skkn TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE TASKS

In teaching the four language skills, we think that speaking is the most difficult and important skill, but the teaching of speaking in my school has not been really effective.. STUDENTS

INTRODUCTION

As an international language, English offers a source of benefits to young people First and foremost, English assists young people to acquire more knowledge Indeed, more and more materials namely books, lectures and videos as well are printed or constructive in English As a result, people with English proficiency tend to stand a chance of exploring deeper anything without being prevented by language barrier Secondly, speaking English fluently is the best advantage for people who want to go abroad They will have no interference of language in communicating with foreigners Besides, learning English will help young people find good jobs Almost all companies enquire employees to be knowledgeable about some languages, especially English The more fluently they speak English, the more chance they will be offered in a good position with high salary Therefore, English plays an important role in our life

Of course, more and more people want to use it as a means of communication at work,

in business and tourism As a teacher, I am aware that English has been one of the compulsory subjects in secondary schools and high schools in Vietnam All grade 10 students in Dong Nai Province had to take communicative English tests with the four

language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing in the first term of the school year

2015 Therefore, English teachers are trying their best to train and help their students to become good communicative English users In teaching the four language skills, we think that speaking is the most difficult and important skill, but the teaching of speaking in my school has not been really effective

STUDENTS’ LEARNING PROBLEMS

In Tri An School, many students are not good at communicating in English for a number of reasons: First, they have few learning speaking strategies because they are usually provided with grammar and language structures which are thought to be important for the examinations Second, they are very shy when they speak out in front of the class because they always feel nervous and afraid of making mistakes because they are worried if other people will laugh at them Moreover, they have little chance of practicing speaking English Finally, many tasks in the textbooks: English 10, English 11 and English 12 are not suitable for students’ learning needs Some topics are not really close to daily life that is the reason why students often find it difficult to express their opinion naturally

As a teacher of English, I think that teaching English for communication is essential However, my personal experience of its methods is still limited due to the following reasons: There are so many students in a class that just a few of them have chance for communication; a period of forty five-mitute time is quite short, it prevents teachers from teaching effectively; grammar translation is still a conventional method in teaching English; Most of the teachers don’t get familiar with natural responses to communicative situations except for questions and answer activities between teacher and students Therefore, the students are not confident enough to express themselves in English

As a teacher, I really know that there are a lot of methods that can be applied in the class in order to improve students’ speaking skill In this research, I focus on grade 12 students’ speaking skill because I have applied this method to students in grade 10, 11 for two years I total agree that interaction is two-way communication and it based on real- life situations that require communication By using this method, my students have the opportunity to communicate with each other in the target language Therefore, teachers should create a classroom environment for students to have real- life communication

LITERATURE REVIEW

Everyone admits the importance of speaking, the goal of teaching speaking is to improve students’ communicative skills By this way, students can not only express their idea and feelings but also learn how to follow the social rules appropriate in each communicative situation

Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a

conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom, they may then get frustrated and lose interest in learning the language Our responsibility is to improve students’ four language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing I think speaking is the most important skill for my students because the purpose of our English course is really to enable our students to communicate effectively In fact, if the appropriate communicative tasks or activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun The achievement

in learning speaking will increase students’ motivation

In recent research, it is true that in a language class, it is necessary for the teacher to create a positive classroom atmosphere so that he or she can encourage the students to communicate with each other By doing this, the students can express their ideas, feelings and opinions without feeling afraid of making mistakes Besides, the students can conduct communicative

tasks in an effective way Many researchers emphasize the importance of teaching conversations or role play to English language teaching

Jack C Richards emphasizes that communicative practice refers to activities where practice

in using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is not totally predictable

In agreement with Richards, Willis (1996) states that creating a low stress atmosphere and using the language for real purposes are ways to get meaningful communication and through interaction and students have the opportunity to acquire discourse skills Willis also points out that the essential conditions for effective language learning, such as exposure, use, and motivation In agreement with Willis, Nunan (1991) says that task-based learning views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals they serve He also stresses the crucial role of communicative tasks in task-based teaching and learning He says that task-based teaching involves an approach where communicative tasks are particularly important because students need to be involved in interactions in the classrooms and real life As a result, this view changes the approach of designing tasks to be developed in the classroom

TASK MODIFICATION

Roger Nunn suggests that teachers must take into account the following criteria when they design tasks and exercises for English learners or students Let’s consider the areas:

Simulating "Real" Conversation

Classroom tasks are simulations and can only approximate real-life communication, but real-life skills, such as adjusting to an interlocutor's contribution can be built in Tasks designed to practise interactive ability should be an appropriate task for students They must

be able to imagine themselves in the situation

Exchanging

An interactive task should require students to exchange information, opinions, attitudes, but not for its own sake There should be a real purpose; each participant should need to find something out from the others in order to complete the task

Comprehensible Input

The task should require the participants to make sure they fully understand what the others tell them and to make themselves fully understood to the others In this way, students will need to adjust to each other's contributions

Improvising

The task should require both predictable and unpredictable communication Real conversation always involves unpredictability so an ability to improvise needs to be practised For example, an attempt to come to an agreement is unpredictable There is no requirement to actually reach an agreement, so the participants may develop the conversation freely On the other hand, they must exchange the information for an agreement to be possible and cannot easily avoid asking questions

Mixed- Ability

For mixed-ability courses, tasks should favour the production of contributions of all kinds They should allow both weak and strong participants to extend themselves to their full ability For strong participants, making themselves understood to students with less linguistic ability is a useful skill Opportunity and time must be available for candidates

(Roger Nunn - Kochi University, Japan)

In order to make the tasks more effective and relevant and appropriate for our students, I often redesign the tasks to meet the students’ learning goals Let’s have a look at the following task design

Part one: English 12 - Unit 2: Cultural Diversity (Page 23)

Task 2 (Task from the textbook)

Below are some typical features of American cultural Work in pairs, discuss and

find out the corresponding features of Vietnamese culture

Newly-designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the roles when you have finished.

Mary: Hi! Thao

Thao: Good morning, Mary

Mary: Well, what are you doing?

Thao: Oh, I am just looking the picture of my family Do you want to see it?

Mary: Um, I’d love to Who are they?

Thao: My grandparents, my parents and my brother and me

Mary: I want to know something about the culture of vietnam Would you mind

answering my questions?

Thao: Oh, no Go ahead

Mary: How many generations are there in a Vietnam family?

Thao: Well, two, three or even four generations live under one roof

Mary: Oh, that’s really interesting Who looks after their old- aged parents?

Thao: They are taken care by their sons

Mary: Really? Is it polite to ask questions about age, marriage and income in

Vietnam?

Thao: Well, asking questions about age, marriage and income is accepted in Vietnam Mary: That sounds surprising When are groceries bought?

Thao: Uh, groceries are bought every day

Mary: Which holidays are the most important in Vietnam?

Thao: Yeah, Tet or Lunar New Year is the most important in Vietnam

Mary: It’s wonderful I want to take part in this holiday

Thao: Oh, I hope you are really interested in it I feel excited when I talk to you

Now, I have some things to do Goodbye for now!

Mary: Bye See you later

Thao: Thank you

2 Making questions:

Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue

Their old- aged parents Who

Questions about age, marriage and income Is it

Tet or Lunar New Year Which

Rationale: Encouraging students to practise making dialogue is a very necessary strategy

in teaching spoken communication because it helps students get information from others We

do this in order to motivate students to ask and answer about their real life

Suggested Questions

Generations How many generations are there in a Vietnam family?

their old- aged parents Who looks after their old- aged parents?

questions about age, marriage and

income

Is it polite to ask questions about age, marriage and income in Vietnam?

Every day When are groceries bought?

Tet or Lunar New Year Which holidays are the most important in Vietnam?

Part two: English 12 - Unit 10: Endangered Species (Page 110)

Task 2 (Task from the textbook)

Work in pairs Look at the information about the giant panda, tiger, rhino and

elephant, which are endangered animals Ask and answer questions about them

Newly-designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the roles when you have finished.

Ngoc: Hi! Hang

Hang: Hello, Ngoc

Ngoc: Well, you look nice today

Hang: Thank you You are, too

Ngoc: Can you tell me something about the elephants which are now in danger?

Hang: Certainly, they live in small areas of India, Sri Lanka, China and Southest Asia

and the Sahara desert in Africa

Ngoc: What is the population of elephants in the world?

Hang: Well, It’s about 700.000

Ngoc: Oh, that’s really surprising What is their height and their weight?

Hang: Their average height is 1.2 m to 1.8 m every elephant can weigh about 1000 to

3000 kg

Ngoc: What is their main food?

Hang: Well, they can eat grass, barks, roots, leaves or fruits

Ngoc: That sounds interesting How long can they live?

Hang: Uh, all of them are safe, so their life span can reach 60 years

Ngoc: Why are they declining now?

Hang: Well, because some people are seriously destroying their habitat and hunting

them illegally, which makes them on the verge of extinction

Ngoc: Well, sad to hear that I hope in the future, people will be more aware of

protecting these animals

Hang: Oh, I hope so, too I am really interested in talking with you but I have some

things to do Goodbye for now!

Ngoc: Bye See you later

Hang: Thank you

Reason for decline Why

Rationale: Encouraging students to practise making dialogue is a very necessary strategy

in teaching spoken communication because it helps students get information from others We

do this in order to motivate students to ask and answer about their real life

Suggested Questions

Habitat Where do elephants live?

Population What is the population of elephants in the world?

Height and weight What is their height and their weight?

Food What is their main food?

Life span How long can they live?

Reason for decline Why are they declining now?

Part three: English 12- Unit 11: Book (Page 122)

Task 4 (Task from the textbook)

Work in pairs. Ask and aanswer about the book you are reading or you have read

Newly- designed Task

1 Role- playing:

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue Change the roles when you have finished.

Huyen: Good morning What are you doing?

Thuy: Good morning Well, I am reading a book

Huyen: Are you interested in reading the books?

Thuy: Yes, of course It’s very relaxing and knowledgeable

Huyen: What sorts of books do you like to read?

Thuy: Oh, I love reading novels

Huyen: What is the name of the book which you have just read?

Thuy: Well, I’ve read “The call of the wild”

Huyen: Who wrote that novel?

Thuy: A famous novel written by Jack London