AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF ROLE PLAY FOR ENHANCING THE SECOND YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT HANOI UNIVERSITYOF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng đóng vai tình huống để nâng cao khả năng nói tiếng Anh của

Because of the advantages of role play, the author of this study attempted to apply role play activities in teaching speaking to 60 second year non- English major students in hope that r

VIETNAM NATIONALUNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

MAI THI ̣ LỤA OANH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF ROLE PLAY FOR ENHANCING THE SECOND YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT HANOI UNIVERSITYOF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

( Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng đóng vai tình huống để nâng cao khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ 2,

trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh và Công Nghệ Hà Nội )

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

MAI THI ̣ LỤA OANH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF ROLE PLAY FOR ENHANCING THE SECOND YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT HANOI UNIVERSITYOF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

( Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng đóng vai tình huống để nâng cao khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ 2,

trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh và Công Nghệ Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Do Tuan Minh

Hanoi, 2013

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DECLARATION

I certify that the minor thesis titled “An investigation into the use of role- play for

enhancing second year non- English major students’ speaking performance at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” is the result of my own work and

that this thesis has not been published or submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions

Signature

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ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

To complete the thesis, I have received a great deal of support from many people First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr Đỗ Tuấn Minh for his scholarly knowledge, wholehearted supervision, insightful guidance and constructive critical feedback He has inspired and encouraged me during the steps of the thesis

Also, my special thanks are sent to my colleagues who helped me with useful materials and classroom observations My great thanks also go to my beloved second-year students in two classes, KT1711 and KT1715, of Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) for their participation in as well as their strong support for the research with comments, classroom observation opportunities without which my work would have not been completed

Last but not least, I would like to convey my wholehearted thanks to my family and all of my close friends for their encouragement and financial as well as spiritual support for me to fulfill this thesis

Hanoi, September 2013

Mai Thị Lụa Oanh

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ABSTRACT

Role play is one of the teaching techniques which has been widely accepted and used in English language classes for many years both in Vietnam and in many other countries in the world Because of the advantages of role play, the author of this study attempted to apply role play activities in teaching speaking to 60 second year non- English major students in hope that role play can solve some of the students‟ speaking problems such as passive learning behaviors, boring and quiet atmosphere, lack of motivation and confidence to speak, students‟ less speaking time, etc This action research is conducted in two classes of Accounting at Hanoi University of Business and Technology with the focus on the effectiveness of role play in enhancing students‟ speaking performance In this paper, the author uses three collection instruments: questionnaires, follow-up interviews with students and observation in each speaking lessons through the evaluation sheets The researcher first reviews some theories regarding speaking skill, role play, and then analyzes the participants‟ feedback and the teachers‟ observation on the effectiveness of role play The research shows that role play is an effective technique in changing the students‟ attitudes towards speaking skill, their learning behaviors in speaking lessons and enhancing the students‟ peaking performance

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale and statement of the problem for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 4

4 Research questions and hypothesis 4

5 Method of the study 4

6 Organization of the study 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking and teaching speaking 6

1.1.1 Definition and Nature of speaking 6

1.1.2 Successful speaking activity 6

1.1.3 Teaching speaking 7

1.1.4 Activities to promote speaking 8

1.2 Theoretical background of role play technique 9

1.2.1 Definition of role play 9

1.2.2 Types of role play and procedures in using role play 10

1.2.3 Benefits of role play in teaching speaking 12

1.2.4 The teacher’s roles in role play activities 12

1.2.5 The learners’ roles in role play activities 14

1.3 Review of previous studies 15

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Background of the study 17

2.1.1 The teaching and learning context 17

2.1.2 The syllabus 17

2.1.3 The description of the teaching material 18

PART C: CONCLUSION 54

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology

ESL/ EFL: English as a second or foreign language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students‟ learning habits in previous speaking

Table 2: Students‟ knowledge about role play

Table 3: Students‟ interest in learning if role play is applied in speaking lessons Table 4: Students‟ comments on the teacher‟s instructions for role play

Table 5: Students‟ preference for choosing pairs or groups

Table 6: Students‟ preference in being prepared for a role play

Table 7: Results of students‟ speaking performance in cycle 1

Table 8: Results of students‟ speaking performance in cycle 2

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Students‟ knowledge about role play

Figure 2: Students‟ knowledge about what students do in role plays

Figure 3: Students‟ attitudes towards speaking lessons

Figure 4: Students‟ attitudes towards the role plays applied in the speaking lessons Figure 5: Students‟ habit of waiting for their teacher‟s calling

Figure 6: Students‟ speaking time in role plays

Figure 7: Students‟ understanding of teacher‟s instruction for role plays

Figure 8: Students‟ actions when they do not understand the teacher‟s instructions Figure 9: Students‟ learning behaviors when being asked to role play

Figure 10: Students‟ use of language in role plays

Figure 11: Students‟ difficulties in role plays

Figure 12: Students‟ comments on role plays organized by the teacher

Figure 13: Students‟ comments on the effectiveness of role play

Figure 14: Ways in which role play motivates students to speak

Figure 15: Students‟ reflection on their speaking ability after role play is applied Figure 16: Students‟ improvement when role play is used in speaking lessons

Figure 17: Students‟ expectations to use role play in the next speaking lessons Figure 18: The improvement in the students‟ speaking skill through role play activities

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale and statement of the problem for the study

In the age of globalization in many aspects of daily life, English is assumed not only

as a tool for international communication but also a powerful instrument to link people from many countries all over the world For this fact, the demand for teaching and learning English in non- native English speaking countries is increasing, and this is also not an except in Vietnam setting

Of all the four English skills, speaking seems, according to O‟Malley and Pierce (1996), to be an important skill that a learner should acquire In addition, as stated

by Burn and Joyce (1997), one of the aims of most language programs is to develop spoken language skills and learning a language means one can use it in communication in oral or written forms to express feelings, thoughts and experience

in different contexts However, regarding the context of Vietnam, speaking is mostly considered to be a difficult one to master by many Vietnamese students From my own teaching experience and my class observation, many problems occur during the process of teaching and learning speaking skill among my students and other teachers at HUBT However, the researcher of this study only mentions the three most outstanding problems that frequently arise during the process of learning and teaching speaking skill These problems are investigated in terms of the students‟ low speaking ability, the students‟ low motivation in learning English, and the teacher‟s monotonous and inappropriate teaching techniques These problems seem to be closely connected and interrelated

Regarding the problem of students‟ low speaking ability, this is indicated through the fact that students only use a few words and give short responses when they are asked in English Their overwhelming use of Vietnamese in English discussion is also a result of their low speaking ability This unsatisfactory proficiency of the students‟ speaking is mainly due to the students‟ low motivation, high anxiety, and their limited vocabulary and also because of teachers‟ inappropriate use of teaching

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techniques As a result, the students easily get bored and uninterested in learning this skill The reality also shows that when students are exposed to monotonous instructional activities, they do not participate actively and efficiently This is specifically illustrated through the fact that students are unwilling to involve themselves in the assigned activities, and students do not have equal opportunity to participate in speaking group work Besides, most of my students have wrong assumptions of working in pairs or groups in speaking lessons They mostly perceive that speaking lessons is only the procedure of putting class members into groups, then each one try to complete their task mainly individually and competitively Furthermore, many of them carry out the speaking tasks assigned by their teacher by writing down their ideas and passively wait for the teacher‟s calling for presentation As a result, many of them do not have chances to practice the language required, and after the lessons they do not remember anything related to the speaking tasks All of these factors lead to the bad result that a few weeks later and before the speaking test, they gain nothing about the language use in a specific situation and they cannot communicate in English in their real life if the real life situations require them to use

Therefore, theoretically it is impossible for the students to learn English with low motivation to have good speaking ability if they are inactive during the instructional process Besides, the students with low motivation will be defensive to use their English in oral communication if monotonous classroom does not stimulate them to participate in classroom interaction In practice, whether or not the students‟ speaking ability improves is greatly influenced by the intensity and frequency of their participation in oral communication

In short, it can be said that the root of the problems above is due to teachers‟ use of inappropriate teaching technique Hence, there needs to be an appropriate technique

to overcome the students‟ low speaking ability It is the responsibility of teachers to find out effective techniques for presenting the teaching materials in order to stimulate the students‟ positive attitude towards the speaking class

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Of all the teaching techniques, role play seems to be one of the most interesting ones for the students to involve themselves in speaking activities As said by Burns and Joice (1997), in role – playing technique, “the students act or pretend to be someone else in the actual world situation that is brought into the classroom” If this technique is utilized, it will “encourage peer learning and sharing of responsibility between the teacher and the learner in learning process” Besides, they also stated that, for the shy learners, “Role play helps them by providing a mask where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated”

For the above mentioned reasons I decide to chose role play as one of the techniques to apply in my own teaching in speaking lessons in the hope of creating better study environment and opportunities for students to effectively join in speaking lessons After all, I take these speaking related issues into consideration

and conduct an action research named: “An investigation into the use of role- play for enhancing second year non- English major students’ speaking performance

at Hanoi University of Business and Technology”

2 Aims of the study

The study firstly aims at investigating the effectiveness of using role play as a technique in teaching speaking to the second year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Basing on the research results, this study also provides practical suggestions for better use of role play technique in teaching speaking Regarding theory, the study provides English language teachers with more knowledge about role play technique in terms of its types and its advantages The study also suggests some ways to successfully exploit role play activities in the stages of teaching speaking

In terms of pedagogy, the results of this study are believed to be relevant to improving the teaching of oral skill to students at HUBT Specifically, the study may help teachers to create a more active and relaxing atmosphere for effective

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speaking practice so that they can help their students to be better at this oral skill as well as other language skills

3 Scope of the study

In terms of language skills and participants, the author of this study only focused on speaking skill Apart from the first speaking lesson, the five other ones were observed Regarding types of role play, this study investigates the use of unscripted role play in speaking lessons The speaking lessons were carried out with the use of role play in the Case Study section of the current course book which is implemented

at HUBT for two classes of the second-year non-English major students in the first

semester (school year 2013-2014)

4 Research questions and hypothesis

The study aims to investigate whether role play is a technique to motivate students

to participate in speaking activities and to improve HUBT students‟ speaking skill Therefore, the hypothesis for this study is that role play can be used as a technique

to enhance HUBT students‟ speaking performance The following research questions are given out to test the hypothesis:

1 How do the students learn speaking with role- play activities?

2 To what extent do role play activities help to improve the students‟ speaking performance?

5 Method of the study

The research is conducted basing on both quantitative and qualitative data

First of all, quantitative research approach was used to investigate the students‟ speaking performance and their participation during speaking lessons using role play activities The collected data will go through analysis and yield conclusion about the subjects of the study Besides, in each speaking lesson, students‟ learning and their performance is observed directly by the researcher and the Vice Dean of the English Faculty I who has much experience in English teaching and many

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qualified English degrees The observation by the third party to make the data collected more objective and reliable The checklists and field notes are carefully noted down to record what really happens in speaking classes The observation forms are adapted from the frame of Harris‟oral speaking scale

Additionally, questionnaires to investigate students‟ attitudes towards speaking lessons, their learning habits and their opinions on the effects of using role play on their involvement and speaking performance in speaking lessons Closed and open- ended questions, and rating scales responses are used to help the researcher have detailed data

Besides, qualitative approach is also employed in this study to collect data The students‟ ideas in the semi- structured interviews with teacher (face- to- face and online chatting) make great contribution to the data analysis Classroom recording is also utilized and then transcript to make the data more reliable The researcher can process all the data to draw conclusions to the research question that to what extent role play can help students enhance their speaking performance

6 Organization of the study

This study is written in three main parts which are Introduction, Development and Conclusion The first part, Introduction, briefly gives general background

information of the study such as the rationale and statement of the problem for the study, the aims and significance, scope, research questions and the method used to

carry out this study The second part of this thesis is Development, which includes three chapters Chapter one provides the literature review which is relevant to the

study on major issues such as role play technique and speaking skill Then some key information about the teaching practice at HUBT, the participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis and procedure of the study are presented in

Chapter two The last chapter, Chapter Three, describes the analysis of a range of data, and discusses and interprets the findings of the study Finally, the Conclusion

discusses conclusions drawn from the study, comments on the limitations of this research and makes some recommendations for further studies as well as the author‟s professional development after the research

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The study bases on theoretical background of speaking and role play technique This chapter reviews relevant literature and provides key information of the current research findings to see how the research contributes to the field

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking and teaching speaking

1.1.1 Definition and Nature of speaking

As defined in Oxford Advanced Dictionary, speaking is the one‟s ability to express or communicate opinions, feelings or ideas, etc or according to Chaney, speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”

To put it another way, Brown (2001) stated, speaking is an interactive process of meaning construction which involves producing and processing information Speaking

is also a process whose form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs and is usually used as a means of communication in daily interaction In speaking activity, it is a must for the speaker and the listener to build up a mutual communication Therefore, speaking is inseparable from communication because communication is also the way one can show feelings, thoughts, ask questions, ask for help, persuade…

In regards to the nature of speaking, Bygate (1987) discusses speaking involves linguistics skills which are necessarily required to understand grammar, vocabulary, and the rules of word order in sentence building

micro-1.1.2 Successful speaking activity

According to Ur (1996) there are four main characteristics which make up a successful speaking activity These characteristics include: learners‟ talking, even participation among learners, high motivation and acceptable language use These characteristics seem only to be able to be achieved in English classes which employ the

- Learners choose what they want to say by giving them a list of different situations

or topics (with one or some grammar points for elementary level)

- Type of drills in which learners respond mechanically without thinking about what they are saying is left out

- Teachers should pay more attention to fluency than accuracy and do not interrupt

to correct mistakes or errors

- Pair or group work is employed

The above mentioned factors are most likely to be achieved when the speaking lessons are implemented with role play activities

1.1.3 Teaching speaking

According to Nunan (2003), teaching speaking is to teach language learners to

“produce the English speech sounds and sounds pattern”, “use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language” “select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter” Nunan also stated that teaching speaking is teaching students to know how to “organize their thoughts in a meaning and logical sequence”, to help students to have ability to “use the language as a means of expressing values and judgments” and

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to “use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency”

Furthermore, as written in “Developing speaking skill in the young learners’

classroom” by Natasa, posted on the Internet TESL journal (Vol XII, No.11,

November 2006), some factors should be put into consideration when teaching speaking Those are considerations regarding a class mixed of varied abilities, expectation, motivation level, knowledge and different learning styles Another thing that teachers should take into consideration when teaching is that interaction is important in speaking practice Therefore, students‟ speaking time should be increased

as much as possible Communicative Language Teaching and Collaborative Learning seem to serve best for this purpose because this teaching method provides students with more opportunities to communicate with each other in the target language

In short, teachers should provide favorable conditions for students by creating classroom environment where students have real- life communication, authentic activities and meaningful tasks that promote oral practice These conditions are most likely to be able to achieve when role play is used as one of the communicative teaching techniques

1.1.4 Activities to promote speaking

There may be various types of activities used to promote speaking practice However, Hayriye Kayi mentions 13 activities in his article on TESL journal These activities includes discussions, role play, simulations, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing, and find the differences

This study focuses on the use of role play as a teaching technique to promote speaking practice In this type of activities, according to Harmer (1984), students pretend they are in different social contexts and have a variety of social roles Also, in role play, the teacher gives the learners information of who they are, and what they think they feel

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1.2 Theoretical background of role play technique

1.2.1 Definition of role play

As defined in Cambridge International Dictionary of English (Cambridge University Press, 1996) by Paul Procter, role is “the person whom an actor represents in a film or a play” and role play is “a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses, language learning and psychotherapy”

According to Gillian Porter Ladousse, when students take up a “role”, they play a part

in specific situation, and “play” means “that is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as an inventive and playful as possible”

Besides, in defining role play, Donn Byrne comments that role play is a part of drama activity Particularly, drama activities consist of three terms which are “mime”, “role play” and “simulation” He describes “mime” as the action in which “the participants who perform actions without using words”, “role play” as the activity in which

“participants interact either as themselves in imaginary situations” ”Simulation is described the same as role play but the participants in this activity usually discuss a problem with some setting which has been defined for them Therefore, according to the definition by Donn Byrne, role play and simulation seem to be commonly used in foreign language classes to encourage communicative competence, and mime is more appropriately used as a language game in which one person performs actions and the others guess

From the definitions above, it can be put in short that role play is a popular technique which utilizes one‟s imagination to be someone else or to be ourselves in a particular situation for a while to carry out dialogues and to create a real world in the scenario The aim of role play is to encourage students‟ creative thinking, to let students practice and develop the target language, and to create students‟ motivation and involvement which are necessary for learning to occur

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1.2.2 Types of role play and procedures in using role play

Role play is one of the most popular communicative teaching techniques used in CLT classroom As cited by Donn Byrne (1990), it is classified into two types which are scripted and non- scripted role plays

Scripted role play:

To perform the scripted role play, students work in pairs or groups and they are given prompts related to the scenario Students will use the prompts as the model to perform the target dialogue Before performing in front of the class, students have time to rehearse

According to Donn Byrne, scripted role play involves the interpretation of the dialogues or speech in textbooks To demonstrate more specifically, Adrian Doff gave

an example of scripted role play dialogue and how the procedure is as follow:

Angela : Good morning I want to send a letter to Singapore

Clerk : Yes, do you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail?

Angela : I think I’ll send it air mail I want it to get there quickly How

much does it cost?

Clerk : To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, pleas

Angela : (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are

Clerk : Here is your stamp, and here is 20 pence change

Angela : Thank you Where is the post box?

Clerk : You want the air mail box It is over there, by the door

(Adapted from living English book 2 : A.G Abdalla et al)

To encourage students to role play basing on the dialogue, Adrian Doff gives out the procedure as follows:

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Firstly, the teacher guide the activity by giving out some prompts like (where?/ air mail/ how much?/post box/ thanks ) Teacher can also go through the prompts one by one and asks students to give sentences or questions for each prompt Next, teacher calls 2 students, one play the role as Angela and the other is the post office clerk At this stage, teacher also points out to them that they are going to make a similar dialogue which covers the main points indicated by the prompts Then, teacher will call some more pairs to make similar dialogues based on the prompts

Non- scripted role play:

As for non- scripted role play, students are assigned to perform the role play activity in front of the class basing on the prompts given without preparing or writing the script in advance This type of role play does not depend on textbook and students themselves have to decide their language use decide how to develop the conversation To do activities of this type well, both teacher and students need to have good preparation The following example and procedures of unscripted role play are adapted from Andrian Doff:

Situation: One student has lost a bag He/ she is at the police station The other student

is the police officer, and asks for details

To develop the role play, teacher could prepare the class by discussing what the speaker may say (For example, the police officer would ask the students how he or she lost the bag ) The teacher can also guide the role play by writing prompts or any key vocabulary on the board Next, the teacher can divide the class into pairs and let them discuss together what they may say and rehearse the role play before calling them to present in front of the class

The procedures for teaching role play activities can be varied for each teacher Therefore, teacher should be flexible to make it an appropriate and effective activity for his or her students

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1.2.3 Benefits of role play in teaching speaking

As said above, role play is one of the activities to promote speaking among students According to Larsen Freeman (1997), role play is one of the important teaching techniques in the communicative approach as it provides learners with opportunities to practice communication in different social contexts and to take up different roles Besides, as stated by Ladousse, role play is a flexible learning activity which encourages learners‟ imagination Also, role play is a communicative technique which improves students‟ fluency in language and promotes students‟ interaction Another advantage of role play which is also stated by Ladousse is that with role play, students can experience different situation using the target language to practice For shy learners, role play provides them a “mask” to get on well with their peers to join in the situation Most importantly, role play increases motivation and makes language learning fun and memorable to learners

1.2.4 The teacher’s roles in role play activities

In regard of teacher‟s roles, Wright (1987) mentioned in his book that one of the main roles of the teacher in role play is management function in which her task is to create favorable conditions for role play to take place Another teacher‟s role, according to Wright, is the instructional function to the students These two teacher‟s roles are put in one term as “facilitator” by Littlewood (1981) Breen and Candlin (1980) add other three teacher‟s roles which are to act as facilitator of the role play process and to act as

a participant, and to act as an observer and learner

a Facilitator

As a facilitator, the teacher may need to perform a variety of specific tasks which are as followed:

(1) The teacher may perform the role of language instructor In this role, the teacher

may provide the students with learning materials and initiate role play activity

(2) The teacher is the organizer of the classroom activities

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As stated by J Harmer (1991), of all the roles, the teacher‟s role as organizer is the most important and difficult from the classroom management perspective In his view, whether a role play activity is successful or not largely depends on the teacher‟s good organization and on students who know exactly what they are going to do When organizing a role play activity, the teacher tells what they are to talk about, gives clear instructions about what their role is, gets the role play activity going, and then organizes feedback when it is over As stated by J Harmer, the carrying out of these tasks sounds easy, but can be “disastrous” if teachers have not thought out exactly what they are going to stay beforehand

Beside theses, the teacher has to divide the whole class into pairs or small groups to work When the role play is conducted by the students, the teacher has to walk around the classroom to make sure the communication is going smoothly

(3) The teacher may be the error corrector

Though before the performance of role play activity, errors should be strictly monitored and corrected, at the group work and class work levels in conducting and presenting role play, linguistic errors are viewed as unavoidable in communication and can be ignored as long as communication is hindered by those errors

(4) The teacher may choose to be a by- stander or passive viewer who has no

intervention after delivering the proceedings, and let communication take place through independent activities

(5) The teacher may act as a consultant or an adviser while role play is in progress

With this role, the teacher walk around the classroom and help students if necessary and if is asked The students may have questions about the language items and the role they choose or assigned The teacher‟s help in this case may be an important support for many students, especially for those who are slow to develop independence

b Participant

During the process of role play, teacher should also participate as an equal in the activity He can offer his information; stimulate the students and present new language

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items without taking the main initiative role for communication away from the students

c Observer and learner

Beside the above mentioned roles, teacher may also act as an observer and learner During the process of role play, teacher can move around the classroom and monitor the strengths and weaknesses of the students for planning future learning activities From the students‟ weaknesses, he may address the later learning needs through more controlled, pre- communicative activities

In short, regarding the teacher‟s roles in role play activities in developing communicative abilities among students, teacher is less dominant but important to make the activity successful He is a facilitator of the communicative process in which

he may play the roles of an instructor of language items, organizer of role play activity, error corrector, passive viewer and consultant He may also join in the role play activities as co- communicator or observer

1.2.5 The learners’ roles in role play activities

Since the application of Communicative Language Teaching Approach, the roles of learners have changed As stated by Morrow (1977): “the learner is now concerned with using language, not English usage In order to do this, learners take on roles and interact with other learners who also have roles What they say is determined by the roles they play, their communicative intentions and the contribution of the other learners” Therefore, it is obviously inferred that the roles of learners in role play activities are different from those found in the traditional classroom activities

According to Breen and Candlin (1980), the learner acts as a negotiator between himself, the learning process and the object of learning This role interacts with the role

of joint negotiator within the group In other words, the student should contribute as much as he gains This role is, according to Breen and Candlin, clarified by the specific roles as followed:

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- Learners regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer, negotiate meaning in situations

in which each person plays his own role

- Learners often engage in role play or dramatization to adjust their use of the target language to different social contexts

- Learners are given some control; their creativity and innovation are encouraged

To put it simply, it can be said that all of those roles help to improve learners‟ sense of competence, self- worth, a sense of their learning and increase their intrinsic motivation

in learning the language

1.3 Review of previous studies

There have been various studies on the exploitation of role play in English language teaching and learning In the research by D.Wilkin (1976), he emphasized the concept

of communicative approach in classroom teaching in which presentation, practices and production stages are carried out by teacher and learners In the third stage, Wilkin put great emphasis on the use of role play as a technique in which learners imitated the reality in the given context and situation Also in D.Wilkin‟s research, he mentions the procedure for organizing the role play practice According to D.Wilkin, teacher should provide students with a particular context and several roles to prepare and then perform

in front of the class Several groups in the class can work to develop their performance While one pair or group is performing, the rest are students and discuss what the group‟s strengths are and what the things they need improve afterwards are Therefore, according to D.Wilkin, the follow- up discussion is also a kind of practice In D.Wilkin study, he proves that role play is an effective technique to make a friendly teaching and learning atmosphere, to arouse the learners‟ interests and to make the language acquisition more impressive and memorable

Besides, the author of the research titled “using role play in teaching speaking” (2007), Ayu Diyah Harni Susanti from the State Islamic University proves the effectiveness of role play in the ways that it provides the learners with real situations to practice the target language, it encourages the learners‟ creativity, confidence to speak in front of

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many people More importantly, it enriches students‟ knowledge and skills needed in social communication Ayu carried out the study on tenth grade students from four classes with the use of experimental research with results gained from the pre- test and post test The two speaking tests‟ aims are to assess the students‟ pronunciation, fluency and speaking manner After the time of treatment using role play in teaching speaking, the post- test was carried out on the participants Through data from the post- test results, the interview and the recording, the author pointed out the advantages of using role plays

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents key information about the teaching practice at HUBT, the participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis and procedure of the study

2.1 Background of the study

2.1.1 The teaching and learning context

Hanoi University of Business and Technology (named Hanoi University of Management and Business before May, 2006) was established in June, 1996, by Professor Tran Phuong (Chairman of Economic Science of Vietnam, former Vice Chairman of the Ministerial Council) As suggested by its name, such subjects as accounting, finance, business administration, foreign trade, etc are the core ones in the school‟s training program Along with these majors, English is considered as an essentially important subject because it serves as a means of international communication and it is helpful to the students after graduations

As the great emphasis is put on English, good conditions for English teaching and learning have been provided Overhead projectors, videos, cassette and CD players are equipped so that teachers and students can carry out their teaching and learning English books, newspaper, magazines and computer with Internet access are always available in the library of the school However, students rarely have chances to communicate with foreigners, especially English native speakers

2.1.2 The syllabus

The ultimate objective of English teaching program at HUBT is to make students be able to communicate with foreigners in written and spoken English at intermediate level and pass the TOEIC tests at the end of the English course which stretches in seven semesters For those students who take up this course, English is not their major but a compulsory subject in the courses The training program is classified into two categories according to the students‟ English proficiency because they had

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been classified into English classes before they started the official course at HUBT

by an English entrance exam The first category consists of all the students who have relatively equal English proficiency level (beginner or elementary) This group

are taught with New English File (Elementary) and then moved to Market Leader

The other type is for students who have elementary English proficiency level or above They are taught with Market Leader of elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate levels in order These series are business English course books In the last semester, the students are trained with TOEIC and pass a TOEIC test

The students have three English lessons each week Each lesson lasts for approximately four hours (equals to five periods of 45 minutes) The students take two tests, a mid-term test and a final one In the mid-term test, they are required to perform a test with four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking The result of the mid-term test accounts for 30% of the total score The final test, computer-based multiple-choice, makes up the rest 70% The English course lasts for seven semesters (about three and a half years)

2.1.3 The description of the teaching material

The text book used is Market Leader Intermediate by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent, Pearson 2004 As stated by Cotton, D., Falvey, D., & Kent, S (2004), Market Leader Intermediate is for “tomorrow's business leaders” because it introduces students to professional communication and language skills which are necessary for a wide range of business situations such as meetings, negotiation and, socialization, etc Speaking skill seems to be the core of this course book with the part of discussion, individually or in groups, presented at mostly every part of each unit such as Starting up, Vocabulary, Language Review, Reading, Listening, especially in Skills and Case Study where students work in pairs or groups to play a role in various business situations The book also provides students with typical business issues and authentic sources which help to build up a professional standard

of language needed to communicate in the modern business world

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2.1.4 The learners

Generally, the students at HUBT age from 18 to 22 and the number of student in each class is about 26 to 30 There is a great difference between the number of male and that of female due to their majors In some majors such as Banking and Finance, Accounting, female students gain the dominance meanwhile; other fields like Business Administration, Information Technology, and Mechanical Engineering… are dominated by male students

The students‟ English proficiency level is, in general, of mixed ability Most of them have seven years learning English in secondary school and high school However, communication in English seem to be a big challenge for them because they often feel shy or afraid of making mistakes due to their poor English and the lack of social knowledge as well Consequently, in English classrooms, the students usually keep silent and unwilling to take part in class activities

2.1.6 Teaching practice at HUBT

English teaching practice at HUBT is based on the students‟ needs, their ability and

English proficiency As a teacher who mainly teaches Market Leader, I only discuss

the English teaching practice with related issues During the time I have been teaching at HUBT, I also know the teaching practice of other teachers who also

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mainly teach second- year students with Market Leader (Intermediate) through direct observation, discussion, informal talks or indirectly through small talks with students

As said above, this course book focuses on communicative approach which views language as communication to create realistic context for language acquisition to occur in classroom With speaking skill, the tasks are mostly in the form of group discussion, group negotiation or role play, which requires students to work in pairs

or groups together and use English as a tool for communication to solve the problem in the authentic situations

In reality, the teachers mostly group students and allow them to work out but fail Sometimes, teachers guide too much in terms of translating the background of the situation of the tasks into Vietnamese, generating ideas All these lead to the problem that teachers dominate students in discussion and force them to follow his

or her ideas and drop student‟s talking time as well as their independence, confidence and their creativity That is the reason why even though both teachers and learners put a great deal of efforts in teaching and learning English at HUBT, the outcome is not very satisfactory

2.2 Research procedure

The author followed several steps to conduct the study These consist of preliminary investigation, action plan, implementation, observation, and reflection

2.2.1 Conducting preliminary investigation

To find out the students‟ attitudes towards speaking and their habits in speaking lessons, the researcher conducted a preliminary study The data collected through a questionnaire

on the students This helped her to design the appropriate action plan to do the research

2.2.2 Planning the action

At this stage, the author carried out the preparation which consisted of preparing lesson plans, making role play activities evaluation form and setting the criteria of success

2.2.2.1 Preparing lesson plans

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Lesson plans of the units 1 to 6 in the Market Leader Pre- intermediate were made Each speaking period lasted 50 minutes The role play activities were based on the case studies included at the end of each unit In these role play activities, the students had to pay attention to teacher‟s instructions, choose the role and were allowed to work out the activity with their partners Then, they were encouraged to practice the role with their partner or group members by using the language and expressions provided during the lesson After the allowed time, they volunteer or were asked to perform their role play in front of the class

The lesson plans (Please see the Appendix 4)

2.2.2.2 Making role play activities evaluation forms

The author of this study used an analytical rubric to evaluate the students‟ speaking performance through role play activities This analytical scoring rubric explained the criteria of each scale for the author to evaluate each student‟s speaking performance The criteria chosen to evaluate were based on the frame of Harris‟ oral English rating scales (1969) These criteria included pronunciation, grammar, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension Each element was scored on a five- point scale which ranged from 1 (poor), 2 (average), 3 (good), 4 (very good) and 5 (excellent) The author chose the rating score frame by Harris so that she can objectively assess the students‟ speaking ability, whether they gained 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 scores By this way, it can be easier to calculate the scores The maximum score achieved was 25 Apart from the rating scale, a space was provided on the evaluation form for the observers to write some comments and feedback for the students to improve their performance in the next speaking lessons

The role plays activities evaluation form (Please see the Appendix 3)

2.2.2.3 Setting the criteria of success

The success criteria were set in advance to determine whether the action implemented is successful or not The action was considered successful when at least 60% of the students achieve the good level of speaking for each language element when they perform their role play in front of the class To assess students‟ speaking performance, the author used observation form and the analytical rubric as mentioned above

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2.2.3 Implementing the action

The implementation was in two months‟ time and was adjusted to be suitable with the schedule set by the university where the study was conducted During the process of implementing the action, the author acted as both the practitioner conducting the teaching

in the class, and an observer observing the students‟ working and their speaking performance when role playing

At the first stage, her role was more dominant She collected all possible materials, presented new language items and equipped the students with new structures and vocabulary, drilled the new forms and corrected the mistakes immediately At the stage

of role play itself, the emphasis was on the students‟ input Students read the role cards‟ instruction, worked in pairs and work out what they were assumed to do The author moved around the classroom, monitored the activity to see how the students cooperated and work, how they communicated and interacted with their group members, how fluent

he or she was, and noted down errors in grammar, pronunciation and communicative problems The students‟ performance was checked and evaluated through the analytical scoring rubric in which the criteria were set based on the frame by Harris‟ oral rating scale (1969)

2.2.4 Observing the action

In the stage of observing the action, the author observed the implementation of the action which includes the students‟ participation in the role play activities, the students‟ speaking performance when they performed their parts in front of the class The focus of the classroom observation is, therefore, on not only the student‟s mastery of language elements but also on such elements as students‟ active participation in the learning process, their ability to perform in front of the crowd and their ability to give feedback to other peers or group members

2.2.5 Reflecting the action

The data is collected via the observations during the implementation of the action and then analyzed The analysis results were then consulted with the criteria for success to

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decide whether there was a need for a next cycle or not The decision to continue the action in the next cycle was done when the criteria of success was not fulfilled

2.3 Data collection instruments

The data for the study was collected through classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews with the participants The process of data collection is implemented during all the speaking lessons in the two classes in two months‟ time in the first semester of the second school year

2.3.1 Classroom observation

The aim of the classroom observation is to identify how the participants work, interact with and respond to their partners when working in role play activities during speaking lessons Therefore, the focus of the observation is on the students The data collected from the classroom observation is also used to reveal students‟ speaking performance when role play is utilized in speaking lessons

Who does the observing?

First of all, the researcher herself carries out the class observation during the whole speaking class periods Besides, The vice Dean of English Faculty I will be invited

to observe the speaking sessions Her observation, her comments as well as her assessments greatly contribute towards more objective findings of the research The observers notes down what will be happening in the speaking classes on the observation sheets The data collected from observation will be used directly for the data analysis or for cross- reference

In speaking periods, recording is also used as an observation technique to make the data more reliable These recordings or video tapes are then transcript to add data to the findings

2.3.4 Questionnaires

The survey questionnaires consisted of pre- task and post- task ones with both close and open- ended questions

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The pre- task questionnaire included 5 closed question items in two smaller parts whose aims were to identify students‟ attitudes towards speaking lessons and to find out their learning habits in previous speaking lessons The results gained from this pre- task questionnaire were used to compare with the post- task questionnaire results

The post- task questionnaires included three parts to find out students‟ attitudes towards speaking and role play activities, students‟ learning behaviors and preference, and the students‟ opinions on the use of role play in speaking lessons Part I & II of the questionnaire contributed to answering the first research question

which is “How do the students learn speaking with role play activities?” The last part of the questionnaire dealt with answering the second research question of “To

what extent do role play activities help to improve the students’ speaking performance?”

2.3.5 Interviews

The final instrument is semi-structured interviews with students These are done before and after speaking classes or during short breaks In the interview, the researcher makes as many simple notes as possible Sometimes, if it is necessary and the interviewees felt comfortable and agreed to record, mobile phones are used Most of the interviews are conducted in Vietnamese (teacher and students‟ mother tongue) so that the students can feel free to fully response to the interviewer‟s

questions

2.4 Data collection procedures

The study was done through the following steps:

After teaching one first speaking lesson to 60 HUBT‟s second year non- English major students from the two classes of Accounting major, the researcher asked them

to complete the pre- task survey questionnaire Some follow-up semi- structured interviews were conducted to find out the problems existing in the class in speaking lessons and the students‟ requirements or needs in studying English Some

Additionally, semi- structured interviews with students were carried out before and after speaking class or during short breaks to attain the learners‟ critical comments Because of limited time in class, sometimes follow- up interviews were carried out via the Internet through Yahoo or Facebook chatting at the end of the day the speaking lessons took place The researcher used the key questions in the interview sheets and quickly took notes their answers

The data from the field notes were then analyzed to synthesize what really happened when they worked in role plays and their opinions towards role play activities used

in speaking lessons The findings from the records and the classroom observation

were then interpreted and discussed to add data for answering the question of to

what extent role play activities could enhance the students’ speaking performance

After two months‟ time of applying role plays in speaking lessons, the participants did the post- task survey questionnaires which were delivered to them to find out the effectiveness of role plays on the learners‟ speaking performance and their participation in speaking lessons While the questionnaires were delivered and answered, some translation was done to make sure all the respondents could understand the ideas Because four students were absent from the last speaking

of the study

3.1 Data analysis

This part presents the data analysis collected from the pre- task and post- task questionnaires, the direct interviews with the students and the teacher‟s observations

All the statistical data from the questionnaires would be shown in the form of percentages The quantitative data collected from the interviews and the

observations would be transcript to add more information

3.1.1 Data analysis of students’ questionnaires and direct interview

3.1.1.1 Data analysis of students’ pre- task questionnaire

Of the questions in the pre- task questionnaire, 56 students answer the question 3 and 4 Regarding these two questions, more than one option was acceptable Therefore, the results of the questions were presented in the percentage of the chosen options

Specifically, the statements in the question 1 were about the students; learning habits in the previous English speaking lessons The questions 2, 3 and 4 were about the students‟ knowledge of role play The last question investigated whether the students want to have role plays applied in their English speaking lessons or not

Students’ learning habits in the previous speaking lessons:

Question 1: How do you learn in your previous speaking lessons?

Statements: “In speaking lessons …” Frequency Number

of

Percent (%)

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students

a I only listen to my teacher and friends,

and take notes their ideas

b I spend some time thinking of the

question and wait for whether the

teacher calls me for my idea

Table 1: Students’ learning habits in previous speaking

Regarding the first statement in the above table, 60% of the students revealed that in their previous speaking lessons, they always listen to their teacher and friends and take notes their ideas 25 and 11.7% shared that they often and sometimes do this respectively Only 3.3% of them choose the option “never” When being asked in

the interview, some of them said that “although they were speaking lessons, we

spent most of the time listening to our teacher and our friends’ ideas and wrote down their ideas to prepare for the later speaking test”

In the question 1b, 63.4% of the students agreed that they have a habit of preparing answers for the questions or tasks and passively wait for their teacher‟s calling 23.3% chose that they often do this However, only 10% and 3.3% of them revealed

Accordingly, in the 1d question, only 6.7% and 11.6% agreed that they always and often speak more when working with their peers respectively, and 20% revealed that when working in pairs or in groups they sometimes speak more 61.7% of them chose that they never have opportunity to speak more if they work with their partners

The results gained from the question about the students‟ learning habits in their previous speaking lessons showed that a majority of the students prefer to work on their own when joining the speaking activities

Students’ knowledge about role play:

Question 2: Have you ever heard about role play?

Students‟ answer Number of

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When being asked whether the students know about role play, most of the students (93.3%) answered that they have heard about role play Only 6.7% of them chose that they have not known about this technique

Question 3: How much do you know about role play?

Figure 1: Students’ knowledge about role play

Only 56 of the participants were involved in this question According to the chart, 32.1% and 37.5% of them shared that they very much and much know about role play respectively 19.6% and 10.7% of them said that they a little and little know about this technique

Question 4: According to your knowledge, what do students do in role play?

Figure 2: Students’ knowledge about what students do in role plays

As presented in the chart, 75% of the students said that in role plays the learners pick up their roles and cooperate with their peers to prepare for the presentation

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78.6% of them gave their opinions that role play is a technique in which the learners act as someone else and imagine themselves in a situation outside the classroom and use the language in the new context Only 21 and 8.9% of them answered that in role plays, the learners receive their roles and independently prepare for their roles and the learners listen to the teacher most of the time respectively

Question 5: Are you interested in learning if role play is applied in speaking lessons?

Students‟ interest if role play is applied

in speaking lessons

Number of students

As the table shows, 53, 2% of the students are eager to take part in speaking lessons

if role plays are applied The rest, 46.8 % of them seem to be not interested in the application of this technique in speaking lessons

3.1.1.2 Data analysis of the post- task questionnaire and direct interview

Students’ attitudes towards speaking and role plays used in the speaking lessons:

Question 1: How do you like speaking lessons?

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Figure 3: Students’ attitudes towards speaking lessons

The above pie chart vividly illustrates the students‟ attitudes towards speaking lessons After the time of implementing role plays in the speaking lessons, the number of students who like speaking lessons accounts for 80% Of the 80%, 63.3% and 16.7% chose “much” “very much” like speaking lessons respectively 11.7% of the students keep a neutral attitude towards speaking lessons Only 3.3% and 5.0 %

of them frankly showed their dislike to joining the speaking lessons at different levels

In the interview, some students shared their opinions:

“I become more interested in the speaking lessons because I have a role to play in

it”

“The speaking lessons are more exciting We do not sit still any more We can group ourselves and assign the roles”

“I realize the importance of English speaking skill in different situations Therefore,

I pay more attention to it and find it not uninteresting as I previously thought”

Question 2: How do you like the role play activities used in your speaking lessons?