Using language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen Medical College

Using language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen Medical College Hoàng Thị Thu Hoài Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English

Using language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen

Medical College Hoàng Thị Thu Hoài

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English teaching methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Khoa Anh Việt

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract This minor thesis was conducted with an attempt to investigate the

effectiveness of language games in teaching speaking to the first year students non- English majors at Thai Nguyen Medical College The Thesis is organized in 3 parts: First, the Introduction presents the rationale, aims and scope of the study, research questions, method and design of the study The Development is divided into 4 chapters: Chapter one provides some theoretical background of related issues concerning the Speaking Skills as well as Language Games Chapter two carries out about the research setting, subjects of the study, the methodology, and the instrument of the study There also presents the results of the two survey questionnaires designed to find out the current situation of teaching and learning speaking to the first year students non- English majors at Thai Nguyen Medical College as well as the effects of language games in motivating students to speak Chapter three provides researcher’s findings of effectiveness of Language Games in teaching and learning speaking skills From the findings of the thesis, it might be concluded that Language games can be used as a beneficial teaching method to improve students’ motivation in speaking classes effectively Chapter four provides some suggestions and implications of using language games for the improvement of speaking teaching Finally, the Conclusion summaries

the study and offers some suggestions for further study

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Trò chơi ngôn ngữ; Kỹ năng nói

Content

1 Rationale for the study

In the globalization age today, English is considered as the most important mean of international communication Therefore, promoting oral skills in order to respond to the students’ needs for effective communication is one of the important strategies of teaching and learning English in recent years

Among the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) of English learning, speaking

is considered the most important skill for the purpose of communication It is believed that speaking plays a vital role since it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language

Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language Similarly, Ur, (1996) shows that people who know a language are referred to

as “speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing However, teaching and learning speaking today does not meet the study objectives English teaching now

in general and teaching speaking in particular is still far from satisfactory Although teachers have made great efforts to provide students with chances to improve their speaking skills, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students

at many colleges and universities

At Thai Nguyen Medical College (TMC), all students are non- English majors who specialize in many different fields such as Nursing, Pharmacy, Midwifery, etc Most students find speaking especially important yet most challenging one For most of them, it is difficult to speak English naturally As a result, in speaking lessons, they often feel bored and frightened How to motivate and encourage students to speak is really necessary, and is a big question to almost teachers Also, teaching techniques exploited during a speaking activity, for example, role plays, simulations, discussions, etc do not bring much effectiveness Thus, it is necessary to find

an effective technique used in teaching speaking Moreover, in language teaching, language games have proved themselves as an important factor which can create more chances and interest

to motivate students to speak Language games not only banish boredom, provide learners with enjoyable environment but also supply them with chance to use language and constitute a bridge between the lesson and the real world (Greenal, 1984)

For all the reasons mentioned above I have decided to choose the topic “Using language

games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen Medical College”

for my minor thesis with the hope that it might be helpful to both teachers and students in

teaching and learning speaking

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out in order to:

 Investigate the current situation of teaching and learning speaking to the first year students who are non-major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical College

 Explore the effects of language games in teaching speaking to the first year students who

are non-major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical College

 Provide some suggestions and implications of using language games for the improvement

of speaking teaching at Thai Nguyen Medical College

3 Research questions

The research is to seek answer to the following questions:

 What is speaking teaching and learning reality to the first year non- major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical College?

 How can language games help to improve students’ motivation in speaking classes?

 What are the suggestions and implications of using language games in speaking lessons?

4 Scope of the study

For the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, in this minor study, the researcher focuses specifically on the use of language games in teaching speaking to the first year student’s non - English majors at TMC So the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the study are 90 nursing students from two classes studying new

“Headway” course book at Thai Nguyen Medical College

5 Research methods

In order to realize the aims of the study, quantitative method is used The survey questionnaire is used to collect information and evidence for the study The survey questionnaire

including pre-task survey questionnaire and post task survey questionnaire is for 90 first year students non - English majors from two classes of Thai Nguyen Medical College, both specialize

in Nursing All comments, remarks and recommendations given in the study are based on the data analysis

6 Organization of the study

This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow:

Part A -INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationale, the aims, research questions,

as well as scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are presented

Part B – DEVELOPMENT This part includes 4 chapters

 Chapter 1 deals with some theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study: speaking skill and language games

 Chapter 2 investigates the situation of teaching and learning speaking and the feasibility

of using language games in teaching speaking to the first year students non- English majors through the analysis of collected data

 Chapter 3 consists of some findings concluded from the data analysis

 Chapter 4 provides some suggestions on using language games as well as some sample language games exploited during all stages of speaking lessons

Part C – CONCLUSION In this part, the summary of the study, limitations of the study and

suggestions for further study are mentioned

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of the study

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