Sử dụng các đoạn phim tiếng Anh theo ngữ cảnh nhằm thúc đẩy học sinh trong các giờ học nói Một nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Bố Hạn, tỉnh Bắc Giang

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ---*--- PHẠM ĐỨC CƯỜNG USING CONTENT-RELEVANT VIDEOS TO MOTIVAT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-* -

PHẠM ĐỨC CƯỜNG

USING CONTENT-RELEVANT VIDEOS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS

IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT BO HA HIGH

SCHOOL, BAC GIANG PROVINCE

(SỬ DỤNG CÁC ĐOẠN PHIM TIẾNG ANH THEO NGỮ CẢNH NHẰM THÚC ĐẨY HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI

TRƯỜNG THPT BỐ HẠ, TỈNH BẮC GIANG)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-* -

PHẠM ĐỨC CƯỜNG

USING CONTENT-RELEVANT VIDEOS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS

IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT BO HA HIGH

SCHOOL, BAC GIANG PROVINCE

(SỬ DỤNG CÁC ĐOẠN PHIM TIẾNG ANH THEO NGỮ CẢNH NHẰM THÚC ĐẨY HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI

TRƯỜNG THPT BỐ HẠ, TỈNH BẮC GIANG)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr LÊ HÙNG TIẾN

HANOI – 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ―Using content-relevant videos to motivate

students in speaking lessons: An action research at Bo Ha High School, Bac Giang Province” is my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of

Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions

Hanoi, 2014

Phạm Đức Cường

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Le Hung Tien for his valuable guidance, feedback and assistance on my thesis, especially for his lectures on research methods

Second, I also wish to thank my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi for their interesting lectures, which helped to build the argument in my study

Next, my sincere thanks must be given to the helpful librarians at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi

And I am also indebted to my beloved students and colleagues at Bo Ha High School, Bac Gang province for their enthusiastic cooperation in completing the questionnaire and taking part in the lessons to be tested during my action plan

Last but not least, I would like to send my special thanks to my family for their support and encouragement during my study

In attempting to better speaking skills for the non-English majored students at BHHS using content- relevant videos in lessons, this study mainly focuses on three issues: (1) students‘ attitudes toward the use of relevant videos in their speaking lessons; (2) the impacts of using videos in speaking learning; (3) suggestions to students and teachers so that using relevant videos could be effectively applied at BHHS In order to collect the data for the thesis, three instruments were used: the questionnaire for the students, the teacher‘s observation sheet and the students‘ journals Research findings showed that the students were actually highly positive in their attitudes towards using CRVs in speaking lessons It was revealed that using CRVs in class was beneficial to help BHHS students improve their performance in speaking lessons In addition, the students and other teachers also offered some suggestions for the teacher and author so that learning and teaching speaking with CRVs would be more successful Based on the findings, some implications would be given for both the teacher and the students The author really hope that this study useful for motivating both the students and the teachers to teach and lean English better at BHHS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 The rationales of the study 1

2 The scope and significance of the study 2

3 The aims of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 3

5 The design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1 Core concepts 4

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching 4

2 Teaching Speaking 7

2.1 Definition of speaking 7

2.2 Background to teaching speaking 8

2.3 Principles for teaching speaking 10

2.4 Goals for a successful speaking lesson 11

2.5 How to evaluate speaking ability of students 12

3 Using content – relevant Videos (CRVs) in the classroom 14

4 Section-conclusion 16

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY……… 17

1 Action research (AR) 17

1.1 Definitions of AR 17

1.2 Key characteristics of AR 18

1.3 Why AR? 20

1.4 The spiral of AR? 21

2 The current situation of teaching and learning English at BHHS 24

3 The Speaking topics in “Tieng Anh 10” 26

4 Participants 27

5 Data collection instruments 27

5.1 Student Questionnaire (See Appendix 1) 27

5.2 Classroom Observation (See Appendix 2) 28

5.3 Students’ journals (see Appendix 3) 28

6 Data collection procedure 29

6.1 Preparation 29

6.2 Implementation 29

7 Data analysis 30

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……… 35

1 Results from the questionnaire 35

2 Results from observation sheet 36

3 Results from the students’ journals 38

Chapter 4: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 40

1 For students 40

2 For the teachers 41

PART C: CONCLUSION 43

1 Summary of the findings 43

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIXES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CRVs : Content-relevant Videos

BHHS : Bo Ha High School

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

ELT : English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES

Table 1: Key contrasts between spoken and written language……… 7

Table 2: Speaking topics of the textbook ―Tieng Anh 10‖ ……….27

Table 3: Students‘ responses to possible problems……… 33

Table 4: Students‘ responses to degree of likes……… 33

Table 5: What the students want to gain from CRVs……… 34

Table 6: Results of observation 1……….35

Table 7, 8, 9: Results of observation 2, 3, 4……….36

Figure 1: Interaction in the curriculum ……….9

Figure 2: Simple action research mode……….23

Figure 3: Detailed action research mode……… 24

PART A: INTRODUCTION

In this part, the author will set reasons for carrying out the research, the objectives that need to be acquired after all, the scope and significance, the aims, the methods, and the design of the research

1 The rationales of the study

In today‘s global world, the importance of English can not be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everywhere With the help of technology development, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering, and education, which, in my opinion, is the most important arena where English is needed Particularly, as a developing country, Vietnam needs to make use of this world-wide spoken language in order to prove its international power This can merely be based on the efficiency of education system Consequently, English should be practiced in terms of speaking at school; at least it must be compulsory for high school students to do to keep up with the commanding future

In Vietnam, The Ministry of Education and Training has paid more attention to teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English than ever before It is strongly

stated in the project entitled ―Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, period 2008 – 2020‖, which can be known as ―National

Foreign Languages Project 2020‖ According to this project, most of Vietnamese youths whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities will have been capable of using a foreign language, especially English, confidently in communicating, studying and working in an environment of integration by the year 2020 (Decision N0 1400/QD – TTg by MOET 2008)

In addition, English language is supposed to be compulsory from the grade 3 to the grade 12 with four skills to be taught and learnt In these days, teaching and learning listening and speaking skills receive more concerns for the communicative target of using English in the future to be better

To this aim of the project, speaking considered as a communicative skill deserves more attention in teaching and learning a foreign language For the realization of the

importance of developing speaking skills for students, the author decided to do a research

on the speaking skill

For another reason in which the students at Bo Ha High School have not been interested in the speaking skill [either inside or outside class], together with his good experience benefited from the time of teaching some courses on listening and speaking skills using relevant English videos for students at several English Centers in Hanoi, the author found out that using videos in the right way would be one of the best motivation for the students to learn speaking better

In short, with an attempt to motivate and develop the BHHS students‘ speaking skills,

the author would like to conduct a small research on “Using English content-relevant Videos to Motivate Students in Speaking Lessons: An Action Research at Bo Ha High School, Bac Giang Province”.

2 The scope and significance of the study

This thesis mainly focuses on the impacts and advantages of using videos on students‘ speaking learning in class Moreover, their attitude towards using videos in class is also one of the concerns of study Then, some suggestions to help students improve the effectiveness of using videos to learn speaking skills are offered

The study involves the participation of 47 students from grade 10A1 of BHHS They are willing to take part in the action lessons enthusiastically

It is noteworthy that the research was a great attempt to examine a relevant issue in Vietnam Therefore, once finished, it can bring a number of benefits to involved parties such as students, teachers, educational administrators, and the researchers of related fields

I hope that, with the study to be conducted in a very particular context, the effective impacts of using videos in speaking classes will make BHHS students‘ speaking skills better in the future

3 The aims of the study

This study is designed to bring a new and real world into speaking classes for BHHS students In general, it has three purposes First, it is to investigate the impacts of using relevant content videos in speaking lessons Second, it aims at finding students‘ attitudes

toward the use of videos in classroom Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions to make best use of English content videos in their teaching with a view to better their students‘ speaking skill

These objectives were accomplished by answering the following questions:

1 What are the students’ attitudes towards the using of content-videos in speaking classes?

2 What are the impacts of this action to students’ learning improvement?

3 What are the suggestions to the teachers and the students for using videos in class?

4 Methods of the study

The theoretical background of the study is based on the theories and ideas presented in many books and linguistics articles published by a number of writers on language teaching in general and English relevant videos in particular

This study employs three data collection instruments including questionnaire, students‘ journals and observation sheet By conducting a survey in terms of questionnaires, a vast amount of information can be collected in a limited amount of time

It is also proved to be cost – effective and time-saving Next, students‘ journals provide extensive data for the study Then, the teacher‘s observation sheet is used to reflect students‘ improvement in speaking

5 The design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A, introduction, briefly states the rationales, the aims, the scope and significance, methods, and design of the study

Part B, development, appropriately contains four chapters, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, and implications and suggestions

Part C, conclusion, concisely restates the summary of the findings, limitations, and the suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is intended to present the background theory underlying the issue, including the definitions and the relevant knowledge around core concepts, followed by a review of related studies in the same field

1 Core concepts

Any language teaching approaches that teachers apply, how to elicit students is a critical job teachers need to perform in any second foreign language classrooms However, it is only when Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) appeared and asserted its dominance over other contemporary approaches was the use of eliciting techniques intensified and most advanced as one of the signs of modern language teaching This helps explain why motivating students‘ speaking through right using videos in class is closely associated with CLT Therefore, whenever the use of content videos is discussed, it must be looked back to this underlying approach

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching

1.1.1 Definitions and goals of CLT

According to Richards (2005: 3), ―Communicative Language Teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn the language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and students in the classroom‖ CLT has been considered a response to formerly dominant approaches namely Grammar-Translation or Audio-Lingual since it filled the gap which the two latter failed to do

According to Harmer (2001: 86), CLT features ―learning sequences which aim to improve the students‘ ability to communicate‖ Expressing the same point of view on the ultimate goal of CLT, Rudder (2000) claimed that ―the essence is language for communication and self-expression‖ Therefore, it should be drawn from these views that communication is both the means and the foremost aim of English language teaching In other words, teaching students how to use the language and how to communicate in a language is considered to be at least as necessary as learning the language itself

According to Celce-Murcia (1995: 10-24), communicative competence emphasizes five aspects of competence: discourse competence, linguistic competence, actionable competence, and socio-cultural competence, strategic competence, in which discourse competence or the competence ―to do with the selection‖ is considered the core goal

1.1.2 Classroom activities in CLT

Communicative approach highlights the importance of using different types of classroom activities where various competences are developed Also, students‘ talk can be elicited through activities of different types

There are many ways to classify classroom activities under this approach In terms

of competence the activities aim to develop at learners, in CLT, classroom activities are divided into two main categories: accuracy and fluency activities, as defined by Richards (2005:13) Fluency is the use of language that occurs when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence On the contrary, accuracy is the ability to use the language correctly

With regard to the extent of guiding students to receive for practice, there are three main types of practice namely mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice In Richards‘ view (2005:15), mechanical practice refers to an activity which students can successfully carry out without necessarily understanding the language they are using Repetition drills and substitution drills can be designed to practice use of particular grammatical or other items However, they quickly become boring and cannot be used at all for developing other language skills At this point, teachers move to meaningful practice which refers to an activity where language control is still provided but where students are required to make meaningful choices when carrying out practice At this kind, students are likely to be aware of the meaning of what they are saying The last kind

of practice where practice in using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged and where the language is used is not totally predictable At this stage, students have to choose the language they use and the meanings they will express These choices are certainly based on the knowledge and skills gained in earlier presentation and practice activities

When it comes to forms in which classroom activities are conducted, there are jig-saw, task-completion, information gathering, opinion-sharing, information-transfer, reasoning gap and role-play activities (Richards, 2005:20)

1.1.3 Learner–centered learning and the roles of teacher and student in CLT

The employment of using English videos inside English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms signals a new shift in the centre of the class, i.e students are at most attention, not teachers Thus, it is important to understand the nature of learner-centered learning and what roles of the teachers and students play in such modern classes

1.1.3.1 Learner – centered learning

Leaner – centered learning is concerned with allowing learners a greater role in the management of their own learning This can be done firstly by providing opportunities for learner choice in terms of what to learn, how to learn, and how to be evaluated Secondly, this can be achieved by giving students rather than teachers the maximum time to perform tasks in class (Nunan, 2003) Teachers need to encourage students to take full advantage

of these opportunities to acquire new knowledge, largely depending on each student‘s own style and pace of learning However, more freedom given to students does not necessarily mean that teachers leave the lesson uncontrolled While CLT implies the lessons are more student-centered, this does not mean they are unstructured (Belchamber, 2007) This leads to the necessity of redefining the roles of teachers and students to fit into the new form of learner-centered learning

1.1.3.2 New roles of teachers and students

In recent years, under the influence of humanistic and communicative theories, great emphasis has been placed on ―learner-centered‖ teaching, i.e teaching which makes the learners‘ needs and experience central to the educational process (Harmer, 2001:56) The new form of learning requires teachers and students to shoulder new roles Rudder (2000) saw that teachers were traditionally viewed as experts who would impart his or her knowledge or expertise to their students That explains why teachers were those who talked too much in the class while students did not bother too utter a word In the light of CLT, teachers have adopted different innovative roles, one of which is to increase students‘ talk It is spotted by Harmer (2001) that in order to act this role effectively,

modern teachers have to perform many roles at the same time such as controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, participant, resource, tutor, observer, performer and teaching aid From this point of view, it is understood that the teacher must be ultimately well-controlled throughout the lesson as he or she is required to play many roles at the same time

This radical change paves the way for that of students Since teachers make every effort to elicit students‘ talk, students in turn should take every opportunity to talk in class That students raise their own voice somehow signals their increased activeness in learning process

2 Teaching Speaking

2.1 Definition of speaking

According to Bailey (2005), if you have learned a language other than your own, which of the four skills – listening, speaking, reading, or writing – did you find to be the hardest? Many people feel that speaking in a new language is harder than reading, writing, or listening for two reasons First, unlike reading or writing, speaking happens in real time: usually the person you are talking to is waiting for you to speak right then Second, when you speak, you cannot edit and revise what you wish to say

In language teaching, the four skills are described in terms of their direction Language generated by the learner (in speech or writing) is referred to as productive Language directed at the learner (in reading or listening) is called receptive Another important idea is the channel, which refers to the medium of the message (aural/ oral or written) Therefore, speaking is the productive aural/ oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning Although speaking is totally natural, it in

a language other than our own is anything but simple

Spoken language and written language differ in many significant ways, here are some key contrasts (van Lier, 1995, p.88)

 Prosody (rhythm, stress, intonation)

 Immediate feedback

 Planning and editing limited by channel

 Punctuation

 Delayed or no feedback

 Unlimited planning, editing, revision

2.2 Background to teaching speaking

According to Kathleen M Bailey (2005), for many years people taught speaking

by having students repeat sentences and recite memorized textbook dialogues lingual repetition drills were designed to familiarize students with the sounds and structural patterns of the target language People supposedly learned to speak by practicing grammatical structures and then later using them in conservation

Audio-The concept of habit formation, of behaviorism, is the theoretical basis of the audio-lingual method Since learners needed to form good habits, lessons involved a great deal of repetition Students were not supposed to form bad habits, so teachers treated spoken errors quickly Teachers worried that if the errors were left untreated, the students might learn those erroneous forms

For many years, teaching speaking involved providing students with the components of the language, in hopes that they would eventually put them all together and speak So students might spend several semesters repeating after the teacher, studying grammar rules, reciting dialogues, and learning vocabulary Unfortunately, actual conversations did not sound like the textbook dialogues

During the late twentieth century, language acquisition research made us reconsider some long-standing beliefs about how people learn to speak Several studies led to the conclusion that we had got the basic idea backwards: people don‘t learn the pieces of the language and then put them together to make conservations Instead, infants acquiring their first language and people acquiring second languages learn the pieces by interacting with other people

This realization has several interesting implications If we believe that people learn languages by interacting, then learners should interact during lessons As a result, a method called communicative language teaching arose Two versions of communicative language teaching emerged The weak version says teachers should teach the components

of the language but include communication activities The strong version says since students learn through interacting, lessons should consist of opportunities to communicate

in the target language In this method, teachers often downplay accuracy and emphasize how students communicate when they speak the target language

However, in order to communicate well in another language, we must make ourselves understood by the people we are speaking with, and this is not an easy task – especially at the beginning and intermediate levels There is some need to be accurate in speaking the target language This is tricky because, as we saw in the speaking-writing contrast, there is limited time for planning and editing speech during conversations

The following figure depicts the many linguistic elements involved in speaking The left column lists four areas of linguistic analysis, but it is the centre column that concerns us as teachers It labels the units of spoken language

Figure 1: Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy, and

Authenticity (Longman, 1996)

Now we can see from the top to the bottom of the pyramid, all the levels of language operate when we speak, and conversation is not really simple at all It is important for language teachers to understand these units of language and how they work

distinctive feature Phoneme Morpheme Word Phrase Clause Utterance Text

together Given this background information, we will now consider five principles for teaching speaking

2.3 Principles for teaching speaking

According to Bailey (2005), there are five main principles for teaching speaking

 Be aware of differences between second language and foreign language learning

contexts

Speaking is learned in two broad contexts: foreign language and second language situations The challenges we face as a teacher are determined partly by the target language context

A foreign language (FL) context is one where the target language is not the language

of communication in society Learning speaking skills is very challenging for students in

FL contexts because they have very few opportunities to use the target language outside classroom

A second language (SL) context is one where the target language is the language of communication in the society Second language learners include refugees, international students, and immigrants or some who want to achieve notable speaking skills

 Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy

Accuracy is the extent to which students‘ speech matches what actually say when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc

 Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and

limiting teacher talk

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that teachers do approximately 50 to

80 percent of the talking in classrooms It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are talking in class so we do not take up all the time the students could be talking

Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons

 Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning

Research suggests that learners make progress by communicating in the language because interaction necessarily involves trying to understand and make ourselves understood This progress is called negotiating for meaning It involves checking to see if

we have understood what some has said, clarifying our understanding and confirming that someone has understood our meaning

 Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both

transactional and interactional speaking

When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do so for interactional and transactional purposes Interactional speech is communicating with someone for social purposes It includes both establishing and maintaining social relationship Transactional speech involves communicating to get someone done, including the exchange of goods and/ or services

Most spoken interactions ―can be placed on a continuum from relatively predictable to relatively unpredictable‖ (Nunan, 1991, p.42) Conversations are relatively unpredictable and can range over many topics, with the participants taking turns and commenting freely In contrast, Nunan states that ―transactional encounters of o fairly restricted kind will usually contain highly predictable patterns‖ Speaking inside the classroom need to embody both interactional and transactional purposes because language learners will have to speak the target language in both transactional and interactional settings

2.4 Goals for a successful speaking lesson

According to Richards (2008), a language teacher should know some of the following goals for a good speaking lesson

• Activities address specific aspects of oral skills

• Sufficient language and other supports for tasks

• Balance of accuracy and fluency activities

• Modeling for speaking activities

• Activities are suitable for students of different proficiency levels

• Students have ample talking time

• Students participate actively in lessons

• Grammar and pronunciation errors are addressed appropriately

• Activities have take-away value

• A progression from controlled practice to freer practice

• Opportunities for personalization

• Students experience success

2.5 How to evaluate speaking ability of students

According to Susan, a linguist M.A from the University of Delaware, Pennsylvania, when students have learned vocabulary, done role plays and strategic interaction, and practiced speaking to one another or to the teachers, now it is important for teachers to know how to evaluate their progress The teachers should give out objective grades in speaking class, and they can use the following criteria for evaluating students‘ speaking abilities

Most teachers will be familiar with the concept of grading with a rubric, a table with different criteria and a grading scale The columns in the table will represent potential skill levels of the students For each criterion, define what level of the ability a student at each of the levels would exhibit Take the average level among the criteria and

we have an objective grade with suggestions for areas in which our students can improve

Pronunciation is a basis quality of language learning Though most second language learners will never have the pronunciation of a native speaker, poor pronunciation can obscure communication and prevent an ESL student from making his meaning known When evaluating the pronunciation of our students, listen for clearly articulated words, appropriate pronunciations of unusual spellings, and assimilation and contractions in suitable places Also, listen for intonation Are students using the correct inflection for the types of sentences they are saying? Do they know that the inflection of a question is different from that of a statement? Listen for these pronunciation skills and determine into which level the students fall

After noting students‘ pronunciation levels, move to vocabulary Vocabulary comprehension and vocabulary production are always two separate banks of words in the mind of a speaker, native as well as second language We should encourage students to have a large production vocabulary and an larger recognition vocabulary For this reason

it is helpful to evaluate our students on the level of vocabulary they are able to produce Are they using the specific vocabulary we have instructed them in the semester? Are they using vocabulary appropriate to the contexts in which they are speaking? Listen for the level of vocabulary our students are able too produce without prompting and then decide how well they are performing in this area

 Accuracy

Grammar has always been and forever will be an important issue in foreign language study Writing sentences correctly on a test, though, is not the same as accurate spoken grammar As students speak, listen for the grammatical structures and tools we have taught them Are they able to use multiple tenses? Do they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? All these and more are important grammatical issues, and

an effective speaker will successfully include them in his or her language

 Communication

A student may struggle with grammar and pronunciation, but how creative is she when communicating with the language she knows? Assessing communication in our students means looking at their creative use of the language they do know to make their points understood A student with a low level of vocabulary and grammar may have excellent communication skills if she is able to make you understand her, whereas an advanced student who is tied to manufactured dialogues may not be able to be expressive with language and would therefore have low communication skills Don‘t let a lack of language skill keep your students from expressing themselves

Being able to say what you mean with a foreign language is one thing, being able

to interact with others is another Ask your students questions Observe how they speak to one another Are they able to understand and answer questions? Can they answer you when you ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses in a conversation? All

these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clear and effective communication

in English A student with effective interaction skills will be able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happening around him Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far if he or she cannot listen to other people and respond appropriately Encourage our students to listen as they speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation

 Fluency

Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in our students‘ speaking How comfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Are there great pauses and gaps in the student‘s speaking? If there are then your student is struggling with fluency Fluency does not improve at the same rate as other language skills You can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent You want your students

to be at ease when they speak to you or other English speakers Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterion when evaluating speaking

Apart from Susan‘s viewpoints on how to evaluate students‘ speaking ability

above, the author will apply The Circular N0 1/2014/TT – BGD, ― Six – Level Foreign

Language Capability Framework for Vietnam‖ (dated 24 May 2014 of the Minister of

Education and Training (See appendix 4)

3 Using content – relevant Videos (CRVs) in the classroom

Why use videos in the classroom? Videos can illustrate and reinforce ideas, frame concepts, stimulate discussion, break up a lecture and hold students‘ attention, especially

in speaking classes Videos are effective when used with appropriate teaching methods (Sherer & Shea, 2011) The following are just a few techniques that should be used to videos in the classroom:

 Preparing to use videos for instructional purposes

- Preview the video for relevant content

- Consider desired learning outcomes when designing learning activities (such as focus questions) for before, during, and after the video

- Choose short clips (research suggests a few minutes is optimal length)

- Prepare focus questions and other prompts for students to engage in while viewing

- Edit video, if necessary

 Pre-viewing instructional activities

- Ask students to predict what they will see in the video

- Facilitate an open-ended discussion or conduct an opinion poll about the topic to allow teachers to gauge the existing or background knowledge that students may have about the subject

- Provide guiding questions or structuring information that lets students know what information they should focus on

 Instructional activities for use during a video

Depending on the length or complexity of the video, consider pausing throughout to:

- Ask questions to gauge student comprehension

- Have a quick discussion or debate on the topic

- Ask students to predict what might follow

 Post-viewing instructional activities

- Discuss main ideas and interpretations

- Ask students to write a response that draws connections between ideas or evaluate the video

- Conduct another background check or opinion poll and compare it with one completed prior to viewing a video This will help teachers to assess the knowledge or information students have gained from the video

In addition, using videos for student-centered activities is very useful A number of student-centered activities involving videos can be done individually or in small groups Here is the idea explored by Sherer and Shea (2011) that ―give students more choice, self-direction, and engagement in their learning‖ (p.58) For this way, teachers can ask students to present videos they have searched for that relate to lesson content (chapter, topic, etc.) They can explain why they choose a particular video and receive feedback from classmates

4 Section-conclusion

The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second and foreign language teachers and learners Teachers and textbooks make use of a variety of approaches, ranging from direct approaches focusing on specific features of oral interaction to indirect approaches which create conditions for oral interaction group work, task work and other strategies (Richards, 1990)

In Vietnam context now, it is a really vital but hard job for teachers of English to teach students how to speak English well In general, in this study the author wishes to master some techniques on how to use a relevant video in a speaking lesson effectively to motivate student learning

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides background information about action research, the current situation of teaching and learning English of Boha High School in speaking lessons with the textbook ―Tieng Anh 10‖ and a description of the method employed to collect data for the study

1 Action research (AR)

Definitions of AR

Whether the reader is a novice or is progressing with an action research project,

it would be useful to be aware of how action research has developed as a method for carrying out research over the past few decades The work of Lewin (1946), who researched extensively on social issues, is often described as a major landmark in the development of action research as a methodology Lewin‘s work was followed by that of Stephen Corey and others in the USA, who applied this methodology for researching into educational issues In Britain, according to Hopkins (2002), the origins of action research can be traced back to the Schools Council‘s Humanities Curriculum Project (1967–72) with its emphasis on an experimental curriculum and the re-conceptualization of cur-riculum development The most well known proponent of action research in the UK has been Lawrence Stenhouse, whose seminal (1975) work An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development added to the appeal of action research for studying the theory and practice of teaching and the curriculum

As the name suggests, action research is a methodology which has the dual aims of action and research Action is to bring about change in some community or organization or program, whereas research is to increase understanding on the part of the researcher or the client, or both ( Dick B., 1992)

Action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is

to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research

is being carried out (Cohen and Manion, 1985)

Action research is deliberate, solution-oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted It is characterized by spiraling cycles of problem

identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition The linking of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving curriculum, teaching, and learning (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982)

Finally, Winter and Munn-Giddings‘s (2001: 8) definition of action research, as

a ‗study of a social situation carried out by those involved in that situation in order to improve both their practice and the quality of their understanding‘, captures the essence of the philosophy underlying the action research approach

A careful study of the definitions and viewpoints we have in this section should help to highlight some of the unique features of action research The key concepts include

a better understanding, participation, improvement, reform, problem finding, problem solving, a step-by-step process, modification, and theory building These words also

perhaps demonstrate the reasons for the popularity of action research as a mode of study for classroom teachers

Key characteristics of AR

Hitherto, many scholars have attempted to characterize action research in terms

of a school-based research From Carr and Kemmis‘s (1986) definition, McDonough (1997) proposes four characteristics of ‗pure‘ action research as follows:

●It is participant-driven and reflective;

●It is carried out by practitioners (classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers;

●It is collaborative; and

●It aims at changing things

Especially, they stress that the momentum for carrying out an action research

is to change the system This assertion is different from Cohen and Manion (2007) when they identify collaboration as an important feature of action research Relatively different, Borgia and Schuler (1996) describe components of action research as the ―Five C‘s‖:

●Commitment: Time commitment should be carefully considered by participants of action research since it takes them time to get acquaintance with other participants, think about change, try new approach, collect data, interpret results, etc

●Collaboration: In an action research all participants are equal to each others in terms

of giving ideas, suggestions or anything that leads to success of the change

●Concern: In the research process, participants will build up a group of ―critical friends‖ who trust each other and the value of the project

●Consideration: As it is mentioned above, reflective practice is a mindful review of a professional research like action research It demands concentration and careful consideration as one seeks patterns and relationships that will create meaning within the investigation

●Change: For humans, especially teachers, change is continuing and it is a significant element in remaining their effectiveness Briefly speaking, Creswell (2005) proposes six key characteristics of action research as:

foremost because of their own situation rather than someone else‘s practice In this sense, they engage in ―participatory‖ or ―self-reflective teaching‖; namely, they reflect on what they have learnt and what they can do to improve their own educational situation Moreover, in the research development, researchers collaborate with one another and all co-participants in an action research is referred to as collaborative team including teachers, students, administrators and even parents and stakeholders All of them involve

in a dynamic process or exactly a ―spiral of activities‖ in which they go back and forth between reflection about a problem, data collection and action Creswell also maintains that at a certain stage of the process, in order to respond to the problem studied, action researchers will formulate an either formal or informal action plan which will engage few individual or the entire community into research Especially, action research is different from other type of research in terms of sharing the results Traditionally, researchers report their investigation in journals or book publications but action researchers usually first present their research to teachers and other educational officials

In short, during their studies, scholars may provide different opinions about action research; some of them say that collaboration is the defining characteristic of action research while others insist that publication is an important one However, although the above characteristics may slightly different from one another, they all acknowledge action research as a powerful tool for teachers to find solutions for problems in their own education settings, or to change or improve some of their educational issues Personally speaking, the author of this paper finds that change is a key feature of action research since action research is used in real educational situations focusing on solving real problems in education and at the end of each study; change must take place quickly or holistically

Why AR?

It is necessary to do researches into classrooms to improve and develop teaching and learning Teachers need to know what is exactly happening in their classes, what students are thinking, why they are reacting in the way they do, what aspects they need to focus on and how they should change in these aspects and then they will know what is beneficial to their students

As a high school teacher of English, the author does not have an ambition to change and solve big problems of the school or the education system This study addresses his own problem in his teaching and this kind of research gives him opportunities to better understand, and therefore, improve his own teaching practices in terms of speaking skills It also provides him with alternative ways of viewing and approaching his teaching questions and problems and with new ways of examining his own teaching practices with using relevant videos in speaking lessons

The spiral of AR?

Steps in action research vary from different points of view as Creswell (2005) asserts that ―action research is a dynamic, flexible process‖ and there is ―no blueprint exists for how to proceed.‖ Hence, it is really impossible to assert this or that researcher is right with exact four, five, six, seven or eight steps in their action research Sometimes, it

is hard to define a clear cut between the steps and the number of steps in action research may vary depending on different points of view held by researchers

Traditionally, Lewin‘s (1946) model of action research involves a cyclic sequence including two major phases: diagnosis and therapeutic These two phases are then divided into seven substages as follows:

●Stage 1: In this stage, problem or just general idea about state of affair a participant wish to change or improve is identified, evaluated or formulated

●Stage 2: This stage is the time for fact finding so that a fully drawn picture of the situation is presented to help the researcher clarify the nature of the problem

●Stage 3: This stage is related and synthesized with the critical review of the problem

in stage two It aims at reviewing research literature to discover what can be learnt from comparable studies, their purposes, procedures and problems they come across come across Usually, in this stage, the researcher generates hypotheses which attempt to enlighten some of the facts of the problem

●Stage 4: This is the stage where the researcher starts to gather relevant information to test hypotheses proposed in the previous stage However, it is important to note that this testing of hypotheses is not statistical testing but an action seeing whether the evidence is compatible with the hypotheses Lewin also suggests that even when one has finished

testing hypotheses he should keep the status of ―hypotheses‖ rather than ―conclusions‖ as

he may encounter situations where these hypotheses do not apply

●Stage 5: At this stage, teachers and other participants in collaborative team will discuss, negotiate and made decisions on the selection of research procedures including material choice, teaching methods, allocations of tasks, etc

●Stage 6: This stage get participants involved in the realization of the action plan They determine circumstances and methods of data collection, classification and analysis; they also together monitor the task and consider the choice of evaluative procedures

●Stage 7: This stage includes the interpretation of data collected and the overall evaluation of the research At this stage, the cycle of research is likely to be repeated At the end of each cycle, outcomes of the research are studied, some suggestions are proposed and test, etc The projected is finally reported to the public

Sharing the view with Lewin‘s idea of the repeating cycles of action research, Kemmis (1988) has developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process He asserts that each cycle of an action research has four steps: plan, act, observe and reflect

Figure 2 Simple action research mode