Luận văn applying english drama project to foster naturally speaking skill and individual's involvement in grop work activities of students at school of foreign languages thai nguyen university

APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER NATURALLY SPEAKING SKILL AND ENDIVIDUAL’S INVOLVEMENT LN GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL.. APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER

APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER NATURALLY

SPEAKING SKILL AND ENDIVIDUAL’S INVOLVEMENT LN GROUP

WORK ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES, THAL NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Sử dụng đề án Kịch nhằm thúc đây kỹ năng nói Lự nhiên và sự tham gia hoại

động nhóm của sinh viên Khoa Fgoại Ngũ, Đại Học 'Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS,

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER NATURALLY

SPEAKING SKILL AND ENDIVIDUAL’S ENVOLVEMENT LN GROUP

WORK ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT SCIIOOL OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Sử dụng đề án Kịch nhằm thúc đây kỹ năng nói tự nhiên và sự tham gia hoại

động nhóm của sinh viên Khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại Học Thái Nguyễn

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: DUONG BUC MINH, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

This thesis is a presentation of my original research work, Wherever contributions

of others are involved, every effort is made to indivate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative rescarch and discussions The work was done under the guidsnee of my supervisor, Dr Duong Due Minh, al the University of Languages and International Studies, VNU

Student’s name

Vu Thi Quyen

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1 would like to give my cordial thanks to Dr Duong Due Minh for his kind guidance that he provided me as my supervisor | particularly appreciate his helpful advice, insightful comments and most of all his endless patience

My thanks also go (o all ry Icolurers from Vietnam National University for their

‘valuable lectures which help me to orient the research

1am most thankful fo all my colleagues and undergraduate students at Thai Nguyen School of Forcign Languages for their support in data collection

Finally my special thanks go to my parents, my husband and my son, for their love and supporL thronghoul this study Without their encouragement 1 could nol have completed this thesis

ABSTRACT

During a long time, implement of English Drama Project in English Language

‘Teaching classes has been increased all aver the world Many researches have been carried

out to investigate its henefits on students’ learning linglish Llowever very little empirical

research has bsen conducted to cvalute advantages Uhat he Projcel brings lo students The aims of the study were therefore investigating the ways that English Drama Project impacts

on students” natural speaking skill and their contribution to their team work, Two groups of students were taught spoaking by two different methods: onc group was taught in @ traditional way and the other was taught with a company of English Drama Project Two

groups were as ssed in the same way afler a five-week experimenL Resulls of the assessment showed significant differences in the two groups: the group taught with English Drama Project got better results for the speaking test and better involvement in their teamwork It is suggested that English Drama Project should be taught to all students whose major is English at Thai Nguyen School of Foreign Languages

Key words; English Drama Project, natural speaking skill, wannvork

3 Rescarch Questions .ccccssssssetisesniineneeeinsivteseeesie 2

2.3 Drama and Naturally Speaking SkilL « 8

2.3.2 Roles of Drama im Speaking Skill ccc sessecessssineensasoeseinsensee

2.4, English Drama Project and Students’ Group Working Ability 11 2.5, Previous Studies in the world and in Vietnam T

iv

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Partieipants

3.2, Setting of the Study

3.3 Data Collection

3.3.1, Data collection instruments

3.3.2 Data Collection Procedures

3.3.3 Data analysis procedure

CHAPTER I: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1, Findings

4.1.1 Influence of English Drama Project to Students’ Speaking Skill

41.2 Rnglish Drama Project and Students’ Involvement in Group Working 4.1.3 More Findings on the Impacts of English Drama Project

5.2 Limitation of the Study coi

5.3 Suggestions for Further Study

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS TTNSFL: Thai Nguyễn School of Forzign Langu

ELT: English Language Teaching

EDP: English Drama Project

EFL: Enplish as a Forcign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

LL: English as the First Language

vi

LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Students” Scores for Fluency and Coherence

Students’ Scares for Lexical Resource Students' Speaking Overall Scores Stuckenls’ Contributing Positive Tdeas in Tcarn Discussions Students’ Sharing Positive Ideas and Feedbacks in Team Discussions Students’ Scores for Grammar Range and Accuracy

Students’ Scores for Pronunciation

Students’ ‘cores for Non-verbal Language

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

In learning a language, speaking is one of the most important language skills since

it is the most common and important means of providing communication among human beings The key fo succcssfid communication is speaking miccly, efficiently and articulately, as well as using effctyve voice projection, speaking is linked to success in life, as it occupies an important position both individually and socially (las, 2008)

When leamers are engaged in group work, they can leam by exchanging information with other group mates ina socially structured way Leamers will be not only responsible for the own leaming but also able to leam from each other (Olsen & Kagan,

1992, Breen & Lilllejohn, 2000) Lilllewood also shows that most learners favor “learning contexts in which they work together with others towards common goals and in which their

success also benefits others” (Littlewood, 2002, p.38)

Many investigations on the advantages and bonofits that educational drama activities tying to students in English Language Teachmg (ELT) classes have been conducted over the world for a few last decades In 1969, Hoetker stated that drama increases creativity, orginality sensitivity, fluency flexibility, emotional stability, cooperation and cxamination of mortal attitudes while devcloping communication skills (Hoetker, 1969), Ratliff (2001) indicates that Drama enhances students’ reading, writing and listening skills Davies and Pearse (2002) agree with Tloetker by stating that drama is a way of cncouraging, students to improve their communication skills It can not be denied that drama brings students chances to improve not only their language skills namely Histening, speaking, reading and writing but also then crealivity, sensitivity, Gexibility,

cmotioal stability, coopsration in other words, drama seli an help students to fearn language well (Bas, 2008)

ven though English Drama Project (DP) has been applied in L/L classes over

the world for quite a long time, il scems to be prelly new in Vicinamn, ‘Thai Nguyen School

of Foreign Languages (TNSFL) is one of the leading institutions in Vietnam who has been implementing EDP as one of the studying projects in the curicntum and the project is likely highly interested in by most of students since the Project helps them amech in building speaking skill and group working, However, there is little empirical research on

1

applying EDP in teaching has been conducted to help students’ speaking skill and team working increased al Thai Nguyen Universily

With all the reasons above, it is necessary to conduct this study to investigate the

ways that EDP impacts on students’ speaking skill and team working in EFL classes at

TNSTIT

2 Aims of the Study

‘The study is conducted with two aims:

Firsl, tho study aims at investigating how EDP banclits studonls spoaking skill Second, the study aims at investigating the way that EDP benetits their contribution

in their teamwork

3 Research Questions

‘The research is going to find the answers to the research question “How can EDP help French-English students at TNSFL foster their speaking skill and team working?”

4 Scope of the Study

As mentioned above, EDP can have studcnts* all four language skills and soft skills

improved However, the main aims of EDP at IINSFL are to provide students with chances

of promoting their speaking skill and group working ability, hencs, in this study, the researcher mainly focuses on students’ natural speaking skill and their contribution in team working in the Project The stady is also conducted on second year students majoring at

French-English al TNSFI

5 Methods

‘The researcher borrows the experimental method to condust the study due to the

reason that “the experiment involves control and careful observation and measurement, this research method provides the most convineing evidence of the cffeel that one variable has

on another.” The previous researchers also defined the experimental research as “ a scientific investigation in which the researcher manipulates ane or more independent variables, controls any other relevant variables, and obscrves the cfivet of the manipulations on the dependent variable(s), An experimenter deliberately and systematically introduces change and then observes the consequences of that change” and

“the goal of experimental roscareh is lo dolermine whethor a causal rlationship exists between two or more variables (Ary, Jacobs, Razavieh, & Sorensen, 2009, p.265)

Zimney also defines en experiment as “an objective observation of phenomena which are made lo occur in a strietly controfied situation in which one or more factors arc varied and the others are kept constant.” Zimney (1961, p.18) In the curent study,

“phenomena” is the changing in students’ speaking skill and team working ‘The

“variables” or “varied [aclor” is applying EDP instead of the (rational way of leaching speaking while the number of students and their gender are kept constant

In other words, in this study, EDP is the “independent variable” while speaking and loan working abililics of thirty two scoond yoar Franel-Engtish sludonis are “dependent variables” The goal of the study is determining whether EDP can improve the students’ speaking skill and their teamwork skill

6 Design of the Stuy

The study is divided into 3 parts

Part A: Introduction presents rationale, aims, research hypothesis, the scope, the study method, and the design of the study

Part B: Development in which literature review with bricf and most remarkable issues on EDP, its values on students’ speaking and group working are presented ‘The chapler also performs details in methodology, findings and đisonssion

Part C: Conclusion gives a brief review of the whole study and some limitations

of the study and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER E: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is going to present definition of EDP and EDP at TNSEL, its values in LIFL classes, its influence on speaking still and team working

2.1 Drama Project

Drama is defined by many different authors in many ways Holden defines drama

as “any kind of activity where learners are asked either to portray themselves or to portray someone dse in an imaginary siluation" Tn other words, drama is concerned with the world of “let's pretend”, it asks the leamer to project himself imaginatively into another situation, outside the classroom, or inta the skin and person of another person" (Holden,

1982, p.14), Merriam-Webster also shares the same idea with [Tolden in defining drara.as

a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story

usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for thealrival porforrmmes,

Drama defined by Bolton and Neelands as an activity in which teacher and students invent and enact dramatic situations for themselves rather than for an outside audience This activity, perhaps most widely known as drama education, has also been called classroom drama (Bolton, 1992, 1998, 2007, Ncclands, 2008)

By definition, a drama is a story enacted on stage for a live audience, Wessels distinguishes drama from theatre as “drama in education uses the same tools employed by actors in the theatre, But while in the theatre, everything is contrived for the benefit of the audience, in classroom drama, everything is contrived for the benefit of the joarners.” (Wessels, 1987, p.8), The distinction between drama and theatre is also made by Dervishaj when he states thal in the classroom, drwma is oflen refered to craatives dramatics and focuses on the process of dramatic enactment for the sake of the leamer, while theatre arts mainly focus on entertaining and relaxing audience in classroom drama, students donot tearm about drama, but they learn through drama eombs” (Dervishaj, 2009)

it can be inferred from all above that theater is performed on stages in cinema and theaters and it fonctions as a means of entertainment, however, drama in language classroom is often found to promote students’ Icaming No mater how drama is defined, drama is a helpful and educational activity in which students play the roles of actors or

actresses to portray dramatic characters under the teachers’ guide Moreover, besides

Regarding types of drama, Dervishaj states some kinds of educational drama xamnoly inining, role play (which includes dramatic plays, story dramatization and sooio- drama, seminar style presentation, debates and interview), simulation and improvisation

(Dervishaj, 2009) Basing on the classification, KDP at ‘fNSFL may be classified either

dramatic plays or story dramatization since studenls arg allowed cither to write plays basod

on available stories or create their own stories

At TNSFL, EDP which accounts for two credits, is a dependent subject and is taught for students majoring at English Language or English Education In the Project, students work in groups of four or five and they are responsible for waiting a play,

practicing it and performing it at the end of the term In KDP, students are required to

reveal all their four language skills, yel their speaking skill and team working, abilily ara amainly focused on,

2.2, Drama Benefits in English Language Teaching

Recenily, educators have started to explore the use of drama as an inlggrated way of lsarting the curiculun “drama is a loarner-contered

EDP is said to inspirit students to learn English Good motivation is one of the

mecossary ÍMelors for efficiont learning, Harmer defines mofivation as “same kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something.” (Hanuer,

5

2001, p.51) In 2007, he also emphasi2ed that “Drama gives students the chance to learn by

activities could encourage some at-risk students who were at low level to communicate

The use of drama undoubtedly represents one of the methods of work used by teachers to provoke intrinsic motivation Not only does it help to build a good teacher- student relationship, hut iL also actively engages all th studenls al all the time, tharofore

“dn a sense, motivation is not needed when working through drama, because the enjoyment comes from imaginative personal involvement.” The researchers further explain that

“drama activities also help students to get rid of the diffidence and boredom that come from being forced to stay passive most of the time” (Maley & Duff, 2005, p.13)

EDP can provide students with internal motivation which helps them to increase their love for English and it also makes their studying results improved even they are al risk level

2.2.2 Meaning in Context

Drama brings students inlo real contexts, as a resull, they can acquire the language faster in an active way, Desialova indicatcs that drama is an ideal way to cucourage Jeamers to guess the meaning of unknown languape ina context Leamers will need to wwe

a mixture of language structures and functions if they want to communicate successfully

(Desiatova, 2009)

Harmer (2007) also claims “meaning of language depends on where it occurs within a larger stretch of discourse, and thus the relationship that the different language clements have with what comes before and after them In other words, speakers and writers

‘have to be able to operate with more than just words and grammar; they have fo be able to

string utterances together” (Harmer, 2007, p.59) He also emphasizes his statement by

Gaining that drama roprescnis an ideal method of werk if teachors wank to pul the meaning for students into a sizeable context Unlike in guided practice, students are

involved in real communication while they “activate language to communicate real

To sum up, conlexl is very important in communication Ullerances may have na

imeaning without context and context is created in EDP, as a result, it may be concluded that EDP is one of channels that make speakers’ utterances understandable and rocaningfil

Additionally, Sam (1990) indicates that drama activities can be used to provide opportunities for the students to be involved actively Davies (1990) agrees that when sludents dramatize, they use alf the chamets (sight, hearing, and physical bodies) and each student will draw to the one that suits them best Tn ofher words, studonls will all bz actively involved in the activity and the language will "enter" through the channel most appropriate for them Via, Stern, Kao & O'Neill (1998) agree with Davies by stating that

drama inercases in students’ sctf-estecrn, self-confidence hecaus:

‘by faking a tole, students can escape trom their everyday identity and "hide behind” another character When students are given special roles, they are encouraged to abandon their shyness” Davics (1990) also shows other psychological and social bencfits including developing problem-solving skills, working well in groups, and taking more risks

Generally speaking, the most important aim of education drama is the overall development of a personal and social aspect of Icamer’s porsonality Drama stimulates creativity, imagination and also critical thinking as students are often asked to find

solutions to diverse problems It also Iraprovss students’ self-esteem and self-confidence

are capable of performing in front of the audicnee, although the audicnees

their classmates, Moreover, education drama forms students’ leaning autonomy

2.3 Drama and Naturally Speaking Skill

2.3.1 Naturally Speaking Skill

In the last century, naturally speaking was believed to be “accompanied by greater overt motor activity that occurs in several non-speaking activities ‘The increase is

cspocially marked for gestures (Kimura, 1973, p43) Whilcar (1998) also slatcs that

speaking is not only about words, structwe and pronunciation, but also #zclings

Nunan suggests that in language lessons-especially at the beginning and intermediate levels — learners must be giver opportunities lo develap both their ferry and accuracy He also detines the terms “accuracy” and “fluency” in speaking skill Accuacy

is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word rescarehes, <tc

(Nunan, 2003, p.55)

In 2009, the definition of waturally speaking was defined again by Tieidegger as

“Natural speaking means speaking, as it always takes place initially and for the most patt, and where other mode of speaking with the world is at hand, namely the scientific mode”

(lleidegger, 2009, p.18)

From those definitions of spoaking, a definition of naturally speaking should be made for this research only Although speaking naturally does not necessarily mean speaking like a native speaker, naturally speaking should be accompanied with accuracy, fucney and fectings (or emotion) with the help of non-verbat expression In other words, naturally speaking is the ability of making quick, accurate and contident verbal reaction in

a certain context with good non-verbal language

2.3.2 Roles of Drama in Speaking Skill

Smith noted that although drama has existed as a potential language teaching tool for hundreds of years, its applicability as a language leaming technique to improve oral skills has come to the forcfront (Smith, 1984, p.51) Bas (2008) claimed that dưama activities can help students to communicate well, It offais great opportunities for them to

communicate with others even when they have limited vocabulary Phillips encourages leachots using drama in sccond language (caching because “il encourages children to speak and gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language, using non-verbal

communication, such as body movements and facial expressions” (Phillips, 2003, p.6) In

short, drama can help students improve their both verbat and nonverbal communication Benefits that drama brings to students are presented in detail below

It is belisved that drama motivates students to speak Maley & Duff shows the reasons why learners arc not willing to speak “the problam of nol wanting to spoak or, more often, not knowing what to say is practically resolved because the activity

amakes it necessary to talk” (Maley & Duff, 2005, pp.13-14) Students with low proficiency

and low confidences ean be benefited from drama, just like “good” students, Hamilton & McLeod also state that drama provides students with a broad range of opportunities in Jearning English and drama motivates them to leam speaking English and gives them more

confidence to speak English (amilton & McLeod, 1993, p.23) Drama can also bring

motivation to Jess confident students to speak up before the class “even some students who

do not have confidence to speak up in public are willing to join in the drama activities

‘They have a tol of fim and become creative and often able to speak naturally.” (Guida,

1995, p.33) Before Guida, Pietro (1987) says that students who are not naturally talkative often appear more willing to join in the discourse in drama activity when they realize that they are not dominated by a teacher Additionally, Dasialova (2009) discusses “drama

gives Jearners an experience of using the language for genuine communication and roa life purposes; and by generating @ need to speak In short, drama provides students need and good chances to speak It is drama that pushes students to speak even they are not confident or wot naturally talkative

Drama helps students’ speaking more emotional and fluent, Gomez finds that steps

‘by steps, drama can help students enhance their speaking skill more emotional, accurate and fluent by Icaming syntax and fundamentals then sounds and idioms (Gomez, 2010,

p.30) Whitear (1998) believed that speaking is not only about words, structure and

prommnciation, but also feelings, motivations and meanings that are valuable benefits for bringing draua lo the Fanguage loaner Morcover, it is known that one af the requirements

of naturally speaking is emotion which is expressed by gestures, facial expressions which

9

really matches with Wagner's idea when he indicates that drama requires students to produce apprapriais words 2rnationally by using gestures and facial expressions Sindents can be free to act and create the character that they want to be (Wagner, 2002) Furthermore, drama activities can provide students with an opportunity to use language to express various emotions Drama activilies ar also useful in the developrusm of aral communication skills, and reading and writing as well These ideas also were discussed by Barbu (2007) when he claims that using drama to teach English results in real communivation, involving idoas, cmotions, feclings, appropriateness and adaptability Vemiot says “as pedagogical process, drama can provide the means for connection

student’s emotions and cognition” (Verriour, 1985, p.150) O’Gara (2008) also shares the

same idoas with Verriour by stating that drama tmotivates sludants to be involved in the Janguage class emotionally and cognitively Moreover, Vernon also supports the view that this conversational use of language also promotes fluency, He states that while leaming a play, students are encouraged to listen to, potentially read and then repeat their lines over a poriod of time By repeating the words and phrases they become familiar with them and are able to say them with increasing fluency by encouraging self-expression, drama motivates students lo use language confidently and creatively, (Vernon, 2009, p.2)

Drama is a good methodology to increase students’ pronunciation, Goodwin (2001) states that drama is a particularly efféctive tool for pronunciation teaching because various components of communicative competence (discourse, infonation, pragmatic awareness, non-verbal communication) cant be practiced in an intograted way Gomes (2010) showed that drama activity combines action and entertainment for students while achieving the teaching goals Students don’t only have fun but also leam a vanety of components from acting the story, ike how lo make an Fnglislr accent or imitate voices and intonations Mok believes that drama, which “integrates language use im a meaningful way”, can give

“students the opportunity to use the language to perform tasks and to integrate their Knowledge of form and function, as well as thcir ability to cxpress themselves using

appropriate stress, intonation and pronunciation” (Mok, 2001, p.26)

in summary, Drama brings many benefits to speaking skill Students are motivated

to spoak and provided chances of promoting their speaking accuracy, flucncy, pronmiciation (ineluding intonation, stress) and emotion through Drama

2.4, English Drama Project and Students’ Group Working Ability

Larson and LaFasto (1989) define a team as a unit of two ar more people wha

interact and co-ordinate their work to accomplish a specific goal Northouse defines team

as “organizational groups composed of members who are independent, who share common goals, and who must co-ordinale thir activities to accomplish these goals” (Norlhouse,

2001, p.L61)

Individuals’ team working ability is also taken concem in EDP besides speaking

a RUlG cnpirical rescareh thal invesligal:

EDP on students’ involvement in their team working Sam (£990) indicates that group

work is an effective form in drama activities which takes every student’s initiative to

proves the carting, Students who have slrong Enguistic aptituds can take iraportail roles while the low level students also can be engaged in by taking the subsidiary role He concluded that group work is encouraged by drama activity Davies & Pearse (2002) also admit that drama can increase the individual practice and develop students’ autonomy

‘because they will become more engaged in communication and infcraction through group

work, ©’Gara (2008) shares his agreement with the two researchers by stating that drama

is essential for studenls lo work together and inferack with others Il affers 4 good opportunity to carry out task-based learning

In short, although researches on drama’s influence on students” ability of working int tearm are limilsd, all authours share same ideas by indicalinling thal drama encourages

slidents 10 develop their croativily, strengthen their confidences, as well as improve the ability to cooperate with othars

2.5 Previous Studies In the world and in Vietnam

The carly, Heathcote (collected writings, 1984) and Bolton (collected writings, 1984) encouraged teachers to integrate the theatre into L1 classroom Bolton, in particular, championed the use of drama in classes for all subjects, making it “the centre of the curriculum” Those ideas soon transferred to ESL practitioners and gained many proponents

‘As early as 1973, in fact, Hines commented that drama, and especially role play,

‘has long been recognized as a valuable and valid means of mastering a language Pionesrs

in the ficld of ESI/EFI include Via (1976), Maley & Dull (1982), and Srrith (1984), who

all published books based on their experiences as language teachers who have used drama

11

in their classroorns In these books, both theory and practice are performed Via's students have acted in plays during his whole carcer as an ESI, teacher Smith speaks to practicing teachers and develops an analogy between Ll actors and ESL students as well as provides

smany communicative theatrical activities Maley & Duif also collect myriad activities and

offer advice on how to use them These authors are followed by more anit more others wha also encourage the use of drama in the language classroom, Wessels! Drama (1987) is a very practical book that provides rationale for using drama as well as a number of

activities She also o! suggestions of how a class might go about staging a play in the target language and describes one such experience that she had with a class Porter Ladousse (2987) published a similarly usefal book, hers devoted to role plays, with jostification and many sxamples Some professtonst books also discuss the theories behind theatre techniques and language learning, Halt of the volume edited by Byram and Fleming (1998) is devoted to describing how teachers have used drama to promote cultural understanding and awareness among their students In a different vein, Kao & O'Neill (1998) cxplain the technique and the merits of process drama, an cxtended role play activity that uses integrated skills to involve the whole class, Brauer has edited a volume about the comections among language, writing, and drama Books with practicat drama activities for teachers contime to emerge as well Another book by Hess - All the World's

a Stage will offer more suggestions of activities Other general books for teachers also include suggestions for [heatrical activitiss, like Woodward's Fun With Grammar (1996),

wriller Lo a ormpany the Avar ESL/EFL grammar books

In recent years, drama also has been encouraged to be used in ELT classes by many researchers namely Wheeler (2001) Wagner (2002), Sun, (2003), Littlewood (2002), Maley and Duff (2005), Harmer (2007), Ulus (2008), Dervishaj (2009), D>dalova (2009), and Gomez (2010) All of them use drama technique in their language classroom and in their scientific products, they admit the benefits that drama beings to students and they also guide readais the way to apply drama in teaching and Icaming English

Despite of the booming of education drama activities in ELY classes over the world, in Vielnam EDP seems to be quite unpopular since it is highly likely that there are nol so many rascarches on applying Drama Projet for FFT classas The rescarcher could find only one master thesis named “Using a drama project to give students opportunities to

the comrmaunicative” by Vũ Thị Thanh Nhi from College of Social and Liumanities- VNU in

2005 T the research paper, she made an experiment lo investigale the way that students

are encourage to orally communicate The result shows that EDP can motivate students to speak before the public

Tn summary, TDP has been used as a teaching methodology in FIT classes by many teachers over the world Drama is also admitted to be able to motivate students’ to speak naturally with accuracy, Buency and good gestures Moreover, EDP also provides students with chamess to sharpening their ability of working with other people in teams

CHAPTER TI: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Participants

‘The participants of the study were thirty-two second year students who are studying

both L'rench and Lnglish at ‘TN SIL as their majors ‘They were selected due to two reasons

First, EDP has boon applied for students of Engtish Education and Eniglis

French-English, Russian-English and Chinese-English students always desire to embody the Project, Second, although both French and English are Latin tanguage and they may

Tanguage white

have a fot of sirnilaril

English, students of French and English classes may get many difficulties in speaking, English while EDP is expected to help students’ speaking skill more advanced

Accidenily, all participants of the sludly are females between EB to 20 yaars old and

is, their pronunciations are much different Tlowever, when studying

they have just finished their first year at TNSFL As the number of second-year students in the French-English class is hmited, all of them were invited to the researcli They were assigned randomly into group A as tho control group and Group B as ths experimental group with 16 participants in each group Furthermore, in this research, there was a homogeny of gender because all suibjects shared the same gender

3.2, Setting of the Study

The study was conducted at TNSFL in the summer holiday 2014 in five weeks from 23 Jun to 2™ August with nine meetings (Appendix 1)

In the first meeting on Monday 23" Im 2014, all students were invited to

the room A201 at TNSFL and they were randomly sclected into Group A and B After that, Groups A and B were also randomly divided into eight smaller groups numbered from 1 to

4 in Group A and from 5 to B in Group TB Dus to the subdivision, in the following parts, the rescarcher would Tike Lo replace the torn “small graup” by “Icam’” to avoid confusion with Group A and Group B In other words, Group A consisted of teams 1, 2, 3 and 4 while the teams 5, 6, 7, and 8 belonged to Group B When this step was accomplished, the students in Group A were allowed lo go home Group B were informed the Project, after that they were as asked to read stories or novels at home to select the one they were most inferested in and to write a draft for the first scene of the play after they had heen guided the way fo write a drama scene In the mecting, the rescarcher also informed them the way

to work together Because of the time limitation in the meetings, the researcher did not

‘have time lo check their writing at class, as a result, after each meeting, the teams had to accomptish the assigned work hefore the next meoting and they were required lo email the researcher their work before the following meeting, The researcher checked their scenario and gave the teams comments and guided them to do next steps in the homework checking section wirich usually lasted for about 30 minutes af the beginning of each meeting In turn, they did not have homework as Group A In other words, students in Group A were

xequired fo practice speaking with some IKL('S speaking tests as homework In the

homework chocking

homewark while Group B were guided to do the next parts of the Project

Im the experiment, the book “Direct to IELTS” by Sam Mc Carter was

celion, the students im Group A were called out to perform the

implemented as the Lextbook for the both groups because of two main toasons Firstly, according to the National Foreign Language Project 2020, students graduating from

‘University should have reached C1, and IELTS seems to be very common to students at

TNSEL Secondly, in the second year, students at TNSIL are taught IELTS strategies for

listening in listening lessons Hence, teaching them with IELTS speaking docs not bring challenges to them, yet does bring them good preparation for C1 target before their graduation

It should be made clear that meetings with Group A and Group B happened separately in the same room and same days but different time ‘Ihe meetings were hold in

yoorn A201 al TNSPT on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, however, the lessons for

Group A hogan at 7.30 am and finished at 9:00 am while those fr Group B Tastod from 9:30 am to 11:00 am, The experiment lasted for three weeks and was divided into two stages The first stage consisted of four meetings in which Groups shared the same contents in each lesson but differnt homework Tn the second slage, the four other ameetings were held and there were some small differences in contents and homework

‘between the two groups The posttest taken on the 24 August 2014 marked the end of the

experiment

3.3, Data Collection

3.3.1 Data collection instruments

‘The researcher used the post-test to measure changes in the students’ speaking skill Additionally, a selfpeer assessment form and sixteen observations were utilized to investigale their invelvement in group work

study There was only post-test implemented in order to measure changes in students’

speaking ability afler the experiment Ttis believed thal the students’ speaking skill say be affected by many other factors; it is not only affected by one or two factors, However, becanse the study lasted in only 5 weeks, the post-test seemed to be the most suitable in the situation, Sines the participants were taughl IEE-TS speaking, the researcher borrowed the TELTS sposking tosts lo ovaluate their spc

assessed by two visiting teachers at TNSFL who come tiom the Unites States One of them was the examiner and the other played role as the proctor In the tesf, each student had at

ing The studonls* spaaking ability was

xnost len minutes lo show their spoaking ability In the first part, students answered some questions related to their ftee times, their hobbies, thei studying, their family, festivals, sports, etc In the second part, they were offered one card on which there was one tople and they spent one minute preparing the topic and showed their opinion in twe minutes Beforz finishing their test, in the third part, they had about 3 minutes to state their ideas on some extra questions As regard the topics and cards in the two tests, totally there were eight spoaking test questions liken from an TELTS book by Guy (Guy, 2008, pp.118-121) Consequently, to keep the cards in secret, students were not allowed to leave the exam

room until the test finished In terms of speaking rubric, the LELI'S Speaking band descriptors added with nonverbal language in order lo evaluate students? naturally speaking, (Appendix 2)

3.3.1.2 Self-Peer Assessment

ILis said to be chatkenging Lo assess team working dug to the facl that lean working

is believed as a soft skill that is difficult to measure directly All students tend to ovetrats their own performance if the student grades depend on the ratings indeed, a significant concern i peor evalualion of learn performance is that skudenls scem to inflate the achievement of their own team members due to peer pressure, or ftiendship In addition,

students are usually reluctant to participate in peer evaluations because they are concemed

that rovouge ond jcalonsy will play a vole in ratings (Taggar & Brown, 2006) Another concem with self and peer evaluations is psychomettic reliability of student ratings Mathews (1994) argues that peer evaluation results are not robust enough to assess the contribution of individuals group work Brannick et al study the psychometric qualities of teamwork measurcutent metrics (Brannick, 1993, pp.287-308), Their study indicates that

the team members were not consistent

Despite the drawbacks of the selfpear assessment mentioned above, self-peer evaluations have several advantages that make them be an indispensable part of the overall assessment of teamwork First, the use of peer evaluations to determine a part of the grade int a project work reduces sacial loafing (Willey & Fresra, 2006, Brooks & Ammons,

2003, pp.268-272) Poo

remedy dysfunctions in a team (@yrud, 2001, Smith & Smarkusky, 2005), More importantly, self and peer evaluations provide students with invaluable feedback about

cvaluations can also he uscd as a diagnostic tool ta idomtify and

their own teamwork skills with respect to whal is expecled from them in real-Bf leams, Thereby, self and peer evaluations may promote positive changes in students’ attitudes towards overall professional skills attainment

The study cmployed one assessment form with 8 attributes in which students can evaluate themselves and their group members on their involvement to their group work

‘the assessment form which has been used in EDP at ‘TINSEL focused on three categories

namely contribution, co-operation and quality of work This form was adopled from two peer evaluation forms by Main (2012) (Appendix 3)

4.3.1.3 Observation

Tn order to reduce the drawbacks of th: Af Assesstucnt in (he evaluating the

students’ involvement in group working and in order to make the result of the study more persuasive, eight observations were made in the experiment, ‘he observation was employed lo record the involvement of the parficipants in their teamwark According to Lofland & Lofland (1994), and Atkinson & Hammersly (2003), classroom observation is

an important tool for researchers in the field of social sciences ‘hroughout the experiment; the researcher was the anly observer who callected data aboul studsnts” Ieam working Without other observers, the data collected might tend to be partial (Agar, 1996), However,

‘the main focus of the observation was to collect data on students” group working Although Bisnis points ont that “observation allows us to soc in a olalively unobtrusive way what il

is that people actually do compared with what they say they do”, the students may not behave nahually if there were other observers (Burns, 1999, pp.81-82), Labov (1972) argues the “observer's paradox” which refers to sociolinguistic researchers could collect data about how people behave when they arc not systematically obscrved only through systematic observations in other words, his suggestion implies that people may not behave naturally when they know that they are being observed Because the researcher was the participants’ teacher, they would not be aware that they were being observed systematically, thereby, the researcher could obtain more genuine data aboot their iuvolvernent in their group

The observations orded everything students did when they did the ks both in

the homework checking section and duting the new lessons The observation form was used eight times in each group from the second meebng to the eighth one in other words,

indy (Appendix 4)

totally, there were sixtoon abservations in th:

3.3.2 Data Collection Procedures

“The data of the study was carefully carried out through three main phrases

Phrase 1; Mecting the participants and group dividing: students were invited to the Brst meeting and they were divided into teams in the two groups

Phrase 2: Applying a five-week experiment: Each week, the rescarchar met the two groups three onc-and- achalfchour times, To Group A, in the cight lessons, the rescarcher taught them speaking skill in the book “Direct to IELTS” by MeCarter (2008) At the end

of each lesson, some speaking topics which were taken from the books “Cambridge

s for IELTS 1° and “Cambridge Practice

them as homework, In the next lesson, in the first thirty minutes, some teams were called

to verbally present their homework before the class To Group B, the current researcher also applied the lessons as Group A; however, in the homework checking section, the researcher gave them some feedback on the steps they had finished and guided them to do the next steps of the Project, In this phrase, the observations were also carried out secretly

Phrase 3: Holding the post-lost and the sel@pcer assossmout: Aller the experiment,

in order to see the effectiveness of EDP on the participants, the students were required to

take the post-test on the 2"! of August, 2014

3.3.3 Data analysis procedure

The students’ scores getting fom the post-test were analyzed quantitatively on the five categories of Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and

Accuracy, Pronunciation and Non-verbal Language

Even thought the data of students’ involvement in their group work had been collected with a qualitative method by utilizing the self-peer assessment and eight observations, the dala then were analyzed basing on the numbers of students” responses to the seLf pesr assessment and the observation analysis All of these data were analyzed into tables or charts with the help of Microsoft Excels

To sum up, research methodology is very imporlant in conducting a research: Participants, dala collzcling procedure, und dats analysis procedure are key factors of a successful study Hence, the researcher who would like to make proper and valuable results should be very careful in selecting the research methodology It is also the reason

why Iho study was conducted very carcfully with three kinds of dala coltecting

instruments, and a long period of time for collecting the data as well as analyzing the data

CHAPTER IIL: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The research’s results answering to the thesis question “How can EDP help French-

English students at TNSFL foster their speaking skill and team working?” are presented in this chapter When the experiment finished, the four teams in Group B wrote four scenarios

for four different plays namely “Tam Cam in the modem life”, “Cinderella”, “Tao Quan

Comedy” and “Little Red Ridding Hood” They and their fellows in Group A also took the post course test from which their speaking ability was revealed In this part of the study,

the results that EDP made on students’ speaking ability as well as their contribution in their

team work are going to be shown

4.1 Findings

4.1.1, Influence of English Drama Project to Students’ Speaking Skill

4.1.1.1 Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Speaking Fluency and

Chart 1 shows two trends of EDP’s effects on students’ speaking fluency First, it

can be easily to see that Group A had two more students who got band 3 than Group B

Second, the number of students who were scored band 4 and 5 are same in Group A and B

with 5 people and 2 respectively Typically, the fingure of students getting band 6 in Group

A 1s be much dominated by students in Group B because two students in Group B but no one in Group A got band 6 for Fluency and Cohesion section

Futhermore, when the researcher caculated the mean of scores that students in the

both groups got, the research recognized that the mean score for this speaking category in

Group B is higher than it in Group A with 3.93 and 3.56 respectively

From the result obtained from the scores for Fulency and Coherence, it might be

concluded that EDP is able to make students more fluent and corrent when they speak

4.1.1.2 Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Lexical Resource

The students’ capacity of using lexical in the two groups is clearly shown in the

A is lower than in Group B In contrast, the proportion of students with band 5 in Group A

is higher than in Group B and both the two groups have one student scored with band 6

Additionally, the mean obtained from students’ Lexical Resource in Group A and Group B shows the dominance for students in Group A compared to Group B with the

mean scores of 4.43 and 4.0 respectively

4.1.1.3 Impacts of English Drama Project on students’ Grammar Range and

Accuracy

Students’ Grammar Range and Accuracy are illustrated in the table 1

Table 1: Students’ Scores for Grammar Range and Accuracy

‘Table 1 shows a small amount of students in both groups getting low marks for fiom, There are th ath groups, there is also

an unremarkable gap in the proportion of students owning band 5 for grammar in Group A and B, Furthermore, the two groups share the same figure of students who were scored with band 6, Tolally, there are Iwelve six marks equally divided for the two groups However, there is a significant gap in the mumber of students owning band 7 in the two

groups because the ratio between them in Groups A and B is 1:4

The mean of sturtonis? marks in Group B is 0.13 poinl higher than in Group A Tlis the mean score that readers realize the benetits that EDP helps students promote their grammar

4.1.1.4 lepacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Pronunciation

Besides helping students’ improve their tluency and grammar, EDP also makes their pronunciation much improved

Table 2: Students’ Scores for Pronunciation

then the mumber of students with band 5 is the same in the two groups However, for band

6 and band 7, fewer stadents in Group A than Group B could reach the two bands The

ratios of students gctting the two bands in the two groups are 4:5 and 0:2 respectively The

mean score of Group B is also much higher than group A’s

To sum up, wilh all the above proofs, it canmot be denied that EDP can [osler students’ fluency, grammar and pronunciation The means for the grades that students got

in the test for the three categories in Group B are higher than Group A, thus, the fact that

the overall marks for students in Group B are higher than Group A cannot be doubted ‘Ihis

is clearly shown in the flowing char

meanscores

Chart 3: Students’ Speaking Overall Scores

58 sai +

vera score

4.1.1.5 Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Non-verbal Language

Besides the benefits EDP brings to students’ ability of expressing their ideas verbally, EDP also can help students improve their ability of using non-verbal language so that their expressions are natural and emotional The differences between using non-verbal

language in the test of students are shown in the following table

Table 3: Students’ Scores for Non-verbal Language

The table shows that the number of students who got I point and two points in

Group A is double than in Group B while the figure of those owning 3 points and 4 points

is double smaller than Group B It can be inferred from the mean of the two groups that students in Group A reached nearly 51% of the highest mark, in contrary, students in

Group B could obtain 75% of the target mark (The highest or target mark is 4 points)

‘The study clearly shows that students can sharpen not only their verbal language performed by their fluency, grammar and pronunciation but also their non-verbal language

revealed by their body language, their eye contact, their facial expression, etc In other

words, students taught with EDP can speak more fluently, exactly, naturally and

emotionally.

4.1.2 English Drama Project and Students’ Involvement in Group W orking

The individuals" contribution lo Group working was estimated in three categories including Contribution, Co-operation and Quality of work which were investigated with the help of the self-peer assessment form and the sixteen classroom observations,

4.1.2.1 Students’ Contribution in their Group Working

The data from the self-pesr assessment form shows 100% of the participants believed themselves that they had a very high frequency of involving in their team working All of them thought they “always conbibnied in their group disonssions” Similatly, most of them considered themselves to frequently shared ideas and feedback in the process of the course The table below very clearly shows the result from self:

asscssncnt on this aliribute,

Table 4: Students’ Self Assessment on Teantwork Contribution

Furthermore, it can be seen in the table 4 that the number of students in Group B

who themselves thought that they “always” joined their learn discussions, contribuled ideas and gave constructive feedback, is double than in Group A

In the process of peer assessing, a student was evaluated by the other three team

anemnbers, as a rosull, cach group had 48 times ofassignment for one alfribute totally, and il

is the reason why the percentage thal students did cach attribute was estenfated with the

P: perwenlage of students assigned for each atuibute

WN: The total number of students’ names written in each scale (the Appendix 3)

All students in Group A and B admitted that their team members had full

patticipation in tcam discussions, The charts below indicate students’ ficquency of

contributing ideas and sharing feedback in their group discussions

Chart 4: Students' Contributing Positive Ideas

in Team Discussions 70.00%

Even though the results getting from the Peer-assessment on the atribute

“contributed positive ideas for group discussion” is much lower than the results gotten

from the Self-assessment, the chart also clearly shows that students in Group B seemed to more often contributed ideas than their fellows in Group A All students in Group B while 93.7% of students in Group A always or usually contributed ideas in their group

discussions In addition, the number of students considered as “always” contributed the ideas for the roup discussion in Group A was 20.4% lower than in Group B

Chart 5: Students’ sharing positive ideas

and feedbacks in team discussions

‘The chart 5 shows that students in Group B seemed to dominate students in Group

A 89.5% of students in group B always and usually shared positive ideas and feedback in their group discussions while the number in Group A for the attribute was 66.5% Moreover, the figure of students who always and usually shared ideas and feedback in Group B were also higher than in Group A

Lowever, the data from the observations shows the contribution that team members int the two groups mais is not as high as the contribution students thought themselves in the self pesr assessment, In the following table, proofs are going to be performed

Lable 5: Students’ Contribution to their Teanrwork from the Observations

Doing nothing, just looking at the others 3times | 2 times

Table 5 shows that students in Group A contributed lo their Icarmwork Ícss ffeqwerfly than sindents in Group B The tines that sturtents in Group A did not jain in their teamwork were much higher than students in Group B with 15 times and 10 times respectively

Even though students in both groups seemed to over estimate their contribution to the tcamwork, all student 1 two groups gol much invelvemenl in their teamwork, Additionally, the results getting from the data collecting instruments show that students in Group B sounded

to have more frequent contribution to their teamwork than students in Group A

4.1.2.2, English Drama Project and Students’ Co-operatio in Group Work

Amazingly, all students in Group A and group B insisted in the self-peer assessment form that all their team members were willing with their assignment, always supporlsd and helped other members as well as worked walt with oach other

Truthfully, during the analysis of the class observations, the researcher realized that students were always happy together; they always smiled and chatted with each other after they finished their lasks Addiliomilly, tiey wore usually aware of helping their team amembers to easily finish the tasks and improve their pronunciation:

‘Table 6: Students’ Co-operation through Classroom Observations

Group A | Group B

Speaking simply and slowly when the others do not understand | 3 times 5 times

Paraphrasing questions or ideas when necessary 7times | 3 times

‘The table 6 indicates the times that students showed their co-operation are nearly samme in the two groups The fimes that students in the two groups helped to check

‘prommeiation and spoke slowly are nearly equal in the both groups However, while the

students in Group A used the technique of paraphrasing their ideas more, students in group Thad a trend of adoring repeating therm more

No mater what way students applied te support their team members in the process

of helping keep the tasks om, all of them seemed to make a big co-operation in order to finish the tasks

4.1.2.3, English Dranta Project and Students’ Group Work Quality

Students in Group A stated that they finished the tasks punctually and their performances were ahvays accuralc all the time while students in Group B believed that

they usually got the tasks finished on time and their works were nswally got good

comments from the researcher The quality of work is shown in the observations with the data in the table 7

Table 7: Students’ Quality of Work votten from the Obyervations

Group A | Group B

Good performance (good fluency, vocabulary, | 10 times | 10 times

grammar, pronunciation, and written structures )

4.1.3 More Findings on the Impacts of English Drama Project

in the rehearsing and performing the plays, many talents of students were revealed

27