USING WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Thị Hồng Tuyến USING WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJEC

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Hồng Tuyến

USING WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT DONG

NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HANOI, 2019

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Hồng Tuyến

USING WARM-UP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT DONG

NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D

HANOI, 2019

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that has

not been submitted anywhere for any award I certify that the thesis “Using Warm-up Activities to Improve the Students’ Speaking Skills: An Action Research Project at Dong Nai Technology University” is the result of my

own study and that it has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially

Author’s Signature

Lê Thị Hồng Tuyến

Approve by SUPERVISOR

Dr Bùi Thị Thục Quyên

Date: ………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to many people for their thoughtful help given to me in doing this study

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor -

Dr Bui Thi Thuc Quyen for her insightful comments and suggestions on various parts of this thesis

My thanks also go to all my lecturers from the Foreign Languages Department – Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for their useful and interesting lectures to finish the study

I am most thankful to my colleague – Ms Pham Thi Kim Tuoi and the students at Dong Nai Technology University for their support in data collection

Finally, my special thanks go to my family, for their love and support throughout this project Without their encouragement I could not have completed this thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF FIFGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS ix

LIST OF ABBREVIATION USED IN THE THESIS xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Research methods 3

1.7 Structure of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Nature of language skills and oral communication 5

2.1.1 Nature of language skill 5

2.1.2 Oral communication 5

2.2 Speaking skills 6

2.2.1 Concepts of speaking 6

2.2.2 The importance of speaking 6

2.2.3 Characteristics of speaking skills 8

2.2.4 Speaking problems 9

2.3 Warm – up activities 11

2.3.1 Definitions of warm – up activities 11

2.3.2 Principles of warm – up activities 11

2.3.3 The advantages of warm – up activities 13

2.3.3.1 Warm – up activities help create a good rapport 13

2.3.3.2 Warm – up activities help motivate students 14

2.3.3.3 Warm – up activities help attract attention 15

2.3.4 The disadvantages of warm-up activities 16

2.4 Previous studies 17

2.5 Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Research design 21

3.1.1 Definitions of Action Research 21

3.1.2 Action research procedures 22

3.2 The context of the study 27

3.2.1 The teacher 28

3.2.2 Participants 28

3.2.3 The course book 29

3.3 Procedures of the current study 29

3.5 Data collection instruments 30

3.5.1 The pre – test and post – test 30

3.5.2 The questionnaire 31

3.5.3 Class observation 32

3.6 Summary 32

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 33

4.1 Research question 1: Students’ thoughts about English speaking 33

4.1.1 The difficulty level of English speaking 33

4.1.2 Students’ difficulties in English speaking lessons 34

4.2 Research question 2: students’ attitudes toward using warm – up

activities in English speaking lessons 35

4.2.1 How much students liked warm – up activities in general 35

4.2.2 The effectiveness of warm – up activities in speaking lessons 36

4.2.3 Students’ difficulties when participating in warm – up activities 37 4.2.4 Suggestions from students to improve warm –up activities 38

4.2.5 Warm – up activities in speaking lessons preferred by students 39

4.3 Research question 3: revised warm – up activities and their effects on students 40

4.3.1 Word jumble race 41

4.3.1.1 Data from Questionnaire 2 41

4.3.1.2 Data from the observation sheets 43

4.3.2 Remembering pictures 45

4.3.2.1 Data from Questionnaire 2 45

4.3.2.2 Data from the observation sheets 47

4.3.3 Mimic 49

4.3.3.1 Data from the Questionnaire 2 49

4.3.3.2 Data from the observation sheets 51

4.3.4 Words of mouth 53

4.3.4.1 Data from Questionnaire 2 53

4.3.4.2 Data from observation sheets 55

4.4 The results from the pre – test and post – test 56

4.4.1 Data from the pre – test 58

4.4.2 Data from the post – test 59

4.5 Discussion 60

4.6 Summary 62

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 63

5.1 Recapitulation 63

5.1.1 Students’ difficulties when taking part in English speaking lessons 63

5.1.2 Students’ attitudes toward the use of warm – up activities in English speaking lessons 63

5.1.3 The effects of revised warm – up activities on students in English speaking lessons 64

5.2 Concluding remarks 65

5.3 Implication 65

5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 66

5.4.1 Limitations 66

5.4.2 Suggestions for further studies 67

REFERENCES 68

Appendix 1a: Survey questionnaire 1 (English version) I Appendix 1b: Survey questionnaire 1 (Vietnamese version) IV Appendix 2a: Survey questionnaire 2 (English version) VII Appendix 2b: Survey questionnaire 2 (Vietnamese version) VII Appendix 3: Observation sheet X Appendix 4: Pre – test XI Appendix 5: Post – test XIII Appendix 6: Rubrics of the pre – test XV Appendix 7: Rubrics of the post – test XVI

ABSTRACT

For some recent years, English has played more and more important part

in Vietnam, and it has been taught in many levels of Vietnamese schools as a compulsory subject So far, there have been remarkable changes in the way of teaching and learning English speaking However, students’ speaking skills are still far from satisfaction How to improve students’ performance in speaking has been a big question for every English teacher It is also the question that has inspired the researcher to investigate the use of warm – up activities to improve her students’ speaking skills In attempt to fulfill this thesis, there were two classes which attended in this research Class A studied English speaking skills with warm – up activities but class B studied without warm – up activities The final results were very surprising Warm – up activities basically have had a very little effect on students’ speaking skills From the final results, some suggestions have been drawn out to help use warm – up activities more effectively It is hoped that this thesis will be found

of value to those who have great interest in using warm – up activities in speaking lessons

LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 1: Principles of warm – up activities 12

Figure 2: Kemmis and McTaggart’s action research spiral 23 Figure 3: Elliot’s action research model 25

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Page Chart 1: The effectiveness of WAS in speaking lessons 36 Table 1: Students’ thoughts about the difficulty level of English

Table 2: Students’ difficulties in English speaking lessons 34

Table 4: Students’ difficulties when joining WAS in speaking

Table 5: What the teacher should do to improve WAS 38 Table 6: WAS in speaking lessons preferred by students 39

Table 7: The effectiveness of Word jumble race 41

Table 8: Strengths and weaknesses of Word jumble race 42 Table 9: Students’ participation level in speaking lesson with

Table 11: The effectiveness of Remembering pictures 45

Table 12: Strengths and weaknesses of Remembering pictures 46 Table 13: Students’ participation level in speaking lesson with

Table 14: Remembering pictures 47

Table 16: Strengths and weaknesses of Mimic 49 Table 17: Students’ participation level in speaking lesson with

Table 19: The effectiveness of Words of mouth 53

Table 20: Strengths and weaknesses of Words of mouth 53 Table 21: Students’ participation level in speaking lesson with

Table 25: The results from the pre – test 58 Table 26: The results from the post – test 59

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS

AR: Action Research

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

DNTU: Dong Nai Technology University

WAS: Warm – up Activities

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In Vietnam, English has been considered one of the most necessary subjects for students in all levels of educational system Nevertheless, how to teach English in general and speaking skill effectively in particular is still controversial Moreover, speaking skill is believed the most essential skill because it is the most effective tool to carry out a conversation

Thanks to the CLT, many changes have been made in classroom’s atmosphere to help learners involve actively and positively during the class time Hence, WAS are also highly recommended in English speaking classes because they stimulate students to engage and speak in English (Lassche, 2005; Hadfield, 2000; Robertson & Acklam, 2000)

In fact, at DNTU, although teachers have created several WAS before each lesson, their students still find it difficult to start talking in English during class time Honestly, the researcher is also in the same situation The WAS which are carried out in the author’s classrooms seem to be useless The students are not willing to participate in those activities or even after joining the warming up, they show no interest in new speaking lessons Therefore, how to encourage students to speak English and feel free to participate in speaking activities is the worry of many teachers including the author

Facing such a problem, the author wants to know the reasons behind her students’ unwillingness of participation in WAS and find out the possible solutions Based on students’ perception of WAS, the author will redesign

some activities, then, apply them in to her speaking classes to observe the result

Keeping those intentions in mind, the author has conducted a research

entitled “Using Warm-up Activities to Improve the Students’ Speaking Skills: an Action Research Project at Dong Nai Technology University” to

enhance the efficiency of using WAS and increase students’ involvement in speaking classes

1.2 Aims of the study

The thesis has been done with the hope that it can contribute to the improvement in teaching English in general and in teaching speaking skills in particular The thesis aims:

- To discover the students’ perception of English speaking

- To find out the students’ attitude toward WAS in English speaking lessons

- To investigate the effectiveness of redesigned WAS on students’ speaking skills

1.3 Research questions

This study is implemented to find answers to the following research questions:

 What do students think of English speaking?

 What are students’ attitudes toward warm – up activities in English

speaking lessons?

 How do revised warm – up activities support students in improving

English speaking skills?

1.4 Scope of the study

The study was carried in the third term of the school year 2018 – 2019 with the participation of 43 non – English majored freshmen at DNTU in Dong Nai This group of students had learned an English course with the researcher; however, they had very bad speaking skills with unknown reasons The WAS in this study were chosen and revised according to the students’ opinions

1.5 Significance of the study

Once this study has been completed, it is expected that it will help the teacher discover the problems behind her students’ failed performances in speaking lessons Then, basing on students’ opinion, the teacher can create more suitable WAS to make her speaking lessons more attractive and engaging This means learners will also feel more appealed to the speaking

lessons right at the beginning and be able to enhance their speaking skills

1.6 Research methods

The study based mainly on the pre – test, post – test, survey questionnaires, observations Two sets of questionnaires were designed and delivered to students at the beginning of the course and after each speaking lesson The observation forms were filled during two cycles The pre – test was done at the beginning of the course and the post – test was in the end of the course The collected data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively

1.7 Structure of the study

The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing

the thesis, scope and aims of the study as well as the research method and the structure of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review: This chapter focuses on an overview of

nature of language skills and oral communication, speaking skill, Action Research as well as previous studies on using WAS to improve or develop students’ speaking skills

Chapter 3 - Methodology: This chapter reports the context settings,

research hypothesis, participants, instruments and the procedure of conducting Action Research for the study

Chapter 4- Findings and Discussion: This part deals with the data

analysis from the Action Research results to make the foundation for the activities recommended in Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the study and suggests

some practical tips for teachers to stimulate students’ speaking skills when using warm – up activities Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also included in this chapter

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Nature of language skills and oral communication

2.1.1 Nature of language skills

It is known that language skills involve four inter – related skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Speaking and writing involve production part of user, which is why they are called productive skills Listening and reading are receptive skills In fact, learning a foreign language

is practicing the four language skills Therefore, in order to master a foreign language, learners must have an adequate mastery of all the four skills mentioned above

2.1.2 Oral communication

Communication between human is a complex process One of the communication forms is oral communication which is realized by using oral skills According to Ricky W Griffin, “Oral communication takes place in face – to – face conversations, group discussions, telephone calls and other circumstances in which spoken word is used to express the meaning.” Thanks

to oral communication, humans can express and understand each other Likewise, it is through oral communication students can express themselves, acquire new concepts, exchange ideas and experience the joy of using language to build their own new knowledge

2.2 Speaking skills

2.2.1 Concepts of speaking

There are various definitions of the word “speaking” which are suggested

by many language researchers all over the world Brown (1994) and Burns & Joyce (1997) define that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information It means that speaking does not include only saying but understanding and replying to the other speaker in a conversation

Bygate (1987) defined speaking as the production of auditory signals to produce different verbal responses in listeners It is regarded as combining sounds systematically to form meaningful sentences Florez (1999), Howarth (2001), and Abd El Fattah Torky (2006) defined speaking as a two – way process including a true communication of opinions, information, or emotions This view regards the spoken texts as the collaboration between two or more persons in the shared time and the shared context

In conclusion, speaking is an interactive process between speakers and listeners Both speakers and listeners must cooperate, exchange and understand each other’s opinions in the same context and period of time

2.2.2 The importance of speaking

Children normally learn to speak before they know how to read and write In one of her studies, Rivers (1981) researched the use of language outside the classroom situation and found that speaking is used twice as much

as reading and writing combined In anyway, human beings take more time to interact with language orally rather than writing it Speaking is the most

significant skill because it is one of the needed abilities to carry out a conversation

Moreover, the importance of speaking is indicated with the combination

of other language skills Speaking helps students enhance their grammar knowledge, enrich their vocabulary and then perfect their writing skill Learners can express their own feelings and ideas, tell stories, make requests, discuss and show a variety of language functions Outside the classroom, in addition, speaking also plays a crucial role Baker and Westrup (2003) said that learners who speak English very well can have greater chance for better education, finding good jobs, and getting promotion

In addition, previous researchers show that students cannot learn a language without having chances for repetition The opportunities to produce the language in meaningful oral tasks provide the practice which is really essential to internalizing the language Asher (2003) supported the idea that very soon after teachers model the language, learners like to imitate what have been said Krashen (1988) examined the relation between listening and speaking skills He found that when students speak, their speaking shows that they have acquired the language

Speaking is crucial to support students’ ability to apply the language when they learn English Speaking skill has played an important role in the success of human beings because it always happens in daily life communication Speaking is an interactive activity and it occurs under the real time constraints Speaking skill enables individuals to produce sentences for the real communication, in other words they actually like to communicate in language to get specific objectives (McDonough & Shaw, 1993)

To summarize, speaking is a complicated skill To achieve it successfully, a speaker must master so many subskills such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency or even listening skill However hard it is, speaking is still the integral part of human life People speak every day to express their ideas and transform the information So, it is very important for students to learn speaking

2.2.3 Characteristics of speaking skills

According to Mazouzi (2013), learners’ activities should be designed to achieve the balance between fluency and accuracy Both fluency and accuracy are important elements of communicative approach

Fluency is the first characteristic of speaking performance According to Hughes (2002), fluency is the learners’ ability to speak in understandable way

so as not to break down communication because listeners may lose their interest Hedge (2000) also expressed that fluency is the ability to answer coherently by connecting the words and phrases, pronouncing the sounds clearly, and using stress and intonation

Accuracy is the second characteristic of speaking performance When learning a foreign language, students should be accurate Therefore, teachers should emphasize accuracy in their teaching process Learners should pay attention to the exactness and the completeness of language form when speaking such as focusing on grammatical structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation (Mazouzi, 2013)

According to Thornbury (2005), learners’ correct use of grammatical structures requires the length and complexity of the utterances and the well – structured clauses If students want to gain accuracy in terms of vocabulary,

they have to select suitable words in the suitable contexts Sometimes, they use similar words or expressions in different contexts that do not mean similar things So, learners should have the ability to use words and expressions exactly

Thornbury (2005) also said that pronunciation is the lowest level of knowledge that learners typically pay attention to In order to speak English accurately, learners should master phonological rules and they should be aware of the various sounds and their pronunciations Besides, the stress, intonation, and pitch are also important for learners All of these elements help learners speak the English language easily and effectively

It can be drawn out that fluency and accuracy are two main characteristics of speaking, and each of them has the key role in speaking Therefore, when teaching English speaking, the teacher should consider which factor students need to focus on in order to choose the most suitable activities

2.2.4 Speaking problems

When students speak, they sometimes have some problems which prevent them from expressing their own ideas According to Tuan and Mai (2015), the students’ problems related to speaking skill are inhibition, lack of topical knowledge, low or uneven participation and mother-tongue use

Inhibition is the first problem that students encounter in class Littlewood (2007) expressed that a language classroom can also create inhibitions and apprehension for the students Because speaking requires some real – time exposure to the audience, students sometimes feel inhibited about trying to say a foreign language in front of their classmates They are worried about

making mistakes, being criticized, losing face or feeling shy of their friends’ attention towards themselves

The second problem is that learners always complain that they cannot think of anything to say They do not have any reason to express themselves except the guilty feeling that they should be speaking Rivers (1968) showed that learners often say nothing because their teachers have chosen a topic that

is not suitable for them or they do not have enough knowledge about it The above idea is supported by Baker and Westrup (2003) who said that it is very difficult for learners to tell something in a foreign language because they have little opinions about what to say, which vocabulary to apply, or how to use grammar correctly

The third problem in the speaking class is that the participation is very low According to Tuan and Mai (2015), with a large number of students in the class, each student will have limited time to speak If one student talks, others have to listen to him/her Moreover, in a mixed – ability class, some students will dominate the whole class while others talk very little or not at all

The last problem related to the speaking ability is that when some learners share the same mother – tongue, they try to use it in the speaking class because it is very easy for them (Tuan & Mai, 2015) Especially when the teacher asks their students to discuss in groups, it is difficult to keep the whole class to the target language

In summary, when learning a new language, students cannot avoid facing troubles and difficulties Each student has his own problems which are different from the others’ Some may have problems with the ideas but some may not be confident enough to speak in the public As a result, this is also a

challenge for the teacher when she organizes the activities for students How

to help students overcome their problems and get improved is always the first consideration when the teacher chooses an activity in speaking lessons This

is also the reason why the researcher wants to carry out this study

2.3 Warm – up activities

2.3.1 Definitions of warm – up activities

There are a lot of definitions of WAS According to Robertson & Acklam (2000), “warm up is a short activity for the beginning of lesson (p.30).” Kay (1995) claimed that warm ups are different types of activities which help the students begin to think in English, review previously introduced materials and become interested in the lesson (as cited in Valandia,

2008, p.11) Lassche (2005) defined that for language learning lesson a warm – up stage is the “initial orientation” (p 83)

Therefore, WAS are short activities which are used to facilitate, engage and appeal students from the beginning of language classes They are short, simple and interesting enough to motivate students to learn a foreign language better

2.3.2 Principles of warm – up activities

In one of his researches, Velandia (2008) pointed out some principles to make up a warm – up activity He emphasizes that the right time when a warm – up activity should be carried out is at the starting point of the class It will make the students pay more attention to the lesson That activity should

be interesting enough for students to be engaged at the beginning of the lesson Also, it must be short because it is considered a preparation stage for other stages of a lesson That warm – up activity must be connected to the

lesson topic; therefore, students can take part in different activities more easily to develop their language skill in other stages (p 13) The following diagram which shows some of the principles of warm – up activity is taken from Velandia (2008, p 13)

Figure 1: Principles of warm – up activities

In another research of Robertson and Acklam (2000), they also described the main features of a warm – up activity They include that a warm – up activity needs to be interesting to motivate the students Because a warm – up activity is a short activity, it is not the main part of the lesson Moreover, it can be used to give students an opportunity to recall the previous knowledge However, Robertson and Acklam (2000) had disagreed with Velandia (2008) that a warm – up activity must be related to the lesson topic They mention

that it is not necessary that a warm – up activity be connected to the lesson since the main purpose of using warm – up activity is making the students ready to work in English (p 8)

Hence, a warm – up activity has several characteristics but it should be at the beginning of the lesson and suitable with students’ level That activity must be short, interesting and can attract their attention Whether a warm – up activity needs to have a connection to the main lesson or not depends on the teacher’s aims If she wants to facilitate and lead her students to the new lesson, the activity should be relevant to the main topic However, if she just wants to engage students, attract their students’ attention and create an enjoyable atmosphere to begin the class, it is not necessary to have a relationship between the main lesson and the warm – up activity

2.3.3 The advantages of warm – up activities

2.3.3.1 Warm – up activities help create a good rapport

Creating a good relationship between learners and teachers will contribute to making a successful learning process Teachers’ attitude affects students’ cooperation Moreover, if teaching style is more cooperative, learning condition will become better Lassche (2005) supported that by developing rapport with students, teachers can help them share their ideas and opinions with more relaxed activities Teachers can set the atmosphere in the class by choosing some suitable tasks or topics (Klippel, 1985) The teachers should know the effectiveness of using WAS which can create an opportunity for all students get to know each other and for the teachers to understand the general level of that class in the first lesson Those activities help build the connection among the whole class (Senior, 1997)

According to Hale and Whitlam (1995), “rapport is the ability to build trust and confidence with others, often when there is little time available” (as cited in Lassche, 2005, p 84) In order to create a good atmosphere in the class, teachers can make use of some WAS or jigsaw (Klippel, 1985) There is

a variety of warm – up exercises such as joke, game, puzzle that can establish

a positive learning environment and make the students feel free to take part in the classroom (Joshi, 2006) Krishnan and Hoon (2002) stated that learners need to support and motivate each other to achieve learning success in the language classrooms WAS help create a relaxed environment and build peer trust among students which facilitate them to involve in negotiation with each other for other activities easily (Hansen & Liu, 2005)

2.3.3.2 Warm – up activities help motivate students

Many researchers have examined that motivation plays a very important role in a language class By spending five or ten minutes for WAS, leaners can be motivated from the beginning of a class (García & Martín, 2004) Learners’ interest in class activities has an influence on their motivation Learners will be interested in the lesson if class activities are interesting enough to attract them to the lesson So, the warm – up activity used to motivate students should be interesting (Ruiz & Ramírez, 2008) Crookes and Schmidt (1991) defined that motivation is learners’ interest and enthusiasm for the learning materials and tasks used in class and it indicates their levels of attention, concentration and enjoyment (as cited in Peacock, 2014, p.145) In the preparatory stage, a warm – up exercise can act as an important factor to arouse students’ interest to motivate them (Jun, 2000) With interest, students will have motivation and explore the broad knowledge to learn and to gain skills and experience Therefore, it is a good way to begin a class with a warm

– up activity because it can raise learners’ curiosity and interest, and motivate them to pay attention in further activities (Zhu, 2010)

2.3.3.3 Warm – up activities help attract attention

According to Bowers (1984), because of lack of attention and noticing, information remains in memory for short time and is not processed in long term memory (as cited in Schmidt, 1990, p.141) Therefore, opening activities are mainly used to attract the students’ attention on the lesson (Richards & Bohlke, 2011) Dornyei (2001) said that teachers play an important role to create a positive learning attitude among students Teachers need to arouse students’ curiosity and attract their attention to make them interested and involved in the lesson (as cited in Velandia, 2008, p.11)

When people pay enough attention to something, they will learn quickly and more effectively Therefore, they do not learn much when they pay little

or lack of attention (Lam, 2009) To help students focus on the main ideas, teachers should carry out some interactive activities to engage them to practice (Walqui, 2006) According to Allwright (1984), WAS can get students’ attention well They can work individually or with their classmates

in group activities and put aside their distracting thoughts (as cited in Velandia, 2008, p.11) Thanks to WAS, learners will pay attention and start to think of the topic or the new lesson Moreover, students stop being distracted and focus their attention on the lesson These kinds of activities lead the students to learn language effectively from the beginning (Velandia, 2008)

To be short, WAS not only create a good relationship between teachers and students but also get students’ attention and motivate them to learn as well Having several obvious benefits, WAS are preferred by many language teachers all over the world

2.3.4 The disadvantages of warm – up activities

Everything has both pros and cons, so does a warm – up activity Besides the advantages it brings about, we must be realistic and assume that there might be some problems

Firstly, WAS in class normally results in a noisy and chaotic classroom because many groups work at the same time and the teacher has to monitor a lot of groups He may lose control of their class In addition, as Kumar (1992) mentions, large class size might make interaction and involvement difficult It

is obvious that in Vietnam’s language teaching context, a classroom often houses approximately 40 students As a result, the teacher will not be able to equally give help and advice to every student

Secondly, some WAS cannot be suitable to all students’ ability In a mixed – ability group, better learners will consolidate their own understanding of issues at hand when explaining these to slower learners, while slower ones will benefit from peer tutoring by faster learners As a result, all members may not participate equally in discussions WAS cause unbalanced participation among the members This may be because some may fall into roles that easily become fossilized; consequently, they turn out

to be passive whereas the others might dominate For instance, a high – level learner may not want to work with a weaker partner and tend to dominate and monopolize most of the time As a result, slow learners have the tendency to withdraw and sit still listening to their dominating partners

Thirdly, WAS in speaking classes are often interactive and competitive but prior passive learning experience is a factor that prevents learners from taking part in WAS They still do not get used to presenting their ideas in front of their class That can explain why the students are hesitated to

participate in those activities Many passive students or lazy students let their friends do everything provided that they still have their names in the group’s

Last but not at least, some WAS requires working in group, which is a relatively slow process compared with working alone It is not only time – consuming for the students in group but also for the teacher The teacher needs more time to organize the group work and control all the members in the group not to make the class in disorder

2.4 Previous studies

The topic of WAS has been discussed a lot in term of its role in language teaching Many researchers have conducted studies about WAS with different purposes and results

Firstly, a study was conducted by Velandia in 2008 The purpose of this study was using different kinds of WAS to get students’ attention from the beginning of the class The participants were 68 students from 12 to 15 years old and did not involve in the class much Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected in this study The result was that using WAS is an effective way to begin a new lesson and get more attention from students

Next, a study was conducted by Zahra Pakdel Estalkhbijari and Mohammadreza Khodareza in August 2012 The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of WAS in an English writing class on the written production The participants were divided randomly into two groups of 30 to form one experimental group who received the treatments on WAS and one control group who received a placebo Both groups have the same writing task The result is that the group who received the treatments on warming up

activities had better performance Therefore, using WAS can encourage students’ writing performance

In 2014, another study was conducted by Ashia Akther whose purpose was to find out the effectiveness of using WAS in language classrooms The participants were from 5 private universities including 10 teachers and 247 students There were two different questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students To get more in – depth information, the researcher also observed randomly some classes The result shows that using WAS in language classrooms is useful

However, in his recent study in 2016, Hasan Savas showed his worry about his students’ unwillingness to participate in such classroom activities although he had used a variety of WAS including those in course books or prepared by himself His study aimed to investigate his students’ perception

on WAS by using questionnaires and redesigning the WAS based on the discoveries The participants were 32 A2 (pre – intermediate) students from

18 to 21 years old for the exploratory stage and 21 A2 (pre – intermediate) students from the previous group for the action stage The result is that after redesigning the WAS based on students’ opinion and suggestions, the classroom works with more efficacies

In 2009, a study which focused on examining the use of warm – up activities in speaking lessons was conducted by Hoang Thi Du 315 students from 6 classes and all English teachers in Yen Lang High School took part in this study The data was mainly collected by two sets of survey questionnaires for both students and teachers The result shows that the frequency of using WAS among the teachers is not the same The teachers’ satisfaction of using WAS is higher than that of students However, those activities have positive

effects on students and create an exciting atmosphere and encouraging environment in speaking lessons

In 2010, a study was conducted by Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using WAS on students’ listening skills There were 90 participating students and the methods were questionnaires, interviews and personal observations The author found that students feel excited during playing language games However, when they start the lesson and do the listening task, they feel bored because they find the tasks too long and difficult

One more study was carried out by Nguyen Thi Quy in 2013 which aimed at using WAS to enhance effectiveness of the speaking lesson and students’ interest The participants were 50 students in grade 10 and 15 teachers at Thuan Thanh 3 High School The data was collected by using two different questionnaires for both teachers and students One video recorded in

a speaking lesson to examine the students’ attitude when the teacher started the lesson without WAS As a result, although using WAS in classroom still has some difficulties, it makes students speak better and more confident when they carry a speaking task

In 2015, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung carried a study which aimed at investigating the use and effects of WAS on 10th graders in reading lessons There were 94 participating students from two classes and two questionnaires used in this study The result shows that WAS have active effects on students

at a certain degree Students pay more attention to the reading lesson, contribute to create an interesting atmosphere and interact more with their friends

From those studies that the author mentions above, it is clear that WAS play an essential role in language classrooms by engaging and motivating

students in all skills especially speaking skills However, none of two studies related to English speaking shows students’ progress on English speaking skills Moreover, the author is facing a problem with her students’ participation and performance in English speaking lessons Her students show

no interest in her WAS or even after joining, they still find it hard to involve

in other speaking activities Therefore, the author wants to conduct this research to engage her students and improve their speaking skills

2.5 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter provides readers an overview of English speaking skill including its definition and common challenges of students when studying speaking skill Then, theories about WAS are displayed Finally, the researcher broadens the content of this part by showing preceding studies with both advantages and disadvantages of using WAS This session reflects the actual picture of implementation and effectiveness of WAS through time

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology for the study on warm – up activities to enhance speaking skill for first – year students at Dong Nai Technology University As such, this chapter provides the rationale for the choice of the research methods employed by the study It also provides information on the participants, instruments, procedures, and data collection

and data analysis instruments

3.1 Research design

It is AR that the researcher intends to use to identify the problems the students are facing in using WAS and presenting their findings in English The research was conducted at Dong Nai Technology University where the researcher is working The researcher intends to carry out this study for 2 months There are 8 speaking periods in total, each period is 40 minutes The study is conducted on 2 classes in order to compare the final results Class A with WAS (20 students) and class B without WAS (23 students) These first – year students are learning English as a foreign language All the students are

of the same age, same class, but different levels of English

3.1.1 Definitions of Action Research

AR has become a valuable research methodology, an effective way to create active intervention of people in the subjects being researched AR brings together actions and reflections, theory and practice, academic and local knowledge, and participation (Reason & Bradbury, 2001)

Stephen Corey (1953), a Columbia University Professor, was one of the first people using AR in education field He argued that a formal research

following a scientific method had little influence on educational practice AR,

he continued, made changes in education practice were possible

The term AR has been defined by many researchers in different ways Stephen Corey defined AR as a study carried out scientifically by the teachers

in an attempt to evaluate, guide and correct their procedures AR was more detailed and simpler in Tsui’s definition as “Action research is a very effective way of helping teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice.” (Tsui, 1993)

Moreover, it was defined as two levels by Grebhard and Oprandy as “At one level, is about teacher identifying and posing problems, as well as addressing issues and concerns related to the problem It is about working toward understanding and possibly resolving these problems by setting goals and creating and initiating a plan of action, as well as reflecting on the degree

to which the plan work At another level, it can be about addressing educational practices that go beyond each teacher’s classroom.” (Grebhard & Oprandy, 1993)

In short, AR is a kind of scientific research which is carried out by a teacher or an educator to identify and solve a problem in their classroom As its name, it mainly concentrates on both actions of students and teachers Because AR is very practical and efficient for teachers, it can help them solve all the issues and activities in their classroom

3.1.2 Action research procedures

Research is about generating knowledge AR creates knowledge based

on enquiries conducted within specific and practical contexts As mentioned earlier, the purpose of action research is to learn through action then leads to personal or professional improvement AR is participatory in nature, which

led Kemmis and McTaggart (2000, p 595) to describe it as participatory research The authors state that action research involves a spiral of self – reflective cycles of:

 Planning a change

 Acting and observing the process and consequences of the change

 Reflecting on these processes and consequences and then replanning

 Acting and observing

 Reflecting

 And so on …

Figure 2: Kemmis and McTaggart’s action research spiral

Figure 2 describes the spiral model of AR proposed by Kemmis and

McTaggart (1988, p 564) They said that the process in reality may not be as neat as the spiral of self – contained cycles of planning, acting and observing, and reflecting These stages will overlap, and initial plans will quickly become useless in the light of learning from experience In reality, the process

is likely to be more fluid, open, and responsive This spiral model is appealing because it gives a chance to approach the situation at a higher level each time and lead to a greater overall understanding By carrying out action research using this model, one can understand a particular issue within a healthcare context and make informed decisions with an enhanced understanding However, Winter and Munn-Giddings (2001) pointed out that the spiral model may suggest that even the basic process may take a long time to complete Some studies show that the period of a project which has varied significantly, ranges from a few weeks or months to one or two years

Many other models have also been suggested by those who have studied different aspects of AR The model employed by Elliot (1991, p 71) shared many of the features of which of Kemmis and McTaggart and is based on Lewin’s work of the 1940s It includes identifying a general idea, fact finding, planning, action, evaluation, amending plan and taking second action step,

and so on, as can be seen in Figure 3

Figure 3: Elliot’s action research model

Other models, such as O’Leary’s (2004, p 141) cycles of AR shown in

Figure 4, described AR as a cyclic process which takes shape as knowledge

emerges In O’Leary’s model, for example, it is stressed that ‘cycles converge towards better situation understanding and improved action implementation; and are based in evaluative practice that alters between action and critical reflection’ (2004, p 140) O’Leary saw action research as an experiential learning approach where the goal is to continually refine the methods, data, and interpretation in light of the understanding developed in each earlier cycle

Figure 4: O’Leary’s cycles of research

It is useful to consider different models because with different issues there will be different suitable cycles of research For the issues in her classroom, the researcher finds that the model of Kemmis and McTaggart is the most suitable one for her study In her research, the author plans a change

in the usage of one warm – up activity Then, she applies that activity in her class and observes the effects of the change Next, she examines and analyzes the collected data and adjusts the WAS After that she applies the revised activity, observes and reflects This cycle is repeated certain times to get the final result The author chooses this model because it can help her come closer to the problem and understand the context better each cycle So, she can make changes for the next plans with an enhanced understanding

3.2 The context of the study

The study was conducted at DNTU, Dong Nai province There are two first – year classes including 43 students participated in this study Although most students started learning English at the early age, many of them have low proficiency of English because of their wrong attitudes to English learning, laziness even improper learning styles

Moreover, they are mostly from rural area They rarely have chance to communicate with English speaking people in both classroom and outside classroom Most of them learn English at class only They learn it because it

is a compulsory subject at school Consequently, their ability to speak English cannot be improved

Besides, English speaking skills have not been paid much attention to due to the fact that the majority of students do not have to take English tests

in spoken form However, most of the students are aware of the importance