Improving speaking skill for 10th grade students at do luong 1 high school through communicative activities master thesis in education

From the results of the study, the researcher gets a view on specificsituation of using communicative activities to improve speaking skill for 10thgraders at Do Luong 1 high school.. The

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÂM THỊ HƯƠNG

STUDENTS AT DO LUONG 1 HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghe An - 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÂM THỊ HƯƠNG

STUDENTS AT DO LUONG 1 HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findingsdiscussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have notbeen published elsewhere

Secondly, I truly wish to thank the teachers at Do Luong 1 High School where

my investigation was carried out for their useful materials, valuable advice andgreat cooperation

In addition, I also like to send my special thanks to all students at Do Luong 1 for their willingness to answer my questionnaires.

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are due to my dear family and my friendswho always stand for me with their consideration and encouragements

observation for teachers and students are employed to find the answers to thequestions From the results of the study, the researcher gets a view on specificsituation of using communicative activities to improve speaking skill for 10thgraders at Do Luong 1 high school The study has found out some difficulties thatthe teachers and students are facing in their speaking lessons In addition to, theresearcher also suggest some recommendations in applying communicativeactivities to develop speaking skill successfully for their 10th graders The authorhopes that the study will help teachers to overcome the difficulties in teaching andlearning English speaking skill at Do Luong 1 high school as well as a referencefor those who are interested in this matter.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP 0Acknowlegement iiABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.3.1 What is the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skill of the 10th graders at Do L uong 1 high School, Doluong District, Nghe An Province ? 2

1.3.2 How are communicative activities applied in speaking lessons for the 10th graders at Do Luong 1 high school? 2

1.3.3 What are suggested class communicative activities to improve for the 10th graders’ speaking skill in Do Luong 1 high school? 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 The design of the study 2

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 The nature of language skills 4

2.2 Speaking skill 4

2.2.1 The definitions of speaking skill 4

2.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking 5

2.2.3 Principles for teaching speaking skill 6

2.2.4 Stages for teaching speaking skill 7

2.2.5 Problems with speaking activities 8

2.3 Communicative language teaching aproach 9

2.3.1 Concepts of CLT 9

2.3.2 Characteristics of CLT 10

2.4 Communicative activities 11

2.4.1 Aims of communicative activities 11

2.4.2 Characteristics of communicative activities 11

2.4.3 Types of oral communicative activities 12

2.4.4 Roles of communicative activities in language teaching and learning 17

2.4.5 Requirements of communicative activities 21

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 23

3.1 Research setting 23

3.1.1 An overview of Do Luong 1 high school 23

3.1.2.The teachers 23

3.1.3 The students 24

3.1.4 The syllabus 24

3.1.5 The current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at Do Luong 1 25

3.2 Research method 26

3.2.1 Methods 26

3.2.2 Data collection instruments 27

3.2.2.1 Survey questionnaire 27

3.2.2.2 Classroom observation 27

3.2.2.3 Interviews 27

3.3 Procedures 28

CHAPTER 4 FIDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

4.1 Data analysis 29

4.1.1 Results of students’ survey questionnaire 29

4.1.1.1 Students’ background of learning English 29

4.1.1.2 Students’ reasons for learning English 30

4.1.1.3 Students’ attitudes towards learning speaking skill 31

4.1.1.4 Factors that make the students difficult to speak 32

4.1.1.5 Students’ attitudes towards communicative activities 34

4.1.1.6 Students’ difficulties in practising communicative activities 35

4.1.2 Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire 35

4.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching English speaking skills 36

4.1.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities 38

4.1.2.3 Teachers’ implementation of CAs 40

4.1.2.4 Teachers’ assessments on the contribution of CAs 41

4.1.2.4 Teachers’ role in designing and managing CAs in classrooms 42

4.1.2.5 Teachers’ difficulties in applying communicative activities 44

4.2 Findings and discussion 45

4.2.1 Findings from classroom observation 45

4.2.2 Findings from survey questionnaire 47

4.2.2.1 Teachers’ problems 47

4.2.2.2 Students’ problems 48

4.3 Conclusion 48

CHAPTER 5 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 49

5.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 49

5.1.1 Using songs 49

5.1.2 Communicative games 50

5.1.3 Ask and answer 51

5.1.4 Role play 52

5.1.5 Class discussion 54

5.1.6 Problem-solving activity 55

5.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using communicative activities 55

CONCLUSION 57

REFERENCES 60

APPENDIX 62

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Students’ time of learning English 29

Figure 2: Students’ reasons for learning English 30

Figure 3: Students’ interest in speaking English 31

Table 1: Students’ frequency of speaking English 31

Figure 4: Reasons for speaking of students in class 32

Table 2: Factors that make the students difficult to speak 33

Table 3: Kinds of communicative activities that students like to take part in 34

Table 4: Students’ difficulties in practising communicative activities 35

Figure 5: Teachers' attitude towards the role of speaking skill 36

Figure 6: Teachers' attitude towards students' speaking ability 37

Figure 7:The reasons why students are afraid of speaking from the view of teachers .37

Figure 8: Teachers' attitudes towards CAs in the textbook English 10 38

Figure 9: Teachers' time to use CAs 39

Figure 10: Teachers' kinds of CAs applied in speaking lesson 39

Table 5: Teachers’ perception towards the aims of CAs 40

Table 6: Teachers’ feedbacks on the lessons without CAs 41

Figure 11: Teachers' opinions about the benefits of CAs 42

Table 7: Roles of the teachers during the CAs 43

Table 8: Teachers’ opinion of the ways to promote CAs 44

Table 9: Teachers’ difficulties in applying communicative activities 44

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CAs: Communicative Activities

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English has become an international communicative language in the world Ithas been used widely in many different fields such as economics, politics, culture,science, technology, education and tourism It can not be denied that English is one

of the most important means of communication Therefore, teaching and learningEnglish is more and more essential

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus of manyschools, colleges and universities It has been taught and learned throughout thecountry However, the fact is that the teaching and learning of English has not beeneffective yet, especially speaking skill At Do Luong1 high school, many studentsare not interested in speaking lessons as well as they can not speak English wellafter leaving school even though they have learnt English for a long time.Moreover, the teachers of English find it difficult to encourage their students tospeak English naturally in the process of teaching speaking skill

To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English at Do Luong 1have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teachingEnglish They have always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks ofEnglish Language Teaching As in other schools, teachers of English at Do Luong

1 are now using Communicative Approach to teach English to students They hope

to provide students with a means of communication, namely English that is vital forthem to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time ofglobalization

Therefore, it is really essential to know whether the communicative activitieshave the good effects on teaching speaking skill to the 10th graders at Do Luong 1high school With the aim to access the method on teaching speaking skill throughthe communicative activities, the writer would like to choose the topic “ Improving

speaking skill through communicative activities” to find out the answer, and further,

to help improve the teaching of speaking skill at her school

1.2 Objectives of the study

According to the importance of the participation of the students in speaking

lessons, this study aims at studying on communicative activities in the 10th

graders’ English speaking classes at Do Luong 1 high school

These are the objectives of the study :

- To investigate the real situation of applying communicative activities inteaching speaking skill for 10th graders at Do Luong 1 high School, Do LuongDistrict, Nghe An Province

- To give some recommendations to improve the students’ speaking skillthrough communicative activities

1.3 Research questions

1.3.1 What is the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skill of the 10th

graders at Do Luong 1 high School, Do Luong District, Nghe An Province ?

1.3.2 How are communicative activities applied in speaking lessons for the

10th graders at Do Luong 1 high school?

1.3.3 What are suggested class communicative activities to improve for the

10th graders’ speaking skill in Do Luong 1 high school?

1.4 Scope of the study

Although there are many different ways to motivate students to learn English,all these issues can not be fully covered in this paper Due to the limited time andthe length of a minor thesis, the researcher only focuses on exploitingcommunicative activities as a way of improving grade 10th students at Do Luong 1high school Besides, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 105students from 3 classes of grade 10 at this school

1.5 The design of the study

The study contains five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter presents the rationale, objectives , research questions,

scope and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter introduces a historical overview of the literature The first isabout CLT method The next is about speaking skill The final is about the review

of communicative activities

Chapter 3: Methodology

To realize the aims of the study, quantitative and qualitative methods havebeen used The data collected for the study came from two sources: the 10th gradersrespondents and the teacher-respondents at Do Luong 1 high school, Nghe Anprovince

Two questionnaires, one for students and the other for teachers, and aninterview of teachers was used to collect information and evidence for the study.All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusions provided in thestudy are based on the data analysis

The data takes from the survey questionnaires for students and teachers

is analyzed and categorized The findings are used as the cornerstone for the

recommendations

The researcher gave out some communicative activities adapted from the tasks

in Tieng Anh 10 textbook as samples for the secondary teachers to consider

Additionally, this chapter will present the author’s suggestions on mentionedproblems and summarize all the main points raised in the paper, the limitations ofthe study and some suggestions for further studies

Chapter 4 : Findings and discussions- shows major findings and discussions Chapter 5: Implications and recommendations - offers recommendations for

motivating students to speak English through communicative activities

Conclusion - is a summary of the study in which limitations of the study and

suggestions for further research are presented

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 The nature of language skills

Based on the purpose of analysis and instruction, language is divided intodifferent skill areas On the teaching point of view, language skills consist mainly offour macro-skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing Those four skills havesupportive relationship Among the four skills, listening and reading are perceptiveskills while speaking and writing are productive skills (Byrne, 1991, p.8) They arealso divided according to the manners by which they are formed The skills that arerelated to articulate organs are called oral skills that include listening and speaking.The ones in connection with manual script is named literacy skills that consist ofreading and writing

Speaking plays an essential role of the four skills Byrne (1991, p.9) provesthat this oral skill in communication is complementary If one man is good atspeaking skill, other skills will be much supported

To sum up, all the above skills are important for learners Whenever theyacquire those skills they can have confidence in speaking and using a foreignlanguage However, it should be emphasized that speaking skill can never beseparated with other skills (listening, reading and writing) All of them areintegrated and supportive to each other

2.2 Speaking skill

2.2.1 The definitions of speaking skill

Speaking can be seen as the key to human communication It is a crucial part

of foreign language learning and teaching There are many definitions of speaking

Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal

and non-verbal symbols, in a variety contexts” (Chaney, 1998, p.13) Another

definition is proposed by Nunan (1995) which states that speaking is the ability inusing oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other

people as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by thehearer.

Byrne (1991, p.8) describes speaking as “a two-way process between the

speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding.” It can be transferred from his idea that both

speaker and listener have the function in the interaction The message has to beencoded by the speaker in order to convey it in appropriate language, while thelistener has to decode the message

Sharing this point of view Thornbury (2005) reveals that “speaking can be

typified as an activity involving two or more people, in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contribution.” The communication purpose can be broken when both participants do

not have intention to make their contribution to the conversation

In short, speaking can be seen as the way people interact and shareinformation By mastering speaking skills, students can improve the communicativecompetence that helps them much in the process of language acquisition

2.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking

It is necessary for learners to speak with confidence to carry out many of themost basic transactions

Speaking is particularly useful for learning In language teaching and learning,this skill is a medium through which much language is learned According to Kayi(2006, p.8), communicative abilities in a second language contributes clearly andefficiently to the success of the learners in school and social environment

Most of us speak more than we write in our daily lives According to Wilkin

(1979), speaking when compared with writing is the essential form of language andwriting is ranked second after it and derived from it

“It is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professionaladvancement and of business” (Bygate, 1987, p.7) assumes about the role ofspeaking

According to Nunan’s opinions about language learners: “mastering the art ofspeaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second language or aforeign language, and success is measured in term of ability to carry out aconversation in the language” (Nunan,1991, p.39) It is clear that speaking is a veryimportant skill among the four basic ones Therefore, teachers need to motivatestudents more often in learning speaking lessons

2.2.3 Principles for teaching speaking skill

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative ability Therefore, teachersought to be concerned about the principles for teaching speaking skill to adaptappropriate communicative activities

According to Brown (1994), there are seven principles for teaching speaking skill

 Principle 1: Focus on both fluency and accuracy depending on your objective.

This principle suggests that teachers should be sure about their tasks that havelinguistic objective and always create opportunities to help students perceive anduse the building blocks of language

 Principle 2: Provide intrinsically motivating techniques.

According to Brown, teachers have to appeal to students’ ultimate goals andinterests to their need for knowledge, for status, for achieving competence andautonomy and help them to see how the activity will benefit them

 Principle 3: Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts.

Authentic contexts and meaningful interaction may require teachers a lotenergy and creativity However, with the help of a storehouse of teacher resourcematerials it can be done

 Principle 4: Provide appropriate feedback and correction.

Teachers have responsibility to make the decision about how to react andwhen to react to the students’ performance and inject kinds of corrective feedbackthat are appropriate for the moment

 Principle 5: Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening.

Speaking and listening are skills which reinforce each other In other words,they are closely intertwined Skills in producing language are often initiated throughcomprehension.

 Principle 6: Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication.

Students are given opportunities to show oral communicative competence thatreflects their ability to initiate conversations, to nominate topics, to ask questions, tocontrol the conversations, and to change the subject

 Principle 7: Encourage the development of speaking strategy.

This strategy is shown through students’ communicative competence such asasking for clarification, asking someone to repeat something

2.2.4 Stages for teaching speaking skill

It is suggested that speaking lesson should have three stages: pre-speaking,while- speaking, and post-speaking

The Pre-speaking Stage

This is the stage of the preparations for the students to get familiar to the topicwith some activities such as chatting, games, network, brainstorming, discussiontasks, vocabulary tasks or pre-speaking questions Furthermore, this is the stepwhich teachers motivate students and raise the interest in the lesson In addition,before delivering the activities for this stage, the teacher needs to identify theobjective of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, and the students’ need

as well

a.The While-speaking Stage:

This stage is often called controlled speaking Teachers can design theactivities basing on the tasks in the textbook or adapt some more activities toincrease the communicative factor at this stage Students are supposed to do thetasks in pair or group work This stage aims to develop students’ speaking skill bydoing the controlled tasks and activities themselves The tasks and activities alsosupply opportunity for students to practice the accuracy and fluency Teacher needs

to monitor the activities and provide help for the weak students who have difficultycompleting the task at this stage.

b.The Post-speaking Stage:

This is the freer speaking stage Students are required to use the targetlanguage that they have learnt and practiced, and their language knowledge toproduce their speaking communicatively What they produce reflects the result oftheir practice stage, their interests or views At this stage, the teacher plays the role

as observer, assessor who provides appropriate feedback to students

Basically, a speaking lesson should follow these stages orderly Nevertheless,the procedure of a speaking lesson may flexible due to each lesson, time constraint,objectives of the lesson, types of students and materials in use However, teacherneeds to have an overview of the lesson to assess how far their students achieveafter the lesson

2.2.5 Problems with speaking activities

Speaking skill is one of the difficult skills and causes some obstacles andproblems for both the teachers in teaching and the students in learning Ur (1996)points out the problems that the students often meet in learning speaking skill asfollows:

Inhibition: Speaking skill, is different from other skill reading, writing and

listening, focuses on some degree of real time to exposure to an audience Thelearners often have inhibition in trying to say things in a foreign language withoutthe mother tongue Moreover, the worries about making mistakes, losing face, orbeing simply shy, reserved and timid prevent them from attracting in the speakinglesson in the classroom

Nothing to say: In class, the students are often silent when they are ordered

the speaking activity, because they complain that they can not think of anything tosay, or that they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling

Lows or uneven participation: The students’ shyness and time limit prevent the

students from the participation of the speaking activities When working in large

groups, one participant can talk at a time and this means that, each one will have onlyvery little talking time This problem is compound by the tendency of some learners todominate, while others speak very little or not at all.

2.3 Communicative language teaching approach

2.3.1 Concepts of CLT

There are different views about CLT

Richards points out that CLT can be understood as a set of principles about thegoal of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kind of classroomactivities that best facilitate learning, and the role of teachers and learners in theclassroom

According to Hymes (1972), he promotes the theory about language ascommunication with the target to develop “communicative competence” forstudents, which is later considered to be the goal of language teaching, the backbone

of the communicative language teaching approach

Nunan (1991, p.194) claimed that: “CLT views language as a system for theexpression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying outmeaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectivesreflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguisticobjectives The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is

as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicativelanguage use; they are task-based and authentic”

According to Bock (2000), CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learnersnegotiate meaning in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated Thenegotiation of meaning can be implicated through pair work, group work inproblem-solving tasks He also states, “Authentic materials, functional tasks, andgroup and pair work are significant aspects of CLT”

In conclusion, above definitions of CLT claim that the goal of teachinglanguage is to develop learners’ communicative competence that involves theability to use the language appropriately to a social context These components can

be seen as linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discoursecompetence, and strategic competence

- Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlyingcommunicative techniques At times, fluency may have to take on more importancethan accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

- In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use thelanguage productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts

Nunan (1991, p.279) also pointed out five common characteristics of CLTclassrooms:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the targetlanguage

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language butalso on the learning process itself

- An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as importantcontributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning to language activationoutside the classroom

In general, the above characteristics of communicative approach are verynecessary and important in helping the students to communicate, interact and

transfer what they learn in the real context outside the classroom It is necessary forthe teachers to take notice of all characteristics in order to improve communicativeability to students

2.4 Communicative activities

2.4.1 Aims of communicative activities

According to Littlewood (1990) in “Communicative Language Teaching”,CAs contain these aims:

- Provide ‘whole-task practice’

Through various kinds of communicative activities, learners are provided anopportunity to train and practise in foreign language learning In other words, theypractise language in a total skill

- Improve motivation

The learners’ ultimate objective is to take part in communication with others.When the activities in the classroom help them achieve this goal, this seems tomotivate them a lot

-Allow natural learning

There is a fact that many of language learning can take place only throughnatural processes, which operate when a person is involved in using the languagefor communication Therefore, communicative activities become an important part

in learning process

-Create a context that supports learning

Learning language through CAs helps learners establish positive personalrelationship to develop among them and between learners and teacher In addition,CAs create an environment which supports individual to show his or her efforts tolearn language

2.4.2 Characteristics of communicative activities

Communicative activities are designed to encourage the purposeful andmeaningful interaction among students in a language lesson It is, therefore,

important for teachers to be fully aware of their characteristics so that they can usethem effectively

According to Mulling, Sylvia(1997), activities which are truly communicativemeet almost all of the five following criteria:

The information transfer principle, whereby some information must be

transferred from a sender to a receiver

The information gap principle, which requires that the receiver does not

already possess the information he or she receives

The jigsaw principle, whereby students begin with different pieces of

information and finish with the same information

The task dependency principle, which requires to create whenever students

practise at the levels of controlled and semi-controlled communication before theyare ready to perform the activity at the level of free communication

The correction for content principle, which argues that during

communication the students’ language production should be judged on itscommunicative efficacy in relation to a specific task

In summary, in order to take the advantage of communicative activitieseffectively in the process of teaching and learning, it is necessary for the teachers todistinguish the characteristics of these two kinds

2.4.3 Types of oral communicative activities

Different linguists have had different ideas on the distinction ofcommunicative activities Littlewood (1990) distinguishes them into two maincategories, which he calls “functional communication activities” and “socialinteraction activities” Harmer (1991) looks at the communicative activities withoral and written focuses Therefore, he distinguishes them into “oral communicativeactivities” and “written communicative activities” Harmer's idea seems clearer tothe researcher of this thesis when studying the types of communicative activities

In this section, we will look at those types of activities with a largely oralfocus (although we should not forget the points about skill integration) Those

activities are all designed to provoke spoken communication between students and/

or between the teacher and the students

+ Communication games

Harmer (1991) has suggested that in communication games activities studentsare put into a situation in which they have to use all or any of the language theypossess to complete a game-like task This type of communicative activitiesproduces the simplest patterns of interaction The situation is always that onestudent (or group) possesses information which another student (or group) mustdiscover

Communication games activities include finding the differences (orsimilarities), describe and arrange; story reconstruction and/or poem reconstruction(Bygate, 1987) In each case of this type of activities, it is the overcoming of theinformation gap rather than the production of correct language that signals thesuccess of the performance In this respect, the focus of the activity is on “meanings

to be communicated” rather than “linguistic form to be learnt” (Harmer, 1991) Theactivities of this type provide the teacher with a convenient bridge between pre-communicative and communicative language use, students are engaged incommunicating meaning for a purpose, but they are not made to dispense entirely

with the “structure crutches” provided by the teacher

+Songs

There are many good rationales for using songs in English classroom They are

“authentic material” They enhance student’s sense of achievement in that, forexample, they can sing a song later by themselves Music creates a relaxingatmosphere because the whole class sings together Songs allows maximumparticipation by every student in both listening and speaking Additionally, musicmakes a nice change from standard textbook and it is good for developing students’instincts about intonation and rhythm Eken (1996, p.46) states that songs can beused:

• to present a topic, a language point

• to practise a language point

• to encourage extensive and intensive listening

• to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings

• to encourage creativity and use of imagination

• to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere

• to bring variety and fun to learning

In order to choose a suitable song, the teacher should keep in mind that (1)Songs must be a reasonable length, range, and rhythm (2) Song should haverepetitive lyrics or chorus that is easy to learn This allows slower students tofollow (3) The emotional and conceptual content of a song should be appropriate tothe age and maturity of your students (4) Songs must be pedagogically appropriate

it

Harmer (1991) has said that many teachers can be heard complaining that theirstudents have nothing to say or that they have no opinions and are not prepared todiscuss anything Part of the problem here is the way in which some teachersapproach discussion as an activity If students are asked to express themselvesfluently on a difficult topic in front of their peers in a foreign language (often with

no warning), they may find themselves reluctant to do so Therefore, before askingstudents to discuss as a whole class, teacher should put them in groups to try out thetopic This will allow them to give opinion in a less threatening environment than in

front of the whole class It will also give the teacher a chance to see if the topic isinteresting for the students

Discussion activities are an important part of many lessons The main thing toremember is that “proper organization can ensure their success Lack of it canprovoke their failure” (Harmer, 1991, p.125)

+ Problem solving

Problem solving activities encourage students to talk together to find a solution

to (a set of) problems or tasks According to Littlewood (1990), this type of activitydispenses completely with the need to share information Students now have access

to all the relevant facts The stimulus for communication comes from the need todiscuss and evaluate these facts, in pairs or groups, in order to solve a problem orreach a decision For example, “ What should we do for the future of our planet?”.Problem solving activities need not to be based only on everyday situationsthat arise inside or outside the classroom The teacher may also present manyunusual situations in order to stimulate the students’ ingenuity In these activities,students must not only analyze information, but also argue, justify and persuade, inorder to reach a common decision They therefore provide a context for a still widerrange of communicative functions They also make it still more necessary forstudents to develop skills in managing the interaction at the interpersonal level Thisfact often produces a high degree of personal involvement among the participants

+ Simulation and role - play

According to Harmer (1991), the idea of a simulation is to create the pretence

of a real-life situation in the classroom: students “simulate” the real world Thus wemight ask them to pretend that they are at an airport, or we might organize them toget together to plan an imaginary reunion What we are trying to do artificially ofcourse is to give students practice in real-world English Students are asked to adopt

a specific role in this situation In some cases, they may simply have to act asthemselves In others, they may have to adopt a· simulated identity

There is some controversy about the usefulness of simulations, particularlywhere students are asked to play roles, but many teachers feel that they have certainadvantages because students do not have to take responsibility for their own actionsand words In other words, it is the character that speaks, not themselves It hascertainly been noticed that some shy students are more talkative when playing roles.

We will use the term here to denote an activity which involves making, in which the participants may act as themselves or in social roles It is notperformed for an audience, and the participants work together within the constraints

decision-of the imaginary setting

Simulations do not as a category provides any basis for predicting the kinds oflanguage skills that learners will use: it depends what kind of simulation is beingconsidered For instance, a simulated committee meeting is likely to produce onekind of interaction, a simulated another interview, and a simulated public meeting athird Indeed a single simulation often consists of several different kinds ofinteraction, including the three just mentioned It is, however, possible to makesome predictions, once the nature of the simulation is known

Simulations general divide into three phases: firstly, a stage for giving theparticipants necessary information; secondly, the problem-solving discussion; andthirdly, follow-up work

This kind of activity can be carried out during a speaking lesson for example.After all, they make a report to share their views with the rest of the class

To enhance the effectiveness of classroom activities, it is worth payingattention to the matter of grouping students for group work and pair work activities

In fact, pair work and group work have become the dominant activities in theclass This is a quite effective way because students can work with differentpartners in the class This makes them more motivated and keeps their interestduring the class time Thus, teachers should pay attention to more kinds ofactivities These can change the atmosphere of classroom, create authentic

situations for students to practise speaking English and help them to develop theircreativity and ability.

After doing this task, students can collect information to talk about the friendthey have interviewed for reporting at the end of the lesson Most students are eager

to do the task because they can do it in role of the interviewers

Littlewood (1992, p.49) says: “ simulation and role-play are well-established astechniques for organizing controlled, pre-communicative language practice, whichprepares students later to take part in fully spontaneous interaction”

Bygate (1987) states that role-play may be allocated in several ways:

Role-play controlled through cued dialogues

Role-play controlled through cued situations and goal

Role-play controlled through cues and information

Role-play in the form of debate or discussion

This type of activity could be used for students at different levels ofproficiency in term of complexity of activities Ladousse (1987, p.7) has shown:

“Role-play is one of communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation”.

2.4.4 Roles of communicative activities in language teaching and learning

Communicative activities are considered to be the most useful forms of foreignlanguage practice in the classroom Thanks to them, learners are provided withmany opportunities to practice the language they have learnt in a communicativeway Communicative activities are indispensable in the process of languageteaching and learning for the following roles

Firstly, communicative activities provide “whole-task practice”: In consideringhow people learn to carry out various kinds of skilled performance, it is often useful

to distinguish between (a) training in the part-skills of which the performance iscomposed and (b) practice in the total skills, sometimes called “whole-taskpractice” When mentioning the roles of communicative activities, Littlewood

(1981) says that “In foreign language learning, our means of providing learners withwhole-task practice in classroom is through various kinds of communicativeactivities” With such advantage, language teachers should design various activities

in order to suit the learners’ level of ability

Secondly, communicative activities provide motivation The learner’s ultimateobjective is to participate in communication with others They will be motivated tolearn if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective andhelps them to achieve it with increasing success In addition, most students’ priorconception of language is as a means of communication rather than as a structuralsystem Their learning is more likely to make sense to them if it can build on thisconception rather than contradict it

Thirdly, they can provide natural learning Language learning takes placeinside the learner and it also consists of many aspects that sometimes they arebeyond the teachers’ pedagogical control It is likely, in fact, that many aspects oflanguage learning can take place only through natural processes, which operatewhen a learner is involved in using the language for communication As a result,communicative activities (inside or outside the classroom) are important parts of thelearning process

Moreover, communicative activities can create a context that supportslearning They provide opportunities to promote relationship among learners andbetween learners and teachers These relationships are able to “humanize” theclassroom and create a friendly environment that supports the students in theirefforts to learn

At last, communicative activities such as working in groups, in pairs orsinging etc create a relatively safe environment for making mistakes along withrelaxed atmosphere, for there is little error correction or distract attention Studentsare not judged and corrected Moreover, students have a lot of fun when they learnwith communicative activities This reduces their stress and anxiety about theirperformance

In group work, learners communicate between each other and complete classwork Being defined as the one of the most important way of learner activation (Ur,1996) He points out the special focus that group work in foreign language learning.According to him, there are two significant reasons for this First, group work buildsmany foreign language communication skills learners Second, it assists them learnhow to respectfully hold each other accountable.

Johnson (2004) questions why the use of group work is introduced and it isincreasing transparently in the classroom According to her, the choice of partners

or groups is significant in group work activities, and so each of learners can talkfreely without teacher’s control Also, all of them are equal and free in groups

Group work is a crucial way to change the pace in the classroom It is quietlyefficient as compared to the climate of traditional classroom in which teachersdictate their notes and lectures to the students and try to put data into the minds ofthe learners Therefore, effective teachers comprehend the effects and outcomes ofusing the group work in the classes

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001, p.196), “Positive interdependence

is created by the structure of cooperative learning tasks and by building a spirit ofmutual support within the group” They also maintain that “Group work is animportant factor in creating positive interdependence” Hence, the importance ofgroup work in learning foreign language cannot be overlooked

Not having good note-taking would appear to be one reason that some do notperform efficiently in classroom Ellis (1994) states that evaluating group workprovides valuable information about the use of group work which enhancedlearners’ assessment of study and achievement of learning outcomes Additionally,evaluating group work provides that the students ask more specific questions abouttheir tasks Generally, evaluation occurs at the end of their task (Ur, 1996)

As Ur (1996) points out, there are many ways for designing on evaluation such

as questionnaire, checklist, and focus group, etc From among these ways,questionnaire which involves completing a task in class is more common than the

others Ellis (1994, p.586) notes that “One reason for the prevalence of questioning

is undoubtedly the control which it gives the teacher over the discourse” Thus aquestion allows the students to comprehend what is the most crucial part of theirtask

Evaluating takes place in two types in the foreign language learning Thereare self and peer evaluation They note that self-evaluation contains the individualdeciding on the valve or quality of their own learning work On the other hand, inpeer evaluation, the individual reflects on the work of other group members

Classroom interaction can be provided with the help of group work activities.Foreign language learners effectively improve their communicative competence andlanguage performance through being implemented group work in classroom.Moreover, according to Ur (1996), the communicative tasks implemented within agroup reflect better real life situations which are very restricted outside theclassroom Thus, advantages of group work are usually subcategorized as social,psychological, and cognitive advantages

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001, p.165), “In CLT, classroomactivities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated throughlanguage or involve negotiation of information and information sharing” Inaddition to this, authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal ofclassroom activities Therefore, CLT promotes language learning throughcommunication in group work activities such as discussion, problem solving, roleplays, etc

Although the beneficial effects of group work in the foreign languageclassroom are potent, it needs being careful to plan group work activities However,the major benefit of group work is that it enables learners to deepen their knowledge

in foreign language and it also gives opportunity to use effectively foreign language.Pair work is the way that students working together in pairs One of the mainmotivations to encourage pair work in the English language classroom is to increasethe opportunities for students to use English in the class

Teachers can evaluate the impact and effectiveness of pair work on theirstudents by using action research tools such as asking the students how they feelabout working like this or by actually participating in an activity in a pair andevaluating this experience afterwards.

In conclusion, with these most important roles, communicative activitiescontribute a crucial part to the success of language teaching and learning Moreover,they develop a pattern of language interaction within the classroom that is as close

as possible to that used by competent performers in normal life Therefore, studentsfeel comfortable and confident, feel free to take risks and have sufficientopportunities to speak

2.4.5 Requirements of communicative activities

In order to get involved in activities in an English speaking class, teachers ofEnglish should pay attention to the following requirements (Ur, 1996, p.120):

Learners talk a lot

As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is in fact

occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken upwith teacher talk or pauses

Language is of an acceptable level

Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily

comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In summary, in this chapter the theoretical basis on the study of the ways fordeveloping speaking skills has been reviewed The researcher has stressed the main

points in CLT Also, major points of communicative activities namely, definitions,characteristics as well as types of communicative activities are provided Thediscussion of nature of speaking, the role of speaking in language teaching andlearning and characteristics of a successful speaking lesson has set the backgroundfor the implications and recommendations of the study The detailed description ofthe methodology, the procedures and the results will be presented in the nextchapters.

Conclusion

In this chapter, the theoretical basis of the study for improving speaking skillhas been presented In addition , the researcher also points out characteristics andbenefits in CLT and from that give out some appropriate communicative activitiesrecommend how they can be used to make speaking lessons more stimulating andfruitful The next chapter present the methodology used in this study

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of Do Luong 1 high school

Doluong1 upper secondary school is situated in Do Luong district, Nghe anprovince Founded in 1959, Do Luong 1 has an enthusiastic and experiencedteachers staff This is a school that has a length of good tradition of teaching andlearning in Nghe An province At present, there are 39 classes with over 1800students divided into three different grades: 10th, 11th, and 12th grade

English has been considered as an important subject in the program because it

is a compulsory subject in GCSE examination as well as the chance of getting betterjobs in the future Therefore, the leaders has always created the best possibleconditions for English teaching and learning to help students to improve speakingability effectively

However, there have been many problems that should be solved The facilities

at school are still poor, for example, the library is too small and lack materialsespecially English books as a reference Furthermore, the students have fewopportunities to practise English with native speakers to improve theircommunication

3.1.2.The teachers

In Do Luong 1 upper secondary school , there are totally 10 teachers ofEnglish aged 29 to 48 All of them have University Bachelor Degree but their timelengths of teaching English are different The oldest teacher has nearly 20 years ofteaching experience, and the youngest just has nearly 7 years As rural teachers,they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have a lot ofteaching aids and materials to help their work Despite all these disadvantages, theyare always eager for knowledge and willing to adjust to new thinking and applybetter ways to improve their teaching quality Especially, all of them have ever

applied CLT method in teaching to give learners more chances to practise speakingEnglish However, they often get into some troubles in the process of performing iteffectively

Secondly, most of the classroom activities concentrate on teaching andpractising language structures Therefore, during the lesson, the learners do mostrepetition, substitution, memorizing activities, or answering questions based ontexts and so on They do not have only a little time to use English in oralcommunication As a result, when doing speaking activities, they often cope withsuch problems as “inhibition”, “nothing to say”, “mother-tongue language”, “bodylanguage ”, etc

Moreover, their parents, the actual farmers, who hardly know anything aboutEnglish, do not encourage them to learn it As a result, most of the students do notknow what they learn English for, except for the reason of passing the finalexamination They know its importance in the modern life as well as in their future.They become bored with learning it In each class, there are only a few studentsreally learning English and being interested in learning it The rest almost forget allthe things they have learnt Once the learners do not have motivation for learning,the learning quality is very difficult to be improved

3.1.4 The syllabus

The textbook English 10 was published in 2006 It is structured with a priority

towards theme-based or topic-based approach, including 16 units, each unit includes

5 lessons with four different skills and a language focus There are 3 periods of

English per week and each semester deals with 8 of them with a total periods of 54.The textbook aims at providing students with a profound knowledge of numerousfields, a favorable attitude towards English and four skills proficiency in English(Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) In order to achieve these objectives,the content of the book is designed based on topics related to social life, sports,work and leisure, which are familiar with students For each topic, relatedvocabulary and word study are presented communicatively In addition, newmethods of language teaching and learning such as learner-centered approach,communicative approach and task-based teaching are extensively employed Thenew syllabus with the communicative approach is considered interesting but ratherchallenging for the teachers It mainly focuses on equipping students withcommunicative ability and competence to perform basic language functionsreceptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures.

3.1.5 The current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at Do Luong 1.

At Do Luong 1 high school, most teachers and a large number of studentds areaware of the importance of learning speaking English However, its effectiveness isnot high although many teachers have taken advantages of using the benefits ofCLT This is due to subjective and objectives causes

The role of the teacher in class is a guide for the students to lead their ownstudy They also take great efforts to create good language environment for students

to actively participate in classroom activities by organizing groups work and pairswork in order to help students to have chance to exchange their ideas with theirfriends and achieve the main target of developing not only speaking skills but alsoother ones However, there still appear problems that partly prevent students fromactively taking part in these activities for speaking Perhaps, the reason is that theyare still affected by the traditional teaching and learning methods They tend tofocus on teaching grammatical structures, vocabulary, reading and writing skills to

help their students get good scores in examinations CLT is sometimes used, notalways Therefore, the students do not often have chances to speak English

In summary, a brief overview of Do Luong 1 where the researcher collectedthe data for her research has been presented Some issues related to students,teachers, learning requirement, speaking teaching situation has been investigated,which provides the context for the research to be undertaken

3.2 Research method

3.2.1 Methods

In this chapter, the research describes the method of this study in detail Bothqualitative and quantitative are used to collect and analyze the data The size,characteristics of the sample, and the description of the two data collection tools areincluded Furthermore, a complex report on data collection procedures, dataanalysis is also integrated

Qualitative research dealing with phenomena that are difficult or impossible

to quantify mathematically, such as beliefs, meanings, attributes, and symbols; itmay involve content analysis

Quantitative research involving formal, objective information about the world,with mathematical quantification; it can be used to describe relationships and toexamine cause and effect relationships To address the research questionssuccessfully, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative Data for thisstudy were collected in the form of interviews and classroom observations andmainly verbal report in question is the number and frequency analysis percentage.These are reasons of the writers to explain her method:

Firstly, the study used a set of questionnaires to collect and describe theperspective of both teachers and students about the need to apply thecommunicative activities in teaching speaking for 10th graders in Do Luong 1 highschool

Secondly, the use of questionnaires allows researchers to collect data from alarge number of participants

Finally, class observation was chosen to study because the researchers wereaware of the importance of what is actually happening in the classroom.

3.2.2 Data collection instruments

3.2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

A questionnaire is considered the most appropriate research instrument forgathering information concerning the attitudes of the respondents Three reasons forthis have been found out

First, a questionnaire is confidential and the respondents can remainanonymous

Second, a questionnaire is easy to administer enabling the researcher to survey

a large number of respondents

Third, the respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them Twosets of questionnaires were employed in this study: one for teachers and one forstudents

The survey questionnaire for teachers was designed with an attempt to find outcommunicative activities used by teachers in teaching speaking lessons and theirideas about the effectiveness as well as the difficulties in applying the activities The survey questionnaire for students was conducted in order to learn abouttheir preferences on communicative activities provided by teachers and theiropinions on benefits of these activities and effectiveness of their teachers’ methods

in teaching speaking skill Moreover, the Vietnamese version of questionnaires forstudents was used to collect information so that the students can understand thequestions easily and answer them the most exactly

3.2.2.2 Classroom observation

The researcher’s classroom observation was taken during her teaching to helpthe researcher survey the real situation for triangulation purposes so that reliabilityand validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved

3.2.2.3 Interviews

Despite the above mentioned advantages, questionnaire also has someunavoidable disadvantages Its reliability and data quality may be low Sometimes,

it is impossible to check seriousness or honesty of the answers (Bill Gillham, 2000,p.8) This is especially true of studies of motivation, which is an abstract, attitudinalconcept Therefore, it is advisable to incorporate more than one method in a study.That is the reason why the follow-up interviews were also adopted in this study.This was semi-structured interview that aimed to provide an insight into theresponses made in the questionnaires In other words, this interview was intended togather in-depth information and make the data obtained from the questionnairesmore reliable and convincing The interview was conducted with the participation

of 10 students who had notable changes in attitude and motivation in learningEnglish The participants were invited to answer the questions with the researcherexplaining the questions and clarifying unclear answers All the interviews wereconducted in Vietnamese, audio-taped, and lasted around 30 minutes The datacollected from the interview were transcribed for the purpose of analysis

The interviews were conducted in order to collect insightful information thatwas related to the effectiveness and frequency of teachers when they use CAs

3.3 Procedures

At the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014, twosets of questionnaires were sent to those teachers and students at Do Luong 1 HighSchool who agreed to take part in the research

After 2 days, these questionnaires were collected Information from thesequestionnaires were then summarized, and presented in the form of statisticinformation (tables) for analysis to make implications and recommendations on theapplication of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders.Besides, the method of observation was carried out at the beginning of thesecond semester Three speaking lessons in three different classes were observed.All implemented communicative activities were noted down to see how effectivethey were

In short, the following steps will be used to reach the aims of the research:1.Collecting data through questionnaires, class observation and interviews2.Clarifying the data into intended groups

3.Doing statistic calculation

4.Describing the collected data presented in tables and figures

5.Generalizing and giving comments and evaluations

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data analysis

4.1.1 Results of students’ survey questionnaire

The students’ questionnaire is constructed with 10 questions divided into threeparts Part I refers to students’ background of learning English and their reasons for

learning English, Part II includes 4 questions about students’ attitudes towards

learning English speaking skill as well as their difficulties in speaking English.Eliciting student’s attitudes towards communicative activities is the content of PartIII, which consists of 4 questions The students’ difficulties in practisingcommunicative activities are discovered in the Part IV with one open question

4.1.1.1 Students’ background of learning English

The questionnaires reveal the students’ time of learning English 82% of thestudents have learnt English for 5 years The students learning English for 7 yearsaccount for 16% In addition, 2% of the students have learnt English for 10 years.The statistical result points out that the numbers of the students who start learningEnglish at kindergarten and primary schools is small and the majority of studentsstart learning English at secondary school

82%

16% 2%

Figure 1: Students’ time of learning English