IMPLEMENTING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN LISTENNINGSPEAKING CLASSES AT THE CFL – CAN THO UNIVERSITY

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ @ Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứuACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As a teacher of listening and speaking for many years, I would be very interested in conducting a study to

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Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ @ Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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MINỈSTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of contents i

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

List of figures vi

List of tables viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Problem and rationale 1

1.2 Research aims 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 The organization of the research 2

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF CSs 4

2.1 Characteristics and functions of spoken language 4

2.1.1 Characteristics of spoken language 4

2.1.2 Functions of spoken language 4

2.1.3 Communicative competence 5

2.2 Communicative strategies 6

2.2.1 Definitions and classifications of communicative strategies 6

2.2.2 The impacts of communicative strategies in different contexts 9

2.2.3 Commonly-used communication strategies 10

2.3 Syllabus design issues 12

2.4 Principles for teaching speaking to intermediate learners 17

2.4.1 Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning 17

2.4.2 Design both transactional and interpersonal speaking activities 18

2.4.3 Personalize the content of speaking activities whenever possible 19

2.5 Communicative activities 19

2.5.1 Conversations 20

2.5.2 Information gap activities 20

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODODOLOGY 22

3.1 Research questions 22 3.2 Research design

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3.3 Participants 22

3.3.1 The teachers 22

3.3.2 The students 23

3.4 Research instruments 22

3.4.1 The questionnaires 25

3.4.2 The two tests 26

3.4.3 The test criteria 27

3.5 Materials 24

3.6 Procedure 28

3.6.1 Pretest 28

3.6.2 The supplementary course 29

3.6.3 Post test 29

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 31

4.1 To which degree, the currently-used Let’s Talk 3 provides students with communicative strategies .31

4.1.1 Comparison of the textbooks 31

4.1.2 The result of the questionnaire for teachers 32

4.2 The result of the pretest and post test on oral performance 38

4.2.1 The result of the pretest and post test in the experimental group 38

4.2.2 The result of the pre test and post test in the control group 41

4.2.3 Comparison of the result of the pretests and post tests in two groups 42

4.3 Students’ attitude towards the use of communicative strategies 44

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSIONS, LIMITATIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS 52

5.1 Discussions 52

5.1.1 The provision of communicative strategies in the textbook 52

5.1.2 The impacts of communicative strategies 53

5.2 Limitations 54

5.3 Recommendations 55

Reference 56

List of Appendices 59

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As a teacher of listening and speaking for many years, I would be very interested

in conducting a study to present some communication strategies for teaching listening and speaking This research could not have been undertaken by a single person and my debt to many others will be immediately obvious So it is impossible to mention here all those who deserve acknowledgement

First, I would like to acknowledge Ms Le Thi Tuyet Mai (MA), my supervisor,

for her time and her enthusiastic help in correcting the drafts, in supporting me a variety

of reference books and also giving me valuable comments and encouragement to complete this research

Second, I am very grateful to Mr Trinh Quoc Lap (PhD) who has shared his

experience so generously and who has given me valuable comments and feedbacks He

is also the one that gave me a source of inspiration to follow the topic when instructing

me the course “Research methodology.” Moreover, he is the one who initiates the use

of SPSS to analyze the research data at English Department at Can Tho University

Third, I would also like to acknowledge all the authors of the books and articles which I have read before and during carrying out the research

Fourth, I would like to warmly acknowledge the contribution, the consideration and the encouragement of my colleagues, especially, Mrs Bui Minh Chau for her initial ideas about the research; Mrs Trinh Kim Loc for her help in analyzing data and in finding some reference books , and Mrs Luu Hoang Anh for her encouragement

Fifth, I would like to acknowledge Mr Tran Minh Tuan, my beloved former

student as well as my colleague for his enthusiastically helping me read and correct my questionnaire and analyze my research data with the SPSS software

Sixth, I also would like to say special thanks to all of the students in my listening and speaking classes in the Foreign Language Center at Can Tho University for being willing to help me to collect the data for the research

Last but not least, I would like give special thanks to my husband and my two children who have helped and encouraged me to complete this research

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ABSTRACT

The choice of the research was mainly determined by the fact that little attention has been given to communicative strategies in the textbook- Let’s Talk 3, which is currently used at the Center of Foreign Language (CFL) at Can Tho university, whereas the previously used material- Mosaic One: A Listening/Speaking Skills Book explicitly provides students with communication skills for speaking and listening So this research was conducted to find out the impact of communication strategies on student’s development in speaking performance; and with the result obtained, I propose implementing communication strategies in listening/speaking classes at the CFL The participants of this study included sixty-eight intermediate students in listening and speaking classes 7 at the CFL Two questionnaires were given, one for teachers and another one for students The first questionnaire aims to find the answer to the first research question about the degree that Let’s Talk 3 explicitly provides students with communicative strategies and, the second is to see the attitude of students towards the use of communication strategies, which have been taught during the course A pre-test and a post-test were given to two groups of students in two listening and speaking classes, an experiment group and a control group The test criteria to assess the two tests also help the researcher to see whether or not the implementation of communication strategies enhances the students’ development in their speaking performance The findings revealed that communication strategies were not explicitly provided in the main material, and the aim of the research was achieved, that is, communication strategies enhance the students’ improvement in their speaking performance

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TÓM TẮT

Đề tài nầy được thực hiện là do các chiến thuật giao tiếp rất ít được quan tâm trong giáo trình Let’s Talk 3 đang được sử dụng tại Trung Tâm Ngọai Ngữ- Trường Đại học Cần Thơ, trong khi đó giáo trình Mosaic one đã từng được dạy trước đây cung cấp

các chiến lược giao tiếp một cách rõ ràng Vì vậy việc thực hiện đề tài nầy nhằm để

xem ảnh hưởng của các chiến lược giao tiêp vào sự phát triển khả năng giao tiếp cúa học sinh Với kết quả nhận được, tôi xin đề nghị áp dụng các chiến thuật nầy trong các lớp nghe nói tại trung tâm ngoại ngữ trường Đại học Cần Thơ Đối tượng tham gia đề tài nghiên cứu nầy gồm sáu mươi tám học sinh có trình độ trung cấp ngọai ngữ, đang theo học lớp 7 tại trung tâm Hai bảng khảo sát được phân phát, một cho hai mươi thầy

cô và một cho các học sinh tham gia đề tài Mục tiêu của bảng khảo sát thứ nhất là để tìm ra vấn đề là giáo trình Let’s Talk 3 có cung cấp các chiến lược giao tiếp hay không,

và bảng khảo sát thứ hai là xem thái độ của học sinh trong nhóm thực nghiệm về việc

áp dụng các chiến lược nầy Hai bài tâp đầu khóa và cuối khóa được đưa ra cho hai nhóm thực nghiệm và nhóm đối chứng Một bảng tiêu chuấn đánh gía để lấy kết quả của hai nhóm Kết quả cho thấy, giáo trình Let’s Talk 3 không có cung cấp các chiến thuật giao tiếp một cách bài bản Qua kết quả nghiên cứu, ta có thể kết luận rằng các chiến thuật giao tiếp đã làm tăng khả năng nghe nói của học sinh

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Classification of Learning Strategy (O’Malley et al 1985) 6

Figure 2.2 The Manifestation of Socioaffective Strategies (O’Malley et al (1990) ) 7

Figure 2.3 The Sub Category of Communication Strategies (Gabrielatos, 1992) 8

Figure 4.1 The percentage of the teachers ’choices in statement 1 33

Figure 4.2 The percentage of the teachers’ choices in statement 2 33

Figure 4.11 The total mean scores of the teacher’s questionnaire 38

Figure 4.12 The comparison of the two tests in the experimental group 40

Figure 4.13 The comparison of the two tests in the control group 41

Figure 4.14 The comparison of the two groups 43

Figure 4.15 The mean scores of the students’questionnaire 45

Figure 4.16 The percentage of the students’ choices in statement 1 45

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Summary of the impacts of CSs according to Mariani(1994) 10

Table 2.2 Examples of commonly-used communicative strategies 12

Table 2.3 Mosaic one: A Listening/Speaking skills Book (Ferrer, 1995, p.vi-vii) 14

Table 2.4 Let’s Talk3 (Jones,2002, P.iii) 15

Table 3.1 Items in sections of questionnaire for students 26

Table 3.2 The reasons of learning English for two groups of learners 23

Table 3.3 The classification of point rank 24

Table 3.4 Summary of the research activities in two groups 30

Table 4.1 The comparison of the contents between the two books 31

Table 4.2 The times of CSs used in Let’s Talk 3 32

Table 4.3 The statistic result of the teachers’ questionnaire 38

Table 4.4 Mean score of the pre test and post test in the experimental group 39

Table 4.5 The points of the eight target students in the experimental group 40

Table 4.6 Mean score of the two tests in the control group 41

Table 4.7 Mean scores of the two groups 42

Table 4.8 Paired Samples T Test in the experimental and control groups 43

Table 4.9 The total mean scores of the students’questionnaire 44

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter presents a general view of the research including the problems and the rationale, the research aims, the research questions and the organization of the research

1.1 Problem and rationale

Nowadays most modern textbooks are based on ‘the communicative approach” Thus the emphasis is on the fact that language is not used in a vacuum but by one person

to another in order to communicate a message (Lewis & Hill, p.23) So listening and speaking have become two of the primary concerns in many foreign language curricula, besides writing and reading Therefore, teaching listening and speaking is a challenging task for language teachers, especially for the teachers at the Center of Foreign Language Center (CFL) in Can Tho University since the need for communication after the open-door policy in Viet Nam is increasing

Many considerations have been proven to language teachers, for example, about what material is best for their students, and how they can enhance students’ progress in speaking and listening There is no doubt that both teachers and students at the CFL have faced many problems Firstly, the material currently used is Let’s Talk 3, which is about communication It is about listening to and understanding other people’s ideas and about sharing your ideas with your fellow students (Jones, 2002) This is a task-based program, which does not provide explicitly the sub-skills for speaking like asking for clarification and confirmation or other skills to keep the conversations going if compared with Mosaic One I: A Listening/ Speaking Skills Book, the material which was previously used at the CFL Secondly, the skills of communication have become one of the primary concerns in many language curricula One of the goals of the new foreign language curricula is to provide the occasions for the student and teacher to find the discourse needed to negotiate both the expression and comprehension of meaning (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk)

I have observed some of my listening/speaking classes so far and found that some students have pretty accurate pronunciation Their speech is clear, fluent and understandable enough for communication But some speak less fluently than others It is not surprising that a few are too shy to practice speaking in groups If they work in a group, they cannot make a complete conversation In other words, they are often inhibited about trying to say things in English when working in groups They do not know how to

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negotiate meaning in order to keep the conversation going The truth of the matter is that they have to work with their partners in the form of conversation in the final examination

at the end of the course

For the above reasons, I have decided to carry out this research, the title of which

is “Implementing communication strategies in listening/ speaking classes at the CFL at

Can Tho University."

1.2 Research aims

The aims of this research are firstly to have deeper insights into communicative strategies and some typical communicative strategies in teaching conversations in groups, and secondly to find out the impact of communicative strategies on students’ speaking performance Lastly, with the results obtained, I propose the implementation of the communication strategies in a listening and speaking class at CFL at Can Tho University

It is hoped that the information will be a good reference for teachers in listening and speaking classes at the CFL in Can Tho University as well as in other schools in Viet Nam

1.3 Research questions

When mentioning the teacher’s role in strategy training, Hismanoglu (in the internet TESL Journal, Vol.VI, No.8, August 2000) states, “ In addition to students, the language teacher should also analyze his textbook to see whether the textbook already includes language learning strategies or language learning strategies training.” So I would like to raise two research questions The first question is “To which degree, does the currently-used textbook “Let’s Talk 3” provide students with communication strategies?”, and the second one is “Does the implementation of communication

strategies enhance students’ speaking performance?”

1.4 The organization of the research

This research composes of 5 chapters, and is organized as follows:

Chapter 1 is the introduction that provides the problems and rationale of the research, the research aims, the research questions and the organization of the research

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Chapter 2 presents an overview of the relevant literature It starts with characteristics and functions of spoken language Its focus is on communicative strategies with definitions, classifications, the impacts of communication strategies from previous empirical studies It is followed by the issues of syllabus design and Bailey’s and Nunan’s principles in teaching intermediate learners A number of communicative activities are also mentioned

Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the study including description of the population, the instruments for data collection (a questionnaire, two tests: pretest and post test and a test criteria) and method for data analysis

Chapter 4 presents preliminary results of the questionnaires and of the pretest and post test in the two groups of students- an experimental group and a control group Major findings and discussions are also included

Chapter 5 restates the major findings for the implementation of communication strategies in the English classes at the Center of Foreign Language at Can Tho University Limitations of the carrying out of the research as well as recommendations are also included Recommendations are made based on the major findings and discussion in chapter 4 about the implementation of communicative strategies in the English classes at the CFL at Can Tho University

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CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF COMMUNICATION

STRATEGIES

This chapter reviews the theoretical framework for the study It starts with characteristics and functions of spoken language Its focus is on communicative strategies with definitions and classifications, the impacts of communication strategies of previous studies in different contexts, some communicative strategies It is followed by the issues of syllabus design and Bailey’s and Nunan’s principles in teaching intermediate learners A number of communicative activities are also mentioned

2.1 Characteristics and functions of spoken language

2.1.1 Characteristics of spoken language

I agree with the idea of Gabrielatos (1992) that when listeners are unable or not expected to respond overtly, speakers have to take the listeners’ feedback into consideration, for instance, they will have to rephrase their message or answer the questions Bygate (1987) mentions features of interaction routines involving feedback The ones which are relevant aims of this study are “asking the other person for information or language that she or he has forgotten”, “asking the others’ opinion”,

“responding to the requests for clarification from the listener(s), for instance by rephrasing, repeating, giving examples or analogies”, “indicating uncertainty about comprehension”, “indicating comprehension”, “asking for clarification”, “expressing appropriate agreement, reservations or appreciation of speaker’s point”, “interrupting where necessary to express any of the forgoing” Speakers will also have to take into account the listeners’ knowledge of the world and/or of the particular topic of the interaction The reciprocal nature of the interaction facilitates communication as both

speaker and listener co-operate to ensure mutual understanding (Bygate, 1987)

Speakers have to decide on what they are to say next and how to express it while they are speaking The fact may affect the structure of the speakers’ utterance and the density of communicated information Ellis (1996) also emphasizes the study of interactional modifications involves examining the speech of both participants in a conversation

2.1.2 Functions of spoken language

Brown & Yule (1983) remark that language can be seen as having two functions: transferring information (transactional function) and establishing/ maintaining social

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relationships (interactional function) Interactional spoken language is characterized by the shifts of topic and short turns The accuracy and clarity of information are not of primary importance, but the fluency and collaborative work are challenged Since the effective transference of information is the goal, interlocutors are actively engaged in the

negotiation of meaning

2.1.3 Communicative competence

It is said that one of the most important goals of second language study is the development of communicative competence in foreign languages When individuals have developed communicative competence in a language, they are able to convey and receive messages of many different types successfully Swain (1985) suggests that for second language learners to develop competence in the target language, the classroom context needs to provide adequate opportunities for target language use Moreover, for comprehensible output to be produced, learners have to be pushed in their negotiation of meaning Consequently, second language learners may benefit from teaching and learning innovations at the classroom level that promote the production of comprehensible output through interaction and negotiation Trinh (2005) says; “The more social interactions with negotiations of meaning are observed, the more language learning

via language use may occur.”

The Interaction hypothesis (Long,1983) proposes that the tasks which generate negotiation of meaning (e.g requesting for clarifications, comprehension checks, confirmation checks, recasts) would help learners acquire the second language Modifications in interaction lead to comprenhensible input (e.g.through decomposing or segmenting input) and facilitate language acquisition Through interactions in the target language, learners’communicative competence is developed

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2.2 Communicative strategies

2.2.1 Definitions and classifications of communicative strategies

When we speak, and especially perhaps when we speak in a foreign language, there are times when we wish to say something, but we do not have the words or the grammatical structures to say it Under these circumstances, people often use communicative strategies- verbal and/or nonverbal procedures for compensating for gaps

in speaking competence (Bailey & Nunan, 2005: 19)

Research into language learning strategies began in the 1960s, and many scholars (Wenden and Rubin,1987; O’Malley et al., 1985; Oxford, 1990; Stern, 1992; Ellis, 1994, etc) have classified them However, most of the attempts to classify language-learning strategies reflect more or less the same classifications Typically, strategies are divided into three main categories, as noted in Figure 2.1 “Metacognitive” is a term used in information- processing theory to indicate an “executive function strategies that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring

of one’s production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after an activity is completed “Cognitive” strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself “Socioaffective” strategies involve the ways in which learners interact with others and control themselves in order to enhance their learning Socioaffective strategies are manifested in (1) asking questions (asking for clarification or verification, asking for correction), (2) cooperating with others, (3) empathizing with others (developing cultural understanding and becoming aware of others’ thoughts and feelings), as noted in Figure 2.2 Along with the other strategies listed in Figure 2.1, the latter, socioaffective strategies are actually communicative strategies

Figure 2.1 Classification of Learning Strategy (O’Malley et al 1985)

Metacognitive strategies Cognitive strategies Socioaffective strategies Learning strategy

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Figure 2.2 The Manifestation of Socioaffective Strategies (O’Malley et al (1990) )

Socioaffective strategies

A Asking questions B Cooperating with others C Empathizing

2 Asking for correction

1 Cooperating with others

2 Cooperating with proficient users of the new target language

1 Asking for clarification or verification

1 Developing culture

understanding

2 Becoming aware of others’ thoughts and feelings

According to Rubin (1987), there are three types of strategies used by learners that contribute directly and indirectly to language learning These are learning strategies, communication strategies and social strategies Lessard – Clouston (1997:3) states that language learning strategies contribute to the development of the communicative competence of the students

Being a broad concept, language learning strategies are used to refer to all strategies foreign language learners use in learning the target language and relate to input, and communication strategies are one type of language learning strategies, which pertain

to output, how we productively express meaning, how we deliver messages to others So how are communicative strategies defined?

Rubin (1987) states (about communication strategies) , “ They are less directly related to language learning since their focus is on the process of participating in conversation and getting meaning across or clarifying what the speaker intended Communication strategies are used by speakers when faced with some difficulty due to

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the fact that their communication ends outrun their communication means or when

confronted with misunderstanding by a co-speaker”

According to Stern (1992:265), “Communication strategies, such as

circumlocution, gesturing, paraphrase, or asking for repetition and explanation are

techniques used by learners so as to keep a conversation going The purpose of using

these techniques is to avoid interrupting the flow of communication

Richards et al (1992) defines communicative strategy as a way used to express a

meaning in a second language, by a learner who has a limited command of the language

In trying to communicate, a learner may have to make up for a lack of knowledge of

grammar or vocabulary

To Gabrielatos (1992), communication strategies can be sub-categorized into

achievement and reduction strategies The first ones aim at communicating the whole

message as perceived by the speaker Examples of achievement strategies are the use of

L1 items, translation, paraphrasing, miming or pointing, eliciting/asking for help from

interlocutors The reduction strategies aim at either communicating an imperfect message

or communicating a message other than the one intended initially (a message that the

speaker can manage to communicate)

Figure 2.3 The Sub Category of Communication Strategies (Gabrielatos, 1992)

Communication Strategies

Achievement Strategies

Reduction Strategies

Bailey and Nunan (2005, 189) state “Communication strategies- verbal and/or

nonverbal procedures used to compensate for gaps in speaking competence.”

My own view is that communication strategies are all the modification devices

that speakers and listeners use to negotiate meaning during interactions in order to keep

the conversation going as well as to make the input comprehensible This view is in

accordance with Doughty & Pica (1984), who defined negotiation as the percentage of

“conversation adjustments” over the total number of T-units and fragments The

adjustments include clarification requests, confirmation checks, self and other-repetition,

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both exact and semantic Therefore, communication strategies are likely to be considered

as all the ways of negotiation in a spoken discourse

2.2.2 The impacts of communicative strategies in different contexts

So far, researchers have found some significant impacts of communication strategies in their classroom interactions Bygate (1987: 42-48) and Ellis (1985: 180-185) states that learners use communication strategies in order to compensate for their imperfect mastery of the language when faced with a communicative need

Faerch & Kasper (1980 in Ellis 1985: 181) present them as being “potentially conscious” in the sense that learners may not always be conscious of the strategies they employ Ellis adds that they can be “motivated” when learners become aware of the shortcomings of the linguistic means at their disposal Ellis regards communication strategies to be the short-term solution to a problem, learning strategies being the long-term answer

In Japan, Washburn and Christanson (1995) confirm that "by using their own production as examples of successful English conversation strategies, learners are encouraged to learn from each other and from themselves The end result is that students are empowered to take responsibility and control of their own English and study."

In Italy, Mariani (1994) gives out some positive impacts of communication strategies First, communication strategies are also indirect learning strategies: they help learners to remain in conversation, and so provide them with more input, more opportunities for checking and validating their hypotheses, and therefore more chances to develop their interlanguage systems Besides, communication strategies may lead to more successful performance, and, as we know, the content of successful performance gets stored more easily in memory, and thus has a positive impact on learning Second, by allowing learners to remain in conversation, communication strategies help them, on the productive side, to get some useful feedback on their own performance, and on the receptive side, to exercise some kind of control over their intake, for example, by enabling them to prompt their interlocutor to modify his or her utterances In other words, strategic competence promotes learners’ self-monitoring function or executive control Third, communication strategies train learners in the flexibility they need to cope with the unexpected and the unpredictable At the same time, they help students get used

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to non-exact communication, which is perhaps the real nature of all communication In this way, they help to bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside reality, between formal and informal learning Finally, communicative strategies encourage risk-taking and individual initiative and this is certainly a step towards linguistic and cognitive autonomy

To sum up, the impacts of communicative strategies (CSs) according to Mariani (1994) are listed in table 2.1

Table 2.1 Summary of the impacts of CSs according to Mariani(1994)

Number Impacts of communicative strategies

1 CSs help learners to remain in conversation and provide them with more input,

more opportunities for checking and validating their hypotheses CSs may lead to more successful performance

2 CSs help learners to get useful feedback on their own performance

3 CSs train learners in the flexibility they need to cope with the unexpected and the

unpredictable

4 CSs encourage risk-taking and individual initiative and this is certainly a step

towards linguistic and cognitive autonomy

2.2.3 Commonly-used communication strategies

Studies into the modification of interactional structure in conversations have noted that there are a number of communication strategies or modification devices (Tsui, 1991)

to avoid and to repair breakdowns in communication Commonly used conversational strategies are as follows:

1 Confirmation check

A confirmation check (Tsui, 1991) is a strategy used by the listener to make sure what he or she has just heard is correct It can be realized by repeating or paraphrasing what the speaker said with a rising intonation For example:

A: I saw a bank robbery a couple of weeks ago

B: A robbery? (Nunan ,1993:122)

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In Bailey’s and Nunan’s book, confirmation check refers to “moves by which one speaker seeks confirmation of the other’s preceding utterance through repetition, with rising intonation” of the preceding utterance (Pica, Young, and Doughty, 1987, p.740)

2 Clarification request is a strategy used when the speaker needs help in understanding what the previous speaker has said A very common way of asking for clarification is “what do you mean?”

Students, on the other hand, can ask teachers or their partners to confirm their comprehension because sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what a speaker means even when you have heard and understood every word

In Bailey’s and Nunan’s book, clarification request means “ moves by which “one speaker seeks assistance in understanding the other speaker’s preceding utterance through

questions, , statements such as I don’t understand, or imperatives such as Please

repeat”(Pica, Young, and Doughty, 1987:740)

3 Comprehension check is a strategy used by the speaker to ensure that the listener has understood correctly For example:

A: The paper should go on the outside of the packet- Know what I mean?

B: Mmm

(Nunan, 1993)

In Bailey’s and Nunan’s book, comprehension check means “moves by which one speaker attempts to determine whether the other speaker has understood a preceding message” (Pica, Young, and Doughty, 1987: 740)

4 Repetition request is used when the speakers fail to hear or understand what the previous speaker has said and asked for repetition or a restatement It can be in the form

of repeating part of the previous speaker’s utterance with a rising intonation, the aim being to get them to repeat the rest A repetition request can also be in the form of an explicit request to the other speakers to repeat, by using expressions like “I beg your pardon” and “Please say that again.”

The following table 2.2 shows some examples of CSs

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Table 2.2 Examples of commonly-used communication strategies

Communication strategies Examples

the target language by asking

the speaker to explain or repeat

a previous statement

Comprehension checks

Attempt to see whether the

listeners understand what has

been said

Repetition request

Attempt to make clear what

has been heard

At the first lesson, the teacher says: “The first impression is very important because people often perform a lasting opinion based on the first impression.” Student asks: “a lasting opinion?”

Cesar and two girls are cutting out masks for Halloween One of the girls tells him, “We have to decorate them.” He responds,

“decorate? What does decorate mean?” The girl tells him, “That means you draw pictures on it."( O’Malley, 1990)

Mrs Gracia is talking to a group of employees: “To figure out the daily cost, you’ll have to add up all the numbers in column A, divided by 30, and multiply by the number of the days you’ll be there Is that clear?” (Ferrer & Whally, 1996)

After student A gives the riddle, another student says: “Excuse me Would you please say that again?

In short, besides the strategies mentioned above, the ways to open and close a conversation, the ways to take turns as well as the ways to give repair feedbacks are also regarded as CSs So depending on the situations in communication, good language learners must have a wide repertoire of learning strategies and use a series of strategies rather than a single one when engaged in a communication task

2.3 Syllabus design issues

Syllabus design issues are related to decisions about what to teach in any given course (Bailey & Nunan, 2005, p.32) When teaching EFL in Viet Nam, teachers are probably aware of the challenges that our students face when their exposure to English outside the classroom is limited Therefore, it is important for teachers to develop skills and strategies for helping our students gain access to the target language At the intermediate level, since these learners already know a great deal of English, they still

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need to know more As the teacher, we need to help our intermediate students build their vocabulary, improve their grammar, and extend the range of speech acts they can use appropriately They may also need to improve their pronunciation accuracy In addition, while the learners and we are expanding their communicative competence, we can do a great deal to increase their communicative confidence

Some course books cover both listening and speaking skills, which is sensible since these two aural/oral skills often work together For instance, as shown in Table 2.3,

in Ferrer (1996) book, Mosaic one: A listening /speaking skills book, every chapter has

two skills, skill A and skill B Skill A is about learning strategies for listening, whereas skill B is about language functions for speaking The chapters are organized around themes, such as New Challenges, Academic Life, Family, Health, and Money Maters and

so on These topics provide relevant vocabulary, grammar structures, and examples of speech acts, as well as something to talk about

Some textbooks just give topics for conversations, for example Let’s Talk 3 as shown in Table 2.4, but others deal specially with “How” to participate in conversations

An important part of carrying on a conversation is to use communicative strategies to prevent or repair communication breakdowns (Bailey, 2005, p.43)

Some syllabuses and methods are designed to emphasize input to the learners, while others emphasized interaction What is the difference? Input is “language which a learner hears or receives and from which he or she can learn” (Richard, Platt and Weber,

1985, p.143) Input can be unidirectional That is learners can gain input just by reading

or listening, without responding in anyway That subset of the input, which learners notice, find helpful, and learn from, is called intake Not all the input to learners can be converted to intake For instance, speech that is too fast for learners to process will not become intake

In contrast, interaction is not unidirectional Interactive speech involves at least two people communicating with one another During verbal interaction, people exchange information and ideas (Long, 1983) and communicate their needs

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Table 2.3 Mosaic one: A Listening/Speaking skills Book (Ferrer, 1995, p.vi-vii)

Contents

Preface to the third Edition xi Summary of Listening/speaking Exercises and Activities for Learning Strategies and Language Functions xviii

CHAPTER ONE: New Challenges 1

Lecture “Learning to Speak Someone Else’s Languages”

Did you know?

Sharing Your Experience 2 Vocabulary 2

Skill A Learning strategy: Listening to make predictions 4

Listen in 5 Speak out 7

Skill B Language Function: Offering and Requesting Clarification 11

Conversations 12 Listen in 13 Speak out 14 Focus on testing 16

CHAPTER TWO: Looking at Learning 17

Lecture “Learning to Listen/ Listening to Learn”

Did you know?

Sharing Your Experience 18 Vocabulary 20

Skill A Learning Strategy: Listening for the Main Ideas 21

Listen in 22 Speak out 23

Skill B Language Function: Asking for Confirmation 24

Conversations 25 Listen in 26 Speak out 27

Focus on testing 28

CHAPTER THREE: Relationships 29

Lecture “Family Networks and the Elderly” 30

Did you know? 30

Sharing Your Experience

Vocabulary 31

Skill A Learning Strategy: Listening for Key Terms 32

Listen in Speak out 33

Skill B Language Function: Making Generalizations 34

Etc.

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Table 2.4 Let’s Talk3 (Jones,2002, P.iii)

Contents Author’s acknowledgements iv

A Announcements and signs 6

B Feelings and gestures 8

Unit 3 Breaking the law

A Crime and Punishment 10

B Can money buy happiness? 26

Unit 7 Around the world

A People and language 28

B When in Rome… 30

Unit 8 Technology

A Can you explain it? 32

B User friendly? 34 Review puzzles 36

Ect

Unit 10 Natural forces

A What awful weather 42

B The ring of fire 44

Unit 11 News and current events

B Managing your life 62

Unit 15 Travel and tourism

A Travelers or tourists? 64

B Fantastic journeys 66

Unit 16 The real world

A Using the phone 68

B The ideal job 70 Review puzzles 72

Communication tasks 74 Appendix 86

Self-study answer key 108

Grammar 114 Acknowledgements 122

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During these conversations, there are opportunities for “the less competent speaker

to provide feedback on his or her lack of understanding” In the process, most sympathetic interlocutors will adjust their speech to help the learner understand better The result is what Tsui (1991) calls the “negotiated modification of the conversation” This negotiation for meaning makes the input to the leaner comprehensible, meaning that

is understood and can be converted to intake It is hypothesized that language acquisition occurs because of these processes

One benefit of learners interacting in English is that when we speak (or write) in a new language, we have to focus on our grammatical accuracy and on our pronunciation

in order to be understood It appears that in trying to speak, learners have many opportunities to notice the gap between their output (their own speech or writing in the target language) and that of native or more proficient users of English (Swain, 1995)

In the early days of second language acquisition research, some people thought that comprehensible input addressed to the language learners was what caused language acquisition to occur (Krashen, 1985) More recently, researchers have studied interaction They have identified several important processes that help people convert input into intake through the negotiation of meaning that occurs during the interaction In their book, Pica, Young, and Doughty (1987: 740) have provided the following definitions of processes that occur as learners converse in their new language

+ Clarification request: One speaker seeks assistance in understanding the other

speaker’s preceding utterance through questions , statements such as ‘I do not

understand’, or imperative such as ‘Please repeat’

+ Comprehension checks: One speaker attempts to determine whether the other

speaker has understood in a preceding message

+ Confirmation check: One speaker seeks confirmation of the other’s preceding

utterance through repetition, with rising intonation, of what was perceived to be all or part of the preceding utterance

These categories can be a little confusing because of the changing roles of the persons who are the “speaker” and the “interlocutor(s).” The key difference between the comprehension check and the confirmation check is that the speaker checking someone else’s understanding of what the other speaker has said This distinction can be a little

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confusing because the person who is the designated speaker changes as the turns of the conversation alternate, as we see in the following extracts

Extract 1 (Bailey, 2005: 94)

John, a male ESL teacher in California, is interviewing Kim, a newly arrived female ESL student from Korea The following (totally constructed) conversation occurs:

John: So tell me a little bit about yourself

Kim: Uh, so, you mean, uh, my life? (Clarification request)

John: Yeah, like where’re you from, whaddya like to do, and stuff like that

Kim: uh, I’m Christian I born Seoul

John: Uhm, you were born with a soul Like from Heaven?

(Clarification request, John-asking Kim to clarify her previous utterance.)

Kim: Oh! No Seoul My city uh, in my country I from Korea

John: Oh! You were born in Seoul, Korea Is that it? (Confirmation check, John-

as the speaker- is confirming his understanding of Kim’s previous comment Here Kim is the interlocutor for the moment.)

Kim: Yes Seoul is the capital of my country Korea my country I born Seoul You

understand me? (Comprehension check, where Kim is the speaker and she is checking john’s understanding)

Regardless of the syllabus or textbook structure, it is important for the teachers to encourage their intermediate learners to interact in English because interaction seems to promote language acquisition (Bailey, 2005, p.96) We now turn to a discussion of these important principles to follow when teaching speaking to intermediate learners

2.4 Principles for teaching speaking to intermediate learners

In their book, Bailey and Nunan (2005) consider the most relevant principles for teaching speaking to intermediate students as follows

2.4.1 Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning

It appears that in the process of negotiating for meaning, the language addressed to learners is adjusted to their level and becomes comprehensible to them In addition, as

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learners work to make themselves understood, they must attend to accuracy That is, they must select the right vocabulary, apply grammar rules, and pronounce words carefully, and so on In doing so they may “notice the gap” (Schmidt and Frota, 1986, pp.310-315) between what they want to say and what they can say, or between what they say and what other people say By planning speaking tasks that require learners to negotiate for meaning, teachers can give them valuable chances for practice and language development

For students at the intermediate level, information gap and jigsaw activities can provide many opportunities for learners to negotiate for meaning This is especially true

if the pair work or group work is supposed to lead to a conclusion or solution Teachers often have to decide, when using a communicative activity, whether to pre-teach vocabulary and structures or wait and see what the students can manage on their own With intermediate learners, it is sometimes best to let them attempt a task and see what they already know In that way you can respond to their questions as needed, instead of covering material they’ve already learned

2.4.2 Design both transactional and interpersonal speaking activities

When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do so for interpersonal or transactional purposes Interpersonal speech is communication for social purposes, including establishing and maintaining social relationships Transactional speech involves communicating to get something done, such as the exchange of goods and /or services

Most spoken interactions “can be placed on a continuum from already predictable

to relatively unpredictable” (Nunan, 1991, p 42) Casual conversations- an example of interpersonal speech- are relatively unpredictable and can range over many topics, with the participants taking turns and commenting freely In contrast, Nunan says that

“transactional encounters of a fairly restricted kind will usually contain highly predictable patterns (1991: 42), and he gives the example of telephoning for a taxi Interpersonal speech is more fluid and unpredictable Our students need to use English in both transactional and interpersonal settings, so it is important that classroom-speaking activities embody both purposes

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2.4.3 Personalize the content of speaking activities whenever possible

Some very early language classroom research revealed that personalization is important Personalization is the process of making activities matches the learners’ own circumstances, interests, and goals Omaggio (1982 in Bailey’s book (2005) showed that teachers personalized language lessons were judged to be effective, by both their supervisors and their students

Personalizing an exercise can be as simple as using students’ names, academic majors, cities, or jobs in speaking activities Alternatively, you can build role-play around situations suggested by the learners Personalizing language lessons is partly a matter of careful planning and partly of responding creatively to students’ questions and comments during activities (Nunan, 2005:109)

Like pair work, in group work, we can mention the increase in the amount of students talking time and we can place emphasis on the opportunities it gives students really to use the target language to communicate with each other Students will be teaching and learning in the group Therefore, group work offers enormous potential It can be used for various tasks, which develop the four skills It also has the great advantage of allowing different groups of students to do different things in the same class Thus, pair work and group work are typical organizational features of interactional-based lessons in Communicative Language Teaching (Bailey, 2004:19)

The following communicative activities are used in the listening and speaking classes

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2.5.1 Conversations

Conversations are one of the most basic and persuasive forms of human interaction (Bailey, 2005: 42) True conversations are unplanned spoken discourse involving two or more people Let’s Talk 3 just gives topics for conversation, but does not deal with HOW to participate in conversations In his book, Jones (1982: 189) states:

“An important part of carrying on a conversation is to use communication strategies to prevent or repair communication breakdowns” For students at the intermediate level like the ones at the Center of Foreign Language, it is important to have some strategies for getting help when they do not understand what someone says Appendix 9, Appendix 10, Appendix 11 and Appendix 12 provide some helpful expressions for learners to know how to ask for clarification and confirm their understanding Every activity in each unit is firstly discussed in a group, and then the group rearranges their ideas in a form of a conversation At last a representative pair will practice speaking in front of the class

2.5.2 Information gap activities

Information gaps are activities in which learners must use English to convey information known to them but not to their speaking partners Both the listener and the speaker must use English to share that information in order to accomplish the task For example, in Unit 2 A: “Announcements and signs” in Let’s Talk 3, I assigned a kind of game, which is called Listen and Guess game One student in a group must choose a certain famous places either in Can Tho or in other places, and describes his or her directions to that place His/her partners have to listen carefully in order to find out the place the speaker talks about To make the activity more interactive, the listening students can ask for repetition, clarification, and expansion The aim of this activity is to help students review some expressions to give and ask for directions Besides, it also provides them opportunities to apply communication skills Thus the purpose of these communication tasks is to stimulate real-life conversations

In short, for most classroom teachers, developing activities which promote

negotiated interaction with the use of communication strategies between learners is the most realistic and effective choice Schmitt (1991) contends: "As for the importance of interaction, we need to examine the amount and type of practice we provide.” Thus, the implementation of communicative interaction and negotiation tasks throughout the

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curriculum could have a significant impact on the language development of ESL/EFL students in task-based classrooms, like the ones at CFL in Can Tho University

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODODOLOGY

In this chapter, the design, the participants, the research instruments, the materials and the procedures of the research will be described

3.1 Research questions

This research is based on a short-term classroom practice Therefore, it mainly aims at practical language teaching aspects It is designed to find out the answers to the

two research questions, and the second question is the main one

1 To which extent, does the currently-used textbook “Let’s Talk 3” provide students with communication strategies?

2 Does the implementation of communication strategies enhance students’ development in speaking performance?

3.2 Research design

To carry out this research, I design two questionnaires, one for teachers in order to answer the first research question and one for students to see their attitude towards the use of communication strategies; a pretest and post test for two groups of learners in which the implementation of communication strategies (independent variable) will be monitored and the result of the implementation of the strategies (dependent variable) will

be measured and a test criteria to evaluate the students’ speaking performance

3.3 Participants

3.3.1 The teachers

A group of twenty teachers, including fourteen females and eight males are involved in this research Sixteen teachers have taught listening and speaking for more than ten years, and the others have taught English for more than five years Ten of them already have the MA degree in TESOL Two of them are following the Postgraduate programme, and the others have a university degree However, the thing they all have in common is that they have used Let’s Talk 3 as the main material, and they have already used Mosaic One: A Listening/Speaking Skills Book All of the teachers apply the communicative approach, and most of their lessons generally follow a (somehow

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modified) ‘presentation-practice-production’ format That is the reason why I choose them as my research participants

3.3.2 The students

There are two groups of sixty-eight intermediate students from different background involved in this study The first group is the experimental group in which the implementation of the communication strategies was used, and the second group is the control group without that implementation In fact, at the beginning, the actual number of students in each group is forty, but the names of some were crossed out because they did not come to class so often and some did not take the post test Group 1 has thirty-five learners including both males and females Group 2 consists of thirty –three These learners study English for different reasons Forty two learners study English for academic purposes Twelve study for career promotion, eleven for studying abroad, and three for family reunion In summary, the reasons of learning English for two groups of learners are illustrated in the following table

Table 3.1 The reasons of learning English for two groups of learners

In order to help students feel easy, I let them freely choose their own partners in conversations, but most of the partners in the pairs are more or less of the same ability

There are two reasons for the choice of students at the CFL as participants in my research First, these learners use Let’s Talk 3 as their main material for their listening and speaking classes, and my aim is to see to what extent this material provides students with communicative strategies Second, they are highly motivated in learning English

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They love to study English although they are always busy with their studying or their working All of them like learning English and are willing to learn something new and interesting Therefore, it is meaningful to choose them as subjects of the study so that the result and finding can be more realistic

Eight target students in the experimental group were selected based on their highest and lowest score on the pretest As the researcher, I rank the highest score as above eight points and the lowest score, below five and a half points The following table shows the point rank

Table 3.2 The classification of point rank

The aim of the research is to find out how much progress the learners will be able

to make in speaking English after carrying out a training course with communicative strategies For this reason, there are different kinds of instruments being used

First, for the answer to the first research question (To which extent, does Let’s Talk 3 provides students with communicative strategies?), a scrutinized observation of the textbook and a questionnaire for teachers were designed The questionnaire was delivered to twenty teachers who have used or studied Mosaic one and Let’s Talk 3 as the main material This questionnaire was developed to see to which extent the listening/speaking teachers agree or disagree with the researcher’s assumption about the degree of communication strategies used in the currently-used textbook Let’s Talk 3 The feedback from these can be used to help find out whether communicative strategies are explicitly provided in the textbook

Second, a series of teaching supplements (see from Appendix 9 to Appendix 12) to show the expressions of the communicative skills and a tape recorder to introduce the skills are supplied These supplements were instructed along with the units in the course book (see the work map in Appendix 7.)

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Third, before and after two months of training, two speaking tests used as pre-test and post-test are assigned to students to see how well communicative strategies enhance the students’ development in their speaking performance

Fourth, a questionnaire for students is also given in order to find out the students’ attitude towards the use of communicative strategies

Last of all, a marking sheet with the five criteria is designed to evaluate students'

oral performance through their interaction

Classroom observations focused on the student–student(s) interactions and their

speaking performance with the implementation of communication strategies during their oral interactions in the classroom The content of the observation sheet is similar to the one in the test criteria, (see Appendix 6)

All the data collected from these instruments have been carefully analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively with the assistance of the SPSS 1 software

The following shows the research instruments in detail

3.4.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaire for teachers: The first questionnaire is for teachers Its aim is to see

whether or not the textbook “Let’s Talk 3” provides students with communicative strategies It is a five-point linkert scale (Fraiser, 2000:27), which is a measurement scale

of agreement, often on five points, ranging from (1)“Strongly agree”, (2)“Agree”, (3)“Not sure”, (4)“Disagree” and (5)“Strongly disagree.” (See Appendix1 for the whole statements.) This questionnaire consists of two parts The first part is about the participants’ background of teaching listening and speaking The second part includes ten statements, which talk about the manifestation of communicative strategies in the

textbook

Questionnaire for students: The second questionnaire for students is to see the

attitude of students towards the use of communication strategies in their speaking performance This is also a five-point linkert, which is a measurement scale of agreement,

ranging from (1)“Strongly disagree”, (2)“Disagree”, (3)“Not sure”, (4)“Agree” and

1 SPSS stands for Statistical Packages for Social Sciences

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(5)“Strongly agree.” (See Appendix 2) The scale in this questionnaire is reversed from

the one for the teachers This one including twelve items is used to measure the attitude

of the learners about the use of communicative strategies after the training course The items in the questionnaire consist of two sections The first one is about the attitude of students towards the use of CSs, and the second section is about communicative strategies The items in the second section represent the three main groups of commonly-used CSs as mentioned in chapter 2 which are (1) clarification requests, (2) comprehension checks, (3) confirmation checks Table 3.1 represents the items with the aims corresponding to groups of items

Table 3.3 Items in sections of questionnaire for students

I 1-2-3-7-8 To measure the learners attitude towards the use of CSs

3.4.2 The two tests

The overall research design is the pretest and post test for two groups of learners

in which the implementation of communicative strategies (independent variable) will be monitored and the result of the implementation of the communicative strategies (dependent variable) will be measured and a test criteria to evaluate the students’ speaking performance (see Appendix 5)

For convenience in comparing the results of the students’ improvement in their interaction, the content of the pretest and the post test is the same

As seen in Appendix 4, there are two parts in the pretest Part one consists of three questions about the students’ background Part two, the main part, consists of seven questions selected from unit one- “The First Impression” in Let’s Talk 3 The students’ personal background makes the pre-test different from the post-test .Among the seven questions in the tests, question four is the main one The answers to the other six

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questions provide hints to answer question four So when the students do the test, they are assigned to answer question 4 (see Appendix 4)

3.4.3 The test criteria

Assessing intermediate students’ speaking skills is very important In some regards, testing speaking is not as straightforward as testing grammar or vocabulary

As the final oral test is in the form of a conversation, the first thing for students to perform the task is comprehension If they have no ideas about the topics, the task will be incomprehensible

Another thing is that one key to success in learning to speak a foreign language is having good pronunciation At this level, learners can typically make most of their needs understood and will be able to engage in a wide range of communicative activities, using English to express their ideas, get their needs, and convey emotions It is important to help them improve their pronunciation to the point where they can be easily understood

by most people with whom they will speak to Even a small pronunciation error can create miscommunications

To Bailey (2005:5), a proficient speaker is both fluent and accurate So accuracy and fluency are also factors for assessing the learners’ speaking performance Accuracy

in this context refers to the ability to speak properly- that is selecting the correct words and expressions to convey the intended meaning, as well as using the grammatical patterns of English Fluency, on the other hand, is the capacity to speak fluidly and confidently

Last but not least, as teachers, we have to make sure that we are testing what we have taught and what the students have learned Communicative strategies taught in class will be grouped by the term of negotiation; as Nunan (1993:122) states,

“Negotiation of meaning is the interactional work done by speakers and listeners to ensure that they have a common understanding of the ongoing meanings in a discourse Commonly used conversational strategies include comprehension checks, confirmation checks and clarification requests.”

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In brief, the test criteria consist of five components: comprehension, fluency,

pronunciation, negotiation and accuracy (see Appendix 4)

3.5 Materials

The main material for the two groups is Let’s Talk 3 (Jones, 2002) It includes 16 units Students in classes 7, however, are assigned to learn from unit 1 to unit 6 The content of these units can be seen in Appendix 8 These units are taught in eight weeks, two days a week and three periods for each day In all, there are forty- eight periods for the whole course Besides skill B sections in Mosaic one: A Listening/ Speaking Skills Book (Ferrer & Whally, 1996) are also added as a supplement material to introduce communicative strategies in the experimental group The distribution of these units is shown in the work map in Appendix 8

Most lessons generally follow a “presentation-practice-production” format When presenting the skills, I asked the students to identify instances of communication strategies/skills used in the recordings Then they were given the opportunity to practice the strategies/ skills in isolation before they applied them in the communicative activities

The lessons followed the cycle of isolation/examination and practice/ reintegration

3.6 Procedure

The study was conducted from late September 2006 to December 2006 in two level C English classes- Classes 7 at the Center of Foreign Language at Can Tho University; and it lasted for 8 weeks

3.6.1 Pretest

In the first class meeting, after self- introductions between the teacher and students, the first unit in Let’s Talk 3 was introduced and then the pre test was given (see Appendix 4) The pre-test was aimed at testing learners' ability in handling the conversation in pair work The questions for discussion are simple questions, so it is quite easy for students to answer The marks were given to them based on the criteria for oral performance test in Appendix 6

In general, before the pretest, the students were grouped more or less randomly They were presented with controversial topics related to the importance of the first

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impressions (Appendix 4) Students were asked to discuss about the topic in groups of

four, and then two represented the whole group to practice in front of the class

As a whole, the discussion lacked natural flow and it was not easy for listeners to follow That is because, to some students, this was the first time they met each other, and

certainly the discussion was not a heated one for some were inhibited in speaking

3.6.2 The supplementary course

During two months of training, the implementation of communicative strategies, including comprehension checks, clarification requests, confirmation checks and the like

is supplemented along with the six units in the course book This implication was applicable to the experimental group - the one consisting of thirty-five students Certain kinds of communicative activities were designed, for instance, the information gaps, conversations and games These activities helped students have more chances to have creative thinking and practice speaking English in groups of two or more

I agree with the idea that, “We speak as though we write.” In a written discourse, there are three parts: Introduction, body and conclusion I also agree with Levine (1990:124) that “a good conversation in English is like a ping- pong game One person has the ball and then hits it to the other side of the table The other player hits the ball back and the game continues If one person does not hit the ball back, then the conversation stops Each part of the conversation involves these steps: the greeting and opening, the discussion of the topic and the closing and farewell One person says something and the other person responds right away.”

The first skill for the speaking classes, therefore, is to show learners how to open and close a conversation The second skills are the skills of asking and offering clarification, which are supplemented in unit 2 In unit 3, the skill of requesting clarification is added The distribution of the material is shown in Appendix 8, and the skills supplemented are extracted from skill B in Mosaic one They can be seen in Appendix 9, Appendix 10, Appendix 11 and Appendix 12

3.6.3 Post test

On the first day of week eight, students did the post test Its content is similar to the one in the pretest, since the researcher wanted to evaluate the students fairly and

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easily The aim of the test is to see how well the learners handled the conversation after the course with the supplemented communicative strategies Besides, the questionnaire was given to the students in the experimental group a few minutes before the post-test began

Before the post test began, the students were required to complete the questionnaire (the translation version in Appendix 3.) This questionnaire helps me to see the attitude of students towards the use of communicative strategies Moreover, the purpose of this instrument is to let me know whether the implementation of communicative strategies is applicable or not

In short, the procedures of the research can be summarized as in the following table

Table 3.4 Summary of the research activities in two groups

Week 1 Each pair of learners is given a pre test

Learners discuss and practice speaking

Each pair of learners is given a pre test Learners discuss and practice speaking

Week 2-7

The main course is applied with the implementing of communication strategies

The main course is applied without the implementing of communication strategies

Week 8 Each pair of learners is given a post test

They make a conversation during that test

Each pair of learners is given a post test They make a conversation during that test

After the questionnaires for teachers and students and the results of the two tests were collected, all the raw data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively with the help

of the SPSS software Besides, diagrams and charts of the results of the pretest and post test were drawn with the assistance of the Excel software

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