04051001801 toanvan Ứng dụng phương pháp dạy học dự Án trong tiết “project” nhằm nâng cao kĩ năng nói của học sinh theo chương trình tiếng anh thí Điểm lớp 6 của bộ giáo dục và Đào tạo

INTRODUCTION

Rationale for the study

In 2019, EF Education First recently published a ranking of the 2019 English

EF Proficiency Index, according to which Vietnam ranked 52, among the average English proficient group EF Education First, founded in 1965 in Sweden, is the world's largest educational institution focusing on language, academia and cultural experience The EF English Proficiency Index is based on test data of people who have taken the EF Standard English Test (EF SET) - the first free standardized test worldwide In previous years, Vietnam's rankings were respectively 34 out of 80 countries and territories (2017) and 31 out of 72 countries and territories (2016) The

2019 ranking is based on data from 2.3 million people in 100 countries and territories that do not use English as their first language From the result, it can be seen that the Ministry of Education has made every effort to improve the English capacity of Vietnamese students

The school year 2014-2015 was the first year of Education and Training to implement the resolution on fundamental renewal, comprehensive education In line with the consistent reform of the organization and teaching methods, innovation in the assessment of student development orientation is also an important factor Therefore, Ministry of Education and Training implemented National Foreign Language 2020 project The project aims to develop a new foreign language teaching and learning program at all training levels, aiming to reach a remarkable progress in 2015 on the level and capacity of foreign languages of human resources The goal of the project is that most Vietnamese youth graduated from secondary schools, colleges and universities have the ability to use foreign languages independently and confidently; foreign language becomes the strength of Vietnamese people in 2020 The school has implemented the course books designed and published by Ministry of Education and Training following that project However, after experiencing teaching these books, the researcher met some problems in terms of the low English proficiency of the students in speaking skills Students confronted with a lot of obstacles in speaking English such as lack of confidence, pronunciation, vocabulary Consequently, students had limited success in developing English speaking skill Problems relating to the contents of a

2 speech like ideas, vocabulary and grammar should be concerned Students were not capable of expanding the ideas and using a wide range of vocabulary and grammatical structure Moreover, the teaching of the project lessons still reveals the issues that need to be further developed The researcher considered the use of Project-Based Learning as an appropriate strategy to help the students overcome all the difficulties in developing speaking English because PBL goes on over a period of time, resulting in products and presentations in which some aspects of speaking as confidence, ideas, grammar, and pronunciation can be enhanced by students Moreover, with its advocacy for more student-centered and experiential approach, which emphasizing

“deeper learning” and the acquisition of 21st century success skills namely critical thinking, self-management, and collaboration (Condliffe et al., 2017; Schuetz, 2018; Thomas, 2000; Grant, 2002), PBL has proved itself to be beneficial and been adopted by a wide variety of educational institutions and teachers

Therefore, “Applying project-based learning to teaching project lessons with the aim of enhancing students’ speaking skills in the pilot English textbook Tiếng Anh

6 designed under National Foreign Language 2020 project” is researched to further improve the quality of English speaking competency in secondary schools, especially for Grade 6 English learners using pilot program.

Aims of the study

The aims of research are:

 To explore how the use of Project-Based Learning in teaching English affects the process of developing students’ English speaking skills

 To find out the sixth- grade students attitudes towards the use of Project-Based Learning in their English project lessons

In order to achieve the aims of the study, this study is designed and conducted to find answers to the following research questions:

(1) What are significant differences in students’ English speaking skills before and after applying PBL?

(2) How does PBL influence students’ attitudes in their English project lessons?

Action research approach was employed as it is a "systemic inquiry that is collective, collaborative, self-reflective, critical and undertaken by participants in the inquiry" (McCutcheon and Jung 1990:148) Action research allows the researchers to work and collaborate with an organization and it supports the use of spiral cycles consisting of four main phases: (a) Planning, (b) Acting, (c) Observing and (d) Evaluation

The research focuses on applying Project-based Learning to teaching English in project English lessons for 6 th grade students at a secondary school in the second term of the school-year of 2018-2019 in Hanoi The research was conducted for 12 weeks

The study is conducted with the expectation that its results will be useful for both students and teachers of the English Department at the secondary school Most importantly, the findings of the study will help the teachers employ the Project-based learning approach to improve students’ speaking skills through project lesson The research can be also considered as a reference material for secondary school English teachers in the innovation of teaching methods for speaking skills

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking skills

2.1.1 Definition and functions of speaking

According to experts, speaking can be defined in many ways While Quianthy

(1990) illustrated speaking as the process of transmitting ideas and information orally in variety of situations, Nunan (1999) considered speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking according to Florez (1999)

Speaking plays a pivotal role in second language teaching and learning Nevertheless, with the global integration today, the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills because only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance Therefore, recent pedagogical research on teaching students’ conversation has provided some parameters for developing objectives and techniques

Speaking is probably considered as a natural instinct of human so it is a skill which is undervalued in many ways (Bygate, 1997) Speaking is often thought of as a

‘popular’ form of an expression which uses the prestigious ‘colloquial’ register: literacy skills are on the whole more prized This relative neglect may perhaps also be due to the fact that speaking is transient and improvised, and can therefore be viewed as facile, superficial, or glib

As reported by Lewis and Hill (1993) speaking is a process that covers many things over and above the pronunciation of individual sounds Along with different points of view, Widdowson (1996) believed that speaking is simply the physical embodiment of abstract system or of the grammatical system of language or both

Thornbury (2005) declared that speaking is an interactive skill with the requirement of the ability to cooperate in the management of speaking turn While

Clark and Clark (1997:223) stated that with the use of words, phrases, and sentences following a certain structure which regulates the meaningful units and meaning of sentences, a speaker can express his thought and feeling Besides, Mackey (1965:266) also gave the definition of speaking: an oral expression that involves not only the use of right patterns of rhythm and intonation but also right order to convey the right meaning

In conclusion, speaking is an oral expression of an interactive process of constructing meaning which involves phonological and grammatical system and requires the ability to cooperate in the management of speaking turn in order to give information and ideas

2.1.2 The importance of teaching speaking skills

Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991:39) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language" Therefore, teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning and it is crucial that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Besides, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de- motivated and lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be With this aim, PBL can contribute a great deal to students in terms of acquiring the three functions of speaking Besides, PBL helps develop basic skills necessary for life Those activities at PBL make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun.

Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT)

With the purpose of teaching and learning English as a foreign language for communication, several methods, approaches, and techniques were innovated The most popular and recognized approach is the communicative approach (CA) which stresses the development of communicative skills It is revealed that communicative activities force learners to activate their linguistic repertoire and increase the possibility of integrating the new forms of the target language In reaction to the

6 grammar-translation and audio-lingual methods which did little in promoting communication skills, CLT came to existence, emphasizing communicative activities which involve real use of language in real day-to-day life situations

According to Nunan (1991:279), five characteristic features of CLT were offered:

 The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

 An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

 The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language but also on the learning process itself

 An enhancement of the learners’ own experience as important contributing elements to classroom learning

 An attempt to link classroom language with language activation outside the classroom

Because of its merits, communicative approach has dominated English language teaching; it has firmly established itself on a worldwide basis and there are good historical reasons for this (Jarvis, 2005) The adoption of this approach was based on several factors that obliged linguists, psychologists, and educationalists to provide it with applicable techniques, procedures and theories as well Communicative language teaching (CLT) makes use of real-life situations that students are likely to encounter in real life Here, students’ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics In common consent, students’ ability to engage in meaningful conversational interaction in the target language is considered an important, if not the most important, goal of FL education In connection with this aim, Haas (2000) assures that students need opportunities to be active participants in tasks requiring them to negotiate meaning and practice language in communication with their teachers, their peers and others

The English text book for grade 6 follows this dominating approach It was designed with a view to developing students’ communicative skills at basic level: speaking, listening, reading and writing as well as providing students with appropriate, systematic and basic knowledge of English With this approach, the need for communicative proficiency is focused on rather than mere mastery of structures However, those activities in English 6 did not meet the demand of communicative

7 proficiency Then, the researcher used PBL, and found that it was really a good teaching practice to help students develop their communicative competence.

Project-based learning

2.3.1 Definition of project-based learning

As we know that project-based learning is an instructional and dynamic classroom approach designed to give students the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills through engaging projects set around challenges and problems they may face in the real world (Robert Schuetz, 2014)

In addition, according to Sigman (2019), when involved in project-based learning, students will typically be assigned a project or series of projects that request them to use various skills—such as collaborating, researching, writing, interviewing, or public speaking—to create diverse work products, such as public-policy proposals, research papers, multimedia presentations, video documentaries, scientific studies art installations, or musical and theatrical performances, for example It can take several weeks or months or even over the course of a semester or year to accomplish a project, which is different from other traditional forms of academic coursework such as tests, homework assignments Closely related to the concept of authentic learning, project- based-learning experiences are often designed to address real-world problems and issues, which requires students to investigate and analyze their complexities, interconnections, and ambiguities (i.e., there may be no “right” or “wrong” answers in a project-based-learning assignment)

From the definition of PBL according to Adderley et al (1975:1), PBL contains 5 typical aspects which are also approved by other researchers (Helle, Tynjọlọ & Olkinuora, 2006:3):

(1) [Projects] involve the solution of a problem; often, though not necessarily, set by the student himself [or herself];

(2) They involve initiative by the student or group of students, and necessitate a variety of educational activities;

(3) They commonly result in an end product (e.g., thesis, report, design plans, computer programme and model);

(4) Work often goes on for a considerable length of time;

(5) Teaching staffs are involved in an advisory, rather than authoritarian, role at any or all of the stages – initiation, conduct and conclusion

In different circumstances, Schuetz (2014) offered a different view for PBL consisting of seven items:

- Focuses on a big open-ended question, challenge, or problem to research and respond

- Provides the opportunity to use 21 st century skills: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity

- Gives students choices into the process

- Provides room for feedbacks and revision

- Requires students to present the product including the problems, research process, methods and results

Compared to the definition by Adderley et al., Schuetz’s definition is generally the same but more detailed considering the characteristics of PBL; however, there is no requirement for time mentioned Therefore, in this study, the researcher uses a simplified combination of both definitions, which is as follows:

 Revolves around the solution of a problem, a question or a challenge;

 Focuses on students’ construction of knowledge;

 Involves students’ utilization of various 21st century skills (e.g., self-management, critical thinking, logical thinking, collaboration, communication, decision making and creativity);

 Results in an end product that represents the fruition of learning;

 Requires teachers in advisory roles;

 Goes on for a significant amount of time

2.3.2 Key features of project-based Learning

There are 6 key features of Project-Based Learning offered by Stoller (2007:4-

1 Project work focuses on content learning rather than on specific language targets Real-world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central to projects

2 Project work is student-centered, though the teacher plays a major role in offering support and guidance throughout the process

3 Project work is cooperative rather than competitive Students can work on their own, in small groups, or as a class to complete a project, sharing resources, ideas, and expertise along the way

4 Project work leads to the authentic integration of skills and processing of information from varied sources, mirroring real-life tasks

5 Project work culminates in an end product (e.g., an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin board display, a report, or a stage performance) that can be shared with others, giving the project a real purpose The value of the project, however, lies not just in the final product but in the process of working towards the end point Thus, project work has both a process and product orientation, and provides students with opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy at different project-work stages

6 Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging It usually results in building student confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well as improving students’ language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities

From the features of PBL, a wide range of benefits to both students and teachers are further clarified A growing body of academic research supports the use of project- based learning in school to engage students, cut absenteeism, boost cooperative learning skills, and improve academic performance (George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2001) For many students, the appeal of this learning style comes from the authenticity of the experience Students take on the role and behavior of those working in a particular discipline Whether they are making a video about making recycled things, designing posters about cities in the world, or developing a multimedia presentation about their interests, students are engaged in real-world activities that have significance beyond the classroom For teachers, additional benefits include enhanced professionalism and collaboration among colleagues, and opportunities to build relationships with students (Thomas, 2000) Additionally, many teachers are pleased to find a model that accommodates diverse learners by introducing a wider range of learning opportunities into the classroom

PBL makes a significant contribution to the current educational reform movement (Condliffe et al., 2017:3; Thomas, 2000) This approach brings various benefits, which can be identified as follow The first merit is the development for living skills/success skills tudents have to actively investigate a challenging problem from the real world and have chances to practice certain skills that are essential for living in the 21 st century including planning, critical thinking, self-management, creativity, communication, and collaboration (Thomas, 2000; Condliffe et al., 2017; Meyer & Wurdinger, 2016) Moreover, it also helps the connection between students and the real world In PBL approach, the authenticity of the project is emphasized, which will mirror what the professionals do Besides it helps students thus deeply engage with the target content and enhance long-term retention and students’ attitudes toward learning (Condliffe et al., 2017; Schuetz, 2018) Thirdly, it promotes students’ self-efficacy and achievement Through PBL, students can learn how to plan their learning easily, work collaboratively with partners and successfully complete their project on time (Mahasneh & Alwan, 2018) Lastly, PBL is useful for the accommodation of various learning styles and differences: PBL emphasizes the students’ autonomy so they can choose their own suitable approach to answering the driving question, which in turn motivate learners and foster the interests in the subject (Condliffe et al., 2017)

In many senses, PBL is considered a relatively new approach, so various challenges and issues arise as educators try to implement PBL in their teaching Tanim and Grant (2013) proposed five main challenges that most commonly encountered by teachers when implementing PBL

 Taking on the Constructivist Approach: When applying PBL to the class, the teacher will initially meet the difficulties in switching their role At the beginning, they cannot adapt to a student-centered classroom (Thomas, 2000) Grant and Hill

(2016) also showed that teachers need to recognize and accept the shift in their role to be more comfortable with student-centered approaches like PBL

 Adopting new Instructional Strategies: Despite the fact that teachers are quite enthusiastic to adopting PBL, they still need professional development and support,

11 especially from appropriate resources, to successfully implement PBL to its fullest potential (Tanim & Grant, 2013:75)

 Curriculum and Selection of Topic: Teachers’ inexperience in designing adequate project-based activities or lack of training in critical thinking methodology might create barriers to adopting PBL (Tanim & Grant, 2013:75)

 Management and Designing in PBL: Teachers need to successful orchestrate all the features of PBL such as project management, engagement of students or multiple resources Therefore, these factors can be overwhelming for teachers and can affect if and how they implement PBL (Tanim & Grant, 2013:76)

 Assessing PBL: Multifaceted assessment in PBL is regarded as another overwhelming task to teachers, especially when dealing with large classrooms It aims at assessing includes both the assessment of individual and group performance, concrete products and cognitive and metacognitive skills, as well as learning and social skills

While the problems by Tanim and Grant are mostly in the domain of pedagogy, Marx et al (1997) gave a more dynamic and comprehensive summary of the issues teachers often encounter as follows:

 Time: Projects often take more time than anticipated

 Classroom management: The balance between the need to allow students to work independently and maintain order in the class should be considered

 Control: The teachers’ need to control the flow of information conflict with teachers’ belief that students must build their own understanding

 Support of student learning: Determining the adequate amount of scaffolding to give students is quite difficult for teachers

 Technology use: Technology plays an important role in implementing PBL

However, many teachers find it difficult to apply technology to the classroom

 Assessment: Teachers have difficulty designing assessments that require and enable students to bring out their true ability and understanding

This set of challenges concerns more aspects than that by Tanim and Grant It also is in agreement with the findings of other researchers (Helle et al., 2006; Thomas & Mergendoller, 2000)

This stage includes choice of project topic and sensitisation about it, aiming at arousing interest and developing a climate conducive to speculation and investigation that will lead smoothly to the research process Topic is chosen after a dialogue among all members of the group, and the teacher (Brinia, 2006)

Stage 2: Designing the project activities

This stage includes formation of groups and assigning of roles, decisions concerning methodology, sources of information, activities that will take place, and places outside the classroom that students will visit The better organised and more analytical the structuring of the activities, the easier and faster the research will be conducted (Fragoulis, 2008)

Stage 3: Conducting the project activities

METHODOLOGY

Setting of the study

3.1.1 A brief overview of the secondary school and English Division at that school

This secondary school is one of the schools having a long history with nearly 60 years of construction and development in Hanoi Since 1993, the school officially separated from elementary school and entered a new period of development The school focuses on developing the contingent of teachers, innovating teaching methods for students, and at the same time drafting its own program aimed at nurturing and improving knowledge

English division consists of 6 teachers whose ages range from 28 to 50 Some of the teacher graduated from the University of Foreign Languages and 70% of them have achieved B1 according to VSTEP English teachers at this school have tried to apply various teaching methods according to the skills and the level of students they are in charge of However, there is a small limitation on the teachers’ language competency, especially in speaking ability In reality, though the teachers always make all efforts to improve the students’ speaking skills, they still admit that the ability to do English presentations of their students was still far from satisfaction

Almost students at school come from Bac Tu Liem District They are admitted into the school without taking English language proficiency test The general situation is that the majority of them do not pay much attention to study English They consider English as a subject in national curriculum for primary schools and learn it just to pass the exams Besides, students learn English in almost isolated environments from English native speakers, so they hardly get any chance to communicate with foreigners both inside and outside classrooms Consequently, the students are unable to speak the language They are often doing better at writing and grammar exercises but they have little communicative ability and lack necessary skills and techniques to be successful in communication Furthermore, from my classroom observation, discussion with other teachers and my own experiences, I found that most students often feel shy in the public and they are embarrassed when being asked to work in peers, groups in speaking lessons Their verbal production, whether oral or written, is limited to

14 occasional, isolated words or groups of words Many of them claim that among four skills, speaking is regarded to be the hardest for them

3.1.3 A brief description of the English curriculum and material

Regarding the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, the basic goal of the General English Education Program is to help students build and develop communicating competencies through practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing skills and language knowledge (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar) The communication skills and language knowledge are built on the basis of specific units of competence in communication, and topics relevant to the needs and abilities of high school students to help them meet the requirements specified in Framework of 6-level foreign language ability for Vietnamese (promulgated under Circular No 01/2014 / TT- BGDĐT dated January 24th, 2014 by the Ministry of Education and Training) To be more specific, Level 1 is for students finishing primary school and Level 2 is for those finishing secondary school

Throughout the program, knowledge of each lesson is built on the basis of topics suitable for each learning level Topics are closely related and designed to be iterative over the years at each grade level, spiral concentric orientation to reinforce and develop students' communication skills The names of the topics can be changed by grade level to meet the needs, interests of students as well as the requirements of formation and development of necessary qualities and competencies for learners Suggested themes in teaching English at secondary school level are: Our Community, Our Heritage, Our World, Our Future Vision For more details, in the English text book Tieng Anh 6, there are 12 units with 12 topics related to above themes: My new school, My home, My friends, My neighborhood, Natural wonders of the world, Our Tet holiday, Television, Sports and Games, Cities of the world, Our houses in the future, Our greener world, Robots Each unit is organized into 7 parts: (1) Getting Started, (2) A Closer Look 1, (3) A Closer Look 2, (4) Communication & Culture,

(5) Skills 1 (Reading and Speaking), (6) Skills 2 (Listening and Writing), and (7)

Looking Back; and Each heading is a 45-minute lesson (for details, see Hoang et al,

Participants of the study

The research was conducted with the participation of 48 grade 6 students of the English intensive class and 2 teachers of this school during the second term of the academic year 2018-2019.

Research method

The study employs action research approach It follows the cycle as proposed by Parson and Brown (2002) and uses a mixed method for data collection which consists of a questionnaire for students, an interview with teachers, a pre-test, a post- test, class observation and teachers’ journals

According to Parson and Brown (2002), action research is a form of investigation designed for use by teachers to attempt to solve problems and improve professional practices in their own classrooms It involves systematic observations and data collection which can be then used by the practitioner-researcher in reflection, decision-making and the development of more effective classroom strategies

Action research is very popular in the field of education because there is always room for improvement when it comes to teaching and educating others Sure, there are all types of methods of teaching in the classroom, but action research works very well because the cycle offers opportunity for continued reflection In all professional fields, the goal of action research is to improve processes Action research is also beneficial in areas of teaching practice that need to be explored or settings in which continued improvement is the focus There are many methods to conduct action research, for example individuals or groups observation, audio and video tape recording, structured or semi-structured interviews, field notes and surveys or questionnaires

Lewin (1946) outlined a set of procedures for action research in the context of social planning which are still adhered to today There are four key stages in the action research including Planning, Acting, Observing and Evaluation

The pilot English textbook Tiếng Anh 6 of 12 units; each unit consists of seven headings: (1) Getting Started, (2) A Closer Look 1, (3) A Closer Look 2, (4) Communication & Culture, (5) Skills 1 (Reading and Speaking), (6) Skills 2

(Listening and Writing), and (7) Looking Back; and Each heading is a 45-minute lesson (for details, see Hoang et al, 2019; Hoang, 2015) The project lessons aim to give students chances of practicing speaking skills as well as promote students’ learning autonomy by group and individual work However, through observation of project lessons in classes, researcher found that students were quite passive in their learning Many students are not confident enough to present in front of class and the attention just focuses on some good learners Moreover, students do not receive effective support for their project work from their teachers in those units As a result, most of students’ speaking ability was not improved much after a semester and they seem not actively in their learning

According to Vietnam’s National Foreign Language 2020 Project, sixth-grade students are supposed to achieve Level 1+1 equivalent to CEFR level A1+1, so a pre- test was conducted to evaluate the students’ speaking skills The pre-test followed the form of Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP) level 1 The pre-test consists of three parts and lasts for 11 minutes in total (Appendix 1) The author designed 5 different tests based on this format and the speaking test is conducted by the author and two more teachers at school All speaking topics were related to topics in the textbook Tieng Anh 5 of General Education Program of

Ministry of Education and Training The speaking test was marked out of 10 according to the criteria (Appendix 3) adapted from Cambridge English: Key Speaking test (retrieved from Cambridgenglish.org).:

Step 2: Identifying the causes of the problems

The researcher conducted a questionnaire to get information from students Students answered 5 questions in English prepared by and then handed their papers for analysis (Appendix 4)

Step 3: Map out strategies for improvement

Through a pre-test and questionnaire, the problems and causes of the students’ low English proficiency in speaking skills were recognised Bad pronunciation, lack of vocabulary and fear of speaking in public were major problems of students facing with there The reason why their speaking skills did not meet up the level 2 of Ministry of

Education and Training (MoET)’s Khung năng lực ngoại ngữ 6 bậc dùng cho Việt Nam (equivalent to CEFR level A2) was probably inappropriate teaching methods

Strategies for improvement were mapped out through lesson plans applied PBL in English teaching to develop the students' English speaking skills

1 Students are divided into groups at the end of the first term There are 8 groups in total

2 The teacher assigned different speaking projects based on the units of Tiếng Anh 6 from Unit 8 to Unit 11 with four themes (Sports and games, Cities of the world,

Our houses in the future, Our greener world)

3 Students picked the projects randomly and carried out them with four stages of Project-based Learning Every three weeks there were two project lessons for four groups to present their products to the class The teacher will provide a scoring rubric for oral presentation so students can understand your standard and expectations (Appendix 7)

4 Each group made a presentation on their projects in 15 minutes and 15- minute rest of each period was spent on asking and answering questions and discussion Students were given a chance to make comments on their friends’ projects and presentations During the presentation, they took the responsibility of listening, observing and assessing Finally, teacher’s constructive feedbacks on the presentations and projects played a very important role so that students could improve their speaking skills

The strategies were adopted in 4 units during 12 weeks All of the improvements after each project lesson were noted down by the teacher in the journal

Two volunteer teachers were asked to observe those lessons and evaluate the changes in students’ speaking ability

Class observations were made carefully by the teacher and the success of the action research on using PBL to develop student's English speaking skills lay in the outcomes of the class observations

With the application of Project-based Learning during 12 weeks, a post-test was also conducted to evaluate the students’ speaking skills The post-test still followed the form of Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP) level 1 (Appendix 8)

Moreover, an interview (Appendix 9) was carried out to get information from two teachers who observed the whole process while a questionnaire (Appendix 10) was used for collecting opinions from 48 students on the efficiency of the use of PBL in developing English speaking skills

From the results of the post-test, the interview and the questionnaire, some conclusions were made.

Data instruments

There are two kinds of questionnaires in the research for students The first one is carried out before students involved in the project work to find the causes of low English proficiency of the students in speaking skills This questionnaire consists five questions representing four main parts The first part was about the students’ attitudes toward speaking in front of class and the reasons why they were afraid of it The next parts explored their views on speaking activities as well as their roles in group work The last part examined the frequency of learners’ English speaking practice in front of class Besides, the second questionnaire was conducted after the process of applying Project-based Learning to their English lessons Five questions were also included in this questionnaire covering some aspects Firstly, students’ perspective on Project- based Learning as well as its benefit to speaking skills Moreover, the next part figured out the changes of their speaking skills in some features: fluency, vocabulary, grammatical accuracy, pronunciation and interactive communication The next part considered students’ opinions of their own changes after taking part in the lessons using Project Based Learning Lastly, difficulties they encountered when carrying out your projects are viewed

An interview was employed to get the teachers’ opinions of the effectiveness of Project Based Learning in developing students' speaking skills Four questions were

19 offered to consider teachers’ points of view on using utilizing Project-based Learning in teaching speaking skills

A pre-test and post-test were designed for students to assess their speaking skills before and after the process of Project-based learning application The test format based on the form Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP) level 1 The criteria for evaluating each student’s speaking ability in the pre-test includes fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, pronunciation, and interactive communication The author and two more teachers were responsible for conducting and marking the test

Two volunteer teachers were asked to observe the lessons to see the students’ improvements in speaking skills The results of class observation were used to reflect on the reasons for those improvements Comments and conclusion were made.

Data collection procedure

At the end of the first term of the academic year 2018-2019, an evaluation of the students’ English speaking competency, a pre-test was administered The criteria for evaluating each student’s speaking ability in the pre-test includes fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, pronunciation, and interactive communication

The researcher planned 4 lessons with 4 themes applied the use of PBL in English teaching to motivate the students to learn English and to develop their speaking skills

PBL was carried out in accordance with the lesson plans within 12 weeks and what happened in the class with 48 students was recorded in the teacher’s journals

Two teachers were asked to observe those lessons and evaluate the development in the students’ English speaking skills

The results of class observation were used to evaluate the success of the action research on using PBL to develop student's English speaking skills

A speaking post-test was conducted to find out the efficiency of the use of PBL in developing English speaking for the students

An interview and a questionnaire were carried out to get information from teachers and students on the efficiency of the use of PBL in developing English speaking skills

Based on data from student questionnaires, teacher interview, class observations, teacher journals, and the results of a pre-test and post-test, the researcher made an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis towards the two themes stated in the two research questions

Then the research was put down in writing.

Method of data analysis

Data collected from the questionnaires was quantitatively calculated using Microsoft Excel for statistics and converted into percentages For convenience of presentation and observation, the evaluation of each item was analyzed and presented following the order: the number of students and the percentage that number accounts for out of the total of 48 students participating in the survey

The score of students from the pre-test and post-test was marked out of 10 according to the following criteria adapted from Cambridge English: Key Speaking test (retrieved from Cambridgenglish.org).:

• Grammatical range and accuracy (2.5 points)

The result from the tests was graded according to six features: Outstanding, Excellent, Good, Fair, Average and Unsatisfactory Collected data was also quantitatively calculated using Microsoft Excel for statistics and converted into percentages

The qualitative analysis was conducted with interview data, teaching journal as well as class observation

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings

4.1.1 The students’ English speaking competency before applying PBL

The following table below will show the results of 48 students from the pre-test

Table 4.1: The results of the pre-test Features Outstanding Excellent Good Fair Average Unsatisfactory

The table shows the students’ English speaking competency No students achieved grade “outstanding” or “excellent” There were only 6 students (made up 12.5%) who achieved “good”, 8.3% achieved grade “fair”, “average” students accounted for 22.9% and 56.3% do not meet up expectations

The results from the pre-test showed that the English speaking ability of students were not good Almost these criteria did not meet expectations

4.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards English speaking lessons

Students answered 5 questions in English prepared by the researcher and then handed their papers for analysis (Appendix 4)

Table 4.2: The results of the questionnaire concerning causes of the students’ low

Questions Responses Number of students

(%) a Are you afraid of speaking

English in front of the class?

No 3 (6%) b What are the reasons why you are afraid of speaking

English in front of the class? bad pronunciation 37 (77.1%) lack of vocabulary inadequate grammatical structures

34 (70.8%) fear of mistakes 31 (64.6%) fear of other’s opinions 26 (54.2%) fear of speaking in public 41 (85.4%) c What do you think of the speaking activities in English speaking lessons? boring 35 (73%) interesting 13 (27%) d Do you work in groups actively in the English speaking lessons?

No 34 (70.8%) e How often do you practice speaking English in front of the class? usually 11 (22.9%) sometimes 28 (58.3%) rarely 9 (18.8%)

The collected data from the results of the questionnaire indicates that most of the students (94%) are afraid of speaking English in front of the class The reasons why they are afraid of speaking in front of the class are mainly bad pronunciation fear of lack of vocabulary, mistakes and speaking in public While the fear of speaking in public is proved to be the students’ most difficulty with the highest percentage (85.4%), over third quarter of them were struggling with pronunciation Besides, roughly half of students expressed their viewpoint feeling under pressure from their peers Moreover, the speaking activities in project lessons are not really interesting to motivate students to practice speaking English Seventy-three percent of the class find speaking tasks boring A small number of students, about 30%, were active learners in different group work activities Meanwhile, there was approximately 70% of students

23 who failed in pairs or groups actively during the English speaking Furthermore, students do not have many chances to practice English in front of class For details, nearly two-third of the students (58.3%) sometimes has oral presentation and nine out of the student barely practice speaking English

4.1.3 The students’ improvements during project lessons through the teacher’s journal

The strategies were adopted in 4 units during 12 weeks All of the improvements after each project lesson were noted down by the teacher in the journal (Appendix 5)

With the topic “Sports Games” in Unit 8, the teacher realized that students were quite interested in their own project although they had some difficulties in processing information Moreover, this was the first time they presented in Power-Point in front of the class, so they were not really confident and made a few mistakes in pronunciation However, they were given a chance to collaborate with others and develop speaking skills through their presentation as well as the teacher’s evaluations of them

Unit 9: Cities of the world

At first, students found the theme exciting when they can have opportunity to know more about the world By collecting information for each city, they could enrich their social knowledge Besides, they also had to be selective in providing facts of those cities Designing posters was still a challenge to students in arranging pictures as well as information on a paper Above all, they gained confidence and improved speaking skills in presenting information to the class

Unit 10: Our house in the future

When the teacher assigned this topic, students were enthusiastic about it because children always had a rich imagination They could easily create a unique model with various functions and all listeners were excited to see their work Nevertheless, they had some grammar mistakes and word errors when they show their posters Above all, they had some technique in convey their ideas to members in class and their intonation sounded more natural

Students needed skillful hands as well as time to finish this project They could follow instruction on online videos or create their own products The class turned out to be an environmental gallery and all students could learn and make their own things at home As a result, they have gained some experience in presenting and all students can apply to real life from this project

4.1.4 The students’ improvements during project lessons through the volunteer teachers’ observation

The teacher leaded in the lesson with a short video of the game “Blind man’s bluff” The students were interested in watching the video and understand what information they need to talk about a game When it came to the presentation of each group, most members were not confident in their presentations They were confused when starting and closing presentations They looked up or the other side not focusing on audience during the presentation Their voice faltered as they began their speech They had very limited control of phonological features and is often unintelligible After the presentation, the teacher asked the rest of the class to raise questions and give comments to the presenting groups According to the teachers’ observation, only good students give comments on the presentation They were quite shy and indifferent to the discussion Finally, when the teacher evaluates the project as well as the presentation, all students noted down the teacher’s feedbacks in ways of presenting, pronunciation mistakes, grammatical and word errors

Unit 9: Cities of the world

This time, they have learned from previous groups’ presentations and made suitable adjustments Besides, their team also had well prepared information about those cities The posters were quite impressive However, they still needed to enhance their presentation skills as well as pronunciation Their intonation sounds flat In the part discussion, with the theme related to travelling, students seemed more curious They wanted to be explained more when they heard about facts of those cities At the end of the lesson, all students noted down the teacher’s feedbacks in ways of presenting, pronunciation mistakes, grammatical and word errors They learned some tips for their performance

Unit 10: Our house in the future

Through the project, the teacher could see the great imagination of students All the audiences were impressed by excellent designs and well prepared speech On the other hand, they still made few mistakes in pronunciation and structures Their intonation has improved a lot The students were quite active in asking about the smart designs in discussion

The students understand the threats from environment and the purpose of this project Through the project “the vertical garden” and “Homemade Wind Chimes”, the volunteer could see the great imagination of students All the audiences were impressed by excellent designs and well prepared speech On the other hand, they still made few mistakes in pronunciation and structures Their intonation has improved a lot When they had a chance to exchange views on this topic, the students were enthusiastic to know how to make recycled things They made things very carefully and meticulously The presentation skills of two groups had developed

4.1.5 The students’ improvements in speaking skills through a post test (WBT)

With the application of Project-based Learning during 12 weeks, a post-test was also conducted to evaluate the students’ speaking skills The post-test still followed the form of Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP) level 1

The following table below will show the results of 48 students

Table 4.3: The results of the post-test Features Outstanding Excellent Good Fair Average Unsatisfactory

The results above show that no students achieved grade “outstanding” Nevertheless, there were 5 students (made up about 10.5%) who got grade “excellent”, 14.6% achieved grade “good” and 12 “fair” students made up for 25% Besides, the number of students who did not meet the expectations reduced from 56% to 23%

Table 4.4: The comparison between the result of the post-test and pre-test

Comparing the result of the post-test and the pre-test, it is obvious that the students’ English speaking competency has been improved remarkably It can be seen that the percent of “Excellent” students grew up from 0% to 10% after the process of applying project based learning Subsequently, the proportion of “Fair” students in the post test climbed remarkably three times as much as in the pre-test In addition, there was a slight increase in the “Good” and “Average” segment In contrast, the percentage of students having grade “Unsatisfactory” decreased to 23% in the post test

4.1.6 The students’ improvements in speaking skills through the results of the interview with two teachers

Discussion

This section focuses on the discussion of the key findings in terms of students’ development in English speaking skills and their attitudes towards PBL

4.2.1 The development in English speaking skills

Before applying PBL to the class, the results from the pre-test showed that the English speaking ability of students were not good Almost the criteria related to lexical resource; grammatical range and accuracy; pronunciation and interactive communication did not meet expectations Therefore, the author conducted a questionnaire to find out the cause of this problem Most of the students are afraid of speaking English in front of the class because of bad pronunciation, for fear of lack of vocabulary, mistakes and speaking in public Moreover, the speaking activities in project lessons are not really interesting to motivate students to practice speaking English Especially, almost all group work activities are carried out without the incorporation of team members so the effectiveness of speaking lessons is limited Furthermore, students do not have many chances to practice English in front of class Therefore, most of the problems leading to the low English proficiency of the students in speaking skills belong to the teacher’s responsibilities Thus, the teachers will take the major role in designing strategies for the students’ improvement in speaking skills

The English text book for grade 6 follows communicative language teaching approach With a view to developing students’ communicative skills, PBL was chosen to apply to the project lessons According to teaching journal, students were quite excited in working their first projects The reason why they could develop their ideas quickly was partly that selected themes were related to their daily lives such as sports, games, houses It was assumed by Gaer (1998:22) that students at the beginner or lower level do not have the language or confidence to develop project themes Thus he assumes, teachers need to lead them first before they can decide for themselves Therefore, with the teacher’s instruction, their plans sufficiently orientated It can be

32 seen that in the first topic “Sports and Games”, the students were attentively preparing content for the oral presentation as well as the Power-Point despite some obstacles in processing information However, their weaknesses in speaking skills were revealed by the lack of confidence in presentation and mistakes in pronunciation In the next project, although all groups received feedbacks from the teachers, designing posters was still a challenge to students in arranging pictures as well as information on a paper Nevertheless, they gained confidence and improved speaking skills in presenting information to the class According to the study of Nizwardi, Rahmat & Aznil (2017), when it comes to the last stage of project work, the achievement of the learning process and student’s competences will be revealed Consequently, assessment and evaluation from the teacher as well as other evaluators plays an essential role at this stage As a result, during two next projects, students had certain techniques in conveying their ideas to members in class and their intonation sounded more natural Furthermore, class observation from two volunteer teachers also shows the students’ progress in performance They improve considerably not only in pronunciation or intonation but also in their attitude when they participate in class At the beginning, only good students give comments on the presentation The rest of class were quite shy and indifferent to the discussion By the end of last project lesson, students were attracted by their classmates’ products and actively discuss in class

Besides, it can be concluded from the comparison between the result of pre-test and post-test, Project-based Learning was really sufficient in building up students’ speaking skills Additionally, the result of the interview indicated that there was an approval for the effectiveness of PBL between two teachers Although this approach took time, it was considered as an appropriate strategy to develop students’ speaking skills Project-based Learning brought considerable benefits to students.They actively engage in information gathering, processing, and reporting over a period of time, and the outcome increases content knowledge and language mastery The teacher can discuss the end product with students and explain what exactly they have to do and how, what they have to practice or learn, what they can expect and what is expected from them, the choices they have to make and the rules they have to follow It is very useful from the start to draw a timetable, a plan and a check list of objectives for the project work so that the students can follow the stages of the project

4.2.2 The students’ attitude in English speaking skills towards the use of Project Based Learning

The facts from the result of post-trying out questionnaire for students might be concluded that the try-out stage of conducting the project lessons using PBL had certain good influence on the students' learning attitude so that they could achieve their goals and gain confidence in English speaking skills It can be demonstrated from the next opinions that the students were inspired to learn English during project lessons In other words, compared to other methods of learning and teaching, PBL has made students apply creative thinking skills to innovate new product designs and possibilities for projects As a result, they found their interest in learning through projects

The considerable number of students who were considered to be more responsible for their own learning could be regarded as a big success marking new steps forward of the students' attitude towards learning Furthermore, relationships formed during collaboration is a huge part of PBL Not only do students learn how to work better in groups—providing their own input, listening to others, and resolving conflicts when they arise—they build positive relationships with teachers, which reinforces how great learning is From the survey, almost all students also admitted that they gained cooperation while working as a group Last but not least, public speaking skills is valuable both in students' personal life and career PBL engaged students in public speaking through their presentations This increased their confidence in speaking English It may also help to reduce anxiety about situations in which they can be called to speak in public in the future To put it in a nutshell, when teachers know how to implement PBL in classroom, the efficiency of teaching and learning English can be advanced

On the other hand, most of the students encountered some difficulties when carrying out their projects for the first time Team work can be seen as the most serious problem Problems occur when some students do most of the work The team collaborates on not working together Sometimes this happens because one or more students refuse to do the work Other times it happens because one or two members do not want others involved, fearing that their grade will be damaged by the efforts of peers they perceive as having fewer skills At the beginning, although clear roles for

34 group members were assigned, some students dominated the work, while others did little work Another obstacle concerned the long duration of the projects Some students seemed to have lost interest and motivation by the end of the project Finally, many students feel like passive participants in their education—and many education experiences lead them to that At the beginning of project work some students felt apprehensive of project work

CONCLUSION

Recapitulation

This study was conducted with the aim to develop English speaking skills for the sixth-grade students at school Two research questions were raised at the beginning:

(1) What are significant differences in students’ English speaking skills before and after applying PBL?

(2) How does PBL influence students’ attitudes in their English project lessons?

The thesis has described a research in which the author made effort to solve problems in terms of the low English competence of the students in speaking skills by applying Project-based Learning The author conducted in terms of both theory and practice To gain the theoretical background, relevant literature involving the study was reviewed Then the data for analysis was collected from common instruments, namely questionnaires, tests and interview

Although Project-based learning is new method to both teachers and students, the results of the research showed that students had positive attitude towards the use of Project-based Learning in English lessons Consequently, most of students made real breakthrough in speaking skills In addition, PBL affected on students' interpersonal skills Students were grouped together to work, which fostered communication skills and encouraged even students with diverse and possibly conflicting personalities to find a common ground, or at the very least a way to work together without constant tension When students carried out the project work, they knew that being a team member; they had to learn to be responsible for their roles assigned to them Most importantly, most of the students, regardless of language performance, or motivational intensity seemed to have improve their cooperative skill Also, their computer skills improved, mainly, the ability to use the internet to search for information To sum up, PBL provides students with not only good English speaking skills but also some necessary skills for integration and development in the 21st century

However, the findings also show that the students had to struggle with some problems as mentioned above The teacher remedied these problems by providing

36 procedures for task completion and engaging students in different projects in the hope that they can overcome the difficulties.

Concluding remarks

According to the study on developing students’ speaking ability through PBL for sixth-grade students, the researcher comes to the conclusion that PBL could boost the students’ speaking very substantially

The author explained to the students what PBL was before giving them the projects to complete based on the themes in the text book The students in group of 6 carried out their projects then performed them in front of the class From the results of the research, it can be demonstrated that the students gave positive response towards the implementation of PBL They gradually enjoyed the discussion and the performance based on what they had made There was also development in the students’ speaking skills Moreover, students engaged in learning process more actively With the application of PBL to teaching and learning process Teacher will take the role of a resource provider, a facilitator, a counselor as well as a co-learner in classroom Clearly, the study has given the answers to all research questions and achieved its aims The study is also carried out in the hope that it would be a far- reaching recommendation for English teachers who want to apply PBL in their language teaching

In short, PBL is considered an appropriate approach which makes a significant contribution to boosting students’ English speaking skills It should be an innovative aspect in English teaching and learning thanks to its benefits to students and teachers.

Limitations

The study still has some drawbacks To begin with, the modest scale of the study only occurred in eight periods for three months with a small number of students

(48 students) Meanwhile, according to the official curriculum, it becomes impossible to carry out more lessons with PBL for the whole school year due to the time limitation Attitudes should be investigated best through a longitudinal study rather than in a very limited time since participants’ responses can be changeable from time to time depending on environmental and specific individual factors Moreover, the researcher did not have opportunity to process the project learning for more classes at

37 school Besides, the researcher’s practical experience of PBL is limited because the researcher has just started the teaching career.

Suggestions for further research

This study is limited in that the results cannot generalize beyond the research participants Hence, further studies can be conducted with a wider range of population and cover larger and deeper aspects of English speaking skills Furthermore, a longitudinal study about students’ attitudes should be carried out to explore whether there is any change of attitudes in the learning process or not Last but not least, it is believed that attitudes of language learners may affect their proficiency in language learning, so future studies are suggested to more deeply delve into the relationships between attitudes and learning achievements.

Implications for developing speaking skills through Project Based Learning

As revealed from the study, one of the factors that affect most negatively the students’ speaking skills is their English language proficiency The students themselves were clearly aware that their lack of linguistic knowledge, such as limited vocabulary, grammatical structures was the main reason hindering them from developing their speaking skills Therefore, it was important to improve their knowledge of English, especially vocabulary and pronunciation However, the success relied mainly on their personal endeavor and self-study Students must be willing to learn and have high responsibility in their own learning They must understand well the nature of the learning process They need to be aware that teachers cannot teach them unless they themselves are prepared to take some of the strain It is very practical that in current time, English is one of the keys that may help students be more successful and have better jobs in the future In order to do that, they should try to perfect their English knowledge, not except speaking skills as much as possible They should train themselves to be successful language learners who possess some or all of the characteristics: A willingness to listen; A willingness to experiment; A willingness to ask questions; A willingness to think about how to learn; A willingness to accept correction (Harmer, 1998) Obviously, when students are eager or goal-oriented, they can become active in their learning

Besides, Speech anxiety is another major problem that leads to students’ stately progress in speaking skills It is understandable as Barker (2000: 116-117) stated that

“Every presenter - indeed - every performer - suffers from nerves” However, the author also maintained that “If you can support your nerves with solid preparation, you can channel your nervous energy into the performance itself Prepare well, and you will be ready to bring the presentation to life” He also advised presenters not to try to dispel the nerves, but to use them To be able to overcome shyness, nervousness as well as to gain confidence, students have to make sure to be well- prepared for their presentations

Due to their low proficiency, the students had to deal with a lot of difficulties in improving speaking skills It is teachers who know for sure what the students need to be promoted Thus, helping students to improve their linguistic competence is considered the essential job of all the teachers when teaching the skills First, teachers should revise grammatical structures, the pronunciation and vocabulary Second, they should provide students with a wide range of oral activities and pronunciation exercises focusing on stress and intonation regularly The fact that teachers provide linguistic knowledge students need in advance means to provide the students with more confidence and opportunities to practice their oral presentation Moreover, teachers also should continually acquire various teaching methods It is proved from the study that applying project-based learning to project lessons brings significant impacts on students’ speaking ability

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APPENDICES Appendix 1 THE FORMAT OF VIETNAMESE STANDARLIZED TEST OF ENGLISH

Aims Format of questions Tasks

Measure the speaking skills level 1:

- Ask and answer questions in daily conversations

- Interaction skill in fixed situations

+ 2 Qs about personal information (name, age…)

+ 3 Qs about some familiar topics: daily routine, hobbies, family, friend, school, pets…

Answer the questions in short answers

+ 4 Qs about naming the objects and describing or giving opinions related to those objects + 1 Q about giving simple direction

Look at the objects, then answer the questions and do actions as requested Part 3

5 Questions about describing a picture including:

+ 4 Qs about the picture + 1 Q related to the topic of the picture

Observe the picture and answer the questions

Appendix 2 THE PRE – TEST SAMPLE Part 1: Interview

4 What do you like doing in your free time?

5 Do you have any pets?

There are 5 pictures of different instruments including: flute, piano, guitar, violin, saxophone

1 Can you name all the musical instruments here?

2 Which instrument is longer, guitar or violin?

3 Which instrument has the loudest sound?

4 Do you know how to play any musical instruments?

Now you will do the action as requested:

Put the flute under between your lips

Look at the picture and answer following questions:

1 How many people are there in the picture?

2 Are they happy or sad? Why?

4 What is the weather like?

5 What does your family often do in the weekend?

Appendix 3 THE ASSESSMENT SCALES FOR PRE-TEST

Uses a range of appropriate vocabulary when talking about everyday situations

Shows a good degree of control of simple grammatical forms

Sentence and word stress is generally accurately placed

Individual sounds are generally articulated clearly

Maintains simple exchanges Requires very little prompting and support

Performance shares features of “2.5 pts” and “1.5 pts”

Uses appropriate vocabulary to talk about everyday situations

Shows sufficient control of simple grammatical forms

Is mostly intelligible, despite limited control of phonological features

Maintains simple exchanges, despite some difficulty

Performance shares features of “0.5 pt” and “1.5 pts”

Uses a vocabulary of isolated words and phrases

Shows only limited control of a few grammatical

Has very limited control of phonological features and is

Has considerable difficulty maintaining simple

IV forms often unintelligible exchanges Requires additional prompting and support

Performance shares features of “0.5 pt”

Appendix 4 PRE-TRYING OUT QUESTIONAIRE FOR STUDENTS

The following questionnaire is conducted to find the causes of low English proficiency of the students in speaking skills

Please circle the most appropriate options according to you

Question 1: Are you nervous when you have to speak in English in front of the crowd? a Yes b No

Question 2: What are the reasons why you are nervous when speaking in front of the class You can choose more than one answer a Bad pronunciation b Lack of vocabulary and inadequate grammatical structures c Fear of mistakes d Fear of other’s opinions e Fear of speaking in public

Question 3: What do you think of the speaking activities in English speaking lessons? a boring b interesting

Question 4: Do you work in groups actively in the English speaking lessons? a Yes b No

Question 5: How often do you practice speaking English in front of the class? a usually b sometimes c rarely

Appendix 5 THE TEACHING JOURNAL IN PROJECT LESSONS

Aims: By the end of the unit, the students will be able to obtain:

- General knowledge: some information about sports and games

- Speaking: speaking skills – talking about your favourite games

Materials: projector, laptop, videos, pictures, Power-Point presentation

- The students may have difficulty in making Power-Point presentation or video

- They may have pronunciation mistakes and lack confidence in presenting information in front of class

Teacher instructs students to read the passage about the game “Blind man’s bluff” (see APPENDIX 3) and provide a list of suggested games for them to choose The project consists four stages: a Speculation:

- Choose the project topic b Designing the project activities:

- Collect the information of the game on the Internet or any reliable resources including:

- Find videos about the game they choose and make a Power-Point presentation containing all information c Conducting the project activities

- Gather and process information and display the final product in front of class with presentation in Power-Point d Evaluation

- Assess the project including activities, aims, achieved goals, implementation of the process and final product

Evaluation: Students were quite interested in their own project although they had some difficulties in processing information Moreover, this was the first time they presented in Power-Point in front of the class, so they were not really confident and made a few mistakes in pronunciation However, they were given a chance to collaborate with others and develop speaking skills through their presentation as well as the teacher’s evaluations of them

 Unit 9: Cities of the world

- General knowledge: some information about famous cities around the world

- Vocabulary: continents, countries, cities and landmarks

- Speaking: speaking skills – talking about some famous cities around the world

Materials: projector, laptop, pictures, posters, Power-Point presentation

- The students may have difficulty in designing a poster

- They may still lack confidence in presenting information in front of class

Teacher suggests some famous cities around the world: Paris, London, Sydney, New York, Hanoi, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo Each group will choose five cities to carry out their work The project consists four stages: a Speculation:

- Choose five cities in the world that they want to visit

- Find the location of the city on the world map

- Find five interesting facts about each city

- Design a poster Make sure to include the facts about the cities and some pictures of their landmarks c Conducting the project activities

- Gather and process information and display the final product in front of class with presentation in Power-Point and posters d Evaluation

Evaluation: At first, students found the theme exciting when they can have opportunity to know more about the world By collecting information for each city, they could enrich their social knowledge Besides, they also had to be selective in providing facts of those cities Designing posters was still a challenge to students in arranging pictures as well as information on a paper Above all, they gained confidence and improved speaking skills in presenting information to the class

 Unit 10: Our house in the future

- General knowledge: different houses and appliances in the future

- Vocabulary: words to talk about types of houses and appliances

- Speaking: speaking skills – talking about the future appliances

Materials: projector, laptop, pictures, posters, Power-Point presentation

- The students may have difficulty in designing a poster

- They may have a few mistakes in pronunciation

Teacher encourages students to imagine smart appliances based on things around them or what can happen in the future The project consists four stages: a Speculation:

- Think about an appliance you would like to have in the future

- Prepare details about the appliance following suggested questions

 What does it look like?

- Design a poster Make sure to include the details about the appliance c Conducting the project activities

- Gather and process information and display the final product in front of class with presentation in Power-Point d Evaluation

Evaluation: Students were enthusiastic about the topic because children always had a rich imagination They could easily create a unique model with various functions and all listeners were excited to see their work Nevertheless, they had some grammar mistakes and word errors when they show their posters Above all, they had some technique in convey their ideas to members in class and their intonation sounded more natural

- General knowledge: environmental problems and their effects

- Vocabulary: things that can be reduced, reused and recycled

- Speaking: speaking skills – talking about a recycled product

Materials: projector, laptop, Power-Point presentation, recycled things

- The students may have difficulty in craft activities, making videos

- They may have a few mistakes in pronunciation

Teacher shows the pictures of recycled things and videos how to make things like those The project consists four stages: a Speculation:

- Choose something used around you such as a bottle, a can, a sheet of paper

- Make something new from it and decorate it

- Take photos or making a video about the process of making those things c Conducting the project activities

- Collect used things to recycle them and display the final product in front of class with presentation in Power-Point d Evaluation

Evaluation: Students needed skillful hands as well as time to finish this project They could follow instruction on online videos or create their own products The class turned out to be an environmental gallery and all students could learn and make their own things at home As a result, they have gained some experience in presenting and all students can apply to real life from this project

Appendix 6 THE PROJECT LESSONS’S OBSERVATION

1 Brief description of the first lesson with the topic “Sports and games”

- T shows a short video of the game

“Blind man’s bluff” asks Ss some questions related to the video:

1 What game are they playing?

2 How many players in the game?

3 What do they need to play the game?

4 Can you guess the rules of the game?

1 Blind man’s bluff (Vietnamese: Bit mat bat de)

3 a blind fold and an open space

- The students were interested in watching the video and understand what information they need to talk about a game

- T asks Ss in groups to present their project including videos and recycled things

- Group 1 presents their projects about the game “Tug of war”

- Group 2 presents their projects about the game “Dragon- snake”

- Most students were not confident in their presentations They were confused when starting and closing presentations They looked up or the other side not focusing on audience during the presentation Their voice faltered as they began their speech They has very limited control of phonological features and is often unintelligible

- T asks the audience to raise questions and give comments to the presenting groups

- Questions are given to the presentation groups

- Only good students give comments on the presentation They were quite shy and indifferent to the discussion

2 Brief description of the first lesson with the topic “Cities of the world”

- T shows a short video of most popular cities in the world and asks Ss some questions

- The students were excited to know about the list and the landmarks as well as symbols of those

- T evaluates the project as well as the presentation according to the scoring rubric

- T introduces some steps for an effective presentation and ask them to practice at home for the next presentations

- Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen

Introducing the theme of the presentation:

- Today I’m going to talk about…

- The purpose of my presentation is…

- Our presentation is divided into … Main parts/sections

- To start with/ then/ next/ Finally

- I would be grateful if you could ask any questions about our presentation

- All students noted down the teacher’s feedbacks in ways of presenting, pronunciation mistakes, grammatical and word errors

- With a formative assessment, next presentations would have better changes

XIV related to the video:

1 Can you name all cities appearing in the video?

2 Have you ever been to any one of them?

3 Do you know landmarks of those cities?

- T asks Ss in groups to present their project including pictures and posters

- Group 5 presents their project “Southeast Asia journey”: Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta

- Group 6 presents their project “Europe journey”: London,

- This time, they have learned from previous groups’ presentations and made suitable adjustments Besides, their team also had well prepared information about those cities The posters were quite impressive

- However, they still needed to enhance their presentation skills as well as pronunciation Their intonation sounds flat Discussion

- T asks the audience to raise questions and give comments to the presenting groups

- Questions are given to the presentation groups

- With the theme related to travelling, students seemed more curious They wanted to be explained more

XV when they heard about facts of those cities Teacher’s evaluation

- T evaluates the project as well as the presentation according to the scoring rubric

- T gives some tips for students to prepare a powerful presentation

1 You should show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

2 You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond

3 When planning your presentation, you should always concentrate on the core message

4 You should smile and make eye contact with your audience

5 The beginning of your presentation is crucial

You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it

6 Use your voice, your body effectively

- All students noted down the teacher’s feedbacks in ways of presenting, pronunciation mistakes, grammatical and word errors

- They learned some tips for their performance

3 Brief description of the first lesson with the topic “Our house in the future”

- T shows some pictures of future houses and appliances T

- The students were eager to see the images and their friends’ innovative

XVI suggests what should be included in their description:

- T asks Ss in groups to present their project including pictures and posters

- Group 3 presents their project “the intelli- kitchen”: The OTTO smart-kitchen system’s aim is to provide healthy meals and an enhanced food experience that embraces preferences, the user’s schedule, and social moments in the home

Tiêu đề	Applying Project-Based Learning to Teaching Project Lessons to Enhance Students’ Speaking Skills in the Pilot Textbook Tiếng Anh 6 (English 6) Under The National Foreign Languages 2020 Project
Tác giả	Pham Le Van
Người hướng dẫn	Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van
Trường học	Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies
Chuyên ngành	English Language Teaching Methodology
Thể loại	M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2021
Thành phố	Hanoi

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