Pre reading and post reading activities based on the reading texts in english 11 to enhance the speaking skill of the eleventh form students at highschool

As a trainee teacher of English as a second language, the researcher isinterested in teaching speaking skill to the highschool students.. The problem was how to bring the students as man

CONG TRiNH DIj THI

NAM 2002

Ten c6ng tdnh

GIAI THVdNG "SINH VIEN NGHIEN CO'U KHOA HOC"

NAM 2002

Ten cong trinh

At present, method o.fteaching speak~ng skill has attrac~ed the a~ention'of teachers of EnglIsh because of Its Important role m developmg thespeaking skill of students especially highschool students This study aimed atascertaining the applicability of teaching speaking skill for the eleventh-formstudents through the speaking activities before and after teaching the reading texts

in the book English 11 This study also focussed on designing the pre-reading andpost-reading activities with a variety of techrIiques to make the learning ofreading comprehension more lively through oral practice Experimental teachingwas carried out by the researcher and eight activities were used in a realeleventh-form class at Trung Vuong Highschool Three questionnaires were alsocomposed to collect the students' and teachers' opinions The findings of theresearch revealed that the students m the investigation recognized theindispensable role of speaking in their English learning and loved to have morespeaking activities in their class after they participated into the experimentalteaching sessions In the scope of this study, it is concluded that the suggestedactivities are possibly applied in teaching speaking to the eleventh-form students

at the pre-reading and post-reading stage to enhance their speaking competence

I RATIONALE

According to the plan of the Ministry of Education and Training, the new set oftextbooks composed for pupils of the first form and the sixth form will be in use fromSeptember 2002 Yen, V.D (2002) suggested that" this change not only brings about thechange in content of the textbooks but also the change in teaching methods Theintellectual economy oriented by the market mechanism and socialism requires the younggeneration to be.trained in-such a way that they will become qualified people who are able

to solve complicated problems in real life

To have such competent people, the objectives of teaching are not only'providingknowledge but also activities through which the learners can apply what they have learnt

As a result, the learners can be active, creative in solving problems This recognition istrue to the teaching of all levels of learners from elementary schools to highschools, to theteaching of most of the subjects especially foreign languages such as English, French,Chinese, Russian, etc

As a trainee teacher of English as a second language, the researcher isinterested in teaching speaking skill to the highschool students It was alsorecognized from the one-month internship training sessIOn at Trung VuongHighschool that speaking was the learners' need Students were eager to learn how

to speak in Eng!ish fluently and naturally The problem was how to bring the students

as many opportunities to practise speaking English as possible through speaking activities.From the above reasons, the researcher chose the topic: "Pre-reading and post-readingactivities based on the reading texts in English II to enhance the speaking skill of the 11th

form students at highschool"

II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

2.1.1 The functions of oral practice in language learning

Formerly, English language learners paid little attention to oral language Theyspe~t most of the time in - training the written language, oral language plays aminor part in learning Written language, according to Brown & Yule (1983), is

the language of literature and of scholarship It is the language which IS admired,studied, and rich in excellent exemplification.

Together with new trends and new methods III language learning, oral practice

IS highly appreciated To speak fluently and confidently in a variety of situations

IS a central human need and an important goal of education Dr, P (1996) claimedthat of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seemsintuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as

"speakers" of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing;and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning

to speak

Practice in general is very important III language learning especially oralpractice The main aim of learning is not only to fully understand knowledgegiven by teachers through lessons, books, activities, etc in class but also to makesuch knowledge become the learners' own, then using it in reality Thus, the role

of practice in learning IS undeniable Harmer, J (1991) stated that languageproduction allows students to rehearse language used in classroom conditions whilstreceiving feedback (from the teachers, from other students and from themselves)which allows them to adjust their perceptions of the language input they havereceived

2.1.2 Oral practice through the application of pre-reading and post-reading activities in teaching English at highschools

In reality, speaking activities with their active characteristics can be carriedout as either pre-reading, while-reading or post-reading activities in highschools'classrooms After spending time for reading, students will be tired with anabundant of words and ideas Their eyes need to relax and their minds want to befree from working and working Speaking, in the meantime, is a valuable, assistance for teachers Many useful and easy activities will exploit the reading text

to the full

The most important factor is that speaking activities will bring the lessonscloser to students If teachers apply them in class, they will help studentsunderstand the lessons thoroughly, and make the class become a warmer placewhere students can put into practice what they have learned Thenceforth, studentswill have chances to get acquainted with working in pairs, in groups, or even incertain circumstances they will meet in their future career Furthermore, they will

be accustomed to express themselves in public effectiyely and naturally Last butnot least, through speaking activities, students are engaged in using the spokenlanguage, help them know how to communicate in real situations.

2.1.3 Characteristics of a good oral activity

The most distinctive characteristic of a speaking time IS that learners havemuch time for speaking to each other Students use English to communicate orinteract III class through activities such as games, role-plays, discussions,interviews, etc Dr, P (1996) considered learners' talk as the first importantcharacteristic of a successful speaking activity She also stated that most of thetime allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by the learners' talk 'Speaking'activities in which learners listen to the teacher more than talking to themselvesare not good oral activities Speaking time is for learners because they need toImprove their skills but not their teachers

Another characteristic of a good oral activity IS the participation of thelearners in class is even Not only do teachers invest time in activity or justbrilliant students take control the classroom discussion, but also, according to Dr,

P (1996), all of students get a chance to speak, and contributions should be fairlydistributed

Teachers' motivation during the activity IS the next characteristic of a goodspeaking activity This one requires the most effort from teachers to help learnersactively join in the activity Dr, P (1996) highlighted that learners are eager tospeak if they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it,

or if they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

The final characteristic of the good oral activity is it should create a placefor every student to talk freely without hesitation or in fear of making mistakes inperforming In a speaking activity, "Success, incidentally, does not mean perfection!

A class may engage successfully with language practice in groups, where mistakes

do occasionally occur, but most of the utterances are acceptable and a large'volume' of practice is achieved" (Dr, 1996, p.22)

2.1.4 Teacher's role in organizing a speaking activity

Most language students have realized the major part of speaking IIIcommunication Yet, what prevents them from speaking and expressing ideas IIIfront of class? Brown, D (1994) assumed that one of the major obstacleslearners have to overcome in learning to speak is the anxiety generated over the

risks of blurting things out that are wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible Because ofthe language ego that informs people that "you are what you speak", learners arereluctant to be judged by hearers Thus, the first main role of teachers m an oralactivity is to create a "relaxed and friendly atmosphere in class or m group"(Trang, 1999, pAO) and teachers are co-operators to warm up the activities, tomake learners eager to speak English in class.

Sometimes, in training a skill, teachers figure as parents in teaching theirchildren babbling sounds before beginning to say actual words "Mothers andfathers tend to simplify the language they use so that the children can more orless understand it They do not simplify their language m any preci~e way,however, using only certain structures; rather they get the level of their languagemore or less right for the child's level of understanding: there are similarities mthe way people talk to "foreigners" (Harmer, 1991,p.34) Teachers, thereby, are toassist learners in increasing their chances of success and the effectiveness of thepractice activity Ur, P (1996) supposed that such assistance may take the form ofallowing plenty of time to think, of making the answers easier through givinghints and guiding questions, of confirming beginnings of responses in order toencourage continuations

In conclusion, the teacher is an assistant as well as a cooperator to exploitthe students' ability in expressing themselves in class to the full

2.2 SOME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TEACHING SPEAKING AT HIGHSCHOOLS

Trang, H.T (1999) reflected that in many highschools m Viet Nam, thetraditional language teaching method is applied After each reading text, teachersoften let students translate the text into Vietnamese to consolidate and evaluatestudents' understanding Students keep silent and work hard to finish their task Thestudents have no chance to practise speaking in class

As far as language learning is concerned, nowadays, the balance of power

m language learning has shifted away from grammatical practice towards oralpractice Teachers and learners of English as a second language appreciate theimportance of communication in the learning process and in real life For thedemands of being able to express themselves in front of a crowd, interacting withforeigners and getting well-paid jobs, people rush into English Teaching Centerswith the hope that they will be the positive elements in communicating in real life

if they can manage the language skills, especially the speaking skill Students inhighschools are no exception: English Speaking Clubs, English Teaching Centersare really attractive places for them to train their speaking skill at their desire One

of the reasons is time reserved for speaking III classroom is not enough for ourstudents to practise the English language

Considering the content of th;: textbook English 11, it has been realized thatteachers can and should apply some speaking activities to encourage the ability ofusing oral language for our students through pre-reading and post-reading activities.Most of the lessons in the book English 11 which contain useful basic knowledgeabout computer science, advertising sports, etc can provide many interesting topicsfor speaking activities

+ Searching for knowledge of the current situation III teaching speaking,

an imp0l1ant skill in language learning among the 11th form students

at Trung Vuong Highschool

+ Ascertaining the applicability of oral practice at the pre-reading andpost-reading stage in teaching English to the 11th form students athighschools

Two hypotheses were also formed as follows

+ Both the 11th form teachers and students are aware of the necessityand the importance of speaking skill

+ Teachers can apply the speaking activities at the pre-reading and reading stage when they teach the reading texts to improve the students'speaking skill

The target population of the study was the eleventh-form students in TrungVuong Highschool, where the researcher had spent one -month internship trainingsession as a trainee teacher

Two groups of eleventh -fonn students were invited to take part in theinvestigation The first group (Group A) consisted of 104 students from the twoclasses 11AlO and 11A11 Until now, these students have studied English for fiveyears, first at different secondary schools and then at Trung Vuong Highschool.Most of the students were in their 17; only four of them were 18 years old.During the time they studied at Trung Vuong Highschool, these students have usedthe same textbook for English as those in other highschools and their teacherstaught them applying the Audio-Lingual Method The assumption was that thispopulation was quite homogeneous in their level as they were taught English in the7-year training programme.'

The second group of partIcIpants (Group B) was 52 students from class

11AlO It was one of the two classes in Group A Speaking activities designed forUnit One (Motion Pictures), Unit Two (Advertising), Unit Three (Everybody's Jogging)and Unit Four (Mathematics) were taught for this class in the experimental teachingsessIOns

Finally, 10 teachers in charge of teaching English for the eleventh-formstudents in Trung Vuong Highschool, voluntarily participated in the investigation.Among them, the youngest one was 29 years old and the oldest one was 60 Most

of them had graduated from the University of Education except for two teacherswho were graduates of an in-service training programme Some of them have everbeen in charge of teaching English for the two groups of students mentionedabove Their English teaching experience ranged from 2 years to 35 years Thisshows that they have been trained and taught English with different teachingmethods and they have, more or less, applied the latest methodology in their ownclasses Therefore, it was expected that they would provide valuable opinions aboutteaching speaking skill through different kinds of activities in class It is reasonable

to highly appreciate their opinions drawn from their own teaching experience

v. SCOPE

The study focused on applying some pre-reading and post-reading activitiesdesigned by the investigator before and after teaching the reading texts in the bookEnglish 11 All of these activities were to provide the 11th form studentsopportunities to speak EnglishJ a skill which was identified as being of importance

-and necessity in language learning and in practical use nowadays Through the

experiment~ the applicability of these activities in the syllabus for Eng;ish 1iwould betaken into consideration.

VI METHODOLOGY

The researcher had followed these research methods: collecting and studyingmaterials in language teaching methodology, observing, using questionnaires to collectdata, and using tables to present the results

to express their own opinions freely It was intended to know about the students'need and requirements for improving their speaking skills

There were also closed and open-ended questions in Questionnaire B (Appendix1) for the teachers This questionnaire was to learn the teachers' opinions about therole of oral practice and the possibility of applying speaking activities for the 11th

form students at Trung Vuong Highschool

Questionnaire C (Appendix 1) included 4 questions for the students who tookpart in the experimental teaching sessions This was aimed at learning about thestudents' attitude towards the pre-reading and post-reading activities, and their ownopinions to contribute to the experimental teaching sessions and the activitiesapplied This questionnaire was given to the students at the end of the experimentalteaching sessions

Questionnaire A and Questionnaire C were delivered to students andcollected right after the students had finished their answers The students had alsobeen noticed that their opmlOns were highly appreciated and they could expresstheir ideas at their desire

6.2 Procedure

First, three questionnaires were designed for the two classes of the 11th

form students and the 11th form teaching staff in Trung Vuong Highschool Then,Questionnaire A was delivered to two classes, l1AI0 and llAl1

Second, under the permIssIon of the teachers in charge of Class llAIO atTrung Vuong Highschool, the experimental teaching sessions were carried out III

four weeks, two periods per week (45 minutes for each period) The research doertaught these students the reading text in Unit One, Two, Three and Four and appliedsome speaking activities at the beginning and at the end of each lesson As mentionedabove, the students received Questionnaire C, answered the questions and gavethem back to the researcher

Questionnaire B was delivered to them and collected within two weeks atconvenient times for both the teachers and the research doer Finally, data from thethree questionnaires were collected and analyzed

.6.3 Data Treatment

In this study, simple calculations will be used to treat the data The responses in thethree questionnaires were counted to find out the percentage of each option in relation tothe total number of the students and teachers The results will be presented in tables

CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this section, data collected from the questionnaires for the teachers and theeleventh-form students in Trung Vuong Highschool will be presented in tables andfollowed by the researcher's discussion

c Not very necessary

a Oral practice helps me to speak English naturally

b It helps me to' become more self-confident III

communication in English

c I can use English at my desire

d All of the above

Results (%)57.7%

Table l Students' Attitude Towards Oral Practice in Learning English

As seen from Table I, all of the eleventh-form students in Trung VuongHighschool (100%) agreed that oral practice is necessary in leaming English 73.1 %had the positive attitude towards oral practice as it helped them to become more

,~

self-confident in communication in English (16.34%), to use English at their desire(6.73%) as well as to speak English naturally (3.84%) Clearly, the findings agreedwith the standpoint that high school students the demand of expressing themselves inEnglish Classroom activities that develop learners' ability to express themselvesthrough speech would therefore seem to be an important component of a languagecourse (Ur, 1996)

b The current situation in learning the speaking skill of Class llAIO at Trung Vuong Highschool

a Topics learnt in English 11 textbook. 57.69%

b Topics suggested by your teacher 26.92%

c Topics that the students are interested in. 15.38%

a Pairwork 16.34%

b Groupwork 2.88%

c Questions and Answers between teacher and 47.11%

st).J.dents

d AILof the above 34.61%

Although oral practice is necessary and important in learning a language as

we found in Table 1, there were not many speaking activities applied in Englishlanguage class by most highschool teachers It can be easily realized through theanswers of the students when being asked about how they practised speaking Morethan half of the students (50.96%) revealed that speaking activities wereoccasionally used in English lessons Only 35.6% supposed they had speakingactivities after each English lesson And the topics that they had usually talkedabout were the ones they had learnt III English 11 textbook (57.69%) III

comparison with 26.92% for topics suggested by their teachers, and 15.38% fortopics that they were interested in The most commonly used speaking activity intheir class was Questions and Answers between the teacher and students (47.11%).The frequent use of this type of oral practice caused misunderstanding in students'conception of speaking activities They assumed that they were really engaged inoral practice whereas these were likely to be a kind of practice to consolidate theirreading comprehension skill

So, according to Lynch, T (1996), there IS actually some interaction betweenteacher and learners, but only in the sense that each speaking tum from theteacher is followed by one from an individual pupil or with a choral response.There is little communication; the questions the teacher asks require a responsethat she knows in advance She asks them in order to confirm that the pupilsknow what she thinks they know! When a leamer's response goes beyond the

narrow limits of the desired answer, she refuses to accept it Thus, this finding isconcordant with Lam's (2001) that a lot of highschool students (55%) just usedEnglish to answer their teachers' questions In the teachers' viewpoint, this type ofspeaking activities may be good for students to improve their speaking skill.However, the students confessed that they were bored with this daily practicebecause they had done it automatically by their teachers' request.

So, what did the students do to activate their speaking ability? Results ofthe questions 6, 7 and 8 in Questionnaire A will answer this question 62.5% ofstudents told that they sometimes practised speaking outside class; 24.03% practisedspeaking in English Language Centers around the city; 11.53% in English SpeakingClubs around the city, or any places where there were English-speaking people \such as coffee-shops, bars, etc (16.34%).45.19% spoke English at home with theirfriends However, trying to find a place where they could use the language did notbecome a habit as the majority of these students (84.6%) just sometimes did sowhen they had spare time A small number of students (6.73%) practised speakingEnglish regularly, once a week Neither inside nor outside the classroom did theeleventh-form students at Trung Vuong Highschool practised English regularly andsufficiently

c Students' suggestions to improve their speaking skill

Answers

1 More time for practising speaking in class /"

2 Extra-curricular activities such as English speaking club,

etc

3 Combining English learning with games, songs

-4 More time for practising speaking skill in lab

5 English interaction in English periods

6 Topics should be close to daily life

.-7 More topics for speaking

-8 Communicating with foreigners in English periods

9 Creating a natural atmosphere for speaking

-10 Listening and speaking activities based on the topics In

the book English 11

11 Organizing groups of friends to study together

12 More speaking, less writing and writing test

13 More interacting with foreigners

The results of the open-ended question on students' suggestions to improvethe eleventh-form students' speaking skill are displayed in Table 3 The students haddifferent suggestions and most of them (81.71%) would like to be given more oralpractice to enhance their speaking skill The findings match the viewpoint that speaking

in foreign language has often been \iewed as the most demanding of the four skills(Bailey & Savage, 1994)

The most noticeable suggestions muong these were "spending more time forspeaking activities, having more extra-curricular activities such as English SpeakingClubs, spending more time to practise English in the laboratory, having moretopics for speaking, etc." The last three suggestions may be derived from the.reality in which these students had to learn English in a monotonous way withrepeated text types and task types Lam C.T (2001) found that many Vietnamesestudents have considered their Engl ish class to be not interesting enough or evenboring How can they acquire the language well if they get bored with it? Studentsalso needed more time for practising speaking in lab In fact, time in lab is veryinteresting to most students In lab they have opportunities to touch modem audio-

be able to speak and listen in real situations It is time for high-schools teachersmade their lessons more vivid by such a kind of activities

In addition, students also suggested such interesting opinions that the teachershould pay attention to when they wanted to apply any speaking activity, e.gcreating a comfortable atmosphere for speaking, organizing groups of friends tostudy together Other suggestions sllch as practising pronunciation more interactingwith foreigners do not take up very high frequency

1.2 Results of Questionnaire B

a The current situation in teaching the speaking skill in Class HAlO at TrungVuong Highschool

The result of the first question idS us know the teachers' opinion about the role

of oral practice in language learning and teaching 100% eleventh-form teachers in

Trung Vuong Highschool agreed that oral practice was very important and certainlynecessary Hereby, training the speaking skill could not be neglected in the syllabusfor English Other findings are displayed in Table 4

a The activities were designed based on the English 90%

lessons from English 11 textbook

b The activities were collected from other books. 0%

c The activities were topics suggested by your students. 10%

The results in Table 4 allow us to know the ways that oral practice wasadministered in the teachers' own classes At the pre-reading and post-reading stage, oralpractice was sometimes applied by 70% of the teachers Speaking skill is a drill whichrequires time the more the better to practise As cited in the Literature Review, Harmer,J.(1991) proposed that language has to be acquired as a result of some deeper experience.This point of view suggested that the teacher should give much time and many chancesfor training language learners by being in the habits of using that language However, thefinding shows that most of the teachers did not have plans for helping their students trainspeaking skill adequately to keep it in the balance with the other skills such as readingand writing X

90% of the teachers based on the reading texts in the textbook to design thespeaking activities But they merely reached the Questions and Answers technique in theirself-designed activities Only in 50% of the teachers had ever tried to organize thespeaking activities as pairwork or groupwork

About time for each speaking activity, 70% informed that they saved from 15 to 20minutes for oral practice after each lesson This is quite understandable as the objectives

of the syllabus for English in highschool is to train students' ability of reading andwriting well.

b Teachers' Difficulties in Applying Speaking Activities in Their Classes

Answers Results (%)

• Students are passive 20%

• Students lacked vocabulary 30%

• Activities will make nOIse which affects the classes 10%

nextdoor

• Students can't speak English correctly or fluently 10%

• The reading text wastes a lot of time 10%

• Big classes with over.50 students 10%

Students speak softly 10%

Table 5 Teachers' Difficulties in Applying Speaking Activities

Actually highschool teachers faced a lot of difficulties when they wanted toapply the speaking activities in their classes These difficulties were students'passiveness in speaking, the difference in students' levels, the learning conditions,and the syllabus Those teachers felt that their students were not active enough' inspeaking activities and they often spoke too softly Many questions should bemade at this point For example, why were the students so passive in oral practice

? Was it because the activities were difficult to them; or the topics were notappealing; or the studerits were not provided with enough guidance from their teachers,etc.?

The teachers also complained about the students' level of English They thoughteleventh - form students lacked vocabulary and they could not speak correctly andfluently However, they seem to be over-worried as students at any grade may confrontwith these difficulties Only aiming at the good students and forgetting the others whoalso need stimulus and help is also a matter of concern to most teachers Above all, it isthe teacher who makes their students active in speaking, who helps to provide vocabularyand who guides them to speak correctly and fluently

Some teachers found it hard to organize speaking activities in big classes with over

50 students It is really uneasy to any highschool teachers either at 10th form or 11th form

or lih form since all the classes are big Teachers were also afraid that organizingspeaking activities would make nOIse which would affect the neighbouring classes

/ _/

and that they did not have enough time for such activities as they had to cover thereading texts in the book English 11 and other required exercises Because of thedifficulties mentioned above, the effectiveness of oral practice was decreased The resultwas the bright students got bored, the weak ones were ashamed to reveal their bad pointswhen they speak, and the teachers seemed to lose heart and put speaking activities away.

c Teachers' Suggestions to Improve the 11th Form Students' Speaking Skill

Answers Results (%)

a One speaking activity 20%

b Two speaking activity 80%

c Oral.presentation 20%Other(s)

.

• Inviting native English teacher 10%

• Creating comfortable atmosphere 10%

• Making students produce hislher own words 10%

• Making more questions based on the textbook for students to discuss 10%

• Speaking examinations 20%

• Having more time for speaking 10%

• Sub-topics related to the topic of the reading texts 10%

• The number of students is small about 15-20 students 20%

• Testing should be changed 10%

• Students should be grouped in the same level 10%Table 6 Teachers' Suggestions to Improve the 11thForm Students' Speaking Skill80% of the teachers would like to have 2 speaking activities for a reading atthe pre-reading and post-reading stage 50% of the teachers thought groupwork wasthe best activity that should be applied to large classes 30% chose pairwork 80%agreed that groupwork and pairwork were suitable to large classes at high-schools.Because Lam, C.T (2001) found that groupwork and pairwork have already been usedfor a long time, we should use these types of activity m organizing the classroomfor oral practice

The eleventh-form teachers in Trung Vuong Highschool expected somechanges in the syllabus, testing forms and class size in order to improve thespeaking skill of highschool students In their opinion, more time should be given

so that they can help the students practise speaking Next, sub-topics related to thetopic of the reading texts should be provided in the textbooks Classes should have

from 15 to 20 students of the same level of English Considering class SIze, the

ideal number of 15 to 20 students was hardly found in highschools The teachers

wanted to have speaking examinations The problem is if students just study for the

exams and teachers teach to help their students pass the exams, the aim of learning might

be far away from the objectives of the learning process Teachers should remember

that students learn not to cope with examinations, but to acquire knowledge and training

skills

1.3 Comparison between the results of Questionnaire A and Questionnaire B

It is interesting to find that there are some similarities and differences in the

teachers' and the students' opinions towards oral practice in learning English at

highschool

About"the similarities, first, both the students and the teachers agreed that oral

practice is necessary even extremely necessary in English learning and teaching

This shows that both groups have the same interest in developing the speaking skill in

learning English To the students, through speaking activities, they can speak English

more naturally, thus become more self-confident in communication in English, and

especially, they can use English at their desire The teachers, also paid proper attention to

their students' need of speaking through their application of pairwork, groupwork,

questions and answers exercises in class

Second, time is also a matter of concern to both groups While the teachers claimed

that time was not enough for them to organize speaking activities, the learners did need

time for practising speaking As known from these highschool teachers, they totally

had 3 periods (45 minutes each) for English every week and the teachers had to complete

all the lessons in the required textbook However, they can still deal with this shortage of

time through short speaking activities

Third, both groups would like to renovate testing the English subject They wanted

to have speaking tests and less writing tests Finally, both the teachers and the students

longed for learning English with native speakers

However, there are some differences in their 0pIIDons as follows First, the

students had more practical and useful suggestions towards improving their speaking

competence For example, they proposed learning speaking in class, in the laboratory or in

groups outside class, or they preferred speaking topics which were close to their daily life

They also suggested interesting activities for oral practice such as games and songs

in English They even wished for practice in not only speaking but pronunciation and

listening as well Although some of their suggestions cannot be satisfied at themoment, they are of value for their teachers' consideration and application.

The teachers tended to cling to the topics in their textbooks and to traditionalactivities such as questions and answers in oral practice; some offered free talks whichwere likely to be out of their control in large classes

d Not '(ery usefu.l 5.8%

a I spoke English a lot 11.53%

b I spoke English more than I used to do in class 13.5%

c I iust listened to my friends 69.23%

a I didn't use to speak in English lessons 13.5%

b I didn't have enough vocabulary 51.92%

c There wasn't enough time for every student to speak 5.8%

d The activity was too difficult for me 3.84%

Table 7 Students' Opinions About the Experimental Teaching Sessions

j

To some extent, the experimental teaching sessions in which some speakingactivities were applied at the pre-reading and post-reading stage were successfullycarried out The students either joined in the activity or listened to their friend discussing

in their groups Most of the students thought the pre-reading and post-reading activities asoral practice were useful even though it seemed to be not very interesting to some of them

The majority of-these students just listened to their friends in the discussion(69.23%) On explaining their passive participation in the discussion, they had differentreasons such as they did not have enough vocabulary (51.92%); or they did not use tospeak in English lessons (13.5%); or there was not enough time for every student tospeak (5.8 %), or the activity was difficult for them (3.84 %)

This was perhaps the first time they were engaged in such a speaking activity intheir class They used to have reading, writing activities and mainly work individually.Groupwork may be new to them and so little experience in group-working prevented themfrom being as active as expected Nevertheless, the students' suggestions after theexperimental teaching sessions brought the investigator many benefits in designing andapplying speaking activities at the pre-reading and post-reading stage Here are some oftheir suggestions:

• Teacher should guide some activities more thoroughly.

• Providing more vocabulary for students

• Students like those activities, teachers should apply more

activities in class

• Teachers should give presents to stimulate students to

participate in the activity

• Students should participate in the activity more actively

17.3%15.4%9.61%

9.61%

40.36%

The students suggested many interesting and relevant ideas towards improving theactivities in the experimental teaching sessions First, 17.3% needed the teacher to givemore guidance to some activities This suggestion reminds the teachers that wheneverstarting an activity, the guidance from the teachers should be specific and understandable

If so, the students will find the activity easier to take part in Second, vocabulary seems toworry the students as 15.4% suggested to be provided with more vocabulary together withthe activity In fact, vocabulary is always a big problem to any student when they speak aforeign language Lack of vocabulary may cause lack of interest in participation Thus, therequirement of increasing the stock of vocabulary should be taken into consideration bythe teachers Games once again were suggested as an activity that could strengthen theirspeaking skill and making the class hours more enjoyable A small number of studentspreferred speaking activities with pictures, presenting in front of the class, etc Moreover,

in order to encourage students, they would like their teachers to give presents to stimulatethem to take part in the activity (9.61 %)

Students also have suggestions for themselves Some students really enjoyed thespeaking activities and they hoped their teachers would apply more similar activities inclass Lewis, M (1995) has ever found that people need to use language in order to learn

it In a language class there should be opportunities for speaking in various ways Manystudents (40,36%) were even more demanding as they wanted to see their friendsparticipate in the activity more actively

On the whole, either the students who joined the discussion actively or those whojust stood aside listening to and observing their friends accepted speaking activities asways to strengthen their speaking competence and expected their teachers of English tohelp them more in the future

CHAPTER TWO

."pOST-READING ACTIVITIES FOR ORAL PRACTICE

2.1 Description of the suggested pre-reading and post-reading activities

Totally, sixteen speaking activities were especially designed for the pre-reading

and post-reading stage The activities include the following parts:

o 1 Level: All of activities are for the eleventh-form students at high-schools The

activities are based on the topics in the book English 11

2 Aim,s: These activities aimed at helping the 'students

(i) strengthen their competence in speaking English

(ii) be able to use the vocabulary stock and some grammar points in the

reading texts (iii) widen their common knowledge about the social life

-{iv) get acquainted with many communicative situations they may cope with in

the future through games and activities

Besides, each activity will focus on particular aims depending on their types, the

(tOPiC~ imd the content of the lessons

3 Time: The pre-reading activities are carried out in 5 to 7 minutes The

post-reading activities are carried out in 15 to 20 minutes /

4 Preparation time: It is variable Some activities require from 15 minutes to

more than 60 minutes to prepare

5 Materials: The materials needed for the activity such as charts, pictures,

photos, etc can be collected from numerous sources, I.e newspapers,magazines, or they can be self-designed, etc

6 Procedure: This will be stated to help the teacher in implementing the activity

in their class .2.2 The commonly-used speaking activities

Through books on methodology, through the investigator's observation on

\

speaking activities in classroom and through the current situation of teaching English in

highschools, speaking activities can be roughly divided into three main types: groupwork,

pairwork and games Various techniques can be manipulated by a teacher when

designing a speaking activity

a Painvork

~Pairwork seems to be a good idea because it immediately increases the amount ofstudents in practice If we refer back to our imaginary class of forty students, we can seethat at anyone time (in an oral pairwork exercise) twenty students are talking at onceinstead of one (in Questions-Answers between the teacher and the students individually).(Pairwork allows students to use the target language (depending of course on the task set

by the teacher) and also encourages student co-operation, which is itself important for theatmosphere of the class Students can help each other to use and learn language Theteacher will still be able to act as a prompter or controller With pairwork, students canpractise language use and joint learning (Harmer, 1991) In class, students usually have towork together to solve the problems that their teachers raised Thus, this activity is quitefamiliar with them Especially, in English learning, difficult questions always remindstudents that only working with friends can help them overcome obstacles easily andeffectively

b Groupwork

Groupwork is one of the most frequently used activities in oral practice Studentswill work in groups, sharing ideas and discussing to find out the answers or solutions tothe problems raised in each topic This kind of activity has a strong point that each studenthas equal chance to talk and express ideas According to Harmer (1991), groupwork ismore dynamic than pairwork, i.e there are more people to react with and against in agroup and, therefore, there is a greater possibility of discussion Working in groups ispotentially more relaxing than working in pairs) for the latter puts a greater demand on thestudent~s ability to co-operate closely with only one other person It is also true to say thatgroupwork tasks can often be more exciting and dynamic than some pairwork tasks.However, teachers should have careful plans to control all the groups, for example, theymust go around the class to encourage students to speak in English, if not, they may speak

in their mother tongue or just chit-chat

c Games

Harmer, J (1991) claimed that games are a vital part ofa teacher's equipment, notonly for the language practice they provide, but also for the therapeutic effect they have.They can be used at any stage of a class to provide an amusing respite They are especiallyuseful at the end of a long day to send the students away feeling cheerful about theirEnglish class In a game-like activity, we can divide students in pairs or in groupsdepending on the topic or the activity the teacher designed

2.3 Suggested techniques for the speaking activities at the pre-reading and reading stage

post-a Observing pictures and answering questions

A lot of pictures will be given or delivered to the students by the teacher atthe beginning of the speaking activity When observing the pictures, students willdiscuss by answering given questions and expressing ideas on people things orevents in those pictures

Example 1: Unit Two -Advertising - English 11 (Appendix 2)

Pictures of different kinds of motorcycles were collected from newspapers andmagazines and stuck on the- blackboard Each group of students will observe the picnlresand answer questions as done in the first example for a discussion After that, each groupwill have two representatives to perform in front of the class

b Story-telling with pictures

This activity requires the number of students in each group is equal to the number

of pictures used Students in a group receive some pictures and try to arrange them in aproper order Then, group members take tum telling about what happening in the pictures

to make a complete story

Example: Unit Nine - Steamboat Coming - English 11

Pictures of people and the steamboat on the wharf will be delivered to groups offour students All the members have to work to create a short story using all four pictures

c Values clarifying

Values clarifying helps us to discover somethirrg about ourselves, people andthings around us (Klipp Ie, 1984, p.88)

Example: Unit Five - Artificial Intelligence - English 11 (Appendix 2)

a-v Students work in groups to find out the true values of computer in our society bydiscussing and deciding /'

d Miming

Miming exercises train the students' skill of observation and improvisation.Miming exercises are useful because they emphasize the importance of gesture and facialexpresslOn in communication (Klipp Ie, 1984, p 115) Language in practice throughquestions

Example :Unit Seven - Women's Liberation - English 11

Students in pairs will receive a card There will be a thing that one student of eachpair must describe and act out without using the words given on the card The partner will