A study on the adaptation of speaking activities in tieng anh 11 at nghi xuan high school

The findings of the research indicates that a majority of EFL teachers and students encountered many difficulties from “Tieng Anh 11” such as students‟ low participation and limited voca

MASTER‟S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: NGÔ ĐÌNH PHƯƠNG, Assoc Prof., Dr

NGHỆ AN - 2014

Author

Đặng Thị Anh Phương

the process of carrying out the research paper

In addition, I would like to send my special thanks to all the teachers and students at Nghi Xuan high school whose contributions are very meaningful in the completion of this paper

Finally, I also wish to express my since thanks to my family and all my friends who have given me so much encouragement and support in conducting this research paper

In this study, quasi- experimental method was utilized to collect data, teachers' and students‟ attitudes towards adapting speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 11” and the practicality of teachers' adaptation The data in this research were collected from 6 EFL teachers and 90 students at Nghi Xuan high school Data collection instruments are students‟ questionnaires, teachers‟ interviews and classroom observations

The findings of the research indicates that a majority of EFL teachers and students encountered many difficulties from “Tieng Anh 11” such as students‟ low participation and limited vocabulary, large class-size and mixed ability, unsuitable and less communicative tasks, too difficult tasks and shortage of teachers‟ experience in teaching speaking Besides, the finding results reveal that teachers' perception on adapting “Tieng Anh 11” was positive

The research also conducts a pilot teaching and gets a feasible result Hence, together with the research results, the implications and conclusion of the research were worked out to increase the effectiveness of teaching speaking sections in “Tieng Anh 11” at Nghi Xuan high school

2.2.3.1 Concept of Speaking 15 2.2.3.2 The Importance of Teaching English Speaking 16 2.2.3.3 Characteristics of a Successful English Speaking activity 17 2.2.3.4 Problems with English speaking and Speaking Activities 19

2.2.4.1 The Overall Design of the Textbook “Tieng Anh 11” 21 2.2.4.2 The General Features of the Textbook “Tieng Anh 11” 21

3.1 The Teaching and Learning Situation in Nghi Xuan High School 26

4.1 Results of Students‟ Participation from Pre-experiment Observation 31

4.4 Results from the End of Experiment Observation 51 4.5 Students‟ Participation in the Experimental and Control Group in

Three Adaptation 61 4.6 Comparision of Students‟ Participation before and at at the End of the

APPENDICES

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training No: Number

STT: Student Talking Time TTT: Teacher Talking Time

%: Percent

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page

Table 4.1: STT and TTT in control and experimental group before

Table 4.2: Students‟ reasons for learning English 35 Table 4.3: Factors prevent students from participating in speaking in 37 the class

Table 4.4: Students‟ learning styles in both groups 37 Table 4.5: Students‟ opinions towards the speaking tasks of the textbook 42 Table 4.6: Students‟ opinion about the teachers‟ way of teaching speaking 43 Table 4.7: Students‟ evaluation on their teacher‟s adaptation 43 Table 4.8: Students‟ assessment of their currents speaking lessons 44 Table 4.9: STT and TTT in the control group before the experiment 52

Table 4.10: Students‟ participation in experimental and control group in

Table 4.11: TTT and STT in the two classes before and at the end of

Chart 4.1: Students‟ self-evaluation of their participation in speaking lessons 35

Chart 4.4: Students‟ interests in speaking lessons 40 Chart 4.5: Affecting factors of students‟ interest in speaking class 41 Chart 4.6: Students‟ opinions about speaking topics in “Tieng Anh 11” 41

Chart 4.7: Teachers' perception on which parts of speaking activities

in “Tieng Anh 11” need adapting to increase students‟ participation

In order to improve Vietnamese learners‟ competence to meet the demand of globalization , the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has also made great efforts to help students learn English better, among which the effort to search for new sources of materials has always beken encouraged Especially, the introduction of new textbooks “ Tieng Anh 10,11,12” to school curriculum marks a dramatic change in the way of language teaching and learning from the traditional approach-grammar translation method to communicative approach Among the four skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, it can

be said that speaking seems to be the most challenging skill for most of the students at Nghi Xuan high school Almost students only focus on learning the grammar without developing speaking skill while the goal of learning English is

to communicate in it Consequently, the students become accustomed to sitting and listening quietly rather than presenting orally After 5 school years teaching the new textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” at Nghi Xuan high school, I find that there are some problems with some activities in the textbook Some are too difficult for my students, some are not real communicative, some are too long

… All these reasons greatly contribute to the demotivation of students from in the lessons at Nghi Xuan high school In this case, it is necessary for teachers to

adapt some activities to make it suitable and interesting for learners There are many things that teachers can do to improve the unit such as looking for interesting extra materials from different sources, designing activities which can motivate learners in oral presentation

The above mentioned reasons have inspired the writer to conduct a research

titled “A Study on the Adaptation of Speaking Activities in “Tieng Anh 11” at

Nghi Xuan High School.”

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Aims: The present study is carried out with the aims to investigate the

current situation of teaching and learning spoken English as well as how Students‟ Oral presentation is improved in speaking lessons teachers at Nghi Xuan high school

Objectives: Firstly, the present study focuses on investigating the reasons

why teachers at Nghi Xuan upper-secondary should adapt speaking activities in

“Tieng Anh 11” Secondly, it points out what speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 11” should be adapted Finally, it determines the effects of the adapted activites

in improving students‟oral presentation in speaking lessons at Nghi Xuan high school

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There is a variety of aspects affecting students‟ oral presentation in class activities so there exists a numerous methods to improve students‟ involvement However, it is not my attention to cover all of them because of time and length constraint of the study Adaptation of speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 11” is focused on and tested in classes at Nghi Xuan high school As the result, the samples of the study were restricted to 4 teachers and 90 students at 11th form at Nghi Xuan high school

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1 Why should teachers adapt speaking activities in “Tiếng Anh 11”?

2 What speaking activities in “Tiếng Anh 11” should be adapted to improve students’ oral presentation?

3 To what extent do the adapted speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 11” increase students’ participation in speaking classes at Nghi Xuan high school?

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

Apart from acknowledgements, abstract, table of contents and appendices, this thesis is structured in five main chapters:

Chapter 1- Introduction includes: Rationale, Aims of the Study, Scope of

the Study, Research Questions and Organization of the Study

Chapter 2- Theoretical Background focuses on the theory about textbook

adaptation, speaking skill, and students‟ oral presentation and gives out an overview of the curriculumn and the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” The situation of teaching English learning at Nghi Xuân high school will be also presented in this chapter

Chapter 3 - Methodology describes the research method, settings and

participants , data collection instruments and data collection procedures

Chapter 4- Findings and Discussion focuses on the results of

investigation

Chapter 5 – Conclusions summarises the study, implications , limitations

and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous Studies Related to the Topic

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Today‟s world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students‟ communicative skills, because, only in that way, learners can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance Because of its important roles, speaking has received

a lot of attention from experts as well as methodologists in the world and in VietNam

One of the major early books on materials development, Harold S Madson and Donald J Bowen, did, focused on adaptation in language teaching, republished

in Newbury House publisher in 1978 It made the important point that good teachers are always adapting the materials they are using to the context in which they are using them in order to achieve the optimal congruence between materials, methodology, learners, objectives, the target language and the teacher‟s personality and teaching style In this book, the authors said that it was not necessary to teach every drill, every section and every grammar point Madson and Bowen set out and analyzed ways in which the language teachers can complement the textbook with his own ideas and modify the content to suit his own teaching style, the needs of his learners or the constraints and advantages of the circumstances Concentrating on the practical aspects of language teaching, the author drew upon their considerable experience with the mainstream of foreign language teaching, both in United States and abroad They covered the principles and techniques of adaptation exceptionally well According to them, adaptation took three forms-individualizing, modifying and compensating- and utilized any of a wide variety of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, ect

McGrath (2002) also devoted a chapter to discussing the objectives, principles and procedures of adaptation He proposed “four evaluative processes”

(p 59) when basing a lesson on a course book and went on to discuss the issues and procedures involved in each process Teachers may select the materials that will be used unchanged, reject either completely or partially sections of the material, add extensions or further exploitation of the existing materials and replace components

of the materials McGrath set a series of useful tasks for the readers to check their understanding of his suggested procedures and their ability to use them Some of these tasks involved the reader adapting course book materials; others involved them in evaluating adaptations suggested by experts

Anson Yang and Chan-piu Cheung‟s research (2003) was about adapting textbook activities for communicative teaching and cooperative learning in some speaking class in Hong Kong According to them, one obstacle that most schools cannot overcome is the extensive language syllabus prescribed by the textbook Actually, each level of a textbook is often a set of texts, which may include an all-in-one textbook In theory, teachers have to follow the rationale and sequence of each chapter; but in reality, for a variety of reasons, teachers skip items in the textbooks If a teacher uses such an activity without any adaptation, English students will be distanced from the situation because the task won‟t be meaningful

to them Communicative language teaching requires authentic communication, which includes a believable setting, a normal speed in speaking, a range of lexical items suitable for the students‟ ages, and an overall promotion of learning This research suggested small modifications of activities, so that even when teachers have to follow textbook tasks, they can easily adapt them for communicative teaching with minimal extra preparation for themselves or their students Also, this research showed that a small change of task can make it more authentic for students and enhance the cooperative learning potential of a textbook activity

Another research conducted by Tran Thi Lan Anh (2010) was about challenges and solutions in teaching and learning speaking skill with the new English textbook for grade 10 at Xuan Hoa high school, Vinh Phuc province She

mentioned the difficulties from teachers such as teachers‟ insufficient

communicative competence, teachers‟ lack of training and difficulties from students were learners‟ level of English, learners‟ traditional features She also suggested some solutions to those problems

Mai Thị Lan (2013) carried out a research on how to motivate the 10 grade students in speaking skill at Hoa Lu A high school in Ninh Binh province An action research was planned and implemented with such data collection instruments

as classroom observation, questionnaire and document analysis This study set out

to investigate the types of motivation possessed by students in speaking lessons at Hoa Lu A high school It also focused and evaluated motivational techniques used

by teachers at this school, students’ expectations of speaking teaching Then, it suggested some recommendations for teachers to motivate students in speaking skill

In summary, it can be seen from the above review that researchers focused

on adapting speaking activities to increase students‟ participation and motivation in speaking class However, not many researchers have conducted research on adaptation of "Tieng Anh 11" yet Therefore, the author has decided to conduct the research with the aim of adapting some difficult speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 11” to increase students‟ participation in speaking lessons and help improve teaching and learning English at Nghi Xuan high school

2.2 Theoretical Background 2.2.1 Communicative Language Teaching

It is known that the history of language teaching has shown the change on methods, which have reflected recognition of changes in the sort of proficiency learners needs What has changed in a second language teaching is not the way we teach but in the aim of language teaching and learning (Le, 2004) According Mackey (1965) most teaching methods still exist both advantages and disadvantages, and it is difficult to say which method is the most appropriate without considering the background in which it is applied Because of the limitation

in my thesis, I only spotlight on CLT which is considered as one of the most

effective method to teach speaking skill in second language

2.2.1.1 Definition of CLT

Perhaps the majority of language teachers today, when asked to identify the methodology.They employ in the classroom, identify “communicative” as the methodology of choice However, when pressed to give a detailed account of what they mean by “communicative”, explanations vary widely Does communicative language teaching (CLT) mean teaching conversations, an absence of grammar in a course, or an emphasis on open-ended discussion activities as the main features of a course?

The origin of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition in the late 1960s.There are many definitions of CLT by different methodologists Among the available definitions, the one given by Nunan (1989, p.194) seems to be the most widely-accepted and the most favorable one As for him:

"CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve

oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner's role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher's role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic" Nunan also asserts that in communication process, learners are

negotiators and integrators where as teachers are facilitators

According to Richards (1998), CLT can be understood as a set of principles

about the goal of language teaching, how learners learn language, the kind of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom

The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method, represent a particular view of understanding and explaining language

acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and testing In their reaction against an over emphasis on functions and a lack of emphasis on grammatical complexity, they pointed out that external oriental communication is not necessarily more essential than other proposes of language such as "self-expression, verbal thinking, problem solving, and creative writing"

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as

teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices As such, it is most often defined as a list of general principles of features that Nunan (1991) remarked:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning management process

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

2.1.1.2 Characteristics of CLT

Language is not simply a system of rules It is now generally seen "as a

dynamic resource for the creation of meaning" (Nunan, 1989) This point of view is

really supports CLT

 CLT is aimed at (a) making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Canh, 2004)

 CLT is grounded on a theory of language as communication The goal of CLT is

to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom to order communicative competence (Hymes, 1972)

 CLT is also associated with learner-centered and experienced based tasks (Richard & Rodgers, 1986, L.Tsang & Wong, 2000)

 The focus of CLT is on functional language usage and learners' ability to express themselves In other words, for CLT, developing learners' skills is more important than the content of the teaching and learning (Johnson, 1982)

 There are three major principle of CLT:

(1) communication principle: emphasizes activities that involve real

communication promote learning

(2) task principle: supports that activities in which language is used for

carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning

(3) meaningfulness principle: claims that language that is meaningful to the

learners supports the learning process

(Canh, 2004)

 In communicative classes, learners communicate with each other and learning tasks are completed by means of interaction between learners It is clear that learners' completing a task is fore-grounded and communicating with each other is back-grounded This may lead to considerable use of pair work, group work and

mingling activities

 In ESL classes, teachers are facilitators and monitors, usually, without

interruption and then to provide feedback on the success

However, CLT is not a perfect method There still exist critical remarks on CLT as its inappropriateness to local contexts and cultures, its negation of rote-learning, memorization, displaying questions, teacher's talk, etc

In spite of limitations and shortcomings, no one can negate that Communicative Language Teaching allows teachers to incorporate motivating and purposeful

communicative activities and principle into their teaching, which later results in the improvement of their learners' proficiency

For the reasons mentioned above, CLT has served as the dominant approach to language teaching since the demise of Audio-lingual Method

To summarize, CLT is characterized as:

- an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language;

- the introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation;

- the provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself;

- an enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning;

- an attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom (Brown 1994 a, p 78)

CLT is so popular that “no self- respecting teacher, materials designer, or

applied linguist would think of teaching English as anything else.” (Harmer 1982,

2.2.2.1 Definition of Adaptation

Naturally, adaptation is the action or process of adapting or fitting or the stage of being adapted or fitted Being considered in the points of view of linguistics and educators, course book adaptation means changing existing course book in order to make them more suitable for specific learners, teachers, or situations (Tomlinson, 2000) In addition to this issue, Peacok (1996) states that adaptation is

essentially a process of matching to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials

in context by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit particular circumstances

Madsen and Bowen (1978, ix) claimed adaptation is an action of employing

“one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing,

simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content”

Ellis, M (1986, p.47) considered adaptation as the process of “retaining, rejecting,

re-ordering and modification” and Tomlinson (1998, xi) refers to “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”

Materials adaptation means matching materials with the learner‟s needs, the teacher‟s demands and administration‟s purpose

2.2.2.2 The Purpose of Adaptation

Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom After all, most commercial textbooks are not written for any particular class What makes the matter worse is that sometimes the teachers are compelled to use certain materials, that is, materials imposed by authorities In a word, in most ELT cases, teachers have to adapt the materials they are using if they want their teaching to be more effective and more interesting

Cunningsworth (1995) makes the statement that: textbooks are an effective recourse for presentation material, a source of ideas and activities, a reference source for students, a syllabus where they reflect pre-determined learning objectives and support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence However there is no perfect suitable material Therefore, teachers adapt textbook to match it with their teaching environment, their learners, their own preferences, the course objectives and the text, the tasks, the activities

McDonough and Shaw (1993, p.86) have listed more reasons for materials adaptation The most important reason is that there is mismatch between what is needed and what is provided by materials

2.2.2.3 Techniques of Adaptation

After recognizing a gap (mismatch or non-congruence) between published teaching materials and the needs and objectives of the classroom, the teacher has to address the practicalities of adapting the material to meet her class objectives more closely Mc Donough and Shaw (1993) and Cunningsworth (1995) offered lists of techniques that may be used when adapting materials better to fit a specific class

Adding

The notion of addition is, on its face, a very obvious and straightforward idea, implying that materials are supplemented by putting more into them, while taking into account the practical effect on time allocation We certainly can add in this simple quantitative way by the technique of "extending" For example, adding a second passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in reinforcing the key linguistic features-tenses, sentence structure, vocabulary, cohesive device-of the first text

Adding technique by extending is to supply more to the original material This means that the techniques are being applied within methodological framework of the original materials We can also add in a qualitative way by the technique of

"expanding" Adding technique by expanding is to add to the methodology by moving outside it and developing it in new directions, for instance by putting a different language skill or a new component This can be thought of as a change in the overall system

Deleting or omitting

Deletion is clearly the opposite process to addition, and as such needs no further clarification as a term However, although material is taken out rather than supplemented, as a technique it can be thought of as "the other side of the same coin" The technique is used to omit material or reduce the length of material as subtracting from it For instance, the teacher leaves out lengthy and difficult tasks

which are unproductive or inappropriate for a particular group of students

Addition and deletion often work together, of course Material may be taken out and then replaced with something else

Modifying

Modification is, at one level, a very general term in the language applying to any kind of change In order to introduce further possibilities for adaptation, we shall restrict its meaning here to an internal change in the approach or focus of an exercise or other piece of material It is rather important and frequently used procedure which, like all other techniques, can be applied to any aspect of 'content' Modification can be sub-divided under two related headings The first of these is re-writing, when some of the linguistic content needs modification The second is re-structuring, which applies to the classroom management The teacher may rewrite material, exercises, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students To re-structure, for many teachers who are required to follow a course book rather strictly, changes in the structuring

of the class are sometimes the only kind of adaptation that is realistically possible

In short, modification refers essentially to a "modality change" to a change in the nature or focus of an exercise, a text, or a classroom activity

Simplifying

The technique of simplification is one type of modification, namely a writing" activity Many elements of a language course can be simplified, including the instructions and explanations that accompany exercises and activities, and even the visual layout of material so that it becomes easier to see how different parts fit together For instance, teachers can simplify gap-filling activities by rewriting each filing sentence to make easier for students to understand Teachers can reword or leave out difficult words or expressions, etc Simplification has a number of further implications Firstly, it is possible that any linguistic change, lexical or grammatical, will have a corresponding stylistic effect, and will therefore change the meaning or intention of the original text Secondly, some teaching situations require attention to the simplification of the content when the complexity of the subject-matter is

"re-regarded as being too advanced Thirdly, simplification can refer not only to content, but also to the ways in which content is presented We may decide not to make any changes to the original text

In conclusion, adaptation is a very practical activity carried out mainly by teachers Teachers may select any feature of the materials that would like to be changed researchers refers as much as possible techniques mentioned above, draw

up some which are not suitable for their own teaching situation In this study, the suggestions for how to adapt some difficult speaking activities in “Tiếng Anh 10” to get students more involved in speaking activities and increase their participation in speaking lessons

2.2.2.4 Levels of Adaptation

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels:

1) Macro adaptation This is ideally done before the language programme begins After comparing what

is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented Macro adaptation is very important because it helps to avoid waste of time and energy of the teacher and the students as well It also helps the teacher to see in advance what he or she needs to supplement

so that he or she can keep an eye on materials that could be used

2) Adapting a unit This could be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation helps to make the

classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive It also helps the teacher to better fulfil the aims of a unit

3) Adaptation of specific activities Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular class If the teacher does not want to give up the activity,

he or she needs to adapt it

2.2.3 Background of Speaking

It is obvious that speaking is the key to communication and seems to be the vital skill in comparison with reading, listening and writing Everywhere people speak to each other to exchange attitudes, cultural values, etc Without it communication will become difficult to proceed and our world will become as silent as a grave Therefore, classroom activities aiming at developing learners‟ ability to express themselves through speech are considered an important

component in a language course

2.2.3.1 Concept of speaking

Speaking is one of four necessary skills to use a language successfully According to Chaney (1998, p.13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non – verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (as cited in Kayi, 2006) Fowler & Thompson (2000) share the same view that speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing one‟s thoughts and feelings in spoken language” This definition confirms that speaking is a process because it contains speakers‟ thoughts and feelings

Orwig (1999) defines speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It is complicated and involves more than just pronouncing words W.F Mackey also agrees that oral skill “involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.” (Qouted from Bygate, M.,1987, p.5)

According to Byrne (1976, p.8), speaking is a two - way process between the speakers and the hearers involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive

skill of understanding Both the listener and the speaker have a positive function to perform The speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message The message itself in normal speech usually contains a great deal of information that the listener needs

Byrne (1995, p.10) gives a diagram to show what happens in a speech situation and incidentally, therefore, what is involved in oral activity

Initiate Speak

2.2.3.2 The importance of teaching English speaking

From the teaching point of view, language skills consist of four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Those four skills have a supportive relationship Of those four skills, speaking plays the most important role since it is fundamental to human communication (Ur, 1996, p.120) It can not be denied that

in our daily lives, people spend more time on speaking rather than on writing

It is true that Vietnamese students are better at remembering vocabulary and grammar points than speaking English fluently This means that speaking is a neglected language skill in many classrooms Speaking is one of the most important skills that most learners of any foreign languages wish to achieve It is an

important skill that 'makes you a more fluent language user; speaking is a chance to

notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say; it is a chance

to test hypotheses about language' (Marilyn Lerris, 1999-quoted by He Lina)

According to Kayi (2006, p.1-2) what is meant by teaching speaking is to

teach English language learners to:

 Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

 Use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is

called fluency

2.2.3.3 Characteristics of a successful English speaking activity

To help students not get bored with speaking activities in class time, the teachers of English are required to make activities in order to improve the students speaking skill or to make the teaching-speaking run more easily and interestingly In order to organize speaking activities successfully, it is essential to identify the characteristics of a good speaking activity Klippel (1985) thinks that an effective speaking lesson needs to have three features:

a Message oriented communication which indicates the moments in foreign language when target language is used as a vehicle of communication

b It has learner – centered activities in which students’ feelings, purposes and ideas are the focus

c In speaking lesson, active learning, cooperation and empathy which emphasize the students’ active participation in the speaking process

According to Ur (1996, p.120), a successful speaking activity needs to have four typical characteristics:

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

activity is in fact occupied by learners talk This may be obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

b Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of

talk active participants All get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

c Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in

the topic and have something new to say about it, or they want to contribute to achieve a task objective

d Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances

that are relevant, easy comprehensible to teach other and of acceptable level of language accuracy

From their ideas above, we can see that the two authors appreciate highly features of a successful speaking activity which prioritize the maximization of learners‟ speaking time and equal chance for everybody to speak These characteristics are closely related to the theme of this study in hope that learners involve much, more actively and enthusiastically in speaking lessons

2.2.3.4 Problems with English speaking and speaking activities a) Problems with English speaking

Everything has bad and good sides Speaking also has its own problems According to Brown (1994, p.256), the characteristics of spoken language can make oral performance easy as well as in some cases difficult There are following problems with speaking:

 Clustering Fluent speech is phrase not word by word Learners can organize out put both cognitively and physically through such clustering

 Redundancy The speaker has an opportunity to make clearer through the redundancy of language Learner can capitalize on this feature of spoken language

 Reduced forms

Contraction, elisions, reduced vowel, etc all forms, special problems in teaching spoken English Students don‟t learn colloquial contraction can sometimes develop

a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatizes them

 Colloquial language Colloquialism appears both in monogues and dialogues If learners are only exposed

to standard English and/ or „textbook‟ language, they sometimes have difficulty in understanding and producing words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language

 Stress, rhythm and intonation This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation because the stress-timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important massages But the fact that the learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English words or stress the right syllables, to follow the tress-timed rhythm and intonation patterns of spoken English

b) Problems with English 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 adminster such activities than to

do so for listening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that

Ur (1996, p.121) lists out:

 Inhibition:

Unlike reading, writing and listenig actiities, speaking requires some degree of real time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibition about trying to say things in a foreign language In the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that thier speech attracts

 Nothing to say:

Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they can not think of anything to say, or that they have no motive to express themselve beyond the guilty feeling

 Lows or uneven participation:

Only one participate can talk at a time if he or she is to heard; and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little talking time 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 for many reasons: Firstly, they may tend to use it because it is easier Secondly, they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and lastly because they feels less „exposed‟ if they are speaking thier mother tongue If they are talking in a small group it can be quite difficult to get some class-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 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

Through this section above, we can know most of the difficulties that students often encounter in learning English speaking skill Basing on these views, an action research is to caried out on adapting some English speaking activities for the „Tieng Anh 11‟ to reduce these difficulties

2.2.4 The textbook “Tieng Anh 11”

2.2.4.1 The overall design of the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”

The new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook composed by Van, H V et al., (2006) has been in use since 2006 as the official textbook to obtain general English at grade 11.The textbook consists of 16 units in terms of 16 topics There are five parts in each unit represented through 5 lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus respectively The book adopts two new approaches: learner–centered and communicative aiming at students‟ better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing” (Van, H.V et al., 2006, p 33)

Speaking lessons are under the tendency theme-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 hobbies (Unit 13) or talking about a party (Unit 3), etc… However, there are some speaking topics that are far unfamiliar with the students‟ background knowledge such as talking about space conquest (Unit 15), talking about the wonders of the world (Unit 16) Consequently, the students will lose their interest during the lessons Therefore, an effective technique should be exploited to motivate students in these speaking lessons

2.2.4.2 The general features of the textbook “Tieng Anh 11”

The textbook “Tieng Anh 11” is theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the two currently popular teaching approaches, i.e the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach A focus is on task-based teaching as the leading methodology.This intention is explicitly presented in the following objectives of the “ Tieng Anh 11”:

- To formulate and develop a fundamental and systematic knowledge of English hence learners can use English as a means of communication at the basic level

- To enable the students to develop their communicative skills in the target language including the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

- To have an appropriate, systematic and basic knowledge of English for upper secondary school learners

- To create a communicative environment or set for students to acquire English by using it through activities in class

- To broaden learners‟ general understanding of and positive attitudes toward the language, countries, people and cultures of some English countries, thus enrich thier knowledge and pride of their own culture and language

The textbook is theme-based designed in which language and the skills are structured round a certain topic or theme The theme provides a context i which language is used so as to help students be able to use the appropriate language structures in different communicative situations

The topic and vocabulary are recycled in guided group discussion (i.e speaking practice) before students listen to a lecture or tape (i.e listening comprehesion) A writing task taking the form of narrative, letters or reports concludes the theme-based activities Thus, all four major language skills together with note-taking, analytical and interpretive skills, etc can be practiced

The teacher in the new teaching context, instead being dominating authority in the classroom, plays a role as an assistant, advisor, organizer, helper and enlightener

in class to facilitate the communicative process among all the learners so that

students could be confident and relaxed Whereas, students get familiarization with pair work and group work, willing to fulfill thier tasks (linguitic and commuincation) positively, actively under the supervision and assistant from thier teachers

In summary, the text book “Tieng Anh 11” is designed to exploit thoroughly and effectively the modern teaching methods so as to innovate teachers‟ teaching methods as well as formulate learners‟ learning ones It also provides a good source

of motivation for students to learn the target language

2.2.4.3 Description of the speaking section

In Speaking part, students have to work in groups, work in pairs and work

individually to improve their communicative skill A speaking lesson often consists

of 3-4 activities, termed tasks by the textbook: task 1 and 2 usually provides

some language input and develop language competencies as well as specific communicative structures language specific functions such as expressing preferences, talking about experiences, giving instructions, expressing opinions, asking for and giving information, expressing agreements and disagreements, and

making comparison and contrast etc The other tasks then ask students to make a

conversation or a speech from the previous ones and to practise speaking in front of the whole class within some minutes with or without the guidance of the teachers

In some lessons, the speaking tasks are suitable for the students because of

the familiar topics (Unit 1: Friendship, Unit 2: Personal Experiences, Unit 3: Party,

etc) and the grammar as well as structures used for speaking are simple and easy for

them to remember In most of the other lessons, students have to remember many

things: a large number of new words, complicated grammar rules (simple past, past

perfect, gerunds and to – infinitive, passive and active voice, present perfect, relative pronouns, etc) and unfamiliar topics (Volunteer work, Illiteracy, World Population, Nature in Danger, Space Conquest, The Wonder of the World, etc)

Both teachers and students sometimes find difficulty in following the pre-designed speaking activities in the textbook Many of their speaking activities are found

non-communicative Overloaded contents for the student population in disadvantaged areas tend to impact on the effective application of the book It also makes both teachers and students (especially teachers and students in rural areas) face with great deal of challenges such as inappropriate facilities for teaching and learning, students‟low proficiency, teachers and students‟passiveness…, which require both teachers and students to overcome.The specific description of the speaking sections in the textbook comes as follows:

-Talking about volunteer work

5 Illiteracy 3 tasks -Talking about literacy problems and offering

solutions

6 Competitions 3 tasks

-Asking for and giving information about types

of competitions -Talking about a competition or contest

7

World Population

4 tasks

- Identifying causes to population explosion -Identifying problems facing overpopulated countries

-Working out solutions to problems of

overpopulated countries -Talking about problems of overpopulation and offering solutions

8 Celebrations 3 tasks -Talking about the celebration of Tet and other

festivals‟ activities

9

The Post Office 3 tasks

-Making request -Talking about different postal and telecommunication services

10

Nature in Danger 3 tasks

-Talking about nature in danger -Talking about measures for protecting endangered nature

-Asking for and giving information about the Asian Games

-Talking about sports results

13 Hobbies 3 tasks -Talking about a hobby

-Talking about collections

14 Recreation 4 tasks

-Expressing agreements and disagreements about entertainment activities and stating the reasons

of man- made places

(Hoang Van Van, English Textbook for Grade 11, 2008:7)

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study was carried out at Nghi Xuan high school in Hà Tĩnh province In this chapter, the context and the participants of the study, the instruments to collect data and the research questions will be described

3.1 The teaching and learning situation in Nghi Xuan high school

Nghi Xuan high school is located in Cổ Đạm village, Nghi Xuân district, Hà Tĩnh province The school currently has 29 classes with nearly 1200 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 The school is well-equipped with good classrooms for students, a big library with many books and a language LAB The teaching staff composes of 83 teachers, of whom two – third are young and enthusiastic

There are 12 classes of grade 11 (with the total number of 537 students)

Most students come from nearby villages of Nghi Xuân district There are eleven teachers of English currently working at Nghi Xuan high School Among them, ten are female and one is male, and their age ranks from 25 to 40 Most of them have got graduated from Vinh University, and the others graduated from DaNang and Hue University Their experience in teaching English varies from 8 to 12 years

They are helpful, enthusiastic and willing to make some renovations in teaching methodology However, the age of the teachers also reveals that they are young and have little experience of teaching

English here is considered as one of the compulsory subjects In the reality, teaching of English in general, and teaching speaking English in particular have encountered a great deal of difficulties The students are good at grammar but not speaking They can do grammar exercises very quickly and well but they can not speak it fluently and most of them do not feel confident in communicating in English

3.2 Research method

The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods Three instruments including: observations “before” and “at the end” of the experiment, questionnaires

for students, interviews for both the teachers of English and 11th grades at Nghi Xuan high school were used in this study to collect the data Besides, many resources such as books, magazines, articles, newspapers and some sources on the Internet have been utilized

In order to gain the most reliable results, the quantitative data will be collected through two survey questionnaires One survey questionnaire is for 100 students from five different groups in grade 11 in Nghi Xuan high school and the other survey is for 6 teachers teaching English for grades 11 during the time they took part in the survey The data, will be processed and analyzed to yield conclusions for the study

Along with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by informal interviews with some teachers and students to collect further information about the real situations of teaching and learning English speaking skill in grades 11

at Nghi Xuan high school

3.3 Participants

The participants in this study were 90 11th grade students from two classes: 11A and 11B at Nghi Xuan high school in Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh province The control group, group 11A included 45 students with 15 females and 30 males while the experimental group, group 11B, had 45 students with 26 females and 19 males The two groups seemed to have a relatively similar level of proficiency in English as determined by their previous term exam on English grammar, reading and writing In the researcher‟s observation, the levels of participation of the two groups in learning English in general and in learning speaking in particular were relatively equal This initial assumption was later justified by the pre-activity observation

Currently Learning English at a High School in

Table 1: Students' Background Information

3.4 Data Collection Instruments

In order to obtain in- depth, rich data and information for investigating the situation and the difficulties that teachers and students had to face in teaching and learning speaking activities, the study used three instruments of data collection: observations, questionnaires (conducted in May, 2011 when students generally fulfill their speaking lessons in “Tieng Anh 11”), and interviews (for both teachers and students)

3.4.1 Classroom observations

The class observations in this study were carried out in 3 English lessons before and during the treatment For each lesson, three other teachers observed in 45 minutes The researcher design a checklist for what she wanted to observe: students‟ talking time, their interaction and teacher‟s talking time were measured and taken notes

Before the experiment

The three other English teachers observed the two classes in 3 speaking periods to be aware of the degrees of the students‟ participation before the experiment The degrees of participation were measured in term of talking time The before experiment classroom observations are vitally important The result

decided whether we would have the following research If the present level of participation was unsatisfactory, we would have to find out the way to improve their involvement The data collected from the before experiment classroom observations would be used to compare with the degree of participation of the control group and experimental group before the interventions

During the experiment

During the treatment, the teacher or the author herself and her teachings in both

control and experimental groups with the three same lessons were observed by the

three mentioned teachers The control group was taught the original activities in English 11 while the experimental group was taught adapted activities Then the researcher measured the “students‟ talking time” of both groups and then compared them to prove whether the adaptation of speaking activities would be helpful in increasing the students‟ involvement in speaking lessons

3.4.2 The Teacher Interviews

An interview to 6 English teachers who have ever taught Tieng Anh 11 at Nghi Xuan high school was conducted to get information about their evaluation on speaking activities in the textbook, their evaluations on students participation and what they have done to increase students‟ participation The interview for teachers included 7 questions

Each interview lasted 10-15 minutes All interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in order for the participants to fully articulate their views without being constrained by the use of second language They were then fully transcribed, translate and analyzed by the researcher

3.4.3 The Student Questionnaires

Questionnaires designed for 90 students tend to find out their evaluation on the speaking activities they have learnt as well as their attitudes towards adapted tasks To help students understand properly the questions, the questionnaires were given to students with the writer‟s clear explanation