skkn improving high school students’ speaking skill through role play

Improving High School Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role- play Abstract My special interest in the topic of improving students’ speaking skill through play began when I listened to a

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI

Đơn vị : THPT Ngô Quyền _

Mã số: ………

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

Người thực hiện: Trần Văn Nghĩa

Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu:

Quản lý giáo dục

Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn

Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác:

Có đính kèm:

Năm học: 2012-2013

SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC

I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN

1 Họ và tên: Trần Văn Nghĩa

2 Ngày tháng năm sinh : 20-11-1963

3 Nam/Nữ: Nam

4 Địa chỉ: B 28-Khu Phố 6- Tam Hiệp- Biên hòa

5 Điện thoại: 0913130131 Cơ quan: Nhà riêng:

7 Chức vụ: Tổ trưởng

8 Đơn vị công tác: THPT Ngô Quyền

II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO

- Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ

- Năm nhận bằng: 2001

- Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh

- Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm:

- Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 20 năm

- Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây:

Making speaking tasks more effective and easier for high school students

How to increase high school students’ oral communication

Teaching English through oral communication.

Improving High School Students’ Written Competence Through

Teaching Grammar in Context

SỞ GD & ĐT ĐỒNG NAI CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

Đơ Đơn vị: THPT Ngô Quyền Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc

- -

Biên H òa, ngày 15 tháng 4 năm 2013

PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

Năm học: 2012-2013

Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Improving High School Students’

Speaking Skill Through Role- play

Họ và tên tác giả: Trần Văn Nghĩa Đơn vị (Tổ): Tiếng Anh

Lĩnh vực:

Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn

Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác

1 Tính mới:

- Có giải pháp hoàn toàn mới

- Có giải pháp cải tiến, đổi mới từ giải pháp đã có

2 Hiệu quả:

- Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao

- Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao.

- Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả cao

- Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả

3 Khả năng áp dụng:

- Cung cấp được các luận cứ khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, chính sách:

Tốt Khá Đạt

- Đưa ra các giải pháp khuyến nghị có khả năng ứng dụng thực tiễn, dễ thực hiện và

dễ đi vào cuộc sống: Tốt Kh á Đạt

- Đã được áp dụng trong thực tế đạt hiệu quả hoặc có khả năng áp dụng đạt hiệu quả trong phạm vi rộng Tốt Khá Đạt

XÁC NHẬN CỦA TỔ CHUYÊN MÔN THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

(Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên) (Ký tên, ghi rõ họ tên và đóng dấu)

Ngo Quyen High School School Year:2012-2013 _

Improving High School Students’ Speaking Skill Through Role- play Abstract

My special interest in the topic of improving students’ speaking skill through play began when I listened to a lecture on the importance of role-play to the teachingand learning of speaking skill at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City University ofEducation, Vietnam As an attempt to improve high school students’ speaking skill, Iwill carry out this mini-research with empirical methods in the expectation that I canmake an innovation in English language teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen HighSchool, where I have been working as a teacher of English for over 20 years

The purpose of this action research is to explore the effect of using role-play on thedevelopment of grade 10 and grade 11 students’ speaking skill at Quyen High School.The study also aims to identify students’ problems with the expectation that role-playwill help improve their speaking skill The research project includes a shortintroduction , a review of current literature related to the definition of role-play, itsadvantages as well as disadvantages, a description of data collection and dataanalysis methods in which the students will be provided with a questionnaire on theirspeaking styles, learning habits, preferences and their views on role-playingactivities The final parts of the research paper are sections discussing on anticipatedoutcomes and possible problems occurring during the research project together with abrief conclusion and some limitations of the action research proposal

Introduction

Dong Nai is an industrial and commercial province in the South of Vietnam, wherethere are many foreigners who come to invest in the property market, to work inindustrial zones and to do international trading Most foreigners use English tocommunicate with their colleagues, office workers, local residents; and English is avery important foreign language for people at work and young students in theprovince

In this province, there are fifty high schools with the responsibility for teaching andtraining students to become competent English users so that they can continue theirhigher studies at universities or get employment in the industrial zones Therefore,most teachers and parents are aware of the social needs of English as well as theimportance of English to real-life communication In fact, many people in theprovince try to study English in order to have better jobs in multi-national companies

or corporations and to get promotions in their careers

Among the high schools in the province, Ngo Quyen High School is one of theprestigious ones in Bien Hoa City, the commercial heart of Dong Nai Province, where

I have been working as a teacher of English for over 20 years Each year, this schoolhas over one thousand students who are good at various subjects, such asmathematics, chemistry, physics and biology, but their oral communication skills arenot good enough Like students in other high schools in Vietnam, the students in thisschool have to take English as a compulsory subject in the curriculum and study itthree periods a week (1 period = 45 minutes) for 34 weeks a year The course aim,according to the curriculum, is to help the students develop the four language skills:listening, speaking, reading and writing

In informal discussion with many grade 10 and 11 students, I know that they reallywant to learn English for communication, especially oral communication However,they have very few learning strategies, especially strategies for improving speakingskills Contrary to my expectation, what they often do in the speaking class is to copyvocabulary and language structures the teacher already writes on the board They thentranslate everything into Vietnamese before completing exercises and tasks in theirtextbooks, or answering the teacher’s questions based on reading texts I am alsoaware that they got into this habit of learning when they were at secondary schools.Actually, this way of learning hinders their learning progress

As a teacher of English as well as a researcher, I recognize that teaching English fororal communication is particularly important However, my personal experience of itsmethods or techniques is still limited due to the following reasons:

The number of students of each class in most schools in Vietnam as well as in myprovince is over 40 Besides, because of time limitations, the teacher wouldsometimes make use of grammar translation methods or lecturing methods for thesake of input completion Therefore, the students have very few opportunities forcommunication; and they do not get familiar with natural responses to communicativesituations except for question- answer activities between the teacher and studentindividuals For the above reasons, the students lack confidence and creativity to statetheir opinions and to express themselves in English

As a researcher, I know that there are a number of things that need innovations.However, in this research the focus of my investigation is on the students’ speakingskill because speaking, in my personal opinion, is the most important of the four

language skills According to Ur (1996,p.120) , “Of all the four skills (listening,

speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: peoplewho know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speakingincluded all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learnersare primarily interested in learning to speak” She also emphasizes that classroomactivities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech wouldtherefore seem an important component of a language course

As an attempt to improve grade 10 and grade 11 students’ speaking skill, I will carryout this mini-research with empirical methods The purpose of this action research is

to investigate the effect of using role-play on grade 10,.11 students’ speakingdevelopment at Ngo Quyen High School The study also aims to identify students’problems with the expectation that role-play will help improve their speaking skills.Finally, the study will investigate students views on role-play activities

In this action research, I would like to apply what I have acquired in order to improveteaching practices at my school and other schools in the province In my ownexperience of teaching and from what I have read in some very useful books duringthe time I have learned in Singapore, I believe that role-play will help my studentslearn speaking more effectively More importantly, there is a great need for changes to

be made in the teaching of speaking in my school

This study will be of great value to the principal, vice- principals, students andteachers in Ngo Quyen High School As a researcher, I do have a role to play inimproving both standards and the quality of teaching and learning English in myschool My expectation is that the research will help teachers in my school make achange in teaching English, particularly in speaking skills Last but not least, thefindings will be passed on to teachers in other high schools in my home province Thisresearch will make a valuable contribution to the teaching and learning of English inDong Nai, an industrial and commercial province where there is a tendency to applynew English teaching methods in order to promote students’ spoken communication.The research focus will be formulated into the three questions as follows :

1 What is the effect of role-play on the development of Grade 10, 11 students’ speaking skill?

2 How can role play be used effectively in speaking classes ?

3 What are students’ views or opinions on role-play?

Literature Review

The purpose of the study, as presented above, is to investigate the effect of role-play

on the development of students’ speaking skill The first thing that will be discussed is

a brief review of literature concerning the definition of role-play and simulation Thesecond part will look at the advantages of role-play to teaching speaking Next is ananalysis of disadvantages of role-play; and finally there will be a short discussion oneffective ways of using role-play in teaching speaking

Many studies have been carried out in order to explore the advantages anddisadvantages of role-play in teaching speaking; and the findings revealed that role-play is an effective way to develop students’ communicative competence, especiallythe sociolinguistic and strategic competence (Canale & Swain,1980) In defining

“Role-play”, Ur (1996) says that role-play is used to refer to all types of activities inwhich students assume themselves in a situation outside the classroom

In explaining the effective use of role-play, Littlewood ( 1992,p.91) also points outthat “ It is not only in the classroom that we perform roles We are doing so all thetime in our daily life : in our jobs we perform the role of teacher , perhaps alsosupervisor or head of department ; at home we may perform the role ofparent ,daughter or son ; in other contexts we may perform the role of acquaintance,stranger , novice or expert ; and so on”

In considering the benefits of role play, Larsen-Freeman( 1986) says that role-play isvery important in the Communicative Approach because role-play provides studentswith an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and indifferent social roles In recommending the techniques of using role-play, he adds thatrole-play can be set up so that it is very structured (for example, the teacher tells thestudents who they are and what they should say ) or in less structured way ( forexample, the teacher tells the students who they are, what the situation is , and whatthey are talking about, but the students determine what they will say)

It is important that the teacher should encourage students to produce languageoutside the classroom as much as possible By using role play students are givenopportunities to use their target language Littlewood (1983 ) emphasizes thatprovided that students are able to identify with the roles assigned to them , role-playing therefore provides opportunities for students to climb into the kinds oflinguistic behavior-patterns which they will need to produce outside the classroom and

to integrate these behaviour-patterns with their own personalities

In agreement with Littlewood, Harmer (2001,p.274 ) emphasizes that ‘Many studentsderive great benefit from simulation and role-play Students ‘simulate’ a real lifeencounter (such as a business meeting ,an encounter in an aero -plane cabin ,or aninterview ) as if they were doing so in the real world ,either as themselves in thatmeeting or aero-plane, or taking on the role of a character different from themselves

or with thoughts and feelings they do not necessarily share’ He also adds thatsimulation and role-play can be used to encourage general fluency, or to train studentsfor specific situations especially where they are studying ESP Similarly, Littlewood

(1992,p.91) emphasizes that “The concept “role” is a useful one because it can linkwhat takes place in the classroom with what takes place outside it”.

Apparently, role-play can make classroom activities more natural and interesting.Brand and Donato (2001) stress that if we assign students roles or allow them toselect the ones that are different from their own life roles we help them to understandothers’ points of view They also state that conversely, role-playing their own liferoles may help them and other classmates to look more objectively at themselves andtheir situations According to Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2007), the advantage of arole play is that it mirrors our life They explain that if students are assigned traineetravel agents, they can see themselves dealing with customers, answering questionsand helping to solve their problems

In contrast, role-play has some problems that should be considered According to Ur(1996) some teachers’ attitudes to role-play vary due to their personalities andbackgrounds Some teachers are enthusiastic, but others are reluctant to use role-play.She suggests that we, as researchers, should help those teachers get familiar withusing role-play by trying out an activity with them as an introduction to the unit Also,

we must clarify that role-play activities can contribute to oral fluency Dave Willis andJane Willis (2007) also point out the disadvantage of role-play that a role play imposes

an unnecessarily heavy load on students It asks them not only to solve the problem,but also to act out a role while doing this In recommending how to solve theproblems, they suggest that teacher should take students through a sequence in whichthey first solve a problem, then learn to play a role, and finally learn to solve problemswhile playing a role They emphasize that by doing this, teachers can separate out thedifficulties, allowing students first to concentrate on the problem, and then on thesocial context

As Larsen-Freeman pointed out in her book "Techniques and Principles in LanguageTeaching", "Role-play is very important in the Communicative Approach because role playgives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and indifferent social roles." (Larsen-Freeman, p 137) In my own experience of teaching in order

to help students improve their listening, speaking and communicative skills, I have designed

and conducted several role play activities for my students to practice and use English in amore meaningful way as a practical language, and the results of my students' learning arequite positive.

In comparing the advantages and disadvantages of role-play, I believe role-play can beused in all the stages of the speaking process from pre-speaking to post-speaking.Within the scope of my action research proposal, the research focus is on theapplication of effective techniques of teaching speaking with role-play Myexpectation is that the findings of this action research will help me makeimprovements in teaching speaking in my school The following is some importantsteps to conduct role-play suggested by Larsen-Freeman

For the role play activities in my classes, there are six major steps in the procedure

STEP 1: Decide on the Teaching Materials

The teacher should decide which teaching materials will be used for role play activities Theteaching materials can be taken from text books or non-textbook teaching materials such aspicture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons and pictures.The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher The teacher can also create his or herown authentic teaching materials for role play activities The teaching materials must bedecided based on students' level and interests, teaching objectives and appropriateness forteaching

STEP 2:Select Situations and Create Dialogs

Then a situation or situations to be role played should be selected For every role-playsituation, dialogs should be provided (by the teaching materials or by the teacher) or created

by the students themselves

STEP 3:Teach the Dialogs for Role Plays

The teacher needs to teach the vocabulary, sentences, and dialogs necessary for the role playsituations The teacher needs to make sure the students know how to use the vocabulary,sentences and dialogs prior to doing the role play activities, otherwise, the teacher shouldallow students to ask how to say the words they want to say

STEP 4: Have Students Practice the Role Plays

Students can practice in pairs or in small groups After they have played their own roles a fewtimes, have them exchange roles That way, students can play different roles and practice all

of the lines in the role play When students are confident enough to demonstrate or perform infront of the class, the teacher can ask them to do so for their classmates

STEP 5:Have Students Modify the Situations and Dialogs

Once students have finished and become familiar with an original role play situation, theycan modify the situations and/or dialogs to create a variation of the original role play

STEP 6: Evaluate and Check Students' Comprehension

Finally, the teacher will evaluate the effectiveness of the role play activities and check ifstudents have successfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences anddialogs There are several ways to do student evaluations Students can be given oral andlistening tests relating to the role plays Example oral tests can include the following

Students are asked to answer some simple questions related to the role plays

Students are asked to reenact the role plays

Students are asked to translate the role plays into their native language if necessary

For listening tests, beginning students can do simpler tasks such as: "listen and circle", "listenand number", "listen and match" types of questions For more advanced students, they can beasked to write the words, lines, and/or dialogs in the role plays They can also be asked tocreate and write variations of the role plays Teachers can also evaluate students'understanding and comprehension while observing students' interactions, practices, andperformances of their role plays.

Methodology

Research Questions Research

Instruments

Subjects Tools of Analysis

1 What is the effect of

role-play on the

development of Grade

11 students’ speaking

-Oral Pretest -Oral Post-test -Observation

-Grade 10, 11 students

-Age:16-17 English

-Frequency count -Percentage

- Transcription

Province -Sample size: 60 3.What are students’

views or opinions on

role-play?

-Student questionnaire -Teacher interview

The Subject

The sample consists of two groups of year 16-17 students belonging to two differentclasses Each group has 30 students The group engaged in role-playing speakinglesson will form the experimental group, while the other,which carries on with normallessons will form the control group.A speaking pre-test will be conducted in order toshow that the two groups have the same level of proficiency I will teach both groupsfor the second term of the school year 2013, using role-play activities with theexperimental group and the control group will be taught as usual The two groups will

be orally tested at the end of the second term so that I can get the scores for eachstudents The test scores will be analyzed and considered as data for the findings Thefour teachers and I will make comparisons between the control group and theexperimental group on their learning in order to see the effect of role-play on students’development of speaking Data collection will be discussed with the principal andvice-principal of the school

● Data collection

My research will be conducted with three different methods for data collection Thefirst thing I will do is to prepare open-ended questions for the survey that I am going