The use of discussion activities to enhance the first-year students’ motivation and speaking performance: A Study at Viet-Hung Industrial University

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ---*****--- I hereby certify that the thesis entitled THE USE OF DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE: A S

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o -

PHẠM THỊ BÌNH

THE USE OF DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE THE YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A STUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng các hoạt động thảo luận nhằm nâng cao động lực học tập và khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất: Một nghiên cứu tại

trường Đại học Công nghiệp Việt-Hung)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o -

PHẠM THỊ BÌNH

THE USE OF DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE THE YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A STUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng các hoạt động thảo luận nhằm nâng cao động lực học tập và khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất: Một nghiên cứu tại

trường Đại học Công nghiệp Việt-Hung)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN VĂN ĐỘ

HANOI - 2014

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT -***** -

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

THE USE OF DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A STUDY AT VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

Is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) and that this thesis has not been submitted for any assessment in any other formal courses of study elsewhere

Ha Noi, 2014

Phạm Thị Bình

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In completion of my thesis, I have received generous advice and a great deal

of support from a number of people Firstly, I would like to express my sincere

thanks to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN VĂN ĐỘ from Thang Long

University for his deliberate guidance, constructive critical feedback and his

generous help in the process of completing my thesis

My special thanks also go to all my respected lecturers in the M.A course for

their informative and valuable lectures and the administrative staff of the

Department of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, for their help, guidance, enthusiasm

and valuable support during my course of study

I really wish to express my thanks to teachers and students from

VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY for their kind cooperation, their

participation in giving valuable information, which considerably contributed to the

completion of my work

Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, especially my husband, my

two children for their love, material and spiritual support throughout this research

and my friends who always stand for me with their consideration and

encouragement

ABSTRACT

There are different communicative activities through which students’ language competence is improved with the effective implementation of the teachers Among a lot of communicative activities, using discussion activities appear to be one of the most effective teaching technique to enhance students’ motivation and speaking performance It gives students more chances to practice the target language

In my university, VIET-HUNG INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY (VIU) in Son Tay town, Hanoi, all of the students are non-English major students They are quite active in the real life but they are passive in speaking English lessons and have low motivation in speaking English In general their speaking ability is very low Meanwhile, discussion activities are seldom used in teaching speaking skill for students by the teachers This research was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of using discussion activities in speaking English lessons at VIU To achieve the desired aims of the study, 80 first-years students and 8 teachers of English at VIU were involved The data were obtained through the analysis of the students and teachers’ questionnaires as well as the observations in class when discussion activities were carried out The findings obtained indicate the students and teachers’ positive attitude towards discussion activities used in class and the improvement in the students’ motivation and speaking performance in their speaking lessons Hence, using discussion activities is an effective and practical teaching technique and should be widely used and carefully planned to teach speaking skill to students

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VIU EFL ELT

GE ESP

: English for Specific Purposes : Number

: Students : Teachers

: Percentage

LIST OF TABLES & GRAPHS TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching and learning English speaking skill

Table 2: Students’ use of English in speaking lessons

Table 3: Teachers’ and Students’ self-evaluation towards speaking activities in the course book, which is being used to teach English for first- year students

Table 4: Results from students’ survey questionnaires

Table 5: Teachers’ opinions towards the importance of discussion activities in speaking lessons

Table 6: Ways of motivating students to participate in discussion activities

Table 7: Teachers’ preparation for discussion activities

Table 8: Appropriate stages in which discussion activities are employed in speaking lessons

Table 9: Teachers’ class organization for discussion activities

Table 10: Kinds of feedback to students’ speaking performance in discussion activities

Table 12: Teachers’ thought about integrating discussion activities in speaking lessons

Table 11: Teachers’ evaluation of students’ improvement in speaking performance

in discussion activities

GRAPHS

Graph 1: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill

Graph 2: Teachers’ and Students’ self-evaluation towards students’ speaking ability Graph 3: Students’ knowledge towards the term “Discussion activities”

Graph 4: Students’ expectation about the teachers’ organization of speaking activities in speaking lessons

Graph 6: Results from students’ survey questionnaires

Graph 5: Teachers’ opinions about the frequency of using discussion activities in speaking lessons

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT……… ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……….… iv

LIST OF TABLES & GRAPHS……… v

TABLEOFCONTENTS……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……….…… 1

1 Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study………… …… 1

2 Research Aims and Research Questions ……… ……… 3

3 Scope of the Study……… ……… 3

4 Significance of the Study……… ……… 3

5 Methodology of the Study……… …… 4

6 Organization of the Study ……… ………… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……….………… 5

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation in language learning……… 5

1.1.1 Definition of motivation ……… ……… 5

1.1.2 The role of motivation in language learning……….………… 6

1.2 Teaching Speaking skill……….……… 7

1.2.1 Concept of speaking……… 7

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills in the classroom……….………… 7

1.2.3 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity………… ……… 8

1.2.4 Factors affecting students' performance in speaking activities……… 8

1.2.5 Activities to promote speaking skills……….……… 10

1.3 Discussion activities in language teaching and learning process…… 11

1.3.1 What is Discussion? 11

1.3.2 The roles of discussion in language teaching and learning……… 11

1.3.3 Application of Discussion Activities in Speaking Lessons…….…… 12

1.3.4 Teacher responsibilities or roles in organizing discussion activities 13

1.4 Related Studies……… 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY……… 16

2.1 Research questions……….……… 16

2.2 Research approaches ……….……… 16

2.3 The context of the study……….……… 17

2.3.1 An Overview of Viet-Hung Industrial University and English course 17

2.3.2 The students……… …… 18

2.3.3 The teachers ……… 18

2.3.4 The course book ……… 18

2.4 The participants……… 19

2.5 Data collection instruments……… 20

2.6 Procedures of data collection……….………… 22

2.7 Procedures of data analysis……… 22

CHAPTER 3: DATA, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION……… 23

3.1 Data analysis and discussion from phase 1……….…… 23

3.1.1 Data analysis from phase 1……… 23

3.1.2 Discussion from phase 1……… 28

3.2 Data analysis and discussion from phase 2……….……… 28

3.2.1 Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaires……… 28

3.2.2 Data analysis from teachers’ survey questionnaires……… 31

3.2.3 Data analysis from class observations……… 34

3.2.4 Discussion from Phase 2……… 35

PART C: CONCLUSION……… 36

1 Major Findings of the Research……… 36

2 Pedagogical Implications of the Research……… 37

3 Contribution of the Research……… 38

4 Limitations of the Research……… ……… 39

5 Suggestions for Further Studies……… 39

REFERENCES……… 40

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part is to introduce the rationale and the way the researcher identified the problem facing her students’ English speaking skill Besides, the scope, the aims, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study are also stated clearly

1 Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study

In the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign or second language, learners are taught knowledge of the target language and drilled four basic language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing Of the four skills, speaking is considered the most important and essential skill It is a productive skill that language is generated by learners in speech Learners can have a variety of reason to decide to learn a foreign language Similarly, their expectations, aims and purposes can be very different But most of them share the same desire: to be able to speak the language Learners, especially those who are college or university students, admit that the ability to communicate freely in English is important for them Good English speaking ability can help them to find a good job, to achieve better position at work, to have chances to study or work aboard However, the fact shows that many college or university students possess weak ability to communicate

in English language environments Those students hardly ever communicate appropriately and correctly They often lose self-confidence or have no ideas when having a conversation in English In some particular cases, they stammer or even fail to speak a single word because of fear and anxiety when speaking English

According to many teaching theorists, students’ speaking skill can be developed through communicative activities Communicative activities can motivate students and establish good relationships between teachers and students as well as among students According to Harmer (1998), speaking activities provide students opportunities for rehearsal and motivate them There exist different speaking activities, which are enjoyable such as information gap, jigsaw, discussion, games, problem-solving, role-playing, etc If teachers can set up

speaking tasks properly and effectively, they can motivate their students a lot in learning speaking

As a teacher of English at Viet-Hung Industrial University (VIU) the present researcher can see the unsatisfactory state and conditions of teaching and learning English All of the students are non-English major students They are quite active in the real life but they are passive in speaking English lessons and have low motivation in speaking English In general their speaking ability is very low Many students can hardly ever communicate in English because of low motivation and poor language performance In class they are not able to express their thoughts and opinions satisfactorily Oral mistakes and slips such as inadequate vocabulary, structures, poor pronunciation, stress and intonation often happen They speak slowly with a lot of hesitation and repetition Instead of using English they use more Vietnamese One word answers like “Yes” or “No” seem their favourite responses when communicating with the teachers or with their peers during lessons Worse still, sometimes they have nothing to say at all Although the teachers of English at VIU show their concern with students’ speaking abilities they do not give full attention on teach speaking due to some constraints such as fixed syllabus, preparing materials for lessons, teacher-centered teaching method preference in class due to saving time etc Consequently, many communicative activities that support the students practice speaking English are seldom used, of which using discussion activities is an example

For these above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct the study of

“The use of discussion activities to enhance the first-year students’ motivation

and speaking performance: A Study at Viet-Hung Industrial University” with

the aim to investigate the effectiveness of using discussion activities in speaking English lessons It is hoped that the findings will be a significant contribution to the improvement of students’ speaking ability and the quality of teaching speaking skill for students at VIU

2 Research Aims and Research Questions

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of discussion activities in speaking lessons at VIU Specifically, it addressed the following research questions:

Question 1 What are the attitudes of the first-year students at VIU towards using

discussion activities in speaking lessons?

Question 2 How do teachers of English at VIU teach speaking to the students with

discussion activities?

Question 3 In what ways do discussion activities enhance the students’ motivation

and speaking performance?

3 Scope of the Study

There are different communicative activities through which students’ speaking skill can be improved thanks to teachers’ effective implementation of those activities Because of the limited time and the length of the study, the researcher’s intention with this research focused only on exploiting discussion activities as an effective way in enhancing the first-year students’ motivation and speaking performance in speaking English lessons at VIU In addition, this study investigates and serves only 80 first-year students in 2 classes in the context of VIU

4 Significance of the Study

This study helps to determine the effectiveness of using discussion activities

in teaching speaking in English lessons at VIU It provides the teachers of English with helpful knowledge and the rationale to carry out discussion activities in class to improve students’ speaking ability in natural ways

Once completed, the research would be a helpful reference for those who are interested in further studying on the use of discussion activities in teaching English speaking skill This study also gives suggestions to teachers to develop successful lessons with discussion activities Thus it can be of great benefits for both college or university teachers and students in their teaching and learning speaking skills

5 Methodology of the Study

The research instruments, namely questionnaires and observations were employed to collect data for the research The study was conducted in two phases The theoretical background of the study comes from many published books written

by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition

6 Organization of the Study

This study consists of three main parts:

Part A (Introduction) provides a flow of information about the rationales, the aims,

the significance as well as the methods of the study

Part B (Development) includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1 (Literature review) offers the theoretical background of the study,

including discussions of key concepts and the related studies

Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the research setting, participants, instruments of

data collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis

Chapter 3 (Data analysis and discussion) presents, analyses and discusses the

findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the research questions

Part C (Conclusion) summarizes the answers to the research questions, several

pedagogical recommendations concerning the research topic, the limitations, the contribution of the research as well as some suggestions for further studies Following this part are the references and appendices

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this part the researcher attempts to provide a review the theories related to motivation, speaking skill, discussion, discussion activities in language teaching and learning All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into using discussion activities to teach speaking skill for students

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation in language learning

1.1.1 Definition of motivation

Second Language Acquisition theories acknowledge that motivation is one of the important factors which influence a learner’s achievement in the process of second language learning What is motivation? In a simple way, the word motivation can be understood as someone’s enthusiasm, interest and commitment for doing something Williams and Burden (1997: 120) defines motivation as “a state of cognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal(s)” Spratt et al (2005: 38) states that

“motivation is the thoughts and feelings we have which make us want to do something, continue to want to do it and turn our wishes into action” What they means is that motivation influences why people decide to do something, how long they want to do it and how hard they are prepared to work to achieve it

Relating motivation to language learning, there are differences in the way different researchers define motivation Gardner (1985: 10) defines motivation in second language learning as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” According to this definition, motivation is perceived to be composed

of three components These are effort, desire and satisfaction or effect Effort refers

to the learners’ attempt to achieve a goal Desire refers to a strong feeling that the learners want to master in the language, and satisfaction illustrates the learners’ emotional reactions towards learning the language According to Light Brown, &

Nina Spada (1999:56), motivation can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative need and their attitudes towards the second language community If learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social institutions or

to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it

1.1.2 The role of motivation in language learning

It is a matter of common knowledge that motivation is a very important in language learning Learners have various motivations in learning a language because different learners in different situations have different needs and wants, goals and desires, which drive them to succeed In the context of second language learning, motivation is observed by Littlewood (1987: 53) as “the critical force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perseveres” Spratt et al (2005: 38) emphasize motivation “helps make learning successful” Also, Ur (1996: 274) states: “Learner motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant, as well as more productive”

Obviously, students’ motivation needs to be encouraged by teachers in learning process This study focuses on speaking skill in English teaching and learning, the researcher believes that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level of students’ involvement in speaking activities The more motivated the students are, the more actively they will participate in oral activities Therefore, in order to make students motivated in EFL contexts, teachers should include many activities and strategies that attract students’ attention and make them interested in the lessons, and then their learning process will be more productive

1.2 Teaching Speaking skill

1.2.1 Concept of speaking

Of all the four skills, Ur (1996:120) concludes, “speaking seems intuitively the most important” Most language learners, she adds, are primarily interested in learning to speak “What is speaking?” Different linguists define concept of speaking in different ways In Byrne’s view (1986), speaking skill is one of two ways of oral communication process, and is the productive skill The speaker has to

encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode (or interpret) the message Chaney & Burk (1998:13) defines

speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Spratt et al (2005: 38) define speaking as a productive skill which involves using speech to express meanings to other people To the researcher of the current research, Florez (1999 cited in Bailey, 2005:2) has comprehensive definition when stating that speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information” It is clear that speaking is an activity involving two or more people in which the participants are both the listeners and the speakers having to act what they listen and make their contribution in this activity

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skill in the classroom

The essential role of speaking skill in language learning is undeniable Speaking is probably the language skill that most language learners wish to be good

at performance as soon as possible Many learners consider it an important criterion

to evaluate their achievement in learning a language If they can speak that language well it means they are successful Nunan (1991) points out “success is measured in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” However, opportunities for students to speak in language classes are not always created effectively and shared among students Therefore it is essential that teachers should pay a great of attention to teaching speaking in class (Kayi, 2006) The researcher

believes speaking lessons can become very interesting and productive if the teachers can apply speaking activities attracting students’ involvement in the class

1.2.3 Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity

The characteristics of a successful speaking activity are asserted by Ur (1996) as follows:

Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activity in fact occupied by leaner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority

of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it

Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy Ur (1996:120)

1.2.4 Factors affecting students' performance in speaking activities

According to many dictionaries performance means the act or process of performing a task, an action, etc It also refers to how well or badly someone do something In relation to speaking, performance can be understood as a mean of oral communication in giving idea, information to the other one It involves the production of the sound and the gesture, the facial expression, and the whole body - the way of one's manner in speaking There are some factors affecting students' performance in English speaking lessons as follows:

 Students do not want to talk or say anything

The reason for this is that students often feel shy about talking in front of teachers and other students A fear of making mistakes, criticism, or losing face prevent them from expressing ideas or opinions Speaking in front of other people

needs courage, motivation from inside, and outside such as joyful learning atmosphere and interesting classroom activities

 Students use their mother- tongue rather than English

This might happen because it is easier to use, or students fell unnatural to speak to one another in English so they use language in the best way they know They have difficulty to say something because they do not have much knowledge to talk about and they think that they better use their mother- tongue and so others can understand them

 Large-sized classroom

If the classroom is big, for example 30 or 40 students in a classroom, the students rarely get a chance to practice the target language, and it is difficult for them to ask and receive individual attention they need It is also hard for the teacher

to make contact with students at the back, to keep good discipline, also to organize dynamic and creative teaching and learning sessions

 Students are not discipline in classroom

Some students do not pay attention to the lesson given; they just talk with each other and make some noises The problems happen may be because the students bored with the activities or they feel unable to cope with the task given To solve the problems, the teacher can create exciting activities that make students feel enjoy themselves in the class

 The materials do not fulfil the need of students

Many students may find themselves confused or bored and do not learn when course book topics do not relate to their lives Moreover, when students cannot understand the language instruction, they may become demotivated So, it is very important for language teachers to adapt teaching materials so that they can achieve more compatibility and fitness between the course book and the teaching environment for the benefit of their students

 Students have low motivation to speak English

Students are eager to speak English because they are interested in speaking topics or activities Otherwise, they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in learning if they do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the class If students have low motivation, they have low enthusiasm in learning and engaging the lesson The development of communicative skills can only take place

if learners have motivation and opportunity to express their own identity and to relate with the people around them (Littlewood, 1981:93)

As presented above, factors affecting students' speaking performance in speaking lessons are various The researcher follows the ideas that boring speaking activities do not motivate students and do not provide opportunities for students to talk and participate in class Speaking activities can strongly impact positively students’ English oral performance if teachers devote the effort in designing and carrying out effective speaking activities to promote students’ engagement

1.2.5 Activities to promote speaking skill

According to Harmer (1998:88), “good speaking activities can and should be highly motivating […] Many speaking tasks (role-playing, discussion, problem-solving etc.) are intrinsically enjoyable in themselves” Harmer emphasizes “If all the students are participating fully – and if the teacher has set up the activity properly and can then give sympathetic and useful feedback – they will get tremendous satisfaction from it” There are many types of classroom speaking activities which can help students to improve their speaking skills Kayi (2006:2) in his article presents communicative activities to promote speaking skills such as Discussion, Role Play, Simulations, Information Gap, Brainstorming, Storytelling and so on Of which the researcher totally agree with Kayi’s explanation about the advantages of Discussion “fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and […] in every discussion activity students can work with various people and learn to

be open to different ideas” (Kayi, 2006: 2) The implementation of speaking activities by teachers plays a central role in the encouragement of speaking participation in the EFL classroom Lawtie (2004:1) states “if the right activities

are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be” Seeing that reason, the researcher decided to investigate the effectiveness of discussion activities in teaching English speaking

1.3 Discussion activities in language teaching and learning process

1.3.1 What is Discussion?

According to Jones (1994), “A discussion is the attempt of a group of people

to find the answer to a question or the solution to a problem by way of dialogue” (as cited in The Penn State Teacher II) It can be understood that discussion is an activity in which people talk together in order to share information about a topic or problem or to seek a solution In language teaching, discussion is potential to be implemented because it is expected to enable students to promote their speaking ability and to provide for greater interaction between teachers and students

1.3.2 The roles of discussion in language teaching and learning

According to Killen (1996 cited in Menggo S., et al., 2013) discussion is

appropriate and potential to be applied in EFL teaching His logical argumentations

- It develops students’ ability to analyse the lesson content and express ideas orally, thus enhancing their thinking and communication skills;

- It can be an effective way of allowing students to share their knowledge and experience and an appropriate way to demonstrate to students the relevance of their background knowledge;

- It can generate new ideas or produce original solutions to problems by stimulating divergent or lateral thinking;

- It is better than lecture as a way of helping students develop solving and critical-thinking skills;

problem And it is a technique in which teachers show tolerance to students’ opinions and attitudes, which can help to develop rapport between instructors and students

By regarding Killen’s argumentations, discussion encourages students to communicate and is really suitable in situations of teaching and learning English, especially in teaching speaking skill It involves sharing of ideas and experiences, solving problems and gives students an opportunity to express their views or opinions orally on certain issues

1.3.3 Application of Discussion Activities in Speaking Lessons

Teaching using discussion activities requires teachers’ careful preparation in class Students may be arranged into pairs, small or large groups and discuss the topics under the teachers’ requirements There are different discussion activities that teachers can choose and apply to help students involve much in class

Harmer (1991) suggests effective discussion activities as follows:

Buzz group: students are asked to predict the content of a reading text or to talk

about their reactions to it after reading it or to discuss what should be included in a news broadcast or to have a quick conversation about the right kind of music for a wedding or party To train students to respond fluently and immediately by showing students photographs or introducing topics at any stages of a lesson and nominating

students to say the first thing that comes into their head Formal debate: students

prepare arguments in favour or against various propositions

Ur (1996: 125-127) presents a selections of discussion activities suitable for

various levels They are: Describing pictures: students work in group and say as many sentences as they can that describe the picture given Pictures differences:

students work in pairs to find out what the differences are between two pictures that

are given to each member without showing each other their picture Things in

common: students sit in pairs to talk to one another to find out as many things as

they can that they have in common At the end they share the findings with the

whole class Shopping list: student in the roles of buyers choose three items from a

store they want to buy and try to find out three other buyers to justify the owners of the store acquiring the stock and to get the owners to stock all the items the students

have chosen Solving a problem: students are told to advise someone on problems

facing him/her or some else Students have to discuss their recommendation and write it out

There are many discussion possibilities (Harmer, 1998) The researcher believes that if teachers know how to organise discussion activities properly and foster a non-threatening environment in which students’ participation is welcomed, students’ speaking performance can be much improved

1.3.4 Teacher responsibilities or roles in organizing discussion activities

Discussions in the classroom do not automatically happen Discussions are,

by their nature, unpredictable because students’ opinions, ideas are provoked spontaneously The goal of any discussion activity is to get students to talk purposefully about the topic or questions given Teachers therefore should moderate the discussion activities rather than convey information Careful planning can help teachers ensure that discussion activities are helpful in their lessons When planning discussion activities, it is helpful to consider the following factors that can either foster or inhibit the productive exchange of students’ ideas:

- Clarifying aims and establishing goals for each discussion: When teachers

clarify the purpose of the discussion, their common problems such as asking too many questions at once, asking a question and answering it themselves, asking unconnected questions can be avoided

- Creating a climate in which students feel comfortable and relaxed to talk

to one another: In such environment students may feel safer expressing themselves

before ideas are shared with the class as a whole

- Requiring students to prepare for discussion activities: Discussions tend to

be most productive when students have already done some preparatory work

- Arranging the physical environment of the classroom so that it is conducive

to discussions: The appropriate physical space can influence the students’

behaviours and their communication both of with the teacher and their friends Some teachers prefer that chairs be in a circle, others in a U-shape or assembled differently No matter how the physical environment arranged, it is a good idea to set up the classroom so that students can see each other during discussion activities

In conclusion, discussion activities clearly provide ideal opportunities for practicing speaking and important opportunities for developing certain aspects of fluency Discussion activities not only involve students in talking about a range of topics which engage their interests, opinions, and experiences but also encourage them to use the language needed to keep conversation alive over a period of time

To keep discussion activities working, teachers should not simply ask students,

"What do you think of A?", “Do you agree with B?” Instead, teachers should plan discussion activities carefully by giving students material to react to, and time to plan what they are going to say A discussion is a chance for students to share ideas,

to have their voice heard Teacher's roles in discussion activities, therefore, are not

to dominate, but rather to get the discussion activities started, set goals, summarize, mediate, clarify, and make sure that every student has a chance to contribute and to

be heard

1.4 Related Studies

The subject of using discussion as a teaching method has been discussed through a number of studies For example, “The discussion method in classroom teaching” by Gall, M D., & Gillett, M (1980), “Discussion as a way of teaching”

by Brookfield, S D., & Preskill, S (1999), "Discussion Method Teaching: A Practical Guide" by Welty, W M (1989), "Impact of Discussion Method on Students Performance." By Rahman, Fazalur, et al (2011) Those authors in their books or articles show how effective discussion to teaching and learning process In the world of language teaching, many books on language teaching and learning, relating to this issue, have been published under the name of famous authors such as

Ur (1996), Harmer (1991, 1998) etc Also, many articles have been written such as

“The effect of discussion technique and English learning motivation toward

students’ speaking ability” by Menggo S., et al (2013), “Developing Speaking

Skills Using Three Communicative Activities (Discussion, Problem-Solving, and Role-Playing)” by Oradee T (2012) etc However, discussion was presented in such books or articles as one of many activities or techniques in language teaching

to improve students’ speaking ability This apparently offers a gap for the researcher to conduct a study on using discussion activities in teaching speaking skill in a comprehensive way with Vietnamese participants

As regards Vietnam’s ELT context, the researchers seem less interested in exploring discussion activities in language teaching and learning They tend to explore the topics such as using role-play, using language games, using stories etc

in language teaching and learning Specifically, Nguyen in 2005 carried out a research on using information gap activities to teach speaking skills to none-majors

of English Chu (2009) did a research on employment of elicitation techniques to enhance first-year students' talk Recently, Nguyen (2010) did a research on the use

of role play activities in improving speaking skills for the first-year English major students Most recently, La (2011) carried out a research on using discussion activities to increase motivation and speaking proficiency of second-year EFL students The subjects participating in the research were 14 second-year EFL students To achieve the desired aims of the study, an action research was carried out From the above mentioned studies, the researcher is aware of the essentiality to carry out the research on the effectiveness of using discussion activities in English speaking lessons in a particular context, the context where the researcher is presently working as a teacher of English Also, La (2011)’s study has left gaps for the present research to continue exploring the effectiveness of using discussion activities in English speaking lessons in a different scale of population and context

in order to find out the fact to improve the situation of English teaching and

learning

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

With the major aim of investigating the use of discussion activities in speaking lessons at Viet-Hung Industrial University, this study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods In this Chapter, the methods for carrying out the study will be discussed These include the study research questions, the context

of the study, the participants, the course book and the syllabus, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedures

2.1 Research questions

This study is carried out with the final aim to investigate the effectiveness of using discussion activities in speaking English lessons The study is implemented to answer the following questions:

1 What are the attitudes of the first-year students at VIU towards using discussion activities in speaking lessons?

2 How do teachers of English at VIU teach speaking to the students with discussion activities?

3 In what ways do discussion activities enhance the students’ motivation and speaking performance?

2.2 Research approaches

This study adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data for the research Quantitative data were gathered through survey questionnaire to the teachers and students at VIU and qualitative data were collected via the classroom observations Williams, C (2011:70) assert that “Quantitative and qualitative research methods investigate and explore the different claims to knowledge and both methods are designed to address a specific type of research question While the quantitative method provides an objective measure of reality, the qualitative method allows the researcher to explore and better understand the complexity of a phenomenon” Thus, both qualitative and quantitative methods are needed to the research process Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses, thus could supplement each other to find out satisfactory and sufficient information

2.3 The context of the study

2.3.1 An Overview of Viet-Hung Industrial University and the English courses

Viet-Hung Industrial University (VIU) situated in Son Tay town, switched from Viet-Hung Industrial College in 2010, is one of the new-born universities in Hanoi, Vietnam This university is supposed to train out skilled workers to meet the demand of the society in the process of industrialization and modernization in various levels of training and majors such as Information Technology, Mechanical engineering Technology, Automotive Engineering Technology, Construction Engineering Technology, Business Administration, Finance and Banking and Economics The name and the majors of the University show that the majority of students studying at the University are male They are from different part of the country, but mostly from the rural area around the town and the North of Vietnam

At VIU, English is the foreign language taught as a non-major subject The English courses at VIU are divided into two stages: General English(GE) and English for Specific Purposes(ESP) The first stage aims at providing students with general knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, English grammar as well as developing students’ integrated four language skills with the focus on speaking skill At this stage, students learn English in four semesters with 21 credits which are divided in to 4 modules; English 1, English 2, English 3, and English 4 For three first modules, each one lasts 75 periods and students learn 5 periods in a week The last one, English 4 lasts 90 periods and students learn 6 periods in a week English classes are taught twice a week with 2 periods for speaking lessons During learning process, in each semester, students are required to complete two progress tests, one mid-term test and a final test which includes a compulsory speaking test and an online test After finishing four GE semesters, students moves to the second stage – the stage for English for Specific Purposes which lasts 45 periods in one semester with 3 credits At this stage, our students are provided with the knowledge

of terms and structures related to their future job It can be seen that the students at

VIU have to learn English quite hard; 24 credits of English out of total credits for an undergraduate degree

2.3.2 The students

As mentioned above, most of the students at VIU come from different part of the country All of the students are non-English major students They are quite active in the real life but they are passive in speaking English lessons and have low motivation in speaking English Although most of them have learnt English for at least three or seven years at their secondary and high schools, their English speaking ability is very low in general Especially, first-year students can hardly ever communicate in English They often feel shy because of poor English knowledge and show low level of participation in speaking English lessons

2.3.3 The teachers

In terms of teaching staff, there are 16 teachers of English working in Foreign Language Centre at VIU, consisting of 2 males and 14 females aged from 32 to 45 with at least 6 years of teaching experience The teachers have been trained from universities in Vietnam with BA in English Among these, seven teachers have had

MA degree and one has been doing a MA course at Viet Nam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies; eight others acquired their BA degrees in other schools of languages like University of Pedagogy No 2 or Open University, Hanoi Therefore the teachers’ proficiencies seem to be at different level Besides its headquarters, VIU has other training bases within Hanoi The teachers therefore have to travel a lot in their job Most of the teachers of English at VIU are active, hard-working, and enthusiastic in working, but travelling long distance to work, plus small income have prevented them from adequate investment in their lessons Thus, they have chosen the less time-consuming teaching method which is very common teacher-centered This explains why English lessons are generally not exciting and not productive

2.3.4 The course book

The main course book is being used to teach GE for first-year students at

VIU is New English File Elementary by Clive Oxenden Christina Latham-Koenig

Paul Seligson published Oxford University Press The course book is communicative course book The book consists of nine files Each file includes four small lessons (lesson A, B, C, D) aiming at developing students’ knowledge about grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and language skills The topics presented in the book are about friends and relatives, family, jobs, music, daily routines, top people of all time, neighbours, tourist attractions, food and drink, holidays and so

on At the end of each file, there is a section in Practical English, which is the daily communication situations needed for students in a foreign language environment There is also a part of Revise and check, which helps students to review grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, language skills and to check their progress in learning Besides, Let’s Talk 1 is also used as a supplementary material to develop students’ speaking skill The relevant oral tasks in the book are introduced to students for further study

In short, the books for teaching GE for first-year students present basic structures of English and develop students through a variety of different communicative contexts Our students have chances to learn real things from daily life and listen to both native and non-native speakers from the tapes accompanied with the books By using the books, we can develop our students’ communicative competence and language skills

2.4 The participants

In order to get the data for the study, two classes (3718CTM and 3718TNH) with 80 first-year students at VIU have been chosen to be investigated The students are both male and female and from 19 to 20 years of age, majoring in Mechanical engineering technology, and Finance and Banking The main reason for choosing the first-year students is that they are still very new to the training method at tertiary level Perhaps, they are still affected by the old teaching and learning method at

their high schools, with their written English better than spoken one Many of them possess little experience with working with teachers and other students in English They appear to be passive learners in English class and have low motivation in speaking English and participating in the classroom activities The researcher suggested that an effective teaching technique implementation could change the situation and help the students achieve better results in their next school years The participants were also eight teachers of English who are teaching English

to first-year students at VIU All of them are female teachers aged from 25 to 40 Their experience in teaching English varies from 5 to 10 years They all show their concern with teaching English speaking skill, especially on how to apply communicative activities effectively to improve speaking skill for their students

2.5 Data collection instruments

The study employed two main instruments below:

Questionnaires

In this study, questionnaires were selected as one of the important data collection instruments because questionnaires are often the best way of gathering primary data from individuals As Wisker, G (2001: 147), questionnaires “… are often used to gather information about attitudes, behaviours, activities, and responses to events…” Dörnyei, Z (2003:8) asserts “ questionnaires can yield three types of data about the respondent: factual, behavioural, and attitudinal.”In relation to teaching, Richards et al (1994:10) defines questionnaire as an effective way of collecting information about “affective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences; and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly” In addition, having the same idea with Richards, Seliger and Shohamy (1995) also states that data on phenomena, which are not easily observed, such as motivation, attitude, language learning strategy use, etc can be collected by means of questionnaires In this study, four survey questionnaires were conducted in two phases Phase 1 used the first two questionnaires, of which one survey questionnaire with 7 questions used to gather

information about 80 first-year students’ opinion on their speaking lessons, speaking ability, speaking material and their understanding about the term “ discussion activities”( Please see Appendix 1) The other one with 4 questions was designed to ask 8 teachers of English at VIU for their opinions about the important

of teaching speaking, students’ speaking ability, speaking material and the frequency of using discussion activities in their speaking lessons (Please see Appendix 2) The last two questionnaires were designed to collect data for Phase 2 after discussion activities implemented in speaking lessons Of these two questionnaires, one aims to find out the students’ attitudes towards using discussion activities in enhancing their speaking skills (Please see Appendix 3) The other aims

to investigate how the teachers organized discussion activities and their evaluation

on discussion activities in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performance (Please see Appendix 4) All of the questionnaires for the students were written in both English and Vietnamese

Classroom observation

Apart from survey questionnaires, the researcher used class observations to confirm the reliability and validity of the information about discussion activities to enhance students’ motivation and performance in speaking lessons According to Brown & Rodgers (2002), observations would be effective to explore the techniques teachers use inside the classroom In this study, 5 speaking lessons when discussion activities were implemented were asked for the permission to be observed For each lesson, the researcher observed in 45 minutes She designed a checklist for what she wanted to observe (Please see Appendix 5) During the observations, the researcher acted as a non-participant observer; the researcher watched, followed and focused

on describing the characteristics, behaviours, reactions, oral performance, the use of discussion activities…that the students and the teachers presented in the real classroom settings

2.6 Procedures of data collection

This study was conducted in two phases In phase one two survey questionnaires were delivered to 80 first-year students in classes 3718CTM and 3718TNH and 8 teachers of English at VIU to find out about students’ attitudes towards discussion activities and the real condition of the classroom problems in the teaching and learning process The results of this phase were used to guide the second phase in which classroom observations were made The purpose of phase two was to gain information of students’ attitudes towards discussion activities applied teachers, the ways teachers organized discussion activities, and how students responded to those activities as well as the teachers’ evaluation on discussion activities in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performance Firstly, the researcher made discussion with 8 English teachers, who are teaching English for first-years students, about the models of teaching and learning which done before that may cause students’ speaking ability low Secondly, she suggested and trained all 8 teachers to use discussion activities as a technique to teach speaking Then, 5 speaking lessons were randomly chosen so that they must not be prepared especially for being observed Finally, two post-questionnaires for 80 students and 8 teachers were delivered

2.7 Procedures of data analysis

The stages of the data analysis of this study were processed as follows:

The data gained from the questionnaires in two phases of the study were collected, consolidated, calculated and categorized by the researcher The results were then analysed and presented in forms of tables and the percentages corresponding to the participants’ answers to the survey questionnaires Interpretations were then made with regards to the research questions Information collected through the class observations added strength to the findings

CHAPTER 3: DATA, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, data obtained from the questionnaires from two phases of the research are analysed and discussed First, the analysis and the interpretation of the data from the first phase are presented and discussed The findings from the first phase show that discussion activities should be implemented in speaking lessons to improve students’ speaking ability Then, the findings which are resulted from the analysis and the interpretation of the data from the second phrase after using discussion activities in speaking lessons are demonstrated and discussed The information from the classroom observations are also interpreted and discussed to support the interpretation of the data from two phases

3.1 Data analysis and discussion from phase 1

3.1.1 Data analysis from phase 1

Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching and learning English speaking skill

(Please refer to Question 1 in Appendix 1 and question 1 in Appendix 2)

The questions were raised to ask for the teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching and learning English speaking skill The findings were put into the table of distribution as follows:

As can be seen from the table, all of the students and teachers surveyed admitted that teaching and learning speaking skill was very important and important No one considered teaching and learning speaking skill to be not very important or not very important at all Through the survey, it could be said that most

of the teachers and students at VIU did realize the importance of speaking in English teaching and learning