The effects of role play on improving the secondyear English non majored students speaking performance within the protocal context of tourism at Sai Gon art culture and tourism college

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MIN ISTRY OF EDUCATION ¿ AN D TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

THE EFFECTS OF ROLE-PLAY ON IMPROVING THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

WITHIN THE PROTOCOL CONTEXT OF TOURISM AT SAI GON ART-

CULTURE AND TOURISM COLLEGE

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL)

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines the effectiveness of role-play activities on improving the speaking performance of the second-year English non-majored students at Sai Gon Art-Culture and Tourism College (SAIGONACT College)

This thesis sought to answer the question of (1) whether there was a significant difference between role-play instruction and regular instruction on improving the students’ speaking performance in terms of fluency and interaction (i.e turn-taking, routine) within the protocol setting of tourism contexts; (2) what the learners’ views were on the implementation of role-play

There were one hundred and two second-year English non-majored students of SAIGONACT College involved in this study They were conveniently selected and randomly assigned into either the experimental group or the control group

The data obtained from the study were then subjected to quantitative analysis The findings indicated that role-play improved the students’ speaking performance within the protocol setting in terms of tourism remarkably Specifically, it helped the students get high motivation in involving speaking activities in terms of interaction and fluency

In addition, role-play activity was proved to be one of the effective classroom teaching techniques that encouraged the students to participate actively during speaking activities

in classroom Therefore, the students practiced the target language in specific contexts to

real-life, particularly tourism context, which the students were much motivated In short,

the positive findings have offered intriguing implications for the use of role-play activities in the colleges in general and SAIGONACT College in particular, which share the same circumstances as those described in this study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I: INTRODUCTION .scsssssssssssssrsssssececssssenssesenenssssssssneasecerecesoreesensoeos 1

1.1 Background of the study .- 55s sàng H991 2101 1xkeg l

1.3 Research quU€SfIOTNS - - + 54 k9 2 HH 1981 11 0100110110 9 111 th 7kg 4

I j9 ch .Ố 5 1.5 Significance of the sfUỦY ác scnttnHnh HH g01011 242010001011 1e 5 1.6 Structure Of the sSfUỦYy - Án HH ng HH ng g0 11001 11801811 7kP 6

Chapter II:LITERATURE REV [E W ccSSSSĂ HH 100800801 003000050 7

2.1 Speaking - - nh” HH HH1 HH g1 081K kt TH 0101111101011 174 7 2.1.1 Definition of speakingg ¿+ + se 2 TH 141 1411111011 7 2.1.2 Speaking skill 2t 2 HyrHangHnH221 ee §

2.1.2.1 Speaking 1s as a SKIÌÌ - cà Sàn 201221111 8

2.1.2.2 Skills In speaking - - «sa sen 0110218211110 1tr 10 2.1.3 Teaching speaking -«-+z + ng 010101 1101110401110 1140 13 2.1.3.1 Teaching fÏuenCy << ng 0g g1 xe 13 2.1.3.2 Teaching interactional skIÏÌS .-s- sa sssevererrrssrtrrrrrriee 13 2.1.4 Principles ofteaching speaking + c-cessieerrrresrree - T4 2.1.5 Types of classroom speaking perfOrrTnannc€ - -‹ +5 ++=<-=+sxe+ 17

2.1.6 Problems in speaking actÏVÏti€S s sàng 18

2.2 Role-play in teaching speaking - 6-56 csrxererterrsrkererrrrerkrrke 21 2.2.1 Definition of role-pÏAY - << cv HH HH n0 01 0 g1 ee 2] 2.2.2 The characteristics of role-play in teaching speaking 22 2.2.3 Types ofrole-play In teaching speaking .- -. si 24 _2.2.4 Benefits of role-play in teaching speaking -eseeesreree 25 2.2.5 Steps in using role-play in teaching speaking -‹ -+<-++ 26 2.3 Chapter SUMIMALY . 6 2 1999 12 91 HH TH TH TH TT 1010110111111 116 27

Chapter III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ° 29

3.1 Research eSiØT - - + + kh HH HH HT g0 04111111111111.110 29

iv

3.1.1 Pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design - -++e++ 29

3.2 Research site and parfiCÏpannfS . ninh 31

KESAN (co c 31

KÝ cv nh 3]

3.2.2.1 Sampling ha 31

KÝ» nhì ca T 32

KÝ» CN o9 5a 32

3.3 Da tyD€S Án.” 110 c0 0 0101 0011 111040 010 tr 1111001107 010g 33 c6 9 e 34

3.3.1.1 PrOC€UT€S G0 42319.” TH HH ng H0 1001 101189009 34 3.3.1.2 SCOFifnØ CTIẨT14 5 + + nh 1111012120111 1100171 11 1e 35 3.3.2 Questionnaires 2t z2 text ¬ - „39

3.4 PreparatiOn SÍ4Ø€S .- sàng 2 HH0 111001011 111 gà 01 10g 40 khá» 42

chán no nh 42

3.5.2 Pilot instrument 7n 42

3.6 Methods of dafa ariaÌySIS «<9 v13 1010 1101 11 te 43 3.6.1 Analysis of students” oraÏ †€SẲS nành -44 3.6.2 Analysis of student quesfiOnna1f€ sss + set 44 3.7 Procedure of đata cOl€CtiOT Ác nh HH HH g0 21 1 TH 01 1100 g1 ch 44 3.8 Chapter SUIIHAFV 5-55 tre 44 Chapter IV: THE FINDINGS SÁ44844444.094 0 90 94.08804.084.0800060004080909960009908 46 4.1 Analysis of students” oraÌ t€SS cà nen re 46 4.1.1 Analysis of students’ post-oral tests in terms of fluency for two groups 46 4.1.2 Analysis of students’ post-oral tests in terms of interaction for two groups "— 47

4.1.3 Analysis of students’ post-oral tests for both groups - 48

4.1.4 Analysis of students” pre-oral tests for both groups . 48 4.2 Analysis of students” questÏOnAiF€ «5s cĂ nhe 50

4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill (question l) 50 4.2.2 Students` interests towards role-play (question 2 & 3) - 50 4.2.3 Students’ attitudes towards role-play on improving their speaking ability

(question 4,5 & 6) .cccccsceeeesesssersstesssesessesessetsessssseessenesseeeesssenserenssasenssenenss 51 4.2.4 Students’ confidence gained from role-play (question 7 & 8) 53 4.2.5 Students’ suggestions towards the time role-play implemented (question

) 54

4.2.6 Students’ comments towards the role-play instructed course in comparison

Chapter VI: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 64

6.1 Summary of major findings and concÏusion «555+s+s+ssxses 64

6.3 Limitation and recommendations for further research - 68

6.4 Chapf€T SUTTITAFY 5 22 3h 91110 7 0148181121412411117171 110 70 REFERENCCE 5 G5 5S Ơn 90303005604808940848080855 —- W i Appendix l _ 74

U50 v18: 01007087 75

Appendix 2B Bang câu hỏi đánh giá thái độ hoạt động đóng vai 78 Appendix 3A Three major stages Of role-pÌaY -ccsesserereieteereeieeree 81

vi

Appendix 4B Pre-test scores of control] 8TOUp «5+ seieerererrirrre 95 Appendix 4C Post-test scores of experimenfal ørOup -« -e-eereee 97 Appendix 4D Post-oral test scores of controÏ øTOUp -. -ccseceeeerrree 99

Appendix 4E Total pre - post test scores oŸ experimental group - 101

Appendix 4F Total pre - post test scores of confrol ørOup .-. - 103

Appendix 4G Total pre - post test scores of both øgrOups . - 105

Appendix 5 Test scores of pre and post oral test for pilot -. - 107

Appendix 6A Indepenent sample t-test (post test of fluency) 108

Appendix 6B Indepenent sample t-test (post test of interaction) - 109

Appendix 6C Indepenent sample t-test (post oraÏ t€Sf) -. -c ++ 110

Appendix 6D Indepenent sample t-test (pre oral test) -.- -<<<2 lil Appendix 7A Percentage — mean — SD oŸ questionnaire - 112

Appendix 7B Reliability coefficient of pre and post test for piÏot 113

Appendix 7C Reliability coefficient of questionnaire for pilot .- - 114

LIST OF TABLES

Tabel 2A The scoring classification ÍOr aCCUTäCY à series 36

Table 2.C The scoring classification for 1nteraCtIOn ccchheHeeieeeire 38

Table 4 Result of the post-oral tests in terms of uency for tWwO øTOUps 47 Table 5 Result of the post-oral tests in terms of interaction for two groups 47

Table 8 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill C100 911191 tt ng ng re 50 Table 9 Students’ interests towards role-play scscscsssseseseeessssseeeteseseesersneteeeens 51 Table 10 Students° attitudes towards the effectiveness of role-play - 52 Table 11 Students’ confidence gained from role-pÌay - + -<<ssrsrreresree 53 Table 12 Students’ suggestions towards the time role-play implemented 54

vin

: significance (two-tailed) : Statistics Package for the Social Sciences

CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

Recent years, Vietnamese students, particularly tourism majored students, are expected to be able to communicate orally in English after graduation to prepare for their future jobs The tourism students are expected to work in service fields which will be involved with people in many situations and many contexts where English will dominate their conversations Moreover, tourism colleges in Vietnam have played an important role in training students to become professional and skillful tourist guides for both domestic and foreign tourism companies Unfortunately, most students encounter many problems in speaking English during the colleges and after graduation

The fact that the reason leading to students’ difficulty in learning to speak English is spoken English is rarely used outside the classroom Also, the classroom instruction

is most likely to provide students with the language input only The students, therefore, receive limited target language input as well as limited language learning time Some students showed that they did not like the teaching method used by their teachers during their speaking classes, which is a factor leading to their reluctance

or refusal from joining to speak English in classroom

Based on the situations analyzed above, in teaching English as a foreign language, the English teachers are required to apply the effective teaching techniques that have more progressive and dynamic approaches in teaching and learning process to bring the students’ motivation in learning to speak English That is, the teacher is strongly expected to provide meaningful input, appropriate communicative teaching methods, and authentic materials to develop learners’ communicative competence

in the target language in specific contexts These techniques also help the English teachers in achieving the goals for language teaching, especially teaching speaking Richard (2008) states that a large percentage of the world’s language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking This is because of the fact that the functions of speaking that cover many aspects of human interaction, such as involving in expressing ideas and opinions, expressing a wish or a desire to do something, negotiating, solving a particular problem, establishing and building social relationship

Despite the fact that the objective of English teaching is to equip students with the four basic skills; namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing, it is an undeniable fact that speaking should be considered to be the most important skill that the students should reach in order to be able to communicate effectively O’Malley and Pierce (1996) posit that speaking seems to be an important skill that a learner should acquire According to O’Malley and Pierce, it is very important to enable the students to communicate effectively through oral language because the disability of the students in speaking skills may lead to their being unable to express their ideas even in a simple form in a simple context In addition, among those above-mentioned skills, speaking skills have been commonly viewed as the most demanding skills (Bailey & Savage, 1994) In other word, speaking is the most basic competence and the most important skill of a language It is a kind of tools to convey a message in specific situations Therefore, speaking skills should be taught formally in order that the students can convey the message in the form of information, knowledge, or experience to other people appropriately not only inside but also outside the classroom To recap, being able to speak English well is considered to be one of any teachers’ concerns in teaching English, particularly speaking teachers’

In applying speaking teaching strategies in the classroom setting, some techniques and activities are suggested in teaching speaking, especially specialized English such as teaching learners how to negotiate meaning and to interact meaningfully in

the real situations According to Bygate (1997), there are several kinds of strategies

in teaching and learning foreign languages such as guessing strategy, negotiation, reduction, ect If a speaker uses guessing strategies, he probes for a word which he does not know or is not sure of, using his knowledge of the morphology of the language to facilitate

Additionally, teaching English non-majored students for the first semester for three different classes for the academic year 2009 at the SAIGONACT College, the researcher recognized that almost all teachers spent most of their time explaining about the language, translating word by word in the textbook, giving written tasks, and asking the students to look for the meaning of new words Most teachers used the traditional methods in teaching the students how to speak English for tourism at the college in general and in the second-years classes majoring in tourism The material was in use now is ‘Highly Recommended English for the hotel and catering industry’ edited by Trish Stott & Rod revel (New edition-Oxford University Express) The students had one year for general English and two years for English for tourism at the college However, the students could not speak English well and they expressed that they did not like the teaching method that the teachers used to teach them how to speak English for tourism

The researcher tried to apply different methods in teaching how to speak English for tourism in the hope to improve his students’ speaking ability such as story-

telling, discussion, story completion, and questions and answer, but these did not

help him much When the researcher used these techniques, the students hardly improved their speaking skill They could not speak fluently They spoke English with many pauses and hesitance Also, they did not have the interactional skills which are conformed to spoken conventions with the smooth flow of speech and with natural pauses without a great effort, and turn-taking The students seemed to de-motivate in doing the oral tasks and did not pay attention to the teacher and hence they were not enthusiastic to the lessons They did not participate actively in

the instructional activities Consequently, they seemed to get bored soon and uninterested in speaking English, particularly English for tourism that they were covering

The researcher read several studies about using role-play to improve students’ speaking skill and he discovered that role-play techniques were used very effectively in helping students improve their speaking skills by the researchers, practitioners, (e.g Huang, I Y 2008: “Role Play for ESL/EFL Children in the English Classroom; Siwu, M (2005): “Improving the Students’ Speaking Skill of SLTPN Manado by Using Role-Play” However, those studies were mostly applied for the young learners at junior or senior high schools Furthermore, these studies were mostly applied in teaching General Basic English, not English for tourism The researcher wondered if role-play could be successfully applied to teach speaking skills for the pre-intermediate level students, was it likely to be used to

‘improve the second-year English non-majored students’ English speaking performance at college level or not? This is the reason why he chose role-play as a very technique to be used to improve the speaking ability of the second year English non-majored students at SAIGONACT College

1.2 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to find out the effectiveness of role play

on EFL students’ speaking performance within the protocol setting of tourism contexts at SAIGONACT College and (2) to explore EFL students’ perceptions on the use of role-play in teaching speaking in tourism contexts

1.3 Research questions

To achieve the twofold purposes as articulated above, this thesis sought to answer the following research questions:

1 Does the experimental group significantly outperform the control group in their speaking performance as a result of the treatment of role-play in terms of (a) interaction (i.e turn-taking) and (b) fluency in the protocol setting of tourism?

2 What are the second year English non-majored students’ reactions in the experimental group on the use of role-play in teaching speaking skill? To what extent do students have (a) positive views and (b) negative views after the exposure

of role-play on students’ speaking performance?

1.4 Hypotheses

There are two research hypotheses as below:

1 It is hypothesized that the experimental group would significantly outperform the control one in their speaking performance during the post-test, suggesting that hypothesis zero will be nullified This also suggests that there will be no differences

in the mean scores of the two groups during the pre-test

2 It is also hypothesized that students would have positive views and negative views toward the use of role-play in teaching speaking within protocol settings 1.5 Significance of the study

The results of this study are expected to offer useful information to the teachers, especially the English teachers who are in charge of teaching English to English non-majored students at SAIGONACT College to change their teaching method suitably in the hope to make the speaking teaching method become more effective and more interesting In the same vein, the findings of this study also suggest the procedures or guidelines in implementing role-play techniques not only for English

teachers in SAIGONACT College but also for different colleges in using the role- play technique to teach their students more effectively Finally, the findings of the study may be also useful for those who want to have further study on teaching how

to speak English for tourism

1.6 Structure of the study

This thesis comprises six chapters and is organized as follows

Chapter | focuses on the background to the speaking-teaching problem; this section includes six parts of background, research aim and questions, hypotheses, significance of the study, and structure of the thesis Chapter 2 is a literature review Chapter 3 describes the research design and methodology used for data collection Chapter 4 analyses and interprets the data collected Chapter 5 discusses the findings analyzed in chapter 4 Chapter 6 presents the tentative conclusions, some limitations

of the study as well as some recommendations for further research

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

As stated in Chapter 1, speaking skill plays an important role in communication However, in most colleges, the teaching of speaking skill is traditional and boring, which focus on grammar-translation method Therefore, the key objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of role-play instruction on learners’ speaking performance in terms of fluency and interaction (e.g turn-taking) Thus, this chapter provides a theoretical framework that serves as a basis for establishing conceptual framework for the study

This chapter then covers the previous related studies, theories and concepts which are related to the effects of role-play on improving speaking performance The review shows the effects of role-play as the good/best teaching speaking method on improving students’ speaking ability and the students’ positive opinions towards role-play activity Specifically, this chapter embarks on the two main sections, namely, speaking skill and role-play in teaching speaking Each of them is discussed in depth in the following section

2.1 Speaking

2.1.1 Definition of Speaking

The terms ‘speaking’, according to Brown (2001), is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs

We generally use speaking as a means of communication in daily interaction The

presence of speaker and listener is a prerequisite to build up a mutual communication in speaking activity Thus, speaking is considered to be inseparable

to something we call communication Communication is the way individual can show the feelings, tell the thoughts, ask questions, ask for help, argue, complain, persuade, explain, and give order It is important to say that there is a relationship between the speaker and listener This relationship builds up the oral production

Moreover, Chaney (1998: 13) reveals that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts" It is not only a situation for the students to use the language If the students resume that they are good at speaking, they must be able to use the language in different situations

To recap, ‘speaking’ is an interactive process of constructing meaning through the process of producing and receiving and processing information between the speakers and listeners in the context where the two sides together participate in the communicative process either every life conversation or business transaction In order to produce a good piece of speaking, both speakers and listeners must master some rules of speaking skills The next part will elaborate more about it

2.1.2 Speaking skill

2.1.2.1 Speaking is as a skill

According to Harmer (2007), speaking is a skill, and such need to be developed, practiced independently of the grammar curriculum and then use linguistic knowledge such as speech act knowledge, discourse knowledge, and knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and phonology

In addition, spoken language is the most familiar form of language that is used by members of society in order to build relation As a means of communication, spoken language fundamentally occurs within a context In some social contexts, spoken language is used as the dominant form of communication (Burns and Joyce, 1997) In addition, Burns and Joyce state that even in other contexts where written language is given ‘more status,’ such as in educational context, spoken language is

still needed

Mastering the spoken language is not merely mastering its articulation and forms The ultimate aim of mastery of spoken language is to communicate This means that mastery of rule of speaking and conversational skill is necessary In other words, the students must be able to use English for either interactional or transactional purposes Therefore, the students must be taught about the acceptable expression of language functions and formulaic expressions when opening, responding, and

terminating a conversation For this reason, the teachers of English need to use

teaching techniques by which the students can be involved in the communication actively

Besides, Bygate (1997) stated that speaking was a skill which deserved attention every bit as much as literacy skill It is often thought of as a ‘popular’ form of expression that uses the colloquial register Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill Perhaps this is because we can almost all speak, and so take the skill too much for granted In his own view, Mackey (1965) shows that ‘oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a choice of words and inflections in the right order

to convey the right meaning’(cited in Bygate, 1997: 5) According to Mackey (cited

in Bygate: 1997), for the student who wants to be good at speaking, he/ she has to

choose the right forms, put them in correct order, sound it like native speaker and even produce the right meanings

As Bygate, M (1997) gives an example that an analogy with the riders of a motorcycle may be helpful They need to know the controls; where they are; what their functions are and how they are operated However, the riders also need the skill to be able to use the controls to ride the motorcycle along a road without getting to close to any dangerous obstacles or even hitting them They should know when they push the break or move the gears with his or her feet, not with hands And the riders also have to able to ride the motorcycle in various condition of road safely

In conclusion, spcaking is a skill which requires the speaker not only master the

grammatical rules but the ability of using the linguistic knowledge such as speech act knowledge, discourse knowledge, and knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and phonology as well As speaking in a foreign language is a complex skill, it is required to be formally taught rather than “picked up naturally” In order to learn to speak in a foreign language successfully, one must acquire many things such as interactional skills, transactional skills, accuracy, fluency, intelligibility, comprehensibility and so on The next part will elaborate more about the skills in speaking

2.1.2.2 Skills in speaking

According to Bygate (1987), there are two basic skills in speaking as described

below:

The first basic type of skill in speaking is motor-perceptive skills These skills involve perceiving, recalling, and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of the language To be a good speaker, learner must choose the right forms, put them in the correct order, sound like a native speaker and even produce the right meanings

The second basic type of skill in speaking is interaction skills These skills involve

making decisions about communication, such as: what to say it, how to say it, and whether to develop it, in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the

desired relations with others These are skills where the ability to use language in order to satisfy particular demands is required

In addition, Bygate, M (1997) states that it is useful if the students are good communicators, that is, good at saying what they want to say in a way which the listener finds understandable To appreciate what is involved; it can be useful to think of the communication of meaning as depending on two main kinds of interactional skills Those are routine and negotiation skill as described follow:

Firstly, this type of interactional skill is routine In many circumstances speakers organize what they have to communicate in typical patterns These have been called routines Examples of routines include story telling, descriptions, and instructions Routines can be defined as ‘conventional ways of presenting information’ There

are two main kinds of routines as follow:

The first type of routine is information routines It is frequently recurring types of information structures, including stories; descriptions of places and people;

presentation of facts; comparisons; instructions Information routines can identified

as expository routines and evaluation routines The principal types of expository

11

routine are description; narration; instruction; and comparison Evaluative routines

typically involve explanations; predictions; justifications; preferences; decisions

The second type of routine is interaction routines Interaction routines are routines based not so much on information content as a sequence of kinds of terms occurring

in typical kinds of interactions It includes kinds of turns typically occurring in given situations

Secondly, the speakers also develop skills in solving all sorts of communication problems which can be expected to occur in spoken exchanges These we will call negotiation skills Negotiation skills are skills which are common to all kinds of communication including the ability to check on specific meanings, ability to alter wording, ability to correct mistaken interpretations, ability to find words for ideas for which the speaker does not already have some generally accepted phrase Negotiation skills include management of interaction (agenda management and turn-taking) and negotiation of meaning

Moreover, according to Harmer (1991), the appropriateness has something to do with what people want to say on the basis of what purpose they wish to achieve The way they invite others is different with the way to request something The way

to congratulate is also different with the way to express agreement or disagreement

It is concluded that it needs some requirements to be called as a good speaker Learners should have motor-perceptive skills and interaction skills as well as interactive communication such as fluency, appropriateness, and intelligibility in speaking

2.1.3 Teaching speaking

2.1.3.1 Teaching fluency

Fluently speaking means being able to communicate one's ideas without having to stop and think too much about what one is saying In terms of lack of undue hesitation, the students speak smoothly, at a natural speed They do not hesitate long and it is easy to follow what she is saying In terms of length, the students can put ideas together to form a message or an argument; they can make not only the simplest of sentence patterns but also complex ones to complete the task The last one is independence When the students are lost for a word or cannot express an idea in English, they find a way around the problem, re-expressing what they want

to say in a different or simpler way The students can keep talking and ask questions, etc to keep the conversation going They should be independent of the teacher The students do not give up trying when they cannot find the right word The students do not let the conversation break down while communicating with their partners in English

2.1.3.2 Teaching interactional skills

There have been many definitions about ‘teaching speaking’ However, most of the definitions have the same point According to Hughes (2003), “the objective of teaching speaking is the development of the ability to interact successfully in the target language, and that involves comprehension as well as production” (p.113) That is to say, teaching speaking is focused on providing students social interactions, understandings and the speech During the interaction between the speaker and the listener, both of them must have the positive interaction to share the information in order that they understand each other This is an important factor that

13

all English teachers have to focus on their lessons The teachers are the people who create the successful interaction for the students in learning the foreign language In short, in the speaking class, teachers need to provide their students with

interactional skill, for example, how to open and close conversations, how to make

turns and interrupt, and how to respond appropriately, etc

From what discussed above, it can be said that when communicative approaches

have developed, teachers have been concerned to ensure that students not only

practice speaking in a controlled way in order to produce J) fluency in purposeful communication, but also practice speaking in a controlled way in order to produce 2) interactional skills (i.e turn-taking, routine) So, the teachers will need to design the fluency, and interaction based activities

2.1.4 Principles of teaching speaking

According to Bailey (2005), there are three main principles for teaching speaking that all teachers of English must have

Firstly, the most important principle in teaching speaking is that the teacher should provide something for learners to talk about This doesn’t mean that only the teacher can assign the topics The teacher should be open to those topics that the learners want talk about, and connect them into lessons whenever possible The teacher is only as the facilitator and he/she has to give more opportunities to students to practice The topics that the teachers give out in the classroom are only the objectives that both students and teachers have to do In order to do the speaking activity, the teachers \have to give out the hints and they have to facilitate the topics for their students If the topics are boring or meaningless, the students may are not interested in doing the activity

Secondly, the teacher should create opportunities for students to interact by using pair-work or group-work A good way the teacher would like the students to increase their opportunities to speak is asking them to work in pairs or work in groups When the students have chances to discuss each other, they themselves feel freer to do the speaking activities By the way, the students can cross out their nervousness while speaking and they can automatically get the motivation When the students have high motivation, they are of course interested in speaking English This is a very important factor that the students need to have when they do the oral

tasks in the classroom

Lastly, the teacher should arrange the physical environment The suitable learning environment can partially motivate speaking performance If the students feel safely and comfortable, they are willing to do the speaking activities though they know that their speaking ability is low comparing to other students

Additionally, Brown (2001) states that there are seven principles for designing speaking activities when teaching speaking as below:

Firstly, the teacher should use techniques that cover the range of learners need, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning, and fluency

Secondly, the teacher should provide motivating techniques That is to say that the teaching method is very important, especially in teaching speaking The teacher must know to choose the suitable method for each level, each class, and each major that the students are covering in the school

15

Thirdly, the teacher should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts This is very important for the students in engaging to do the speaking tasks in classroom If the students find out the language related to the real-life in specific contexts, they feel that the language is really meaningful for them to cover the activity For example, if the students’ major is tourism, they are of course interested in some activities such as the conversation between the receptionists and the guests, the tour takers and the tourists

Fourthly, the teachers should provide appropriate feedback and correction That is the teacher has to know how to correct their students if the students make mistakes while speaking English If the teacher does not pay attention to this factor, the teacher may indifferently de-motivate their students in doing the oral tasks for the following activities

Fifthly, the teacher should capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening That is the speaking and listening skills should be cooperated at the same

time when the teacher asks them to do the oral tasks in the classroom

Sixthly, the teacher should give students opportunities to initiate oral communication Before the teacher asks the students to perform the oral tasks, the students need a chance to solve the problem The students could discuss each other

in order that they can prepare the speaking activities and they are willing to do the tasks when the teacher asks them to do

Lastly, the teacher should encourage the development of speaking strategies All these characteristics have to be embedded in the activities given to students to practice in English class If the students want to speak English well, it can not be

done without the teacher support with the speaking strategies though the students have enough vocabularies and they know the grammatical rules

As the view mentioned above, it can be said that, when the teacher wants their

students to speak English effectively, they have to know the areas that should be taught and the principles of teaching speaking as mentioned above Besides, the teacher has to know how to combine these principles orderly while teaching the speaking in classroom If the teacher does not know what factors should be focused

on and master these principles in teaching speaking, the students may get difficulties in joining the speaking actives as well as performing in speaking

2.1.5 Types of classroom speaking performance

According to Brown (2001), there are six types of speaking performance that the students are expected to carry out in the classroom

The imitation is the first one The students are asked to imitate the teacher or someone else This kind is carried out not for the purpose of meaningful interaction, but for focusing on some particular element of language form such as pronunciation, intonation, and mastering some phrases and structures for clarity and

THU VIEN

The next kind of speaking performance is response The replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues Such speech can be meaningful and

authentic

The fourth type of speaking performance is transactional dialogue It carries out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information This type of speaking performance is often related to the real life in different situations

The fifth type of speaking performance is interpersonal dialogue It is a form of conversation aimed at maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information The learners would need to learn how such features as the relationship between interlocutors

The sixth type is extension (monologue) In this type, the intermediate or advanced students are called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches This type of speaking performance requires the students to have enough vocabularies and grammatical rules; they have high confidence

It is clear that all types of class speaking performance above can be applied with | role-play activity In order to do these types of speaking performance, there are at least two students to interact each other Therefore, it can be said that role-play is one of the activities can be used to teach speaking

2.1.6 Problems in speaking activities

Rivers (1968) adds that there are psychological factors in communication which include 1) desire to communicate, 2)comprehension as well as expression, 3)

personality factors, 4) limitations of expression, 5) correction of errors, 6) clustering, 7) redundancy, 8) reduced forms, 9) colloquial language, 10) rate of delivery, 11) stress, rhythm, and intonation, and 12) interaction

In terms of desire to communicate, on having something to say, the student must have the desire to communicate the message to some person or group of persons Some students may do not have interest in joining speaking activity for their teacher who does not show sympathy and their classmates are uncongenial Others may realize that they have limitations in the new language and do not want to ridicule

In terms of comprehension as well as expression, students may have acquired skill

in expressing themselves in the new language code, but have had little practice in understanding the language when it is spoken at a normal conversational situation

For personality factors and limitations of expression, some students are talkative, others are shy or embarrassed if found to be in error These characteristics affect student performance in speaking activity Students may feel frustrated when they know that their choice of expression is limited They can not demonstrate the maturity of their thought

In terms of correction of errors, in several societies, people will keep their ideas if expressing them They could cause embarrassment for themselves or for the people with whom they are conversing Continual correction sometimes can be very irritating Psychological factor is not the only factors that can make speaking difficult Brown (1994:256) mentions characteristics of spoken language that can make oral performance difficult for students

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For clustering, it is important for the students to know that being a fluent speaker is not produce speech word by word but in phrasal Students, therefore, must have the ability to organize their output both cognitively and physically through such cluster

In terms of redundancy, the speaker has an opportunity to make meaning clearer trough the redundancy of language In contrast, reduced forms are problems for the

students Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc all form special problems in

teaching spoken English Students who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes develop a bookish quality of speaking Therefore, colloquial language is

an important factor that the students should master Students should get acquaintance with words and idiom and phrases of colloquial language and practice

to produce the forms

In terms of performance variables, pausing and hesitation can be ignored in the spoken language English native speaker insert certain fillers such as uh, um, well, you know, I mean, like, etc in their “thinking time” One of differences between native and nonnative speakers of English is in their hesitation phenomena

In terms of interaction, it is a must for the teacher to help learners in developing the creativity of conversational negotiation The students should know how to deliver the rate for the speech That is, it is teacher responsibility to help learners to achieve

an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency Also, the students must use appropriate stress, rhythm, and intonation while pronouncing the words or

sentences

Besides, the problem may also come from the teacher He may give a little exercise

to develop students’ speaking skill Students of a new language will not learn to speak merely by hearing speech in class Rivers (1968) says that teacher will need

to give them many opportunities to practice speaking They will need to use their imagination in particular situations which provoke the use of language in the expression of the student’s own meaning

To solve the problems above, the teachers should find the way to prove that the speaking tasks are really useful for the students Also, the teachers should provide the students the opportunity to interact each other Thanks to their interaction, the teachers may help them to practice some communicative skills such as the rate

delivery, turn-taking, redundancy, reduced forms, appropriate expressions, stress, intonation, ect

2.2 Role-play in teaching speaking

2.2.1 Definition of role-play

According to Harmer (1993: 123) “Role-play is to create the pretence of a real-life situation in the classroom” As Ladousse (1987:7) states that “when students assume a ‘role’, they play a part (either their own or somebody else’s) in specific situation ‘Play’ means that is taken on in a safe environment in which students are

as an inventive and playful as possible”

As stated above, Larsen, N & Freeman (2000) state that “role-play is an activity that students are asked to pretend temporarily that they are someone else and to perform in the target language as if they were that person” (p.84) That is the students pretend as someone else in the specific situation right in the classroom

Also, Donn Byrne (1987: 39) states that role-play involves presenting: we ask students to imagine that they are someone else ( a tourist in a hotel, a customer in a

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shop, etc) Role-play is a way of taking the students out of the classroom for a while and showing them how English can be useful to them in a specific situation

Sharing the same point of view, Harmer (2007:352) states that “students play roles

in a real life encounter (such as a conversation in an aero plane cabin, a hotel foyer,

a shop or a cafeteria) as if they were doing so in the real world” As (Kellin, 1998:171) states that role-play is a technique in teaching speaking which is designed to help the students become deeply involved in thinking about how they

would react in real world situations

From the views above, it can be concluded that role-play is an activity that the students pretend as someone temporarily to perform the target language They can imagine some roles to act each other such as a guest and a receptionist at a hotel, a

waiter/waitress and a customer at the restaurant, etc However, in order to find out

the characteristics of role-play in teaching speaking, the next part will be presented 2.2.2 The characteristics of role-play in teaching speaking

According to Ken Jones (cited in Harmer, 2001, p.274), there are three characteristics for role-play in teaching speaking as follow:

The first characteristic of role-play is the reality of function The students must think of themselves as real participants in the situation They can be any one else in

a specific situation They can be waiters/waitresses such as tourist guides, customers, ect The second characteristic of role-play is the simulated environment

A classroom is thought of as a social place The students must relate to the real contexts to play their role in doing the activity The last characteristic of role-play is - structure The students must see how the activity is constructed and be given

necessary information to carry out simulation effectively That is the students have

to master the teacher’s instruction before doing the activity

He also suggests that the teacher should create the right kind environment for such activity We need to give clear instruction and make sure that students know what they need to do Using role cards is an especially good support For students at lower levels as cards help they remember their role A whole class brainstorming can be helpful as well to help them predict what vocabulary, grammar, and routines (typical patterns) they might use Finally, design follow-up activities whose focus can be either on the content which they get out of tine activity or language and feedback on pronunciation and grammar problems the teacher recognizes

‘In addition, Richards (1985: 83) suggests that role-play has nine characteristics as follow: First, role-play provides opportunities to practice strategies for opening, developing, and terminating conversational encounters Second, rolepalay requires the leamers to develop meanings collaboratively Third, role-play necessitates the use of turn-taking rules Fourth, role-play practices use of conversational expressions Fifth, role-play involves the learners in different kinds of roles, necessitating use of different styles of speaking As Killen (1998: 171) states that

“role-play is a technique in teaching speaking which is desired to help students | become deeply involved in thinking about how they would react in real world situations” Sixth, role-play requires negotiated completion of tasks Seventh, role- play involves information sharing Eighth, role-play focuses on comprehensible and meaningful input and output Last, role-play requires a high degree of learner participation

Although there are a lot of characteristics of role-play of the experts above, they have nearly the same ones of role-play in teaching speaking classes In general, the

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characteristics of role-play are useful and helpful for the teachers as well as the students in speaking classes

2.2.3 Types of role-play in teaching speaking

Don Byrne (1986: 122) reveals that “role-play can be separated into two main types Those are scripted role-play and unscripted role-play” Each of them will be

described as below:

The first type is scripted role-play This type involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or reading text in the form of speech The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of language items in a memorably way The second type is unscripted role-play In this case, the situations of unscripted role- play do not depend on textbooks It is known as a free role-play or improvisation The students themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should develop

Besides, Ladousse (1992) states that there several types of role-play The first type

of role-play is the role which corresponds to a real need in the students’ lives In this case, it involves such roles as a receptionist dealing with a tourist, salesman traveling abroad The second type of role-play is the role the students play themselves in a variety of situations which may or may not have direct experience

In this case, it involves such roles as a customer complaining or a tourist asking for information The third type of role-play is the one that few students will ever experience directly themselves The last type of role-play is fantasy role which are

fictitious, imaginary

2.2.4 Benefits of role-play in teaching speaking

As it was discussed above, role-pay is one of the activities which helps improve students’ speaking ability and motivates students in engaging to speak in English class

Furthermore, Doff (1990: 239) states that there are several benefits of using role- play in teaching speaking as follow:

First, role-play is fun That is role-play is enjoyable for the students It is a tool that the teacher can use to make the classroom active and interesting Second, role-play helps the students prepare for real-life communication by imitating the reality in specific situations It connects the gap between the classroom and the certain real context Third, role-play can be used for assessment and feedback purposes at the end of a lesson After teaching the lessons, the teacher can use this activity to perform the oral tasks Based on the oral performance, the teacher can recognize how much the students reach the results Fourth, role-play can consolidate learning and allow the students to discover their own level of mastery over specific language content Fifth, by imitating the reality, role-play allows the students to feel that they are really using the language for a communicative purpose Sixth, role-play improves the students’ ability to work cooperatively If the students want to play the

role, they have to co-work with their classmates So, it will lead them to tend to

work in groups and in pairs This is a very important skill that the students need in studying as well as in real life Seventh, role-play allows the students to experiment with language they have learned Eighth, role-play allows students to express who they are, their sense of humor, and their own personal communication style Ninth, role-play offers good listening practice That is when two or three students discuss each other, in order to reply their partners; they must pay attention to their partners

It automatically improves their listening skill though this Tenth, role-play provides

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an opportunity for practicing the rules of social behavior and the various sociolinguistic elements of communication The same this point of view, Larsen & Freeman (2000: 134) state that “role-play is very important in teaching speaking because they give students an opportunity to practice in different social contexts and

in different social roles” Eleventh, role-play engages the learner physically This involves the students more fully and can be a tool in language maintenance Twelfth, it can be liberating for many shy students who may enjoy expressing themselves through a role or a mask It makes the students more comfortable while studying Thirteenth, role-play provides a context for understanding attitudes, expectations, and behaviors related to the target culture So, it is very useful for the students to get familiar with what in real situations Fourteenth, role-play may be used as a motivation to discussion and problem solving As the same this point of view, Ray (1992), he states that the main motivational factor in learning is the social incentives reflected in peer cooperation Last, role-play can be extensions of more controlled practice using dialogues

In short, the discussions above, the characteristics and the benefits of role-play, were considered the theoretical framework, points out that the main function of role-play is to help students improve the students’ English speaking skills It also mentions that role-play involves a variety of situations which students may need to face in real lives Therefore, role-play helps students carry out their language skills

in general in reality in a safe environment for shy and silent students to increase their self-confidence in particular

2.2.5 Steps in using role-play in teaching speaking

According to Donn Byrne (1998), the procedure of using role-plays for oral tasks including five stages First, the students are asked to discuss the activity That is

they read their instructions and work out what they have to do Second, the students are asked to work out what they will say They may decide to change the situation

so that there are more speakers Third, the students are asked to practice the role- play Fourth, the students are asked to decide how they will present their role-play

in front of the class Last, the students are asked to present their role-plays

Besides, Richards A Murphy (1995: 36) states that each activity of role-play is compiled around a specific function For him, there are three main stages in applying role-play in teaching speaking First, the basic situation is introduced for practice Next, the students switch their assigned roles Last, the topic is modified

Each stage, there are three procedural steps to be followed by the teacher and

students including preparing the students, playing the role, and checking the performance

In general, from the discussion above, it can be concluded that there are three main

stages using role-play in speaking class The first is the introduction of the situation The second one is the students play the roles The last stage is the students’ presentation through their roles The above procedures are not always followed mechanically by the teacher and the students in teaching and learning speaking The teacher sometimes has to be flexible in implementing role-play technique to find out more appropriate with each class, each level of the students and each situation 2.3 Chapter Summary

This chapter has reviewed an overall view of speaking and role-plays in teaching speaking Firstly, a brief summary of speaking teaching has been focused on (1) fluency (i.e pauses, hesitance) and (2) interaction (i.e routines, turn-taking) The types of speaking performance and problems in speaking activities were also

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encompassed in this chapter Secondly, role-play in teaching speaking and its characteristics have been identified The steps in using role-play and its benefits were consisted in the second part of the chapter The literature reviewed in this chapter supports the theoretical framework for the present study In the next

chapter, the research methodology will be clarified

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, Chapter 2, a theory-oriented background for the present study has been articulated Also included in the preceding chapter was an exploration of the use of role-play as a specific technique for the speaking teaching Considering this theoretical foundation, this chapter presents the methods of the experimental research project that was completed in an effort to test the hypothesis that have been presented in Chapter 1 The six sections below encompass the basic research design, the participants selected and the research site used, the data types, the preparations for the experimental stage, the pilot stages, the procedure of data collection, and data analysis Each section will be described respectively as below 3.1 Research Design

The major purpose of this section is to provide a procedural plan to conduct this study According to McMillan and Schumacher (2001), “a research design refers to

a plan to choose participants and research sites, procedures to conduct the study and collect data to answer the research questions" (p.166) Thus, this chapter focuses on the related elements of the approach used to carry out the study, the subjects, when, where, and under which circumstances the study was conducted

3.1.1 Pretest-Posttest Quasi-Experimental Design

The present study adopted a nonequivalent pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design According to (McMillan and Schumacher, 2001), the nonequivalent pretest- posttest quasi-experimental design is very popular and useful in educationional researches because it is often impossible to randomly assign subjects In this college-based study, the only option was quasi-experiment because classes were

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formed at the start of the second semester One hundred and two second-year English non-majored students in the researcher’s classes were first chosen and randomly designated a participating in the experimental group and the control group Next, both groups were given a pre-oral test measuring their level on the criterion variables of analyzing speaking performance The third stage was to administer the treatment to the experimental group while the control group continued to receive the regular instruction Each group was then given a post-oral

test

3.1.2 Internal Validity

According to McMillan & Schumacher (2001), the selection and maturation are

some threats to internal validity of a nonequivalent pretest-posttest quasi-

experiment So, these extraneous variables should be controlled to avoid weakening the effect of the treatment First, selection indicates characteristics between the two groups being compared Although the subjects were not randomly chosen, they had some common characteristics (i.e., age, level, and years spent on learning English)

as those of the population In fact, this threat could be controlled Second, maturational threats refer to the changes in the subjects of a study over time that affects the dependent variable Some of the changes are getting gradual tired and bored Since the total instructed time was 12 weeks and the duration treatment was two times per week, each lasted ninety minutes, it might not make the students in both groups tired and bored Thus, the maturation might not have threatened the results of this study

3.2 Research Site and Participants

3.2.1 Research Site

This study was conducted at SAIGONACT College This is one of the private colleges with six different majors, and about 8,000 students ranging in ages from 18-22 At the time the study took place, there were 130 classes across 3 grade levels: 45 first year classes with 6 different majors, 45 second year classes with 5 different majors, and 40 third year classes with 5 different majors The first year

classes consisted of about 3,000 students, and the second year classes consisted of about 3,000 and the third year classes consisted of around 2,000 students

In terms of the present actual situation at the college, most teachers used traditional methods in teaching how to speak English for tourism in general and the researcher also used many methods in teaching how to speak English for tourism in the chosen classes for the experiment The material was used in teaching English course was

‘Highly recommended English for the hotel and catering industry’ by Trish Stott &

Rod Revell The chosen classes had studied general English for one year and one

semester for how to speak English for tourism

3.2.2 Participants

3.2.2.1 Sampling

The most common form of sampling in educational research is non-probability sampling For this project, the target population was EFL second year students in two classes that were selected conveniently among the 8 classes of tourism administration As McMillan & Schumacher (2001), the subjects were chosen based

on non-probability sampling considered convenience or availability sampling They

were those who were available to the researcher

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There are two types of participants involved in the research: students and teachers 3.2.2.2 Students

The one hundred and two participants in this study project were students whose English levels with pre-intermediate in the tourism majored English Every class in this curriculum had an under average level of English, particular speaking skill The researcher chose two classes whose grades in the tourism majored English first semester exam were relatively equal Specifically, the first class had 21 students getting the under average scores; the other 25 students achieved on average and 5 students achieved above average The second class had 26 students getting the under average scores and the other 19 students achieved on average and 6 students

achieved on average One of the two classes was designated randomly as an

experimental group This class, which had 51 students, consisted of 41 females and

10 males The other was treated as the control group This class also had 51 students: 38 females and 13 males The subjects of the present study are described

in terms of group, number, and gender in Table 1

Table 1 Description of the students

Teachers were described in terms of number, gender, age, educational background,

and teaching experience