Luận văn Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa tiếng anh 11 nhằm nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 11 t

Table 1: The studonty’ motivation in learning English speaking Table 2+3: The students’ opinions about Enplish speaking skills in the texthook Tieng Anh [1 Table 4: The students’ general

ADAPTING SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXT BOOK

TIENG ANH 11 TO IMPROVE THE 11TH FORM

STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ACHIEVEMENT AT DAT MO

CPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL

Didu chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 11 nhằm

nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Đại Mỗ

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Pruf., PhD Nguyễn Văn Độ

HA NOT, 2015,

DECLARATION

I hereby cortify the thesis entitled “Adapting speaking tasks in the lexl book Ticng Anh 11 to improve the Llh form studen(s’ speaking achievement al Dai Mo upper-secondary school” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Aats al Universily of Languages and Inicmational $tudics, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Signature

Han Thi Vinh Ha

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1 have benefited a great deal of support from a number of people during the time carrying out this thesis

1 would like firet and foremost to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to

my supervisor, Dr Prof Nguyén Van 16 for his invaluable and insightfil comments, his

deliberate guidance and whelehearted enpervision without which the thesis would not have

been possible

“My thanks are offered to all my respected lecnrers 1m the M.A conte, Assac Prof Dr

Lẻ Hủng Tiến, Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang, Dr Lê Văn Canh, Dr Kiều Thị Thu Ilương, Dĩ, Lâm

Quang Đông for their informative and valuable lectnres that have enlightened my research path of the sindy T also take this apporinnity to express my gratefitiness to the administrative staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, CFL,VNU-Hanoi, for their help, guidance and eupport

Special acknowledgement is also given to my students from classes 11A1 Dai Mo upper-secondary school for their participation in the lessons My appreciation is also extended

to my colleagnes in the English division of Dai Mo upper-secondary school for their assistance and work sharing go that I conld concentrate on doing the research

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family and my close fiends for their understanding, lave, and support during the entire period of my study

ABSTRACT

In the teaching context of Dai Mo uppet-secondary school in Nam Tu Liem, Ha Noi, the adaptation of speaking tacks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 is necessary becanse teaching and leaming speaking is not usually efficient The students could hardly take part in speaking tasks setiously because they had difficulty expressing their ideas though they have the desire

to speak English This mint action research was conducted in order to investigate how adapted tasks helped students of low level to get more involved in speaking, as well as improve their language accuracy, flueney and complexity Oral teste together with survey questionnaire and observations was the main instrament of data collection They were delivered to 40 prade-IL students to collect individual scores before and after each of the two cycles, their opinions about epeaking tasks in the texthaok and their behaviors while daing speaking tasks Bared on the data, the speaking tasks were adapted and speaking activities were implemented then pilot teaching was employed to check their effectiveness The results indicated that most of the adapted (asks resulted in some clear improvement in the students’ participation and their language proficiency withou! omitting available textbook tasks or overloaded supplemented matcrials Finally, some suggestions and implications for teaching speuking, task adaptation wore offered to support students’ speaking skills at Dai Mo upper-sccondary school

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1: The studonty’ motivation in learning English speaking

Table 2+3: The students’ opinions about Enplish speaking skills in the texthook Tieng Anh [1 Table 4: The students’ general evalnation af their current speaking leszone

Table 5: The students’ participation in speaking lessons

Table 6: Factors prevent the students from participating in speaking in the class

Table ?: The students’ opinion about the way their teacher taught English speaking

Table 8: The stndents’ evaluation of theix teacher’s task adaptation

Table 9: The studonty’ scores in the Pre-test

Table 10; The students" opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking

tasks

Table | 1+12: The students’ opinions about the topice of speaking tasks

Table 13+14: The students’ opinions about the apeaking taske

Table 15: The sindents” response to the adapted tasks for Linit 15

Table 16: The students” response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16

Table 17: The stunts” scores in Post-test in cycle 1

Table 18: The stdents’ scores in Post-tost in eyele 2

Figure 1: The stndenty’ motivation in Icarning English speaking

Figure 2: The students’ opinions about the lextbook's topics in the lextbook Tieng Anh 11

Figure 3: The students’ opinions about the texthaok’s speaking activities in the texthoak Tieng Anh L1

Figure 4: The students’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons

Figure 5: The students’ particrpation in speaking lessons

Figure 6: : Factors prevented the students ftom participating in speaking in the class

Figure 7: The students’ opinien about the way their teachers tanght speaking

Figure 8: The students’ evaluation of (heir tcacher’s adaptation

Figure 9: The students’ scores in the Pre-test

iv

Figure 10: The students` opinions about the vocsblszy rolaling to the topies in the speaking tasks

Figure 11: The students’ opinions abont the topic’s familiarity of the speaking tasks

Figure 13: The stndents’ opimons abont the speaking tasks’ ease

Figure 14: The students” opinions about the speaking tasks’ interesting organization

Figure 15: The students” response to the adapted tasks for Unit 15

Figure 16: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16

Figure 17: The students’ scores in the Post-lest in cycle 1

Figure 18: Tho students” scores in tho Post-test in cycle 2

4, Scope of the stuủy co

5S Methods of the siudy

6 Design of the study

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW |

1.1 An overview on the teaching of speakìng

11.1 The speaking

LLL — The vote of spoken English

LLL2 — Nahure of speken discourse

L113 Functions of speaking

12.1 Tasksin FL/SL iearning and teaching

12.2 Task adaptation in FL/SL learning and teaching 4 L224 The need of task adaptation

What is adaplation?

Reasons for astaptation

2.1.2 The learners - = = 15

2.2, Instrumentation and Procedures .cccesesesssnsnesseesnstmnsananamsnasariaes TỔ

2.2.4 Instmument 4: Survey for Response to Adaptation 17

2.3 The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 11 uv

231, Unit 15 (Page 171, the textbook Tieng Anh LL) eeceennnensnenn nn 2.3.2 Unit 16 (Pagel 1, the textbook Tieng Anh 11) 19 CHÁPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Dalaanalysis of Prefiminary Survey (Sce Appendix 1)

3.1.1 Personal information of the students’ taking part in the survey

3.1.2, The students’ awareness of studying English in general

3.1.3 The students’ opinions about English speaking skills in the texthook Tieng Anh 11.25 3.1.4 The students’ evaluation of their current speaking lessons 25

3.14.1 The udente' general evaluation of their current speaking lessone

3.4, Data analysis of Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 3) 33

3.4.3 In terms of speaking tasks

3.44, The students’ suggcstions for the (cachcr`s adaplalion of speaking taske

3.6.1, While-observation ( See Appendix $)

4.7 Data analysis from Posl-tests à ies ieee iene tesserae AD,

1 Major findings snở discussion ào nneeeereirrreririeerrooo đỔ

3 Buggestlons for [urther study

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In the past ten years, teaching English speaking at school has eamed a lot of attention and investment from both experts and teachers as well as learners and their communities The three main reasons must be: first, the key practical role of English epeaking has received the social awareness, second, tape-recording and the Internet has enabled leamers to access to native speakers” talks; third, many methodology courses sponsored by the gavernment have helped teachers to approach some new teaching methods As a result, students’ speaking ability has improved much in general

Despite all of the above advantages, I see no much progress in the case of Dai Mo upper-secondary school, class 11A1 in particular By observing, ] notice most of the students

hesitate to participate mn English speaking tasks Feven as the teachers have managed to engage

them in, their talks show some problems of nsing accurate, fluent and complex language

Some researchers have been particularly interested in the came situation in teaching

English skills and tried to improve it by adaptation (Phing Thi Hoa Mo, 2010, Nguyễn Thị

Trang, 2012) However, most of them concinded that poar textbooks and shidents” low

motivation were the main reasons Whereas the students in class 11A1 confirmed that they wanted to speak English much mare than reading, writing, rammar, and they found almast all the topics interesting Fspecially, to grant comparatively equal achievements among students fram different schools, a set of compulsory texthaoks have been pnblished The textbooks have scveral strong poinls, thal is task-bascd contexls arc available and

comnrumicalion practice is carefully guided

Considering their English scores at the beginning of the course, the writer realized that

mast of them were of low level, some were better but no one was advanced Therefore, she did a preliminary research, searched the Internet and read ESL/EFL studies She fond that

spoken discourse has ils own characteristics and, thus, the teaching musl be distinclive, She wondered if she could help them by providing (hem with mere language inpul together with knowledge background, and by adapting some speaking lasks in the textbook Tiéng Anh 11 The writer did hope thal these changes would help them lo have such achievements as parlicipaling morc in speaking activities and producing somewhat more accurate, Quenl and

complex language

All of those above have inspired the writer lo conduct the study tiled “Adapting speaking taske in the lext book Tieng Anh 11 lo improve the Ith form students” speaking

achievement al Dai Mo upper-secondary school.”

2 Aims of the study

‘The study was designed to help the students of low levels in class IAL to participate mare in speaking activities and produce more accurate, fluent and complex language through

the adaplation of the textbook Tieng Anh 11

The study is aimed:

1 To find ont approaches to adapt speaking taske in the textbook Tieng Anh

2 To what extent does the adaptation mcrease the students’ participation and

imprave the accuracy, fluency and complexity of their langnage performance?

4 Scope of the study

Task adaptation is such a broad topic thal it cannot be wholly discussed within the

framework of this paper, therefore, only one specific aspect will be central to the speaking

5 Methnds of the study

‘The study 1n fact is an achon research, According to Nunan (1992: 19), an action

research includes seven steps They are’ inttiation, preliminary inveshgation, hypothesis,

“

intervention, cvaluation, dissemination and follow-up The applied stops in details arc as follows

Step 1- Fnitiation: In the process of teaching the texthonk Tieng Anh 11, the writer

observed that most of the students hesitated to participate in speaking taks Even as the teachers had managed to engage them in, their talks showed some problems of the accuracy, fluency and complexity of their language performance The students confirmed thal they want

to speak English much moze than roading, writing, grammat, and they found almost all the

topies interesting, though What should be donc?

Step 2- Prelintinary investigation: the writer carried ont the preliminary survey and

did some initial observations to find oul how speaking tasks were managed, how often the

Step 4- Jufervention: The research had two cycles

First, the students were asked to take an oral pre-test The students” scores were

counted into percentages by following students’ score intervals

Second, the writer conducted Cycle 1: Before the new speaking lesson, the writer

asked the students to answer some questions ta find ont their opinions about the topic and

speaking laske in the coming lesson After collecting the zeculls, tcaching plane for adapted tasks were delivered, She observed the class and took noles the (caching-leaming activities

and the students” behaviors When the stndents finished the tasks, she provided them with

survey for response lo the adaplation, Thon, an oral posl-iest was delivered to the students Data analysis, reflection and comparison were done to investigate the students’ speaking improvement in terms of participation, language accuracy and lueney

Because the successful result, was nol reached yel, it was necded to đo another cycle

Final, Cycle 2 was conducted with the same procedure ag that of cycle 1

Though the students’ speaking achievement was not improved to advanced level, it

was accepted in this case Therefore, no more cycle was conducted

Step 5- Evaluation:

Refore adaptation, the students’ scores showed their low speaking achievement becanse of such problems as they did not have enough vocabnlary, feeling shy when they spoke in front of others, they were still rigid to express their ideas

After oycle 1, the students fonnd the adapted tasks less challenging and achievable They responded in English more fteely, had the feelings of being understood and took part in speaking lessons more actively However, the complexity af thel language had not heen achieved yet

After oycle 2, the students felt more confident in controlling their Tinglish language while speaking They verified expressions, which were exchanged among partners Though this improvement was considerable and valuable, it did not reach the goal of prodncing their own langnage

Step 6- Dissemination: the writer disenszed the effectiveness of the adapted tasks to

the sindents and colleagues

Step 7- Fallaw-up: the writer suggested some more adapted activities to teach other speaking lessons basing on the texthonk Tieng Anh 11 to the stndents

6 Design of the study

‘The study titled “Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai Mo npper-secondary school.” consists of three main parts namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion

In the first part, Introduction, the reasons for the research, aiins, research questions,

seope and methods of the study are mentioned

The second part, Development, contains four chapters

~ Chapter One focuses on thearetical background of the study, which is about features, and functions of spoken discourse, implications for teaching, and purposcs as well as two main approaches of adaptations, accutacy-based practice and flnency-

based activities

- Chapter Two not only describes the context of teaching and leaming English

al Dai Mo upper-sccondary school bul also presents the instramculation of the study, the adaptation of speaking, tasks

~ Chapter Three deals with a comprehensive data analysis

‘The last part, Conclusion, provides major findings, discussion, limitations and recommendations for follow-up action,

Đ Preliminary

PART II: DEVEILOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview on the leaching of speaking

In order to help students to develop their English speaking ability we nocd insights about the nature of spoken discourse, so we will be able (o find a useful methodology to scleet

and design appropriate classroom activities

1.11 The speaking

1.1.1.1.The role of spoken English

The mastery of English speaking skulls plays a very important role for many foreign

language loamers Consequently, leamcrs tend lo evaluale Iheir success in language learning

ag well as the effectiveness of their English lessons basing on how well they feel they have improved in their speaking ability or proficiency

Inaddition, teachers and loxtbooks make use ofa variety of approaches in the teaching

of oral skills, which shows that * oral skills have hardly been neglecled in EFL/ESL courses” Thorefory, il is observed thal “ how best to approach the leaching of oral skills has long been the focus of methodological debate”, Richards (2009:21),

Reflecting on the textbook Tieng Anh LA, the wriler Uninks teachers can take a greal deal of advantages in methodology

LLLLNature of spoken discourse According to MeCarthy and Carter, 1997 (cited in Richards, 2009:21), it is recent advances in disconree analysis that have revealed the nature of spaken disconrse and its

differences from writien discourse Luoma, 2004 (cited in Richards, 2009-22) points out

some af the following features of spoken discourse:

© Conjoined short phrases and clauses

=_ May be plamed or unplanned

«_ Employs more vague or generic words than written language

Employ fixed phrase, fillers and hesitation markers

© Contains slips and errors reflecting on-line processing

@ Interactions are jointly constructed

Shows variation, reflecting speaker roles, speaking purpose, and the context Among them, the writer pays much attention to the two following featnres:

Firs, “spoken discourse is usually unplanned and often reflects the processes of constructions”, Richards (2009-2), Thus, crrors must be carcfully chosen to be lreated in order that the correction does not ruin fluency In my opinion, errors that impede communication should be directly corrected, Tricia Hedge (2000-289) gives an cxample of such error: “ They ale smoked worm” is not immediatcly apparent as “They ate smoked cel”, and “long tres” can be misunderstood as “tall trees”, Besides, the assessment of fluency should be much more exible, which will be discussed in detail in the part of adaptation,

Second, “inleractions arc jointly constructed”, which asks for shared background, active and intelligibility participation Tt implics thal in addition to fueney, accuracy must be put in consideration and speaking activitics must be well designed so that cngaging students

in oan be successful Moreover, the topic of speaking tasks in textbooks should be familiar to students, ot else some preparation must be made before each lesson

1.L1.3.Functions of speaking Richards ases a three-part framework, which is expanded from Brown and Yule’s one,

to classify the interaction functions of speaking: talk az interaction, talk as kransaction, and talk as performance, Their forms and fmctions are quite different and therefore they require different leaching approaches

a Talk ax interaction

‘This refers to “conversation” which serves as primarily social function The foens is mare on speaker's wish to present themselves other than on the message Brown and Yule, (983 (cited in Richards, 2009:25) describe its main features as follows:

Has a primarily social frnetion + Isjoindy constructed

5, Talk as transaction

‘The focns of this kind of talk is on what is said or done The message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately are focused on rather than the participants and their

interacling manner

Some main features are given by Richards (2009:29):

¢ Ithas a primarily infoxmation focus

© Lingnistic accuracy is not always important

Talk ax performance

This type of talk refers to public talk transmitting information in front of an audience According to Richards (2009:32), the main features of talks as porformance are

© Itzeflects predictable organization and sequencing

® Form and accuracy is important

1.1.1.AJmplications for teaching

a Talk as interaction

‘Though mastering such skills is diffienlt and may not be the most important ta most sludenls al school, I think they should practice a wide range of lopies to presenl good images

of themselves in situations which call for interaction talks

‘Two simple activities Richards use to practice topic management are “in the hot seat”

and “qnestion time” In the first activity, a stdent sits on a chair in front of the class and

mekes a statement! about something he ot she did recenlly, The other members of the clase have to ask three or more questions about the topic which the student has to answer quickly Then another student takes the hot seal With the activity called question time, before students

bogin a lesson on a new (hems, he preparce up to 15 questions relaled lo the theme and put them on a handout, First, he asks students around the class to answer the questions quickly Then studenls practice asking and answering lke questions in pairs

4 Talk ax transaction

In terms of the level o[ linguistie socuracy that students achicve when carrying out tasks as transaction, some scholars like Thombury,1998 and Kumaravadivelu, 1991 state thal practicing these tasks focuses on task accomplishment ralher han grammatical practice and a gradual modification of their language oulput over lime takes on more and more largetike forms, However, Higas and Clifford, 1982 (cited in Richards 2009:37) claim thai communication tasks often develop flueney at the expense of accuracy Richards (2009:39) recognizes that low-level students often heavily rely on vocabulary and memorized chunks of

language while carrying out communication tasks, Therefore, to improve the quality (accuracy and fluency) of language produced as students practice, he suggests

© Pre-teaching certain linguistic forme

Reducing the complexity of the task Giving time to plan the task

Repeating performance of the task

Talk as performance

According (o Iohns,1996 (ciled in Richards, 2009:42), teaching this type of tlk requires a different teaching strategy which involves providing examples or moddls of speeches, oral presentation, slories,etc Uhrough video or audio recordings or wrilten examples Guiding questions are:

© Whats the speaker's purpose?

© Whois the audience?

© What kind of information does the audience expect?

© How does the talk begin, develop, and end? What moves ot stages aro involved? + _ Isany special langnage used?

1.1.2 Related factors affecting students’ speaking

Students” particrpation in classroom speaking activities and their English output can be affected by a variety of factars originating from context, learners, teachers, materials and classroom activities In the following sections, some of the major factors will be disenssed

‘Whether educational system provides potential or constraint depends on:

~The extent to which the materials in use train for public examinations

- The hous available for teaching

- The existence of institutional or departmental policice

- _ The physical constraints of the classroom

- Clase size

- The sesouzees available

- The cohesion that exists among English language teachers

- The status of teachers in the hierarchy

- The financial/contractnal status of teachers

- The interest of management in continuing professional development

in giving instructions for the pair work, initiating it, monitoring it, and organizing feedback,

as prompter while students are working together, and as resource if students nced help” All

of those are common to a wide range of classroom methods Hedge (2000: 22-31) says that they can be seen in lesson plans but only can the ability to snanage activities and interactions put them in practice Only when teachers have competence in management of interaction can the mentioned roles create beneficial conditions for language learning

1.1.2.3.Learners

Individual differences cxist and play a significant role in language leuming, However, they are just the usefud distinctions to classify them in order to have some possible implications for teaching Becanse there are not “certain attitudes, personality characteristics emotional disposition, and Iearning strategies that somehow create the genetically ‘good Innguage learner”” (Hedge, 2000:24)

Addition to individual differences, studeuts in Dai Mo upper-sccondary school share some eommion characteristics that affect their Iaming in general and speaking in particular They ate of low-level, which leads to limitations in language output (accuracy, fluency and complexity) and anxiety (participation)

1.4.2.4.Materiais

O'Neill, 1982 (cited in Hedge, 2000:36) oullines the bencfils of textbook materials:

“they can offer a grammatical and functional framework which provides for the common nceds of a group of leamers; they allow students to prepare in advanee, they provide quality

of presentation, and they do nol necessarily prevent a creative spinning-off in the classroom

into all kinds of other activities.” Nevertheless, because of all the factors of teachers and

learners mentioned above, textbooks should be leaming guides for students, and “good

teachers have always taken a positively critical approach to appraising and developing their

work”.

1.2.Tasks and task ađantation

No course baok will be total sted to a particular teaching sitnalion The teacher will have to find iis own way of using it and adapting it if necesrary So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our requirement, but rather for the best possible fit hetween what the course book offers and what we as teachers and students neod Two approaches thal guided this research were making accuracy-based practice mecningfidl and adapting fluency-based activities

1.2.1 Tasks in FL/SL learning and teaching

Many linguists argne whether tasks can involve leamers in working with particular

kinds of langnage Rrumfit, 1984a (cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001: 19) stresses that students

should be provided the freedom to improve in fluency activities Skehan, 1998 (cited in Carter and Nnnan, 2001:19) believes that tasks can only provide conditions for influencing the level

of loamers’ complexity, accuracy or fluency In contrast, Loschky and Bley-Vroman, 1993 (Cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001:19) argue that tasks can target language features Therefore, Carter and Nunan (2001;19) state that the key question is how tasks operate and how to make tasks operate cllectively within claszroom contexls

1.2.2.1 The need of task adaptation

No certain set of activities can ensure that different gromps of students practice the speaking and problems can be found aronnd the activities Hedge (2000:281-283) believes that whenever a problem occurs, which leads to students’ failure, they can feel frustrated to

perform and they do not behave in them as the activities suggest they should This usally obstacles the possible contribulions to speaking activitics and presents limitations to the development of English speaking abilily It suggests to us the need to create range and variely

in language activitics to adapt to the teaching and learning context

1.2.2.2, What is adaptation?

According to Tomlinson (1998: xi), adaptation is “making changes to materiale in

order to improve them more suitable for a particular lype of leamer.” In the aspect of adaptation techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ixsxi) mentions adapiation as the action of employing “onc or more of a number of lechniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modemizing, localizing, or modifying cultural’ situational content.” Differently, Stevick (1972), cited in Me Donongh and Shaw (1993: 83) emphasizes

teachers" role of bridging a gap between malcrials and leamers: “the teacher mus! satisfy the demand of the textbook, bul in ways Lhal will be satisfying to those who learn from il.”

In brief, adaptation requires teachers ta change and revise materials to make them

more accessible to the teaching context

4.2.2.3, Reaxons for adaptation

There are always some practical reasons for adapting materials in order to make them as accessible and usetill to learners as possible However, reasons for adaptation have varied and changed as the field has developed and views on language acquisition and teaching practice have become better informed by research and experience There are two

most frequently cited purposes far adaptation:

to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e

to mould st to the needs and interests of leamers, the teachers’ own capabilities and such constraints as time, or as Me Ronaugh and Shaw (1993:85) put it: “to maximize the appropriateness of teaching materiale in context, by changing some of the intemal

characteristics of a course book to better suit our partienlar cirenmstances”

to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the materials, such ax lingnistie inacenracy, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen and Bowen 1978) or lack of

variely

Look deeper into McDenongh and Shaw's definition of purpose we see that maximizing the appropriateness af teaching materials (by e.g., madifying them in euch a way that they seem more relevant ta learners’ interests and needs) ie important because when teachers make changes to a coutse book “to better suit our particular purposes” what teachers ate really trying to do is to improve students” participation to increase the effectiveness of the leaming experience

1.2.2.4 Approaches to task adaptation Brumfit, 1984a (cited in Hedge, 2000:283) suggeste that beginners “need a strong focus on learning to nse grammar, vacabmlary, and features of pronunciation in more controlled, intensive forms of practice, but that they will then need opportunities fo use the resonrces they have acquired in fluency work which stimmlates teal langnage use.”” Hawever, Carter and Nunan (2001:19) prefer “to engage leamers’ fluent processing ta begin with and

anly subsequently lead them to integrate accurate language features into that fluent 'base"”

12

The wriler herself bases an types of activities to decide whether fucncy-focus or aecuracy-focus And she also lends lo practice accuracy work within Quency activities, thus, complexity can be achieved later, because John and Liz Soars in the Introduction to Headway Upper Inleamediale Teacher's book (page iii), argue thal students who have passed through the “intermediate slage of a programme and who have ‘suflicient linguistic confidence an abilily to survive in a larget language envisonment and understand the gist of whalis going om around them’ will still have inaccuracies and a relatively narrow range of vocabulary

Therefore, “maintaining or even increasing the amount of accuracy work might eliminate

some of these mistakes and enrich their language repertoire” (ibid.)

The waiter belioves the two following approaches can produce effective adaptation:

4 Making accuracy-hased practice meaningful

Learners in communicative classraoms need to be exposed ta input that they can

atlend tơ, and given opportunities to produce output in activities with more control, Controlled activities may deal with “a grammatical structure, a phonological feature, a conventional gambil, a communicative function, or the time sequencers that might be needed in telling a slory”, all of which have a conscious focus on language (Hedge, 2000:273)

Hedge (2000:273-276) gives two suggestions

© Contextnalizing

Contextualized practice “aims lo make clear the link between linguistic form and communicative function”, which “means finding a situation in which a structure ie commosly used.” [ For the example of contextualizing, seo appendix 5-1]

© Personatising

Personalizing “the language enables students to express their own ideas, feelings preferences, and opinion”, which “makes the language mare memorable” To make it motivating, students mst be allowed to choose what they say in some degree so that they can

“make use of language resources in interpersonal situations” [ For the example of personalizmg, see appendix 6-2]

4 Adapting fluency-based activities

In textbooks, we can see a lot of available fluency-based activities Making nse most

of them and adapting some is what the writer chooses to contribute to the development of students’ speaking skills

Hedge (2000:277-281) suggests three basic types of activities used for adaptation

13

«© Free discussion

In fiee discussion, students can cover a wide range of topics and practice strategics tequized in interpersonal communication such as taking and holding tums, encouraging responses, ete However, more proficient or more confident students may dominate over anxious ones, thus participation from all members of the group may not take place

To overcome this teachers need to snpport students with material that can focus the discussion, provide content and linguistic resources Reporting stage after taking note the discussion accurately also makes students follow the arguments In addition, goals should be established Group roles can ensure equality of opportunity for all group members [ For the example of group roles, see appendix 6-3]

Role-play can be an effective “fluency activity if it is performed im pairs or gronps rather than one group acting in front of the class” and il should be based on real-life situations Thos, role-play encourages a large number of students to participate in the activity Another advantage is that as sindenis take on different roles they will have a chance to practice language that varies according (o the selling [ For the example of role-play, see appendix 6-4]

© ‘Gay’ activities

“Gap* avtivity “involves cach lamer in a pair ox group possessing, information which other Joamers do not have The learners’ information must be shared in order to achicve an outcome” One value of this fluency-baved type is that it can push students to more accurate output while negotiating meaning and adjusting the conversation [ For the example of ‘gap’ activities, see appendix 6-5]

1.3.8ummary

To conelnde, with the awareness of factors affecting students" participation and language performance together with twa main approaches to adaptation, the writer adapted

some activities in Tieng Anh 11 to make them more communicative, snitable to her stndents”

ability in class 11A] at Dai Mo upper-secondary school Contexinalizing, group rales, role-

play and personalizing were popular adaptation techniques nsed in the research Dewails of these ahove contents will be presented in chapter 2 and 3

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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1.1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted in class 111 at Dai Mo upper-secondary school in Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi City

over the country, English is one of the three compulsory core subjects in the national

‘The study was carried out with the participation of 40 students of class 11A1 In

general, the students are al the age of 17, There are 16 girle and 24 boys, They all live in Nam

Tu Liem district All of them have learnt English since they were at grade 3, but most of them are low-level English speakers Thongh they pay much attention to smdy English, their English is not very good in general and heir speaking ability is of low level in particular

At the time of the study, the stidents were in their second term of the school year The

second term hegan with Unit 9

2.1.3 Speaking materials

The textbook Tieng Anh 11, edited by Prof Hoang Van Van and waitten by Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Day Ngoc Loc, Vu Thi Loi, Do Tuan Minh and Nguyen Quoc Tuan, published by Nha xuat ban giao due, is a theme-based textbook, and a continuance of the textbooks Tieng Anh 10 Itiy intended to provide students with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical items and language skills

The textbook is used for gradc-L1 students Ii consists of 16 unile Each unil has one speaking lesson All the speaking lessons in the textbook follow throe stages of pre-epeaking, while-speaking and post-speaking The speaking lasks are not too difficult with coherent stages They aze intended to be suitable for all levels of students However, they are beyond the students’ level in Dai Mo School

2.2 Instrumentation and Procedures

‘The data collected from stndent-based evaluation and respond-based evaluation (Ellis, 1997: 39-40) helped candnct this mini action research The former was ta check whether the speaking tasks are useful, based on the students” attitudes to the speaking tasks Thus, the data wae practical and reliable, Doing the later, the teacher had to see the actual aicames by examining not only the products fmt also the processes of the tasks

Oral tests were utilized as the main data collection instruments, questionnaires and class observations were fanctioned as supplementary sources of information Because the students’ scores were counted into percentages and all the informants answered the same qmestions, the data collected were easy to be summarized, analyzed and reported Furthermore the sntjacts were free to give their ideas without having fo provide personal information For that reason, the researcher has more uniform and accurate data

‘To avoid misnnderstanding and ensnre the accuracy of the data, both types of questionnaires were written in Vietnamese and distributed with the researcher’s clear

explanation

The researcher let the participants zead the tasks before hand and let them respond toa survey qnestionnaire one period before each reading lesson, and set aside 15 minutes after each speaking lesson eo that they were not under pressure of time

The instruments and procedures used to gather the information for the stndy will be described as follows:

2.2.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary Survey

‘The Preliminary Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was dé

al the beginning of the second term, afler they have finished the first term It was designed

ered to the students

with four parts Part 1 with 3 questions seeks information about students’ sex, time of leaming English and English result of the previous somester The questions in part two was designed

to find the students’ general attitudes towards speaking: the role of speaking (Question 4) Part three has two questions to find out students’ attitudes towards the textbook Ticng Anh LL: the topic (Question 5), the tasks (Question 6) Part four includes four questions Icaming about the way the speaking lessons takes place (Question 7,8,9,10) and one question about their attitudes towards adaptation (Question 11)

3.3.3 Instrument 2: Oral tests

Oral teste incinded a pre-test and two post-tests The pre-test and ane post-test was for

cycle 1, the rest is for cycle 2

Each oral test (sec Appcndix 2) consists of 2 pars Part 1 lasts about 5 lo 6 minutes In this part of the Speaking test, cach candidalc intoracls with the interlocutor, using the language normally associated with meeiing people for the first ime, giving factual information of a personal kind, for example, name, place of origin, sudy, family, cte Candidates are aleo expected lo be able to talk about their daily life, interests, likes, ele Parl 2 lasts 3 or 4 minules Prompt cards are used (o stimulale questions and answers of a non- personal kind The interlocutor reads oul instructions and gives a question card lo one candidate and an answer card to the other After the candidates have asked and answered the questions, they change roles

2.2.3 Instrument 3: Survey Questionnaire

‘These questionnaires (see Appendix 3) were designed with three parts of open and

closed questions They were delivered one day before each new speaking lesson in each circle and after the teacher had asked the students to read its tasks beforehand Tt is aimed at finding ont the students” apinions about the speaking tasks in the aspects of topice, language

(vocatlary), speaking tasks, and activity organization in each unit

2.2.4, Instrument 4: Survey for Response to Adaptation

Two surveys for xesponse to adaptation (see Appendix 4) were given te the students

after cach speaking lesson in each circle to see how offective the adapted tasks were Each has six questious The students were asked (o self-rate their serionsness in preparing the lesson

and doing the tasks az well as the effectiveness of the adapted tasks

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‘The class observation sheets (see Appendix 5) were used to nate down the students”

performance in the classroom This war a usefil tool to measure the stndents’ attitudes behavior and interaction when working in speaking activities and when dealing with adapted tasks Initial observations including some field-notes, taken during my previous teaching which initiated the idea of doing this study, and an anecdotal record were used to have a deeper sight into students’ behaviors in speaking lessons without much adaptation Two while-observations helped me to reflect on effectiveness af aclaptation in the two cycles:

2.3 The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 11

Raging on the findings fam the students’ statement of the way they often da their speaking activities and from my pre-observations, together with the knowledge of some teaching approaches acqnired through reading, same adaptation techmques were emplayed ta invalve the students 1n the English speaking and make the tasks more accessible to them The tasks of Unit l% and Unit 16 were adapted, using common adapting techniques such as

vy

‘conlextualizing, personalizing, role-play, group role”, The wriler remained all the language materials in the lexlbook because of my limited ability Furthermore, the textbook had been vwillen by a group of linguistic experis, so it was a reliable and useful source of language Only the organizing of speaking activities was in concen,

¢ Samples of adaptation

2.3.1, Unit 1 age 171, the textbook Tieng Anh 11)

Rationale for adaptation

Task 2-as a while speaking one was considered rather Jong and with many pieces of information, Low level students tended to be confused with time-consuming work and become bored with repeated language or aclivitics Therefore, the adapted version of Task 2

in the textbook was aimed to enhanee every stndent’s pasticipation, verify their language and improve their accuracy as well as fluency through all of their presentations in a given limited period of time

Adapied version plan:

- Task while-spoaking, task 2

- Aims and objectives: maximize students’ listening and speaking time on the important events in space exploration,

- Type of activity: Contextualizing, Role-play, Group roles and Personalizing

- Preparation:

+ Teacher: 40 cards with such names as from Sputnik 1 to Sputnik 5, from

Laika | to Laika 5, from Yuri 1 to Yuri 5, from Valentine 1 to Valentine 5, so on

| Students: drafts

- Time: 25 minutes

- Procedure:

Afice finishing the pre-speaking task 1 with the whole elass

a Group roles in group work

~The teacher divided the clase into 8 groups, each of which has 5 students

- Each group discuss one of the cight events in the textbook

+ One student is appointed as the leader: to control the speaking tums

+ One student is the secretary: to take notes all expressions

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+ The others correct the cxprcszions Lo havc the bcsL oncs

+ All the members take notes

+ the teacher goes round ta help

b Coniextualizing and Role-play in group work and reporting,

+ The teacher give each gronp a set of S cards, e.g the group who are talking about

‘Yuri Gagarin get 5 cards with fram Yuri 1 to Vuri 5, which are delivered to the group members at random

+ With the teacher's instruction, all students with cards number | move to form a new group of eight aindents with eight different events

-_ The teacher sets the context: “You are now in a Press Conference on important events in space exploration Yon are very famous journalists In turn, please, report your event Ask any questions about the cvenle Try lo be the best journalist of the Conference.”

~The students introduce their events in ume

~The others listen to, take notes to report one of the partners’ events later

c Personalizing the reporting

~The teacher ask such questions as “ Who iz interested in your fliend’s speaking about Sputnik’ Laika/ Yuui/,ete.?”

- Some students choose one of the partners’ most impressive talks to report

2.3.2 Unit 16 Page181, the textbook Tieng Anh 11}

Rationale for adaptation:

In stage Intervention in eyele 1, the writer adapled Task 2 Unit 15, Though the students’ participation, language accuracy and fluency were improved, I saw little progress in language complexity

Task 3as a while spouking one was inleresling, and requires much imagination leading to the use of a wide range of vocabulary and expressions An adapted version of this task was presented to mect that demand and to help the students generate ideas and present them in English illegibly and (uontly

Homework was given as the follow-up of Task 3 to solidify this main speaking task of the lesson

Adapted version plas

- Task: while-speaking, task 3 and homework,

- Aims and objectives:

— To improve the sidents’ participation and language accuracy, fluency and complexity | Sindents can talk abont possible theories involved the constrnction af the Great Pyramid of Giza

— Homework can help smdents to solidify their langnage and presentation skills

- Type of activity: Contextualizing, Role-play, Group roles, Personalizing

- Prepatation

+ Teacher: 8 sets of cards, each of which had 5 anmbers fiom 1 to

+ Sindents: drafts, large-sized pieces of paper

- Time: 20 minutes

~ Procedure:

After finishing the pre-speaking task L and while-speaking task 2:

a Contextualizing and Role-play

- The teacher sels the context of a compelition to choose the mosl possible theory invalved the constmotion of the Creat Pyramid of Giza in

- The teacher divides the class into 5 groups as representatives of 5 nations

- The leachers casts tho roles and fels the students to choose their group names

b Group roles

- Fach group wark ont their theory prepared for the competition

- One student, who controls the speaking tums, is appointed by the teacher as the

leader

- The others present, take notes all the possibilities

- The whole group chose the best possibility and correct the language mistakes

¢ Role-play in reporting and discuseing

- The Icacher gave each group a sct of card numbered from | to 5, which is hơn delivered to group members

~ With the teacher’s instmnction, all of the stidents with cards number | moved to farm

a new group of eight students with eight different theories The same to the other 4

groups

- The students act as the national represenlatives lo present [heir possible theories

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~ The others listen to and try to debate the others’ theories whenever and wherever they can

d Reparhng

- The sindents remain in their later groups

- Rach of the $ gronps vote for | theary Therefore, the competition has 5 votes

- The winner is the one having the theory with the most votes

Personalizing the homework

- Rach group draw a picture describing their theary at hame

- They are supposed to present their theories demonstrated by the picture in the next

lesson.

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

‘This chapter presents the dala analysis from Preliminary Survey, Pre-test, Post-tests,

Qbservations, Survey Qnestionnaire and Snrvey for Response to Adaptation To make it

easier to understand the data, the percentage for each choice was calculated per the number of

participants choosing thal choice The number of participants was 40,

3.1 Data analysis of Preliminary Survey (See Appendix 1)

3.1.1 Personal informalion of ihe students’ taking part in the survey

According to the statistics, more than half of the students taking part in the survey (60%) are male They all have heen learning, English for 9 years However, only 25 students

got above average rerults in the first term, and only 8 stndents got good grades (aver 6,5)

3.1.2 The students’ awareness of studying English in general

4, Why do you want to study speaking English?

a because English is a compulsory subject al school and the final exam 37%

© to listen to songs, road books, magazines and watch movies in English, 31.6

£, because of the interest in English language, people and cullure 35%

Table 1: The students’ motivation in learning speaking English

m compulsory subject good marks

sm songs, books and movies

sw little interesting boring

comprehensible because all the tasks in the textbooks are just guidelines, on purpose This

fact requires teachers’ investment in appropriate activities so as to raise students’ involvement

in classtoom activities, which then lead to higher language proficiency

3.1.4, The students’ evaluation of their current speaking lessons

3.1.4.1 The udents’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons

7.What do you think about your current speaking lessons?

a Boring Most of students do not speak 74%

3.1.4.2 The students’ participation in speaking lessons and the reasons

8 How often do you speak English in English class time?

There are many different reasons that canse students to be reticent in the speaking English classes

9 What prevent you from speaking in the English speaking class?

a Tdon't like the teacher so I don’t want to speak 20%

Table 6: Factors prevent the students from participating in speaking in the class

1m fear of mistakes and derision

m speaking activities’ difficulty

m speaking activities’ invariability

mThe students’ unfavor with the teacher

= The students’ unfamiliarity to

‘As shown in the table, there were some main factors that made the students reluctant

to speak in class 67 % of the respondents said that the most influential reason was speaking activities, The requirements were too far from their real English proficiency They did not have enough words and structures to express what they wanted to share The second highest percentage of students expressed that undiversified activities carried out in the classroom also made them bored with speaking English Nearly half of them (419%) stated that they were not acquainted with speaking English The reason may lie in the fact that traditional leaming style Which focuses on mastering all the rules and vocabulary rather than to be able to communicate

in English, and the effect of written exams prevent students from being familiar to speaking English in the classroom A smaller percentage of students (20%) did not participate in

3.1.4.3 The students’ opinions about the way their teachers taught English speaking

10 In what way does your teacher teaches speaking in Tieng Anh 11?

a The teacher always taught us activities in the textbook 0%

D The teacher usually changed, adapted activities in the textbook 10%

¢ She/he sometimes adapted activities in the textbook 85%

@ She/he sometimes replaced textbook activities by other activities 5%

‘Table 7: The students’ opinion about the way their teachers taught speaking

The students’ opinion about the way their

teacher taught speaking

‘m always taught activities in the textbook

* The students’ evaluation of their teacher’s task adaptation

11 Do you like your teachers’ adapted speaking activities?

Most of the students stated that their teachers just sometimes adapted-85% (not replace-5%) activities in the textbook And nearly all of them liked the way the teacher had

done to the original activities in the textbook-95%

The students’ approval to adaptation determined me to do this research To have a better insight into speaking activities in the classroom, the writer did some observations

3.2 Data analysis from initial observations (see appendix 5)

1 Field-note 1: Unit 11- B Speaking- Task 1

Field-note: “Students work quielly or discuss and ack for new words in Vietnamese Their work is completed by putting ticks m either colmmn A or D There 1s not much Fnglish

- _ Suggested adaptation: the Magic Hat

~The 7 above statements are printed in 7 picees of paper and put in the Magic Hat,

~ 7 students in tum pick out 7 pieces of paper and read aloud the sentences

— The rost of the class listen to and decide they ate A or D,

2 Field-note 2: Unit 12- 8 Speaking- Task I

Field-note: * Affer I gave the students some neeful language, helped them practice pronnnciation, almost all of them could ask and answer about Asian Games However, after several pairs reported, they gat bored with the monotononsness No more volunteers for

reporting.”

Reflection:

- The matter of participation is in the conrse

- Snggested adaptation:

Context setting: The monitor is in a Big Snake Your duty now is to save him out of

that severe snake Two groups are in the race, gitls and boys

— The rnles: The snake has 15 portion each of which has an Asian Games numbered from | to 15 If you can ask and answer correctly aboul the Asian Games where the monitor is standing in at that moment, he can step up The number of steps depends an

your lucky munbers on the beard (ranging from 1 to 4) (hal you throw: al

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* Observation 2: Anecdotal record

‘To have a triangle sight, the writer invited one of my colleagues tn teach her class, LIAL As for observation 1, brief reflection was done during or right after the feseon in order that-no events or ideas would be lett Following is what was abserved and reflected during his teaching procednre

Sometimes T added: “Why?”

Reflection: The students may have had difficulty answering or the repeated answers made the studying atmosphere dal

+ “Sometimes, T appointed some pairs to stand up and read aloud These pairs, side by

side, also with handouts, read their parts No pairs face to face.”

Reflection: Without eye-contacl, 3s seem nol to take part in the lesson actively Whereas, eye-contact plays an important role in dialogues addition to language This makes the communicalion more naturally Ss need to be asked for this skill in following lessons In addition, 8s just read English, which means their English level is rather low

- “The whole class spoke loudly Several 8s spoke fluently, many Ss stumbled

during their speaking, Some Ss seemed to retain nathing when they looked at

nowhere.”

“After 1 minute, some groups reported what they could remember 8s had much difficulty.”

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