A study on the effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students participation in speaking classes at nguyen hue high school submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of the degree of bach

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 .2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY TRẦN HÀ ANH A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP ON THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING CLASSE

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

TRẦN HÀ ANH

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP

ON THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION

IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN HUE HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

HÀ NỘI, 2016

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N 0 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

TRẦN HÀ ANH

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP

ON THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION

IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN HUE HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY, M.A

HÀ NỘI, 2016

My sincere thanks go to all of my fellows for their willingness to help me at any time when I was lost or in trouble

Last but not least, I take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to my family for their giant support, encouragement and love

ABSTRACT

Springing from the practical issue that the students‟ participation in speaking lesson is quite poor, the researcher was inspired to find out the possible reasons making students reluctant to raise their voice in class In general, students‟ involvement suffer from students themselves related factors, lecturers who directly give them the lesson related factors and external factors such as classroom climate, curriculum or assessment system, etc Despite the fact that the success of a lesson greatly depends on students‟ participation, not many teachers have paid enough attention into it

This study is conducted with the aims of presenting the reasons for the poor participation in speaking class as well as experimenting information gaps into speaking lessons to see its effectiveness in improving the students‟ participation The subjects of the study are students in tenth grade at Nguyen Hue high school The results collected from questionnaire, observation sheet and students‟ self-report have proved the success of the study when information gaps technique does enhance leaners‟ participation in speaking class

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title:

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP ON THE GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN

TENTH-HUE HIGH SCHOOL

I hereby certificate that the work submitted in my research is entirely of my own hand,

or, where copied from any other person‟s work has been acknowledged in reference and that the report is originally written by me under instructions of my supervisor

Date submitted: Wednesday, 4th April, 2016

LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPH

Tables

Table 1: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 9 29

Table 2: Times of students‟ participation in group work in Unit 9 30

Table 3: Students‟ opinions on the main activity in Unit 9 31

Table 4: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 12 34

Table 5: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 13 35

Table 6: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 14 35

Table 7: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 15 36

Table 8: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 12 37

Table 9: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 13 37

Table 10: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 14 38

Table 11: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 15 38

Table 12: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 12 39

Table 13: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 13 39

Table 14: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 14 40

Table 15: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 15 40

Table 16: Students‟ attitudes and opinions on information gaps activity 41

Graph Graph 1: Students‟ speaking time before and after action plan 42

Graph 2: Students‟ participation frequency before and after action plan 43

Graph 3: Numbers of students enjoying the lesson before and after action plan 44

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii

LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPH iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART ONE 1

INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale 1

II Objectives of the research 2

III Research questions 2

IV Research scope 2

V Research methods 2

VI Significance of the research 3

VII Design of the research work 3

PART TWO 4

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

I.1 Previous studies 4

I.2 Speaking 6

I.2.1.What is speaking? 6

I.2.2.What is teaching speaking? 7

I.2.3.What are techniques for teaching speaking? 8

I.2.3.1 Story completion 9

I.2.3.2 Role-play 9

I.2.3.3 Simulation 10

I.2.3.4 Discussion 10

I.2.3.5 Information gaps 11

I.2.3.6 Story-telling 11

I.2.3.7 Interview 11

I.3 Participation 12

I.3.1.What is participation? 12

I.3.2.What are benefits of participation? 12

I.3.3.What are possible negative factors affecting learners' participation? 13

I.3.3.1 Leaner-related factor 13

I.3.3.2 Lecturer-related factor 14

I.3.3.3.External factors 14

I.3.3.4.Possible solutions to students‟ participation 15

I.4.Information gaps 16

I.4.1 What is information gaps? 16

I.4.2.What is the procedure of information gap? 17

I.4.3.What are the benefits of using information gap to class participation? 18

CHAPTER TWO 19

METHODOLOGY 19

II.1 Research methods 19

II.1.1 Definition and rationale for the use of action research 19

II.1.2 Action research procedure 19

II.1.2.1 Identifying a focus of interest or a problem 19

II.1.2.2 Collecting data 20

II.1.2.3 Analyzing data/Generating hypotheses 20

II.1.2.4 Planning action steps 20

II.1.2.5 Implementing action steps 21

II.1.2.6 Collecting data to monitor change 21

II.1.2.7 Analysis and evaluation 21

II.2 Data collection instruments 21

II.2.1 Survey questionnaires 21

II.2.1.1 Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaire 21

II.2.1.2 Construction of the survey questionnaire 22

II.2.1.2.1 Construction of the pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A) 22

II.2.1.2.2 Construction of the post-survey questionnaire (Appendix B) 22

II.2.2 Classroom observation 23

II.2.2.1 Rationale behind the use of classroom observation 23

II.2.2.2 Construction of observation sheet: On-task behavior (Appendix C) 23

II.2.3 Self - report 24

II.2.3.1 Rationale behind the use of self – report 24

II.2.3.2 Construction of students‟ interaction self-report sheet (Appendix D) 25

II.3 Research context 25

II.4 Participants 25

II.4.1 Teacher 25

II.4.2 The observers 26

II.4.3 The student subjects 26

II.5 Research procedure 26

II.5.1 Identifying the problem 26

II.5.2 Collecting the initial data 27

II.5.3 Analyzing data and generating hypotheses 27

II.5.4 Planning action 27

II.5.5 Implementing action 27

II.5.6 Collecting data to monitor change 28

II.5.7 Analyzing and evaluating students‟ participation after action plan 28

II.6 Data analysis 28

CHAPTER THREE 29

RESULTS 29

III.1 Results of pre-action stage 29

III.1.1 Students‟ on-task participation 29

III.1.1.1 Result from observation 29

III.1.1.2 Result from students‟ self-report 30

III.1.2 Students‟ attitudes to speaking skill and current speaking classes 30

III.1.3 Students‟ habit of learning speaking 31

III.1.4 Reality of students‟ participation in class 32

III.1.5 Reasons for students‟ poor participation 32

III.1.6 Students‟ preferences for speaking activities 33

III.2 Results of action stage 34

III.2.1 Results from classroom observation 34

III.2.2 Results from students‟ self-report 36

III.2.2.1 Students‟ self-report on participation frequency 36

III.2.2.2 Students‟ opinions on information gap activity 38

III.2.3 Results from post survey questionnaire 41

III.3 Evaluation of the action plan 42

III.3.1 The trend of students‟ participation based on observation sheet 42

III.3.2 The trend of students‟ participation based on students‟ self-report 43

III.3.3 Students‟ opinions on the effectiveness of information gaps 44

PART THREE 46

CONCLUSION 46

I Summary of the study 46

II Limitations and suggestions of the study 47

REFERENCES 48

APPENDIX A 52

APPENDIX B 58

APPENDIX C 59

APPENDIX D 60

APPENDIX E 61

APPENDIX F 68

APPENDIX G 75

APPENDIX H 83

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

Chapter one discusses the rationale, the research questions, the objectives, the scope, the significance, the methods and the design of the study

I Rationale

English is certainly to be the most common international language all over the world due to the fact that English is used in many sectors including Economy, Policy, Diplomacy, Tourism, Medicine, Science and Technology, etc While there are hundreds of different types

of languages spoken in hundreds of countries resulting in the language barrier, English serves

as a bridge to connect people all over the globe In addition, English can also be used as a tool for individuals to express their ideas and get others‟ intentions; using English to communicate

is an effective way to associate with people who not only are native speakers of English but also are able to use it as a second language Hence, being capable of communicating well in English is a crucial point for anyone to join a wide community and for any country to integrate with the whole world

Taking those reasons into consideration, nowadays more and more people desire to become skilled at English speaking Of four main skills named speaking, writing, reading and listening, Bailey (1993) says that speaking as the center skill and the most demanding However, for many high schools in Viet Nam in general and Nguyen Hue high school in particular, even when students are excellent at writing, reading or listening, speaking is not a favorite skill for many of them In fact, to speak English precisely and fluently appears to be a big challenge indeed During the time being a trainee teacher in Nguyen Hue high school, the researcher observed the classes she taught and discovered that students, especially the tenth grade students at Nguyen Hue high school are quite passive in speaking classes This finding was supported by ideas from other teachers that speaking classes were often ineffective because students rarely interact in English

Learners' participation in class is quite important to both students themselves and lecturer For teachers, students‟ participation helps them know if the students understand what

is going on in the class It can also help spark class discussions Toward learners' side, especially in speaking class, the participation is even more vital for the various reasons such

as giving students the opportunity to practice using the language of the discipline, encouraging dialogue among and between students, engaging students into the lesson and enhancing the relationship among them

In reality, students' participation can be affected by various factors coming from teachers, students themselves and other elements However, what teachers can do seems restricted to teaching methods or techniques in classes

In order to raise the students‟ voice in the speaking classes, various activities have been suggested for English speaking class such as groupwork, discussion, pairwork, debate, simulation and games (Kayi 2006; David Nunan 2003; Burns, Anne and Helen Joyce 1997)

Of all these activities, information gap is not a new one, yet it hasn‟t been widely used and proved to be useful in increasing the involvement of the students at Nguyen Hue high school All the above-mentioned reasons have inspired the researcher to conduct a study titled

“A study on the effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students‟ participation in speaking classes at Nguyen Hue high school”

II Objectives of the research

This study aims to achieve the following objectives:

1 To find out the negative factors that affect students‟ participation in speaking classes

2 To figure out whether information gap can help improving tenth grade students‟ participation in speaking classes

III Research questions

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, some questions are formulated as follow:

1 What are the reasons for students‟ poor participation in speaking classes?

2 Can information gap improve tenth grade students' participation in speaking classes?

IV Research scope

The focuses of the study are the factors leading to students' poor participation in speaking classes and effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students‟ participation in speaking classes Students‟ participation in speaking class is expressed in various ways, nevertheless, with the scope of this minor graduation, only oral participation when students speak or interact in English was studied

The subjects of the study are 44 students of class 10E at Nguyen Hue high school

VI Significance of the research

After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful for the teachers in identifying the problems preventing students from joining activities in the speaking classes and using information gap righteously to increase the students‟ involvement throughout the classes

For the students, the research is expected to help them realize the barriers that hold them back in speaking classes and help them take part in class more actively

VII Design of the research work

The research work has three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

 Part 1: The Introduction consists of the rationale, the objectives, the questions, the scope, the method, the significance and the design of the study

 Part2: The “Development” consists of three chapters:

- Chapter one is entitled “Literature Review” This chapter reviews the previous studies, the literature review in brief, the definitions of speaking, teaching speaking, techniques for teaching speaking as well as the definition and benefits of participation to speaking class and some negative factors affecting students‟ participation

- Chapter two is entitled “Methodology” It describes the research method used in this research It is composed of the description of the subjects and the procedures of making research

- Chapter three named “Results” shows the results in detail

 Part 3: The “Conclusion” provides the summary, limitations of the study and suggested some ideas for further studies

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter involves the literature review in brief, some issues related to speaking and participation

I.1 Previous studies

Meyers, D.M (2003) in “The Impact of Virtual Office Hours on In-class

Participation” highlighted the need for teachers to continuously adapt to the ever-changing

nature of the learner In an era where students are increasingly deficient in interpersonal skills,

it may prove useful to leverage the new technologies that have replaced casual conversation Meyers suggests that teachers might reach out to students via the Internet to promote student-teacher interactions outside the traditional classroom He poses the idea that students may feel more comfortable expressing their ideas and opinions in a “virtual classroom.”

A study entitled “What Does it Mean to Participate in Class?: Integrity and

Inconsistency in Classroom Interaction Journal of Classroom Interaction” (Moguel, 2004)

had attempted to answer the question “How can a teacher education program enable teacher candidates to encourage greater participation and interactions in their classrooms?” This is an insightful article that reveals the perceptions of six candidates about entering the teaching profession It raises the question of where new teachers get their ideas about classroom participation and whether these ideas change over time Moguel points out that teachers do not necessarily learn how to teach during the formal portion of their teaching education Rather, they tend to imitate the teaching behavior that they have seen modeled since their entrance into the public education system at a very young age, despite what they intend to do

or what behavior they might think they are displaying

Pomerantz, E.D (1998) conducted his work named “What Do Students Learn From

Classroom Discussion? Exploring the Effects of Instructional Conversations on College Students’ Learning” This study was intended to investigate the relationship between

classroom discussion and literacy development in a college developmental reading classroom

It investigated the use of instructional conversation in a classroom full of students with learning disabilities or for whom English was not the primary language In this study, both the

students and the teachers perceived many benefits of instructional conversations, including greater text comprehension, learning about different perspectives, improved social and communication skills, and increased opportunities for students to share experiences and knowledge with each other and the teacher The author concluded that classroom participation alone might not be sufficient to improve student academic performance He cautioned that teachers should not allow themselves to trivialize the value of direct instruction, depending upon the needs of the students

Reynolds, K.C., & Nunn, C.E (1997) investigate the frequency of interaction in undergraduate classrooms It is particularly interesting in that it examines the differences in levels of participation between freshman and upperclassmen Using survey data, the study also attempts to dissect the reasons that freshman either participate or remain silent in the classroom and compare this to the motivating factors that influence upperclassmen Finally, the study attempts to categorize the instructors' behaviors that both groups of students feel best encouraged as a reward for their interaction

In 2010, Kelly A.Rocca conducted as study entitled “Student Participation in the

College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” with the goal to

integrate previous research conducted on student participation in the college classroom and synthesized those information in the form of an extensive literature review After the research,

he concludes that logistical issues, student confidence, and the instructor him/herself all have

a significant impact on student participation A supportive classroom climate is critical to higher levels of participation The findings on sex are mixed and the distance-learning research is just getting underway

In Malaysia, SitiMazihaMustaphaa, NikSuryaniNikAbdRahmanb & MelorMd

Yunusc together conducted the work named “Factors influencing classroom participation: a

case study of Malaysian undergraduate students” (2010) The result showed that lecturer

traits were the most influential factor in encouraging participation among students, while positive lecturers‟ traits encouraged participation, negative traits like having poor teaching skills and being unapproachable discouraged participation; Negative students‟ traits which refers to students‟ own limitation was found to deter their class participation Inability to focus and fear of making mistakes were reported to be discouraging students‟ participation Students were observed to be more inclined to participate when the lecturers called them by name, asked probing questions, and engaged in positive nonverbal behaviors such as smiling and nodding to acknowledge their answers

Robert H Trudeau (2006) worked on “Get Them to Read, Get Them to Talk: Using

Discussion Forums to Enhance Student Learning” He found out that, joining discussion

forum before class did help students actively engaging in classroom-related activity outside of the classroom by posting reflections and reading postings from other students

Jalynn Roberts & Mary Nell McNeese (2006) studied “Student

Involvement/Engagement in Higher Education Based on Student Origin” The research result

shows that as levels of student involvement/engagement increase, so does student retention in higher education Several post-secondary activities have been related to student retention: peer interactions inside and outside of the classroom, membership in Greek organizations, participation in service learning projects, involvement in athletics and extracurricular activities, and diversity experiences Transfer students, whether from a junior/community college or from a four year college/university tend to become engaged in campus life at lower rates than indigenous students Post-secondary institutions should consider special services to such students to increase student retention

It can be seen that, educators and teachers who want to improve the interaction of students in class have to apply a wide range of activities in their lectures Some considerable techniques are debate, picture narrating, information gaps, simulation, role play, reporting, interview, etc Regarding the real teaching context in Nguyen Hue high school which is the setting of the study and in Ha Noi Pedagogical University No.2 where the researcher has been studying, there has not been much researches on students‟ participation and the use of information gaps in speaking classes This leaves a gap for the researcher to bridge within her current study

Alternatively, David Nunan (1999: 216) indicates that speaking requires learners to not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence")

Chaney (1998) states that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts

According to Brown and Yule (1983), speaking is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life situations It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person based on his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensively

Adopting those ideas, it can be said that speaking, which is also called oral production,

is a productive skill and is the ability to express oneself coherently, fluently and appropriately

in a given meaningful context It is often spontaneous, hence once spoken out, it cannot be edited and revised as in writing – another productive skill

I.2.2.What is teaching speaking?

What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach learners to:

- Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns

- Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

- Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

- Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

- Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

- Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency ( David Nunan, 2003)

David Nunan (2003: 55, 56) also proposes five principles for teaching speaking Below are the descriptions:

a) Be aware of the differences between foreign language and second language learning context

While foreign language context is one where the target language is not the language of communication in society, second language is

b) Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy

Accuracy is the extent to which students‟ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc Teacher must provide students with fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language

c) Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting teacher talk

It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are talking in class so we do not take up all the time the students could be talking Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons

d) Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning

Learners make progress by communicating in the target language because interaction necessarily involves trying to understand and make teacher understood This process is called negotiating for meaning It involves checking to see if you have understood what someone has said, clarifying your understanding, and confirming that someone has understood your meaning

e) Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking

When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do it for interactional

or transactional purposes Interactional speech is communicating with someone for social purposes Transactional speech involves communicating to get something done, including the exchange of goods and/or services

I.2.3.What are techniques for teaching speaking?

Differing from the old time when teaching speaking was just restricted to a repetition

of drills or memorization of sample dialogue, teaching speaking in this modern time requires a lot of the collaboration from students, who are the center of the class, to improve their

communicative skill Teacher‟s task here is to provide the authentic environment, exciting situation and practical condition that provoke student to speak out as much as possible This usually can be accomplished by using techniques or activities which make student work in groups to achieve a goal or complete a task

There are plenty of beneficial classroom activities and practices which can be manipulated according to the needs of learners and the specific purposes Some of these activities are as follow:

I.2.3.1 Story completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for students The teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add some more sentences, may be five to ten sentences, and can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on

This activity provokes students‟ imagination, frees them from the tough modeled story As the result, students feel more comfortable to talk and gradually talk more lesson by lesson

I.2.3.2 Role-play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)

It is widely agreed that learning takes place when activities are engaging and memorable Jeremy Harmer advocates the use of role-play for the following reasons: It's fun and motivating; Quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more forthright way; The world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world - thus offering a much wider range of language opportunities

In this technique the role of the teacher is that of a co-communicator Students are divided into different groups and act to be the character of some situation Rest of the students watch their performance and listen to their dialogues Later on the spectator students give them their feedback

Bailey said role-plays are also excellent activities for speaking in a relatively safe environment of the classroom In a role-play, students are given particular roles in the target language It helps learners practice speaking target language before they must do so in real environment (David Nunan, 2003)

Role-play helps improve not only their interpersonal relations, but also they learn to work together When the learners are given feedback by their co-learners, they do not lose confidence rather they feel motivated to do better and learn more

I.2.3.3 Simulation

Working on simulation, Harmer (1984) suggested it increased the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they would have a different role and did not have to speak for themselves, which means they did not have to take the same responsibility

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but it is more elaborate To be more specific, students will bring items to the class to create an authentic environment

I.2.3.4 Discussion

Discussions give learners an opportunity to share their views and are a useful means of training pragmatic and strategic competence and fluency in general (Burns, Anna and Helen Joyce, 1997)

Discussion can be held after a content-based lesson Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher so that students have

to stick to the requirement and do not chat about irrelevant things For efficient, group preferably includes 4 or 5 member so every individual has a chance to talk and avoid quiet student being shy to contribute their ideas Then each group works on given topic for a specific period of time, and presents opinions to the class Speaking should be equally divided among group members At the end, teacher together with the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way

This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so

on (Kayi, 2006)

I.2.3.5 Information gaps

In information gap, students are supposed to work in pairs or groups Each student in a pair/ group of student has different information that others lack Students have to work together to fill the missing information in all the blanks

This technique serves many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information Also, each student plays an important role because the task cannot be completed

if the partners do not provide the information the others need (Kayi, 2006)

I.2.3.6 Story-telling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand,

or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates They also can tell riddles or jokes For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students

to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening The story goes on as the next student develops where the previous drops and ends when the time is up or the teacher requires

Kayi (2006) noted that story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have In this way, not only will the teacher address students‟ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class

I.2.3.7 Interview

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions

According to Kagan (1994) three – step interview is a cooperative structure in which members of a team interview one another on a particular topic This structure can be used both as an ice-breaker which introduces students to one another and to provide students with a venue for soliciting opinions, positions, or ideas from their peers Students are first paired and take turns interviewing each other using a series of questions provided by the instructor Pairs then match up and students introduce their original partner At the end of the exercise, all two students have had their position or viewpoints on an issue heard, digested, and described by their peers

Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class

To look under the education perspective, participation can be seen as an active engagement process which can be sorted into five categories: preparation, contribution to discussion, group skills, communication skills, and attendance (Dancer & Kamvounias, 2005)

It also has been shown that faculty perceives six levels of participation from students, moving from simply attending class through giving oral presentations (Fritschner, 2000) Participation also has been defined as „„the number of unsolicited responses volunteered‟‟ (Burchfield

&Sappington, 1999, p.290) It can come in many different forms, including students‟ questions and comments (Fassinger, 1995), and it can take a few seconds or an extended period of time (Cohen, 1991) Wade (1994) considered the „„ideal class discussion‟‟ as one in which almost all students participate and are interested, learning, and listening to others‟ comments and suggestions (p.237) Howard & Henney (1998) asserted that students who frequently contribute to class discussions tend to define participation as speaking in class without the comment being initiated by the professor Those students who prefer to remain quiet in the classroom have a much broader definition of participation, including active listening and being properly prepared for the class (Fritschner, 2000)

I.3.2.What are benefits of participation?

By using various teaching techniques, the knowledge will come to student‟s mind naturally and student can understand the lesson right in the class The participation of each learner plays a crucial role in stimulating other student‟s enthusiasm, hence contributing the

classroom atmosphere This is especially true in speaking class It is important that the teacher make the class atmosphere be free, friendly and exalting

In addition, there is strong evidence for the importance of participating in class (Weaver & Qi, 2005) Participation is a way to bring „„students actively into the educational process‟‟ and to assist in „„enhancing our teaching and bringing life to the classroom‟‟ (Cohen, 1991, p 699) Students are more motivated, learn better ( Weaver& Qi, 2005), become better critical thinkers (Crone, 1997) when they are prepared for class and participate

in discussions The more they participate, the less memorization they do, and the more they engage in higher levels of thinking, including interpretation, analysis, and synthesis (Smith, 1977) Students who participate also show improvement in their communication skills (Dancer &Kamvounias, 2005), group interactions (Armstrong and Boud, 1983), and functioning in a democratic society (Girgin& Stevens, 2005)

I.3.3.What are possible negative factors affecting learners' participation?

Learners often face with various deterrents or obstacles that impede their participation and progress whilst learning These barriers include, amongst the others, learner-related factor, lecturer-related factor, external factor, etc

I.3.3.1 Leaner-related factor

It has been proved that learners‟ factors play an important role in foreign language learning as well as in students‟ participation in speaking lessons (Ur, 1996) Factors around learner may include: cognitive skill, language level, trait, anxiety, health condition, sex differences

The cognitive skill is different to each people Some people can perceive a problem quite quick and easy, whereas others need more time to understand and put into practice Students in the second type are tend to be shy to ask teacher about the lesson again or ask to slow the class speed down As the time gone, the lesson passed, the gap in knowledge will get bigger and bigger resulting the lack of knowledge in student, so that they cannot contribute their voice in class

Personality trait, self-esteem, may impact one‟s willingness to participate in class, depending on how it is measured Normally, those with lower school-related self-esteem were less likely to participate and more likely to sit in the back of the classroom, consequently, whose low levels of class engagement

Another reason why students may not participate in class is because of their own personal fears of feeling inadequate in front of others, regardless of the logistics of the classroom setting Armstrong and Boud (1983), Fritschner (2000), Howard & Henney (1998), Hyde and Ruth (2002), and Weaver and Qi (2005) all noted that students may feel intimidated

or inadequate in front of their classmates and professors, and thus choose not to participate Students even reported confidence as the most motivating factor for their participation in several studies (Armstrong &Boud, 1983; Fassinger, 1995; Wade, 1994; Weaver & Qi, 2005)

I.3.3.2 Lecturer-related factor

Lecturer plays an important role in increasing students‟ involvement Each of their expression such as attitude, manners, diction, etc implies students in different ways

In a research made in Malaysia, negative lecturer traits ranked second in the list of most frequent factors mentioned as discouraging students‟ participation 11 out of 25 students who were asked mentioned that negative lecturer traits like having poor teaching skills, being impatient and unapproachable deter students from participating

The teaching content is same for a period of time, hence finding new ways to teach, creative techniques to use not only help lecturers themselves be more interested in teaching but also inspire student more in joining the course at the same time

Another asset teachers‟ task is that they have to classify the student level whether they are in beginner, intermediate or advanced so that have the appropriate lesson plan covering all type of students

Seating arrangement is another logistical variable which impacts student participation With the traditional table position which is row and column, shy students tend to sit in the

back or corner hide away from the teacher‟s eyes that trouble the teacher in managing and covering class

Classroom climate is quite pivotal Negative classmate traits ranked highest in the list

of most frequent factors mentioned as discouraging students‟ participation If the class is not sociable and friendly, the visible pressure covers class and reduces students‟ enthusiasm

I.3.3.4.Possible solutions to students’ participation

As discussed above, speaking is the center skill and also the most demanding one, so that become skilled at speaking is more and more desired by students at any levels However,

no matter how learners try to focus on speaking lessons, they still cannot prolong their concentration with a boring class For that reason, keeping improving the class environment and stimulating students to talk more in speaking class are the challenges that every teacher has to deal with

It is argued that students play too passive a role in lectures, furthermore, the pace of presentation is too fast, and the main emphasis is on rote memorization rather than meaningful understanding To remedy this situation, it is recommended that university teachers make greater use of instructional techniques that require active students participation, such as class discussion, cooperative learning, debates, role- playing, problem-based learning, and case studies

Harry G Murray and Megan Lang, 1997

It is also claimed that the students who participate actively in the class learn the subject matter more effectively, show greater development in areas such as oral communication, critical thinking, and problem solving compare to those taught in the traditional lecture mode Therefore, having students actively take part in class is a crucial thing that teachers must conquer

Using information gap as a technique to facilitate students to talk is an effective way that has been proved by many educators and psychologists Besides, this technique can be combined with many others to create exciting in-class activities and it is also suitable for various topics The procedure to conduct an information gap activities is quick and easy to explain to students to practice

I.4.Information gaps

I.4.1 What is information gaps?

An information gap task is a technique in language teaching where students are missing information necessary to complete a task or solve a problem, and must communicate with their classmates to fill in the gaps It is often used in communicative language teaching and task-based language learning (Wikipedia)

According to Penny Ur (1996), information gap is “A particularly interesting type of task which is based on the need to understand or transmit information finding out what is in a partner‟s picture, for example” (p.54) The activities and tasks based on the information-gap principle make students participate actively in the process of learning This will results in increasing students‟ motivation to learn English much more enthusiastically

Larsen-Freeman (2000) claims that an information-gap exists when one person in an exchange knows something that the other person doesn‟t If we both know today is Tuesday and I ask you, „What day is today?‟ and you answer, Tuesday, our exchange is not really communicative

You work with your partner, you may ask and be asked to do an information gap activity This means you look at some information and your partner looks at different one in the two exact same handouts or pictures, and then you both talk and exchange the infomation together until both of you fill in all the blank you dual have

In speaking class, information gap might be collaborated with other activities and be like:

Look at the information on your role card and talk to your partner Find a solution to the problem

Student A: You are a guest staying at a hotel The hotel website says it is a luxury hotel, but in your room the sheets and towels are dirty, the bathroom is too small, the street outside is very noisy and (you decide two more problems) You want to change to a better room and you want a discount Talk to the receptionist and solve the problem

Student B: You are a hotel receptionist There is a guest staying at the hotel who complains about everything, even when there is not a problem You can move a guest to a different room, but you can‟t change the price of a room Talk to the guest and solve the problem (British council)

I.4.2.What is the procedure of information gap?

Adapting from Sandy Millin (2015), information gap can be carried out by these steps:

 STEP 1: ALLOCATING ROLES

Tell your students what role they will take in the info gap Do not move the students yet!

To make the rest of this explanation easier, I‟ll say you‟re doing one with two sets of information, so roles „A‟ and „B‟ A „C‟ in brackets shows what you would do with an info gap with three sets of information

 STEP 2: PREPARATION TIME

Before your students speak, they need time to understand the task and work out what they‟re going to say Group As together and Bs together: AAA BBB (CCC) to prepare For example, for a question and answer task they could work out the questions For a „describe your picture‟ type task, they could describe the picture they have to each other This will give them a chance to rehearse and to ask you for any language they need

 STEP 3: INFORMATION GAP

Your students should now be ready to do the task Regroup them AB(C) AB(C) AB(C) When they‟re sitting in the right places, tell them exactly what they need to do Something like this:

“A, you ask your questions B, you answer them And vice versa”

or

“A, tell B one thing in your picture B, tell A if it is the same or different to your picture If it

is different, circle it And vice versa Find 8 differences between your pictures Do not look at the other picture.”

 STEP 4: CHECKING THE ANSWERS

If students should now have all of the same information on their paper, they can compare their sheets side by side to spot differences/mistakes/missing information etc Otherwise, it is good to return students to their original AAA BBB (CCC) groups to share the things they found out

 STEP 5: FEEDBACK

Feedback on content: This can be as simple as „Did you find all of the differences?‟ or

„Did you both get all of the information right?‟, followed by further checking of the problem areas

Feedback on language: While you were monitoring, you were (hopefully!) taking notes of some of the language students were using successfully and any problems they may have had Choose a few of these to focus on, and make sure you praise the good language too

I.4.3.What are the benefits of using information gap to class participation?

In classroom, information gap activities are useful for various reasons

According to Neu and Reeser (1997), in an information gap activity, each person has some information that the other one does not have, so they start sharing their information to solve a problem or make decisions on some issues These types of activities are so helpful and they make all the students speak and communicate in the L2 classroom

Joining this activity, all students are involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a specific purpose Each student has the task of finding out certain info, and therefore must find the way to get the needed ones This technique provides an opportunity for extended speaking practice, they represent real communication, and they require sub-skills such as clarifying meaning and re-phrasing This is also helpful in changing the class environment from structured to a more communicative

For teacher, typical types of information gap activities they might find include: describe and draw, spot the difference, jigsaw readings and listening and split dictations

CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into four sections In the first section, the researcher presents the understanding and the reason behind the use of action research All the methods used in this research are also discussed in the section two with the justifications for using them And the participants along with their characteristics are mentioned in the section three The research procedure is the last part to be mentioned in this chapter

II.1 Research methods

This study was conducted with the employment of action research

II.1.1 Definition and rationale for the use of action research

Action research, according to Koshy V (2010), “is a method used for improving practice It involves action, evaluation, and critical reflection and – based on the evidence gathered – changes in practice are then implemented” It can be said that action research supports practitioners in seeking out ways in which they can provide an enhance quality of education

By the mid-1970s, the field had evolved, revealing 4 main „streams‟ that had emerged: traditional, contextual (action learning), radical, and educational action research This research is an educational action research

To improve and develop the teaching quality, research into classroom is crucial As teachers, they need to know their class, what constrains their students from taking part in the lessons as well as what activities can elevate the student‟s involvement Applying action research, researcher aims to study the effectiveness of debate and simulation on the tenth grade students‟ participation in speaking classes

II.1.2 Action research procedure

The models of action research have been proposed differently by different authors and this research is adapted along the steps raised by Somekh (1989) She proposes the model in which there are seven steps in doing action research

II.1.2.1 Identifying a focus of interest or a problem

The first step in the process is to identify problems or to develop research questions Possible topics for investigation might be anything about which researcher are curious or

interested in „Essentially, you are looking to identify some topic that you would genuinely like to examine in depth‟ (Johnson, 2008) It is important to remember that the goal of any action research project is a desire to make things better, improve some specific practice, or correct something that is not working as well as it should (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003)

II.1.2.2 Collecting data

After identifying and limiting the topic, the next step is preliminary information gathering According to McBride and Schostak (1991), in order to know more about something, one has to observe more closely, and collect more data Research questions will guide the researchers in “becoming selective” about what to record Hence, in the process of collecting data, researchers will be involved primarily in: 1) observation, 2) survey questionnaire and 3) self-report

In addition, some others possible data might be gathered by talking with other teachers, counselors, or administrators in your school or district in order to gauge their perceptions of your proposed research problem and perhaps to query them for ideas The data

is also looked for in the Diary or Journal or Trustable public websites

II.1.2.3 Analyzing data/Generating hypotheses

After collecting data step, the collected data, which can also be seen as evidence, must

be analyzed and interpreted to generate hypotheses According to McBride and Schostak (1991), the process of analyzing data or interpreting data requires a systematic ordering of data While we are organizing our data we may find ourselves “deep in thought during odd moments, thinking about interviews or something said in your class” In short, in this step, you start to work with the data handed in from the observation, interviewing or collection of documents and artifacts above You reorganize, take notes and raise the presupposition

II.1.2.4 Planning action steps

Next, you have to make up a detailed action process that should solve or improve these primary problems The finding of the planned actions “is guided by the theoretical framework, which indicates both some desired future state for the organization, and change that would achieve such a state The plan establishes the target for change and the approach to change” (Baskerville, 1999) Inside the action plan, there has the specific time and action plan

in each stage

II.1.2.5 Implementing action steps

As soon as the action plan is formed, it needs to be put into practice

II.1.2.6 Collecting data to monitor change

Once putting the planned action to implementation, the researcher collect data and evidences again to monitor, analyze, and evaluate the generated the above hypothesis and the

to evaluate the outcomes

II.1.2.7 Analysis and evaluation

The ultimately step of an action research is analysis and evaluation Evaluation includes “determining whether the theoretical effects of the action were realized, and whether these effects relieved the problems If the changes were successful, the evaluation must critically question whether the action undertaken, among the myriad routine and non-routine organizational actions was the sole cause of success Where the changes were unsuccessful, some framework for the next iteration of action research should be established” (Baskervillie,

1999)

II.2 Data collection instruments

The research instruments employed to collect data for this study were questionnaires, self-report and classroom observation

The pre-questionnaire survey and post questionnaire survey are delivered to students both pre and post action research, respectively

The self-report is delivered to students after the lessons are implemented

Together with questionnaires and self-report, in classroom observation, the researcher has 4 other people who are well trained by the researcher to observe the class in 4 lessons Everything observed, heard, and experienced during class observation was recorded carefully

in detail in the following observation sheet

II.2.1 Survey questionnaires

II.2.1.1 Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaire

One of the main instruments researcher used to collect data is survey questionnaires The reasons why this method is taken into consideration are:

Firstly, when using survey questionnaire, large amounts of information can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time and in a relatively cost effective way (S Ackroyd and J A Hughes, 1981) Since the number of participants is large,

in order to take all the opinions of the same issue, this method is quite fit for not consuming but economically and convenient

time-Secondly, the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily quantified

by either a researcher or through the use of a software package

Last but not least, for the reason that the participants are not required to leave their names on the survey sheet, they would feel more comfortable to answer questions trustfully and express needs freely

Regard all the reasons above, with 44 students in my class, two survey questionnaire

at the pre-action stage and after the action stage are designed to find out the real thought of students of the speaking lessons and obstacles they are facing

II.2.1.2 Construction of the survey questionnaire

II.2.1.2.1 Construction of the pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A)

In order to explore the factors make student reluctant to engage in the speaking class and find the possible teaching technique to heal this problem, the researcher has designed this questionnaire

Pre-survey questionnaire was divided into three main parts within 20 questions The first apart aims to explore students‟ background (question 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) andstudents‟ view of speaking and their opinions on current speaking class (question 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) The second part deems to figure students‟ habit of learning speaking (question 13, 14) together with the reality of students‟ participation in class (question 15, 16, 17) The last part tends to find out factors that negatively affect students‟ participation (question 18) and then investigate students‟ preferred activities (question 19, 20)

The questionnaire did not require students to leave their name so that they might feel comfortable to reveal the most honest thought

II.2.1.2.2 Construction of the post-survey questionnaire (Appendix B)

This post-survey questionnaire attempts to explore students‟ attitude after the implementation of the action stage

There are 5 questions in total Questions 1 and 2 aim to ask students‟ attitude about the lesson applying the information gaps The other questions (3, 4, 5) explore the effectiveness

of information gaps

Like pre-survey questionnaire, this one also did not require students to leave their names

II.2.2 Classroom observation

II.2.2.1 Rationale behind the use of classroom observation

Classroom observation is the second method that researcher chooses to collect data for this study for several reasons below:

Firstly, classroom observation makes teaching and learning more visible With the aim

of improving students‟ voice in speaking class, the number of times students speak thoughout the lesson need to be counted accurately both before and in action stage so that the researcher could collect the data for the study

Secondly, according to Australia Institute for Teaching and School leadership, using classroom observation for lesson study could support teachers to become more attuned to how they structure lessons in their class and the impact of their teaching on students; and focus discussion on planning, implementing, observing and reflecting on classroom practice

More importantly, classroom observation is beneficial for both the observing teacher and the teacher being observed For the observer, they can consult new techniques, strategies, ideas and resources and observe student reactions at the same time In turn, the one being observed will be provided the input (suggestions, ideas, resources) from a colleague and get the feedback of the lesson through the latter's observation, then re-evaluate the classroom from a different perspective Both involved teachers have vital roles during and after the observations

Taking those reasons, the researcher decides to apply this method to collect data

II.2.2.2 Construction of observation sheet: On-task behavior (Appendix C)

Observation sheet is designed to be used in speaking class to record the students task participation As mentioned above, there are several kinds of participation such as students' speaking or students' keeping silent and taking notes, however, in this study only when student talking in English with friends or teacher is counted as a participation time

on-Since recording and judging the speaking quality of 44 students at the same time is impossible, the observers would only check the times student speak

There are twelve scan columns and nine lines numbered corresponding to nine students observed by each observer While the lesson was carried on, the works of 44 students were monitored by five well-trained observers and taken down into observation sheet The progress started when students started working and speaking in English In reality, there were eight to nine students observed in each sheet as one observer observed eight students, the four left observed nine students Every ten seconds, the observers wrote down the category best describing the observed student‟s behavior at that moment, and then passed to the next student Number 1would be used if the learners were on-task (or were engaged in the work) and number 2 would be used if they were not on-task (distraction from the work) Observers continue this process until all students had been observed twelve times This process would be going on until the end of the lessons After each lesson, the sheet was collected to calculate the data

This observation sheet was used five times: one at the pre-action stage and four at the action stage The one in pre-action stage was used to measure students‟ participation level in the real context The rest four times at the action stage aim to assess the effectiveness of information gap in increasing learners‟ participation in class

II.2.3 Self - report

II.2.3.1 Rationale behind the use of self – report

Self-report is another method used to gather the feedback from the students Compare

to other collecting data methods, this one does not have a long history yet it is still a popular choice for researchers for various reasons:

Firstly, people are the best-qualified witnesses to their own personalities, feeling, thought, which is supported by the indisputable fact that no one else has access to more information than they do Thus, the information they themselves reports is the most trustworthy and richest

Secondly, another advantage of the self-report method is that no one is more fascinated by the target of assessment than is the assessor Up to a point, then, people are usually pleased to talk about themselves leading them to answer more diligently when completing self-reports

Thirdly, sharing this with questionnaire, self-report involves a large numbers of people and can be done fairly quickly and easily The result can be collected and analyzed professionally

For those advantages, self-report is chosen as an effective tool to collect data in this thesis

II.2.3.2 Construction of students’ interaction self-report sheet (Appendix D)

The self-report has 4 questions in total aiming at asking students to self-evaluate their on-task participation in group work time and at asking students‟ opinions on the main activity

Same as in survey questionnaire, student‟ name is not required to leave on the sheet

II.3 Research context

There are two English programs used in parallel namely basic and pilot There are 2 out of 8 classes (10H and 10D) studying pilot program, the others still learn basic program Each class has 3 periods per week, the total time for learning is 45 weeks In each semester, there are about 45 periods together with 3 45-minute tests and 1 final test The tests were all taken in written type

In the first semester, students learn 8 units include A day in the life of…, School talks, People’s background, Special education, Technology and you, An excursion, The mass media and The story of my village

In the second semester, the 8 units left are learnt, including Undersea world, Conservation, National parks, Music, Films and cinema, The world cup, Cities and Historical places

The researched class is 10E with basic learning program and the research was conducted in this class within 5 units (Unit 9, 12, 13, 14, 15)

II.4 Participants

II.4.1 Teacher

The writer is the trainee teacher at Nguyen Hue high school who directly taught speaking lessons for the class in this study

II.4.2 The observers

The five observers are the teacher teaching English in class 10E and four other teachers teaching English at Nguyen Hue high school

All the five observers were given training in observing and recording data using observation sheet in speaking sessions

II.4.3 The student subjects

The subjects of this study are 44 students of class 10E They are all in pre-intermediate English level and specialize in A1 (Maths, Physics, English)

Due to the answers of the first five questions in the pre-survey questionnaire which were designed to explore students‟ background There were 44 students including 14 girls and

30 boys Most of them think their English level is fair (23 students) and good (4 students) while 17 students say they are bad at English These numbers changed when they were asked about the English speaking skill To be specific, there were 23 students choosing option

“Bad” and 17 students choosing option “Fair”, solely 4 students are confident and choose option “Good” Amazingly, 26 students are interested in speaking class, 8 students like listening, 7 like reading, and only 3 like writing) Besides that, no students have joined any speaking classes outside school

II.5 Research procedure

Action research was carried out in class 10E The subjects of the study were 44 students in class 10E Data were collected from the pre-action stage and the action stage

The research was taken in 8 weeks starting from the week when the researcher collected data on 27th January (week 1) and continued when she went on internship course on

22nd February (week 2) and ended on 9th April (week 8)

II.5.1 Identifying the problem (Week 1: January 27 th , 28 th 2016)

In this study, the problem was identified as poor participation in speaking class That had inspired researcher to conduct a study to find out what the negative factors affecting students‟ engagement in speaking class are

The researcher observed speaking class of 10D, 10E, 10G and 10H when she was going on intern outpost on the two days January 27th and 28th 2016 At that time, class 10E

and 10G learnt speaking in unit 9: Undersea world

II.5.2 Collecting the initial data (Week 2: from 22 nd to 27 th February, 2016)

This week, class 10E was learning Unit 11: National parks

The data was collected by using pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A) for 44 students and classroom observation sheet (Appendix C) observed by four non – participant observers

The pre-survey questionnaire was administered with aim of finding out the students‟ perspective toward speaking and their English level Besides, the barriers impeding student to talk in speaking class was also pointed out and what can be done to help them in the situation was suggested

In addition, the class was also observed to record students‟ times of participation during the class time The process was recorded by four observers

II.5.3 Analyzing data and generating hypotheses (Week 2: from 22 nd to 27 th February, 2016)

After collecting the data, the researcher started analyzing and forming the research hypothesis at the same week

By analyzing the data, the answer for the first research question which is “What are the reasons for students’ poor participation in speaking classes? " was found

Considering the result, the hypothesis was raised: Can the information gap technique be a cure for this issue?

II.5.4 Planning action (Week 3: from 29 th February to 5 th March)

The researcher had designed 4 detailed-lesson plans (Appendix E, F, G and H) in which information gap technique has been used to create various activities

Meanwhile, the observation sheet, self-report and post-survey questionnaire were also organized

II.5.5 Implementing action (Week 4, 5, 6, 7: from 7 th March to 2 nd April)

Information gaps activity was applied in four speaking lessons in class 10E on Tuesday March 8th, Wednesday March 16th, Thursday March 24th and Tuesday March 29th

2016 Each lasted for 45 minutes

The topic for the practice speaking are in the units named Music, Films and cinema, The world cup and The cities

II.5.6 Collecting data to monitor change (Week 4 5 6 7: from 7 th March to 2 nd April)

At the same time the action stage was carried out Four speaking lessons were observed by four observers using observation sheet

By the end of each lesson, self-report handouts were given and completed by 44 students

At the end of the action stage, the post survey was administered

II.5.7 Analyzing and evaluating students’ participation after action plan (Week 8: from

4 th April to 9 th April)

In this last step, the data collected was analyzed The result showed the frequency of students‟ speaking time and the effectiveness of information gaps Thanks to this, the researcher knows how effective information gap is in enhancing the involvement of students

in speaking class

The final result also reveals the answer for the goal of this study: “Can information gap improve the first year English major students' participation in speaking classes?” II.6 Data analysis

Data collected from pre and post questionnaires, observation sheets and self-reports were analyzed descriptively by calculating percentages in order to determine what the main reasons for students‟ reluctance in speaking class are and what trends in the data suggested about the effectiveness of information gaps on students‟ time of interaction throughout 4 lessons

CHAPTER THREE RESULTS

This chapter presents the data collected during the study It includes the results of the pre and post survey questionnaires, as well as the classroom observation and self-report

III.1 Results of pre-action stage

III.1.1 Students’ on-task participation

III.1.1.1 Result from observation

To take an objective look, researcher has five observers observed one speaking lesson using the observation sheet The following is the fact about students‟ participation times in

speaking class of Unit 9: Undersea world on January 27th 2016

Table 1: Times of students’ on-task participation in Unit 9

Times of students’ on-task participation

a = less than twice b = 2-4 times c = 5-7 times d = more than 8 times

Overall, there are 46.4% of students participated in speaking activity, yet their on-task times was not equal To be specific, there are only 10 students out of 44 recorded to speak more than 8 times (4 students 8 times, 4 students 9 times, 2 students 10 times) No student is recorded completely silent or speaking once They spoke at least twice (8 students) and most

of them spoke from 3 to 7 times Precisely, 3 students 7 times, 5 students 6 times, 5 students 5 times, 6 students 4 times and 7 students 3 times

On the whole, during the observed lesson, the students‟ participation was not good as their speaking time is less than half of the given time

III.1.1.2 Result from students’ self-report

In an attempt to know the students‟ self-evaluation of their participation in speaking classes through the times they interact with their friends and teacher, students were asked to state the number of time they participate in the main speaking activity in while-speaking stage

of the speaking lesson in Unit 9: Undersea world

Table 2: Times of students’ participation in group work in Unit 9

a = did not speak b = 1-3 times c = 4-7 times d = more than 7 times

According to the collected data, in the group-work time, students mainly interacted from once to 3 times as 52.27% students chose option B and the rest (47.72%) chose option

C No students kept silent in the whole lesson or spoke more than 7 times

III.1.2 Students’ attitudes to speaking skill and current speaking classes (Question 6, 7,

8, 9, 10, 11, 12 in pre-survey questionnaire and question 2, 3, 4 in self-report)

According to the data collected from pre-survey questionnaire, it can be seen that:

As speaking is the most favorable skill, 45% students find speaking classes interesting and very interesting, other 45 % students find it is so so and only 9% feel it is boring However, speaking topics used in the curriculum rarely attract students since only 3 students think it is authentic and interesting, 25 students assume it is not interesting, other 9 students find it not authentic and the rest 7 students say it neither authentic nor interesting

The current teacher was reviewed as fascinating and inspirational by 66% students, 29% considered her either inspirational or fascinating and only 5% students did not like her and said she was neither fascinating nor inspirational As the result, 45% students found the teacher‟s teaching style good and made them want to talk, 48% students suggested their teacher would rather listen than talk and again 5% reviewed that the teacher's way of teaching was boring