Using language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen Medical College

vietnam national university, hanoi university of languages AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY of post-graduate studies ------ HOÀNG THỊ THU HOÀI Using language games to motivate the

vietnam national university, hanoi university of languages AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY of post-graduate studies

- -

HOÀNG THỊ THU HOÀI

Using language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen

Medical College

(Sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ để khích lệ sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường

Cao Đẳng Y Tế Thái Nguyên trong các giờ học nói)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

HANOI, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… … ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS ……… … v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale for the study ……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……….… 2

3 Research questions ……… … 2

4 Scope of the study ……….… 2

5 Research methodology ……… … 3

6 Organization of the study ……… …… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… 4

1.1 A brief description of speaking ……… 4

1.1.1 What is speaking skill? ……… 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity ……… 5

1.1.3 Problems with speaking activities ……… 6

1.1.4 Principles in teaching speaking according to CLT approach …… 7

1.2 A brief description of language games ……… 8

1.2.1 What are language games? ……… … 8

1.2.2 Features of a quality game ……… …… 10

1.2.3 Types of language games ……… ……… 11

1.2.4 Some opinions on using games in teaching and learning process 12 1.2.5 Language games as a motivator for students to speak ……… … 13

1.3 Summary ……… 15

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ……… 16

2.1 The context of the study ……… 16

2.1.1 An overview of the research site 16

2.1.2 The course book ……….…… 16

2.1.3 Description of the students at TMC 16

2.1.4 Description of the teachers at TMC ……….…… 17

2.2 Methods……….……… 17

2.2.1 Participants ……… 17

2.2.2 Data collection ……… 17

2.2.2.1 Data collection instrument ………….……….……… 17

2.2.2.2 Data collection procedures….…….……… 18

2.3 Presentation of statistical results ……… 18

2.3.1 Pre-task survey questionnaire ……… 18

2.3.1.1 Presentation of the data ……… 18

2.3.1.2 Data analysis ……… 20

2.3.2 Post-task questionnaire ……….…… 23

2.3.2.1 Presentation of the data ……… 23

2.3.2.2 Data analysis ……… 25

2.4 Summary ……… 29

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS ……… 30

3.1 Achievements from the questionnaire ……… 30

3.2 Challenges in applying language games in teaching and learning…… 32

3.3 Sub-conclusion ……… 33

CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS ON USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN SPEAKING CLASSES ………

34 4.1 Which games to use? ……… 34

4.2 When to use a game? ……… …… 34

4.3 How to run a game? ……… … 35

4.4 Summary ……….…… 37

PART C: CONCLUSIONS……… 38

1 Conclusions ……….……….… 38

2 Limitations and recommendations for further study ……… 39

REFERENCES ……….… 40

Appendix 1: PRE - TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ……… I

Appendix 2: POST - TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ……….… V

Appendix 3: GAMES APPLIED IN SPEAKING LESSONS ……… IX

List of abbreviations

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a foreign language

TMC: Thai Nguyen Medical College

List of tables AND CHARTS

Table 1: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

Chart 1; 2: Students‟ attitudes towards English learning

Chart 3; 4: Students‟ attitudes and perspectives towards speaking lessons Chart 5: Students‟ opinions on the speaking topics in the course book

Chart 6: Students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Chart 7: Students‟ reasons for unwillingness to speak

Chart 8: Students‟ preferences of teacher‟s techniques in speaking classes Table 2: Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire

Chart 9: Students‟ attitudes towards language games applied by the teacher Chart 10: Students‟ participation in language games

Chart 11: Students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Chart 12: Benefits of using language games in speaking lessons

Chart 13: Students‟ preferences for teachers‟ activities for the use of language games in speaking classes

Chart 14: The frequency of applying language games

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In the globalization age today, English is considered as the most important mean of international communication Therefore, promoting oral skills in order to respond to the students‟ needs for effective communication is one of the important strategies of teaching and learning English in recent years

Among the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) of English learning, speaking is considered the most important skill for the purpose of communication It is believed that speaking plays a vital role since it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language Similarly, Ur, (1996) shows that people who know a language are referred to as

“speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing However, teaching and learning speaking today does not meet the study objectives English teaching now in general and teaching speaking in particular is still far from satisfactory Although teachers have made great efforts to provide students with chances to improve their speaking skills, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many colleges and universities

At Thai Nguyen Medical College (TMC), all students are non- English majors who specialize in many different fields such as Nursing, Pharmacy, Midwifery, etc Most students find speaking especially important yet most challenging one For most of them, it is difficult to speak English naturally As a result, in speaking lessons, they often feel bored and frightened How to motivate and encourage students to speak is really necessary, and is a big question to almost teachers Also, teaching techniques exploited during a speaking activity, for example, role plays, simulations, discussions, etc do not bring much effectiveness Thus, it is necessary

to find an effective technique used in teaching speaking Moreover, in language teaching, language games have proved themselves as an important factor which can

create more chances and interest to motivate students to speak Language games not only banish boredom, provide learners with enjoyable environment but also supply them with chance to use language and constitute a bridge between the lesson and the real world (Greenal, 1984)

For all the reasons mentioned above I have decided to choose the topic “Using

language games to motivate the first year students in speaking classes at Thai Nguyen Medical College” for my minor thesis with the hope that it might be helpful

to both teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out in order to:

 Investigate the current situation of teaching and learning speaking to the first year students who are non-major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical College

 Explore the effects of language games in teaching speaking to the first year students who are non-major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical

College

 Provide some suggestions and implications of using language games for the

improvement of speaking teaching at Thai Nguyen Medical College

3 Research questions

The research is to seek answer to the following questions:

 What is speaking teaching and learning reality to the first year non- major English students at Thai Nguyen Medical College?

 How can language games help to improve students‟ motivation in speaking classes?

 What are the suggestions and implications of using language games in

speaking lessons?

4 Scope of the study

For the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, in this minor study, the researcher focuses specifically on the use of language games in teaching speaking to

the first year student‟s non - English majors at TMC So the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the study are 90 nursing students from two classes studying new “Headway” course book at Thai Nguyen Medical College

5 Research methods

In order to realize the aims of the study, quantitative method is used The survey questionnaire is used to collect information and evidence for the study The survey questionnaire including pre-task survey questionnaire and post task survey questionnaire is for 90 first year students non - English majors from two classes of Thai Nguyen Medical College, both specialize in Nursing All comments, remarks and recommendations given in the study are based on the data analysis

6 Organization of the study

This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow:

Part A -INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationale, the aims, research questions,

as well as scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are presented

Part B – DEVELOPMENT This part includes 4 chapters

 Chapter 1 deals with some theoretical background that is relevant to the

purpose of the study: speaking skill and language games

 Chapter 2 investigates the situation of teaching and learning speaking and

the feasibility of using language games in teaching speaking to the first year students non- English majors through the analysis of collected data

 Chapter 3 consists of some findings concluded from the data analysis

 Chapter 4 provides some suggestions on using language games as well as

some sample language games exploited during all stages of speaking lessons

Part C – CONCLUSION In this part, the summary of the study, limitations of the

study and suggestions for further study are mentioned

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the essential review of the related literature and studies

which are meaningful in carrying out this study In this chapter, the author discussed

issues and aspects concerning to the topic of the study The concepts and ideas relating to speaking skills have been discussed Moreover, the most important thing mentioned in this study is an overview of language games which has also been introduced basing on some typical definitions by some different researchers and

educators

1.1 A brief description of speaking

1.1.1 What is speaking skill?

According to Nunan (1991: 39) “speaking is the single most important aspect

of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured in term

of ability to carry out a conversation in the language” It can be inferred from Nunan‟s viewpoint that speaking is a very important skill among the four basic ones The term „speaking” catches much attention of linguistics Therefore, many

definitions have been offered to this term so far

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving information (Brown, 1994b) Chaney and Burk (1998: 13)

also argue that “speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through

the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Referring to

speaking or communication in language teaching and learning, Brown (1994b) affirms that interaction is the heart of communication; it is what communication is all about Bygate (1997: 115) emphasizes that “interaction is the use of language for maintaining communication between participants” and “interaction skills are the skills of deciding what to say, when to say it and how to say it clearly” Therefore,

in speaking process, learners are required to know not only how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also when, why and in what ways language is produced ( sociolinguistic competence)

Nguyen and Nguyen (2001) state the two main aspects of speaking skill including “accuracy” and “fluency” It is said that accuracy involves the correct use

of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation Whereas, fluency is described as “the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously” In order to get the message across language learners need to make use of whatever knowledge, resources and abilities they‟ve got, regardless of grammatical and other mistakes They also need

to employ different strategies such as the use of natural-sounding “incomplete” sentences “I went out last night Did you? With whom?”; the use of common expressions like “Never mind/I see”; the use of fillers and hesitation devices “Well, let me see”; the use of communication strategies such as for clarifications such as

“Pardon?” “What do you mean?; the ability to paraphrase; the use of useful expression such as “ By the way…/ Anyway…” when finishing a topic; and “Nice taking to you / Well I must go now.” When ending a conversation

Despite the different ideas about speaking definitions, the major components

of speaking are unchanged It means that to improve speaking skill, both accuracy and fluency need considering

1.1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Language teachers are always looking for effective activities to use in their classes But what makes an activity successful? How do teachers know that what they are doing really works? In improving speaking skill of students in the class,

Ur (1996: 120) introduces four important characteristics of a successful speaking

as follows

 Learners talk a lot: The activity is occupied by learner talk as much as

possible

 Participation is even: Classroom activities are not only dominated by a

minority of talkative participants but also contributed by all learners In other words, all learners in class have a chance to speak, not only for talkative participants

 Motivation is high: Learners feel interested in the topic and they are eager to

show their voice, to exchange new information

 Language is of an acceptable level: Learners can use relevant, easily

comprehensible and suitable language level to express themselves

However, in fact, there are few classroom activities that can satisfy all the above criteria Therefore, the teachers should try their best to apply effective techniques to create some of those criteria

1.1.3 Problems with speaking activities

Classroom activities that develop learners‟ ability to express themselves through speaking are an important element of a language course However, designing and controlling such activities are really challenging And learners still have some problems when they want to talk in class Ur (1996) points out the following common problems that tend to occur in a speaking class as follows:

 The first problem is “inhibition” As we know that speaking requires some

degree of real-time exposure to an audience Learners are often reluctant when trying to say something in a foreign language because they are worried about making mistakes, they are afraid of being criticized or losing face in front of the others

 “Nothing to say” is the second problem Although they are not inhibited,

many students complain that they cannot think of anything to say

 Moreover, “Low or uneven participation” is another problem Only one

participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In a large group, each one will have only very little time for talking so this difficult will be doubled

if some learners have the tendency of dominating the group, while others speak very little or not at all

 “Mother-tongue use” is also problematic In classes, where all the learners

share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier, because they feel unconfident to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they may feel less “exposed” if they speak their mother tongue

To sum up, there are a lot of factors affecting the degree of success of speaking activities From Ur‟s point of view above, for a successful speaking lesson, the teachers and learners should be aware of these problems in order to have appropriate and effective solutions to help learners develop speaking skills And to deal with these problems, Lawtie (2004) suggests that the teachers need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities in order to make the activities interesting enough to

meet students‟ need and create a real need for communication

1.1.4 Principles in teaching speaking according to CLT approach

The main objective of teaching speaking is to improve oral fluency, the ability

to express oneself in an intelligible, reasonable and accurate way and without undue hesitation English learners want to use speech mainly for the two reasons below Exchanging information is the first important reason The second important one is that they want to maintain good social relationships, that is, for interactional purposes concentrate on sharing personal experiences and opinions Many great efforts have been made so far to find out the major principles of teaching speaking Here are some main principles which are introduced by Ur (1996) as follows:

 Take account of the student as a person: To do so, firstly, the teachers should

be sensitive, sympathetic and encouraging Secondly, the material selected should be motivating and suitable to the students‟ ability

 Reduce anxiety by moving from easy to less easy: It means that the students should be provided a familiar and private environment to practice and they should be helped to take short turns

 Maintain a careful balance between accuracy and fluency: The teachers should provide practice in pronunciation, word stress, sentence stress and intonation as well as opportunities for fluent use of speech

 Provide a good model for students to imitate: It requires that the teachers should learn to speak acceptably themselves and consciously teach correct pronunciation and repeatedly use target speech patterns

 Provide appropriate stimuli for eliciting speech: A variety of sources such as

books, radios, audio and video cassettes, pictures, stories, as well as songs

can be used in speaking class

 Vary classroom interaction modes: The class activities should be various: individual to whole class, in pair work or group work

 Give clear instructions: While instructing students to the activities, the teachers should speak loudly, slowly and clearly enough to all students

 Monitor student activity continuously: The teachers should encourage and praise students in time in order to motivate them to join activity actively

 Prepare well for class: A checklist of things to obtain and a checklist of things to do should be made carefully before class

 Handle errors sensitively and effectively: Correction mistakes may reduce students‟ motivation, it is suggested that it should not be too prominent It means that the teacher should not correct every mistake at anytime, in any where Performances errors and errors that are repeated should be ignored However, it is necessary that the teachers correct errors in structures that need to be used frequently, errors in language that they have just taught or

errors that might shock the listeners (e.g womans, childrens)

1.2 A brief description of language games

1.2.1 What are language games?

Language games can be used in language classes So what are games and what are language games? First of all, what are games? When being asked this question, people feel intuitive that they know it but definition is elusive Many educators and researchers have made researches on the use of games and each of them has developed their own concepts and ideas about games

In the Oxford Advanced learners‟ dictionary of current English by Hornby

(2005), game is an activity or a sport with rules in which people or teams compete

against each other It means that students play game for their own sake, for fun, for

the competitive ambition

Hadfield (1987) says that “a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an

element of fun.” Another definition comes from Saricoban & Metin (2000) saying

that games are organized according to rules and they are enjoyable Similarly,

Rixon (1981) defines “a game consists of play governed by rules.” This is summed

up very well in Gibb‟s definition (1987) of a game as “A game is an activity carried

out by cooperating or competing decision markers, seeking to achieve, within a set

of rules, their objectives.”

Although the concepts of game are developed in various ways, all the above mentioned definitions share the same opinion that a game has three main characteristics: A goal or objective; A set of rules which govern a game; Games involve a contest either between players or between players and the goal

Then, what are the language games? Language games mean games related to language A language games also share the similar characteristic with the ordinary games However, language games mostly involve in developing and improving language skills Games can help to enhance different aspects such as intellectual ability, patience, meanwhile language games help to develop language skills While playing language games, students have both fun and opportunities to practice English enjoyably, this helps to stimulate students Greenal (1984) defines language

games as one kind of “activity which is used to consolidate language already taught

or acquired and occurs during the free stage of lesson or during occasions such as English club meeting…” And the term game “is used whenever there is an element

of competition between individual students or teams in a language activity…”

Therefore, the skills needed in games are concentrated on the language side so not all the games are chosen For language teaching purposes, games that are selected must be guaranteed to improve language skills

In conclusion, from the definitions mentioned above, we can put it that language games are activities with the rules, goal, and element of fun carried out by the players‟ cooperation or competition for the language practice Understanding

games in general and language games in particular will help us pick out the features that are useful in language teaching

1.2.2 Features of a quality game

Carrier, (1980:7) emphasizes that “the teachers must take many factors into

account when deciding which game would be most appropriate and most successful with his students at any time” It is explained that if a teacher wants to use a game

for his teaching purpose, he should consider if the game can be used in the lesson and the game is up to the certain standard and meets certain requirements or not

To answer for this question, there are some features of a quality game for speaking class

- The most important function of games is to create meaningful contexts for communication Larcabal, (1992) states that “We plan games; we must remember that for communication to take place, the players must find it essential to communicate.”

- The terms “information gap” and “opinion gap” are mentioned to contribute for the success of a game It is obvious that information gap activities force the participants to exchange information so that they can find a solution

- An “information gap” or “opinion gap” need some content Klippel (1984:4) states that, “information and opinion gap exercises have to have some content worth taking about Students do not want to discuss the interest which is aroused by the structure of the activity may be reduced or increased by the topic.”

- The variety of the games teachers use is another important feature of a language game Hadfield, (1990) states: Variety is important in language teaching, and a succession of games based on the game principles The variety of games is essential

to attract and interest students during the lessons

- In addition, one of the most important features which help games run smoothly is that games should be interesting, simple and easy to comprehensive

- According to Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (1983:4), “challenge is essential ingredient of a game, which helps to motivate students”

To sum up, there are different views about features of a good language game However, the element of meaningful contexts, information gap, opinion gap, relevant content and language as well as co-operation would be pondered carefully when the teachers want to compose a good game It is difficult to determine what the best game is because it is affected by many elements such as certain situation, certain students, each teacher and other elements

1.2.3 Types of language games

It is difficult to classify language games into categories because categories often overlap Therefore, each linguist has his own way to classify language games Chamberlain (1981:29) states that most language games fall into the following categories: phonetics games, spelling games, dictionary games, syllable-based games, vocabulary games, sentence building games, games for creativity and free expression However, Hadfiled (1987), states that language games can be divided into two further categories: Linguistic games and communicative games Linguistic games focus on accuracy meanwhile communicative games focus on successful exchange of information and ideas According to Hadfield (1987) language games are also classified into many more categories as follows:

 Sorting, ordering or arranging games For example, students have a file of

pictures with different food and drinks, and they sort the pictures into two topics: countable and uncountable nouns

 Information gap game: In such games, one student has all the information

while the other has none, and this student must acquire the information to complete the task successfully

 Guessing games: In these games, someone knows something and the others

have to find out what it is

 Matching games: In these games, participants need to find a match for a

word, picture or card

 Labeling games: These are form of matching, in that participants match

labels and pictures or images

 Puzzle-solving games: In these games, the players share or exchange

information in order to solve a problem or to find a mystery

 Role play games: A role playing game can be as simple a conversation

between two people who each pretend that they are someone else According

to the Oxford English Dictionary, Role play games are games in which players take on the roles of imaginary characters, usually in a setting created

by a referee, and thereby vicariously experience the imagined adventures of these characters.''

There have been many types of language games which can be applied in teaching language in general and teaching speaking in particular However, which games are more useful in certain lessons in order to encourage the students‟ participation, and develop the students‟ speaking skills depends on the wise use of the teachers

1.2.4 Some opinions on using games in teaching and learning process

Teaching language in general and teaching speaking in classroom in particular effectively and successfully requires different types of methods and techniques It depends on the teachers, the students, the syllabus, etc And games are one of the activities that these techniques use Although a lot of researches on the use of educational games in particular have been done, the effectiveness of language games in English language teaching is still controversial among educators and teachers

There are different points of view about the use of games in the ELT classroom According to Hashimoto (1997) these standpoints can be divided into two types The first belongs to those who do not support using games in teaching and learning processes Some teachers who used language in their teaching process but they did not succeed Therefore, many teachers found them ineffective or instructive for the learners so they are reluctant to use games in their lessons That

is, these teachers often perceive games as mere time-fillers, "a break from the monotony of drilling" or frivolous activities rather than an effective teaching technique Ur (1996) reports that once we call a language leaning activity a “game”

we convey the message that it is just fun, not something to be taken serious

However, contrary to the point of view mentioned above, many researchers and educators have affirmed that games are not just time-filling activities, but they have

a great educational value Hadfield (1987:4) points out that language games are useful in teaching and learning process: games should not be regarded as “an amusing activity for Saturday afternoon or for the end of term” but as “an integral part of the language syllabus” Greenal (1984) says that language games provide free and spontaneous practice of the language in conditions lying halfway between the controlled content of the formal lesson and the real life situations outside the classroom A similar opinion is stated by Richard-Amato, who believes game to be fun, but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching In addition, we quite agree to Rixon (1981), the integration of language games and teaching make them an important part of teaching-learning process as games can be integrated with teaching so that they can become a positive part of it rather than a time-filler or, worse, a time-waster

In conclusion, although the effectiveness of using language games in English language teaching is still controversial among educators and teachers, we are favor

of supporters of using games in language lessons We believe that language games not only banish boredom, provide learners with enjoyable environment but also supply them with chance to use language and constitute a bridge between the lesson and the real world (Greenal, 1984) Therefore, a good game provides motivation, fun, and genuine reason for communicating and using language

1.2.5 Language games as a motivator for students to speak

The importance of motivation in second language teaching and learning has been discussed for years In recent years, motivation has become a familiar term in language learning Many different definitions of motivation in foreign language learning have been made

Dornyei (1988) states that motivation refers to the efforts learners make to learn a foreign language Motivation is one of the keys that influence the rate and success of language learning Gardner (1985) also points out that motivation

involved desire to learn a language, intensity of effort to achieve this, and attitudes toward learning the language It is obvious that motivation to learn a second language is understood as referring to the extent to which the individual works or tries to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity Thus, those who are motivated to participate actively in class usually get good study results

And a game is a source of motivation, interest and a game often considered as the first step to draw learners‟ attention to an EFL environment (Vale, 1995) In most of the games, an element of competition between individual learners or teams

is a strongly motivating factor, which stimulates learners to join the game It is the most important reason why all learners are immensely happy or absorbed in playing games The fact that few learners can concentrate on long practice without any chance, and even fewer will actually benefit from learning in such an intensive way

in the long run Therefore, using language games is one of the best ways to create relaxing and interesting lessons in order to maintain pupils‟ motivation

In a word, motivation is an indispensable element in the process of learners‟ acquisition It is a major factor in deciding learners‟ failure or success Success and motivation are correlated: when the learner is successful, he is more motivated to

learn It can be said that motivation makes learning more meaningful and effective

Developing motivation is not easy because it is something very personal However, Lightbrown and Spada (1999) states that: “If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to learn.” With a view to constitute such a learning environment, using language games in speaking classes seems to be a wise choice for the following reasons:

 Games provide interest to what students may not find very interesting Lee

(1979:1) reports: “…Language games could banish boredom; make for

willing learners who look forward to language lessons…”

 Games may lower anxiety and stimulate shyer students to join in speaking classes positively, especially when games are played in small groups

 Through games, the teachers can create contexts in which the language is meaningful and useful, so that the students want to participate in and in order

to response this they must understand what others are saying and they must speak to express their own opinions or give information That is to say games bring learners chances to communicate to each other freely

 Games provide active learner - centered learning Games are learner-centered

in that students are active in playing the games and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with teachers as facilitators In this activity, the teacher drops his role as director of the games and becomes more of a monitor and language informants

In short, many researchers and educators have come to a common conclusion that games are very useful and can be used as a beneficial tool to develop students‟ language learning and also provide the students the opportunity to practice the variety of skills Also, the use of games is of great help to make speaking lessons more interesting, enjoyable, and effective

1.3 Summary

In Chapter I, the author discussed issues and aspects concerning to the topic of the study The concepts and ideas relating to speaking skills have been discussed Moreover, the most important thing mentioned in this study is an overview of language games which has also been introduced basing on some typical definitions

by some different researchers and educators The author of this paper also provides some different opinions on using games in teaching and learning process In addition, the knowledge on using language games as a motivator for student to speak is also mentioned as well

All of above knowledge is aimed at helping this study more clearly and successfully The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings and suggested solutions to the problems under the light of the above mentioned theories

CHAPTER 2: The study

2.1 The context of the study

2.1.1 An overview of the research site

Situated in Thinh Dan, a developing quarter in the south west of Thai Nguyen city, the duty and mission of TMC is training assistant doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists for Northern mountainous provinces Most of the students here come from different Northern mountainous provinces so many of them are ethnic minorities and in different age; their knowledge is also in different levels At present, there are 98 classes with over 6000 students placed into many different fields The teaching staff composes of 150 teachers of many aspects divided in to two major groups The first ones are medical specialized teachers The others are teachers of general subjects such as Mathematics, Chemistry, English, politics, etc

2.1.2 The course book

In Thai Nguyen Medical College, English subject occupies 150 periods in which 90 periods are for communicative English and 60 periods are for English for Specific Purposes Different course books are used for different majors For communicative English, however, New Headway is used for students of all majors and is divided into two terms This course book consists of fourteen units for two terms Each unit focuses not only on four different language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing but also such language elements as pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary Speaking lesson is often introduced in combination as reading or listening lesson in each unit The course book provides students with a variety of topics and speaking activities with the aim of helping students enhance their speaking skill

2.1.3 Description of the students at TMC

As mentioned above, most of the students at TMC come from different Northern mountainous provinces so many of them are ethnic minorities Although the majority of the students have been studying English since lower secondary or high schools, their capability of English, especially communicating in English is not

very well, even at low level Moreover, as all the students here are non-English

majors, their final purpose is not English So their motivation of leaning English is not high Therefore, in the reality, teaching of English in general, and teaching speaking English in particular have encountered a great deal of difficulties

2.1.4 Description of the teachers at TMC

At TMC, there are 8 teachers of English currently working All of them are female ranking from 27 to 40 Of the eight teachers, four teachers were trained in Thai Nguyen University and four others were trained in different English centre Obviously, the age of the English teachers reveals the fact that many of them were trained in the traditional method- the Grammar-Translation one Few of them have taken retraining courses to improve their English and their teaching method It is one of the biggest difficulties in adapting Communicative language teaching (CLT)

in their teaching work This may create the hardship for English language teaching

in general and teaching speaking skills in particular

2.2 Methods

2.2.1 Participants

The research was carried out at TMC with the participation of 90 first year students from two nursing classes (CD4A1, CD4A2) To those students, English was not their majors but a compulsory subject in the courses Most of these students have learned English for at least three years at secondary schools, some even have learned English for seven years Therefore, New Headway Elementary, especially its grammar, is not too challenging to them They can do grammar exercises rather well but they face difficulties in mastering four language skills Of the four skills, most of the students find speaking especially important but difficult one Consequently, most of them don‟t feel interested and motivated in speaking classes

2.2.2 Data collection

2.2.2.1 Data collection instrument

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, the main instrument for data collection in this study was survey questionnaires The researcher only used

survey questionnaire as the instrument because of its convenience and the limitation

of scope of this study Survey questionnaires allowed collecting a large amount data

in a relatively short time The survey questionnaires consist of the two parts: The first part was pre-task survey questionnaire The second one was post-task questionnaire The two survey questionnaires were designed with close and open-ended questions used for ninety first year students who are not English majors The data of the survey questionnaires will be discussed according to this target population

2.2.2.2 Data collection procedures

The study was carried out through the following steps

- Two classes of 90 first year students whose majors are Nursery were taught for 4 months During the first week the researcher asked them to complete the pre-task survey questionnaire

- Then the researcher adapted speaking activities given in the course book by providing them with a variety of language games for nearly four months To find out the effectiveness of the use of language games in speaking classes, the post-task Survey questionnaire was delivered to these ninety students

Both of these survey questionnaires were carried out during the class time Before delivering the questionnaires to the students, the researcher spent enough time explaining the aims of the questionnaires, and the requirements of the informants clearly The researcher also stimulated informants to raise any questions

if there was anything unclear in the survey questionnaires Then the students were guided to complete the questionnaires

2.3 Presentation of statistical results

2.3.1 Pre-task survey questionnaire

2.3.1.1 Presentation of the data

The pre-task survey questionnaire consists of two parts (see appendix I): The

aim of part one is to find out information about the students‟ background: Their classes, majors, and English learning experience Part two includes 10 questions

with the aim of finding out the students‟ attitudes towards English learning, their perspectives towards speaking lessons, as well as their preferences and expectations

of the teachers‟ methodology in English speaking lessons Data collected from pre- task survey questionnaire will be presented in the table below:

Table 1: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

3 Students‟ views on the

four language skills 45 50 38 42.2 2 2.2 5 5.6

2.3.1.2 Data analysis

In order to find out the information to the study, ninety copies of the survey

questionnaires were distributed to Nursery students from two classes The data of the pre-task survey questionnaire will be analyzed based on this target population

 Students’ attitudes towards English learning (Questions 1,2)

Figure 1: How important Figure 2: How do you like

0%

6.6%

Very important Important Normal Not important

As can be seen clearly in the chart, most of the surveyed students admit the importance of learning English To be more specific, 37.8 % of the students say that

it is very important to learn English while 55.6 % of them recognize the importance

of English in study courses However, although many students are aware of benefits

of learning English, it is unexpected that up to 40% of the students state that they do not like learning English much and those who do not like it at all occupy 7.8%

 Students’ attitudes and perspectives towards speaking lessons (Qs3,4,5,6)

A Listening C Reading

B Speaking D Writing

A Very important C Little important

B Important D Not important at

static in figure 3 shows that speaking skill is the second difficult and challenging language skill to students However, it can not be denied the importance of speaking skill in English learning Looking at figure 4, it can be clearly seen that up to 85.6%

of the students have high awareness of the importance of this skill The number of the students who think speaking is of little importance and unimportance makes up only 14.4% Therefore, the students' positive attitudes towards English speaking classes will be very helpful to the teaching and learning process

Question 5 mentions about students‟ opinions on the speaking topics and

activities introduced in the course book The result will be summarized below:

Figure 5: Students’ opinions on the speaking topics

According to the chart, students have different ideas on the topics and speaking activities introduced in the course book The highest percentage of the students (53.3 %) considers these topics and activities are neither interesting nor boring Moreover, there exists 16.7% state that they are boring Only 2 students think that these topics are very interesting and other 27.8% of them affirm that these topics are

interesting to them With low level of interest in topics and activities given in the

course book, it is difficult to say that these students will actively participate in speaking classes

Figure 6: Students’ participation in speaking lessons

Question 6 asks about the students‟ level of participation The data collected in figure 6 indicates that the number of the students who are unmotivated and rarely or never willing to speak in English lessons accounts for 52.2% Meanwhile 35 respondents (38.9 %) say that sometimes they find it interesting and motivating enough to speak in speaking classes There are only 8.9%, who are willing to speak

as they like speaking very much

Figure 7: Students’ reasons for unwillingness to speak

A Being afraid of losing face

B Fearing of being criticized

C Not being used to speaking English

D Not paying much attention to speaking skill

E Boring teaching

F Others

In fact, there still exist many different reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak English in speaking lessons The results of question 7 indicates that 59.9% of the informants are afraid of losing face in front of the teachers and classmates or worried about being criticized if they speak incorrectly More importantly, the number of participants who answered that they are not accustomed to speaking English in class occupy up to 80% In speaking lessons, they only keep silent and listen to others speaking as they feel shy to express their opinions In addition, some

of the students (7.8%) admit that they do not pay much attention to speaking skills There are 5.5% of responses complaining about the teachers‟ teaching techniques For these students, the teaching way is not interesting enough These factors discourage them to be reluctant to participate in the speaking classes in spite of their awareness of its great importance

 Students’ preferences and expectations towards teacher’s teaching

techniques in speaking classes (Questions 8, 9, 10)

Figure 8: Students’ preferences of teacher’s techniques in speaking classes

As shown in the chart, the number of the who want to learn in groups and in

pairs occupy 27.8%, more than half of the students would like to learn speaking

with music, 61% of them like learning with visual aids, while all of the surveyed

students admit that they would like the teacher to use language games in speaking lessons This is very meaningful to the study as this technique is intended to apply

in speaking classes to motivate students to speak

Question 9 asks about the aims of using language games in teaching speaking

“Language games are used for both teaching and relaxing” is the choice of 91% of the respondents Only 6.6% of the students think that language games are suitable for relaxing only However, there are still 2.2% of the informants consider language

as a mean of time covering

The last question is designed to aim at finding out students‟ willingness

towards using language games in speaking classes As expected, all the interviewed

students express their great willingness to participate in language games which will

be used in speaking classes This is extremely useful for the application of this technique in teaching and learning process

2.3.2 Post-task questionnaire

2.3.2.1 Presentation of the data collected from post-task questionnaire

The post-task survey questionnaire includes ten questions focusing on the following

categories: The first category aimed to investigating the students‟ feelings as well as attitudes towards language games applied by the teacher The second one aimed to find out the students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of language games used in speaking lessons in the course book Dealing with the students‟ preferences and expectations of using language games in speaking classes is the last category Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire will be presented in the table below:

Table 2: Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire

the use of language games 68 75.6 22 24.4

6 The effectiveness of the

use of language games 68 100 40 51.5 51 75 57 83.8

7 Reasons for

ineffectiveness

8 Students‟ preferences to

make use of language

games more effective

84 93.3 78 86.7 68 75.6 72 80

9 When to use

language games 37 41.1 35 38.9 43 47.8 33 36.7 47 52.2

10 The frequency of

applying language games 58 64.4 25 27.8 7 7.8 0

(Question 7 is an open-ended question Question 6, 8, 9, are multiple choice ones so the

total percentages are more than 100% The target population in question 6 is 68)

Variable

s

Scales Question focus

D Don't like at all

To investigate the students‟ feelings and attitudes towards language games,

question 1, 2 and 3 are asked It can be seen from the pie chart above that most of

the students express their interest in language games 86.7% of the surveyed students like language games which teacher used in speaking classes However, there are 8.9% of them having no care about the games, they feel neither like nor dislike these games Moreover, 4.4% surely show their dislikes to language games

Figure 10: Students’ participation in language games

Do not join the games

When being asked “How do you take part in the games?”, 55 respondents (51.1% ) say they are active to join the games meanwhile 51.4 % of them admit that their participation in these activities is inactive They assert that they join the games only when the teacher asks or only when they feel interested, which take up 22.2 % and 22.2 % respectively There exists 4 participants (4.4 %) state that they

do not involve such games used by the teacher

The data collected from question 3 indicates that a high majority of the participants (74.4) who are relaxed and motivated after playing games A significant number of surveyed students (taking up 16.7%) give neutral answers, they feel normal through games Unexpectedly, there are 6.7% of them state that they do not

feel comfortable, especially, 2.2% of the participants feel bored after games This small amount of students‟ negative feelings towards language games should not be ignored if the teachers hope to get the best results when using language games in speaking classes

 Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of language games applied in

speaking classes (Questions 4, 5, 6, 7)

Post- task survey questionnaire was delivered to the students after four month

of exploiting and applying language games in speaking lessons Thus, it enables the

students to evaluate its effectiveness in motivating students to speak

Figure 11: Students’ participation in speaking lessons

Question 4 deals with students‟ participation during and after speaking lessons

It can be seen from the chart that over half of the students state that they really feel more motivated to speak To be more detailed, 56.7% of the informants show their willingness to speak during and after language games Moreover, 27.8% of the participants say that if the games are of their interests, they will actively join in speaking lessons However, the number of the students who show their low motivation and reluctance to speak account for 15.5%

When being asked to self-evaluate the effectiveness of the use of language games in speaking classes, a majority of respondents who consider these games an effective teaching technique build up 75.6% However, up to 24.4% suppose thatlanguage games are ineffective in teaching and learning speaking

To deal with the benefits of language games to speaking classes, question 6 is specially designed for students who think that using language games in speaking classes is effective Thus, only 68 students respond to this question