TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL BY USING COMMUNICATIVE TASKS

In the first term of the school year 2015, all grade 10 students in Dong Nai Province had to take communicative English tests with the four language skills: Listening, speaking, reading

Vinh Cuu, which is one of the largest districts in Dong Nai Province, has attracted a lot of foreign companies and factories Many foreigners work in the companies and factories need to use English to interact with their customers, their workers and partners In order to communicate to foreigners, to find good jobs, many young people and students have to be good at speaking English Of course, more and more people want to use it as a means of communication at work, in business and tourism As a teacher, I am aware that English has been one of the compulsory subjects in secondary schools and high schools in Vietnam In the first term of the school year 2015, all grade 10 students in Dong Nai Province had to take communicative English tests with the four language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing Therefore, English teachers have the responsibility for training and helping their students to become good communicative English users In teaching the four language skills, we think that speaking is the most important skill, but the teaching of speaking in my school has not been effective in terms of communication

STUDENTS’ LEARNING PROBLEMS

Many students in Tri An School are not good at oral communication in English for a number of reasons: First, they have very few learning speaking strategies because they are usually provided with grammar and language structures which their teachers think that these structures are important for the first and second term examinations Second, they are very shy when they speak out in front of the class because they are not usually trained to use English communicatively Finally, many tasks in the textbooks : English 10, English 11 and English 12 are not suitable for students’ learning needs

As a teacher of English, I think that teaching English for “spoken communication” is essential However, my personal experience of its methods is still limited due to many following reasons: The students have very few chances for communication due to the large number of students, time limitations, grammar translation method Most of the teachers don’t get familiar with natural responses to communicative situations except for questions and answer activities between teacher

and students Therefore, the students are not confident enough to express themselves in English

As a teacher, I know that there are a lot of methods that can be applied in the class However, in this research I focus on grade 11 students’ speaking skill because speaking is a productive skill It involves using speech to express meanings to others Interaction is two-way communication that involves using language and body language to keep our listeners involving in what we are saying and to check that they understand our meanings

LITERATURE REVIEW

We all know the importance of speaking, teaching speaking to the ultimate goal of our English language teaching Speaking is one of the crucial productive skills and people can evaluate our English competence by listening to our speaking first

Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a

conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak

or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom, they may then get frustrated and lose interest in learning the language Our responsibility is to improve students’ four language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing I think speaking is the most important skill for my students because the purpose of our English course is really to enable our students to communicate effectively In fact, if the appropriate communicative tasks or activities are taught in the right way, speaking

in class can be a lot of fun The achievement in learning speaking will increase students’ motivation

In recent research, it is true that in a language class, it is necessary for the teacher to create a positive classroom atmosphere so that he or she can encourage the students to communicate with each other By doing this, the students can express their ideas, feelings and opinions without feeling afraid of making mistakes Besides, the students can conduct communicative tasks in an effective way Many researchers emphasize the importance of teaching conversations or role play to English language teaching

Jack C Richards emphasizes that communicative practice refers to activities where practice in using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is not totally predictable

In agreement with Richards, Willis (1996) states that creating a low stress atmosphere and using the language for real purposes are ways to get meaningful communication and through interaction and students have the opportunity to acquire discourse skills Willis also points out that the essential conditions for effective language learning, such

as exposure, use, and motivation In agreement with Willis, Nunan (1991) says that task-based learning views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals they serve He also stresses the crucial role of communicative tasks in task-based teaching and learning He says that task-based teaching involves an approach where communicative tasks are particularly important because students need to be involved in interactions in the classrooms and real life As

a result, this view changes the approach of designing tasks to be developed in the classroom

TASK MODIFICATION

Roger Nunn suggests that teachers must take into account the following criteria when they design tasks and exercises for English learners or students Let’s consider the areas:

Simulating "Real" Conversation

Classroom tasks are simulations and can only approximate real-life communication, but real-life skills, such as adjusting to an interlocutor's contribution can be built in Tasks designed to practise interactive ability should be an appropriate task for students They must be able to imagine themselves in the situation

Exchanging

An interactive task should require students to exchange information, opinions, attitudes, but not for its own sake There should be a real purpose; each participant should need to find something out from the others in order to complete the task

Comprehensible Input

The task should require the participants to make sure they fully understand what the others tell them and to make themselves fully understood to the others In this way, students will need to adjust to each other's contributions

Improvising

The task should require both predictable and unpredictable communication Real conversation always involves unpredictability so an ability to improvise needs to

be practised For example, an attempt to come to an agreement is unpredictable There

is no requirement to actually reach an agreement, so the participants may develop the conversation freely On the other hand, they must exchange the information for an agreement to be possible and cannot easily avoid asking questions

Mixed- Ability

For mixed-ability courses, tasks should favour the production of contributions

of all kinds They should allow both weak and strong participants to extend themselves

to their full ability For strong participants, making themselves understood to students with less linguistic ability is a useful skill Opportunity and time must be available for candidates

(Roger Nunn - Kochi University, Japan)

In order to make the tasks more effective and relevant and appropriate for our students, I often redesign the tasks to meet the students’ learning goals Let’s have a look at the following task design

Part one: English 11- Unit 1: Friendship (Page 16)

Task 3 (Task from the textbook)

Role - play: Talk about a famous friend

You are interviewing the interviewee

about a friend of his or hers who has

You have a friend whom you admire greatly She/ He has just won the first

just won the first international prize in

Mathematics

international prize in Mathematics You are being interviewed by a journalist about him or her

Before you start, agree upon the basic profile of the friend Use the following suggestions to ask and answer questions:

• his/ her name

• date of birth

• his/ her physiccal characteristics

• his/ her hobbies

• his/ her personalities

• why he/ she is interested in Math

• how much time he/ she spends on Maths every day

• what makes him/ her a good friend

• what made him/ her successful

• what he/ she does in his/ her free time

Useful language:

His or her personalities:

Friendly, humorous, quick-witted, good-natured, helpful, honest, pleasant, caring

How he or she won the prize:

Studious, intelligent, keenly interested in Mathematics, eager to learn, patient, calm

Newly- designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction:

Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the roles when you have finished.

Journalist: Hello Our guest today is Phuong, a student who has won a

gold medal in Physics We can see you’re very excellent So Phuong, do you admire anybody?

Phuong: Yes, of course That is my best friend I so much admire him

because he is very intelligent and he has just won the first international prize in Maths

Journalist: What’s his name?

Phuong: His name is Long.

Journalist: What is his date of birth?

Phuong: Uh, it’s on 23rd September 1998

Journalist: I want to know details of himself What are his physical

characteristics?

Phuong: Well, he’s tall and thin Sometimes I see him as a scientist in

his short-sighted glasses

Journalist: Oh, maybe he is very handsome How about his

personalities?

Phuong: You know? I admire Long because of not only his excellence

but also his good personality In spite of being a good student, he is very modest and he always helps friends in learning He also has sense of humour that makes people laugh a lot

Journalist: Long is such a perfect student Why is he interested in

Maths?

Phuong: Well, he said he loved Maths when he was a little boy He likes counting, figures

Journalist: Does he spend all his time studying Maths?

Phuong: He spends much time studying it but not all of it He always

has a suitable schedule between studying and playing

Journalist: What does he do in his free time?

Phuong: He plays sports with his friends Sometimes he plays

rubikcube

Journalist: After your share, I know how he has such a great success.

That’s all interesting Thanks for your share I hope to see you and Long someday Goodbye

Phuong: Bye See you soon.

Rationale: After the weaker students have already practised playing roles in the

dialogue, they can make questions with cues based on the dialogue The students work

in pairs to make their own dialogue, using their own ideas This task is considered “a communicative task” because the students can exchange real information They use their own ideas to interact with each other We should help students practice playing roles with a model first, then they can make their own dialogue They are provided

with opportunities to decide on things in the dialogue and this is considered as simulation

2 Making questions:

Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue.

Physical characteristics What

Time he/ she spends on Maths Does he………?

Suggested Questions

Date of birth What is his date of birth?

Physical characteristics What are his/ her physical

characteristics?

Personalities How about his/ her personalities?

Interest in Maths Why is he/ she interested in Maths?

Time he/ she spends on Maths Does he/ she spend all his/ her time

studying Maths?

Hobbies What does he/ she do in his/ her free

time?

Part two: English 11 - Unit 3: A Party (Page 36)

Task 2 (Task from the textbook)

Work in pairs Tell your partner about the party.

Newly-designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the

roles when you have finished.

Ngoc: Hi! Hang

Hang: Hello, Ngoc

Ngoc: Well, you look nice today.

Hang: Thank you You are, too.

Ngoc: Where did you go last night?

Hang: Oh, I went to my friend’s birthday party

Ngoc: Who did you go with?

Hang: Well, I went with some of my friends.

Ngoc: How did you go there?

Hang: Year, we went there by motorbikes.

Ngoc: What did you give her?

Hang: Oh, we bought a very beautiful dress for her We hope she will like it Ngoc: That sounds interesting Were there a lot of people there? Did you know

most of them there?

Hang: Uh, there were a lot of people Some of them were my friends and the

others were her relatives that I didn’t know

Ngoc: What did you do at the party?

Hang: Well, firstly we sang the song “Happy Birthday!” together and then we

ate candies, birthday cakes and played some games

Ngoc: How interesting it was! What time did it finish?

Hang: Oh, at nine o’clock I am really interested in talking with you but I have

some things to do Goodbye for now!

Ngoc: Bye See you later

Hang: Thank you.

2 Making questions:

Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue.

Birthday party Where

With some of friends Who

By motorbikes How

A very beautiful dress What

A lot of people Were there……

Sing songs and eat candies,

birthday cakes What

At nine o’clock What time

Rationale: Helping students to make questions is a very important strategy in teaching

oral discourse because in real life sometimes we ask and sometimes we make responses We do this in order to help students increase their ability to make questions

in real life

Suggested Questions Birthday party Where did you go last night?

With some of friends Who did you go with?

By motorbikes How did you go there?

A very beautiful dress What did you give her?

A lot of people Were there a lot of people there?

Sing songs and eat candies,

birthday cakes What did you do at the party?

At nine o’clock What time did it finish?

Part three: English 11- Unit 9: The Post Office (Page 104)

Task 3 (Task from the textbook)

Work in pairs Imagine that one of you is a clerk at the post office and the other is a

customer, make a dialogue for each of the following situations

1 You want to subscribe to the Lao dong Daily for a year and have the newspaper delivered to your home every morning before 6.30 Your address is 67 Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi

2 Your best friend’s birthday is on 16th May You want to use the Flower Telegram Service provided by the post office to send her a greetings card and a bunch of red roses on her birthday

Newly- designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the

roles when you have finished.

Clerk: Good morning Welcome to Thanh Ba post office

Can I help you?

Thuy: Good morning Well, I want to subscribe to the newspaper?

Clerk: Which newspapers do you want to subscribe to?

Thuy: Well, I want to subscribe to the Lao Dong Daily.

Clerk: How long have you used this service?

Thuy: For a year, please Can you start tomorrow?

Clerk: Certainly What’s your address?

Thuy: Well, my address is 67 Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi.

Clerk: Ok My staff will deliver the newspaper to your house at 7.00

a.m

Thuy: Could you deliver the newspaper before 6.30? Because I have to

go to school at 7.00 a.m

Clerk: Yes, of course We will deliver it bebore 6.30.

Thuy: How much is the fee?

Clerk: Well, do you pay for per month or for a whole year?

Thuy: Uh, just per month.

Clerk: Yes, it’s 30.000 VND per month Can you fill in this form?

Thuy: Yes Here you are Thank you.

Clerk: You’re welcome It’s my pleasure.

Thuy: Oh, it’s too late I have to go home See you later

Clerk: Bye See you next time.