How to develop the speaking skill for vietnamese learners at high school

This thesis, therefore, aims to identify the problems and solutions to develop the speaking skill for Vietnamese learners, especially those in high-school where the teaching and learning

PHAN KHANH VAN

H O W TO DEVELOP THE SPEAKING SKILL

NGUYEN THI NGOC HANH, M.A.

HOW TO DEVELOP THE SPEAKING SKILL FOR VIETNAMESE LEARNERS AT HIGH-SCHOOL

PHAN KHANH VAN

Library

PHAN KHANH VAN

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knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary but it is the ability to use English to communicate effectively This thesis, therefore, aims to identify the problems and solutions to develop the speaking skill for Vietnamese learners, especially those in high-school where the teaching and learning of English are much concerned with the written rather than the spoken form

As an effort to identify the problems, a survey was carried out to investigate students’ learning experience, their awareness as well as their expectation towards the learning

of English in high-school The findings from the survey included students’ passive English learning experience with little or no exposure to oral practice both inside and outside the classroom, low motivation in learning affected by ineffective teaching methods and inappropriate curriculum in high-school nowadays It was also found out that although most learners have a lack of confidence in expressing their own opinions, they have high expectation of speaking practice at school in preparation for their future careers or higher study

In consideration of students’ prior and existing grammatical and semantic knowledge

in light of the learner-centered approach, the thesis came up with suggestions and implications of practical techniques and strategies for high-school teachers to help develop the students’ oral competence in the context of communicative and cooperative learning These suggestions and implications include techniques to build

up students’ confidence as well as their learning motivation, application of

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The thesis is written in view of looking for better changes in the teaching and learning

of English in Le Thi Hong Gam high-school in particular and in other Vietnamese high- schools which are in similar circumstances in general

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TABLE OF CONTENTS S

Page

Certificate of Originality i

Retention and Use of the Thesis ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of Contents vi

List of Tables x

Abbreviations xi

INTRODUCTION 0.1 The Problem 1

0.2 Purposes of the Study 1

0.3 An Overview of the Thesis 2

CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND 1.1 Teachers’ Profile 3

1.2 Students’ Profile 4

1.3 Description of the School Curriculum 4

1.3.1 High-school Textbooks 4

1.3.2 The Format of Each Unit 7

1.4 The Reality of English Teaching and Learning at High-School 7

1.5 Summary 10

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Spoken and Written Language 11

2.2 The Nature of Speaking 13

2.2.1 What is Oral Communication? 13

2.2.2 Characteristic of Communicative Competence 14

2.2.3 Purposes for Speaking 16

2.3 Classroom Interaction 17

2.3.1 Definition and Nature 17

2.3.2 The Need for Interaction in Oral Classroom 18

2.3.3 Four Aspects of Classroom Interaction that Enhance Communication 20 2.3.3.1 Social Climate 20

2.3.3.2 Variety in Learning Activities 21

2.3.3.3 Opportunity for Student Participation 22

2.3.3.4 Feedback and Correction 22

2.4 The Grammar Translation Method and The Communicative Approach 23

2.4.1 The Grammar Translation Method 23

2.4.2 The Communicative Approach 24

2.5 The Role of the Teacher, the Learner and Instructional Materials in Speaking Classes 25

2.5.1 The Role of the Teacher 25

2.5.2 The Role of the Learner 27

2.5.3 The Role of Instructional Materials 27

2.6 Summary 29

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CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS

3.1 Data Collection 30

3.1.1 Samples 30

3.1.2 Questionnaire 30

3.1.3 Procedure 31

3.2 Data Analysis and Findings 32

3.2.1 Students’ Viewpoint about the Teaching and Learning of English at High-School 32 3.2.2 Students’ Learning Experience 34

3.2.3 Students’ Attitudes and Expectation of Speaking English 43

3.2.4 Students’ Preferences in English Classes 47

3.2.5 The Way of Testing 49

3.3 Discussion 53

3.4 Summary 55

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Teaching Materials 56

4.2 Teaching method 59

4.2.1 Integration of The Communicative Language Teaching into The Traditional Method 59

4.2.2 Strategies for Developing the Speaking Skill 61

4.2.2.1 Using Minimal Responses 61

4.2.2.2 Recognizing Scripts 61

4.2.2.3 Using Language to Talk about Language 62

4.2.3 Developing Speaking Activities 62

4.2.3.1 Structured Output Activities 63

4.2.3.2 Communicative Output Activities 64

4.2.3.3 Games and Songs 65

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4.2.3.4 Other Activities 66

4.2.4 Using Teaching Aids 67

4.3 Classroom Management 68

4.3.1 Physical Condition of the Classroom 68

4.3.2 Pairwork and Groupwork 69

4.3.3 The Role of the Teacher and the Students 71

4.3.3.1 Teacher’s Role 71

4.3.3.2 Students’ Role 72

4.4 The Way of Testing and Assessment 72

4.5 Summary 73

CONCLUSION 75

BIBLIOGRAPHY 77

APPENDICES 80

Appendix 1: Practice 1, Unit 4, English 11 Appendix 2: Practice 1, Unit 1, English 12 Appendix 3: Pairwork, Unit 9, English 11 Appendix 4: Questionnaire for the students (in Vietnamese) Appendix 5: Questionnaire for the students (in English) Appendix 6: Data Collection and Analysis

Appendix 7: High-School Graduation Exam Tests (2002-2005)

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LIST OF TABLES O

Table 1: Data from question 1 33

Table 2: Data from question 2 34

Table 3: Data from question 3 34

Table 4: Data from question 4 38

Table 5: Data from question 5 40

Table 6: Data from question 6 41

Table 7: Data from question 7 44

Table 8: Data from question 8 45

Table 9: Data from question 9 46

Table 10: Data from question 10 47

Table 11: Graduation Exam Test Scores (03/6/2003) 51

Table 12: Graduation Exam Test Scores (02/6/2004) 51

Table 13: Graduation Exam Test Scores (06/6/2005) 51

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ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language TESOL: Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages T: Teacher

S: Student L1: The mother tongue L2: The Target Language

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INTRODUCTION

The problem:

To most people, mastering the art of speaking is the most important aspect of learning a foreign language Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language It is obvious that communicative ability is the goal of foreign language learning No one can say that he/she has mastered

a certain language but cannot communicate in that language However, reality shows that Vietnamese high-school students who have finished the twelfth form can hardly communicate effectively in English although they have spent years learning English and most of them can do their written tests rather well; except for those who study in top schools such as Le Hong Phong, Tran Dai Nghia and their major is English or those who have extra English classes at foreign language centers That is why “How to help students develop their speaking skill?” is always a big question to all high-school teachers

Purposes of the study:

The thesis aims to investigate the teaching and learning of English in Vietnamese high-schools, especially the teaching and learning of spoken English A survey will be conducted at Le Thi Hong Gam high-school with about 300 students chosen at random to explore students’ learning experience, their awareness as well as their expectation towards the learning of English at school The study will, basing on the findings, point out the causes why most students, after seven years’ learning English with a fairly good knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures, cannot express themselves freely and naturally in English, and then come up with practical suggestions to help develop students’ speaking skill

An overview of the thesis:

Together with this introductory chapter, four main chapters and the conclusion will form the thesis structure

Chapter 1 provides the background to the study It describes the characteristics

of the teachers and the students at Le Thi Hong Gam high-school, the English

curriculum as well as the reality of high-school English teaching and learning

Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature It starts with the distinction between

spoken and written language and the definition of oral communication Classroom interaction, the approaches applied in language teaching, the role of the teacher, the learner and teaching materials in speaking classes are also discussed in details Those lay the foundation for the following situation analysis and solutions

Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the study involving data collection

from the questionnaire, from the high-school English tests as well as the test scores and data analysis The findings of the problems are discussed for the solutions to be worked out in chapter 4

Chapter 4 provides practical solutions to the problems and suggests other

fields for further research

CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND

Chapter 1 presents background data essential for an understanding of issues to

be discussed in this thesis This chapter consists of five parts The first and the second parts provide teachers’ and learners’ profiles The third part gives a general look at the school curriculum of the English teaching program in Vietnamese high-schools permitted by the Ministry of Education and Training This part, by the way, shows the format of each unit in the textbook (English

10, 11, 12) in brief The fourth part presents the reality of the teaching and learning of English at Le Thi Hong Gam high-school The information in this chapter will help to give an overview of the teaching and learning of English in Vietnamese high-schools, especially the teaching and learning of spoken English, for further discussion in chapter 3 and chapter 4 of this thesis The last part is the summary of this chapter

1.1 Teachers’ profile:

Le Thi Hong Gam high-school has a staff of seven English language teachers including myself, aging from twenty-five to fifty All of the staff had formal training in language teaching at the University of Pedagogy or the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City Most of the teachers are young and enthusiastic and they are willing to make use of the new approaches

in language teaching and learning However, as they are all Vietnamese, they confess a lack of knowledge of English culture and customs as well as real exposure to English-speaking communities Consequently, they sometimes feel

a lack of confidence in themselves towards using English naturally, effectively and appropriately Besides, heavy teaching load (from thirty to forty-two periods per week) more or less affects the health of the teachers and they,

therefore, have little time to up date their knowledge as well as to design the lessons in the best way

1.2 Students’ profile:

have to study English in another three years to complete their seven-year English program set by the Ministry of Education and Training

In comparison with other high-schools in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City such as Marie Curie, Le Quy Don, Nguyen Thi Dieu and other top high-schools such as

Le Hong Phong, Tran Dai Nghia, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Bui Thi Xuan, the educational ability of most students in Le Thi Hong Gam is generally of average level

1.3 Description of the school curriculum:

The English textbook at senior high-school (published by The Education Publishing House - Vietnam) is divided into two parts which include 17 weeks

in the first semester and 16 weeks in the second semester Students study 3 periods per week and each period lasts 45 minutes

1.3.1 High-school textbooks (English 10, 11, 12):

English 10 consists of 16 units Unit 5 and unit 10 are omitted so the students study 14 units in the whole school year Each unit is taught in 2 weeks (6 periods)

The first semester:

Unit 1: LETTERS Unit 2: A LETTER FROM LONDON

Unit 3: ISAAC NEEWTON - GRAVITY Unit 4: FARADAY

Unit 5: THE WORLD OF FESTIVAL OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS Unit 6: ONE FRIDAY MORNING

Unit 7: SEAN O’CASEY – THE GREEN FLAG Unit 8: CONSOLIDATION

The second semester:

Unit 9: THE WORLD OF SCIENCE Unit 10: SHOULD YOU BE A SCIENTIST?

Unit 11:ENGINEERS Unit 12: RECENT ACHIVEMENTS IN SCIENCE Unit 13: MONEY

Unit 14: BANKS AND BANKING Unit 15: INTERNAIONAL TRADE Unit 16: CONSOLIDATION

Students at grade 11 study 9 units in the whole school year, including Consolidation Unit 8 is omitted because of its out of date information Each

unit is dealt with in 3 weeks (9 periods)

The first semester:

Unit 1: MOTION PICTURE Unit 2: ADVERTISING Unit 3: EVERYBODY’S JOGGING Unit 4: MATHEMATICS

Unit 5: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The second semester:

Unit 6: THE PHARMACIST Unit 7: WOMEN’S LIBERATION Unit 8: A MEMORY OF LENIN Unit 9: STEAMBOAT COMING Unit 10: CONSOLIDATION

Students at grade 12 study 9 units during the school year including Consolidation Each unit is taught in 3 weeks (9 periods) Unit 3 is omitted

The first semester:

Unit 1: WHO USES ENGLISH?

Unit 2: THE FIRST JOB Unit 3: CAR MECHANIC TO TEACHER Unit 4: CONSERVATION

Unit 5: AIR POLLUTION

The second semester:

Unit 6: LEFT-HAND TRAFFIC Unit 7: BEING A WELCOME GUEST Unit 8: THE SWORD THAT CAN HEAL Unit 9: TO BUILD A FIRE

Unit 10: CONSOLIDATION

Having a careful look at the textbooks designed for the 3 grades we find out that most of the units in English 10 are of the same topic They mainly focus on the field of science English 11 and English 12 provide various and familiar topics However, most of the passages chosen to introduce key language input are rather long with so many new and difficult words Generally, they are not authentic texts

1.3.2 The format of each unit:

Each of the teaching unit includes:

ƒ Presentation of material, which introduces key language items The reading

is followed by selected notes to help students understand the general meaning of the text

ƒ Comprehension, which helps students develop their reading skill

ƒ Intensive controlled practice, which supplies a knowledge of English and its

usage through communicative and writing activities Included in this part is Word Study, which helps the students enrich their vocabulary and use a dictionary to learn unfamiliar words and expressions

ƒ Further Practice, which provides the students with activities to reinforce the

knowledge learnt Activities included are Pairwork with conversations, a Test with various exercises, and More Exercises with additional exercises for smart students

ƒ Fun Corner, which provides lively activities to cheer up the classroom

ƒ Summary, which lists the new vocabulary items and the main language

points covered in the unit

We can see that the textbooks are well-organized However, what the textbooks aim at is quite different from what is really carried out in the classrooms

1.4 The reality of English teaching and learning at high-school:

Right at the beginning of the textbook the material designers have stated the aim of the syllabus It is to provide a comprehensive course for senior high-school students It is to train the students’ four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing The skill to be focused is reading In the reading activities, aural-oral activities are included and a wide range of different styles

of writing is presented

It is understandable why the material designers have chosen such a combination for the teaching materials used in senior high-schools Although the material designers do not explicitly state in the preface, one of the aims of the senior high-school syllabus is to acquire certain amount of English structures so that the students can be successful in exams held in schools, by the Service of Education and the Ministry of Education and Training As all of these exams are in written forms the material then should be structural This can be recognized easily since principal grammar points are continually repeated from grade 10 to grade 12, for instance, Tenses, Conditional Clauses, Wish Clauses, Relative Clauses, Indirect Speech, Active Voice, Passive Voice, Subject and Verb Agreement, Gerund and Infinitive, etc This repetition of grammatical patterns probably helps students remember the basic English structures or, in other words, have a good command of English grammar Since grammar is often explained deductively, students seem to know well a lot of grammar rules but they, unfortunately, hardly make use of what they have learnt in expressing themselves accurately and fluently both in written and spoken language

Intensive controlled practice is claimed to train the students’ knowledge of

English and its usage through communicative and writing activities In fact, it is difficult that the exercises can be practiced communicatively They are all written exercises, or if they can be practiced orally, they do not indulge the students in any communicative situations They are somewhat audio-lingual drills to reinforce the habit Take Unit 4, English 11 as an example, Practice 1 deals with the Reason Clause using Because, Since, As (Appendix 1) The students just do a simple substitution drill which does not have anything to do with the communicative competence Only the structure is drilled and no attention is paid to the meaning of the sentences The same thing can be found with Practice 1, Unit 1, English 12 (Appendix 2) The students can do the exercises without much thinking They simply put the verbs in the Infinitive

form We can find a lot of other exercises and activities of the same way in the textbooks Mechanical drill is recommended by the textbook designers, meaningful drill is used by the teachers, and communicative practice is hardly used These kinds of exercises just serve to strengthen the grammatical competence of the students, helping them to do better in exams In other words, they correspond little to the intentions of the material designers as well as to the students’ real needs of language use

The teachers at Hong Gam high-school often spend very little time on the Intensive Practice supplied in the textbooks Most of them spend more time providing their students with different kinds of exercises which are more meaningful Since supplementary materials are not available, the teachers have

to find supplementary materials by themselves in so far as they are suitable to the lesson’s objectives and their students’ ability Some experienced and elderly teachers appreciate the structural syllabus and the Grammar Translation Method Meanwhile, some young and energetic teachers often try to replace the boring and monotonous exercises in the textbooks by some communicative activities The activities they create also aim at practicing certain grammar structures and patterns, but they involve a lot of efforts in interaction between the teacher and students and among the students Communicative competence can be somehow trained in situations which require the students to perform different functions of English

Further Practice includes Pairwork with conversations But the Pairwork

provided in the textbooks is rather monotonous The students just perform the role-play by replacing a few words in the conversations or completing the dialogues with the words given There are no guidelines for free practice Moreover, the conversations are not natural and the styles are of reading comprehension rather than of spoken language They, therefore, cannot

motivate the students’ communication For example, the students are asked to practice a dialogue in which they ask each other which writer he/she likes best and which book written by that author he/she has read The students just stand

up, replace two details in the dialogue: the author’s name and the title of a book, then read the dialogue aloud (Unit 9, English 11- Appendix 3) With the monotonous and ineffective Pairwork, the Extended Practice provides no chances for communication, no interaction in class, and hence it does not help

to develop students’ speaking and listening skills It is just a form of reinforcement of the learned structures In class, Pairwork is left out most of the time, for both the teacher and the students find it so simple and boring

More Exercises supplies some exercises which are not very challenging We

cannot say that they are planned for smart or advanced students The students often find no difficulty in doing these exercises

1.5 Summary:

In summary, what the teachers can accomplish when conducting their students with the activities provided by the materials is not what the material designers state in the preface of the textbooks Although each teacher applies his/her own methodology and techniques to the teaching, it can be said that no one can really succeed in providing the students with both language competence and communicative competence by developing his/her lesson plans completely based on the textbooks The point that counts is the big difference between the aim of the textbook designers, the needs of the students and the results of the teaching and learning of English at high-school A big question that always obsesses our minds is that how to make use of the textbooks and other supplementary materials as well as the teaching aids together with appropriate teaching and learning methods in order to help high-school learners develop the four basic skills of general English, especially the speaking skill

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter includes six parts The first part distinguishes the difference between spoken and written language in general The second part presents the nature of speaking concerning oral communication, characteristic of communicative competence and purposes for speaking The third part is about classroom interaction The fourth part gives a brief review on approaches which have been used for the teaching of English so far, namely the Grammar Translation Method and the Communicative Approach The fifth part shows the role of the teacher, the learner as well as instructional materials in speaking classes The last part is the summary This literature review is to provide a theoretical base on which the next chapters of problem analysis and solutions will be carried out

2.1 Spoken and Written language:

If spoken and written language are not two separate systems, one may wonder whether there is a clear distinction between them

Researchers have shown that the distinction between speech and writing exists

in all developed languages (developed languages are those that can be translated in other languages), and that the distinction is not equal between languages

According to Brown and Yule (1983), the written language is the language of literature and of scholarship It is language which is admired, studied, and rich

in excellent exemplification An obvious advantage of the written language is that it has been described by generations of grammar-writers and dictionary-

makers There is a comforting sense in which it is possible to say that a written sentence is correct or not The rules of writing English sentences are really rather well-known and well-described Furthermore, written language does not vary greatly over a couple of centuries, and it does not vary very much depending on where it is written

Spoken English appears very variable, and is very different from one dialect area to another Even between speakers who mostly speak “standard English” there is a different emphasis in their selection from forms in standard English Most speakers of English produce spoken language which is syntactically very much simpler than written language The vocabulary is usually much less specific Highly literate speakers may produce utterances with complex syntactic structures, a good deal of subordination and a confident making out of

what they are going to say by phrases like “in the first place”, “in the second

place” and “finally” However, most spoken language is not structured like this

Most spoken language consists of paratactic (un-subordinated) phrases which are marked as related to each other, not so much by the syntax as by the way the speaker says them The speaker uses the resources of pausing and rhythm and, to a lesser extent, intonation, to mark out for the listener which parts of his speech need to be co-interrupted The combination of loosely organized syntax, the number of general non-specific words and phrases, the use of interactive

expressions like “well, oh, whuh” all contributes to the general impression that

information may be packed very much less densely in spoken language of this sort than it is in expository prose

“One major difference between spoken language and written language is the density of packing information It will be obvious from our discussion that information may be packed densely in the written language, using heavily pre-modified noun phrases with accompanying post-modification, heavy adverbial

modification and complex subordinating syntax It is rare to find spoken language produced like this with this dense packing of information, except in speech of those who spend a lot of their time in the written language and are producing “pre-rehearsed” opinions The simpler style is, therefore, characteristic of spoken language-which packs in less dense information, and less highly structured information” (Brown and Yule, 1983: 7) From this point

of view, most English teachers should wonder if it is reasonable to suppose that teaching the spoken language does indeed only mean teaching the students to speak the written language together with a few characteristic spoken phrases Brown and Yule also pointed out that “it is still possible to visit part of the world where “teaching the spoken language” is largely conceived of as teaching students to pronounce written sentences” (Brown and Yule, 1983: 2)

2.2 The nature of speaking:

2.2.1 What is oral communication?

According to Donn Byrne (1986), oral communication is a two-way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or listening with understanding)

Listen

Speak

Respond Initiate

meaning) The message itself, in normal speech, usually contains a good deal of “information” that is redundant (i.e it contains more information than the listener actually needs in order to understand, so that he is not obliged to follow with the maximum attention) At the same time, the listener is helped by prosodic features, such as stress and intonation, which are part of the meaning of the spoken utterance, as well as by facial and bodily movements such as gestures We should also note that, in contrast to the written language, where sentences are usually carefully structured and linked together, speech is often characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances, and by frequent false starts and repetitions

(Dorn Byrne, 1986: 8,9)

2.2.2 Characteristic of communicative competence:

While linguistic competence is necessary, it is not sufficient for someone who wants to communicate competently in another language In 1974, the sociolinguist Dell Holmes proposed the notion of communicative competence

as an alternative to Chomsky’s linguistic competence Communicative competence not only includes linguistic competence but also includes a range

of other sociolinguistic and conversational skills that enable the speaker to know how and when to say what to whom

In the early 1970s, Sandra Savignon conducted an important study into the development of communication skills built on a model of communicative competence containing several essential characteristics She defined communicative competence as “the ability to function in a truly communicative setting - that is, in a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence must adjust itself to the total informational input, both linguistic and paralinguistic,

of one or more interlocutors” In addition to being dynamic, rather than static, and involving the negotiation of meaning, for Savignon, communicative competence is not restricted to spoken language, but involves writing as well It

is also context-specific, which means that a competent communicator knows how to make choices specific to the situation Finally, it is distinct from performance According to Savignon, competence is what one knows, while performance is what one does

According to Richards, Platt and Weber (1985: 49), communicative competence includes:

(a) knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language; (b) knowledge of the rules of speaking (e.g., know how to begin and end conversations, knowing what topic can be talked about in different types of speech events, knowing which address form should be used with different persons one speaks to and in different situations; (c) knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such as requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations; (d) knowing how to use language appropriately

(Nunan, 1999: 226)

In other words, communicative competence is the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does

Communicative competence is made up of four competence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic

• Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and

vocabulary of a language Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

• Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language

appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the

people communicating Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

• Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and

how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

• Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair

communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?

In the early stages of language learning, instructors and students may want to keep in mind the goal of communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest They should try to avoid confusion in the message (due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary); to avoid offending communication partners (due to socially inappropriate style); and to use strategies for recognizing and managing communication breakdowns

2.2.3 Purposes for speaking:

Bygate (1987) suggested that conversations can be analyzed in terms of routines Routines are conventional (and therefore predictable) ways of presenting information He has discussed two types of routines: information routines (transactional language), and interactional routines (interactional / social category) Information routines contain frequently recurring types of

information structures These can be subdivided into routines that are basically expository in nature (for example, telling a story, describing something, giving

a set of instructions, making a comparison), and those that are evaluative (giving an explanation, making a justification, predicting, coming to a decision) Interaction routines can be subdivided into service encounters (for example, a job interview) or social (a dinner party, a coffee break at work, etc.) Bygate has added a conversational management dimension to his scheme, suggesting that participants need constantly to negotiate meaning and to manage the interaction in terms of who say what, to whom, when, about what

Bygate’s routines facilitate communication for first language speakers because they make the interactions more predictable If language were totally predictable, then communication would be unnecessary If it were totally unpredictable, effective communication would probably be impossible When people have conversations they work interactively to reduce unpredictability This is what people are doing when they negotiate meaning For second language speakers, routines can be crucial in facilitating comprehension In addition, by learning prefabricated, set conversational patterns, learners can

“outperform” their competence

2.3 Classroom interaction:

2.3.1 Definition and nature:

In EFL classrooms, there are two major types of talk: the teacher’s talk and the student’s talk Teacher’s talk is usually in the form of explaining the lesson, asking questions or making a request to practice a particular structure Students’ talk is usually in the form of answering the questions posed by the teacher, reading aloud a reading passage, practicing a grammatical structure or a new vocabulary item Are those talks considered as classroom interaction?

Interaction is spontaneous participation of all the conversational parties in exchanging both social and personal data as the vast majority of everyday talking done by natives Interaction involves emotions, creativity, agreement, disagreement, people waiting patiently to get in a word, sighing, nodding, gesticulating and so on

(Gerald Counihan, 1998)

According to Gerald Counihan (1998), classroom interaction happens when:

- The students direct the dialogue at one another and not at or through the teacher

- The students comment immediately on what another student has just said

- The students disagree with or challenge another student’s statement

- The students don’t have to be invited (by the teacher) to speak

- The students speak when there is a short silence indicating the end of someone else’s turn

- The students interrupt one another, diplomatically, to insert an opinion or question, etc

- The students use the personal pronouns “I” and “You”

- They use paralinguistics, such as exclamations, gestures, body language and so on

- The students are as relaxed as possible

In some way, interaction is both verbally and nonverbally communication Classroom interaction is when the whole class is engaged in pairs or groups of conversation

2.3.2 The need for interaction in oral classroom:

In recent decades, numerous studies have focused on the importance of classroom communication in language learning These studies suggest that in fact “interaction is a major means by which learners explore the relationship between what they already know and new observations or interpretations which they meet” (Cullinan, 1993: 2) Verbal interaction with peers help students

clarify their thinking and “ introduces them to new perspectives (that) … facilitate reflection and innovation thinking” (Wollman-Banilla, 1993: 49)

Long (1981) found that two-way information gap tasks prompt significantly more linguistic/conversational adjustments than one-way tasks In two-way tasks, all participants have a piece of information known only to them which must be contributed to the small group discussion for the task to be completed successfully In one-way tasks one student has all the relevant information and must convey this to the other students(s) Duff (1986) found that convergent tasks produce more adjustments than divergent tasks

(Nunan, 1995: 50)

Research has focused on other aspects of small group work besides the negotiation of meaning For example, it has been shown that learners use considerably more language, and exploit a greater range of language functions when working in small groups as opposed to teacher-fronted tasks in which all students proceed in a lock-step fashion (Long et al 1976) Bruton and Samuda (1980) said that, contrary to popular belief, learners in small groups were capable of correcting one another successfully Porter (1983, 1986) found (also contrary to popular opinion) that learners do not produce more errors or “learn each other’s mistakes” when working together in small groups Taken together, these studies provide a powerful rationale for the use of interactive group work in the classroom

(Nunan, 1995: 51)

To sum up, we see that student-organized interaction is beneficial for English learners of all levels It provides learners an encouraging environment where they have the opportunity to communicate not only with their teacher, but also with their peers Interaction can help students improve their listening comprehension and learn how to express various language functions, such as

asking questions, making requests, explaining a phenomenon or making predictions, etc Furthermore, as observing students’ interaction, teachers will

be able to find out their students’ strong points and weak points in view of communicative competence as well as their real need for language learning in

so far as they can help their students make progress in learning These information is really of great use to the material designers of learner-centered curricula afterwards

2.3.3 Four aspects of classroom interaction that enhance communication:

Given that a certain amount of student-student interaction is necessary if communication is to be achieved in an ESOL classroom, what can a teacher do

to facilitate student-student interaction? Bailey and Celce-Murcia (1979) isolated four areas affecting classroom interaction that the teacher should attend to:

- Social climate

- Variety in learning activities

- Opportunity for student participation

- Feedback and correction

2.3.3.1 Social climate:

Social climate is mentioned first because it is the most basic and fundamental

of the areas If the students are not at ease and don’t feel good about their language class, there will be no communication It’s the teacher’s responsibility

to establish the proper atmosphere so that students can relate to the teacher and

to each other in a positive and constructive way To do this the teacher has to enjoy teaching and to like his/her students Not all teachers have the proper temperament to do this, however, even those teachers who are well-intentioned and personable often overlook techniques that would help promote a good social climate

One obviously good technique is for the teacher to learn all of the students’ names as soon as possible Less obvious, perhaps, is the need for the students to become acquainted with one another as soon as possible Along with learning each other’s names, students should discover – as a part of their class activities – some background information about each other, e.g Where does each student come from? What is he/she interested in? This background can then be used as

a basic for language activities

Two other things that impinge on the social climate and that the teacher should attend to are: (a) being fair and (b) making the class relaxed and enjoyable Being fair involves distributing turns equally among students and not showing any favoritism or bias Teachers have to involve all the shy students and don’t let the aggressive ones dominate the class Making the class relaxed and enjoyable involves smiling and laughing when appropriate humor occurs spontaneously If the teacher doesn’t have a good sense of humor, a definite advantage, he/she should be able to appreciate those students who have this kind of talent Social climate will then be enhanced

2.3.3.2 Variety in learning activities:

Social climate is a form of “internal” motivation of classroom communication, since the teacher motivates the students indirectly by promoting good feelings

in the class Introducing variety into learning activities is a more “external” form of motivation If the teacher can use some variety in each lesson to make the class more enjoyable and less routine, this will also motivate the students to learn

Variety can be introduced at many different levels One way is to make effective use of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) Another way is to move as quickly as possible from manipulative drills to

communicative activities; these communicative activities, in turn can include a variety of tasks (problem solving, role-playing, value clarification, skill competition, etc.) Likewise, the teacher can make use of various forms of teaching aids in order to vary the stimulus and to set the stage for communication

Finally, teachers should try to expose their students to a variety of native speakers (Students should hear many voices in addition to the teachers’)

2.3.3.3 Opportunity for student participation:

Social climate and variety indirectly encourage communication in that they set the stage and provide motivation The most direct way to facilitate communication is to provide ample opportunity for student participation, which has as its correlates (a) little or no teacher domination and (b) minimal teacher talking time At the most general level, student participation means allowing students to have as much input as possible into the class itself (e.g syllabus, activities, assignments, grading, management, etc.) More specifically, the teacher can have the students work in pairs or groups whenever useful This permits the teacher to be a resource rather than a dominant figure

2.3.3.4 Feedback and correction:

When a teacher allows for active student participation, his/her responsibility to provide useful feedback and correction to the students becomes even greater

Dealing with correction is an inherently delicate matter Some researchers recommend that teachers ask each student how and when he/she wants to be corrected because this varies considerably form one individual to another We also know that peer and self-correction are more effective than teacher correction; thus a good teacher will enlist assistance from the class or (ideally)

guide students in correcting their own mistakes rather than merely providing the correct form

Regardless of how a teacher decides to correct, certain guidelines apply These include correcting selectively (e.g correcting only what has been taught and/or only what is incomprehensible, since it is impossible to correct everything) It is also important to give positive as well as negative feedback, and to handle public corrections in such a way that no one in the class feels ridiculed because the teacher or a classmate has made a correction

2.4 The Grammar Translation Method and the Communicative Approach:

The most traditional method among various methods for L2 teaching is the Grammar Translation Method, which has its own roots in the way Latin and Greek have been taught for centuries And the Communicative Approach appears to be the latest and the most popular language teaching method nowadays

2.4.1 The Grammar Translation Method:

This method emphasizes reading, writing, translation, and the conscious learning of grammatical rules Its primary goal is to develop literary mastery of the second language Memorization is the main learning strategy and pupils spend their class time talking “about the language” instead of “in the language” The curriculum requires the memorization of paradigms, patterns, and vocabulary, with translation being used to test the acquired knowledge Consequently, the role of L1 is quite prominent

Such an approach satisfied the needs of traditional humanist education for many years until World War II and thus created a greater demand for L2 speakers with highly developed speaking and listening skills Today, the

Grammar Translation Method is still popular in many education systems and makes up part of many L2 curricula

This method has several features:

- Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language

- Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

- Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

- Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instructions often focus on the form and inflection of words

- Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

- Little attention is paid to the content of the texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

- Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

- Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

2.4.2 The Communicative Approach:

This approach grew out of the work of anthropological linguists (e.g Hymes, 1972) and Firthian linguists (e.g Haliday, 1973), who viewed language first and foremost as a system for communication

It is assumed that the goal of language teaching is the learners’ ability to communicate in the target language and that the content of a language teaching course will include semantic notions and social functions, not just linguistic structures In this approach, all four skills are integrated from the beginning A given activity might involve reading, speaking, listening and perhaps also writing (this assumes that the learners are educated and literate)

Students regularly work in pairs or groups to transfer (and, if necessary, negotiate) meaning in situations where one person has information that the others lack They often engage in role-play or dramatization to adjust their use

of the target language to different social contexts Classroom materials and activities are often authentic to reflect real-life situations and demands

The teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate communication and secondarily to correct errors The teacher should be able to use the target language fluently and appropriately

In the Communicative Approach, grammar and vocabulary are quite secondary They are taught not in and of themselves but in so far as they help to express the notions and the functions that are in focus The students decide what they want to learn in and to do with the target language

The Communicative Approach is very popular all over the world now and it is considered a good method to teach a foreign language

2.5 The role of the teacher, the learner and instructional materials in speaking classes:

2.5.1 The role of the teacher:

Byrne (1986: 2) has pointed out that “as language teachers we have specific

roles to play at different stages of the learning process concerning presentation (when we introduce something new to be learned), practice (when we allow the learners to work under our direction), and production (when we give them

opportunities to work on their own)”

At the presentation stage, our main task is to serve as a kind of informant We know the language; we select the new material to be learned and we present this

in such a way that the meaning of the new language is as clear and memorable

as possible The students listen and try to understand We shouldn’t spend too much time presenting so that the students get enough time to practice the language themselves

At the practice stage it is the students’ turn to do most of the talking, while our main task is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice, which must at the same time be both meaningful and memorable We do the minimum amount of talking ourselves We are like the skillful conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring their performance to see that it is satisfactory

It’s a pity that language learning so often stops short at the practice stage (or does not regularly go beyond it) Many teachers feel that they have done their job if they have presented the new material well and have given their students adequate, though usually controlled, practice in it All the same, no real learning should be assumed to have taken place until the students are able to use the language for themselves, and unless opportunities are available for them

to do this outside the classroom, provision must be made as a part of the lesson Students at any level need to be given regular and frequent opportunities to use language freely, even if they sometimes make mistakes as a result This is not

to say that mistakes are unimportant, but rather that free expression is more important For it is through these opportunities to use language as they wish, to try to express their own ideas, that the students become aware that they have learned something useful to them personally, and are encouraged to go on learning Thus, in providing the students with activities for free expression and

in discreetly watching over them as they carry them out to find out whether they are really making progress, we take on the role of manager and guide or

adviser at the production stage These are not easy roles either to accept or fulfill

2.5.2 The role of the learner:

Harmer (1998) suggested that students should possess some or all of the following characteristics:

First is a willingness to listen Good learners listen to what is going on, not just in the sense of paying attention, but also in terms of really listening to the English that is being used, soaking it up with eagerness and intelligence Second is a willingness to experiment Learners are prepared

to take risks, to try thing out and see how it works Third is a willingness to ask questions Learners speak up what they wonder to make clear their problems Fourth is a willingness to think about how to learn Good learners bring or invent their own study skills when they come to a lesson Fifth is a willingness to accept correction Learners are prepared to be corrected if it helps them They are keen to get feedback from the teachers and act upon what they are told

In brief, a speaking class is impossible to be successful if there is no students’ active participation In a speaking class, learners are actors and their teacher is the director

2.5.3 The role of instructional materials:

One of the faults of traditional structural syllabuses was that they were too detailed and too rigorous, either for the sake of “completeness” or in order to provide smooth from one item to the next The result was that the learners were not only learning items of language that were of no real use to them but were also discouraged because they felt that they were making little progress Combining this type of syllabus with functions and notions, on the other hand,

can help in the selection of language items because they tell us what use can be made of them

It is worth considering the important role that materials have played in different language teaching methods The role of instructional materials within a functional/communicative methodology might be specified in the following terms:

1 Materials will focus on the communicative abilities of interpretation, expression, and negotiation

2 Materials will focus on understandable, relevant and interesting exchanges of information, rather than on the presentation of grammatical form

3 Materials will involve different kinds of text and different kinds of media, which the learners can use to develop their competence through

a variety of different activities and tasks

(Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 25)

Good materials are identified by authenticity, appropriateness, relevance, practicability of content and tasks and attuning to learners’ levels of competence, both linguistic and cognitive Within a learner-centered system, authentic materials are the ones that can reflect the outside world where learners are really living in Appropriateness and relevance of teaching materials refer to whether the topics and themes in the material are of learners’ interests and of their personal experiences and lives Some materials will present activities and some bits of the language for the learners to practice with, but include nothing explanatory to the learners This pattern seems particularly to occur with some modern communicative textbooks and can be quite useless and impracticable to learners

(All Wright D & Bailey K.M., 1991: 163)