USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF NON - ENGLISH MAJORS GRADE 12 AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THANH XUAN USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF NON - ENGLISH MAJORS GRADE 12 AT THAI N

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THANH XUAN

USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF NON - ENGLISH MAJORS GRADE 12 AT THAI

NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED

Sử dụng các hoạt động có khoảng trống thông tin để nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 12 không chuyên Anh tại trường THPT Chuyên Thái Nguyên

MASTER THESIS RESEARCH

Field: English language

THAI NGUYEN- 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THANH XUAN

USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF NON - ENGLISH MAJORS GRADE 12 AT THAI

NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED

Sử dụng các hoạt động có khoảng trống thông tin để nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 12 không chuyên Anh tại trường THPT Chuyên Thái Nguyên

MASTER THESIS RESEARCH

Field : English language

Supervisor: Dr Bui Thi Huong Giang

THAI NGUYEN- 2018

DECLARATION

The writer fully declares that this research paper is composed by the writer herself and

it does not contain materials written or having been published by other people and that from references

A THESIS USING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF NON- ENGLISH MAJORS GRADE 12 AT THAI

NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED

Submitted by:

Nguyen Thanh Xuan

Approved by Supervisor,

Dr Bui Thi Huong Giang

Acknowledgement

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Dr Bui Thi Huong Giang for her valuable guidance, critical feedback, and enormous encouragement Without her support, this thesis could not have been completed

My thanks also go to all my lecturers from Thai Nguyen University, School of Foreign Languages - Postgraduate Department for their valuable lectures which help me

to orient the topic

I would like to express my thanks to all my classmates who were willing to help

me in sharing materials and ideas when this thesis is worked on

My sincere thanks also go to all my colleagues and students at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, for their assistance during the process of data collection

Particularly, I find myself in debt to all members of my family for their love, care and tolerance when I was in the process of writing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This study aims at using information activities to enhance speaking performance

of non- English majors grade 12 at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted It also describes students’ perception and feeling after experimenting Information Gap technique This research is an action research which was carried out in Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted in the second term of the academic year 2017-2018 It consists of six main steps: Initiation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation and Dissemination The data were gained through questionnaires, semi structured interview, observations and mini projects The results show that information gap activities can improve students’ speaking performance significantly Hopefully, this study will make

a contribution to the implementation of Information Gap Activities in improving speaking skills for students at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted in particular and other high schools in general

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……….………i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 The rationale of the study 1

1.2 The objectives of the study 2

1.3 The scope of the study 2

1.4 The significance of the study 2

1.5 Organization of the study 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Theoretical framework 4

2.1.1 The nature of speaking 4

2.1.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning 4

2.1.3 Motivation- the key factor affecting English speaking performances 5

2.1.4 Information gap activities 6

2.1 4.1 The definition of information gap activities 7

2.1.4.2 The benefits of information gap activities 8

2.1.4 3 Some popular information gap activities 9

2.1.5 Action research……….……….10

2.2 Previous studies……… 11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Research questions……….14

3.2 The study design……….14

3.3 The context and participants of the study……… 14

3.4 Procedures……….16

3 5 Data collection instruments……… 19

3.5.1 Questionnaires……….19

3.5.2 Semi-structured interview………19

3.5.3 Observation……… 19

3.5.4 Mini projects………19

3.6 Data analysis……… 20

3.6.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage 20

3.6.1.1 Data from questionnaire 1 20

3.6.1.2 Data from the semi- structured interview 22

3.6.2 Data collected from the intervention stage 23

3.6.2.1 Data collected from Observation sheets 23

3.6.2.2 Data collected from Questionnaire 2 25

3.6.2.3 Data collected from mini projects………29

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31

4.1 Findings……… 31

4.2 Discussion……… 32

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 36

5.1 Conclusion 37

5.2 Suggestions for teachers and further research ………37 REFERENCES I

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire 1 III APPENDIX 2: Semi- structured interview……….…IV APPENDIX 3: Questionnaire 2………V APPENDIX 4: Observation sheet……….VI APPENDIX 5: Video speaking rubric………VII APPENDIX 6: Sample of a speaking lesson plan………IX APPENDIX 7: Samples of the information gap activities……… XII

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 The rationale of the study

With its essential role in international communication, English has proven to be the most effective means to involve Vietnam in the process of globalization Students with good command of English and know to make use of it will have better job prospects and many other interesting opportunities in their lives Being fully aware of its importance, the Ministry of Education and Training has made English a compulsory subject at secondary schools and developing students’ communicative competence is given the top priority

Speaking plays a fundamental role in communication because without it, communication cannot take place directly between people According to Fauziati (cited

in Handayani, 2011), mastering “the art” of speaking is regarded as the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language However, to teach the students to speak English so that they become more interested in speaking English and maintain their interest during the lessons is not an easy job at all Richards and Renandya (2002) also believe that speaking in a foreign language is challenging for foreign language learners because the effectiveness of oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interaction

With regard to Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, non-English major students have to learn English as a compulsory subject Most of the students have learnt English for seven years and realized the significant roles of English to their future However, as an English teacher, the researcher finds that although the students do not have much trouble with English grammar, many of them tend to be silent and passive in English speaking Many of the students fail to communicate in English They seem to depend heavily on the textbooks and just read them in the speaking class They are hesitant and anxious if they have to speak and perform using English

One of the reasons for this situation is that they lack practice in using English in real communication situations Putri (2014) states that speaking activities should provide sufficient time for students to practice the target language The activities also should motivate students so that they can enthusiastically engage on the learning process In our daily life, communication occurs naturally when there is a lack of information between

people, and they have a demand for exchanging the information In the same way, if English teachers want to motivate students to speak, they should provide a diverse environment where meaningful communication can take place

In the researcher’s opinion, one possible solution that can encourage students to use English for communicating is utilizing Information Gap Activities The benefits of this technique to the students have aroused my interest and encouraged the researcher to

carry out this research “Using information-gap activities to motivate speaking

performance of non – English majors grade 12 at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted.” Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the implementation of

Information Gap Activities in improving speaking skills for students at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted in particular , and at other high schools in general

1.2 Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to improve students’ speaking performance by applying information-gap activities and change students’ attitudes towards speaking learning

1.3 Scope of the study

In the school year 2017- 2018, the researcher was in charge of teaching English for grade 12th students During English lessons, many students were very passive in making interactions in English when they are required to work in pairs or groups In fact, there are various effective speaking activities to motivate students to speak; however, due to the limit of the thesis, the study cannot cover all, but focus on information gap activities

1.4 The significance of the study

The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and students at the Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted in particular and at other high schools in general English teachers will be able to enrich their techniques in teaching speaking skills, which can greatly improve students’ speaking performances In addition, this study is believed

to be a good source of references for other researchers who want to conduct a research on the related topic

1.5 Organization of the study

Chapter 1 is Introduction which consists of the rationale of the study, objectives of the study, scope of the study, the significance of the study and organization of the study

studies Chapter 3 is Research methodology which consists of research questions, the study design, participants, materials, and procedure, data collection instruments, techniques of data analysis Chapter 4 describes the result of the study It consists of research findings and discussion Then, chapter 5 is the conclusion and suggestions of the research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2 1 Theoretical Framework

2 1 1 The nature of speaking

In this section, the researcher will consider what we mean by “speaking” In English study, speaking can be considered as a major component or an inseparable part of any language learning process Therefore, speaking has been the object of numerous studies with varieties of definitions

According to Brown (1994); Burns & Joyce (1997) speaking is an interactive process

of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing

information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Chastain (1998) believes that speaking is a productive skill ‘Speaking is more than making the right sound, choosing the right words or getting the constructions’ (pp.330-358) Indeed, in order to speak accurately and fluently, in the researchers’ opinion, students should not only focus on mechanical elements such as pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary but they should also pay attention to the communicative situations that they may come across in the real life In addition, they need to widen their social and cultural knowledge in order to have an efficient interaction As a result, it’s advisable for the teachers to help students get access to varied authentic speaking materials and activities

Based on the above definitions, the researcher supposes that the nature of speaking

is interactive and productive It is the process of sharing knowledge, interests, attitudes, opinions with the others It is fundamental to human communication Speaking skill is the ability to perform the linguistics knowledge and to make ourselves understood in the actual communication It is considered as one of the macro skills that foreign language students should be helped to improve their communicative abilities

2 1.2 The role of speaking skill in teaching and learning a foreign language

English is a tool for international communication Nowadays, teaching and learning

English is of great importance in Vietnam as well as in other countries in the world In

the past several years, although a variety of approaches for language teaching has existed,

in Vietnam It emphasizes that the goal of the language learning is to develop communicative competence that consists of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence (Canale and Swaine, 1980)

In other words, students learn English in order to communicate well in English

Speaking seems intuitively the most important of all four skills that help students

to communicate effectively because speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Ur (1996) also indicates that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language so almost all of foreign language learners are interested in learning to speak Teaching speaking means helping students develop their ability to interact successfully in the target language

In order to improve students’ speaking ability, teachers should play a positive role

in helping students get involved in speaking activities in the classroom Dua (2011) claims, “rather than leading students to pure memorization, the teacher can provide a rich language environment where students have real communication, authentic materials and meaningful tasks that promote oral language.” (p.12) Related to this study, the researcher intends to implement information gap activities with a hope that gradually students will know how to use their target language correctly and communicatively in everyday conversations

2 1.3 Motivation – the key factor that affects speaking performances

Speaking comes naturally to human, but in fact it is not as simple as it seems There are several factors that influence the success or failure in learning English speaking However, Gardner (1985) claim that the most important factor is motivation – a term often used with respect to second language learning as a simple explanation of achievement He says that the term “motivation” has very distinct characteristic and has

a clear link with the language learning process Motivation in the present context refers

to the combination of the effort plus desire and positive attitude to achieve the goal of learning Sharing the same point of view, Harmer (2001) defines motivation as some kind

of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something The more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend on learning a second language Language achievement chiefly depends on the amount of exposure to the target language Motivation not only plays an important role in learning, it also helps the teacher Lite’s study (as cited in Dua, 2011) reveals that motivation is the backbone of

any classroom When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/her job the best

There are two basic types of motivation: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors as the need to pass an exam, getting good marks and the hope of a better job prospect, etc In contrast, intrinsic motivation is the learners’ eagerness and interest to take part in learning process itself because they feel that the learning activities are attractive and useful Many researchers agree that to be successful in language learning students need intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic one For them what happens in the classroom (classroom activities, learning atmosphere…) will be of vital importance in determining students’ attitude to the language

Motivation is the key factor in language learning in general and in the development

of speaking skills in particular One who has strong motivation usually take part in speaking activities enthusiastically One who has strong speaking motivation will take every chance to practice speaking in class and improve himself to speak more fluently and accurately On the contrary, one who has low motivation in speaking will rarely practice or even keep silent all the time Because of the importance of motivation to the teaching and learning English speaking skill, in this study, the research will try to explore the reasons why the students often have low motivation in speaking lessons and then offer possible solutions

In conclusion, the researcher strongly approves that motivation plays a significant role in foreign language learning in general and in developing speaking performances in particular Once learners have set the goal of learning, motivation will certainly help them produce effort and have a positive attitude to obtain the goal Therefore, in order to be successful, language teachers should be well aware of the importance of motivation and design authentic communicative speaking activities in which the learners get enthusiastically involved

2 1.4 Information gap activities

Teachers are often searching for activities to make their classroom more interactive; language teachers in particular are also looking for activities that promote target language use Information Gap activities are excellent activities as they force the students to ask

meaningful and authentic This section will explain in more detail what Information Gap activities are and why they are useful; it will also give some examples of Information Gap

activities for any language classroom

2 1.4.1 The definition of information gap activities

The Meaning of Gap

In current studies, researchers state that “gap” means the difference Rania (2011)

claims that if there are two students, A and B, and if A has some information which B

does not, and possibly vice-versa, then there is a difference or gap between the two students A task which requires B to find out the information that A has (i.e a task which closes the gap) will provide a reason for communication

Information gap activities

The concept of information gap is an important aspect of communication in a CLT classroom This essentially is based on the fact that in everyday life people usually communicate in order to get information they do not possess If the speaker and hearer are both in possession of the same information prior to beginning their communication, communication cannot take place

According to Harmer (2002) one type of speaking activity is called “information gap”-where two speakers have different parts of information making up the whole Because they have different information, there is a “gap” between them As a result, they need to communicate to each other to bridge this gap In the same respect, Richards and Schmidt (as cited in Fuqaha, 2015) claim that an Information-gap task is an activity 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

Although there are various definitions about information gap activities, most researches agree that information-gap is the activity in which the students may be in pairs

or in groups of two or more students They can be given different pieces of information about the same topic which creates a “gap” of knowledge that require students to communicate with each other to solve a problem or complete a task

There are two types of information gap activities: one-way and two-way McKay

and Tom in their study which was cited in Rania (2011) give a definition that one-way

occurs when one person holds all information which other group member(s) do not have

An example of a one-way information exchange is one in which one person has a picture

and describes it to his/her partner who tries to draw it Ellis (as cited in Rania 2011) asserts that in a two-way information gap activity, both learners have information to share to complete the activity e.g., both have some information about directions to a location, but they have to share the information that they have to complete the directions.

To sum up, both one-way and two-way information activities involve an information gap which must be exchanged between members in order for the activity to

be completed Regarding to the research, the author will design both one-way and two way information gap activities to give students plentiful opportunities to practice speaking English

2 1.4.2 Benefits of information gap activities

In Communicative Language Teaching in order to promote real communication between students, there must be an information gap between them and between them and their teacher Without such a gap, the classroom activities will be mechanical and artificial Johnson and Morrow (1981, p.62) recognized the value of information gap activities in the language classroom 20 years ago, calling the concept "one of the most fundamental in the whole area of communicative teaching" The researcher believes that information gap activities are used in class; students can gain big profits in developing their speaking performance

Firstly, the activities create plenty communication among students Kayi (2006) says that in information gap activities, students are supposed to be working in pairs or in groups One student will have the information that other partner does not have Hence, they have opportunities to talk extensively in the target language because they need to transfer the information in order to finish the task

Moreover, Information gap activities tend to provide equal participation among learners Dua (2011, p.15) reports, “Information gap activities allow each student to use the time effectively They do not need to sit on their chairs and wait until one-to-one or group-to-group presentation is finished Instead, the classroom activities are fairly distributed, every student has chance to speak” Each partner plays an important role Each of them has the task of finding out certain information, and therefore must find a way in which to ask for this information Classroom will not be dominated by talkative students.”

Last but not least, the motivation is quite high in these activities because students are forced to communicate in “real” English The situations are authentic and the activities can be motivating and fun to students “The learners interact freely with one another to gather information from their peers, thus creating a casual atmosphere, in which everybody feels comfortable and non- threatened to offer their contributions” (Harmer,

1991, p.49) In addition, information gap activities provide the students a desire to communicate with their partners or classmates because they don’t know and are curious about the information needed to complete the communicative task

Because of the above advantages, language students should be involved in as many situations as possible where one of them has some information and another doesn't, but has to get it-in other words, situations containing an information gap between the participants

2.1 4.3 Some popular information gap activities

Underhill (as cited in Dua, 2011) asserts that variety of techniques can be used in information gap activity Firstly, they may be peer or group interview Two students in turn set out questions and answers to get certain things about each other Secondly, they may be peer or group description and recreation information in which one describes a picture or a design to another student who has constructed the model from the description alone without seeing the original Thirdly, they can be games like such as describing and drawing, describing and guessing, finding the differences and completing a story, etc (Harmer, 1998) More specifically, Dua (2011) in her study summarizes some of common information gap activities with typical examples for each kind including: Filling the gaps, completing the picture, finding differences, talking about yourself, giving directions and problem solving/role play

*Filling the gaps: Partner A holds an airline timetable with some of the arrival and

departure times missing Partner B has the same timetable but with different blank spaces The two partners are not permitted to see each other's timetables and must fill in the blanks

by asking each other appropriate questions

*Completing the picture: Student A has an incomplete picture of a living room He/ She

has to ask student B who has a complete picture to find out where the things in the given box go and then draw them in the correct place Student B answers student A’s question about the things in the box to help him/ her complete the picture

*Finding differences: The two students in each pair have pictures which are identical

except for some important differences They do not look at each other’s pictures, but try

to find the differences by describing their picture

* Personal interview: For example, the teacher puts the students in pairs and asks them

to tell each other how they feel about their name and what name they would choose for themselves if they had to choose one that was different from the one they have

* Completing a Map/ Giving Directions: Two or more sets of maps are used Some

details are given on each of the maps, but on each student’s map certain places would be deleted and the names of these places would be listed at the bottom The task is to ask each other where the places are located to complete the map

* Problem-solving

As students are put in some situations that are similar to the real life, they actively join in the activities because of the feeling that they are doing with their language, taking the risks of experimenting what they have learnt Moreover, the lessons can become more practical and interesting to them

* Guessing: In addition to the above activities, guessing is also a common type of

information gap activities that are often used in class For example: Students work in pairs

or small groups One student chooses an object or a person and keeps it a secret The other students must ask yes or no questions to determine what that object/person is

In conclusion, there are various forms of information gap activities All the activities listed above will give the researcher a good orientation in designing different information gap activities for her own study later

2.1.5 Action research

Action research is actually suitable for any person who wishes to improve his or her performance For years, action research has been widely used in education, especially

by teachers who use it to improve their teaching According to Glickman, action research

in education setting is a study conducted by teacher researchers to improve problems in their classrooms Steps in action research vary from different points of view Creswell (as cited in Hien, 2009) asserts that action research is a dynamic, flexible process Hence,

it is really impossible to assert this or that researcher is right with exact four, five, six, seven or eight steps in their action research

Nunan’s action research model is discussed in more details in the researcher’s study since its steps seem to clear- cut enough for the researcher to follow The model includes seven steps In the first step, a problem in language classroom triggers the idea

of action research In the second step, a preliminary investigation is carried out in which baseline data are collected to help understand the nature of the problem Next, a

hypothesis is formulated after reviewing the initial data In the fourth step, a number of strategies are devised for intervention The next step is Evaluation in which an

assessment is carried out to evaluate the intervention The sixth step is Dissemination

In this step, a report of the research is published and ideas emerged from the research are shared The final step is Follow-up with the continual investigation of alternative solutions for the problem

2.2 Previous research Studies

This Section explores previous studies related to information gap activities The researcher has benefited from all the following studies in how to design, use properly, act

in different roles, choosing the suitable organization of group -work and pair-work, adapt the implementation of information gap activities in Tieng Anh 12

Siwi’s study (2011) was conducted with the first year students of a university in

Salatiga, Indonesia in the Academic Year 2011-2012 The study analyzed the improvement in students’ speaking competence through information gap strategy The methodology of the study is collaborative classroom action research In this research the writer was the teacher and assisted by an observer She noted all of the process in learning activities To find out the improvement of students’ speaking ability she used test, namely pre test and post test She used Kemmis’ action research model with two cycles Each cycle of an action research has four steps: plan, act, observe and reflect The study showed that the students got involved in activities in the teaching process, they were more confident to speak in English than before Information gap strategy has benefited students’ speaking competence in class

Dua’s study (2011) aimed to work out the causes of students’ low motivation, the

importance of using information activities to motivate students at Phuong Dong University to speak English To find the answers to these questions, an action research based on Nunan’s action research model was carried out through six main steps, using a combination of 3 data collection instruments (questionnaire, observation, pre-tests and

post-tests) The results showed that the students’ motivation increased significantly when the intervention was implemented

Another research was done by Putri (2014) The objective of the research was to

improve the speaking skills of students grade 8 in Indonesia by using information gap activities to develop students’ speaking ability in story telling performance The researcher used an action research that consists of four steps as proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart The data were quantitative and qualitative The qualitative data were obtained through observations and interviews The quantitative data were obtained from tests (the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-test) The result of the research showed that the use of information gap activities was able to improve the students’ speaking skills The students were more confident to speak in English They could retell the story fluently and their vocabulary also increased Furthermore, the students were actively engaged in the teaching learning process

Fuqaha (2015) study was carried out with 41 students of Twelve Grade of MAN

1 Pamekasan Based on the researchers’ observation, he noticed that students’ speaking skill was very not very good because of the classroom mixed ability and the teacher’s monotonous teaching activities To cope of this problem, the researcher employed the Information gap activities and used an action research to see how it worked In the study, the researcher and the collaborator worked together, the researcher acted as the teacher while the collaborator observed the students during the implementation of the strategy This study was conducted in one cycle consisting of six meetings using the four procedures; planning, implementing, observing and reflecting according to Kemmis andMcTaggart’s model. The data of the study were collected through the observation checklists, field notes, and questionnaires The research findings reveal that the Information gap activity has proved very effective to improve students’ speaking skill

Rahimi’s study (2016) investigated the effectiveness of Information Gap

technique in improving students’ speaking skill A quasi experimental research design was used in this study The population of this study was the eleventh graders of MAN 2 Semarang in the academic year 2014/2015 with the number of population around 210 students Two classes were taken as the samples with around 60 students The data were collected by using several activities They were pre-test, treatment, and post-test The

result of this study shows that the use of Information Gap technique in teaching speaking was better than the conventional method in improving students’ speaking skill.

Having studied previous studies on related issues, the researcher comes to several conclusions To begin with, although the above studies were conducted by different researchers in different countries, universities, and schools, administered on different students in different levels, most of the them employed action research method Data were both quantitative and qualitative Data collection instruments were often in the forms

of observation, questionnaires, interviews, and tests The research finds that steps in action research in the studies vary from different researchers’ points of view This idea is supported by Creswell (2005) when he asserts that “action research is a dynamic, flexible process” and there is “no blueprint exists for how to proceed.” In general, most of the previous research employed either Kemmis & McTaggart’s model or Nunan’s model because these models are basic and simple ones whose steps are clear to follow Secondly, most of the studies showed that more care should be given to teaching speaking skills and indicated that speaking skills needed to be more practical by adopting the communicative approach methods Lastly, most studies revealed the significance of using information gap activities in teaching/learning speaking skills

Reviewing previous studies directly relevant to the theme of this study has enriched the researcher’s background and extended her scope in this issue At the same time, it can light the way for the researcher to decide the best methodology used in her study

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research questions

The study aims to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the causes of the students’ low participation in English speaking activities?

2 To what extent can information gap activities increase the students’ participation

in speaking activities?

3.2 The study design

Action research was utilized in this study because it’s convenient and time

efficient The researcher can combine two duties - teaching and researching at the same time More importantly, it is beneficial to both teachers and learners since it is

concerned with improving the immediate learning environment (Wallace, 2001) The researcher can apply and test new teaching ideas which are expected to make better changes in her own classroom contexts In this study, Nunan’s action research model (1992) was applied because it is easy to carry out in the researcher’s own classroom in limited time and the steps in Nunan’s model are clear-cut to follow Quantitative data were obtained via questionnaires while qualitative data were mainly collected from observation, semi structured interview and mini projects

3.3 The context and participants of the study

3.3.1 The context of the study

This study was conducted at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted where the researcher works Although the school has received special attention from parents and students in local for its education and training quality, it is still a medium- sized school

in the mountainous northern of Vietnam Students have mixed English levels and background knowledge as they come from different parts in Thai Nguyen province such

as Thai Nguyen city, Pho Yen town, Phu Binh district, Dai Tu district, Song Cong city

A small group of them are ethnic minority

At Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, English is considered an extremely important subject to all students regardless the majors they are learning; hence, the students have to study English during three years at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted and must complete 105 periods of English a year A three-level English language set of textbooks for Vietnamese upper secondary school are used They follow the

The textbook consists of two volumes with 5 topic- based units for each Each unit has a 45 minute- speaking lesson in which only speaking skill is taught However, speaking skill as a tool of discussion is integrated in almost all of other lessons and skills Thus, it’s important that students should be well motivated to speak English in class

3.3.2 The participants

The research was carried out at Thai Nguyen High School for Gifted students with the participation of 61 students from 2 classes: Geography 12 and History 12 All of those students were born in 2000 They come from different parts of Thai Nguyen such as Tuc Duyen, Pho yen, Song Cong, Dai Tu Eleven out of the total are ethic minority At Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, they have to learn English as a compulsory subject

To begin with, the majority of those students started to learn English when they were in grade 3 Most of them revealed that they followed the traditional curriculum whereas only a small number of students from several schools in Thai Nguyen city such

as Nha Trang or Chu Van An had opportunity to get access to the new textbook with theme- based curriculum This means they all have learnt English for quite a long time but they had various linguistic background and achieved different levels of English proficiency Most of them claimed that they got used to focusing on English grammar rather than skills Moreover, when the investigated students attended the entrance exams

to Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, their average English test results were comparatively lower than ones in other specialized majors such as Math, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Literature Another important feature that is worth mentioning is that all of them use Vietnamese in their daily conversations, and they rarely have chances

to use English as a means of communication, except for some time in the classroom with teachers and classmates Almost all of students also said that they had never joined any English clubs as well as English extracurricular activities

The researcher was responsible to teach English for Geography class in all three academic years In the year 2017- 2018, the researcher began to teach English for History class From the researcher’s own experience and observation, along with the ideas of the researcher’s colleagues, the researcher found that although many of the students are good

at grammar, they tend to be silent and passive in speaking English They had little motivation in speaking lessons Because of the scope of the study, the researcher tries to sketch one small aspect of teaching and learning English of the non-English majors at

Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted It is speaking skill and how to motivate students

to speak in class

3.4 Procedures of the research

This research was officially carried out over a period of 32 weeks (from January 2018

to August 2018) Based on the selected research model, the following steps were done one after the other The description of the six-step procedure is presented as follows:

* Step 1: Initiation (from week 1)

Observing the speaking lessons, the researcher realized that the students’ learning motivation and their participation in speaking activities were low Therefore, she decided

to identify factors affecting the students’ learning motivation in speaking lessons and the

first research question formed was: "What are the causes of the students’ low participation in English speaking activities?" The survey questionnaire for preliminary investigation was then developed and piloted

* Step 2: Preliminary investigation (From week 2 to week 3)

Having analysed pilot work, the researcher then revised questionnaires After that the survey for preliminary investigation was sent out The data about the learners which may be factors affecting students’ motivation in English speaking activities were collected in order to confirm the problems stated in step 1 and find out the causes of students’ low motivation in speaking lessons (see Appendix 1: questionnaire 1) With the aim of collecting further insight information about the factors that inhibited students from speaking, the researcher, along with the assisted observers had an informal semi- structured interview with a number of random students from both classes

* Step 3: Hypothesis (From week 4 to week 5)

The analysis and discussion of the initial data led to the possible solution: Using information gap activities to motivate students in speaking lessons

* Step 4: Intervention (from week 6 to week 18)

The intervention was planned with the aim to answer the question: To what extent can information gap activities increase the students’ participation in speaking activities?

Based on the information from Questionnaire 1, the researcher found that the students were rather silent and passive in speaking English She felt the way to teach English was monotonous or not interesting The students had little motivation to interact and share the information with one another As a result, there should be interesting learning activities such as information gap activities which create a need for them to speak English Once students have a reason to speak, they will make every effort to improve their speaking performance During the implementation of information gap techniques, various activities have been designed and used to improve students’ speaking performance in 5 speaking lessons At the time when information gap techniques were utilized, students were studying Unit 8: ‘The World of Work’ and Unit 9: ‘Choosing Career’ according to the curriculum All the speaking lessons were taught in April, 2018

In lesson 1, a guessing game was used The purpose of the game is to give students free practice about asking Yes/ No questions to guess the job To carry out the game, students were divided into groups Each group was given a set of job cards, which were placed face down in a pile on the desk Each student in turn took a card randomly and kept it secret Other students tried to guess the secret job by asking about 10 Yes/ No questions The first student to correctly guess the job was the winner The game continues until all the cards were used In lesson 2, the students dealt with the missing information The activity was designed to give practice about asking and answering questions about jobs skills and qualities In this task, students worked in pairs One student has table A, the other has table B (see appendix) Each table contains different missing information which could be found in the other Students had to keep their paper secret while asking and answering questions about jobs skills and qualities Finally, based on the information collected, students made a report on the qualities of each job and told the class about their choice of future job The third lesson gave students chances work in pairs in which one student will be the job seeker, the other will be the job advisor They had a personal interview with their partner about likes or dislikes at work and then gave their partner useful advice on their appropriate future jobs In lesson 4, students moved around the classroom freely, asked their classmates to find someone who… and fill in the blanks After that they should be ready to report the answers in front of the class For example, students needed to find out someone who wants to works on a boat, someone who thinks working is more fun than studying, or someone who had a part-time job last summer etc

They could also ask more questions to find out additional information and noted down

In the last speaking lesson, the students had opportunity to practice speaking through a real life situation - a job interview In order to carry out the task, the teacher divided her students into two major groups: groups of employers (travel agency, shop owner, restaurant owner) and group of candidates by having them randomly pick up a card which told them who they would be After that, the teacher asked the students to prepare for their interview by asking and answering common interview questions Finally, students acted out the conversations as employers and applicants During the intervention, the speaking lessons were handed in different ways The lessons were observed using observation sheet (appendix 4) After the implementation, questionnaire 2 (appendix 2) was conducted to gather information about students’ attitudes towards information gap activities Besides speaking information gap tasks in class, the teacher also gave students further speaking practice through mini projects

* Step 5: Evaluation (From week 19 to week 25)

Questionnaire 2 was analyzed to gather information about the students’ attitude towards using information activities in speaking lessons Through the students’ responses, the researcher could evaluate the effectiveness of these activities exactly At the same time, mini projects from students were collected and given assessments

* Step 6: Dissemination (From week 26 to week 32)

The action research procedure and its results were reorganized and presented in form of a thesis, which was shared with the researchers’ colleagues and some other teachers, especially younger ones

3.5 Data collection instruments

In order to collect the data, the researcher used a combination of 4 instruments: Questionnaires, interviews, Observations and mini projects to guarantee the objectiveness

of the data

3.5 1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires are used to get the opinions and ideas of our learners and we do this by asking questions The answers are usually recorded in some ways so that they become available for subsequent reflection and analysis (Wallace, 2001) In this study, two questionnaires were designed because they provided the researcher with responses which could be easily quantified and analyzed

Questionnaire 1 contains 4 questions designed to gather information about the students’

reasons for learning English speaking, their attitudes towards learning English speaking, their frequency of unwillingness to speak English in class and the factors leading to their low participation in English speaking

Questionnaire 2 contains 6 questions designed to gather information about the students’

attitude towards using information gap in teaching speaking after the six weeks of plan implementation To make sure that the students understood the questions, the researcher spent about 20 minutes guiding them to answer and explaining difficult terms when she delivered the questionnaires to the students

3.5.2 Semi- structured interview

Semi- structured interview “allow researchers to develop in-depth accounts of experiences and perceptions with individuals” Cousin (2009, p 71) Related to this study, with the aim of collecting further insight information to answer the first research on factors that inhibited students from speaking, the researcher, along with the assisted observers had an informal semi-structured interview with a number of random students from both classes

3.5.3 Observations

Observation sheet adapted from Peacock (1997) was used to explore the level of

students’ motivation including the learners’ involvement in the tasks, and the interaction with other learners to fulfill the tasks

3.5.4 Mini projects

The teacher gave the students opportunities to create their own information gap activities about the topic they have already learnt, making projects in groups The video made by students are considered a reliable and valuable means to evaluate students’ speaking performances A speaking rubric for fluency activities was used (see

Appendix 6)

3.6 Data analysis

3.6.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage

3.6.1.1 Data from Questionnaire 1

Questionnaire 1 was designed to collect general information about students’

attitudes towards speaking skills in class and the corresponding factors causing students’

low motivation in speaking English The analysis and discussion of these initial data would help the researcher with the hypothesis to deal with the problem

Question 1: How important is English speaking skill to you?

On being asked about the importance of English speaking skills, 95% of students claimed that speaking skill was important to them Only 5% of them believed that speaking skill was not very crucial No student thought that English speaking was not essential at all In brief, almost all of students were well aware of the importance of English speaking and had positive attitude towards speaking skills

Question 2: Why do you think you need to learn English speaking?

The question was designed to work out the reason why students need to learn English speaking In response to this question, students can choose more than one answer Besides, they can freely add their own ideas In response to this question, only 8 out of 61 students stated that they were interested in English speaking skill and 12 students wanted

to be able to communicate in English 20 students believed that English speaking was necessary for their future job whereas 45 students claimed that they learned English speaking because it was mandatory at school A few students (about 6 students) said that the reason for their studying English was their desire to go abroad after finishing secondary education In brief, most of the students were well aware of the necessity of English for their future job However, the number of students who admitted that they studied English because it was a compulsory part in school syllabus accounts for the highest rate, nearly 6 times as many as the ones who are really keen on English speaking skill itself

Question 3: How often do you feel unwilling to speak English?

The question aims to find out the frequency of students’ unwillingness to speak English To answer the question, students can choose the most appropriate option The answers of the students reveal how often students feel unwilling to speak in English According to the collected data, 54 students equivalent with 88% always, usually or sometimes felt unwilling to speak English in class Only 7% of the students said that they were seldom unwilling to speak A very small portion of students (about 5%) answered that they always looked for chances to interact with their partners in the target language From the data, the researcher can come to the conclusion that most of them were not willing to speak English in class although they realized the significance of English speaking skills So what are the reasons for this situation? The answer can be found through question 3 and question 4 in Questionnaire 1

Question 4: What factors make you unwilling to speak English in class?

In an attempt to find out factors leading to the students' low motivation, the researcher gave out the question “What factors make you unwilling to speak English in

class?” To deal with this question, students can provide more than one response

Furthermore, they are able to produce their own answer

A Being afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at by my classmates and teachers

B Sometimes, speaking learning goal in class is not to communicate in real life situations

C I have little motivation to talk with my friends in English because I can help myself with the answers when dealing a lot of tasks

D Monotonous speaking activities

Chart 1 deals with factors causing students’ low participation in English speaking lesson From the data, it can be clearly seen that there are two key factors raised by the majority of students To begin with, sometimes speaking tasks’ goal was not to

communicate in ‘real’ English Moreover, many students had little motivation to talk with

their friends in English because they could help themselves with the answers when dealing tasks Another factor reported by one third of students includes the phobia of making mistakes then being laughed at by other classmates In addition, 10 out of 61 students revealed that the reason why they did not have a good motivation to speak was

monotonous speaking activities in class About 5 students added their own reasons for

their passiveness in English speaking class They admitted that they sometimes felt unpleasant with the atmosphere in the classroom

3.6.1.2 Data from semi- structured interview

Semi-structured interview gives the researcher some supplementary information

on the above questions In this interview, the researcher collaborated with her assisted observers randomly interviewed 15 students from two classes Most of them agreed with the factors listed in the 1st questionnaire However, 7 out of them provided other reasons for their low participation in learning speaking skills “We have little time to speak in pairs or groups”, said student A Besides, they often felt unpleasant and stressful with the atmosphere in the classroom “I don’t like the stressful atmosphere in speaking lessons Most of us are afraid of speaking”, student B and C revealed Another important reason reported by the students was that they felt bored because the teacher did not make any changes with the materials and activities in the textbook Student D said “I don’t like some speaking activities in the textbook as they are so boring and I had nothing to say about them” These students wished to be included in more interesting and authentic speaking activities They also recommended more pair-work and group-work so that they had more time to speak with their classmates Having gathered students’ ideas and

and they helped to reflect additional causes of students low participation in speaking lessons

3.6 2 Data from the intervention stage

The application of information gap activities was observed with Observation sheets (see Appendix 3, 4, 5) to assess the overall motivation and the students’ participation The students’ opinions about the implementation of using information gap activities were collected through Questionnaire 2

3.6.2.1 Data collected from Observation sheet

Observation sheets adapted from Peacock and (see appendix 3, 4 )look at the data

(between two classes) on students’ participation in terms of two main criteria: students’ involvement in the speaking activities and students’ interaction with one another to fulfill the tasks

In order to have a comparison data between some certain points of time during the process of information gap activity implementation, the researcher decided to collaborate with two assisted observers to observe the class in lesson 1 ( the beginning period), lesson

3 (the middle period) and lesson 5 (the final period) In speaking lesson 1, students were asked to work in groups and played a guessing game Speaking lesson 3 dealt with a personal questionnaire in which students worked in pairs, asking about their partners’ likes or dislikes at work Based on the responses, the students gave their friends advice about the suitable future career In lesson 5 students had opportunities to work in groups and took a role play on a job interview

After the implementation period, the data were then collected and analyzed as follows

Chart 2 and chart 3 presents data on students’ motivation in terms of students’ involvement and students’ interaction with one another in information gap activities

It is clear from the chart that the students’ motivation in information gap activities was high because a big proportion of students were involved in the speaking lessons and most of the students paid attention to the activities and communicated quite effectively

Looking at the information in more detail, in lesson one, a small number of students (corresponding to 8 students) were not very involved in the speaking activities,

Chart 2 Students' involvement in information gap activities

Chart 3: Students' interaction in information gap activities

Often keep silent or hesitate too often when speaking Try to communicate and generally respond appropriately always actively stay on the task and communicate effectively