Suggested games to motivate 11 th form students at le hoan high school in learning english speaking skills

DECLARATION I hereby that the thesis entitled “SUGGESTED GAMES TO MOTIVATE 11 th FORM STUDENTS AT LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL IN LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS” is the result of my own resear

DECLARATION

I hereby that the thesis entitled

“SUGGESTED GAMES TO MOTIVATE 11 th FORM STUDENTS AT LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL IN LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS”

is the result of my own research for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Hong Duc University I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees

Thanh Hoa, May 12 th , 2021

Student’s Signature

Le Thi Thuy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this study would not have been possible without the assistance

of special and wonderful people First of all, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Luc Thi My Binh, for her unfailing encouragement, constant support and supervision during all stages of the study Her enthusiastic assistance, guidance, support, and her wisdom greatly contributed to the fulfilment of my thesis

My great debt is to many others lectures of Foreign Language Department at Hong Duc University for their support and the favorable conditions they have granted me during my study

My sincere thanks go to all teachers of English and students at Le Hoan high school whose endless enthusiasms have helped me to carry the surveys, which are very useful for my thesis

I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my darling and my friends, whose loving supports encourage me, give me useful suggestions and are always by my side during the process of conducting the study They help me to fulfil this thesis Last but not least many thanks are given to the librarians, who have helped me by lending me many books without which I can't complete my research

Although my study has been done with all my attempts, my limitation of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the thesis Therefore, I am looking forward

to receiving the sincere comments from all of you

ABSTRACT

It is the fact that speaking is an important language skill However, in the reality, the teaching and learning English speaking are still far from satisfactory English is seen as a means of access to scientific and technological development, as the language for international communication, and as an instrument for receiving grants and aid For young people, English is an effective tool for further study as well as better job opportunities English has therefore, been most widely taught from primary schools to universities in both private enterprises and state offices It

is offered as a compulsory subject in the curriculum as well as the national secondary and high school examinations

The study focuses on the teachers' and students' attitudes towards speaking skill as well as the analysis of the present teaching and learning to speak English Once, problems have been identified, suggestions for teachers to improve the situation of teaching and learning speaking English to the 11 th form students would be made

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS viii

PART A: INTRODUTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Methods of the study 3

4 Research questions 4

5 Scope of the study 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 What are speaking activities? 6

1.1.1 What is speaking skill? 6

1.1.2 Characteristics of Speaking 6

1.1.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson 8

1.2 Problems with speaking and speaking activities 9

1.2.1 Problem with speaking 9

1.2.2 Problem with speaking activities 10

1.3 A brief view on language games 11

1.3.1 What are language games? 11

1.3.2 What types of language games? 12

1.3.3 What are language games used for? 14

1.3.4 Language games as a motivator for students to speak 15

CHAPTER 2: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL 17

2.1 The reality of teaching and learning speaking skill for 11 th form students at Le Hoan high school 18

2.2 Characteristics of 11 th form students at Le Hoan high school 18

2.3 Characteristics of high school teachers of English at Le Hoan School 19

2.4 Teaching facilities 20

2.5 How is speaking lesson for 11 th form students going on? 20

2.6 What factors discourage the students? 22

2.6.1 The students lack motivation 22

2.6.2 Students are low at English proficiency 23

2.6.3 The students are nervous and afraid of making mistakes 23

2.6.4 The topics are not interesting 24

2.6.5 The classroom atmosphere is not encouraging 25

2.6.6 Feedback of the listeners is not supportive 25

CHAPTER 3: USING SUGGESTED GAMES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSON 27

3.1 Hypothesis 27

3.2 Subject of the study 28

3.3 The textbook 28

3.4 Data collection 28

3.4.1 The data collection instruments 28

3.4.2 Procedures and methods of data collection 29

3.5 Pre-task questionnaire 32

3.5.1 Presentation of the data collected from pre-task questionnaire 32

3.5.2 Data analysis of survey result on pre-task questionnaire 34

3.6 Post-task questionnaire 39

3.6.1 Presentation of the data collected from post-task questionnaire 39

3.6.2 Data analysis of survey result on post-task questionnaire 41

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS ON USING SUGGESTED GAMES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSON 48

4.1 Findings 48

4.1.1 Positive factors of using language games in speaking lesson 48

4.1.2 Challenges of using language games in speaking lesson 49

4.1.3 Sub-conclusion 50

4.2 Suggestions 51

4.2.1 Applying different language games in teaching speaking 51

4.2.2 Activating students to work in different stages of speaking 52

4.3 Principles of using language games in speaking lesson 54

4.3.1 How to run a game? 54

4.3.2 When to use a game? 54

4.3.3 How to organize a game? 55

4.4 Sample games used in teaching speaking 57

4.4.1 Warm-ups 57

4.4.2 Pre-speaking stage 59

4.4.3 While- speaking stage 61

4.4.4 Post-speaking stage 65

PART C: CONCLUSION 68

1.Recapitulation 68

2.Summary of the study 68

3.Limitations and suggestions for further research 69

APPENDICES 71

APPENDIX 1 71

PRE TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 71

APPENDIX 2 77

POST TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 77

REFERENCES 81

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Tables:

Table 1: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

Table 2: Data collected from post-task survey questionnaire

Charts:

Figure 1: Students' perspectives of four language skills

Figure 2: Students' attitudes towards speaking skill

Figure 3: Perspectives of the speaking topics and speaking activities

introduced in the textbook

Figure 3.1: How interesting?

Figure 3.2: How difficult?

Figure 4: Students' participation in speaking lessons

Figure 5; Students' preferences of teacher's techniques exploited in speaking classes

Figure 6: The students' attitudes towards language games

Figure 7: Students' participation in language games

Figure 8: students' evaluation of the use of language games

Figure 9: Benefits of using language games in speaking classes

Figure 10: Students' preference for teachers' activities

Figure 11: The frequency of exploiting language games

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale

Nowadays, English as a foreign language, a compulsory basic culture subject in general education, is an indispensable part of the general education curriculum English provides students with a new communication tool to acquire advanced scientific and technical knowledge, understand the diverse and rich cultures around the world, and easily integrate with the international community Due to the need

to interact with countries around the world in all areas of life, English has become one of the most used languages in international communication and is being used

as a major foreign language to teach students in schools in Vietnam

Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to the students' needs for effective life such as sports, politics, economy, science, technology, communication However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular do not come up to the study aims Despite teachers' efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn speaking effectively are still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many high schools In addition, speaking skill plays a vital role in foreign language learning However, traditional method makes students passive and lazy to speaking because of its monotony For most students, they find speaking especially important yet most challenging one It has been proved that some students got into a habit of leaning 'mute English" which is obviously harmful to a language learner Therefore, it is a necessity to find a supplementary technique used in teaching speaking

In language teaching, language games have proved themselves not merely as "time filler activities" but as an important factor which can create more chances and interest to motivate students to speak Gibbs (1974) maintains that a game is "an

activity carried out by cooperating or competing decision makers, seeking to achieve, within a set of rules, their objectives" Games can, therefore, be designed

to simulate the different social contexts in the real world Within artificially defined limits, games can provide an opportunity for real communication and bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world (Hadfield, 1984) Language games thus allow the use of meaningful and useful anguage which is used in real contexts (http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Ersoz-Games.html.) and are able to provide a chance for pupils to use the language that they have learnt Games make learning fun and relaxed (Nguyen & Khuat, 2003) Games provide language teachers with many advantages when they are used in classroom One of these advantages is that learners are motivated to learn the language when they are in a game McCallum (1980), emphasizes this point by suggesting that "games automatically stimulate student interest, a properly introduced game can be one of the highest motivating techniques." Further argues that "games spur motivation and students get very absorbed in the competitive aspects of the games; moreover, they try harder at games than in other courses" (http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Deesri-Games.html.) In other words, games stimulate students' interest in classroom activities and as a result, students become motivated and willing to learn Games are also highly motivating and help pupils to make and sustain the effort of learning (Lee, 1995) Another advantage of using games for the language class is that they encourage pupils to interact and communicate (Lee, 1995) In addition, language games can provide challenges to young minds and can be used to engage children in cooperative and team learning (Ersoz, 2000)

Besides, it can be seen from the reality of teaching English at Le Hoan high school that using games is really a new technique of teaching speaking skill

Because of all the above-mentioned reasons, I decide to choose the study on using language games to motivate the 11 form students in speaking lessons at Le Hoan high school

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Providing teachers with diversified ideas of using games in teaching speaking

- Asserting the effectiveness of using games in teaching speaking to the 11 th

form students at Le Hoan high school by using language games

- Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of speaking teaching at Le Hoan high school by using language games

- Suggesting the way language games can be used in speaking lesson

3 Methods of the study

In the process of carrying out this study, the approaches of quantitative, qualitative and applicative research will be used In term of quantitative research, 2 written survey questionnaires are designed and delivered to students The survey questionnaire including pre-task survey questionnaire and post-task survey questionnaire is used to collect data from for 90 eleventh form students at Le Hoan high school

The mathematics statistics is used to get the data on survey result In term of qualitative research, observation and description as well as small talks with teachers and students are carried out to get more information for this study Specially, a number of techniques will be used during the process of carrying out the study

- The history and theoretical background of the study are based on reading studying analyzing

- Interviewing a number of students and experienced teacher of English for their interesting and precious ideas on this study

- Carrying out experimental teaching on speaking skill using language games Using questionnaires for students to investigate and collect the data

2 What are advantages and disadvantages of using games in speaking lesson?

3 What are the principles of using language games in speaking lesson?

4 What games should be used in speaking skill to motivate the 11th form students in speaking lesson at Le Hoan high school?

5 Scope of the study

Language games can be widely used in teaching a foreign language with different types of school such as primary school, high school, universities, language centre Besides that, language games can be used to teach all four language skills (speaking skill, listening skill, writing skill, reading skill) However the study focuses specifically on using language games in teaching speaking to the

11 th students at Le Hoan high school So the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the study are 90 students in grade 11 th

from two classes at Le Hoan high school

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part A is theINTRODUCTION which presents the rationales, the aims, the

method, the research question, the scope of the study and the design of the study It

expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which includes 4 chapters

Chapter I deals with some theoretical background that is relevant to the

purpose of the study: speaking skill and language games

Chapter II the reality in teaching speaking and learning speaking of the 11 th

form students at Le Hoan high school

Chapter III provides the research methods that involve information about the

subjects, data collection instruments and procedures Also, the methods of data analysis are mentioned And it is devoted to a detailed description of data analysis and discussion of the findings of the study to show that the using language to motive students

Chapter IV finding and providing some suggestions on using suggested games

are made and some sample language games exploited during all stages of the lessons are provided

Part C is the CONCLUSION which includes the summary of the study,

limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is mainly the result of my process of finding, reading, analyzing and synthesizing diversified ideas of many researchers and English teachers in Thanh Hoa province related to the topic of the study The chosen ideas are taken from reliable, useful books, websites and from many experienced English teachers' ideas in Thanh Hoa

1.1 What are speaking activities?

1.1.1 What is speaking skill?

Speaking is fundamental to human communication Different linguistics have different concepts of speaking but they are all agreeing with this idea

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998) Speaking

is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching

Speaking is "as an process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information" (Brown, 1994)

Brown and Yule's opinions, spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation Usually, there is a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another Speaker usually uses non-specific references They also add that spoken language is made by using the loosely

organized syntax, and non-specific words, phrases and filters such as oh, well, uh

uh etc (Brown & Yule, 1983)

1.1.2 Characteristics of Speaking

As for Bygate M (1987), in most speaking the person to whom we are speaking is

in front of us and able to put right if we make mistakes He/She can also generally show agreement and understanding - or incomprehension and disagreement Unlike readers or writers, speakers may need patience and imagination, too While

talking, speakers need to take notice of the other and allows listeners chance to speak it It means that we take turns to speak Brown (1983), and her colleagues point out that a listener helps speakers improve their performance as a speaker because being a listener gives learner models to utilize when acting as a speaker In addition, being a hearer first helps the learner appreciate the difficulties inherent in the task It is clear that giving speakers experience in hearer's role is more helpful than simple practice in task in which a speaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task required

Speaking has the following characteristics:

Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situations can be identified and charted

Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence")

Speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed

in a given speech act

Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways The reason is that almost all people can speak, and so take speaking skill too much for granted He also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skilled Learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions Bygate also highly appreciates

speaking by stating that speaking is the medium through which much language is learnt

1.1.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

According to Ur (1996), an effective speaking activity has the following features: Learners talk a lot Classroom activities must be designed in such ways that provide opportunities for learners to talk a lot

1 All get a chance to speak: A minority of talkative students should not

dominate Classroom discussions, and contributions must be fairly distributed Classroom activities must be designed in ways that help all the students to take risk

2 Motivation is high: If learners are highly motivated, they will willingly

participate in classroom activities and volunteer to perform them They have desire

to share personal experience in relation to the topics as well as a need to achieve task objectives, Hence, they invest a high level of effort to overcome difficulties so

as to succeed in what they set out to do They then, therefore, are eager to speak

3 Language is comprehensible: Learners express themselves in utterances that

are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy The teacher must also base the activity on easy language so that the students can use the language fluently without hesitation

4 Students speak the target language: The teacher must keep students speaking

the foreign language

5 High learner's talking time: Talking time is the first factor that can make a

speaking lesson successfully It is obvious that the amount of learning in a speaking lesson is correlated with the amount of talking by the learner Therefore, the more time students engage with in the course of a lesson, the more language they can obtain Ur (1996) also considers the lesson time as a container which should be filled with as much volume of language as possible So an effective

speaking lesson is very likely to correlate highly with the learner's talking time Learners in class time should get as many speaking opportunities as possible in order that their speaking time should be maximized

1.2 Problems with speaking and speaking activities

1.2.1 Problem with speaking

Brown (1994), points out the characteristics of spoken language that make speaking skills difficult as follows:

a) Clustering: In order to speak fluently, speakers have to select from their store

of language clustering, that is groups of words, not word by word

b) Reduced forms: Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc create difficulties

in teaching and learning spoken English If learners do not learn colloquial contractions, they can develop the kind of speaking that is stilted, bookish

c) Colloquial language: Colloquialism appears both in monologues and

dialogues If learners are only exposed to Standard English and/or "textbook" language, they sometimes find it hard to understand and produce words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language

d) Stress, rhymes and intonation: Learners of English often find it difficult to

pronounce English words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress-times rhythm and intonation patterns of spoken English

e) Affective factors: Learners learning to speak often encounter the risk of saying

out things that may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible At those times, they tend to be anxious because they do not want to be judged by other learners

f) Interaction: The greatest difficulty that learners face in learning to speak

originates from the interactive natural of most communication Engages in process

of negotiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing what to say, how to say, when to speak, etc Learners are affected by their interlocutors' performance

1.2.2 Problem with speaking activities

Classroom activities that develop learners' ability to express themselves through speech is an important component of a language course where CLT is applied However, it is more difficult to design and administer such activities than to do so for listening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996) lists out:

- Worries: Unlike reading, writing or listening activities speaking requires

some degree of real-time exposure to an audience The student speaker has to face the teacher and other students in class Learners are often worried about trying to says something in a foreign language in the classroom because they are worried about making mistakes, afraid of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Teachers often hear learners; even if they are not worried or

nervous, complain that they cannot have anything to say They may have no motivated to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak When they say something in class, they feel that they are forced to say

- Uneven or low participation: Usually, there are many students in one class

(between 40 and 45 students) Only one student can talk at a time in a large group This means that each one have only very little time for talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while others speak very little or not at all In some cases some students haven't got any chance, intentionally and unintentionally, to speak for a long time

- Mother - tongue use: When all, or a number of the learners share the same

mother tongue, they may tend to use it frequently This happens because the native language is easier to use and because they feel unnatural to speak to one another in

a foreign language and become learners feel less "exposed" if they are speaking the language they master If they are talking in a small group, it can be quite difficult

to get some classes; particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones, to keep to the target language

- Teacher domination: Teaching in a crowded class, many teachers tend to

spend much time explaining words, phrases and grammar structures in details for fear that otherwise the students cannot understand and fail in their tests During explanation, teachers find it is easier and less time consuming to the use of the mother tongue Another important thing is that the teachers seem more interested

in individual work (between teacher and one student or the whole group, or one student and another student or the whole group) They fear that other kinds of student grouping (pair work and group work) may cause noise or discipline problems

1.3 A brief view on language games

1.3.1 What are language games?

Language games can be used in language classes So what are games and what are language games?

First of all, what are games? Games are fun activities that promote interaction, thinking, learning, and problem solving strategies Often, games have an aspect that permits the players to produce information in a short time period Some games require the players to engage in a physical activity and/or complete a mental challenge Hadfield (1987) defines "a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun." Similarly, according to Rixon (1981), "a game consists of play governed by rules." This is summed up very well in Gibb's definition (1978), of a game as "an activity carried out by cooperating or competing decision markers, seeking to achieve, within a set of rules, their objectives."

Different the definitions are, they share the same opinion that a game has three main characteristics They are: a goal or objective, a set of rules which

govern a game and games involve a contest either between players or between players and the goal

So, what are the language games? Language games mean games related to language If games help to improve different aspects such as intellectual ability, patience, then language games help to develop language skills When playing these language games, students not only have fun but can also practice English enjoyably, which helps to motivate students Greenal (1984), defines as one kind of

"activity which is used to consolidate language already taught or acquired and occurs during the free stage of lesson or during occasions such as English club meeting "

1.3.2 What types of language games?

Classifying games into categories can be difficult, because categories often overlap Hadfield (1999) explains two ways of classifying language games First, she divides language games into two types: linguistic games and communicative games Linguistic games focus on accuracy, such as supplying the correct antonym On the other hand, communicative games focus on successful exchange

of information and ideas, such as two people identifying the differences between their two pictures which are similar to one another but not exactly alike Correct language usage, though still important, is secondary to achieving the communicative goal

The second taxonomy that Hadfield uses to classify language games has many more categories As with the classification of games as linguistic games or communicative games, some games will contain elements of more than one type

• Information gap game: In such games, one or more people have

information that other people need to complete a task For instance, one person might have a drawing and their partner needs to create a similar drawing by listening to the information given by the person with the drawing Information gap

games can involve a one-way information gap, such as the drawing game just described, or a two-way information gap, in which each person has unique information, such as in a Spot-the-Difference task, where each person has a slightly different picture, and the task is to identify the differences

• Guessing game: These are a variation on information gap games One of the

best known examples of a guessing game is 20 Questions, in which one person thinks

of a famous person, place, or thing The other participants can ask 20 Yes/No questions to find clues in order to guess who or what the person is thinking of

• Role play: The terms role play, drama, and simulation are sometimes used

interchangeably but can be differentiated (Kodotchigova, 2002) Role play can involve students playing roles that they do not play in real life, such as dentist, while simulations can involve students performing roles that they already play in real life or might be likely to play, such as customer at a restaurant Dramas are normally scripted performances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with their own words, although preparation is often useful • Broad game: Scrabble is one of the most popular board games that specifically highlight language

• Labelling games These are a form of matching, in that participants match

labels and pictures

• Search games: These games are yet another variant on two-way

information gap games, with everyone giving and seeking information

• Sorting, ordering, or arranging games: These games students have a set

of cards with different products on them, and they sort the cards into products found at a grocery store and products found at a department

• Matching: As the name implies, participants need to find a match for a

word, picture, or card

• Exchanging games: In these games, students barter cards, other objects, or

ideas Similar are exchanging and collecting games

1.3.3 What are language games used for?

There are many advantages of using games According to Richard-Amato (1988:147) "Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely" They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson Furthermore, to quote Richard-Amato, they, "add diversion to the regular classroom activities," break the ice, "[but also] they are used to introduce new ideas" (1988:147) In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes games to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future With the demand of changing the teaching methods nowadays, most of the teachers have made efforts to exploit a variety of techniques, one of these is games A good game can enhance students' motivation

in language classes and partly contributes to increase the quality of language classes

Besides, games are effective tools for learning because they offer students a hypothetical environment in which they can explore alternative decisions without the risk of failure Thought and action are combined into purposeful behaviors to accomplish a goal Playing games teaches us how to strategize, to consider alternatives, and to think flexibly

Games allow for creativity, independence and higher order thinking Usually, questions posed by the classroom teacher are fact based and have only one answer, not allowing for creativity, personal expression, or testing hypotheses The answer

is either right or wrong, but games can allow for multiple answers They improve participation, self-esteem, and vocabulary usage and allow the learners to see that there are many ways to solve the same problem Additionally, it is more like real life For instance, most conversations start with open ended questions: "How are you?", "What did you do yesterday?", "How can I help you?", and "What would you like for dinner?" As foreign language learners, it is important that they are provided with scenarios that are as realistic as possible Games, if produced well, can do the same thing Easy ways to do that involve the students finishing a sentence, listing words that begin with a certain letter, answering open ended questions on a board game or telling a story

In addition, games allow the students to show a little of their true personalities, build relationships with others, and practice various skills They also allow the facilitator tosses who knows the information and who is or is not afraid to share it Also it becomes more apparent what students need more instruction or what concepts can or cannot be performed adequately The more you use games, the easier facilitating becomes Furthermore as you progress, making groups, sharing and implementing rules and procedures, being consistent, dealing with competition and collaboration as well as evaluating the benefits of educational games becomes second nature That quote summarizes my beliefs about using games to teach, practice and reinforce a foreign language

1.3.4 Language games as a motivator for students to speak

The importance of motivation is second language teaching and learning has been discussed for many years Motivation is a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strives

to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced

in this activity Therefore, those who are motivated participate actively in class and usually get good study results

Since motivation is something very personal, it is not easy to develop According to Lightbrown and Spada (1999) "If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students' motivation to learn." With a view to creating such a learning atmosphere, using language games, which have long been advocated for assisting language learning, in speaking classes seems to be a good choice for the following reasons:

• Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting Language learning is hard work Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time Games help and encourage many students

to sustain their interest and work Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort After all, learning language involves long term effort

• The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety and encourage shyer students to take part in speaking classes positively, especially when games are played in small groups

• Games also help the teachers to create contexts in which the language is meaningful and useful The students want to take part and in order to do so they must understand what others are saying and they must speak in order to express their own point of view or give information

• Games are student-cantered in that students are active in playing the games and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with teachers as facilitators

To sum up, speaking skill is very important to both teachers and students of English But it is very difficult and challenging to master as well Thus how to

teach effective speaking skill deserves much interest And on the way of finding the best teaching method to achieve this aim, language games are given much consideration and highly appreciated of all the speaking techniques for its unique features and benefits, some of which have been mentioned in this chapter For continuing providing more reasons to admit language games' necessity in teaching speaking skill in general and for 11 th students at Le Hoan particular, the second chapter is carried out

CHAPTER 2 THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT LE

HOAN HIGH SCHOOL

On practically investigating into the reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill at Le Hoan high school in Thanh Hoa province, the study has also analyzed teaching situation and found out the possible reasons

2.1 The reality of teaching and learning speaking skill for 11 th form students

at Le Hoan high school

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 Le Hoan high school is affected by some constraints such as large class size, students' unfamiliarity with CLT (Communicative Language Teaching), students' low English proficiency, students' low participation in class time Normally, in a class at Le Hoan high school, there are a number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the class while the majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive Many teachers often complain that students are lazy; they rarely try

to speak the target language in class They only speak when being forced Most of the teachers have found group work and discussion difficult to carry out 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

2.2 Characteristics of 11 th form students at Le Hoan high school

It's true that most of 11 th form students at Le Hoan are aged within the period of adolescence Because they are between childhood and individual's acceptance in the society as an adult, students tend to have high desire for expressing and asserting themselves However, they also often feel shy when facing with public and speaking and hesitate speaking out loud They want but don't know how to show their expression Some students find speaking in the class situation a threat because there is always an audience That is the first problem

The second one is the curriculum for 11 thform students which require them to study so many subjects Beside that, many students don't pay attention to English

subject because it is not their favorite subject In addition, extra school activities and extra learning after school time also take much energy from them This fact leads to the lack of needed time and effort from students to study English well Therefore, they start an English lesson with unconfident feeling for not preparing the lesson carefully Boredom and tiredness are likely what teacher achieves after the lesson if he or she really doesn't know how to motivate and attract their students' attention

Furthermore, a speaking skill lesson in English 11 usually contains task-based activities which also much contributes to the lack of motivation during the period Finally, most of 11 th form students at Le Hoan high school are low level and they are not interested in learning English If teachers don't give them funny lessons, they won't be care what the teachers say That also contributes to lack of motivation

2.3 Characteristics of high school teachers of English at Le Hoan School

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most important factor in the teaching process At Le Hoan high school, most English teachers are young, so they are very enthusiastic with their career; however they often have to teach many periods in many classes per week that they do not have enough time and energy to invest into finding new and more effective teaching methods Therefore, they usually remain their old teaching methods, sometimes they use new techniques to teach to students on special occasion day

To their thinking, completing the tasks in the text book is enough They believe that there is no need for finding and applying new teaching techniques to make the lessons more effective As a result, they are suspected of new teaching techniques Nevertheless, most of them are enthusiastic in working They really want to provide new things to their students in order to improve students' English by motivating them much during the lesson It's also a way of modernizing themselves

and creating more love for their job as an English teacher But some reasons, their desire hasn't been made to become true The shortage of time and necessary guidance is one of important reasons

2.4 Teaching facilities

At Le Hoan high school, teaching facility has met the practical demands; each class room has a projector, a computer and a model, therefore, it's easy for teachers

to find ways in motivating students to speak

2.5 How is speaking lesson for 11 th form students going on?

From observing and interviewing a number of students at Le Hoan high school, in speaking lesson, teachers often use the topics and tasks given in the textbook to teach speaking skill They ask students to do the tasks with some explanations There is a small number of the students who can understand teacher's requirement, and that's the reason why the students are passive and discouraged from speaking freely and creatively in speaking lesson Students can't understand what their teacher say and express their ideas in front of other students Even they won't talk

or say anything in speaking lesson May be they feel really shy about talking in front of other students And until now at the school, the English teachers are in fear

of teaching an unsuccessful speaking lesson because they still don't find the effective teaching techniques that can help them to make students improve speaking skill At the school, English teacher usually procedures the speaking lesson as following

(1) Warm-up

In this stage, there are some activities used by the teacher to lead students in the new lesson It may be asking some questions such as: asking students to keep silent, checking students' attention, checking the previous lesson And the time for this stage is often from 3 to 4 minutes

(2) While speaking

In this stage, students have to do 2 or 3 given tasks in the textbooks For each task, the teacher gives students some guidance and then asks them to do the task in sometimes It is very necessary to note that in speaking most activities are solved

in pairs or in groups That means the teacher often sets in students that they have to work in pairs or groups in each task Common types for the tasks are often asking and answering questions in pairs, discussing and then showing one's own viewpoint, making conversations based on the model one in the textbooks

This stage takes most the time of the lesson

(3) Post speaking

This stage is used for further practice Students are often asked to do a task that applies all the things students have learnt in the previous tasks That means students use all the information in those parts as suggestions for doing this task Similarly, after some time, the teacher also calls students to do the task It may be individual talks or conversations And then the teacher gives some comment on what they did

in class This leads to the result that the speaking skills of most students are comparatively lower than other skills such as reading and writing It can be seen from the reality of teaching English at Le Hoan high school It is time for the teachers to find new methods to apply in teaching speaking skill

2.6 What factors discourage the students?

This is a difficult question to answer How to motivate the students in speaking classrooms has long been our concern When learning to speak English, most students find some barriers that impede their communicative competence These barriers include lack of vocabulary and structures, low English proficiency, interests, or motivation

First of all, it is necessary to find out the main factors affecting their participation The factors below are these problems not only common place in Viet Nam but also

at Le Hoan high school

2.6.1 The students lack motivation

Student motivation is influenced by both internal and external factors that can start, sustain, intensify, or discourage behavior Internal factors include the individual characteristics or dispositions that students bring to their learning, such as their interests, responsibility for learning, effort, values and perceived ability For example, are students confident or fearful when they approach new learning tasks?

Do they attribute success to luck, or do they appreciate the effort required? Do they feel in control of the factors that lead to success? It is also important to understand the external factors, which schools can affect the variables in learning conditions and environment that trigger, support, or change student motivation Certain types

of schooling practices may promote or hinder motivation, such as features of the classrooms, peer groups, tasks, and instructional practices For example, challenging, relevant instruction helps to engage students Another way to increase motivation is through positive connections to others, such as mentors and role models

Students' beliefs about their ability to learn are shaped by messages and experiences at home, at school, and in the larger society Low expectations can be subtly communicated by parents and teachers, and through school practices such as

tracking, ability grouping, or curriculum that is not challenging Conversely, high but achievable expectations convey the message that all students are capable of achieving

2.6.2 Students are low at English proficiency

The students' low English proficiency in English is a big barrier that prevents them from using English to communicate Although the students have learnt English for

4 years since they were at lower secondary school, most of them are actually beginners of English For secondary pupils, passing the national entrance high school examination is the main goal The examination which is administered at the end of grade 9 only consists of two subjects-maths and literature These pupils regarded English as less important than the other subjects and did not pay adequate attention to it As a result, their English proficiency is far from expectation For example, when the teacher asked the students a question, they could not understand

it or if they understood the teacher's requirement they couldn't have enough vocabulary or find appropriate structures to respond to the teacher Gradually, these students lose the interest in trying to speak English and became discouraged

to speak that language The result from the teachers' questionnaire showed that most teachers confessed this problem

2.6.3 The students are nervous and afraid of making mistakes

In Viet Nam, to get high scores in the Higher Education Exam is nearly the only goal of the high school students For some reason, there is no oral English test in the Higher Education Exam; thus speaking skills are often neglected Moreover, since there are usually over 45 students in each class, the students have little chance to practice speaking in class This leads to the result that the speaking skills

of most students are comparatively lower than other skills such as listening, reading and grammar

Secondly, the fear of "losing face" prevents the students from speaking English Face is still of great importance to most high school students On the one hand, it motivates people to work hard to win face; on the other, people tend to conceal their mistakes and weaknesses for fear of losing face For many English learners, they believe if they make mistakes or fail to find suitable words to express themselves, they will lose face To protect themselves from being laughed at, they are reluctant to speak English So there is the vicious circle: the less they speak, the less they improve their speaking skills, and the more they are afraid of speaking

2.6.4 The topics are not interesting

The dominating oral English teaching materials in Viet Nam focus on situational and communicative function, aiming to enable students to cope, in the target language, with typical situations in school and work environments as well as in ordinary life When "practical" is the prime principle, what the learners do most in the speaking classroom is to make dialogues according to the given situations or topics However, students often complain that they have been repeatedly asked to introduce their families or schools; talk about their hobbies or majors; make dialogues on topics such as job interviews, meeting visitors or shopping These

"practical" topics and situations provide little space for the students to imagine and create; therefore, dialogues on these situational topics are hard to develop in depth and width People tend to lose interest in what they learn if they find they make little progress

Another problem with this kind of topic-based speaking training is you can't expect all the listeners to be interested in your hobby or major Moreover, the other students in the classroom are talking about similar things, which could hardly offer anything new to each other Consequently, the audiences in the speaking classroom are not very attentive and the speakers just make a perfunctory effort instead of getting involved, not even to mention enjoying it To many of them, the job is just

a job

2.6.5 The classroom atmosphere is not encouraging

The effect of classroom atmosphere on language learning, especially an oral class,

is obvious and immediate A free and light-hearted atmosphere promotes communications, while a nervous and stiff atmosphere builds invisible obstacles in communications Dialogues about daily life and routine work lack variation, do not sound enchanting, and are unlikely to create an animated classroom atmosphere

2.6.6 Feedback of the listeners is not supportive

According to my observations in speaking classes, apart from the factors mentioned above, the listeners' feedback also has a strong influence on the performance of the speakers Very often, at the beginning of the performance, the speakers are confident and active when doing some dialogues or role play exercises However, when the audience loses interest in the speakers, begin to talk

to each other or just do whatever else instead of listening at tentatively to the speakers, the speakers tend to, consciously or unconsciously, speed up or cut down their words, trying to flee back to their own seats as quickly as they can (students are often asked to present in the front of the classroom and face the class in order

to build better communications since there are usually 45 students in each class) Even the slightest indifference or impatience indicated by the audience can be immediately felt by the speakers, which, in turn, greatly inhibits their passion to communicate Of course, teachers can force the audiences to listen to the speakers

but it is of no use blaming them The most effective way is to offer the audiences something different and interesting

In summary, through analyzing the characteristics of students and teachers as well

as the temporary teaching and learning reality, it's time the English teacher found new techniques to apply in teaching speaking skill So the detailed description of the methodology, the procedures and the results will be presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3 USING SUGGESTED GAMES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN

SPEAKING LESSON

In the previous chapter, the theoretical matters related to the topic have been covered However, in order to see how they work in real teaching and learning, a practical research was carried out The research underwent the following steps:

1 Designing survey questionnaires

2 Delivering questionnaires to the pilot informants

3 Collecting the completed questionnaires

4 Analyzing collected data

5 Proposing some remarks and comments from the results of the questionnaires and giving suggestions

In this chapter, only the first four steps will be mentioned The last step will be presented in the next chapter

3.1 Hypothesis

As mentioned in the first part of the study, this study is aimed of testing the following hypothesis: Language games can be used as a teaching technique to effectively enhance students' motivation in speaking classes Besides, the study answers the following research questions:

1 How can games contribute to improve speaking ability of students in the school?

2 What are advantages and disadvantages of using games in speaking lesson?

3 What are the principles of using language games in speaking lesson?

4 What games should be used in speaking skill to motivate the 11th form students in speaking lesson at Le Hoan high school?

3.2 Subject of the study

The research is carried out at Le Hoan high school with the participation of ninety 10h form students All of the surveyed students have learned English for at least four years at secondary schools, especially some of them have learned English for nine years Most of them can do grammar exercises very well but they have difficulties in mastering four integrated sills Of the four skills, as many of them revealed, they find speaking especially important yet challenging one That was the reason why most of students feel bored and unmotivated in speaking classes

3.3 The textbook

English text book 10 consists of sixteen units for two terms Each unit focuses not only on four different language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing but also such language elements as pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary

Speaking lesson is the second section in each unit introduced just after reading lesson These speaking lessons are under the tendency theme-based and task-based approaches In general, the textbook provides students with a variety of topics and speaking activities with the aim of helping students improve their speaking skill

To be more specific, some of the topics are of the students' interest such as talking about one's daily activities (unit 1) or talking about an excursion (unit 11), etc However there are some speaking topics that are unfamiliar and far from the students' background knowledge such as talking about different types of media and their uses (unit 7), talking about the new kinds of zoos (unit 10) Consequently, the students will lose their interest during the lesson Therefore, an effective technique should be exploited to motivate students in these speaking lessons

3.4 Data collection

3.4.1 The data collection instruments

To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen as main method for data collection for this particular research because survey questionnaires are one of the most popular instruments in collecting data It

is quite easy to prepare and it can be given to large groups of subjects at the same time Hence, the data will be more accurate In addition, the information collected

is not so difficult to analyze

The survey questionnaires include pre-task survey questionnaire It involves 16 questions (see appendix 1) relating to the students' attitudes toward English learning and expectations of the teachers' methodology in speaking lesson and post-task questionnaire includes 10 questionnaires with close and open-ended questions used for ninety 11th form students The data of the survey questionnaires will be analyzed based on this target population Parallel with the survey questionnaires, observation, and interview were also conducted to collect more data for this study Below are the results that show the students' point of views about English speaking skill and using language games to motivate this skill for 10th form students at Le Hoan high school

3.4.2 Procedures and methods of data collection

Firstly two questionnaires were delivered to students at Le Hoan high school The students had 10 minutes to complete the survey questionnaire

Then, the questionnaires were collected I analyzed the data to interpret the finding and gave some suggestion about teacher teaching method

The study was done through the following steps

• Step one: Pre-task survey questionnaires

The researcher taught 2 classes of ninety 11th form students for 2 weeks and then asked them to complete the pre-task survey questionnaire to find out student's attitudes towards English learning and expectation of the teachers' methodology

• Step two: Pilot teaching speaking with adapted speaking activities The researcher adapted speaking activities given in the textbook by applying with a variety of language games to teach students for 6 weeks

1 Warm-up

In this stage, I usually use some games to lead students in the new lesson Such

as "matching pictures" (unit 11)

In the game, I give some pictures about famous singers around the world and their names, and then I ask the students to a match

1 Nature 2 Gas 3 Oil 4 Solar energy

5 Wind energy 6 Nuclear power 7 Coal

"Cross word" game (unit 12 The Asian Game) In this game, I have to prepare a cross- word which has the key word "Asian Game" and asks students answer these following questions to find out the key word (presented by power point)

1 What sport uses running power?

2 What sport does each team usually have 5 players?

3 What is a game of skill usually played with a cue used to act on small balls?

4 What are the games held in the water called?

5 Which game is a monomartial arts?

6 What sport uses bicycles?

7 What is the reward for the winner of the matches?

8 Which sport has to jump over the bar when competing?

9 What is the traditional martial art of the Okinawa region (Japan)?

2 While speaking

In this stage, I give students some guidance and then ask them to do the task in some time It is very necessary to note that in speaking most activities are solved in pairs or in groups That means the teacher often set in students' mind that they have

to work in pairs or groups in each task To help students to do the task easily, I also apply some games to teach them

For example: Unit 13 “Hobbies" I use "interviewing games" I have to prepare some pieces of interview paper for all students (handout)

I divide the class into small groups of nine One of them will be a journalist who wants to interview students about their music taste The journalist has to ask 2 students some questions and fill in the table for his / her later article After 8 minutes of interviewing, I call on some groups to make presentations on what they have done in their group and give comments and correct errors

3.After speaking

This stage is used for further practice Students are often asked to do a task that applies all the things students have learnt in the previous tasks To make students fell less pressure; I also give to students some easy games I use storytelling game in the stage (unit 16) I divide the class into groups of eight students (two rows of tables) and then ask students to work in groups to tell about their imaginary excursion I begin the story with one clause of the third conditional sentence Then the students in each group one by one add more sentences using the third conditional sentences After the last student in each group finishes the story, all groups are asked to tell their excursion in front of the class Finally I will decide which the most interesting story is

• Step 3: Post-task survey questionnaire

After teaching 6 weeks, the post-task survey questionnaire was distributed to these ninety students to find out the effectiveness of the use language games in speaking lesson

• Step 4: Collecting data and analyzing data

After collecting the survey questionnaire, I analyzed the information from two tables

Both survey questionnaires were administered during the class time Before the questionnaire was given to the informants, the researcher took time to explain the purpose of the questionnaires, the requirements of the informants The informants

were also encouraged to raise any questions if there was anything unclear in the survey questionnaires Then they were instructed to complete the questionnaires

3.5 Pre-task questionnaire

3.5.1 Presentation of the data collected from pre-task questionnaire

The pre-task survey questionnaire included two main parts:

Part one aimed to collect information about the students' background: Their majors and English learning experience

Part two aimed to collect information about the students' attitudes towards English learning (question 1, 2), their attitudes and perspectives towards speaking lessons (question 4, 5, 6, 7), students' preferences and expectations of the teachers' methodology in English speaking lessons (question 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)