English 5) that students have to pass beforelearning their English for Specific Purposes.

General English 2 is the course of this study and the book namedIdiscover 2 (Elementary Level) from Express Publishing is course book Thisbook has 3 units including 3 topics: Home and away, Come rain or shine, Life

in the past The book focuses on four skills with 45 periods; however the datafor the study was collected during 5 speaking lessons By the end of thecourse students are expected to be able to communicate in English atElementary level as the detail:

 Applying comparative structures, using prepositions to indicate theplace, and verbs of defect in conversation and writing

 Know how to compare places, buy tickets, request / give advice

 Describe the ongoing activity, give suggestions, describepictures, and apply fluently to the conversations, descriptive articles

 How to describe places and memories in childhood

 Talk about your favorite movies and express your feelings

In order to collect the data for the study, 25 students were randomlychosen to participate in the study Most of the students are fresh-man and justsome of them are the second - year students who just finishes Level A1 atEnglish This module lasts 10 weeks with 45 periods, 4 periods each week, 40minutes each period

The teacher as well as the researcher, she is 30 year- old with 8 - yearexperience She works for International Relations Department, however sheusually teaches at night Besides, the researcher also invited another teacher ofDNTU to take part in examining the students' speaking proficiency through

the oral tests, and take part in overall class observation during the five lessons

of the implementation the action He has at least three-year teachingexperience at the university He has good knowledge of English as well as theknowledge the subject matter, and has taken part in examining students'speaking proficiency

3.3 Research Procedures

Preliminary investigation was carried out before the action to measurelevel of the students' motivation and their speaking proficiency Basing onKemmis and McTaggart's model (2000, p 564), the researcher implementedthe action through the four steps - planning, implementing, observation, andreflection Moreover, due to the limited time, the researcher just couldconduct the action through 2 cycles with 5 lessons of English speakingclasses

The following is schedule which the researcher followed to implement theaction:

Delivering surveyquestionnaire 1 tostudents

22/11/2018 Places Students work in group - Observation

-Using discussion activity invited teacher

to compare places (city Used discussionand countryside) activities:

Comparing, Idealsfrom the centraltheme

29/11/2018 Transportation Find out means of Observation

-transportation and their invited teacher

activities:

Comparing, Idealsfrom the centraltheme

-time groups to discuss the invited teacher

disadvantages of the activities:

place for shopping Comparing, Ideals

from the centraltheme

27/12/2018 Midterm Test - Speaking test Examiners: Invited

- Delivering survey teacherquestionnaire 2 to

students

-market differences between invited teacher

kinds of market at page Used discussion

Comparing, Idealsfrom the centraltheme

17/01/2019 Last vacation Discuss in group about Observation

-the things that people invited teacher