(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders in Son Tay High school-Hanoi

LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADERS IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂ

LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN

THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADERS

IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI

(ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI

CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Code : 601410

HANOI, 2011

LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN

THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADERS

IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI

(ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI

CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Code : 601410 Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

HANOI, 2011

1.2.1 The speaking needs and goals of language students 7

1.3.3.4 Problem solving 16

2.1.2 The teachers of English in Son Tay High School 18

2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning in Son Tay

High School

19

4.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 32 4.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2 The teachers’ time of using communicative activities 22

Table 3 Kinds of communicative activities teachers usually use in

their English teaching process

23

Table 4 Major obstacles teachers encounter when they apply

communicative activities in their English teaching

24

Table 5 Some strategies the teachers have applied to overcome these

obstacles

25

Table 6 The reasons for speaking of students in classroom 26

Table 7 Kinds of communicative activities that students were fond of

participating in

26

Table 8 Reasons discourage students from speaking English in class 27

Table 9 Some strategies the teachers have applied in order to

overcome these obstacles

28

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The introduction of the new textbook “English 10” into teaching at Son Tay High School in 2006 has marked real renovation in language teaching and learning from the traditional approach-grammar translation method, which only concentrates on the ability of using grammar rules precisely, to communicative approach, which focuses on communication ability Nonetheless, the teachers of English at Son Tay High School find it difficult to teach speaking successfully because of the class size, the students’ language level, and additionally, students are not acquainted with CLT Moreover, the majority of the teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method, which impedes them from teaching speaking successfully even the new textbook follows the communicative approach

As a teacher of English at Son Tay High School in Hanoi, I often receive similar questions from many students For example, “I can understand grammar and sentence structures well, but I feel embarrassed to talk in English” or “What should I do to speak English well?” In my reality of teaching, there are a lot of students who have perfect knowledge of grammar that works wonderfully for reading and writing but cannot express themselves to the teachers On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the colleagues: “Students seem so quiet and lazy during speaking lessons It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities” Therefore, the idea of doing something useful for my colleagues and students has urged me to conduct the research

Another reason why the study was carried out lies in my love for teaching speaking By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and learning speaking skills so that I can find relevant techniques along with activities to improve my teaching speaking at Son Tay High School

The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “The application of

School-Hanoi” with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Son Tay High School

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are to address the following issues:

 The difficulties that teachers and students face in the process of teaching and learning speaking skills;

 The application of some useful communicative activities to improve

3 Research questions

To achieve these aims, the following two research questions are addressed:

1 What communicative activities can make the speaking lessons more effective?

2 What obstacles have the teachers and students faced in their speaking lessons?

4 Scope of the study

This study is concerned with the application of communicative activities to develop

planning on studying a larger population of the whole students at Son Tay High School,

applied and the obstacles experienced by these students and teachers of English then offer some recommendations with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be improved

5 Design of the study

Apart from acknowledgement, abstract, table of contents and appendices, this thesis

is structured in three main parts namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The first part “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope of the study and its design

The second part “Development” includes four chapters

Chapter 1, Theoretical Background, begins with the literature on understanding speaking,

including the comparison of spoken language with written language and implication for teaching Then comes the literature on teaching speaking with the speaking needs and goals of language students, some approaches to teaching speaking and principles for teaching speaking The rest of the chapter is on communicative activities, its purposes and its different types

Chapter 2 is composed of two sections The first section presents the local situation in Son

Tay High School The second section provides the research methods that involve

information about the subjects, data collection instruments and procedures Also, the methods of data analysis are mentioned

Chapter 3 presents major findings and discussion

Chapter 4 gives recommendations for more effective application of Communicative

Activities in developing students’ speaking skills

The third part is the conclusions of the study

DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 UNDERSTANDING SPEAKING

1.1.1 Spoken language versus written language

Communication between humans has its own characteristics The speaker speaks and the writer writes because they want to say something and they have a communicative purpose For example they may want to give information about some special events, they may want to make a claim or they may want to argue In addition, both the speaker and the writer select the language they think is appropriate for their purpose of communication However, there are significant differences between spoken language and written language Understanding the different characteristics between the two modes of communication is very important for educators, in order to design an appropriate curriculum in teaching integrating skills and thus to promote learners' language acquisition

Spoken and written language serve different social purposes, therefore they have different characteristics and have their own systematic patterns and language forms Harmer (1996), Burns (1997) and many other scholars have distinguished the different features between spoken and written language The first and perhaps the most obvious difference between spoken and written language is that “speech and writing are typically used in different kinds of situations” (Burns: 8) When we speak, we are usually interacting directly with others such as talking on the phone or chatting with friends in the cafe The language produced during talk is spontaneous and relatively unplanned Speakers have less time to plan than writers do and they often have to produce what they want to say on the run As a consequence, speakers tend to hesitate, use more informal or everyday language, make mistakes or change the topic in the middle of the conversation Speakers use a

number of linguistic devices, which are called: parataxis and hypo taxis formulaic

expressions and ellipsis (Burns: 18)

Harmer (1996) states that the significant different feature between spoken and written language concerns the need for accuracy and the level of accuracy Writers are usually alone and not in direct contact with the audience As a result, they do not receive immediate feedback from the reader and sometimes get no feedback at all Native speakers constantly make “mistakes” when they are speaking They hesitate and say the same thing

in different ways and they often change the subject of what they are saying in sentence A piece of writing, however, with mistakes and half-finished sentence, etc would be judged by many native speakers as illiterate since it is expected that writing should be “correct” From the point of view of language teaching, therefore, there is often far greater pressure for written accuracy than there is accuracy in speaking Apart from this, writers can not use intonation, stress or body language They also often feel under an obligation to achieve accuracy and precisions, because written language is more permanent than spoken language

mid-Another different characteristic of written and spoken language is in the overall structures of spoken and written texts (Burns, 1997) Written texts are usually logically organized with a distinct beginning, middle and end structures It is generally possible for readers to predict quite easily how the text is likely to be structured Spoken texts, on the other hand, are more open-ended and dynamic with one utterance leading to another Speakers also tend to change their topic of conversation during the talk Therefore it is difficult for the speakers and listeners to predict the exact direction the interaction will take

Finally, spoken and written languages are grammatically different According to Halliday (1989) in Burns (1997), written language is more lexically dense while spoken language is more grammatically complicated Writers tend to use lexical words such as nouns or noun groups, speakers tend to use verbs and grammatical words such as pronouns and conjunctions or linking words such as "and", "but" and "because" to produce clauses

1.1.2 Implications for teaching

Understanding the characteristics of spoken and written language, the linguistic similarities and differences is very important for language teachers to have an appropriate approach to teaching reproductive and receptive skills The followings are factors that EFL

teachers should take into account in order to assist EFL students’ speaking skills

The primary need of EFL learners is the need to hear and practice with samples of natural speech of native speakers and to be aware of the language typically used in spoken communication This results from the fact that EFL learners lack opportunity to be exposed

to natural speaking environment, therefore they cannot have the chance to pick up the sounds and vocabulary of spoken language Burns (1997) asserts that the teachers in order

to prepare students to use spoken language effectively in social situation need to present

students with authentic spoken texts in the classroom However, the materials chosen for teaching should be relevant to the level of the students; otherwise, they would lose motivation if they could not understand the language input

In addition, students should be introduced to the language they are going to learn such as certain words, certain verbs or certain patterns This encourages students’ concentration as it enables them to know what they are going to deal with in the lesson Also, students need to be taught what the language means and how it is used so that they can effectively use appropriate language in appropriate situations In other words, students need to be equipped with not only the grammatical structures but also of how language is used in social context

Moreover, according to Nunan (1991), it is very important for the teacher to encourage students to speak and motivate students before they listen Speakers speak because they want to speak and have a communicative purpose and people listen because they want to know what the speakers say as well as to find out what the purpose is However, in the formal classroom context, especially in EFL classrooms, students tend to feel unsure and embarrassed to speak because they are afraid of being “wrong” Nunan (1991) states that if students are actively engaged in attempting to communicate, learning

to speak a second or foreign language will be facilitated If students do not want to be involved in the speaking lesson, the lesson will not be effective Therefore, the teacher should choose the topic that reflects students’ needs or that is related to student background and interest In addition, while students speak, the teacher should be a participant or listener rather than an instructor who tends to stop them to correct mistakes By intervening students for correction, the teacher may discourage students from attempting to express their ideas in English Since one of the features of spoken language is speech does not require a high level of accuracy like writing, learner mistakes should be tolerated until they are given feedback at the end of the activity This helps bring about the concept of self-confidence, which is very important in promoting learners’ speaking skills

1.2 TEACHING SPEAKING

1.2.1 The speaking needs and goals of language students

One of the aims of most of the language programs used by teachers today is to develop spoken language skills, and most programs aim to integrate both spoken and

written language However, the emphasis given to speaking in a language program varies according to the needs and goals of the students and the focus of the course

According to Burns (1997), decisions about teaching speaking will inevitably depend on the learners’ goal and their needs in developing speaking skills The most important starting point when deciding how to teach speaking is to gather background data about students such as age, language background and previous language learning, their goals, needs and the contexts in which they will need to use English It also involves assessing their current level of spoken language competency or proficiency Sheils (1993) has suggested that the development of communicative ability has to be related to the needs

of learners They have both immediate and potential communicative needs They need to know how to express their own meanings in the here-and-now of the classroom as they share knowledge, experiences, interests, opinions and feelings Learners also need to be prepared to use the language for real communication outside the classroom

Burns (1997) has also shown that in deciding what spoken language to include

in a program, it is valuable to investigate the students’ purposes and goals for improving their speaking skills This can be done through interviews, individual and class discussions and through class surveys

Harmer (1996) has shown that students may have “short-term goals” and term goals” in learning a language Long-term goals might have something to do with a wish to get a better job at some future date, or a desire to be able to communicate with members of a target language community Short-term goals might include such things as wanting to pass an end-of-semester test or wanting to finish a unit in a book Some students may simply consider that learning a language involves learning to speak and may believe that it is up to the teacher to decide what they should learn

“long-In considering students’ speaking needs, we should also consider the role of spoken language in the classroom Spoken language is central to the management of the classroom and we should be aware of the levels and types of language we, as teachers, use to manage the classroom If we ask students participate in classroom activities, we need to make sure that we use spoken instructions which they can understand We also need to familiarize students with types of texts which we use to manage the classroom and the texts which develop classroom social interactions

When making realistic judgments about how quickly students will develop spoken language, it is important to consider the opportunities they have to practice spoken language outside the classroom, and their willingness to take advantage of these opportunities Knowing how often students are likely to engage in spoken interactions outside the classroom will influence decisions about what spoken language texts to introduce into the program It will also influence the types of out-of-class tasks set to encourage the students to interact outside the classroom

1.2.2 Approaches to teaching speaking

In this section we will consider some theoretical approaches which have informed language teaching in· the twentieth century and which have had various implications for

the teaching of speaking

The first approach we would like to mention here is the grammar-translation

approach The grammar-translation approach emerged in response to a growing interest in

the learning of foreign, generally European, languages in the nineteenth century The focus

of this approach in language learning is on the knowledge of grammar and on applying this knowledge in the process of translating from one language to another One of the central features of the approach was the presentation of the new language through individual sentences which exemplified grammatical points A typical lesson would include the presentation of a new grammatical point, a list of new vocabulary items to be learned and practice sentences for students to translate

The grammar-translation approach placed considerable emphasis on accuracy and stressed the production of complete sentences As the approach was based on written grammatical sources, the teaching of speaking was, in effect, neglected and teaching itself took place through the medium of the learner’s first language This approach also encouraged a word-by-word construction of sentences, which ignored meaning and often produced unnatural sound in sentences One of the main goals of this approach was to develop skills that would allow learner to read the works of great literature or to experience the intellectual discipline of studying and analyzing grammatical structure

Richards and Rodgers (1986) has shown that in the first half of the twentieth century, the theories of American structural linguists such as Bloomfield (1993) and Fries (1945) gradually replaced the more traditional approaches of classical humanism and the

structural approach became influential in language teaching And it was considered one of

the most common approaches to teaching speaking and listening This approach was based

on the view that language is acquired by stimuli and imitation It was an approach which gave a much greater emphasis to speaking than the previous grammar-translation approach This approach to teaching focuses on audio-lingual method of imitation, repetition and response Burns (1997) has also shown that, on the one hand, this approach to teaching speaking and listening forms habits of speaking with good intonation and correct grammar Learners were trained in correct speech-patterns and expected to practice them There was

a strong emphasis on repetition and on building up of linguistic items through drills and exercises which focused on grammatical structures and patterns On the other hand, this approach places little interest in the context for speaking Learners’ activities involved intense practice in aural-oral skills and focused on activities such as drills and substitution exercises taken from a graded syllabus There was little interest in the contexts for speaking, which were used merely as a situational vehicle for the more important practice

of grammatical structure Learners may find it difficult to perform in a context different from what they have been taught However, in the EFL context where students lack opportunity to be exposed to the natural speaking environment for self correction, imitation

of sounds, intonation and vocabulary plays a great importance in the early developmental stage of language acquisition

Another approach to teaching speaking and listening is communicative approach

This approach based on the view that language must be seen in a social context rather than

as grammatical structures According to Burns et al (1997), this approach emphasizes the idea about linguistic competence by taking up the issue of the speakers’ performance or language use Communicative competence includes not only linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge of the cultural and communicative systems available to the speakers, and their relationship with the setting, participant, purpose, channel of communication and topic Communicative approach of teaching focuses on teaching how to use language for communicative purposes

The main features of the communicative approach are the followings:

♣ First, language is viewed within social context rather than as a system of grammatical patterns;

♣ Second, the teaching content is developed on the basis of student needs; a concern with all the four macro skills of language, rather than primarily with reading and writing

♣ Third, there is tolerance of learner errors as an inevitable aspect of language acquisition

♣ Finally, this approach to teaching encourages students to learn independently and emphasizes the role of the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process

Since the 1970s, communicative approach has had a major influence on teaching and learning in many parts of the world One of the major benefits of communicative language teaching (CLT) is that it has brought about a more comprehensive view of teaching and learning CLT emphasizes the development of learners’ ability and willingness to use the target language appropriately and accurately for the purposes of effective communication (Shei1s, 1993) However, this is not to imply that the communicative approach has been universally accepted and practiced

Methodologies based on communicative approach to teaching speaking tend to focus on spoken language use rather than the form of the language This has meant that in the classroom the teacher has been encouraged to focus on activities which will get students speaking and attention has been paid to providing them with the means to interact

As a result, there was often little guidance given to teachers on how to integrate a focus on the form of spoken language

1.2.3 Principles for teaching speaking

Attitudes toward teaching have changed somewhat since the nineteenth century This is particularly true of the last twenty-five years which have seen a change of focus from “language structure” to “language use” In the area of speaking, researchers have put increasing emphasis on “natural speech” That is to say there has been a shift in focus from the product of speaking to the process involved

The governing principle for the processes involved is to give students more and more opportunities “to use language as they wish, to express their own ideas so that they become aware that they have learnt something useful to them personally, and thus they are encouraged to go on learning” (Byrne, 1987:2) However, teachers may help students progress through several steps First the teachers present new language to the students, then they must practice the new language in a controlled way Finally students can try to use the

language they have learnt in free or creative speech For this purpose, teaching spoken language should start from the early stage of learning

Learner training for speaking aims to raise students’ ability to use language they are learning as much as possible to help them “to make the best use of the little they know” (Byrne, 1987) It is generally accepted that for the beginners we should limit the objectives

to avoid overwhelming them, provide them with enough structured practice so they can begin interacting at a basic level This encourages more speaking as well as reduces students’ fear Later, more free production can come after structure practice In order to raise beginner students’ ability to use language, we should provide them with activities which involve dialogues and functional use of the language, stating the goal of the activities to the students Byrne highlights the meaning of the dialogues and concludes that dialogue is the best way to begin learning speaking because they present the spoken language directly in situations in which it is most common used, they permit and encourage learners to practice the language in the same way and they encourage active participation in the lesson

Burns (1997) has suggested some general principles for the teaching speaking, namely:

♣ Speaking involves an understanding of the way in which context influences the choices of language made

♣ Speaking involves understanding that spoken texts differ from written texts in their grammatical patterns and discourse strategies

♣ Speaking activities should focus on whole texts in contexts, rather than on sentence level grammatical constructions in isolation

♣ Speaking activities aim to develop the confidence, desire and ability to use the target language not only accurately but also appropriately and effectively for the purposes of communication

♣ Learning and practicing vocabulary, grammatical structures, pronunciation should be related to contexts and lead to the use of whole texts

♣ Spoken discourse types or texts can be analyzed with learners for their typical structures and grammatical patterns

1.3 COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

1.3.1 What are communicative activities?

According to Harmer (1991), whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is

to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate If they do not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective The students should have some kind of communicative purpose, in other words they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective Then their attention should be centered on the content of what

is being said or written and not the language form that is being used So, communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose

In communicative activities, the students will have to deal with a variety of language (either receptively or productively) rather than just one grammatical construction While the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not intervene, which means he/she should not correct mistakes This would undermine the communicative purpose of the activity The teacher may of course be involved in the activity as a participant, and will also be watching and listening very carefully in order to

be able to conduct feedback

Thus for non-communicative activities there will be no desire to communicate on the part of the students and they will have no communicative purpose In other words, where the students are involved in a drill or in repetition, they will be motivated not by a desire to reach a communicative objective, but by the need to reach the objective of accuracy

Harmer (1991) has summarized those points in a figure called “The communicative continuum”:

* no communicative desire

* no communicative purpose

* form not content

* one language item

* a desire to communicate

* a communicative purpose

* content not form

* variety of language

“non-Harmer has also divided work on the productive skills into three major stages:

introducing new language, practice and communicative activities The introduction of new

language is frequently an activity that falls at the “non-communicative” end of the continuum Often here the teacher will work with controlled techniques, asking students to repeat and perform in drills At the same time the teacher will insist on accuracy,

correcting when the students make mistake Practice activities are those which fall

somewhere between the two extremes the continuum While students perform them they may have a communicative purpose, and while they may be working in pairs, there may also be a lack language variety, and the materials may determine what the students do or say Practice activities, then, often have some features of both non-communicative and

communicative activities Communicative activities are those which exhibit the

characteristics at the “communicative” end of the continuum Students are somehow involved in activities that give them both the desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of language

1.3.2 Purposes of communicative activities

According to Littlewood (1990), communicative activities have been designed to provide an opportunity for learners to produce language that they have recently learnt The followings are some contributions that communicative activities can make to language learning:

They provide “whole-task practice”: While non-communicative activities provide

training in the part-skills, communicative activities provide practice in the total skills, sometimes called “whole-task practice” Learning to swim, for example, usually involves not only separate practice of individual movements (part-skills), but also actual attempts to swim short distances (whole- task practice) In foreign language learning, our means for providing learners with whole- task practice in the classroom is through various kinds of communicative activity structured in order to suit the learners’ level of ability

They improve the motivation: The learners’ ultimate objective is to take part in

communication with others Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and help them to achieve it with increasing success

They allow natural learning: Many aspects of language learning can take place

only through natural processes, which operate when a person is involved in using the language for communication If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside the classroom) is an important part of the total learning process

They can create a context which supports learning: Communicative activity

provides opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among learners and between learners and teachers These relationships can help to “humanize” the classroom and to create an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn

1.3.3 Types of oral communicative activities

Different linguists have had different ideas on the distinction of communicative activities Littlewood (1990) distinguishes them into two main categories, which he calls

“functional communication activities” and “social interaction activities” Harmer (1991) looks at the communicative activities with oral and written focuses So he distinguishes them into “oral communicative activities” and “written communicative activities” Harmer's idea seems clearer to the researcher of this thesis when studying the types of communicative activities

In this section we will look at those types of activities with a largely oral focus (although we should not forget the points about skill integration) Those activities are all designed to provoke spoken communication between students and/or between the teacher

and the students

1.3.3.1 Communication games

Harmer (1991) has suggested that in communication games activities students are put into a situation in which they have to use all or any of the language they possess to complete a game-like task This type of communicative activities produces the simplest patterns of interaction The situation is always that one student (or group) possesses information which another student (or group) must discover

Communication games activities include finding the differences (or similarities); describe and arrange; story reconstruction and/or poem reconstruction (Bygate, 1987) In

each case of this type of activities it is the overcoming of the information gap rather than the production of correct language that signals the success of the performance In this respect, the focus of the activity is on “meanings to be communicated” rather than

“linguistic form to be learnt” (Harmer, 1991) The activities of this type provide the teacher with a convenient bridge between pre-communicative and communicative language use, students are engaged in communicating meaning for a purpose, but they are not yet made

to dispense entirely with the “structure crutches” provided by the teacher

1.3.3.2 Songs

There are many good rationales for using songs in English classroom They are

“authentic material” They enhance student’s sense of achievement in that, for example, they can sing a song later by themselves Music creates a relaxing atmosphere because the whole class sings together Songs allows maximum participation by every student in both listening and speaking Additionally, music makes a nice change from standard textbook and it is good for developing students’ instincts about intonation and rhythm Eken (1996: 46) states that songs can be used:

• to present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc;

• to practice a language point, lexis, etc;

• to encourage extensive and intensive listening;

• to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings;

• to encourage creativity and use of imagination;

• to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere and

• to bring variety and fun to learning

In order to choose a suitable song, the teacher should keep in mind that (1) Songs must be a reasonable length, range, and rhythm (2) Song should have repetitive lyrics or chorus which is easy to learn This allows slower students to follow (3) The emotional and conceptual content of a song should be appropriate to the age and maturity of your students (4) Songs must be pedagogically appropriate to the lesson (Quan: 2004)

As demonstrated, songs are valuable in language teaching and learning The teacher is obliged to successfully integrate songs into a language lesson

1.3.3.3 Discussion

In this type of activity students “have to pool the information in the discussion” (Littlewood, 1990: 27) The discussion may be about a proper problem, addiction, for

example or about a given controversial proposition such as “People who buy fur coats should pay a 100% tax” Students have to prepare arguments either in favor of the proposition or against the proposition

Sheils (1993) has indicated the value of discussion activities as follows:

“Discussion activities involve learners in personal and fluent use of the target language They require them to reflect, to evaluate data or arguments, to listen carefully to others, to have an open mind and to develop the skills and expressions necessary for a real discussion The exchange of opinion or feelings should assist learners in getting to know themselves and their classmates better”

Harmer (1991) has said that many teachers can be heard complaining that their students have nothing to say or that they have no opinions and are not prepared to discuss anything Part of the problem here is the way in which some teachers approach discussion

as an activity If students are asked to express themselves fluently on a difficult topic in front of their peers in a foreign language (often with no warning), they may find themselves reluctant to do so So before asking students to discuss as a whole class, teacher should put them in groups to try out the topic This will allow them to give opinion in a less threatening environment than in front of the whole class It will also give the teacher a chance to see if the topic is interesting for the students

Discussion activities are an important part of many lessons The main thing to remember is that “proper organization can ensure their success Lack of it can provoke their failure” (Harmer, 1991: 125)

1.3.3.4 Problem solving

Problem solving activities encourage students to talk together to find a solution to (a set of) problems or tasks According to Littlewood (1990), this type of activity dispenses completely with the need to share information Students now have access to all the relevant facts The stimulus for communication comes from the need to discuss and evaluate these facts, in pairs or groups, in order to solve a problem or reach a decision

Problem solving activities need not be based only on everyday situations that arise inside or outside the classroom The teacher may also present more unusual situations, in order to stimulate the students’ ingenuity In these activities students must not only analyze information, but also argue, justify and persuade, in order to reach a common decision They therefore provide a context for a still wider range of communicative functions They

also make it still more necessary for students to develop skills in managing the interaction

at the interpersonal level This fact often produces a high degree of personal involvement among the participants

1.3.3.5 Simulation and role-play

According to Harmer (1991), the idea of a simulation is to create the pretence of a real-life situation in the classroom: students “simulate” the real-world Thus we might ask them to pretend that they are at an airport, or we might organize them to get together to plan an imaginary reunion What we are trying to do artificially of course is to give students practice in real-world English Students are asked to adopt a specific role in this situation In some cases, they may simply have to act as themselves In others, they may have to adopt a· simulated identity

There is some controversy about the usefulness of simulations, particularly where students are asked to play roles, but many teachers feel that they have certain advantages because students do not have to take responsibility for their own actions and words In other words, it is the character who speaks, not themselves It has certainly been noticed that some shy students are more talkative when playing roles

Littlewood (1992: 49) says: “ simulation and role-play are well-established as techniques for organizing controlled, pre-communicative language practice, which prepares students later to take part in fully spontaneous interaction”

Bygate (1987) states that role-play may be allocated in several ways:

Role-play controlled through cued dialogues

Role-play controlled through cued situations and goal

Role-play controlled through cues and information

Role-play in the form of debate or discussion

This type of activity could be used for students at different levels of proficiency in

term of complexity of activities Ladousse (1987: 7) has shown: “Role-play is one of

communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation”

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 RESEARCH SETTING

2.1.1 An overview of Son Tay High School

Son Tay High School is located in the West of Hanoi Founded in 1959, Son Tay High School is one of the oldest as well as biggest schools in the area At present, there are

45 classes with over 2000 students placed into three different grades: grade 10th, 11th and 12th The teaching staff composes of more than 120 teachers of 12 compulsory subjects, of whom two-thirds are young, creative and well trained whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic In 2007, with the innovation in educational policy, Son Tay High School

is one of the schools in Hanoi which has high percentages of high school graduated students

2.1.2 The teachers of English in Son Tay High School

There are twelve teachers of English currently working in Son Tay High School Nearly all of them are female whose age ranks from 28 to 50 Among them, one half studied at Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers Training College One-fifth was former teachers of Russian and French who graduated from the same college Another quarter that was trained from in-service training programs has experienced teaching for many years However, their communication ability as well as new teaching methods should be improved

Obviously, the age of the English teacher staff reveals the fact that many of them were trained in the traditional method-the grammar-translation one Few of them have taken retraining courses to improve their English and their teaching methods This constrains them from teaching speaking effectively Nevertheless, most of them are severe, enthusiastic in working Of the 12 teachers, two teachers are going to get M.A degree At the present, each teacher has to teach fifteen periods divided into 5 classes per week excluding the burden of marking examinations and time for a lot of different school work Apparently, the teachers in Son Tay High School have to deal with a heavy workload in order to fulfill their task

2.1.3 The students in Son Tay High School

The majority of students in the study at Son Tay High School are aged from 15 to

18 Most of them come from urban areas and they have learnt English since they were at

primary schools Therefore, their English proficiency is some how better than students from rural parts due to the availability of opportunities to attend part-time English courses Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English In contrast, the other part of students is lowly motivated They tend to regard English as less important than other subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations

2.1.4 The situation of English teaching and learning in Son Tay High School

2.1.4.1 The syllabus of teaching and learning

At Son Tay High School, English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tieng Anh 10”, “Tieng Anh 11”, “Tieng Anh 12” are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training

English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 105 periods, 3 periods per week Each period is 45 minutes long

The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Son Tay high school is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following communicative approach The textbook consists of 16 units with 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every 3 units The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units

2.1.4.2 The teaching and learning English speaking skills

It has been accepted that students’ communicative ability is the proper aim for language teaching This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an important part in any English course Like many other high schools in Vietnam, teaching and learning speaking skills at Son Tay High School are affected by some constraints such

as large class size, students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency, students’ low participation in class time Normally, in a class at Son Tay High school, a number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the class while a majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive Besides, lack

of training in teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access

to new approach, which makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging