Luận văn the use of discussion activities to enhance the first year students’ motivation and speaking performance

Among a lot of communicative activities, using discussion activities appear to be one of the most effective teaching lechnique to enhance students’ motivation and speaking performance..

THE USE OF DISCUSSLON ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE ‘THE FIRST-

YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

ASTUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng các hoạt động thão luận nhằm nâng cao động lực học tập và

khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất: Một nghiên cứu tại

trường Đại học Công nghiệp Việt-Hunp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

TIANOI - 2014

THE USE OF DISCUSSLON ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE ‘THE FIRST-

YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

ASTUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng các hoạt động thão luận nhằm nâng cao động lực học tập và

khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất: Một nghiên cứu tại

trường Đại học Công nghiệp Việt-Hunp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assec Prof De NGUYEN VĂN ĐỘ

TIANOI - 2014

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

Thereby certify that the thesis entitled

THE USE OF DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE THE FIRST-YEAR

STUDENTS’ MOTEVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A STUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY,

Is the result of my own rescarch for the Degree of Master of Arts at Vietnam National University, Uanoi University of Languages and Intemational Studies

(CULTS) and that this thesis has not been submilled for any assessment im any other

formal courses of study elsewhere

Ha Noi, 2014

Pham Thi Binh

ACKNOWLEDGI

NLS

in completion of my thesis, 1 have received generous advice and a great deal

of support from a number of people Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks lo my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN VAN BO from Thang Long

University for his deliberate guidance, constructive critical feedback and his

generous help in the process of completing my thesis

My special thanks also go to all my respected lecturers irr the M.A course for their informative and valuable lectures and the admimistrative staff of the

Department of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, for their help, guidance, enthusiasm and valuable support during my course of sludy

I really wish to express my thanks to teachers and students from

VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY for their kind cooperation, their

participation in giving valuable information, which considerably contributed Lo Ihe completion of my work

Finally, 1 owe my deep thanks (o my dear family, especially my husband, my

two children for thei love, material and spiritual support throughout this research and my friends who always stand for me with their consideration and

encouragement

ABSTRACT There are different communicative aclivities through which students’

language competence is improved with the effective implementation of the teachers Among a lot of communicative activities, using discussion activities appear to be

one of the most effective teaching lechnique to enhance students’ motivation and

speaking performance It gives students moze chances to practice the target language

Ta my universily, VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY (VIU) in Sor

‘Tay town, Llanoi, all of the students are non-inglish major students ‘They are quite active in the real life but they are passive in speaking English lessons and have low

amutivalion in speaking English In general their speaking ability is very low

Meanwhile, discussion activities are seldom used in teaching speaking skill for students by the teachers This research was carried out to investigate the

eflectivencss of using discussion activilies im speaking Fryglish lessons al VTU To

achieve the desired aims of the study, 80 furst-years students and 8 teachers of

Finglish at, VIU were involved The data were obtained through the analysis of the

students and teachers’ questionnaires as well as the observations in ¢lass when

discussion activities were carried out ‘The findings obtained indicate the students

and teachers’ positive altitude towards discussion activities used in class and the

improvement in the students’ motivation and speaking performance in theit speaking lessons Hence, using discussion activities is an effective and practical

teaching technique and should be widely used and carefully planned to teach

speaking skill to students

iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Viet-Hung Industrial University English as a Toreign Language English Language teaching

LIST OF TABLES & GRAPHS:

TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions Lowards the importance of teaching and

learning English speaking skill

Table 2: Students” use of English in speaking lessons

Table 3: Teachers’ and Students’ sell-cvaluatiou towards speaking activities m the

course book, which is being used to teach English for first- year students

Table 4; Results from students’ survey questionnaires

Table 5: Teachers’ opinions towards (he importance of discussion activilies in speaking lessons

Table 6: Ways of motivating students to participate in discussion activities

Table 7: Teachers’ preparation for discussion activities

Table 8: Appropriate stages in which discussion activities are employed in speaking

lessons

Tabic 9: Teachers’ lass organization for discussion aclivitics

‘Table 10: Kinds of feedback to students’ speaking performance in discussion aclivilies

Table 12: Teachers’ thought about imtegrating discussion activiues in speaking

lessons

Table 11: Teachers’ evaluation of students’ improvement in speaking performance

in discussion activities

GRAPHS

Graph 1: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill

Graph 2: Teachers’ and Students’ self-evaluation towards students’ speaking ability Graph 3: Students’ Imowledge towards the term “Discussion activities”

Graph 4: Students’ expectation about the teachers’ organization of speaking

activities in speaking lessons

Graph 6: Results from students’ survey questionnaires

Gnaph S: Teachers’ opinions aboul the [requency of using discussion avtivities in

speaking lessons

TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT

1 Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study

2 Rescarch Aims and Research Questions

3 Scope of the Study

5 Methodology of the Study

6 Organization of the Study

L.L Theoretical background of motivation in language learning

1.1.1 Definition of motivation

1.1.2 ‘The role of motivation in language learning

1.2.1 Concept of speaking

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills in the classroom

1.2.3 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity

1.2.4, Factors affecting students! performance in speaking activitics

1.25 Activities to promote speaking skills

1.3 Discussion activities in Language teaching and learning process

1.3.2 The roles of discussion in language teaching and leaming

1.3.3 Application of Discussion Activities in Speaking Lessons

1.3.4 Teacher responsibilities or roles in organizing, discussion activities

2.3.1 An Overview of Viet-Hung Industrial University and English

2.7 Procedures of data analys'

3.1 Data analysis and discussion from phase 1

3.1.1 Data analysis from phase 1

3.1.2 Discussion from phase 1

3.2, Data analysis and discussion from phase 2

3.2.1, Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaires 00+

3.2.2 Data analysis from teachers’ survey questionnaires

3.2.3 Data analysis from class observations

1 Major Findings of the Research

2, Pedagogical Implications of the Research

3 Contribution of the Research

4, Limitations of the Research

5, Suggestions for Further Studics

PART A: INTRODUCTION:

This part is to introduce the rationale and the way the researcher identified the

problem facing her students’ English speaking skill Besides, the scope, the aims,

and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study are also stated clearly

i, Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study

Jn the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign or second language, leamers are taught knowledge of the target language and drilled four

basic language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing Of the four skills,

speaking is considered the most important and essential skill It is a productive skill that language is generated by Ieamers in speech, Learners can have a variety of

reason to decide to learn a foreign language Similarly, their expectations, aims and

purposes can be very different But most of them share the same desire: to be able to

speak the language Learners, especially those who are college or university

students, admil that the ability to communicate [reely in English is important [or

them Good English speaking ability can help them to find a good job, to achieve

‘beiler position al work, to have chances (o sLudy or work aboard However, the fact shows that many college or university students possess weak ability to communucate

in Unglish language environments hose students hardly ever communicate

appropriately and correctly ‘They often lose sel[-confidence or have no ideas when

having a conversation in English In some particular cases, they stammer or even fail to speak a single word because of fear and anxiety when speaking Lnglish

According to many teaching theorists, students’ speaking skill can be developed through communicative activities Communicative activities can

motivate students and establish good relationships between teachers and students as

well as among students According to Harmer (1998), speaking activilies provide

students opportunities for rehearsal and motivate them ‘There exist different

speaking activities, which are enjoyable such as information gap, jigsaw, discussion, games, problem-solving, role-playing, cle Tl teachers ean scl up

speaking tasks properly and effectively, thoy can motivate their students a let in leaning speaking

Asa teacher of Rnglish al Viet-Hung Industrial University (VTU) the present researcher can see the unsatisfactory state and conditions of teaching and learning

English All of the students are non-English major students They are quite active in

the real life bul they are passive in speaking English lessons and have low

motivation in speaking English In general their speaking ability is very low Many students can hardly ever communicate in English because of low motivation and poor language performance In class they are not able to express their thoughts and opinions satisfactorily Oral mistakes and slips such as inadequate vocabulary, structures, poor pronunciation, stress and intonation often happen They speak

slowly with a lol of hesilation and repetition Instead of using English they use more

Vietnamese One word answers like “Yes” or “No” seem their favourite responses

when communicating with the teachers or with their peers during lessons Worse

still, somelines they have nothing to say al all Although the (cachers of English al

VLU show their concem with students’ speaking abilities they do not give full allention on teach speaking dus to some constraints such as fixed syllabus, preparing materials for lessons, teacher-centercd teaching method preference in

class due to saving time etc Consequently, many communicative activities that

suppori the students practice speaking English are scklom used, of which using

discussion activities is ai example

Yor these above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct the study of

“The use of discussion activities to enhance the first-year students’ motivation

and speaking performance: A Study at Vict-Hung Industrial University” with the aim to investigate the effectiveness of using discussion activities in speaking English Jessons Tis hoped that the findings wall be a significant contribution Lo the improvement of students’ speaking ability and the quality of teaching speaking skill for students at VIU.

2 Research Aims and Research Questions

‘The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of discussion

aclivilics in speaking lessons al VIU Specifically, it addressed the following

research questions

Question 1 What are the attitudes of the first-year students at VIU towards using

discussion activities in speaking lessons?

Question 2 How do teachers of English at VLU teach speaking to the students with discussion activities?

Question 3 In what ways do discussion aclivilies enhance the students’ motivation and speaking performance?

3 Scope of the Study

There are dilferent cormmusticalive activities Uhrough which studerds’

speaking skill can be improved thanks to teachers” effective implementation of

those activities Because of the lmited time and the length of the study, the

yesearcher’s intention with (his research focused only on exploiting discussion

activities as an effective way in enhancing the first-year students’ motivation and

speaking performance in speaking English lessons at VIU Fn addition, this sudy

investigates and serves only 80 first-year students im 2 classes im the context of VIU

4, Significance of the Study

This study helps to determine the offectiveness of using discussion aclivilics

in teaching speaking in English lessons at VIU It provides the teachers of English

with helpful knowledge and the rationale to carry out discussion activities in class to

improve students’ speaking ability in natural ways

Once completed, the research would be a helpful reference for those who are

interested in further studying on the use of discussion activities in teaching English

5 Methodology of the Study

‘The research instruments, namely questionnaires and observations were

employed to collect dala for the research The study was conducted in two phases

‘The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written

by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition

6 Organization of the Study

‘This study consists of three main parts:

Part A (Introduction) provides a flow of information about the rationales, the aims, the significance as well as the methods of the study

Part B (Development) includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1 (Literature review) offers the theoretical background of the study,

including discussions of key concepts and the relaled studics

Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the research setting, participants, instruments of

dava collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis

Chapter 3 (Dala analysis and discussion) presents, analyses and discusses the

findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Jn this parl the researcher allempts to provide a review ihe theories relaled to

motivation, speaking skill, discussion, discussion activities in language teaching and learning All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into using discussion achivilies ta teach speaking skill for students

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation in language learning

1.1.1 Definition of motivation

Second Language Acquisition theories acknowledge that motivation is one of

the important factors which influence a leamer’s achievement in the process of second language learning What is motivation? In a simple way, the word

xnotivalion can he umderslood as someune’s enthusiasm, inleres! and commitment

for doing something Williams and Burden (19

state of cognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act,

120) defines motivation as “a

and which gives rise Lo a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in

order to attain a previously set goal(s)” Spratt et al (2005: 38) states that

“fnolivation is the thoughts and feelings we have which make us want to do something, continue to want to do it and tum our wishes ute action” What they means is that motivation influences why people decide to do something, how long

they want to do it and how hard they are prepared Lo work to achieve iL

Relating motivation to language leaming, there are differences in the way

different researchers define motivation Gardner (1985: 10) defines motivation in second language learning as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to

learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” According to this definition, motivation is perceived to be composed

of three components These are effort, desire and satisfaction or effect Effort refers

to the leamers’ attempt to achieve a goal Desire refers to a strong feeling that the learners want to master in the language, and satisfaction illustrates the leamers’ emotional reactions towards learning the language According to Light Brown, &

Nina Spada (1999.56), motivation can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’

communicative need and their attitudes towards the second language commumaty If

learners need lo speak the sevond bmguage ina wide range of social instilubons or

to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it

1.1.2 The role of motivation in language learning

It is a matter of common knowledge that motivation is a very important in

language learning Leamers have various motivations in leaming a language

because chfferent leamers im different situations have different, needs and wands,

goals and desires, which drive them to succeed In the context of second language learning, motivation is observed by Littlewood (1987; 53) as “the critical force

which determines whether a learner embarks on a lask al all, how much energy he

devotes to it, and how long he perseveres” Spratt et al (2005: 38) emphasize motivation “helps make leaming successful” Also, Ur (1996: 274) states’ “Leamer

molivalion makes teaching and learning immeasurably casicr and more pleasant, as

well as more productive”

Obviously, sludenis’ motivation needs to be encouraged by leachers im Icaming process This study focuses on speaking skill in English teaching and leaming, the researcher believes that the degree of motivation is directly

proportional Lo he Tevel of sludenis’ invelvement im speaking activities The mora

snotivated the students are, the more actively they will participate in oral activities

Therefore, in order to make students motivated in EFL contexts, teachers should

include many activities and strategies that attract students’ attention and make them interested in the lessons, and then their learning process will be more productive

1.2 Teaching Speaking skill

1.2.1 Concept of speaking

OF all the four skills, Ur (1996:120) concludes, “speaking seems miluitively

the most important” Most language leamers, she adds, are primarily interested in leaming to speak, “What is speaking?” Different linguists define concept of

speaking in different ways In Byre’s view (1986), spoaking skill is one of two

ways of oral communication process, and is the productive skill ‘Ihe speaker bas to encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener tas to decode (or interpret) the message Chaney & Burk (1998:13) defines speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Spratt et al (2005: 38) define

speaking as a productive skill which involves using specch 1o express meartings lo

other people To the researcher of the current research, Florez (1999 cited in Bailey,

2005:2) has comprehensive definition when stating that speaking is “an interactive

process of constructing meaning thal involves produving, receiving and processing

information” It is clear that speaking is an activity involving two or more people in which the parlicipams are both the listeners and the speakers having lo acl what they listen and make their contibution im this activity

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skill in the classroom

The essential role of speaking skill in language leaming: is undeniable

Speaking is probably the language skill that most Janguage learners wish to be good

at performance as soon as possible Many leamers consider it an important criterion

to evaluate their achievement in leaming a language If they can speak that language

well it means they are successful Nunan (1991) points out “success is measured in

terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” [lowever, opporiunitiss for sludenis to speak im language clas are not always crealed

effectively and shared among students ‘'herefore it is essential that teachers should

pay a great of attention to teaching speaking in class (Kayi, 1006) The researcher

believes speaking lessons can become very interesting and productive if the teachers can apply speaking activities attracting students’ involvement in the class

1.2.3 Characteristics of a Success!ul Speaking Aclivity

The characteristics of a successful speaking activity are asserted by Ur (1996) as follows

Tearners talk a lot As much as possible of the pened of time allotted to the

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

Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominaled by a minorily

of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

Motivation is high Lcarners arc cager 1o speak: because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it

Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in

ullcranous that are relevant, cusily comprehensible t exch other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy Ur (1996;120)

1.2.4 Factors affecting students’ performance in speaking activities

According to many dictionaries performance means the act or process of performing a task, an action, ete Jt also refers to how well or badly someone do

somelhing In relation to speaking, porlormance can be understood as a mean of oral

comumunication in giving idea, information to the other one It involves the production of the sound and the gesture, the facial expression, and the whole body -

the way of one's manmer in speaking There are same factors affecting students!

performance in English speaking lessons as follows

Students do nol want to talk or say anything

‘dhe reason for this is that students often feel shy about talking im front of

teachers and other sludents A fear of making mistakes, criti

ism, or losing face provent them from expressing ideas or opinions Speaking in front of other people

needs courage, motivation from inside, and outside such as joyful learning

atmosphere and interesting classroom activities

Students use their mother- tongue rather than Linglish

This might happen because it is easier to use, or students fell unnatural to

speak Lo one anolher in English so they use language in the bes way they know

They have difficulty to say something because they do not have much knowledge to talk about and they think that they better use their mother- tongue and so others can

understand them

Large-sized classroom

Af the classroom is big, for example 30 or 40 students in a classroom, the students rarely get a chance to practice the target language, and it is difficult for them to ask and receive individual allention they need Tt is also hard for the teacher

to make contact with students at the back, to keep good discipline, also to organize dynamic and creative teaching and learning sessions

Sbidents are not discipline in classroom

Some siudents do nol, pay allertion to the lesson given; they just talk with

each other and make some noises Ihe problems happen may be because the students bored with the activities or they feel unable to cope with the task given To solve the problems, the teacher can create exciting activities that make students feel enjoy themselves in the class

«The matcrials do not (ull the need of students

‘Many students may find themselves confused or bored and do not learn when

course book topics do uot relate to their lives Moreover, when students caumot

understand the language instruction, they may become demotivated So, it is very important for language teachers to adapt teaching materials so that they can achieve more compatibility and fitness between the course book and the teaching

environment for the benefit of thew students

«Students have low motivation to speak English

Students are cager to speak English because they are interested in speaking

topics or activities Otherwise, they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in

learning if they do not learn how La speak or do nol gel any opporlumily to speak in

the class If students have low motivation, they have low enthusiasm in leaming and engaging the lesson The development of communicative skills can only take place

if leammers have motivation and opporlumily lo express their own identity and Lo

relate with the people around them (Littlewood, 1981:93)

‘As presented above, factors affecting students’ speaking performance in

speaking lessons are various The researcher follaws the ideas that boring speaking

activities do not motivate students and do not provide opportunities for students to

talk and participate in class Speaking activities can strongly impact positively

students’ Rnghsh orl performance if teachers devote the effort in designing and

carrying out effective speaking activities to promote students’ engagement

1.2.5 Activities to promote speaking skill

According to Harmer (1998:88), “good speaking activities can and should be

highly motivating [ ] Many speaking tasks (role-playing, discussion, problem-

solving ele.) are intrinsically enjoyable in themselves”, Harmer emphasives “IP all

the students are participating fully — and if the teacher has set up the activity properly and can then give sympathetic and useful feedback they will get

tremendous satisfaction from il” There are many types of classroom speaking

activities which can help students to improve their speaking skills Kayi (2006:2) in his article presents communicative activities to promote speaking skills such as

Discussion, Role Play, Simulations, Information Gap, Brainstorming, Storytelling

and so on Of which the researcher totally agree with Kayi’s explanation about the

advantages of Discussion “fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and

L ]in every discussion activity students can work with various people and eam to

be open to different ideas” (Kayi, 2006: 2) ‘The implementation of speaking activities by teachers plays a central role in the encouragement of speaking

participalion im the EFT classroom, Tawlic (2004:1) states “if the right activities

10

arc taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising gencral learner motivation and making the lnglish language classroom a fun and

dynamic place to be” Sceing thal reason, the rescarcher dovided lo investigate the

effectiveness of discussion activities in teaching English speaking

1.3 Discussion activities in language teaching and learning process

1.3.1 What is Discussion?

According to Jones (1994), “A discussion is the attempt of a group of people

to find the answer to a question or the solution ta a problem by way of dialogue” (as

cited in The Perm Slate Teacher TT) Tt can be understood that discussion is an

activity in which people talk together in order to share information about a topic or problem or to seek a solution In language teaching, discussion is potential to be

implemented because it is expected to enable studorls to promote their speaking

ability and to provide for greater interaction between teachers and students

1.3.2 The roles of discussion in language teaching and leaning

According (o Killen (1996 cited in Menggo $., of al, 2013) discussion is

appropriate and potential to be applied in EFL teaching His logical argumentations

as follows:

- It is an active Icarning process, which is more likely to maintain students’ interest than a passive, teacher-directed leaming experience:

- Tt secures active involvement in Jearning which molivales sLudents,

particularly when they can see that others value theit contributions and respect their points of view;

- It develops students’ ability to analyse the lesson content and express ideas orally, thus enhancing their thinking and communication skills;

- It can be an effective way of allowing students to share their knowledge and experience and an appropnale way 10 demonstrate to students the relevance of their background knowledge:

- It can generate new ideas or produce original solutions to problems by stimulating divergent, or Jalorall thinking;

11

- It is better than lecture as a way of helping students develop problem- solving and critical-thinking skills;

- And itis a technique in which teachers show tolerance to students’ opinions

and attitudes, which can help to develop rapport between instructors and students

By regarding Killen’s argumentations, discussion encourages students to

communicate and is really suitable in situations of teaching and learning English,

especially in teaching speaking, skill It involves sharing of ideas and experiences, solving problems and gives students an opportunity to express their views or

opinions orally on certain issues

1.3.3 Application of Discussion Activities in Speaking Lessons

Teaching using discussion activities requires teachers’ careful preparation in

class Students may be arranged into pairs, small or large groups and discuss the

topics under the teachers’ requirements There are different discussion activities that teachers can choose and apply to help students involve much in class

Hanmer (1991) suggests clTective discussion avhvilics as follows:

Buzz group: students are asked to predict the content of a reading text or to talk

about their reactions 1o i alter reading it or to discuss what should be imeluded ina news broadcast or to have a quick conversation about the right kind of music for a wedding or party ‘To train students to respond fluently and immediately by showing

students pholographs or introducing tapies at any stages of a lesson and nominating

students to say the first thing that comes into their head Formal debate: students prepare arguments in favour or against various propositions

Lr (1996: 125-127) presents a selections of discussion activities suitable for

various levels They are: Deseribing pictures: students work in group and say as many sentences as they can that describe the picture given, Pictures differences: students work im pairs lo find oul what the differences are between two pictures that are given to each member without showing each other their picture Things in

common: students sit in pairs to talk to one another to find out as many things as

they oan that they have i common, At the end they share the findings with the

whole class Shopping list: student in the roles of buyers choose three items from a store they want to buy and try to find out three other buyers to justify the owners of

the store acquiring the slock and to get the owners Lo stock all the ilems the students

have chosen Solving a problem: students are told to advise someone on problems

facing him/her or some else Students have to discuss their recommendation and

write if oat

‘There are many discussion possibilities (Harmer, 1998) ‘The researcher believes that if teachers know how to organise discussion activities properly and foster a non-threalening enviromnerd 1 which students’ participation is welcomed, students” speaking performance can be much improved

1.3.4 Teacher responsibilities or roles in organizing discussion activities

Discussions in the classroom do nol automatically happen Discussions are,

by their nature, unpredictable because students’ opinions, ideas are provoked spontaneously The goal of any discussion activity is to get students to talk

purposefully about the topic or questions given Teachers therefore should moderate

the discussion activities rather than convey information Careful planning can help

teachers ensure that discussion activities are helpful in their lessons When planning

discussion activities, it is helpful to consider the following factors that can either foster or inhibit the productive exchange of students’ ideas:

- Clarifying aims and establishing goals for euch discussion Whon teachers

clarify the purpose of the discussion, their common problems such as asking too many questions at once, asking a question and answering it themselves, asking

‘unconnected questions can be avoided

- Creating a climate in which students feel comfortable and relaxed to talk

to one another In such environment students may feel safer expressing themselves

‘before ideas are shared with the class as a whole

- Requiring students to prepare for discussion activities Discussions tend to

‘be most productive when students have already done some preparatory work

13,

- Arranging the physical environment of the classroom so that it is conducive

to discussions: The appropriate physical space can influence the students’

behaviours and their communication bolt of wilh the teacher and their friends

Some teachers prefer that chairs be in a circle, others in a U-shape or assembled differently, No matter how the physical environment arranged, it is a good idea to

set up the classroom so thal students can sce cach olher during discussion activities

Jn conclusion, discussion activities clearly provide ideal opportunities for practicing speaking and important opportunities for developing certain aspects of Quency Discussion activities not only invelve students m Lalking aboul a range of topics which engage their interests, opinions, and experiences but also encourage them to use the language needed to keep conversation alive aver a period of time

Ta keep discussion aclivilies working, teachers should nol simply ask students,

“What do you think of A?", “Do you agree with B?” Instead, teachers should plan

discussion activities carefully by giving students material to react to, and time to

plan whal they are going to say A discussion is a chance for students to share ideas,

to have their voice heard ‘l'eacher’s roles in discussion activities, therefore, are not

1o dominale, bul rather Lo get the discussion aclivilies slarted, sel goals, sununari⁄e,

anediate, clarify, and make sure that every student has a chanee to contribute and to

be heard

1.4, Related Studies

The subject of using discussion as a teaching method has been discussed through a number of studies For example, “The discussion method in classroom

teaching” by Gall, M D., & Gillett M (1980), “Discussion as a way of teaching”

by Brookfield, § D., & Preskill, S (1999), "Discussion Method ‘Teaching A Practical Guide” by Welty, W M (1989), “Impact of Discussion Method on

Students Performance." By Rahman, Fazalur, et al (2011) Those authors in their

books o articles show how effective discussion to teaching and leaming process In the world of language teaching, many books on language teaching and learning,

relating to this issus, have been published under the name of [armous aulliors such as

14

‘Ur (1996), Harmer (1991, 1998) cte Also, many articles have been written such as

“The effect of discussion technique and Jinglish learning motivation toward students” speaking ability” by Menggo 8 ef al (2013), “Developing Speaking

Skills Using Three Communucative Activities (Discussion, Problem-Solving, and

Role-Playing)” by Oradee T (2012) etc Ilowever, discussion was presented in

such books or articles as one of many aclivilies or teclmiques in language teaching

to improve students’ speaking ability This apparently offers a gap for the researcher to conduct a study on using discussion activities in teaching, speaking

skill in a comprehensive way with Vielnamese participants

As regards Vietnam's LiL context, the researchers seem less interested in exploring discussion activities in language teaching and leaming They tend to explore the lopies such as using role-play, using language games, using slories ele

in language teaching and learning Specifically, Nguyen in 2005 carried out a

research on using information gap activities to teach speaking skills to none-majors

of English Chu (2009) did a rescarch on employment of elicilation leckmiques to enhance first-year students’ talk, Recently, Nguyen (2010) did a research on the use

of tole play activities im improving speaking skills for the first-year English major

students, Most recently, La (2011) camicd out a rescarch on using discussion

activities to increase motivation and speaking proficiency of second-year 1"L students The subjects participating in the research were 14 sccond-ycar EFT students Io achieve the desired aims of the study, an action research was carried out From the above mentioned studies, the researcher is aware of the essentiality to

carry out the research on the effectiveness of using discussion activities in English

speaking lessons in a particular context, the context where the researcher is presently working as a teacher of English, Also, La (2011)’s study has left gaps for

the present research 1o continue exploring the effectiveness of using discussion

activities in Linglish speaking lessons in a different scale of population and context

in order to find out the fact to improve the situation of English teaching and

learning

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

With the major aim of investigating the use of discussion activities in

speaking lessons at Viel-Hung Industrial University, this study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods In this Chapter, the methods for carrying out the study will be discussed These include the study research questions, the context

of the study, the participants, the course book and the syllabus, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedures

2.1 Research questions

This study is carried out with the final aim Lo investigate the effectiveness of

‘using discussion activities in speaking Linglish lessons ‘the study is implemented to answer the following questions

1 What ave the attitudes of the first-year students at VIU towards using discussion activities in speaking lessons?

2 How do teachers of English at VIU teach speaking to the students with

teachers and students at V1U and qualitative data were collected via the classroom

observations Williams, C (2011:70) assert that “Quantitative and qualitative research methods investigate and explore the different claims to knowledge and

both methods are designed to address a specific type of research question While the quantitative method provides an objective measure of reality, the qualitative method

allows the researcher to explore and beller understand the complexity of a

phenomenon” ‘[hus, both qualitative and quantitative methods are needed to the research process Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses, thus could

supplement cach other le find ont satisfactory and sulficient information

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2.3 The context of the study

2.3.1 An Overview of Viet-Lhung Industrial University and the nglish courses

Viel-Hung Industrial Universily (VTU) situated in Son Tay town, swilched

from Viet-Hung Industrial College in 2010, is one of the new-born universities in Tlanoi, Vietnam, This university is supposed to train out skilled workers to meet the

demand of the soviety in the process of industrializalion and modernizalion in

various levels of training and majors such as Information ‘lechnology, Mechanical engineering Technology, Automotive Lnpineering Technology, Construction

Fingineering Technology, Business Administration, Finance and Banking and

Lconomics ‘The name and the majors of the University show that the majority of students studying at the University are male They are from different part of the

country, bul mostly from the rural arca around the lowr and the North of Vielnar,

At VIU, English is the foreign language taught as a non-major subject The

English courses at VIU are divided into two stages: General English(GE) and

Tầnglish for Specific Purposes(ESP) The first stage aims al providing students with

general knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, English grammar as well as

developing students’ integrated four language skills with the focus on speaking

skill At this stage, students loam English in four semesters with 21 credits which are divided in to 4 modules; Linglish 1, Unglish 2, ¥nglish 3, and Lnglish 4 For

three firsk modules, cach onc lasts 75 peneds and students Jean S periods ima week

The last one, English 4 lasts 90 periods and students learn 6 periods in a week Tinglish classes are taught twice a week with 2 periods for speaking lessons During learning process, in each semester, students are required to complete two progress tests, one mid-term test and a final test which includes a compulsory speaking test

and an online test After finishing four GE semesters, students moves to the second stage — the stage for Bngtish for Specific Purposes which lasts 45 periods im ơne

semester with 3 credits, At this stage, our students are provided with the knowledge

of terms and structures related to their future job It can be seen that the studems at

VIU have to learn English quite hard, 24 credits of English cut of total credits for an

undergraduate degree

2.3.2 The sludents

A\s mentioned above, most of the students at VU come from different part of

the country All of the students are non-Lnglish major students They are quite active in lhe real life but they are passive im speaking Friglish lessons and have low smotivation in speaking English Although most of them have learnt English for at least three or seven years at their secondary and high schools, their English

speaking ability is very low in general Especially, first-year students can hardly

ever communicate in Iinglish ‘They often feel shy because of poor linglish imoawledge and show low level of participation in speaking English lessons

3.3.3 The Leachers

In terms of teaching staff, there are 16 teachers of English working in Foreign Language Centre at VIU, consisting of 2 males and 14 females aged from 32 to 45 wilh al least 6 yoars of teaching experience The teachers have been trained from universities in Vietnam with BA in English Among these, seven teachers have had

MA degree and one has been doing a MA course at Viel Nam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and Intemational Studies, cight ethers acquired their BA degrees in other schools of languages like University of Pedagogy No 2 or Open Universily, Hanoi Therefore the teachers’ proficicncies sccm to be at different level Besides its headquarters, VLU has other training bases within Hanoi

The teachers therefore have to travel a lot in their job Most of the teachers of English at VI are active, hard-working and enthusiastic in working, but travelling

long distance to work, plus small income have prevented them from adequate

investment in their lessons Thus, they have chosen the less time-consuming teaching methed which is very common teacher-centered This explains why

Linglish lessons are generally not exciting and not productive

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2.3.4 The course book

‘The main course book is being used to teach GL! for first-year students at

VIN is New Rnglish File Elementary by Clive Oxenden Christina Latham-Koonig

Paul Seligson published Oxford University Press The couse book is

communicative course book The book consists of nine files Each file includes four

small lessons (lesson A, B, C, D) aiming at developing students’ knowledge about

grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and language skills The topics presented in the book are about friends and relatives, family, jobs, music, daily routines, top

people of all time, neighbours, tourist aliractions, food and drink, holidays and so

on At the end of each file, there is a section in Practical Linglish, which is the daily

communication situations needed for students in a foreign language environment

Thore is also a part of Revise and check, which helps students lo review grammar,

pronunciation, vocabulary, language skills and to check their progress in leaming Besides, Let’s Talk I is also used as a supplementary material to develop students”

speaking skill The relevant oral tasks im the book are introduced to students for

further study

Tn short, the books for teaching GE for first-year students present basic suucttos of English and develop students through a varicty of different communicative contexts Our students have chances to leam real things from daily

life and listen to both native and non-nafive speakers from (he tapes accompanied

with the books By using the books, we can develop our students’ conununicative competence and language skills

2.4, The participants

in order to get the data for the study, two classes (3718C1'M and 3718#NH)

with 80 first-year students at VIU have been chosen to be investigated, The students

are both male and female and from 19 (o 20 years of age, majoring in Mechanical

engineering technology, and Jfinance and Banking ‘he main reason for choosing the first-year students is that they are still very new to the training method af tertiary level Perhaps, they are still affected by the old tcaching and learning method al

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their high schools, with their written English better than spoken one Many of thom possess little experience with working with teachers and other students in English They appear to be passive learners in Bnglish class and have low motivation in speaking English and participating in the classroom activities The researcher suggested that an effective teaching technique implementation could change the situation and help the students achieve better results in their nexL school years

‘The participants were also eight teachers of English who are teaching English

to first-year students at VIU All of them are female teachers aged from 25 to 10

Their experience in teaching English varies froin 5 to 10 years They all show their

concer with teaching Linglish speaking skill, especially on how to apply communicative activities effectively to improve speaking skill for their students

2.5 Data collection instruments

The study employed two main instruments below:

Questionnaires

Tn this siudy, questiontaires were selected as one of the Tmportant dala collection instruments because questionnaires are often the best way of gathering primary data from individuals As Wisker, G (2001: 147), questiouaires “ are often used to gather information about attitudes, behaviours, activities, and

responses to events ” Darnyei, Z (2003:8) asserts “ questionnaires can yield

three types of dala about the respondent: factual, behavioural, and atiitudinal”’™n

relation to teaching, Richards et al (1994:10) defines questionnaire as an effective way of collecting information about “affective dimensions of teaching and leaming,

such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to

collect a large amount of information relatively quickly” In addition, having the same idea with Richards, Seliger and Shohamy (1995) also states that data on

phenomena, which are nol easily observed, such as motivation, allitude, language

learning strategy use, etc, can be collected by means of questionnaires In this study, four survey questionnaires were conducted in two phases Phase 1 used the first two

questionnaires, of which one survey questionnaire with 7 quastions used to gather

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information about 80 first-ycar students’ opinion on their speaking lessons, speaking ability, speaking material and their understanding about the term “

discussion aclivitics"( Please si

s Appendix 1) The olher one with 4 questions was

designed to ask 8 teachers of English at VIU for their opinions about the important

of teaching speaking, students’ speaking ability, speaking material and the

frequeney of using discussion aclivities in their spoaking lessons (Please see

Appendix 2) The last two questionnaires were designed to collect data for Phase 2 after discussion activities implemented in speaking lessons Of these two questionnaires, one aims lo find out the sluderts’ atlitudes towards using discussion activities in enhancing their speaking skills (Please see Appendix 3) The other aims

to investigate how the teachers organized discussion activities and their evaluation

on discussion aclivitics in enhancing students’ molivalion and speaking

performance (Please see Appendix 4) All of the questionnaires for the students

‘were written in both English and Vietnamese

Classroom observation

Apart from survey questiormaires, the rescarcher used class observations to

confirm the reliability and validity of the information about discussion activities to

enhance students’ motivation and performance in speaking lessons According to Brown & Rodgers (2002), observations would be offfcctive to explore the techniques teachers use inside the classroom In this study, 5 speaking lessons when discussion

activities were implemented were asked for the permission to be observed For each lesson, the researcher observed in 45 minutes She designed a checklist for what she

wanted to observe (Please see Appendix 5} During the observations, the researcher

acted as a non-participant observer; the researcher watched, followed and focused

2.6 Procedures of data collection

‘This study was conducted in two phases, In phase one two survey

questionnaires were delivered to 80 first-year students im classes 3718CTM and

7I8TNH and 8 teachers of English at V1U to find out about students’ attitudes

towards discussion activities and the real condition of the classroom problems in the

teaching and learning process The results of ihris phase were used to guide the

second phase in which classroom observations were made ‘The purpose of phase

two was to gain information of students’ attitudes towards discussion activities

applied teachers, the ways leachers organized discussion aclivilies, and how

students responded to those activities as well as the teachers’ evaluation on

discussion activities in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performance

Firslly, the researcher made discussion with 8 Fnglish icachers, who are Leaching

Bnglish for first-years students, about the models of teaching and leaming which

done before that may cause students’ speaking ability low Secondly she suggested

and tained all 8 leachers io use discussion activities as a techrigne lo teach

speaking Then, 5 speaking lessons were randomly chosen so that they must not be

prepared especially for being observed Finally, lwo post-questionaires for 80

students and 8 teachers were delivered,

2.7 Procedures of data analysis

Tho stages of the data analysis of this study wore processed as follows

The data gained fiom the questionnaires in two phases of the study were

collected, consolidated, calculated and categorized by the researcher The results were then analysed and presented in forms of tables and the percentages

cotresponding to the participants’ answers to the survey questionnaires

Interpretations were then made with regards to the research questions, Information collected through the class observalions added strength lo the findings.

CHAPTER 3: DATA, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, data obtained from the questionnaires from two phases of the

research are analysed and discussed, First, the analy

is and the interpretation of

the data from the first phase are presented and discussed The findings from the first phase show that discussion activities should be implemented in speaking lessems to improve xtudenis’ speaking ability Then, the findings which are resulted from the analysis and the interpretation of the data from the second phrase after using discussion activities in speaking lessons are demonstrated and discussed The

information fram the classroom observations are also interpreted and discussed to

support the interpretation of the data from two phases

3.1 Data analysis and discussion from phase 1

3.1.1 Data analysis from phase 1

‘Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching

and learning English speaking skill

(Please refer ta Question 1 in Appendix I and question } in Appendix 2}

‘The questions were raised to ask for the teachers’ and students’ opinions

towards the importance of teaching and learning English speaking skill The findings were put ite the table of distribution as fellows:

As ean be scen from the table, all of the students and teachers surveyed

admitted that teaching and learning speaking skill was very important and important No one considered teaching and learning speaking skill to be not very

important or nol very important at all Through the survey, if could be said Uat mosh

of the teachers and students at VIU did realize the importance of speaking in English teaching and learning

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