Luận văn thạc sĩ using audio visual materials to improve lower secondary students' speaking skills

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES: BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS TO IMPROVE TOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING

VIFTNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERTALS TO IMPROVE

LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tư liệu nghe-nhìn

để nâng cno kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Lọc Cơ Sở}

MLA Minor ‘Thesis

Eield : English teaching methodology Code : 601410

Hanoi - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IANO!

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES:

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS TO IMPROVE TOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tư liện nghe nhìn

để nâng cao kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Học Cơ Sở)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field _: English teaching methodology

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thom Thom, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

VIFTNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERTALS TO IMPROVE

LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tư liệu nghe-nhìn

để nâng cno kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Lọc Cơ Sở}

MLA Minor ‘Thesis

Eield : English teaching methodology Code : 601410

Hanoi - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IANO!

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES:

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS TO IMPROVE TOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tư liện nghe nhìn

để nâng cao kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Học Cơ Sở)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field _: English teaching methodology

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thom Thom, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Method of the study

5 Design of the study

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER L LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking and speaking skills

1.5 Review of previous studies

CHAPTER IE THE STUDY

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PS P.5

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P.6 P.7

2.2.2 Pre-test and post-test design

2.2.3 Observation

2.3 The procedure of collecting the data

2.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test

2.3.2 Questionnaire

2.4, The procedure of analyzing the data

CHAPTER II RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Resulis

1 Review of the study

2 Application of the study in English language teaching

3 Limitations of the stady

4, Recommendation for further study

REFERENCE APPENDIX APPENDIX 1 - Survey questionnaire

APPENDIX 2 - The scores of pre-test

APPENDIX 3 - The scores of post-test

APPENDIX 4 - 8 Topics for pre-test and post-test

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VI

The results of pre-test and post-test are analyzed by SPSS 10.0

Table 10: ‘he collective figures from the questionnaire

Chart 1: The final scores of pre-test and post-last

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P22 p23 p.24 p26 p26

PART A INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

English has become a world language It is the world’s most widely spoken language and the common means of communication between the people of different nations ‘I

no doubl thal the process of teaching and learning language bas recently exp

great changes by the continuous efforts of teaching forces and the support of new teaching methodology Nowadays, only “talk and chalk” is not enough for teaching and leaning

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certa tasks, Á teacher of English lke a skilled cratts-man needs a teaching medium: especially when the process of teaching and leaming English happens between non-native

Skilled crafls-man usually chooses his lools wilh care in order lo accomplish

icachers and non-native Iserners, Both wilt widely gol benefits from the application of good materials, Such materials will make the teacher teaches less and the leamer learns more, They will also enable students to listen, speak, read and write the foreign language well

The role of materials in Enslish-teaching process is indispensable, cspecially the implementation of audio-visual materials As a teacher of English at a lower secondary school, T realize thai audio-visual materials are usefid for teaching speaking-skill, an important productive skill in oral mode A leamer cannot master language if there is a lack

of creating communication in that language as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured

in terms of the abilily to carry oul a conversation in the (larget) language” In olher words, Temning the fanguage is as Teaming haw lo spoak the language — thơ Rmdimenl 1o hunian communication, Because of the importance of speaking skills, teaching speaking must reach the aim to make students dominate the process of leaming speaking with personal activencss and crcativeness However, the real speaking periads al tay school show the students’ hesitance to communicate in English for their shyness or the shortcoming in prommnciation, vocabulary, grammar, ete The speaking periods cannot stir the students” Jeaning inspiration Both toacher and students fect tired of such boring periods Consequently, my students’ speaking results are not good Facing such a worrying situation, 1 use audio-visual materials in teaching speaking to expect a change Fortunately, the speaking porieds become more enjoyable with studons” active and self-confident patticipation, ln my point of view, Audio-visual materials are lively illustrations and a diverse source of information supporting the students’ speaking-praotice, Therefore, in this

writing I would ike to conduct a research on the effect of using audio-visual materials to

ondary stndonls* speaking skills, There fils expected from

this study Theoretically, it gives out useful referances for further research on using audio

‘visual materials to develop lower secondary students’ speaking skills Practically, the result

of this Tesearch will suggest new directions for exploiting the effecis of audiovisual materials to improve the quality of teaching English, especially the quality of teaching speaking

The offecl of using audio-visual malarials on improving lower secondary students” speaking, skills is investigated in this writing Although this is only the personal wziter’s study for limited time on certain participants, not all students of ali lower secondary school, the findings and results still assure the objectivity of roscarch procass or al loast, they are also beneficial to the writer’s applying audio-visual materials in teaching speaking skills for lower secondary students

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are as follows

+ Review the implementation of audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary sludents’ speaking skills

~ investigate the effective ways to exploit audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary students’ speaking skills

‘To obiain the above aims, three research questions are addressed

+ What arc the benefits of using audio-visual materials to improve fewer sccondary students’ speaking skills?

- What are the limitations of using audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary sludents’ speaking skills?

- Is it effective to use audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary students” speaking skills?

3 Scope of the Stuily

Materials are very important with the existence in the form of textbooks, video and audio tapes, computer software, and visual aids, ete As the Allwright's point of view, textbooks are too inflexible 1o be used diroct or Swales (1980) comands hat ay given caursc-book will be incapable of catering for the diversity of needs which exists in most language classrooms while the effect of audio-visual materials are confirmed by many researchers.

basic skills go hand-in-hand with mutual impacts in the language-learning process and audio-visual materials put their affects on teaching and learning all these skills However, due to the limitation of time and the foremost need of improving speaking skills for students al my school, Uris thesis only focuses on the use of audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary students” speaking, skills

4, Method of the Study

To address and explore the rescarch questions, qualitative and quantitative method (Witte,

R 5 & Witte, J.S (2009) for one questionnaire and a pre-post test are exploited The

questionnaire consisted of ight ilerns rélated to the research problems stated above Te is worth mentioning that the questionnaires contained 8 close-ended questions serving 2 targets to find out the benefits and limitations of audio-visual materials in improving lower secondary students” speaking skills The pre-post tesling including ø pre-test and a posl lest

is carried out al the beginning of pilot icaching process with audio-visual materials aud al the end of the process after 2 months A comparison between the result of pre-test and posttest is useful for teacher to control students’ progress during teaching process Questionnaire and pre-posl test are conduclad lo investigate the effect of usityy audio-visuat materials 40 improve lower secondary students’ speaking skills However, due to the limitation of time, I cannot conduct ths study with all lower secondary students F just choose a class with 40 students of grade 8 as onc sample, The students of this class arc my selection because they have some-year experiences in leaming English to compile a necessary amount of vocabriary and basic communicative factors ‘The pre-test and post- lest are conducied in the sana way with the same oral lopies, The tested students ara divided into groups of five to take 8 different topics for oral test The different results of

pre-test and post-test help teacher control the students” progress during the plot teaching proc

5, Design of the study

In order to make this research easy to understand, the writer would like to present the

structure of the siudy

Part A Introduction This part mentions the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, the scope of the study, the research questions, the method of the stndy, and the design of the study

Part B, Development This part contains three chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is Literature Review Introduction that contains underlying theories about

spouking and speaking skills, walcrials, sudio-visuml materials, offect of audio-visuat smaterials on leaming English and learning speaking skills, and review ot previous studies Chapter 2 is The Study that presents participants, instruments, the procedure of collecting the data, and the procedure of analyzing the data

Chapter 3 is Results and Discussion

Part C, Conclusion

‘The reference and appendix are al the ending part of this study

o

PART B, DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER L LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking and speaking skills

1.1.1 Speaking

Speaking is an important part of second language learning and teaching Despi

importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as memorization of dialogues Now a day the goal of tcaching spoaking is lo improve learner's communication skill Mulgrave (1987:

34) said: “Speaking is an instrument in expressing messages to the listener directly whether the listener understands the material or not and whether the speaker ot listener is in control and uble to adjust (he situation whan he is communicating his idea or not” “Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and Processing information” Brown (1994) and Burns & Joyce (1997) Aecording to Chaney (Chaney, 1998: 13) “Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a varicty of contexts”, Spcaking is an activity involving two or more participants as hearers and speaker who react to what they hear and make their contribution, Rach participant has inleractions thal he wants lo achieve in the communication, Speaking, as @ productive skill, is very complex so it requires the simultaneous use of a number of different abilities, which often develop at different rates

1.1.2, Speaking skills

Speaking skits is the ability to communicate in a new language — Largel tmgnage - based

on its grammatical, contextual, social, and cultural rules, while variations are always difficult for English foreign language Jeamers (Shumun, 1.4) There are many factors affecting the students’ learting speaking We can nams some of major faclars: voivc, accent, intonation, stress, pronunciation, speed, etc, The students often feel diftieult to have

‘the correct stress and intonation as the native speakers They also feel it not easy to keep up with the specd of speech by native spcakers The teacher at class can partly help the students solve these problems However, in fact, many teachers also face the same difficulties Hach language has its own phonetic characteristics, which not many language learners can imitate, Tn this caso, sound and image from audio-visual materials can help nwuch when the students can hear the direct pronunciation and see the operation of

articulator organs ‘he students” leaning speaking can be fostered by the effective sound and image from audio-visual malcrials

purpose of “proscnting” the language in sturly They are perceived as instrumantat objects

to inform students and help teachers deal with the cuzzicular aspects For some other authors such as Tomlinson (1998: 2), a teaching material is regarded as anything, that is used by teachers or leamers to facilitate the leaming of a language Materials could obviously be casscties, videos, CD-Rooms, dictionaries, grammar ‘books, readers, workbooks or photocopied exercises, They could also be newspapers, food packages, photographs, live talks by invited native speakers, instructions given by a teacher, tasks written on cards or discussions between Icamners In othr words, they can be anything that

is used to inerease the leamers’ knowledge and/or experience of the language Materials aitempl lo diminish the level of difficulty when accessing the linguistic aspects of the target language At this point, materials are vital resources because they stinrulate and develop students’ linguistic skills

‘The characteristics of materials are debated (by Littlejohn and Windeatt, 1989) as follows: materials have a hidden curriculum that includes altitudes loward knowledge, altitudes toward teaching and leaning, attitudes toward the role and relationship of the teacher and student, and vahies and attitudes related to gender, society, ete ‘The curriculum is a statment of the goals of learning, the methods of taming, cle Teachers have to follow the curricubum and help leamers to leam They may adapt, supplement, and elaborate on those aiaterials and also monitor the progress and needs of the students and finally evaluate students, Materials influence the content and the procedures of leaching and learning The choice of deductive vs inductive Jeuming, the role of memorization, the use of creativity and problem solving, production vs, reception are alll influenced by the materials Allwright (1990) emphasizes (hat materials control loaning and teaching while O'Neill (1990) emphasizes that they help leaming, and teaching,

‘teaching materials can help teachers and students develop critical thinking, or avoid

misconceptions and ideas about language and its tinguistic cormmumitics Materials work us

ideological constructs that promote and maintain certain power relationships among the

individuals immersed in th language leaming process, in this sense, McDonough and

Shaw (1993: 56) slated thal “most of the teaching we do is lo learners in a class with

others, so all matetials necessarily have to be a compromise, as teachers’ intexpretations of

material do.”

1.3 Audi

visual Mulerials 1.3.1 Definition

Audiovisual materials constitute very important resources to aid the leaming process and

they are required in all teaelring and learning processus

The Librarians Glossary (1987) detines audio-visual materials as non-book materials like

tapes, slides, films, which are renewed and listened to rather than zead as books These

materials are also referred to as learning aids, media teaching aids, no-print media, non-

book media, instructional materials and audiovisual aids According to Dike (1993),

audiovisual resources are those materials which do not depend solely upon reading 0

convey meaning bul presenl information through the sense of hearing as in audio resources

or through a conibination of both senses The New Encyclopedia Britanna Volume (1995)

also defined audiovisual in education as the use of supplementary teaching aids such as

recordings, transcripts, tages, iotion pictures and video lapes, radio, Ielevision and

compulars to improve loaning, The term audio-visual (AV) may refer ta works wilh a

sound and a visual component Hence, audio-visual materials are the most powerful

instraments available for influencing high recall in learning ‘The impact of audiovisual

anatcrials (filmstrip, stides, tapes, filtns, records cfc.) ean he shawn inmany other ways

1.3.2 Classification of Audio-visual Materials

The audio-visual materials are divided into three categories: visual materials, andio

materials and both audio-visual materials (Abdul Mannan Bagulia, 2005)

sound distribution system sets | charts printed matenals with recorded sound tape and disco recordings drawings etc sound ñlmstrips

film strips television flash cards videotapes flannel boards

flip books Tilustrated books Magnetic boards

‘Maps

models Pickures posters

1.4, The effects of audio-visual materials on [carning English and learning speaking

Skills

The new era assigns new challenges and duties on the modem teacher The traditional

amethods on teaching English have drastically changed because of the remarkable entry of

technology in the arena of teaching ‘The modem technology provides many options to

ake the toaching more interesting, more cffeclive and more preductive in terms of

students’ improvement, Most educators and teachers regard audio-visual materials as

valnatie tools in nglish Languags ‘fsaching ‘'he merits of using audio-visual matentals in

icaching are touchable and undeniable

Video materials for teaching and leaming English, especially for teachung and learning

speaking are available with various Lypes al different prices Tt oflen takes people much

time to go to a bookstore then find and selact a suitable book after reading through its main

‹

content Llowever, choosing a video tape seems more easily Because video tapes in

, P., & Widdows suid, “Video

English for rout or for sale al slores are mumerons As Voll

miaterials (films) are accessible English language products available to EFL students

(Voller & Widdows, 1993, P 340)

Many learners find it effective to walch a Gln as a way of lcaming language The process

of watching and listening to the language tiom the film really helps the Jeamers more

famuliar with the communication environment of real life Hinacchiaro (1989: 151) stated:

"(Video) can present a communicative transaction in its totality, The leamers can see the people and the situation (the setting where the interaction is occurring), They can sec and hear the attitude of the persons involved (the interlocntors) ‘I'hey can

become aware of other cultural aspects, such as the gostures uscd and the distance

maintained between the people involved, It is a replica of natural conversation in the real world”

Learning forcign language requires the chances to mocl and communicate with people speaking, that language, but in fact, not many people, especially lower secondary students

‘have those chances My students at Hoang Dien lower secondary school share the same difficulties, but they still want to improve their listening and speaking skills, They intelligently buy video tapes or CD with English movies or English songs to practice the skills at home The audio-visual materials really help their language study Benda (1982: 21) claimed the role of audio-visual matctials: “is a continuing source of listoning material especially for countries where the opportunities to meet people who speak English may be rare” I may add that since good listeners are good speakers, the audio-visual materials will cvcniailly help students 1a be good speakers

According to Stoller (1990: 62), “films and later videos bring authenticity, reality, variety, and flexibility into the second-language classroom” To build upon this point, Kritzer

(1976; 29) stated that “television can bring liveliness and immediacy to education that no

other medium can provide” Allan shared the same comment: “Video, on the other hand, has an itmmedials impact and the language

s supported by visuat clues” (Lonergan 1984, Allan, 1985) This simply means that audio-visual materials reflect real world environment since they combine seeing and listening together This satisfies both visual and auditory senses of the students The students often feel excited when seeing a film or a video Lape The sound and pictues fiom the film bring a lively word beyond the Limitation of the classroom ‘'he process of seeing and listening stir the student’s vocabulary store Thay want lo sock out the suitable wards for pictures or something inlaresting in the fim they saw In this case, the audio-visual materials bring the students closer to the real world, Allan (1986 P.48) also had the same comment of the audio-visual materials: “video is a good moans of bringing ‘a slice of tiving language? inlo the classroom” Tho use of audio- visual materials also give teacher @ good chance to ereate a virtual world in the classroom itself The teacher can go beyond words, beyond the limitation of verbal description by the power of sound and image As a result, the leamers grasp things easily, without any confusion or misunderstanding

Videos and films are excellent instruments to present “the country and its culture” (Allan,

1985, P 19) We all know that leaming a language is learning the culture of this language Learning speaking is on the same track The students need to know about the culture and know how other people live, act and interact based on their beliefs and values Video-aucio material meets these requirements when il crosses cultural boundaries

‘Video matorials arc useful in motivating studonis? language loarning Thal is he reason for teachers’ usage of pictues as a lead-in, Fist, Video materials ‘creates an attractive

enjoyable learning environment ‘Tomalin (1991: 48) and as Lonergan says, "By generating interest and motivation, .video can creale a climate for snec

sful learning." (1984: 5) According to Dewing (1992), “video can act as a catalyst for thinking, inspiring (students)

to lean” Or “provide added incentive to learn and are interesting for the students” Finocchiaro (1968: P17)

Audio-visual materials also make students “feel their interest quicken when language is experienced in a lively way” ‘This combination of moving pictures and sound can present language more commprehonsively than any othcr (caching medium and more walistically too” Stempleski & Tomalin (1990: 3), At the same time, audio-visual materials encourage

and support the various leaming styles Gunter, Jones & Moss (1991: 10) Because of the

scen-heard feature in videos, students with visual leaming style and those with auditory

The audio-visual materials can be applied in the class easily; teacher can step in the process whenever he wishes, he can stop, start and rewind to repeat it for several times where necessary ‘To pay special attention to a particular point in the program it is possible

to run in slow motion or at ful? specd or without sound Besides, the learner can concentrate on the language in detail and interpret what they heard, repeat it, predict the reply and so on ‘'he learner can also concentrate in detail on visual clues to meaning such

as ficial expression, dress, geslure, posture and on delails of the cnvirorment

‘These Kinds of materials can be used at all the levels of teaching for different subjects and categories, providing that the teacher knows what kind of material he is supposed to select and knows how lo uset, For example, one can use auitio-video materials in pre-primary

or primary schools He can have variety of options like presenting animal video clips in Front of the students to enable them to know the elementary words and the students will enjoy ina grcal deat In sccondary Iovel hefore the Lesson, a particular video relating to thal lesson will be shown in the classroom, This not only improves students’ understanding of janguage but also improves their vocabulary Some special videos can be brought into

12

classroom to invoke the students” interest for the subject In tertiary level depending upon

the syllabus a teacher can use variety of audio-video materials

Audio-visual materials help to reduce verbalism They help giving clear concepts A good

deal of energy and time of both the teachers and students can be saved on account of the use of audio-visual materials as most of the concepts and phenomena may be easily

clarified, understood and assimilated through their use The use of audio-visual materials

also provides a touch of reality to the learning situation Seeing a film show, students lear

more effectively than learning by reading

There are big individual differences among learners Some can be helped through sound,

some can be helped through visual demonstrations, while others learn better by doing The use of a variety of audio-visual materials can meet the needs of different types of students

The use of audio-visual materials stirs the imagination, thinking process and reasoning

power of the students, and calls for creativity, and inventiveness and other higher mental

activities and thus it helps the development of higher faculties among the students

1.5 Review of previous study

The use of audio-visual materials in teaching language has been mentioned in many writings These writings can be about the effects of audio materials in developing listening skills Salazar Jorge (Website: littp://does google com viewer: he:gr4Pfcbbbbg)

states that audio-visual materials can develop many types of listening activities at

classroom Audio-visual materials are abundant source of sounds and images, and they

have characteristics of authentic materials” in the study “Interactive Audio Strategies For

http://www calico org/Itml/article 436 pdf) gives out her similar opinion in “Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials” when showing that audio-visual materials are

helpful for all pre-while-post listening activities Debra Hoven with his writing “A Model

for Listening and Viewing Comprehension in Multimedia Environments” in the Website

hitp://auspace.athabascau ca:8080/dspace/bitstream/?149/1682/1/full, TI doc

explores the effects of multimedia to listening comprehension with the writing From many

writings, we can see that audio-visual materials are of many benefits to develop listening

or listening comprehension In terms of developing reading skills, it is a reference to read

“the use of authentic materials in the teaching of reading” by Sacha Anthony Berardo

13

(Website: http://www -readingmatnix convarticles/berardo/article pdf) The authentic

materials are highly motivating, giving a sense of achievement, reflecting the changes in

the use of language with a wide variety of text types to encourage further reading-skill

Robert Leestma (1954) confirmed the effects of audio visual materials in teaching reading

with the book “Audio-visual materials for teaching reading” In terms of enhancing writing skills, audio-visual materials are instruments to develop writing style, vocabulary with

certain essays and studies, for example, “Learning vocabulary through authentic video and

subtitles”, Audio-visual materials are beneficial to teaching basic skills Many types of

these materials are exploited, for example: internet, multimedia, video Dr Dehghani

(Website: Littp.//www aare edu: aw/0Spap/deh05013 pdf) makes his own wniting on the role

of intemet for teaching foreign languages: “Internet as an education aid in teaching foreign

languages” or the writing “the use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign language

teaching classroom” discusses the impacts of video in teaching language, Audio-visual materials express their role in many aspects of teaching language at many levels from the

primary education to tertiary education We can read “Using authentic audio-visual

materials in primary school English language classrooms”, “audiovisual resources in Nsukka primary school”, as references In Vietnam, there are also studies on certain types

of audio-visual materials, especially the application of multimedia, informative technology

in teaching language, for example: “Multimedia and teacher’s roles in a language

sdh.udn vivzipfiles/so3/bai30_1S LVLONG doc) , “Some informative techmology

applications in language teaching” by Nguyen Thi Huynh Loc (Website: littp www kh-

sdh dn vn/zipfiles/s29/23 5 loc-thao.prl tram pdf), “ICT in language education: benefits,

challenges and solutions” by Nguyen Van (Website: — litt: / www kh- sdh udn vn/zipfiles/so30/20.6 sng long-nouyenvan pdf), However, the writing on audio-

visual materials is still in narrow number

After reading reference books and essays, I would like to develop a study on the application of audio-visual materials to improve speaking skills for specific subjects: lower

secondary students At the same time, this study exposes the limitations of these materials

in teaching speaking The results of this study will be useful for me in the process of

applying audio-visual materials to promote lower secondary students’ speaking skills.

CHAPTER IL THE STUDY The proceda of collecting data performs with using selfarkrimistersd formalicd questionnaire, pre-test and post-test after 2-month duration of teaching at a selected class

‘The study mainly focuses on strong and weak sides of using audio-visual materials to improve studenls’ speaking skills Then the dala is analyved and summarized

2.1 Participants

Participants in three phases: conducting survey questionnaire, pre-post test and pilot

loaching procodurc arc 40 studenls of class SBI at Hoang Dicu lower secondary school Those students are of different English ability, Most of them are not good at speaking, although speaking is one important skill of four ones My students often feel shy to speak English and prefer a discussion in mother longue The reason probably comes from their Jack of vocabulary or the inflexible arrangement of words into sentences My students olten feel difficult to express their thought in oral English Their disorders of words easily 1ead to the misunderstanding of the content or the wrong grammatical mistakes The fear of anaking mistakes makes thom hesitant to speak ‘Their response in communication is also not quick enough In other word, it is difficult for them to speak English fluently, Besides, the students’ ifferent backgrounds also affect the communication The disparily of English linguistic ability among 40 students in the class makes mote conttibutions to the problem, Another difficulty in teaching speaking at my lower secondary school is that the periodical tests ofler concentrate on listening, writing and grammatical struclures, nol spouking skills There aro no real speaking tests in allocated curicukan, Thorofe Tam

students do not pay attention to learn and practice speaking skills

2.2, Instruments

2.2.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire with 8 close-ended questions will be completed by the students, The first part including 6 questions aims to investigate the benefit of audio-visual materials Question 1 aims to know the students! overall assessment on the effect of audio-visual amaterials in their speaking-practice Questions: 2, 3, 4, 5 try to find out the impact of audio-visual materials to the students’ improvement on vocabulary usage, pronunciation, granunar, and word sxpression in speaking Question 6 is to investigate students?

inspiration ina speaking class with the illustration of sound and images for speaking topic

Part 2 including the last 2 questions is to investigate the limitation of audio-visual materials

in speaking lessons

2.2.2 Pre-test and post-test

Pre-test/post test assessment is a method used at the beginning and at the end of the self-

observation At first, students take a pre-test in speaking Each group of 5 students takes a

topic for oral test The scores of pr-test are collected Then the teacher works with the

class for 5 pilot periods of teaching speaking, supported by the audio-visual materials Aller these periods, a post-lest for students with the same topics takes place The scores of

the post-test are also collected Then the teacher analyzes and compares the results between

pre-test and post-test ‘the differences enable the teacher to monitor students’ progresses

for pilot teaching duration of about 2 months Moreover, they are also useful for

detonmining where the sindents’ deficiencies in skills and knowledge cxist and where their

skills and knowledge frequently develop most with the support form audio-visual materials

in teaching process

2.2.3 Observation

‘The writer as a teacher of English at a lower secondary school prepares the lesson plan in

pilot teaching periods for about 2 months In these teaching periods, at class 8Bi with 40 students, the teacher uses the audio-visual matcrials to illustrate the speaking topics, and

the time allocated for each topic in every period is from 10 minutes to 15 minutes, After

pilot teaching process, the students take the post-test in the same way of taking the pre-test

‘The tea teaching process will help draw different results between begitming and the end af

process Then, the teacher compares the differences and has useful assessments on the

affects of these materials in improving students’ speaking skills

2.3 The procedure of collecting the data

2.3.1 Pre-test and post-test

The writer uses pre-test and post-test in this study The test is formed to measure students’ speaking skills To give speaking scores, the writer put out 5 criteria, as follows:

ing skills The

+ Pronunciation, This is an importanl element in measuring sludenls” sped

highest score is 2 and the lowest one is 0

-'The level of vocabulary: his is a otiterion to assess students” diversity of vocabulary and their ability of using words, The hrighesl svorc is 2 and the lowest one is 0

- Grammatical usage, [t is an ability viewed by grammatical usage in the students’ speaking, If the students are good, the highest score is 2 and if the students are bad in their grammatical usage, they will be given by the lowest seure 0

- Fluency It is a criterion of speaking fast and good in pronunciation The highest score is

2 and the lowest is 0

- Comprehension That is about the logical content in students’ speaking about the topic and the ability to answer cxtta questions given by intervicwer The highest score is 2 and the lowestis 0

‘The measurement form consisted of pronunciation, the level of vocabulary, grammatical usage, fluency and comprehension has been prepared before, The teacher interviews each student according to the chosen topic ‘Then, the students’ achievements of speaking test are calculated,

2.3.2 Questionnaire

Once I completed the pre-test and post-test, then I start my teaching in 5 pilot teaching periods as a basis for a survey questionnaire of 8 closed-questions in Likert-scale type Jater The questionnaire is dativercd to the 40 surveyed students, There are 8 ilems in th questionnaire, which aimed to elicit the overall impacts of using audio-visual materials, then explore the students’ perception of vocabulary, grammer, pronunciation, as well as students’ study inspiration and their ability of verbal cxpression The questionnaire is administered in a class of 40 students over 5 periods Before they answer the questions, they are briefed about the survey and they were provided with explanations of some of the key words, such as “audio-visunl materials’, ‘speaking skills? that some of the participants aay not be familiar with Moreover, they are encouraged to talk about their thought and

feeling Participants re given LO minutes to fill out the questionnaire and turn it to the

questionnaire administrator ‘The answers to the questionnaire are used as a springboard for

cl of aurtio-visnal materials in improving the students" spcaking skills

assessing the

2.4, The procedure of analyzing the data

‘The information of questionnaire is displayed in the form of frequency counts and tables

‘The data fiom gach lable is analyzed aud then an overall collection of ani is compiled

to become the basis for assessing, the benefit and the limitation of audio-visual materials improving lower secondary students’ speaking skills

The dala collected from pro-tesl and posites! were analyzed with SPSS 10.0 and the findings were explained in forms of tables A ttest method is utilized to test the significance of the difference between the scores of pre-test and post-test