using role play to improve 10th graders’ speaking skill at a mountainous upper secondary school in binh thuan province

Under the pressure from the society about the high demand of Englishlevel, the English staff in the writer’s school decided to choose the Communicative Language Teaching Approach here af

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Trần Thị Linh Sơn

SPEAKING SKILL AT A MOUNTAINOUS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BINH THUAN PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Trần Thị Linh Sơn

SPEAKING SKILL AT A MOUNTAINOUS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BINH THUAN PROVINCE

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Lê Hương Hoa, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

DECLARATION BY THE AUTHOR

Honestly speaking, I declare that this thesis “Using role play to improve 10 th graders’ speaking skill at a mountainous upper secondary school in Bình Thuận province”, which I have written, is not a plagiarism,

except those cited in the quotation and the source of which is listed on thebibliography

Author’s signature

Trần Thị Linh Sơn

Approved bySUPERVISOR

Lê Hương Hoa, Ph.D.

Date: ………

During the process of carrying out this thesis, I have received a larger amount of contribution and support from many people.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.

Lê Hương Hoa, who always gives useful advices and her enthusiasm to finish this thesis.

I also address my deepest gratitude to Dr Đặng Nguyên Giang, as The Head of the English Department, for his support and encouragement in the process of finishing this thesis.

Next, I would like to thank the headmaster of Đức Linh High school, Phan Văn Pháp, who has allowed and supported me to complete the Master thesis.

Last but not at least, I would like fly my gratitude to my family, my friends, my colleagues and my students who have given me constant support during the completion of the study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION BY THE AUTHOR i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aim(s) of the Study 2

1.3 Research Questions 2

1.4 Scope of the Study 2

1.5 Significance of the Study 2

1.6 Research Methods 3

1.7 Structure of the Study 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2 1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): 5

2 1.1 Concepts of CLT 5

2 1.2 Main characteristics of CLT 5

2 1.3 Conditions of Applying CLT 6

2.1.4 Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill 7

2 2 An overview of role play 8

2 2.1 What is role play? 8

2.2.2 Types of role-play 9

2.2.3 Techniques to Control Role-Play 12

2.2.4 Procedures of role-play 12

2.3 Speaking skill 15

2.3.1 Definition of speaking skill 15

2.3.2 The elements ofspeaking 16

2.3.3 Points to consider about speaking 17

2.4 Using Role-Play in Teaching and learning Speaking 19

2.5 Summary……….……… 20

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 The method of research 22

3.2 Setting and subjects of theinvestigation 22

3.3 The Research Design 23

3.4 The Classroom Action Research Procedures 27

3.4.1 Planning Phase 27

3.4.2 Acting Phase 27

3.4.3 Observing Phase 27

3.4.4 Reflecting Phase 28

3.5 The Technique of Collecting Data 28

3.5.1 Observation 28

3.5.2 Questionnaire 29

3.5.3 Test 30

3.5.4 The Technique of Data Analysis 32

3.6 The Criteria of the Action Success 34

3.7 Summary……….……… 34

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ……… 35

4.1 The Description of the Data 35

4.1.1 Findings before Implementing the Classroom Action Research 35

4.1.2 Findings of the First Cycle 36

4.1.3 Findings of the Second Cycle 39

4.2 Findings after Implementing the Classroom Action Research 44

4.2.1 The Result of Posttest 44

4.2.2 The result of Questionnaire 51

4.3 Summary 545

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 56

5.1 Recapitulation: 56

5.2 Conclusion Remarks 57

5.3 Implications 57

5.4 Limitation and Suggestions for Further Studies 59

5.4.1 Limitation 59

5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 59

REFERENCES 61

APPENDICES I

Appendix 1 I

Appendix 2 II

Appendix 3 III Appendix 4 IV Appendix 5 V

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.5.1 Assessing Students’ Progress

Table 3.5 3 The Rating Scores of Oral Test

Table 4.2.1 The Students’ Speaking Score of Pre-test, Post test 1, Post testTable 4.2.2.a The use of role play technique

Table 4.2.2.b Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill

Table 4.2.2.c Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Communicative Language Teaching = CLT Classroom action research = CAR Students = Sts

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Theoretically, there have been many researchers in Vietnam and in theworld who have worked and given a lot of solutions to improve students’speaking skill The majority of them focus on using new method, such as task-based, pair works, group works, etc These activities are so useful for activestudents and the students who have a good foundation Very few writers havenoticed to lower evaluated learners, especially students in remote andmountainous area

Under the pressure from the society about the high demand of Englishlevel, the English staff in the writer’s school decided to choose the

Communicative Language Teaching Approach (here after CLT) to teach

English Speaking at all levels with the hope they can help their students bothimprove their English knowledge and use it effectively and fluently incommunication by using this teaching method This idea is also suggested bymany linguists and methodologists such as Nunan (1991) and Das, B.K(1985)

Practically, as an English teacher at a high school in a mountainousdistrict of Bình Thuận province, I have found that students in our school as well

as in our district face big problems in speaking skill They almost speak verylittle or nothing in this lesson One more thing is that most of the tasks designed

in text book are so difficult for them to master Hence, I would like to dosomething with a hope to improve speaking skills for our students and the topic

entitled “Using role play to improve 10 th graders’ speaking skill a

mountainous upper secondary school in Bình Thuận province” has been

chosen for my study

1.2 Aim(s) of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to help students at a mountainoushigh school in Bình Thuận province enhance their speaking skill through role

in speaking lessons at the English class The writer also makes somesuggestions to give some advices to the English teachers in their teachingspeaking skills with a view to helping the students develop their speakingcompetence

(iii) To what extent do the students in a mountainous area improve their speaking skills by using role-play technique?

1.4 Scope of the Study

The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning Englishspeaking to students at a high school in Bình Thuận province

It is conducted at a mountainous high school in Bình Thuận with 41 tenthgrade students

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study claims to be of some help for high school students in aremote district of Bình Thuận The result of the study may encourage students

to overcome their shyness and to be more confident in speaking lesson atschool

1.6 Research Methods

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the researcher decides touse Classroom Action Research to collect information from the students at amountainous area in Bình Thuận Firstly, the teacher will deliverquestionnaires to the students so that more information on the reality andproblems they face and solutions implemented can be collected Secondly, thestudents will be tested by the pretest This activity aims at checking theknowledge of the student before implementing the technique After that, theauthor also has the test to compare the results between pre test and post test Ifthe result of the post test does not satisfy, the teacher will investigate thereasons and choose the more effective way The information fromquestionnaires and the post test can help to draw a general picture about thereality of teaching and learning speaking skills at this school and suggestsome solutions for this situation

1.7 Structure of the Study

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION which presents the rationales, theobjectives, the method and the design of the study It expresses the reasonwhy the author decided to choose this study and the methods for thefulfillment of the study

Chapter two is the LITERATURE REVIEW which includes sevenparts Part one deals with a historical overview of literature It starts with thetheoretical issues on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), whichconsists of the definition, characteristics, communicative competence, usingCLT in teaching speaking, conditions of applying CLT, and the factors

affecting CLT application Part two discusses about an overview of role play,

such as What is role play?; types of role-play; techniques to Control

Role-Play; procedures of role-play Part three provides the definition of speakingskill, elements of speaking (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency andcomprehension) and points to consider about speaking Part four is concernedabout teaching speaking skills, the goal of teaching speaking; types ofclassroom speaking performance; the Roles of the teacher during speakingactivities and the assessment of speaking Part 5relates to difficulties inteaching speaking skill Part 6 deals with learning speaking skill Finally, theresearcher recommends the teaching speaking skill by using role play.

Chapter three emphasizes the RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Thischapter focuses on the research method covering research design and researchprocedure

Chapter four, the author would like to provide some information aboutthe FINDINGS of the study and DISCUSSIONS to improve the teaching andlearning to speak English

Chapter five is the CONCLUSION which summarizes the thesis withkey issues in the study and makes some suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2 1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT):

As with any definition of the language teaching process, the abovedescription reflects a particular vision of language acquisition comprehensionand clarification It is constructed in a social way and must be seen as aproduct of social, cultural, economic and political forces

Canale and Swain (1980) expanded both for teaching and for testing

on the theoretical basis of CLT In their reaction against an over emphasis

on function and a lack of emphasis on grammatical complexity, theypointed out that externally oriental communication is not necessarily moreessential than other proposes of language such as “self-expression, verbalthinking, problem solving, and creative writing”

2 1.2 Main characteristics of CLT

Language is not simply a regulatory system Now it is generally viewed

as "a dynamic resource for creating meaning" (Nunan, 1989) That point ofview is really CLT support

CLT aims at (a) making communication skills the goal of languageteaching and (b) developing procedures for teaching the four language skillsthat recognize language and communication interdependence

- The goal of CLT is to create a realistic context for language acquisition inthe classroom to develop Hymes’ notion of communicative competence(1972)

- CTL is also associated to learner-centered and experienced based tasks

- CLT focuses on the functional use of language and the ability of the

learners to express themselves In other words, developing the skills of the learners is more important for CLT than the teaching and learning content (Johnson, 1982)

- There are three major principles of CLT:

(1) Principle of communication: emphasizes activities involving real

communication which promote learning

(2) Task Principle: purposes which promote learning through activities used

to perform meaningful tasks

(3) Principle of meaningfulness: asserts that language meaningful to learners supports the learning process (Lê Văn Canh, 2004)

2 1.3 Conditions of Applying CLT

2 1.3.1 Authentic materials

Adherent of the Communicative Approach (Das, B.K,1985) advises theuse of authentic language materials to overcome the typical problem thatstudents cannot transfer what they learn in the classroom to the outside worldand expose students to natural language in a variety of situations Materialssuch as newspaper articles, target-language books, live radio or televisionbroadcast programs are only suitable for high-intermediate-level students.Authentic materials are realistic and most desirable for those with lower target

language skills However, the lower level class can use authentic materialswithout having a lot of complicated language objects, but it could create moredebate.

2 1.3.2 Teachers

The role of teacher is also one of the most important components forthe application of CLT In CLT class, teachers are not only facilitators of thelearning of the students but also advisors of the wondering of the students Wemay sometimes serve as a co-communicator to communicate with the students

in the communicative activities Teachers are initiators of activities in theclassroom but they do not always interact with the students By having themshare their ideas and opinions, they give the students the chance to expresstheir individuality As for Littlewood (1981), this helps learners to integratetheir own personality into the target language and feel more emotionallysecure with it

2.1.4 Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill

It is important to make students feel comfortable and confident whenusing communicative practices, feel free to take risks and have chances totalk There are two kinds of classrooms available to second language learnersaccording to Pica, Young and Doughty (1987): As a traditional "teacher-fronted" classroom, input has been modified or simplified; and authenticstudent-to-student interaction is emphasized It provides more opportunitiesfor the learners to speak since the learners try to reach mutual understandingand change their language according to the situation's demand

The basic curriculum in which the instructor will work is often giventhe goals for speaking In some cases, the syllabus will consist of a list ofgrammar structures to be taught In making the best use of what is availablefor teaching purposes, the teacher must be flexible In other words, the teacher

must have some freedom to decide which goals to achieve, which content tocover and what activities to use In this case, the teacher can go beyond thespecific goals and objectives of the specific program to address the languageneeds of the students in the "real world."

In classroom there are many speaking activities that can be used, such

as scrambled sentence, language games, role-plays, problem-solving,discussion, cued story, picture story etc

2 2 An overview of role play

2 2.1 What is role play?

In teaching speaking skill, role-play is always the prior to most of theEnglish teacher According to Ladousse (1989), role play is an effective

instrument to enhance learners’ activeness and efficiency of learning English.Gillian Porter Ladousse explained that in specific situations, when studentsassume a "Position," they play a part (either their own or someone else's)

"Play" means a safe environment where students are as creative andimaginative as possible (Ladousse & Ladousse de Porter, 1996)

Byrne (1998) also characterize role-play by giving a few remarks thatrole play is a part of drama activities He presents explicitly that there arethree terms to cover the drama activities They are mime, role play andsimulation

Mime: Attendees do actions without using words

Role play: The participants interact in imaginary situations, either asthemselves or as others

Simulations: The participants normally discuss a problem of some sortwith certain settings that were defined for them for this activity

By studying his view, it is clear that both role play and simulation aregenerally used in foreign language classes to stimulate communicative

competence whereas mime is more suitable as a language game It performsactivities without making use of words For example, if somebody mimes anaction, the others attempt to guess what it is.

From what are mentioned above, the role play is described as a strategywhich includes imagination to be another person or to be ourselves in aspecific situation for a while, improvising dialog and making a genuine world

in situation Role play activities can encourage students’ thinking and creativeactivities, help students develop and practice new dialect and behavioral skills

in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can make the motivation andinvolvement important for learning to happen Role play is an effective andpowerful teaching technique for children and adult and can be adjusted toconvey any taking in targets from easy to complex ideas

As indicated by Don Byrn, role play can be assembled into twostructures The first is scripted role play, which includes either deciphering thetext book dialog or reading text as a speech After all, the main function of thecontent is to memorably convey the meaning of the linguistic items Thesecond is unwritten role-playing Unlike scripted role play, unscripted roleplay situations don't depend on textbook It's called a free role play Whilejoining in this structure, students themselves need to choose what language toutilize and how the discussion ought to develop So as to do this action, goodpreparation from teacher and students is extremely vital

2.2.2 Types of role-play

Role play is a speaking activity in which learners participate in aspecific situation, either themselves or like someone else According to Nesteland Tierney (2007), activities involving role play typically fall within one ofthree categories One category of role playing is the role playing which isfully scripted Participants communicate through a given script during the

completely scripted role play During this form of role play, there's no chancefor participants to respond personally Still, the activity typically offersopportunities for discussion and reflection Another type of role play is roleplay which is partially scripted The participant is given an opening prompt oroutline to guide his responses during the partially scripted role-play The finaltype of role play is the role play which is completely unscripted Participantsare expected to perform in the unscripted role play, as they would typically do

in a given scenario (Nestel & Tierney, 2007)

On the other hand, considering role-playing types, Littlewood (1994)divides role-playing activities based on the nature of the information given tothe learners as follows:

The first form is guided role play by cued dialogues After entering thisoperation, the learners receive signals on separate cards Each learner mustlisten to his partner before they provide a suitable response The indicationsallow them to predict their responses and to prepare the general gist Theteacher can obtain the appropriate forms that will later help the learners Thehints control the functional meanings to be expressed by learners The socialsituation and relationship determines what type of language is suitable.Teachers can prepare for the activity by equipping appropriate forms for thelearners Two sets of hints need to be closely interlocked; no cue produces anutterance that conflicts with what follows This type of activity can be seenlimiting the creativity (Littlewood, 1994, p 51)

The second type is the controlled role play by means of indications andinformation There is a more flexible framework to it Specific instructionsare given only to one learner The other is given information which enableshim to react as needed The structure comes from one student having theability to improvise variants, the other having to respond Control of the

teacher becomes looser, and the scope of creativity for the learner increases.Such practices emphasize the application of the communication process,rather than the assessment of its output The learner's attention is focused onthe forms he/she needs to learn in pre-communicative language practice.These activities allow the teacher to control and ensure the interaction.

Role play controlled through situation and is the third type In this type, thelearners with the high level are required Through that situation, students have

to achieve through communication Initially the learners are only aware of theoverall situation and their own goals within it They themselves have todiscuss the connection

The final type of role play is in the form of a discussion or debate Thesituation is, in detail, a debate or discussion of a real or simulated issue Thepreconditions for the activity are that learners should have adequateknowledge of the issue, and different views to defend At first, the learnershave to digest the relevant information for the issue, and then discuss it in asmall group They can either come to a concrete decision or simply put thematter to a vote at the end The interaction results from a conflict of views(Littlewood, 1994, p 57)

Overall, there are many different types of role-playing activities.However, considering language competence, the author finds that thestudents’ level is not very high Thus, the first type of role play could beboring for these students: the dialogs here are simple and not very creative.They are unable to engage in discussions or debates because their repertoire

of vocabulary and grammar is not appropriate On the other hand, the secondand the third type (cues and information, situation and goals) enable them todevelop their creativity The students are fond of making up various situations

in which they can express their imagination In this study, both role-play

controlled by means of signs and knowledge and role play controlled bycircumstance and goals was implemented and planned in speaking classes forthe students.

2.2.3 Techniques to Control Role-Play

There are many techniques that can be used by teachers to control theclass during role-play Meanwhile, Littlewood (1981) proposed fourtechniques may be used by the teachers in control role play in their class.Those are:

- Role-play controlled by cued dialogues;

- Role-play controlled by indications and information;

- Role-play controlled by situation and objectives;

- Role-playing in the form of discussion or discussion

In this study, the writer will conduct role play using twotechniques In the first cycle of Classroom action research (CAR), the writerwill conduct role play through cued dialogues Meanwhile in the second cycle

of CAR, the writer will conduct role play through cues and information inorder to stimulates students to be more active and creative to use their ownsentences

2.2.4 Procedures of role-play

When using role play, the teacher will take some stages As Ladousse(1989), the activities ought to be arranged from controlled to innovative ones.The first stage is pre-open semantic structures The fundamental criterion forsuccess is whether the student produces adequate language At that point,there is a communicative stage The production of semantic structuresbecomes subordinate The criterion for success is whether the meaning oflinguistic form is passed viable It implies that students are introduced some

new things, they are drilled with these things, and afterward, they are reliedupon to have the capacity to utilize them.

2.2.4.1 Presenting and practicing the forms and vocabulary

At this stage educators present the language which is probably going torise They pre-teach vocabulary and structures A few models can becomposed on the board or given to students on worksheets An exampledialog can be presented The structures and vocabulary ought to be drilledappropriately so as the students might utilize them creatively in the followingstage There are numerous reasonable activities which can be applied: drilling,learning the example dialogues by heart, coordinating parts of the sentences,filling in exercises, putting the dialogues in the right order, word games, and

so forth It depends on the educator what he/she will utilize It takes sometime before students." memorize the forms, get the pronunciation right andconsolidate the meaning of the item.” (Gower & Walters, 1983, p 83) Beforethe pretend, students are outfitted with all the suitable language

"Some support may be provided on the role cards later, but they should not beoverwhelmed or the students will be tempted to follow them too closely andsimply to recite the offered structures" (Ladousse, 1989, p 45)

2.2.4.2 Implementing role-play

At first, students ought to be motivated and get engaged with thesubject The atmosphere ought to be friendly and relaxed because of shystudents The instructor explains the activities clearly Students need to knowwhat to do precisely Along these lines, they will feel confident and they willgain benefit from the activity In role play, students usually work in sets Theycan either discover a partner themselves or the instructor can present a fewexercises which set up two students together At that point, they get the rolecards It is appropriate to set the time limited and stick to it Holding up until

everybody has completed is not prescribed During the activities, the educatorgives them with feedback later At last, the volunteers can play out theirdialogues but no one should be forced to do so.

Role play exercises can be partitioned into four phases (Cherif andSomervill, 1998): preparation and explanation of the activities by theeducator; student preparations of the activities; the role-playing; and thediscussion or questioning after the role play activities

From these above assessments about the procedures in using role playactivities, the author concurs with Ladousse (1989) that using role playactivities, feedback is very necessary It is vital to analyze the entireprocedure because it can be useful for the students "Feedback is informationthat is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task,usually with the objective of improving this performance.” (Ur, 1996, p.242)

“Teacher can see how well their class is doing and what language problemsthey are having; students can also see how easy they find a particular kind ofspeaking and what they need to do to improve.” (Harmer, 2004, p.87) Eachphase of role play should finish with giving feedback to students Theirexecution ought to be checked and assessed Ur (2000) points out thatfeedback comprises of two segments

2.2.4.3 Correction

Some particular information is given on aspects of the students’performance It ought to incorporate information on what the students diddirectly just as wrong and why

2.2.4.4 Assessment

The teacher will encourage students to join the task well and gravely

As per Ur (2000), the instructor should note down errors in language structureand pronunciation and show how every student communicated, how fluent

she/he was It is not prescribed to interfere with the students when they aretalking since it could spoil the communication and the point could be lost.After role play, the mistakes can be written on the board and the students arewelcome to correct them The instructor is unnecessary to point out who madethe mistakes.

To sum up, the above steps do not mean accurate to be utilized It isflexible; educator can make or create strategies which are proper and appropriatewith his/her very own class In this study, the writer will implement role playactivities in speaking classes based on the blend of the perspective on Ladousse(1989) and Ur (2000) on methods of role play activities and Byrne (1991) aboutthe improvement approach of speaking skills

2.3 Speaking skill

Many language learners consider the measure of knowing a language to

be the ability to speak As for them, fluency is the ability to converse muchmore with others than the ability to read, write or understand the orallanguage They see speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, andthey assess their progress on spoken communication in terms of theirachievements Thus, if learners do not learn how to speak or do not getopportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon lose interest

in learning and become de-motivated On the contrary, speaking in class can

be a lot of fun if the right activities are taught in the right way, raising generallearner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun anddynamic place to be

2.3.1 Definition of speaking skill

Talking is an important part of human communication Differentlinguists have different speech ideas but they all agree with this theory

Brown (1994) defines talking as a meaning-building process involvingthe production, reception, and processing of information.

Spoken language in the opinions of Brown and Yule (1983) consists ofbrief, fragmentary utterances in a variety of pronunciations There is usually alot of echo and contrast between one speaker and another Usually spokesmanuses non-specific references They also add that the spoken language is madeusing a loosely organized syntax, and non-specific words, phrases and filters

2.3.2 The elements of speaking

Speaking is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of a number

of different abilities, which often develop at the different rates Either four orfive components are generally recognized in analyzing the speech process

2.3.2.1 Pronunciation

As stated by Harmer (2001), if students want to be able to speakfluently in English, they need to be able pronounce phonemes correctly, useappropriate stress and intonation patterns and speak in connected speech Thespeaker must be able to articulate the words, and create the physical soundsthat carry meaning At the level of word pronunciation, second languagelearners regularly have problems distinguishing between sounds in the newlanguage that do not exist in languages they already know

2.3.2.2 Grammar

It is obvious that in order be able to speak foreign language, it isnecessary to know a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary Grammar isthe sounds and the sound patterns, the basic units of meaning, such as words,and the rules to combine them to form new sentences Therefore, grammar isvery important in speaking because if the speaker does not master grammarstructure, he/she cannot speak English well

2.3.2.3 Vocabulary

As we know, vocabulary is a basic element in language Vocabulary issingle words, set phrases, variable phrases, phrasal verbs, and idioms It isclear that limited vocabulary mastery makes conversation virtuallyimpossible

2.3.2.4 Fluency

In simple terms, fluency is the ability to talk freely without too muchstopping or hesitating Meanwhile, according to Gower et-al, fluency can bethought of as the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously Whenspeaking fluently students should be able to get the message across withwhatever resources and abilities they have got, regardless of grammatical andother mistakes

2.3.2.5 Comprehension

The last speaking element is comprehension Comprehension isdiscussed by both speakers because comprehension can make people gettingthe information they want Comprehension is defined as the ability tounderstand something by a reasonable comprehension of the subject or as theknowledge of what a situation is really like

2.3.3 Points to consider about speaking

Speaking is considered one of the most significant forms ofcommunication, so it is important that what you are saying is conveyed in themost effective way How you say something can be as important as what yousay in getting your meaning across Jones (1989,p.14) stated that there aresome points to consider about speaking They are:

2.3.3.1 Clarity

The words you speak must be clear if listeners are able to understandwhat you say This means speaking your words is distinct and separate, notrunning them together, and slurring them

2.3.3.2 Variety

Speech has its own rhythms and tunes The voice usually rises, forinstance, to indicate a question Some words in a sentence require moreemphasis than others if the meaning is to be clear Unimportant words tend to

be spoken more quickly than important ones Consider things like pitch,emphasis, speed, variations in volume, pauses

2.3.3.3 Audience and tone

The way you speak and the tone you use will be affected by theaudience to whom you are speaking

In short, in peaking, speakers must consider the three points above so thatthey can convey meaning as effectively as possible

2.3.4 Types of speaking activities

The most important feature of speaking activity is to provide anopportunity for the students to get individual meanings across and utilizeevery area of knowledge they have According to Riddel (2001, p.117), thereare various kinds of activities that can be implemented by teachers in order tostimulate students to speak Those activities are ranking, balloon debate,debates, describing visuals, role-plays, students’ talks, and discussion

In this study, the writer chooses role play as a technique to improve thestudents’ speaking skill because it can work with any levels With lowerlevels, give them a realistic context (especially if in an English-speakingcountry) like shopping, and a realistic role (i.e the customer, not the shopassistant)

2.4 Using Role-Play in Teaching and learning Speaking.

Role-play is very significant in teaching speaking skill It gives thestudents a chance to experience different social roles Here they may becomeanyone they like such as a driver, a doctor, an engineer or even a King Itcreates the fun and motivation to stimulate the learners In the teachingspeaking process, choosing materials is necessary The majority of theteachers use authentic materials for teaching speaking

According to Gower et al (2005, p.82): “Authentic materials areanything a native speaker of English would hear or read or use can bedescribed as authentic: theatre programmes, newspapers, magazines, poems,songs, brochures, information leaflets, menus, news broadcasts, films onvideo – the list is endless Because authentic materials are not designed for theEFL student they are not graded for level, although some are obviously moredifficult to understand than others”

The above examples remind us that using credible content is of greatinterest to teachers and students alike Teachers can not only express theirimagination but also lift and develop the opinions of the students There areseveral resources that can be used in teaching speaking using role play duringthis task, such as: a script or dialog that relates to the relevant topic or ideasand the player or student who act as a character upon the topic including thesupporting materials for this activity Also, preparing the role play activity isone thing that the instructor should be dealt with The best medium for thescenarios is paper Teachers are allowed to give players time to study thescenarios before training

To hold role playing, the teacher must prepare some steps to makegood performance Here are the stages in Role Play activity:

- The teacher arranges or prepares scenario that will be performed bythe students This scenario is important for the students to know the situation

of their roles

- The teacher appoints some students to learn about the scenario severaldays before teaching and learning activity Giving time for the students isuseful to have them good preparation for acting

- The teacher makes groups of students consists of five people pergroup The teacher has to makes group in variant member due to their ability

of speaking So, the smart student is combined with low student

- The teacher explains about competence will be achieved The teacherenlightens the students that from their performance, they will know someexpressions of giving opinions and it response, and making and declining andinvitation

- The teacher calls a group of students who have been chosen to playprepared scenario On the other hand, the teacher chooses the group toperform

- Each student in his/her group observes scenario being performed

- After finishing the performance, each student is given work sheet for discussing each group performance

- Every group which has performed gives conclusion about what

scenario has been performed

- The teacher gives general conclusion That is about the material that has been done by the students in their role-play

- Evaluation It is held by test to know their understanding in the

material

- Closing

2.5 Summary.

To sum up, the above steps are not intended to correct usage It isflexible; teachers can make or build correct and effective techniques with theirown students

In this chapter, the literature relevant to the issue of Role Play in terms

of learning and teaching speaking skill has been reviewed carefully by theresearcher For the purpose of this study, the researcher has adopted the mix

of perspective on Ladousse (1989) and Ur (2000) on role-playing methodsand Byrne (1991) about the improvement approach of speaking skills toinvestigate the use of role play for upgrading the 10th graders’ speaking skills

at a mountainous upper secondary school in Binh Thuan province

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the method of research, setting and subjects of theinvestigation, research design, the Classroom Action Research (CAR)procedures technique of collecting data, technique of the data analysis, andthe criteria of the action success

3.1 The method of research

Classroom Action Research method derived from the root an actionresearch is used in this study Because it occurs in the classroom frame, it iscalled CAR

Kemmis and Hammersley (1993) stated: “Action research is a form ofself –reflective enquiry undertaken by participants a social (includingeducational) situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a)their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of thesepractices, and (c) the situations in which the practices are carried out”

Thus, classroom action research is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bringabout change and improvement in practice

From the statement above, the author can concluded that in the scope ofeducation, Classroom Action Research is done to improve the quality ofteachers, administrators, students, the teaching learning process, and certaincommunity personnel Furthermore, it will give the better results when donecollaboratively Therefore, Action Research was chosen as a major tool toconduct this research

3.2 Setting and subjects of the investigation

The subject of this study is 41 students with 13 boys and 28 girls whoare in class 10A8 of Đức Linh high school academic year 2019-2020 ĐứcLinh is a mountainous district of Binh Thuận province During teachingEnglish at this school for nearly 15 years, the author has learnt that most of

the students here are in very low level of English because of the followingreasons.

Firstly, Đức Linh district is located 140km from Phan Thiet city- thecentral of Binh Thuan province There is no English centre for people to sendtheir children to develop their English Students don’t have chance tocommunicate with native English speaker

Secondly, people are in need of many things because most of the family

in this district is in low living conditions, so they are busy making andmeeting to support their family They seem not to pay attention to their kids’learning, especially learning English They do suppose that learning English isonly for rich family, not for poor people Furthermore, what they need is theirchildren have learnt how to read and write their mother language Therefore,most of the students in this district are in low level of English, especiallyspeaking skill

Thirdly, the English teachers mainly focus on practicing somegrammatical exercises based on text books published by Ministry ofEducation and Training They have a big problem with the hesitance ofpracticing the material as well as the drilling conducted by the teacher in thelearning process

In the other words, the students are lack of the confidence in presentingtheir ideas through speech Therefore, they could not cope with the classmaterial That is why they need an appropriate strategy to help them improvetheir speaking

3.3 The Research Design

The researcher used the Classroom Action Research (CAR) procedure

by Kurt Lewin’s design (1993) with two cycles in which each cycle containsfour phases; planning, acting, observing, and reflecting The researcher will

do this classroom action research in two cycles As stated by Arikunto (2012,p.3) that “Classroom action research should be implemented at least twocycles continuously” This means that a classroom action research should beconducted at least in two cycles If the results are less satisfactory, researcherscan perform the cycle once again in order to achieve the criteria that havebeen determined.

In order to be clear, the writer would like to present a model of ActionResearch stated by Kurt Lewin in a figure 3.3.a and a model of CAR wasmodified by the researcher (See figure 3.3.b)

CYCLE 1 Acting Observing

CYCLE 1

Planning

- Choose the appropriate

material and topics related

to the syllabus.

- Make the lesson plan

- Prepare the observation

checklist for the student

Acting

- Give expressions and vocabularies needed

- Explain for interaction practicing

- Practice role-play activities

-Students perform role play

in the front ofthe class

Reflecting

- Evaluate the teaching

and learning process

- Analyze the students’

achievement

- Review the lesson plan

for next cycle

CYCLE 2

Planning

 Revise lesson plan and

modify the technique

 Reselect the materials

 Prepare the observation checklist

 Analyze the students’ progress in

speaking based on the score they got

in post – test 2

 Analyze the students’ responds

based on the questionnaire result

Acting

 Review the previous material

 Give the next topic

 Group work ( practice role play)

 Students perform role play in the front of the class

 Evaluate and general conclusion

The Phases of Classroom Action Research that Modified by the Writer

(Adapted from Kurt Lewin’s Action Research Design)

26

3.4 The Classroom Action Research Procedures

3.4.1 Planning Phase

Planning phase is the first step of the research procedure which isconsidered the most important one during the study It helps the researcherrecognize the problems in the conduct and find out the solutions for thoseproblems

There are two types of plan, general planning and specific planning.The general planning is aimed at organizing whole aspects referred toClassroom Action Research while the specific planning will be formed intolesson planning based on the current used syllabus The lesson plan has beenprepared to be implemented in 10A8 class of Đức Linh high school in BìnhThuận

3.4.2 Acting Phase

Arikunto (2007) states that the acting phase should be implemented atleast two cycles continuously; and the time period for each cycle depends onthe material needs that existed in the semester or annual program designed bythe teacher The researcher will take the action phase during two weeks withintwo cycles in which each cycle consists of two meetings in action, in thephase, the researcher collaborates to carry out the planned action The teacheruses the determined strategy as she is teaching while the writer observes theclass condition during teaching and learning activity

3.4.3 Observing Phase

Observing was the activity of collecting data to supervise to whatextent the result of acting reach the objective It was carried out to find andobtain the development of the learning process and the effect of the action.The data being taken were quantitative and qualitative data The quantitative

data covered the students’ progress (the students’ score) while the qualitativedata comprised the students’ interest and students’ response.

3.4.4 Reflecting Phase

After collecting the data, the researcher analyzes the data of teachinglearning process Then, she reflects herself by seeing the result of theobservation, whether the teaching learning process of speaking using role playtechnique is good to imply in teaching and learning process at class 10A8 ofĐức Linh high school or not If the first plan is unsuccessful, proven bystudents’ achievements, the writer will make the next plan to solve students’problems and to get a better score in order to achieve at least 75% studentswho passed the score 6.5(sixty-five)

3.5 The Technique of Collecting Data

Techniques of collecting data in this research are using qualitative dataand quantitative data The qualitative data consists of observation.Meanwhile, the quantitative data uses questionnaires, test with pre-test andpost-test The completely explanation as follows:

3.5.1 Observation

Observation was done to identify teaching and learning activities,especially speaking activities directed by the real teacher, and to revealproblem of speaking activity in classroom It may be about students’ responseconcerning the use of role-play technique

On the other words, to measure students’ progress in speaking duringClassroom Action Research, the researcher will use observation tableaccording to Mattews (1994) as follow:

Then, the writer will use the following key to complete the table above:

+ = satisfactory progress, but need a little more practice

 = some progress, but need much more practice

- = little or no progress, need to pay special attention to improve this skill

3.5.2 Questionnaire

In doing research, most of the authors choose using questionnaire tosupport their studies, so questionnaire is the most widely used technique forobtaining information from subjects A questionnaire is relatively economical,has the same questions for all subjects, and can ensure anonymity In thisstudy, the researcher used questionnaire to get information for the preliminarystudy She provided a questionnaire with 5 questions for the 41 students ofclass 10A8 to recognize the use of role play technique in teaching speakingskill, the students’ feelings on their speaking lesson, the elements influencingtheir speaking competence, and to discover their desires to accomplish betterspeaking skills (See Appendix 1)