Luận văn the use of information gap activities in improving students' speaking skill

Chart 2: troinoos” opinions of the suffeicncy of IG activities in crealing motivation Chart 3: trainees’ evaluation of teachers’ performance Chart 4: the learning atmosphere during IG ac

Bo Scope of the study

Significance of the study

Method of the study

Design of the study

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Comnnunicative Language Teaching

2.2.3 Characteristics ofa successful speaking activity

2.3.4 Problems in teaching and leaming speaking skill

2,3, Infoumation-gap activities

2.3.1 Definitions of information-gap activity

2.3.2 Roles of information-gap activities

2.3.3 Kinds of information-gap activities

2.3.4 Roles of teachers and students im information-gap activities

3.2.1.2 Methods of data collection

3.2.1.2.1 Questionnaires for students

3.2.1.2.2 Questionnaire for teachers

3.2.1.2.3 Classroom observation

3.2.1.2.4 Interviews

3.2.2 Data analysis

3.2.2.1 Data analysis of students’ suavey quastionnaire and direct interview

3.2.2.2 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire and dircct interview

4.4 Limitations of the study

4.5, Suggestions for further researches

STT: Student’ Talking Time

TIT: Teacher’s Talking Time

Chart 2: troinoos” opinions of the suffeicncy of IG activities in crealing motivation Chart 3: trainees’ evaluation of teachers’ performance

Chart 4: the learning atmosphere during IG activities

Chart 5: the frequoney of lzachors” using different kinds of TG activities

Table 1: teachers’ grouping techniques for pair/group work (1)

‘Yable 2: teacher's behavior dunng 1G activities

Table 3: teacher's corrcetion of traines

Table 4: trainees’ motivation for using English in speaking lessons

‘Fable 5; the degree of trainees’ interest in each kind of IG activities

Table 6: trainees’ evaluation of the effectiveness of TG activities

Table 7: Teachers’ purposes of using information-gap activities in speaking lessons

‘rable 8: leacher’s criteria for choosing a suitable IC} activity

Table 9: Teachers’ adaptation of activities

Table 10: teachers’ grouping techniques for pait/group work (2)

‘Table 11: Teachers’ instructions

‘Yable 12: Teachers’ monitoring during the activity

Table 13: Teachers? scaffolding

Table 14: Teachers’ encouragement to trainees’ use of English in an IG activity

Table 1S: Teachers’ difficulties in conducting an 1G activity

Table 16; teachers’ evaluation of the cfitetivensss of IG activity

ls the rationale, purpos woh questions, igri ficance,

Nowadays, when Vieinam is on the way lo tegiomal and global integration, a demand for training students as competent communicators has been made for Vietnamese education in general and foreign language education in particular A high proficiency o£ spoken English

‘becomes not only an acadernie goat but ons of the crucial keys lo acess advaneed sckence and technology However, there exists one problem that teachers and students of English in Vietnam cope with: the target language is mainly used in the classroom and leamers have few opportunities lo use English in aulhentic contexts outside the classroom This problem sets a challenging task for teachers of English in Vietnam, that is to design communicative activities which can provide students with “real” contexts for negotiating meaning so that they can develop communicative competence This requires some changes in teaching approach from the traditional onc which put cmphasis on the production of accurate grammatical sentences into CLT approach which focuses on developing leamers’ communicative competence, i.e the ability io commmunicats through language In CLT, jeamerleamer interaction is paid more attention through some classroom tasks like problem solving, decision — making, opinion exchange, picture dictation and jig saw tasks, ele, However, if teachers want to make these tasks beneficial and motivalive to students, they should take into consideration the following questions raised by Hedge (2002: 263,

cited in Rong & Lanying, 2008):

1 Which activities encourage participation fram all students and so ensure that they ail get practica opportunities?

2 Which activities oblige negotiation of meaning?

In order to determine the effectiveness of classroom activities, a search for teachers and students’ opinions of thesc activitics is ncecssary because students may undervalue the

activities assigned by teachers if there are any differences between their beliefs and teachers’ ones This may cause students’ inactive participation and gradual loss of Tnolivntion ta lcarning

‘The above reasons have weed the author to conduct a study to show a picture of students

and developed

2 Purposes af the study

‘The study is to investigate the use of information-gap activities in improving pre-departure

speaking skill, specifically:

- To explore teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of information-gap

activities in speaking lesson

4 Scope of the study

Learners* success or failure in leaming speaking can be affected by many factors which are closely relalad Among these factors, their opinions about whal the teacher implements in speaking lessons need laking into consideration Howaver, this study only focuses on pre-

departure trainees ° opinions about the implementation of information-gap activities n teaching speaking, particularly, their evaluation of the effectiveness of these activities in lerms of promoting their participation and encooraging thern to usc English in speaking lessons

‘The 200 subjects chosen for this research are pre-departure trainees at preparatory stage at PICT — TlaUT Therefars, il carmot be s

fd that the resulls of the sindy are general to all

Vietnamese non-English majors.

In addition, due to the time limitation, the researcher observes only two classes it seems nol reliable cnough to come to the canelusion

5, Significance of the study

‘The study is cartied out with the hope to provide teachers of English at FICT — HaUJ with

a deeper understanding about benefits of using TG activities in teaching speaking skill

In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great use in helping teachers find an

effective way to increase their students’ participation as well as encourage them to use

English in speaking lessons

6 Methods of the study

A survey is done by delivering a questionnaire to 30 teachers of English and another

qnostionnaire lo 200 pra-departure trainoos al FICT - HaUT who arc being tanghl speaking

skiils under the process-based approach, Furthermore, interviews with pre-departure trainees and teachers and a class observation are also carried out to inveshgate how information-gap activities are implemented in speaking lessons at FICT — IaUI and the trainces’ participation, All the colfceted information and data are analyzed and discussed

7 Design of the study

‘The thesis consists of four chaplars as follows:

Chapter I provides a general introduction, including the background far the research topic and its aim, significance, scope, research questions and the design of the thesis

Chapter 2 is an ailempl to review some theoretical background for the stuly The two underlying theorics: communicative approach and cooperative Learning which are the

‘background for information-gap activities to occur are discussed, In addition, the teaching

of speaking and an overview of information-gap activities are also presented

Chapter 3 presculs the methodology imderlying the study, including the background information of the context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used

to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Besides, the teaching and leaming

information-gap activities

2.1 Communicative Language Teaching

2.1.1 Characteristics of Commumicative Language Teaching

‘The communicative approach (Communicative Language ‘l'echnique or CL'T) emphasizes

communivation as the means and goal of forcign language learning

‘The conununicative approach aims to help students use the target language in a variety of

contexts Its primary focus is to help lamers create meaning rather than help them develop perfect grammar or sequirs nativelike pronunciation This means thal successfully

Jeaming a foreign language is assessed in terms of how learners have developed their coninmunicative competence (Elymes, 1972)

The communicative approach is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching

sather than as a teaching method As such, it is most often defined as a list of gencral

principles One of the most recognized of these lists is five features of CLIT pointed out by

‘Numan (1989);

- An emphasis on learning to conmnunicate through imeraction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

+ The provision of opportunities for learners to facts, nat anly on language, hut also on the

Learning Management process

- An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing

elements to classroont learning

+ An atiempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the

classroom

‘These five principles show that the communicative approach is focused on ihe needs and

desires of their lamers Unlike L1 acquisition where the contexts for language usc arc always available both inside and outside the classroom, when students learn a foreign

Janguags or second language, they do not have such many opportunities to use the target language outside the classroom, Therefore, bringing authentic materials into the classroom

is very important, and CLT meets this demand when it provides students activities which

have a close relationship to real communication everyday In other words, CLI’ makes the

classroom closer to real-life language situations Only when students are exposed to real- life situations, their tme desire for communication is crcaled That is he way thal CLT create desire for communication for students

Richards and Rodgers (1986: 71) also points out some main features of C! as follows:

- Language is a system for the expression of meaning

- The primary function of language is for interaction ana communication

- The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

+ The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but

categories of functional and conmamicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

‘These features are prerequisite to come to a conciusion that CLT is rich or combine

whatever scom the best or most uscful things from many different areas or systems al the

Jevel of language theory

Based on these principles of CLT, it can be concluded that any teaching practice that helps

students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is considered an

acceptable and beneficial form of instruction Thereforc, in the classroom, the

communicative approach often takes the form of pair work and group work, ie cooperalive learning, requiring negotiation and co-operation between learners, (uency -

based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role plays in which

students practice and develop language functions, as well as discreet use of grammar and pronunciation activities

2.1.2, Caoperative Learning (CL)

CL has received much attention of many researchers and become popular for the past

decade In general, CL is one instructional strategy which is under the leamer — centered approach According to Slavin (1995), C1 is “an instructional program in which students

work in small groups to help one another master academic content.” Holding the same

opinion with Slavin, Brown (1994) states that “CL involves students working together in pairs or groups, and they share information They arc a team whose players must work

together in order to achieve goals successful”, Kressler (1992) gives a more specific definition of CL in terms of language learning context He claims that CL is one way of grouping students of different levels of language proficiency when working together on

specitic tasks so that all of them can gain benefit from the “interactive experience”

participate in significant and meaningful ways CL requires that students work together to

achteve goals which they could nol achieve individually

According to Johnson (2005), cooperation is not assigning a job to a group of students where one student does all the work and the others put their names on the paper It is also

not havin

sludents do a task individually with instructions thal the ones who finish first are to help the lower students On the contrary, CL is a teaching, strategy in which small teams, zach with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject Each member of the group is responsible not only for Icarning what is taught but also for helping their partncrs leam, thus crcating an atmosphere of achievement

Most teachers understand the value of collaborative work in classrooms and plan for their students to work in pairs and groups Students come to understand and extend the concepts they need for their learning as they interact with each other and negotiate new learning Different learning activities have different purposes — for example, activities im which

students arz asked to share different points of view or to roach a eonsansus help thơm com

to grips with a range of perspectives on a particular topic or concept Such activities can

also support students’ language learning If teachers want their students to engage in

negotiation and intoraetion that promoics langage learning, there arc particular ways that

we can structure their learning tasks Teachers are familiar with the use of the terms ‘task’ and ‘leaming task’ to describe any piece of work a teacher assigns to students to advance their learning In the context of language Icaming and teaching, Ellis (1999) defines the word ‘task’ in a more specific way, to describe a learning activity in which learners use the Janguage they are learning for real commmmication, A ‘task’ in Ellis’s sense is called a Aunguago-loarning task’, Fllis describes a lask as an aelivity that

» requires the tearners to focus primarily on meaning

® has some kind of gap that the learners can close by communicating

© requires leamers to construct their own productive language rather than to manipulate language that the teacher provides

© has a clearly defined oucome ‘other than producing ‘correct’ language)

© engages learners in tasks that focus them on creating meaning for an authentic purpose and enables them to acquire language It also gives them opportunities to

develop fluency and is intrinsically motivating

In short, CL involves students working together towards a group task in which each member is individually accountable for parl of an aulcome that carmot be completed untes the members work togcther

2.2, Speaking skills

2.2.1 What ts speaking?

There arc a vadcty of definitions for the tam “speaking” presented by different authors However, most of them agree that speaking is a verbal exchange between communicators including receptive and productive skills which require them to transfer information through language

Byme (1976: 8) claims that speaking is “a two-way process between speaker and listener, involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding” While the speaker cneodes the message in appropriate language, the listener hus to decade il

Sharing the same view, Scott (p3, cited in Johnson&Morrow, 1981) states that speaking is

“an activity involving two (or more) people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having lo react to whal they hear and make their contributions at high speed”,

‘Through the interaction, each participant will achieve his communicative goals and fulfill his ability of interpreting what is said to him

In short, spcaking skill can be considered as the ability to usc language as a means of communication, A person who has a highest level of speaking skill is the one who can speak fluently, accurately and understandably every time, everywhere and in every situation That is what every learner wants lo muster This is the reason why Bygate (1987.2) considers speaking as “a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as iterary skills in both first and second language”

language (Ur, 1996) Sharing the same opinion, Nunan argues that “to most people,

mastering the art af speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second foreign language”, That is the reason why it is necessary for a language couse to involve

an essential component that is the classroom activities which can develop learners’ ability

to express thomsclves through apeoch Up to now, caching speaking bas called for greal concem of many pedagogic approaches However, this research only focuses on teaching speaking in the light of communicative approach

According lo Seoll (p70, cited in Johnson&Morrow, 1981), “a communicative approach ta

speaking emphasizes the use of language above the level of the sentence” This is the point

‘that makes difference between the communicative approach and the structural approach in teaching speaking While the use of language is the focus of communicative approach, structural one is only conccmed with the production of grammatically accurate sentences Although dialogues are also used in the structural approach, no attention is paid to who is speaking and there is no clear reason for occurrence of the dialogue Therefore, #t can be said that comnmanicative intent is not included in structural dialogues and it is impossible for us to identify what commuicative operations the leaner can engage in as a result of

In order to achicve the oral flucney, “the students will have to be brought fom the stags where they merely imitate @ model or respond to cues to the point where they can use the

Janguage to express their own ideas” (Byme, 1976: 9)

According to Nunant (1989), even with low level studonts, it is possible to build up thar fuency speaking skills using such exercises and to provide students with genuine, if limited, opportunities to engage in communication Teaching speaking also consists of the

same stages as learning any other skills (setting objective — preparation — practice — transf), bul only in the ca

of language items and type of activities (Scott, p7, cited in Johnson& Merrow, 1981)

In short, “communicative” is a word which has dominated discussions of teaching

of teaching for communication, there is difference on types

methodology for mamy years Although in a monolingual Tinglish language classroom,

“zeal communication” in English seems to be impossible, in the communicative approach, the language teachers try to make their class more communicative ‘That is to say, even though il may be impossible ta achieve “reel communication”, the language (cachcr should attempt to get closer to “real communication” in their classroom,

2.2.3, Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Tr (1996:20) points ont some chataclaristics of a successful speaking activity as follows:

- Long leamers’ talking time: The first criteria to evaluate the suecess of a speaking activity may be the students’ talking time In the learner-centered approach, it is the students who dominate the lesson but not the teacher They themselves make conversations, discuss or take part in games, ctc The teacher should scrve only as a facilitator

- Even participation: A successful speaking activily is the one which can assure the equal participation among students in the class, Classroom activities should not be dominated by some talkative members but should involve evenly distributed contributions of all students

- High motivations: According to Crafl (1978), “motivation can be assumed up, brielly, as the stndont’s dasire and need to loam, the driving foree for that makes him work hard, pay

attention and so on”, Some of the sources of motivation may be interesting topics,

encouragements and rewords Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new ta say about il, or because they want to make contribution to achieve a task objective rather than being forced to do so

- Acceptable level of language: The fact that leamers can express themselves in utterances that arc relevant, casily comprehensible to cach other, and of an acceptable level of Janguage accuracy is important In speaking activities, errors that do not hinder communication should be accepted

= The focus on communication skills: The communicative approach pul stress on the use of language for communicative fonctions not just fee talk, Therefore, strategic competence

such as how to initiate, terminate, repair and redirect communication as well as the appropriate Tanguage Io use in cerlain situations should be laught (o students,

2.2.4, Problems in teaching and learning speaking skill

Speaking skill is considered one of the most difficult skills which students need to acquire Therefore, in the process of learning and teaching this skill, some practical problems are

unavoidable Ur (1996: 121) mentions four problems that teachers may encounter in their

teaching speaking skill:

+ Inhibition: There are sore reasons that lead to students’ imbibition in class They may inchide their worry about making mistakes, a fear of crificism or losing face or the shyness

of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Many sludents oflen elaimn thal they carmot think of anything to say even

when they are not inhibited It means that they have no motive to express themselves

‘beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

- Low of even participation: In group work, only one participant can talk at a time so that

he or she can ¢ heard This situation leads to the fact that in a large group, somc Ìcarncrs

tend to dominate while others speak very little or not at all

+ Mother-tongue use: In classes where all, or a nummer of, the learners shars the same

another-tongue, they may tend to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because

they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother-tongue ‘Therefore, when students are working in sinall groups, it is difficull for leachers to get some classes; especially the Jess disciplined or motivated one to keep the largo lamgnage

2.3 Information-gap activities

2.3.1 Definitions of information-gap

In communication between two or more people, mformation-gap is considered as “a

situation where information is known by only some of those present” (Richards, John & Heidi, 1992) In CLT, it is said that in order to promote real communication between

students, there must be an information-gap between them or between them and the teacher Otherwise, the classroom activities and exercises will be mechanical and artificial

Authors have many ways to define an LG activity However, most of them entered into an agrecmen| thal in an 1G aetivily, one person has certain information that the other docsn’L and they must be shared with others in order to fulfill a task.

11

Liarmer (2007) points out that “an information gap is where two speakers have different

bits of information, and they can only complete the wholz piclure by sharing thal information because they have different information, there is a “gap” between the

According to Hubbard & Thomton (1987), 1G activities are “the principle that two {or

more) sindznis engaging in a practice activily do not share exactly the same information If the task is conectly set, the students must pool their information and are thus forced to communicate through English ‘Ihe information gap is, therefore, an important element in amy commumicative pract

‘The following example will help us to have a better understanding, about IG activities

If two students are looking at a picture of a street scene and one says to the other, “Where

is the dog?” When he knows thal the dog is sittin outside the post offiee because he carr see it as clearly as his fellow student can, then this is act communicative But if one student has the picture of the street scene and the other has a similar picture with some features missing which he must find out fom the first student, then the same question

‘becomes ical, meaningful and communicative (lobnson and Morrow, 1981: 62)

2.3.2 Rales of information-gap activities

All language use has a cerlain pimpose such as to give information, to express ideas, opinions or emotions, ete, However, based on what is going in the classrooms where the traditional method is employed, if is obvious that much of the language practice lacks the cornmunivation purpose Tir these classrooms, the sludanls are mainly encouraged ta produce isolated grammatically ai curate sentences By contrast, the communicative

approach emphasizes the use of language in particular contexts Of all techniques used in the communicative approach, IG activities seem to be the most widely-used because “it crcalos conditions which closoly parallel roal-tife situations whore the reaelion ofa speceh partner is never perfectly predictable” (Harly and Allen, 1990: 197)

Sharing the same point of view on the role of IG activities, Norman, Lewis and Tledequist (1986) argue that using IG activities is “a step away from formal practioc towards an activity which more closely mirrors the use of language outside the classroom”,

"the important role of 1G activities is also confirmed by Nunan (1989: 122) when he stated that “information gaps can, in fact, acl as a wuctous around whieh a range of olher task and

exercise types can be constructed”

Irom the above-mentioned things, it is obvious that JG activities play an important role not only in crcating conditions that promote commumication among sludents in the classroom

‘but also in helping to design other tasks for communicative classroom

2.3.3 Kinds of information-gap activities

There are some ways ta classily kinds of 1G activilies and each author has the reason for their classification

1G activities in the view of Littlewood (1992) are considered as functional communicative

activities which consist of two kinds: sharing information with restricted cooperation and sharing information with unrestricted cooperation

Norman, Lewis and Hedequist (1986) point out that there are two kinds of 1G activities:

pusile form and personal questionnaire

‘Ur (1981) in the book “Discussions that work” offers many kinds of IG activities such as:

Jinding things in common, detecting differences, putting in order, ete

Among these ways of classification, 1 agree most with [ilis (1999) when he classifies IG

activities as one-way and two-way, One-way occurs when one person holds information

which other group member(s) do not have An example of a one-way information exchange is one in which one person has a picture and describes it lo their partner who

‘tries to draw it A two-way information gap occurs when each group member helds unique

information, e.g., jigsaw activities An example of jigsaw is when each member of a group

receives a different part of the lext They need to lell each other the information in their

of the

ext and then do a task which requires information from all the pieces Both one-way and two-way information exchange activities involve an information gap in that information must flow between group members in order for the activity to be completed The difference Ties in whether cach group member necds to send as well as receive information in order to complete the activity,

‘The information involved in the gap can be of two kinds: supplied-to-the-teamer and supplied-by-the-leamer Supglicd-to-the-lcarner, the typc usually discussed in the literaturs

on information gap, is when the gap is created by giving one or mote group members information which others do not have An example could involve giving one person one version of a picture, giving another version of the samc piclure lo their partner, and asking them to identify the differences between the two pictures This activity is called Spot the Difference

13

On the other hand, supplisd-by-the-lsamer information gaps are those which exist because

of unique information which Icamners already pos ss Asking sludents to interview each other about their families would be an example of unique information which leamers supply from knowledge they already possess, Long (1990), referring only to supplied-to- theleamer gaps hypothesized thal two-way are beller than one-way for promoting negotiation of meaning and that both are better than when no information exchange is required

2.3.4 Rai of teachers ani students in informetion-gap activities

2.3.4.1 Roles of teachers

According to Wright (1987) the teacher serves two majar roles: the “enabling” function, 1© to create conditions for learning to take placa and the instructional fimction in which he/she communicates knowledge to the leamers To encompass these two roles of teachers

in communicative language teaching, Littlewood used only one term “tacilitator”, Breen and Candlin (1980) also hold the same view with Wright and Littlewood: they, however, added another two roles of the teacher: to act as a participant, and an observer and learner Asa facilitator, the teacher may need to perform some more specific roles simultaneously:

to provide studenls with lingnistic forms or skills rat they need, to organize the classroom activities, and to give help if necessary

‘the students may find if difficult to begin the communicative 1G activity directly because they may lack the knowledge in tinguistic forms or skills, which compose communicative abity Th

of the linguistic system In addition, the role of an organizer in the classroom is very

fore, iLis the tcacher who is tesponsible for providing tham with a command

important because according to Liarmer (1991), good organization has a strong effect on the success of many activities He claims that

Alot of time can be wasted if the teacher omits to pive students vital information or issues

comflicling and confusing instructions The main aim of the teacher when organizing an activity is to tell the students what they are to talk about (or write or read about), give clear instructions about what exactly their task is, get the activity going, and then arganize feedback when it is over ‘This sounds remarkably easy, bul can be disastrous if teachers Lave not ought oul exactly whut they are goiuy to say beforehand

Apart from this, the teacher should divide the whole class inte pairs or groups, and decide

on procedures of pair, group or class work, When the information gap is being filled, the

teacher should walk around the classroom and provide help where necessary or when

asked in order fo make st

are thal the cormmmunication is going smoothly

The teacher not only acts as a facilitator, he also plays the role of a participant However, when taking part in the activity, he has to bear in mind that he should act as one equal in position to the sludents and one only authorilafive and superior in Sanguage ability and language teaching skills If not, the teacher’s authority may suppress the students’

initiative

Moreover, the teacher may also acl as an observer and learner He kee udents under

observation to find out good and bad points of students to plan future activities

IG activity is one of the main types of communicative activity designed for developing the Joarnors? cormmunivative abilities in the forcign or second langnage classroom, In such activities the teacher is less dominant but by no means Jess important than in the traditional classroom activities

2.3.4.3, Roles of students

The roles of students have changed since the invention of Communicative Teaching Approach According to Morrow, (1981:70), “the leamer is now concemed with using language, not English usage It order to do this, leamers take on roles and interact with other teamers who also have roles, What they say is determined by the roles they have, their communicative intentions and the contribution of the other leamers”

This obvious that the roles of stulents in cormmunicalive classrooms are different from

those found in the traditional classroom Those rolcs are suggested bơing closcly related lo the functions and status of the teacher in a communicative classtoom,

Breen and Candiin (1980) claim that the leamer serves as a negotiator — between the self,

the fearing process and the object of learning, This role cinerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group The student should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby he can learn in an independent way This fundamental role is clarified

by the following sct of particular roles:

- Leamers regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer (and, if necessary, negotiate) meaning in situations in which one person has information that the other(s) lack(s)

- Eesmers oÑon ongsg in role play or dramatization to adjust their use of the largel Janguage to ditterent social contexts,

- Learners’ needs, styles and aims are focused on or accounted for.

- Learners are given some control; their creativity and innovation are encouraged

help to enhance Ioana sc of competence and sclftaverth, a

muastery of their learning and thereby add to their intrinsic motivation

es in teaching speaking skill

2.5.5, Benelits of using information-gap acti

2.3.5.1 Increasing students’ motivation for speaking

One of the challenges that many second language teachers face is motivating their students

to speak in the target Ianguage ‘Lherefore, they always try to find activities that are effective in promoting their students’ motivation for speaking Among these activities, IG activities seem to be a right choice Aecarding to Brown and Yule (1983), we are usually motivated to tall people things we assume they do not know, information gap activities, then, can provide students with a reasonable purpose to communicate in the target language

2.3.5.2 Ensuring equal students’ part

As shown above, a speaking activity is said to be successful when all students participate equally in the activity In an IG activity, each participant is responsible for giving the imissing information to their partner to accomplish a specific task A task cannot be complete unless all members work together ‘Therefore, participation is even among students when they engage in 1G activities

2.3.5.3, Developing both accuracy and fluency of students

In terms of accuracy, an IG activity acts as an aid in reinforcing the vocabulary and a variety of grammatical structures ‘They allow students to use language forms and functions

in communivalive ways

Regarding fluency, IG activities is a good solution since every student is given the chance

to speak in the target language in a natural way In addition, engaging in 1G achvities, siudents have to exchange and convey the information, therefore, they ean keep talking and asking questions to keep the conversation going on

2.3.5.4 Improving students’ ability of negotiating meaning

Tn IG activities, information exchange is required, because an information gap exists in which not all group members held the same information Taking part in such activities, students have to try to give information to others and reach mutual comprehension through restaling, clarifying and confirming information, Thoy are forced ta negotiate moaning

becanse they have to make what they are saying comprehensible to others in order to

complete the task Therefore, it can be s id thal studcnis can develop their ability of negotiating meaning through IG activities

CIIAPTER II: THE STUDY This chapter elaborates the setting of the study, the informants involved in the study and different methods of data collection, 'The data collected from the survey questionnaires, the interview and class observation will be analyzed in details

3.1 Sctting of the study

“the study is carried ont at Faculty of International Cooperation and ‘Training (FIC),

Hanoi University of Industry (HaUD, which is one of the main cducational institutions that train engineers, computer programmers, translators, teachers and other professions

‘his faculty operates under the cooperation between Halll and two Australian bodies:

Vicloria Universily of Technology anid Douglas Mawson Instilule of Tochnelogy The twa majors ate Business Administration and Information Technology, Australian and local lecturers jointly deliver subject modules at the faculty

Like other faculties in the university, English is a compulsory subject for trainees at PICT because all of the coursc matcrials arc written in English, Iectarers arc those who spcak English, tests and assignments, paper-based or computer-based, are written in English Tence, English is the key to success for sludents in completing their course To improve the quality of the couse, the faculty management board decided to provide additional English classes to trainees

‘The course is divided inla bwo main stages: the preparalory and intensive Aller the Proparalory stage, ttainces have lo pass the Bniranoe oxam of reading and writing IELTS 3.5 before they can get into the next stage Trainees will have one year studying in

Vietnam and they will spend the next two years in Australia

‘The two main goals af the English program arc to provide the trainees wilh basic lnguage foundation so that they could get on with their major and to prepare them for the exam at the end of each phase

The objcetives of the course are sct as follows:

After the course, trainees will be able to:

- give oral/written instructions/procedures to use simple devices‘produce simple office documents

- Understand explanations of practical tasks either in a written or spoken fonn and

- Make questions to ask for fimther explanation or clarification from Australian lecturers

- Join in small teams, express points of view and show agreement or disagreement

- Pass the end-of-semester reading and writing IELTS 3.5

As trainees are (ested in all four skills, four language skills are laugh al FICT with the aim

of providing trainees with knowledge to pass the exam as well as basic skills of English for their future jobs However, of the four skills being taught, speaking is considered the most difficult ons to bo acquired The difficulty lies nol only im holping trainees generale er orpanize ideas, but also in increasing their participation and motivating them to use English

in speaking lessons In classroom interaction, the trainees are more enthusiastic when farnitiar subjecl mallcrs are proscnted in Vicnames

, oxcopl when they ara asked to usa English by their teacher In explaining new words, new concepts and new structures, English is rarely used because of the fact that the trainees would not understand if they were explainsd in English By and large, in English speaking lessons, there is a predominance of teacher-talk

In order to help trainees improve their speaking skill, the faculty tried to choose a suitable course book thal can provide trainges wilh opportunities lo practice their speaking skill through communicative activities and the material chosen in the preparatory phase is New Headway elementary — third edition (Liz & John Soars, 1999) ‘This book includes four skills in ach lesson

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areas Some trainees have learnt Linglish for 8 to 9 years, but some have just taken it when thoy atiend:d (he course Their English learning experience is 3 — 4 yzars on average 30 teachers of this faculty were invited to join the investigation Of the 30 teachers, 12 are master holders, 9 are doing a master course, and the rest possess a BA Thsir ages are from

24 lo 40 Their leaching experience varies from 2 years Lo 18 years

3.2.1.2, Methods of data collection

‘The study was designed to use a combination of various methods to achieve its aims and abjecti 5

3.2.1.2.1 Questiannaires for students

“The first questionnaire was designed with four main parts:

Part T cliciled personal information of pre-departure Irainces including their gondor, az and learning experience

Part If was about the frequency of trainees’ being let join in IG activities in speaking, Jessons

Part Ill was designed to clicit information concerning how IG activitics arc applicd in teaching speaking

Part FV was to explore pre-departure trainees” allitudes towards the implamentation of 1G activities in speaking lessons in terms of their level of interest in these activities as well as their effectiveness

‘The purpose of the questionnairs was lo examine Ihe implementation of IG activities in caching spoaking at FICT — HaUT and to know whether this implomentation is offeetive tn increasing pre-departure trainees’ participation and motivating them to use English in class

All the questions were wrillen in Vietnamese in order lo make sure that the trainces could fully understand al the questions,

3.2.1.2.2 Questionnaire for teachers

teaching experience

Part II was given to know how often the teachers use IG activities in teaching speaking

Part III investigated how IG activities are implemented by teaches at FICT -HaUL

Part IV examined teachers’ evaluation of the effectiveness of IG activities

All the questions were written in English

In order to get better insight into the research questions, 15 trainees and 5 teachers were

randomly selected for the interview

‘The questions in the interview were basically based on those in the questionnaire, but were extended to include more open-ended questions to get more thorough understanding of the

reasons behind trainees and teachers’ choice The interview for trainees was done in

Vietnamese but the data were then transcribed and translated in English

3.2.2 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of all the data collected from the survey

questionnaires conducted on 30 teachers and 200 pre-departure trainees of FICT, HaUl, from the direct interviews with 10 trainees and 5 teachers and from the classroom

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Chart 1: Frequency of trainees’ being let join in IG activities in speaking lessons The above table shows that more than half of trainees asked (62%) often have the opportunity to participate in IG activities All of them have ever been introduced such

activities While 30% of trainees said that their teacher sometimes used IG activities in

speaking lesson, only 8% of them reported they had very few chances to take part in these

activities, It can be said that IG activities have been used at a quite high frequency at FICT

— HaUI, which indicates teachers’ awareness of advantages of these activities in teaching speaking

With regard to trainees’ opinions of the sufficiency of IG activities in creating motivation

in speaking class, the statistic is shown in the following chart:

Chart 2: trainees’ opinions of the sufficiency of IG activities in creating motivation

The chart demonstrates that nearly half of trainees (96 trainees) are satisfied with IG activities In the interview, some of the trainees claimed that:

“In my opinion the frequent use of IG activities is really enough to create motivation for

me as well as my classmates because in speaking lessons I find that when my teacher gives

us any kind of IG activities, especially games, we are very interested in them.”

“] feel very eager to participate in IG activities”

Some of the trainees (34 out of 200 trainees) believed that IG activities are not enough to

motivate them in class One of them said:

“In order to motivate us in speaking lessons, using IG activities seem to be insufficient I'd like to have chances to participate in more motivational activities”

The rest (70 trainees) said these activities’ capability of creating motivation is reasonable

This result implies that IG activities are quite interesting to trainees because they can

3.2.2.1.2 Trainees’ opinions of how infornration-gap activitles are implemented by teachers in speaking lessons

* Teachers’ grouping techniques for pair/group work

‘The way of forming a Number of trainees Percentage pair/group/team

Table 4: Teachers’ grouping techniques for pair/ group work (1)

As can be seen from the chart, all of the respondents reported that their teacher formed

pair/group/team for an IG activity to be conducted according to trainses’ proximate seat

positions It may be duc to the fact that this way of forming is time-saving However, they

also claimed that the teacher sometimes changed the way of forming a pair/group/team 11% of trainees said thal they are sometimes chosen al random, Some (5 trainees) also

xeported the teacher sometimes put trainees of mixed ability into the same group Trainees

of the same level of proficiency are rarely grouped together In the interview, they claimed

‘that:

“My teacher often chooses trainees who sit near each other However, somatimes she

chooses at rundom or mixes trainees af different levels, By this way strong trainees can

help the weak anes to coniplete the tasks”

‘My teacher rarely put trainees of the same level in a group and I also don't like this way:

because I think weak trainees in a group may be not good”

* Teacher’s behaviors during IG activities

Number of trainees Percentage

Appoint a group leader to regulate participation 2 1%

‘cep them on sight track

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Table 2: Teacher’s behavior during IG activities The table shows thal almost all of the trainces (170 oul of 200 trainces) agreed thal their teacher often went round to check their performance to see whether they were on right

track Many of them (60% of trainees) said that apart from checking trainees’ performance and kesp them on right track, the teachers alsa helped inhibited trainees Howsver, some

trainees (7% trainees) complained that their teacher often stayed at their seat and ask for

their participation ‘I'hey said, in the interview, that:

“F think teachers should monitor the classroom during the activity to provide us help if

necessary Without that help, it's difficult for us to complete the task in a right way”

“1 don't know how she knows whether we are on the right track or not if she only stays at her seat and ask for our participation.”

“want my teacher to xo round and help weak irainees like me in stead of staying at her desk.”

Only 2 of the trainees reported a group leader was appointed to regulate the participation of

‘the group This may be duc to the fact that IG activitics are often conducted under the form

of pair work in speaking lessons, sơ a group teader may be not necessary

* Teacher's correction of tralnees’ mistakes

‘The way the teacher corrects trainees’ mistakes | Number of trainees Percentage

svon as trainees inake mistakes

Teachers correct common mistakes made by many 147 74%

trainees without mentioning who made them

Table 3: teacher’s correction of trainees’ mistakes According table 3, while 75% of trainces claimed that their teacher often comected common imistakes made by many trainees without mentioning who made them, teacher’s correcting sach trainee’s mistakes was not reported to be used by teachers Besides, nearly

encouraged to self-corrcel their mistakes A fow trainees (3 tvainzes) also reported that when they made too serious mistakes, their teacher iniervenes and provided correction as soon as possible so that they can go on in a right

way However, teacher’s intervention during their talk is said to be not always good

When 4 ked about their opinions on the teacher" way of correcting tain

some of them said that:

mistakes,

“I like the way that my teacher correct mistakes She only corrects the common ones and she never mentions who made them, which made students maintain their face.”

“Giving feedback when I am still speaking makes me feel under pressure.”

* ‘Trainees’ motivation for using English in speaking lessons

Number of trainces | Percentage

Be required nol to use Viemamese during Oe wclivily 94 17%

1aye an irleresling lopic of acceptable Language level 76 38%

Table 4: Trainees’ motivation for using English in speaking lessons

As can be scen from the table, most of the trainees (91%) were motivated to use English in speaking class thanks to teacher’s pre-teaching some vocabularies It can be explained that when trainees know words of the topic, they will feel more confident to use them in their speaking and then become interested in the activity 47% of trainees said that they were required not to use Vietnamese during the activity It is understandable because this is a speaking lesson, so using the target language is main objective, not Vietnamese Nearly the same tumber of trainces (37% and 38%) claimed thai Ieacher's in-time provision and an interesting topic of acceptable language level are motivation for theix using English in 1G activities

3.2.2.1.3 Trainees’ attitudes towards the implementation of information-gap activities in speaking lessons

* The degree af trainees’ interest in each kind of information-gap activities

Percentage of trainees Strongly | dislike | Valrly | Fairly | Like | Strongl

Detecting differences between 2 9.5% 8.5% 6% 45% =| 27.5% | 3.5%

Table 5: The degree of trainees’ interest in each kind of information-gap activities

Table 5 reveals that exchanging personal information is chosen by 53% of trainees as their

favorite activities This is understandable due to the fact that trainees do not need any variations in information and they can produce their speaking from their own experiences

or make them up quite easily Guessing games are the second most liked (51.5% of trainees) The most obvious reason for this is that games often produce some excitement

and perhaps suspense When asked in other items, 45% of trainees revealed that they fairly

liked detecting differences between two versions of the same pictures, story, map, ete The

number of trainees who like role-play outcomes the number of trainees who like jigsaw

activities (41% and 31% respectively), Completing a grid is the least interesting kind of IG

activities (strongly disliked by 23.5% of trainees) When interviewed, some of trainees said

that:

“T always want to talk about myself because it is easier for me when I take information

from my life”

“I find completing a grid very boring It doesn't seem to motivate me to learn at all."

“Participating in games always interest me most."

* Trainees’ evaluation of teachers’ performance

and 78% of trainees valued teacher's mistake correction and feedback respectively, there existed some complaints about this

“wish my teacher could find a smoother way to give comments on my speaking.”

“Teacher should not jump in whenever we make mistakes, which makes me discouraged”

“Criticism helps me to realize my mistakes; however, feedback with so much criticism

experienced during IG activities was stimulating The fact that we are motivated to tell

other people what they do not know seems to stimulate trainees to take an active role in IG activities Only 5 trainees (2.5%) considered the learning atmosphere in the class quiet

One of them claimed, “My teacher's inefficient facilitation during the activity may lead to

students’ poor participation; therefore, the atmosphere is quite quiet.”

36 trainees described their class to be noisy and chaotic is the atmosphere reported by 16 trainees (8%) In the interview, they said that: “Sometimes, so much noise made by other class members makes me difficult to concentrate on my task,”

“I sometimes feel that the class is a state of chaos Free talking is good but the teacher

should control to prevent the class from being chaotic."

* Trainees’ evaluation of the effectiveness of information-gap activities

Percentage of trainees

good good good good