An investigation into the effectiveness of communicative tasks in speaking classes for navigational students at Duyen Hai Vocational College

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ------NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS IN SPEAKING CLASSES FOR NAVIGATIONAL STUDENTS AT DUYEN

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

- -NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS IN SPEAKING CLASSES

FOR NAVIGATIONAL STUDENTS

AT DUYEN HAI VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu tính hiệu quả của Nhiệm vụ giao tiếp

trong lớp học kỹ năng Nói cho sinh viên ngành Điều khiển Tàu biển, trường Cao đẳng nghề Duyên Hải)

Minor Programme Thesis

English Teaching Methodology

60 14 10

HANOI - 2010

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-

-NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS IN SPEAKING CLASSES

FOR NAVIGATIONAL STUDENTS

AT DUYEN HAI VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu tính hiệu quả của Nhiệm vụ giao tiếp

trong lớp học kỹ năng Nói cho sinh viên ngành Điều khiển Tàu biển, trường Cao đẳng nghề Duyên Hải)

Minor Programme Thesis

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: NGUYEN TUAN ANH, M.A

HANOI - 2010

III Research questions

IV Scope of the study

V Methodology

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I An overview of Communicative Language Teaching

I.2 An overview of Speaking and Oral communication in CLT

I.2.1 Speaking in Communicative Language Teaching

I.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

I.3 Communicative tasks

I.3.1 Definition of communicative tasks

I.3.1.1 Definitions of tasks

I.3.1.2 Definitions of communicative tasks

I.3.1.3 Implications for task design

I.3.1.4 Topic choices

I.3.2 Components of communicative tasks

I.3.2.3.1 Activities’ characteristics

I.3.2.3.2 Activity types

I.3.2.4 Teacher role

I.3.2.5 Learner role

CHAPTER III: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

III.1 The teacher survey result

III.1.1 Teacher’s choice of communicative task activities

III.1.2 Achievements teachers gain in using communicative tasks

III.1.3 The way teachers monitor the communicative tasks

III.1.4 Teachers’ method(s) of giving instruction

III.1.5 Teachers’ feedback and correction

III.1.6 Teachers’ difficulties in conducting communicative tasks

III.2 The student survey result

III.2.1 Students’ frequency of communicative task activities

III.2.2 Students’ interest in each kind of communicative task activities

III.2.3 Students’ evaluation of communicative task activities

III.2.3.1 Students’ evaluation of the suitability with competency level of

communicative task activities

III.2.3.2 Students’ evaluation of Encouragement to extend speaking time of

communicative task activities

III.2.3.3 Students’ evaluation of Encouragement to peer communication of

communicative task activities

III.2.4 Students’ comments on teacher’s class activities

III.2.5 Students’ suggestions to conduct communicative task activities

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

IV.1 Findings

IV.1.1 The effectiveness of using communicative tasks in speaking classes for

navigational students at Duyen Hai Vocational College

IV.1.2 Existing problems affecting the effectiveness of using CT in speaking

classes

IV.1.3 Possible reasons affecting the effectiveness in using communicative

tasks in speaking classes to navigation students

IV.1.3.1 Teachers’ inexperience

IV.1.3.2 Facility and material shortages

IV.1.3.3 The heavily grammar-oriented syllabus

IV.1.3.4 Large classes

IV.2 Pedagogical implication and suggestions

IV.2.1 Pedagogical implication

IV.2.1.1 Task preparation

IV.2.1.2 Task implementing

IV.2.1.3 Task evaluation diary

IV.2.2 Some suggested communicative task activities to teach speaking

IV.2.2.1 Role-play and dialogue activities

IV.2.2.1.1 Model

IV.2 2.1.2 Sample lesson 1: Mechanical Role-play

IV.2.2 2 Problem solving

IV.2.2.2.1 Model

III.2.2.2.2 Sample lesson 2: Giving opinions

IV.2.2.3 Discussions and decisions

IV.2.2.3.1 Model

IV.2.2.3.2 Sample lesson 3: Discussions

PARTC: CONCLUSION

1 Conclusion

2 Limitations of the study

3 Suggestions for further study

APPENDIX

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaires for Teachers I

APPENDIX 2: Questionnaires for Students IV

APPENDIX 3: Class observation VI

APPENDIX 4: Unit 5 – Meeting with an agent VII

APPENDIX 5: Unit 6 – Manning VIII

APPENDIX 6: IMO CREW LIST IX

APPENDIX 7: EMERGENCY CHECKLIST – FIRE ON BOARD X

APPENDIX 8: Unit 100 – Fire fight drill XI

I

IV

VI VII VIII

IX

X

XI

List of Figures, and Tables, and Abbreviations

1 Figures

Figure 1 Teachers’ choice of CTA

Figure 2 Teachers’ method(s) of giving instruction

Figure 3 Students’ frequency of CTA

Figure 4 Students’ evaluation of the suitability with competency level of CTA

Figure 5 Students’ evaluation of Encouragement to extend speaking time of CTA Figure 6 Students’ evaluation of Encouragement to peer communication of CTA

2 Tables

Table 1 Achievements teachers gain in using communicative tasks

Table 2 Teachers’ way to monitor CTA

Table 3 Teachers’ feedback and correction

Table 4 Teachers’ difficulties in conducting CTA

Table 5 Students’ interest in different kinds of CTA

Table 6 Students’ comments on teacher’s class activities

Table 7 Students’ suggestion to using CTA in classroom

3 Abbreviations

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

CT: Communicative task

CTA: Communicative task activities

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESP: English Specific for Purposes

L2: second language

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

Among English eager-learning ones, Navigation students can be counted for who consider English a tool of work and a step to promotion Firstly, Deck cadets, their title when navigation students go to work on board, are in charge of radio communication on ship The fate as well as the success of a vessel depends on communicative skills of Deck seamen A mistake while communicating with the Engine Room, or other vessel in traffic, even a minor wrong order, possibly leads to the damage of the ship, a collision and the shipwreck

in the worst situation Secondly, English competence helps deck cadets learn their real jobs

on board a ship, for all instructions on ship are made in English Seamen‟s jobs are varied from ship to ship, the knowledge they learn at college cannot meet the demands Thus, they will be taught again to perform their tasks well It also means they will be made signed off once they are not able to communicate in English Last but seemingly not least, incompetence at communicating in English is somehow a big obstacle in their promotion The examinations to achieve officer rank are in oral English form The higher rank they want to achieve, the better at communicating in English they should be

However, the real situation of the teaching and learning of English in general and speaking skill in particular somehow do not go together with the life of navigation students The traditional methods of teaching are still widely used Grammar-Translation method, for example, still outnumbers the classroom time Students, hence, have very few chances to learn speaking in class Furthermore, topics and exercises for speaking are not inspiring enough for students to take part in the lesson actively Besides, the not-really-fully oral examination demotivates students to learn speaking attentively These lead to the fact of poor communicative abilities in spoken language among students

As an ESP teacher, Navigation major, these problems challenge also encourage me to find

activities to improve navigation students‟ speaking skill Hence, I choose: “An investigation

into the effectiveness of communicative tasks in speaking classes for Navigational students at Duyen Hai Vocational College” as the topic for my thesis

II Aims

My study aims at:

1 Investigating the real situation, focusing mainly on the effectiveness, of using communicative tasks in speaking classes for navigation students at Duyen Hai Vocational College find out the achievement, advantages and problems that teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning speaking

2 Offering some useful suggestions of using communicative tasks to improve speaking skill to navigation students

III Research questions

In my research, I would like to deal with three research questions:

1 How effectively are communicative tasks used in speaking classes to navigational students at Duyen Hai Vocational College?

2 How effective are their communicative tasks from DVCOL ESP teachers‟ point of view?

3 How effective are their communicative tasks from DVCOL navigational students‟ point

of view?

IV Scope of the study

In my thesis, I would like to investigate the advantages of using communicative tasks as activities to teach speaking to navigation students at Duyen Hai Vocational College There are two reasons affecting my choice of this frame Firstly, these activities, which are based

on the students‟ demand for the active learning, possibly motivate students to make effort to speak Besides, communicative task activities are various and flexible, the teacher can have

a lot of choices to find some suitable with students‟ need and interest Last but not least, navigation students at Duyen Hai Vocational College have had chances to experience some kinds of communicative activities before, thus, they can provide me some useful information about the use of these activities in vocational college Also, it would be convenient for me when I can take advantage of my teaching time at the vocational college

to carry out questionnaires for the research purpose Their opinions will help me have an overall view of how communicative tasks are used in speaking classes effectively

V Methodology

To gain the fulfillment of the aims, qualitative and quantitative methods are chosen for the study Comments, remarks, comparison, suggestions and conclusions are based on factual research, observation, experience and discussion The most important techniques are a cautious data collection and sharp comparison before leading to a conclusion Data for analysis in this study are gained through the following sources:

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW

I An overview of Communicative Language Teaching

Founded later than the other methods and approaches in English language teaching (ELT), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), however, is recognised as a prominent theoretical model in ELT and it is accepted by many applied linguistics and teachers as one

of the effective approaches

As defined by Richards (1986), CLT is “an approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence”

„Communicative competence‟, in Hymes‟s theory (1972), is defined as what a speaker needs to know in order to communicatively competent in a speech community In his view,

a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to „knowing when and how to say what to whom‟ (Larsen-Freeman 2000)

Savignon (2002) in her work of „Communicative curriculum design for the 21st century‟ stated that “By definition, CLT puts the focus on the learner” Larsen-Freeman (2000) also claims the goal of CLT is “to enable students to communicate in the target language”

It can be referred from these points of view that CLT‟s important goal is learners‟ communicative competence which has great concern with oral communication skill This matter will be in much closer analysis in the next presentation as the basic background theory for the thesis

At the level of language theory, CLT has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base According to Richards and Rodgers (1996), CLT has some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language as follow:

1 Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2 The primary function of language is for interaction and communication

3 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

4 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative as exemplified in discourse

These characteristics not only acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication of CLT, but reveal that meaning plays an undeniably important part in CLT Meaning, according to Larsen-Freeman (2000), is derived from the written word through an interaction between the reader and the writer, just as oral communication becomes

meaningful through negotiation between speaker and listener CLT allows learners to acquire the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions Hence, in CLT,

“meaning is paramount” (Finocchiaro and Brumfit 1983)

In the light of language theory, Nunan (1991) characterises CLT as:

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

2 The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

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

4 An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

5 An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

Highlighted in his state, materials are also one important aspect which should be taken into accounts of CLT In attempt to make claims for communicative materials, McDonough and Christopher Shaw (1993) extract and adapt some statements taken from various standards published materials as follows:

1 „for students interested in using language rather than learning more about structure… students learn to use the appropriate language they need for communicating in real life

2 „… is a dynamic, functionally-based coursebook It is an intensely practice book, giving the students opportunity for thorough and meaningful rehearsal of the English they will need for effective communication‟

3 „… teacher students to communicate effectively by understanding and controlling the relationship between language forms and functions‟

4 „… places emphasis on developing skills of discourse within a wide range communicative settings It actively trains the learner in important discourse functions… All the language practice is presented in real-life contexts and related to the learner‟s own experience.‟

(extracted and adapted by McDonough and Christopher Shaw 1993) They all show a typical characteristic of CLT which is defined as “the use of authentic materials” (Larsen-Freeman 2000) Though they are claims for materials, they somehow reveal, rather fully and comprehensively, some typical characteristics as well as the ultimate goal of CLT, which is communicative competence They also emphasize the authenticity as the value of effective communications, which will be more closely discussed in the next part of this Chapter

I.2 An overview of Speaking and Oral communication in CLT

I.2.1 Speaking in Communicative Language Teaching

Speaking is an important skill that each language learner wants to master Ur (1996) refers

to people who know a language as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking includes all other kinds of knowledge Nunan (1989) shares the same opinion “to most people, mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language” From these points of view, it cannot be denied that learning speaking appears to be the first and foremost goal of all foreign language learners As a result, teaching speaking has been in concern of many pedagogic approaches, especially of Communicative Language Teaching or Communicative Approach The communicative approach makes sure that the interactions which take place in the classroom are replications

of, or necessary prerequisites for, a communicative operation The focus changes from the accurate production of isolated utterances to the fluent selection of appropriate utterances in communication

In deeper view of Speaking and oral communication, Brown and Yule (1983) suggest that teachers concerned with teaching the spoken language must confront the following types of questions:

- What is the appropriate form of spoken language to teach?

- From the point of view of pronunciation, what is a reasonable model?

- How important is pronunciation?

- Are those structures which are described in standard grammars the structures which our students should be expected to produce when they speak English?

- How is it possible to give students any sort of meaningful practice in producing spoken English?

Obviously, speaking is the skill which generally has to be learned and practiced Most language teaching is concerned with developing skills, interactional exchanges in which the learners is only required to make one or two utterance at a time

In short, the success of teaching speaking is measured by the students‟ ability to make a conversation in the target language It is the learners‟ ability to produce accurate sentences and connect isolated and appropriate utterances in communication

I.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

According to Nunan (1989), a successful oral communication involves developing:

- The ability to articulate phonological features of the language comprehensibly;

- Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns;

- An acceptable degree of fluency;

- Transactional and interpersonal skills;

- Skills in taking short and long speaking turns;

- Skills in the management of interaction;

- Skills in negotiating meaning;

- Conversational listening skills (successful conversations require good listeners as well as good speakers);

- Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for conversations;

- Using appropriate conversational formulae and fillers

Ur (1996), in the same point of view, presents his idea of a successful speaking activity which has characteristics as follows:

- Learners talk a lot: The first criteria to evaluate if a speaking activity is successful or not

is the students‟ talking time The standard speaking activity is the one in which students talk most of the time while there is very little teacher‟s talk or pauses

- Participation is even: Not only do some talkative members of the class but all students have chance to speak In other word, their contribution to the activity is equal

- Motivation is high: It means that the topic should be interesting enough to attract students They want to involve in the activities because they have something new to say about it or would like to contribute to achieving the task objective

- Language is of an acceptable level: In these exercises, students can express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level

theory of tasks, with the focus on communicative tasks, will be presented in the next part

I.3 Communicative tasks

I.3.1 Definition of communicative tasks

I.3.1.1 Definitions of tasks

First and foremost, „task‟ must be made clear by the term itself

- Tasks defined as a non-technical, non-linguistic one

According to Long (1985):

… [a task is] a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book,

taking a driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a cheque, finding a street destination and helping someone across a road In other words, by „task‟ is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between

(Long 1985:89) There are two main points necessary to be highlighted in this definition Firstly, some of the examples provided may well not involve language Secondly, as the result, it raises a major problem with the concept of „task‟ as a unit of analysis with the concern of its boundaries

- Tasks defined in pedagogical perspective

According to Richards, Platt and Weber (1986),

… An activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e as a response) For example, drawing a map while listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and performing a command, may be referred to as tasks Tasks may or may not involve the production of language A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task The use of variety if different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said to make language teaching more communicative… since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake

(Richards, Platt and Weber 1986)

In this definition, tasks are defined in terms of what the learner will do in the classroom rather in the outside world In other word, defining „task‟ in this way somehow does not fully gain its communicative aspect Tasks are used as a teaching tool in the boundary of classroom, not a learning method helping learners manage in their real communication in real life

Breen also states that:

… „Task‟ is … assumed to refer to a range of work-plans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning - from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decisions making

(Breen 1987: 23) Defining „task‟ in this way, Breen implies that the tasks involving communicative language use in which the user‟s attention is focused on meaning rather than linguistic structure This idea can be seen in similarity with Skehan‟s statement:

“A task is an activity in which meaning is primary, there is a communication problem to solve, and the task is closely related to real-world activities”

(Skehan 1998)

This definition points out some important characteristics of a task, such as its focus on meaning, its involvement of communication and its requirement for authenticity However, task, in his point of view, like the authors‟ mentioned previously, is like a pedagogic task which provides a means of giving learners opportunities for production Furthermore, they

do not point out clearly a task‟s focus on learners Learner-centered is one of typical features of CLT; it should be reflected in definition of a task to be a completely communicative task

I.3.1.2 Definitions of communicative tasks

[The communicative task] as a piece of classroom work which involve learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form

(Nunan 1989)

I would like to state my agreement on this definition in term of the communicative task The task, as he claims, is recognised as focused on meaning, communicativeness, authenticity and learner-centeredness The task, therefore, has a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as communicative act in its own right Nunan‟s definition of the communicative task can be regarded as an appropriate one

When a communicative task, from now on can be stated as „task‟ sometimes, is fully defined, it leads to a request of task design and an analysis of task components It is the very important knowledge to provide a supporting background for an investigation of a task implementation‟s effectiveness, which is the ultimate goal of this study

I.3.1.3 Implications for task design

As pointed out in the previous part, a task must be designed with its focus on meaning, communicativeness, authenticity and learner-centeredness to achieve its fulfillment I, therefore, with reference to the view of Nunan (1989), would like to list out three matters may concern in designing tasks:

1 Firstly, the extent to which it is necessary to focus on linguistic form

In other word, a linguistic focus, in the form of grammatical consciousness-raising activities, should be incorporated into task design (Rutherford 1987)

2 Secondly, the examination of the macroskills relates to the real-world uses the learner has for the target language

3 Finally, the learners‟ various needs

The various uses which a learner has (or, in the case of some foreign language learners, might potentially have) for learning another language can be revealed through various forms of need analysis Tasks are then justified on the grounds that they will help the

learner develop the skills they will need for carrying out real-world communicative tasks beyond the classroom

(Nunan 1989) When the former ones deal with language competence matter, the latter one weighs its concern of personal psychology issue They all raise an urge of an appropriate choice of topics, for a suitable topic is an initial step into a success in using communicative tasks I.3.1.4 Topic choices

Though this issue is not in concern of task design, as stated, its role is undeniable Actually, topic choice can be seen as a key element to the success in task implementation As Richards (2002) suggests, chosen topics should be the ones „self- and peer-initiated‟, and made free to choose for learners, and „socially relevant‟ He argues that choosing topics in these ways can inspire as well as create „motivation‟, „enthusiasm‟ and „opportunities‟ to help learners fully engage in the task Though there are many other arguments on this matter, Richards‟ suggestions can be viewed as relatively reliable and comprehensive It will be used as suggestions to better achieve the task application‟s effectiveness in speaking classes, which is referred in the last chapter

I.3.2 Components of communicative tasks

Considering whether communicative tasks are used effectively or not is intensive purpose of

my investigation However, a task definition and some implications for task design and topic choice are insufficient to achieve the goal I, therefore, study on this issue –

„components of communicative tasks‟, aiming at picturing a valued framework on which I rely to design my questionnaires as well as analyse the investigation at my college

In appreciation of Nunan‟s definition, I would like to claim an agreement on his framework

of analysing a communicative task which involves its goals, input data, activities, settings and roles

I.3.2.1 Goals

Nunan (1989) claims goals as „the vague general intentions behind any given learning task‟

He simply defines the goal as a question of “Why did you get learners to engage in Task X?” Also, Nunan (1989) lists out some basic characteristics of goals as follows:

A framework for analysing communicative tasks (Nunan 1989)

 Possibly related to a range of general outcomes (communicative, affective or cognitive)

or directly describe teacher or learner behavior

 Not always explicitly stated, although they can be inferred from an examination of a task

 Rarely simply involved in one-to-one relationship between goals and tasks In some cases a complex task involving a range of activities might be simultaneously moving learners towards several goals

 not necessary mutually exclusive, and that there may be tasks which cover more than one goal

(Nunan 1989) Communicative goals are subcategorised into three goal areas:

1 Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships, and through this to exchange information, ideas, opinions, attitudes and feelings, and to get things done

2 Acquiring information from more or less „public‟ sources in the target language (e.g books, magazines, newspaper, brochures, documents, signs, notices, films, televisions, slides, tape, radio, public announcements, lectures or written reports etc.) and using this information in some way

3 Listening to, reading, enjoying and responding to creative and imaginative uses of the target language (e.g stories, poems, songs, rhymes, drama) and, for certain learners, creating them themselves

(Adapted form Clark 1987: 226)

In the light of effectiveness, the first area can be used as a criterion to judge a communicative task‟s effectiveness in a speaking class, for it is relevant to Nunan‟s (1989) suggestions of a successful oral communication

I.3.2.2 Input

Referring input to the data forming the point of departure for the task, Nunan (1989) suggests that input of communicative tasks can be derived from a wide range of sources The following provision from Hover (1986) can be used as reference of input:

Letters (formal/informal) Calorie counter

Missing person‟s declaration form Bus timetable

Social security form Housing request form

Business cards Star signs

Hotel brochures UK travel regulations

This list, with its provided sources, quite looks like an extract of life It matches the demands of CLT for its authenticity It, once again, highlights that input for a communicative task must be as realistic as possible Thus, a criterion to scale a communicative task input is its capacity to prepare learners for coping with the language they hear and read in the real world outside the classroom (Nunan 1989)

I.3.2.3.1 Activities’ characteristics

Referring to activities‟ characteristics, Nunan (1989) lists out three ways as follows:

1 Authenticity, which means „parallel the „real world‟ as closely as possible‟ (Clarke and

Silberstein 1977) Nunan (1989) also makes it clear that „in carrying out the activities, learners are required to practice skills which will be useful in the real world‟ to

distinguish activities‟ authenticity from input‟s authenticity

2 Skill getting and skill using: This way, as Nunan (1989) argues, is related to the

traditional distinction between controlled practice activities and transfer activities The former involves learners‟ manipulating phonological and grammatical forms, and the

latter involves learners‟ applying their newly acquired mastery of linguistics forms to the

comprehension and production of communicative language

3 Accuracy and Fluency: Nunan (1989) reveals his agreement with Brumfit (1984) who

suggests accuracy and fluency are not opposites, but complementary in analysing an activity He also considers this way as „the degree of teacher/learner control inherent in any activity‟

Three ways are not in the same colour; however, they provide a necessary base on which an analysis of activity effectiveness can be dependent

I.3.2.3.2 Activity types

There are many researchers showing their concerns in this issue For the limited frame of this study, I would like to deal with two authors: Prabhu and Pattinson

According to Prabhu (1987) three principal activity types are used: information gap, reasoning gap, opinion gap These are explained as follows:

1 Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from one person

to another – or from one form to another, or form one place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information form or into language

2 Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception

of relationships or patterns

3 Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation

(Prabhu 1987) Pattison (1987) also proposes seven activities These are as follows:

1 Questions and answers: These activities are based on the notion of creating an information gap by letting learners make a personal and secret choice from a list of language items which all fit into a given frame The aim is for learners to discover their classmates„ secret choices This activity can be used to practice almost any structure, function or notion

2 Dialogues and role-plays: These can be wholly scripted or improvised „If learners are given some choice of what to say in their role-plays, they may aim to be achieved by what they say in their role-plays, they may participate more willingly and learn more thoroughly than when they are told to simply repeat a given dialogue in pairs.‟

3 Matching activities: Here, the task for learner is to recognise matching items, or to complete pairs or sets „Bingo‟, „Happy families‟ and „Split dialogues‟ (where learners match given phrases) are examples of matching activities

4 Communication strategies: These are activities designed to encourage learners to practice communication strategies such as paraphrasing, borrowing or inventing words, using gesture, asking for feedback, simplifying

5 Pictures and picture stories: Many communication activities can be stimulated through the use of pictures (e.g spot the difference, memory test, sequencing pictures to tell a story)

6 Puzzles and problems: Once again, there are many different types of puzzles and problems These require learners to „make guesses, draw on their general knowledge and personal experience, use their imagination and test their powers of logical reasoning‟

7 Discussions and decisions: These require the learner to collect and share information to reach a decision (e.g to decide which items from a list are essential to have on a desert island)

Of two authors‟ proposals, Pattison‟s seems more favourable, for its being detailed and concrete Moreover, following this way, teachers will have more options of activities to choose As a matter of fact, it has been applied widely at DVCOL It is also a focus of my investigation Based on it, I would to find out whether these activities are used effectively through the achievement which teachers and students claim to obtain This, hence, leads to

an urge of having reliable criteria to judge

As Nunan (1989), most tasks of any complexity involve more than one macroskill Secondly, it provides learners with opportunities to learn from auditory and visual experiences, which enable them to develop flexibility in their learning styles and also to demonstrate the optimal use of different learning strategies and behaviours for different tasks Not much different, but a little bit more explicit, Richards (2001) characterises an effective interactive activity as „manipulating‟, „meaningful‟, „communicative‟, and suitable

to various communicative purposes Specially, they should:

 be based on authentic or naturalistic source materials;

 enable learners to manipulate and practice specific features of language;

 allow learners to rehearse, in class, communicative skills they need in the real world;

 activate psycholinguistic processes of learning

(Richards 2001) These aspects discussed above can be all used as criteria to decide the effectiveness of a communicative task

I.3.2.4 Teacher role

„Role‟, as Nunan (1989), refers to the part that learners and teachers are expected to play in carrying out learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal relationships between the participants Meanwhile, Richards and Rodgers (1986) point out that teacher roles are related to the following issues:

- The types of functions are expected to fulfill, e.g whether that of practice director, counselor or model

- The degree of control the teacher has over how learning takes place

- The degree to which teacher is responsible for content

- The interactional patterns that develop between teachers and learners

(Richards and Rodgers 1986) Though defined in different ways, teacher role always stays a big concern of every language class, especially in CLT The development of CLT has had a drama effect on the roles that learners are required to adopt This is particularly true of oral interaction tasks The roles of teacher and learners are, in many ways, complementary I agree with Nunan (1989) that giving the learners a different role (such as greater initiative in the classroom) requires the teacher to adopt a different role

According to Breen and Candlin (1980), the teacher has three main roles in the communicative classroom

- As a facilitator of the communicative process

- As a participant

- As an observer and learner

As an advocator of effective teaching, Blum (1984) suggests a list which can be understood

as implications for teacher to function their role appropriately in communicative classes:

1 Instruction is guided by a preplanned curriculum

2 There are high expectations for student learning

3 Students are carefully oriented to lessons

4 Instruction is clear and focused

5 Learning progress is monitored closely

6 When students do not understand, they are retaught

7 Class time is used for learning

8 There are smooth and efficient classroom routines

9 Instructional groups formed in the classroom fit instructional needs (for settings)

10 Standards for classroom behavior are high

11 Personal interactions between teachers and students are positive

12 Incentive and rewards for students are used to promote excellence

Though these criteria is for a general effective teaching, it can be referred as some criteria to scale the effectiveness of teacher role in Speaking class with the using of communicative tasks They can help to give the answer to the questions which role the teacher plays in his speaking classes using communicative tasks, and to what extent his role contributes to the effectiveness of his class

I.3.2.5 Learner role

Like teacher role, learner role remains a great concern in every approach of language teaching It can be shown in the table followed:

5 The Silent Way - Learner learn through systematic analysis; must become

independent and autonomous

- the learner is the passive recipient of outside stimuli;

- the learner is an interactor and negotiator who is capable of giving as well as taking;

- the learner is a listener and performer who has little control over the content of learning;

- the learner is involved in a process of personal growth;

- the learner is involved in a social activity, and the social and interpersonal roles of the learner cannot be divorced from psychological learning processes;

- learners must take responsibility for their own learning, developing autonomy and skills

in learning-how-to-learn

The last point, as Nunan (1989) argues, raises the important issue of learners developing an awareness of themselves as learners Especially in CLT, which is featured as leaner-centered, learners are no longer inactive knowledge receivers They are required to be

„adaptable, creative, inventive, and most of all independent‟ (Rubin and Thompson 1982)

To make it clearer, Rubin and Thompson (1982) also provide a list in detail as follows:

1 Finding your own way

2 Organising information about language

3 Being creative

4 Making your own opportunities

5 Learning to live with uncertainty

6 Using mnemonics

7 Making errors work

8 Using your linguistic knowledge

9 Letting the context help you

10 Learning the make intelligent guesses

11 Learning formalized routine

12 Learning production techniques

13 Using different styles of speech and writing

(Rubin and Thompson 1982) Pointing out the learner role can reveal a matter of fact that the way learners function themselves in language class can affect greatly on the effectiveness of the communicative tasks in Speaking class The effectiveness depends on whether and how successfully the learner fulfills their role Also, the satisfaction they gain in each speaking class using CT or after every CT activity is a criterion to scales CT‟s success

I.3.2.6 Settings

Nunan (1989) stated, “„Settings‟ refers to the classroom arrangements specified or implied

in the task, and it also requires consideration of whether the task is to be carried out wholly

or partly outside the classroom”

Strevens (1987) suggests three particular benefits of using tasks as community resource:

- They provide learners with opportunities for genuine interactions which have a real-life point to them;

- Learners can adopt communicative roles which bypass the teacher as intermediary;

- They can change the in-class role relationship between teacher and pupils

This framework illustrates the different ways in which learners might be grouped physically

or arranged within the classroom Classroom researchers such as Pica and Doughty (1985) have offered evidence for the positive role of group work in promoting a linguistic environment likely to assist L2 learning (Anderson and Lynch 1988)

In other word, class setting plays a role in forming the effectiveness of communicative tasks

in Speaking classes

I.3.3 Summary

In this Chapter, a picture of Communicative Language Teaching, Speaking and Oral Communication and Communicative tasks with their typical aspects have been captured The information from the study helps provide an over view of criteria of a communicative task‟s effectiveness in Speaking class, which will be assessed through:

THE FRAMEWORK OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS

(Wright 1987: 58)

1 GOAL:

 Possibly related to a range of general outcomes (communicative, affective or cognitive)

or directly describe teacher or learner behavior

 Not always explicitly stated, although they can be inferred from an examination of a task

 Rarely simply involved in one-to-one relationship between goals and tasks In some cases a complex task involving a range of activities might be simultaneously moving learners towards several goals

 not necessary mutually exclusive, and that there may be tasks which cover more than one goal

1 Questions and answers

2 Dialogues and role-plays

3 Matching activities

4 Communication strategies

5 Pictures and picture stories

6 Puzzles and problems

7 Discussions and decisions

 Learners can adopt communicative roles which bypass the teacher as intermediary;

 They can change the in-class role relationship between teacher and pupils

As stated before, the framework plays a decisive role in my investigation, not only in design questionnaires, but in analysing data and discussing as well Also, as the framework is created by Nunan (1989), the investigation will be carried out basically in his theory of a good communicative task, which includes:

 enables learners to manipulate and practice specific features of language

 allows learners to rehearse, in class, communicate skills they will need in real world

 activates psychological/psycholinguistic processes of learning

 is suitable for mixed ability groups

 involves learners in solving a problem, coming to a conclusion

 is based on authentic or naturalistic source material

 involves learners in sharing information

 requires the use of more than one macroskill

 allows learners to think and talk about language and learning

 promotes skills in learning how to learn

 has clear objectives stating what learners will be able to do as a result of taking part in the task

 utilises the community as a resource

 gives learners a choice in what they do and the order in which they do it

 involves learners in risk-taking

 requires learners to rehearse, rewrite and polish initial efforts

 enables students to share in the planning and development of the task

 has built into them a means of evaluating the success or otherwise of the task

(Nunan 1989)

CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, an investigation into applying communicative tasks speaking classes to navigation students at Duyen Hai Vocational College will be presented The research is also based on the theoretical knowledge reviewed in the first chapter

Data is mainly collected by questionnaires The target of the questionnaires is to visualize the effectiveness of applying communicative tasks in speaking classes to navigational students: what achievement and what limitation ESP teachers and students obtain and encounter when using communicative tasks Based on the teachers‟ and students‟ answers, there will be offers concerning with the practical suggestions of applying communicative tasks in speaking classes to navigational students

II.1 Subjects

ESP teachers and navigational students are subjects who directly get involved in using CT

in speaking lessons; therefore, studying what achievement teachers and students gain after involving in communicative tasks in speaking classes can provide me with practical knowledge about the effectiveness of using this method in a vocational college

In the first place, I lay my focus on navigational students at Duyen Hai Vocational College because they are my target students I am an ESP teacher majoring in Navigation Apparently, my attention should be drawn on these ones This research, hence, will much help me collect the true data and feedback of my teaching

In the second place, navigational students, above all, are always bear a desire of mastering English competence, especially speaking skill The desire is inspired from their future job requirement, of which communicative skills are the most important My study, hence, can show me the real effectiveness of using communicative tasks in speaking classes to navigational students

Thirdly, they are my research subject for their relatively weak linguistic competence Vietnamese seamen are highly appreciated for being hard-working and creative, but not for English competent They are still remarked as inactive and shy ones who are confused when speaking English Doing research on their linguistic competence can better my knowledge

of the effectiveness in applying communicative tasks in teaching speaking in maritime vocational colleges and suggest some solutions to meet all students‟ demand in learning English

Of the five teachers who answered my questionnaire, two has less than two-year experience, one has from 2 to 5 years of experience, another has 5 to 10 years of English teaching and the last one has more than 10-year-experience I chose to question them because they are