An evaluation of speaking activities in the textbook tiếng anh 10 for the 10th grade students at gia lộc high school in light of CLT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------- NGUYỄN HOÀNG ĐÔ AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN HOÀNG ĐÔ

AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIẾNG ANH 10” FOR THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT GIA LỘC HIGH SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF CLT

Đánh giá các hoạt động nói trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10 cho học sinh trường THPT Gia Lộc theo đường hướng giao tiếp

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

HANOI, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN HOÀNG ĐÔ

AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIẾNG ANH 10” FOR THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT GIA LỘC HIGH SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF CLT

Đánh giá các hoạt động nói trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10 cho học sinh trường THPT Gia Lộc theo đường hướng giao tiếp

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : EnglishTeaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI, 2015

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled an Evaluation of Speaking Activities in the Textbook “ Tiếng Anh 10” for the 10th Grade Students at Gia Lộc High School in the Light of CLT submitted in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Teaching Methodology

Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyễn Hoàng Đô

A special word of thanks goes to my friends, Luong Thi Minh Phuong and

Ta Thi Mai Phuong for their support and encouragement I wish to express my acknowledgment to other individuals who have indirectly contributed to the completion of this thesis

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my wife, Ho Thi Hang, for her patience and support throughout the study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the speaking activities in the speaking lessons of the English Language textbook Tiếng Anh 10 currently used at Gia Loc high school, Hai Duong It attempts to find out if the speaking activities in this book have fulfilled the principles of Communicative Language Teaching The study also seeks to evaluate the suitability of these activities for grade 10 students in this school and to make some suggestions for adaptation For this purpose, a content analysis is employed to analyze the speaking lessons with criteria developed on the basis of CLT principles In addition, a 10- item questionnaire was prepared by the writer to examine the suitability of the speaking lessons for students at Gia Loc high school 227 grade 10 students were asked to reflect on the questions by checking one of the five options included and three teachers of English were interviewed for in depth information The results of the research revealed that the speaking lessons are relatively communicative in the light of CLT principles and that they are suitable for students at Gia Loc high school to some extent However, they have some drawbacks in some areas On the basis of the findings, the researcher made some suggestions and recommendations for improvement of the textbook that has been being used in this particular learning environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION vi

1 Background and Rationale of the Study 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Significance of the Study 3

6 Structure of the Thesis 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 The Current English Teaching and English Textbooks in Vietnam 5

1.2 An overview of Communicative Language Teaching 6

1.2.1 Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching 6

1.2.2 Major Principles of CLT 7

1.3 Designing speaking activities based on CLT 10

1.4 Textbook evaluation and adaptation 11

1.5 Theoretical frameworks 12

1.6 Conclusion 13

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Research Design 14

2.2 The context of the study 14

2.3 The textbook Tiếng Anh 10 15

2.4 Research methods 18

2.4.1 Content analysis 18

2.4.2 The survey 18

2.5 Data Collection Procedures 20

2.6 Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 22

3.1 Analysis based on the criteria in light of CLT 22

3.2 The results and discussions of the survey 26

3.3 Suggestions for adaptation 35

3.4 Summary 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES

LISTS OF TABLES, CHARTS

TABLES

Table 2.1: General objectives of skills for Tiếng Anh 10 ( standard) (MOET, 2006a,

adapted from Minh, 2007, p 17 ) 15

Table 2.2: Objectives of speaking lessons in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 (adapted from the book map of the textbook) 16

Table 3.1: Classroom organization 24

Table 3.2 Results gained from students’ responses on assessment of the suitability of speaking lessons 26

CHARTS Chart 3.1 Percentage of class organization 24

Chart 3.2 Results gained from students’ responses on assessment of the suitability of speaking lessons 27

Chart 3.3 Motivation 27

Chart 3.4 Relation of the speaking activities to the students' previous knowledge 28

Chart 3.5 Speaking lessons according to the interest of the students 29

Chart 3.6 Students’ opinion about the suitability of the speaking lessons to their level ability 30

Chart 3.7 Students’ speaking skills developed by the speaking lessons 31

Chart 3.8 Students' enjoyment in participating speaking activities 32

Chart 3.9 Appropriateness of the vocabulary items to the students 32

Chart 3.10 Students' opinions about the statement that the topics are interesting enough for them to enjoy talking about 33

Chart 3.11 Students' opinions about the understandable instructions and examples 34

Chart 3.12 Activities’ addressing learning target 35

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Background and Rationale of the Study

Nowadays everyone knows the importance of English language in today's world English is the most widely spoken language in the world and used in various areas such as technology, science, and business In Vietnam, English language has been taught and learnt widely for a long time in Vietnam However, most of the students cannot use English naturally and frequently and they have not achieved the highly communicative effect in English.- Many students only wanted to be good at grammar and gain as much vocabulary as possible so that they could read, understand and even write in English This hindered students’ development of communicative competence

In the field of English teaching, Vietnam has experienced a gradual shift from the old tradition way of teaching to more up-to-date ones Therefore, Communicative Language Teaching is in the list of new ways of teaching (Khoa Anh Việt, 2008, p.167) The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been trying to implement CLT approach in Vietnam over the last years through teacher training and textbook writing projects In addition, there have been many projects to train teachers in the communicative approaches and methods This pervasive teaching approach uses syllabus and textbooks designed with a focus on communication as opposed to linguistic form In brief, “A textbook is an important means of satisfying the range of needs that emerge from the classroom,” and textbooks are a universal element in English language teaching (Hutchinson & Torres, 1994, p 327)

In terms of textbooks, according to Hoang Van Van, from 1982 to 2002, the textbooks used in VN were mainly grammar-based, taking the view that grammar can

be taught systematically as a set of rules to be mastered and transferred by the learner into proficient language use In 2002, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organized the design of the new curriculum and the writing of new textbooks for all school subjects This national project finished in early 2008 when the

new textbooks of all school subjects were put into use across the whole general educational system of Vietnam Now one set of English textbooks for lower secondary school and two sets for upper secondary school are be in use across Vietnam The two sets of English textbooks in upper secondary schools are called the standard set and the advanced set Each unit of the textbooks consists of five parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus These textbooks are taught in both private and public schools and all the teachers follow the same syllabus

The new English textbooks claim that students will be able to communicate

in English after seven years of study in secondary school These claims assume that communication-oriented speaking activities can help students acquire English-speaking competence The goal of the textbooks is to engage students in communication-based activities of real-life situations in which students can immerse themselves in integrative language use Their language ability can be developed through activities Within this communicative ability, speaking occupies

a very important role In fact, speaking sections are emphasized in the textbooks

From this background, the question “Are speaking activities designed in the new textbooks communicative in the light of CLT?” has come to my mind If the

textbooks claiming to be in line with CLT principles are actually not, the development of students’ ability to communicate will be greatly influenced To the researchers’ best knowledge, no study has been done to evaluate these textbooks or some part of them in line with CLT in the Vietnamese contexts In light of the literature available in the field , my interest lies solely in evaluating speaking activities designed in the textbooks in the light of communicative language teaching (CLT)

This has given me the desire to conduct “An Evaluation of Speaking Activities in the Textbook “ Tiếng Anh 10” for the 10th Grade Students at Gia Lộc High School in the light of CLT”

2 Objectives of the study

This study aimed to

1 Examine the extent to which the speaking activities in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 are communicative in the light of CLT principles

2 Examine the suitability of these activities in Gia Loc High School context

3 Make some suggestions for adaptation to enhance the effectiveness of these activities within a case of Gia Lộc High School

3 Research questions

The above aims can be realized through the following research questions:

1 To which extent are speaking activities included in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 communicative in the light of CLT?

2 How far are the speaking activities suitable for the teachers and students at Gia Loc High School?

3 How can some speaking activities in the textbooks be adapted to suit Gia Loc High School context?

4 Scope of the study

There are many different features related to evaluating textbooks The researcher has chosen to focus on evaluating speaking activities in speaking lessons

of textbook Tieng Anh 10 in the light of CLT principles The study also examines the suitability to grade 10 students at Gia Lộc High School during the school year 2012-2013 In addition, some recommendations for the teachers of English to adapt the part of the textbook are also proposed

Regarding participants of the study, five 10th classes with 227 students and three teachers of English from Gia Loc High School took part in the study

5 Significance of the Study

It is hoped that the current study will benefit teachers of English because the study is aimed to evaluate how communicative the activities are and to what degree

it helps the students We can identify the weaknesses and strengths of the speaking lessons designed in textbook and thus we will be in a position to suggest changes to make the book more effective The writer also hopes that the study will benefit textbook writers and curricula designers because the study would give them a feedback about the speaking lesson sections in the units of the textbooks and how they can be developed

6 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis consists of 5 chapters:

Chapter I presents the background and rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the limitations and the structure of the thesis

Chapter II reviews the current English teaching and English textbooks in Vietnam, the overview of CLT, the design of speaking activities based on CLT, textbook evaluation and adaptation, and theoretical frameworks

Chapter III - Research methodology: The research design of the study, the context of the study and the introduction of textbook Tieng Anh are presented in this chapter In addition, research methods and data collection procedures are described in detail in this chapter

Chapter IV - Results, discussions and suggestions In this chapter, the content analysis of the speaking lessons is analyzed and the results of the questionnaire survey are described, analyzed and discussed Also, some suggestions for the adaptation of the speaking activities are done in this chapter

Chapter V summarizes all the key issues of the study The limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies are also mentioned in this chapter

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 - THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 The Current English Teaching and English Textbooks in Vietnam

Since the economic reform known as doi moi in 1987, awareness of the need

to increase the quality of English language education has been widespread in Vietnam Party and State realize its significant role in modernization and industrialization English was officially regarded as the first foreign language to be taught in schools (Khoa Anh Viet, 2008, p 169) From 1982 to 2002, English was introduced nationally as a compulsory subject at upper secondary level and as an elective subject at lower secondary level According to Hoang Van Van, PhD, the English textbooks, although differing in orientation, are mainly grammar-based, taking the view that grammar can be taught systematically as a set of rules to be mastered and transferred by the learner into proficient language use In the early 1990s, Vietnamese government and communist party officials began to realize the need for educational reform to prepare managers for a global economy (Van Kopp, 1992) At the beginning of 2002, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organized the design of the new curriculum and the writing of new textbooks for all school subjects In the new general curriculum, English is a compulsory subject at both lower and upper secondary levels and an elective subject

at primary level The curriculum is promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training, and is prescribed for all grades and school types nation-wide from Grade

6 through to Grade 12, with a weekly class time of 135 minutes, split into three lessons of 45 minutes each (Le Van Canh & Barnard, R 2009) The textbooks were locally written and effectively constituted the national English curriculum The general aims of general English education are as follows:

- To use English as a means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and to be able to read materials at the same level of their textbooks, using a dictionary;

- To have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar; to have acquired the minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English; and

- To attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures;

to become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be better overall communicators, to better inform the world of the Vietnamese people, their history and culture, and to take pride in Vietnam, its language and culture

(MOET, 2006a, cited in Hoang Van Van, 2011, p 11)

According to Prof Dr Hoang Van Van, the new textbooks in Vietnamese high schools are designed in the light of CLT “Communicative skills are the goal

of the teaching of English at the secondary school while formal knowledge of the language serves as the means to the end” (MOET, 2006, p 6) The textbook is theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the ‘two currently popular teaching approaches, i.e the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach In other words, under the guidelines, students are expected to attain the ability to communicate with others effectively and appropriately in order to achieve their communicative purposes This new curriculum was officially approved in

2006 and was implemented national-wide from grades 6 to 12 It appears to be the

most comprehensive and elaborate curriculum to date It adopts a communicative

view to ELT, highlighting the importance of meaningful communication for learning English more effectively

1.2 An overview of Communicative Language Teaching

1.2.1 Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching

According to Wikipedia, Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “communicative approach”

Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics defines the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching as “an

APPROACH to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.” (Richards et al 1992:65) According to the same dictionary, the approach which has been developed

by British applied linguists as a reaction away from grammar-based approaches

a) teaches the language needed to express and understand different kinds of functions

b) is based on a NOTIONAL SYLLABUS or some other communicatively organized syllabus

c) emphasizes the process of communication, such as using language appropriately in different types of situations; using language to perform different kinds of tasks, e.g to solve puzzles, to get information , etc.; using language for social interaction with other people

1.2.2 Major Principles of CLT

The principles of CLT have been stated in different ways by Richards and Rodgers (2001), Finocchario& Brumfit, Berns (1990, 104), Nunan (1991a), Brown (2001: 43), etc D Nunan (1991:279) “Language Teaching Methodology “ said that

Communicative Language Teaching or Communicative Approach differs from other traditional Methods in language teaching He presented the most important features as the following: -:

1 Give the learners opportunities to focus on to the language and on the learning process

2 Try to link between classroom language learning and language activities outside the classroom

3 The authentic text related into learning situation

4 Support of learner’s own experience, which is an important elements to classroom learning

5 Focus on learning of the target language to communicate

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), three main principles can be inferred from CLT practices:

1 The communication principle: Learning is promoted by activities

involving real communication

2 The task principle: Learning is also enhanced through the use of activities

in which language is employed for carrying out meaningful tasks

3 The meaningfulness principle: The learning process is supported by

language that is meaningful to the student Activities should consequently be selected according to how well they involve the learner in authentic and meaningful language use

Finocchario and Brumfit summarize the principles as follows:

(1) Teaching is learner-centered and responsive to the students’ need and interests

(2) The target language is acquired through interactive communicative use that encourages the negotiations of meaning

(3) Genuinely meaningful language use is emphasized, along with taking, unpredictability, and choice making

risk-(4) The formal properties of language are never treated in isolation from use Language forms are always addressed within a communicative context

(5) There is exposure to examples of authentic language from the target language community

(6) The students are encouraged to discover the forms and structures of language for themselves

(7) There is a whole-language approach in which the four traditional language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are integrated

Berns (1990, 104) provides a useful summary of eight principles of CLT:

1 Language teaching is based on a view of language as communication That is, language is seen as a social tool that speakers use to make meaning speakers communicate about something to someone for some purpose, either orally or in writing

2 Diversity is recognized and accepted as part of language development and used in second language learners and users, as it is with first language users

3 A learner’s competence is considered in relative, not in absolute, terms

4 More than one variety of a language is recognized as a viable model for learning and teaching

5 Culture is recognized as instrumental in shaping speakers’ communicative competence, in both their first and subsequent languages

6 No single methodology or fixed set of techniques is prescribed

7 Language use is recognized as serving ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions and is related to the development of learners’ competence in each

8 It is essential that learners be engaged in doing things with language—that

is, that they use language for a variety of purposes in all phases of learning

Brown (2001: 43), in assessing the various interpretations, offers a concise summary of key tenets as follows:

1 Classroom goals are focused on all of the components (grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic) of communicative competence Goals therefore must intertwine the organizational aspects of language with the pragmatic

2 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes

3 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

4 Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skills necessary for communication in those contexts

5 Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning

6 The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing bestower of knowledge Students are therefore encouraged to construct meaning through genuine linguistic interaction with others

1.3 Designing speaking activities based on CLT

According to Jack C Richards and Richard Schmidt (2002:90), CLT, which is also called Communicative Approach, is an approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning

is communicative competence and which seeks to make meaningful communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities Communicative Language Teaching has major principles in language teaching worldwide Those are Integrating language skills, focusing on accuracy and fluency, practicing the language, processing creative construction and involves trial and error, and creating authentic and meaningful communication

There are some activities that can be used to design tasks for the Communicative classroom Nunan (1989: 68) proposed some activities in CLT such as questions and answer, dialogue, role play, matching activities,

communicative strategies, pictures and picture stories, puzzles, problem solving, and discussion

In turn, activities are, in Richards and Rodgers’ view (2001), of three major types: text-based (e.g textbooks), task-based (relying on jigsaw or information-gap principles), and realia (here, we are referring to authentic materials, taken from “real life” and brought into the classroom, such as signs, magazines, newspapers, maps, pictures, graphs, charts, or even objects)

In conclusion, Communicative Language Teaching is no doubt an excellent tool for increasing fluency Overcoming its limitations and implementing with different

methodology; teacher can become more creative while learners become more competent One of the prime supports for CLT is the practicability use of language 1.4 Textbook evaluation and adaptation

According to Nunan (1999, p 98), he states “a textbook is the main component of any instructional program and it is difficult to imagine a class without it ” Richards (2007, p 251) believes that materials “provide the students with the main information and the type of the language practice that occurs in the classroom” However, as Tomlinson (2006) states, no textbook is perfect, since it can be used by different students in different circumstances Therefore, textbooks need to be evaluated to find their weaknesses and improve them Additionally, Hutchinson and Waters (1989, p 96) state that evaluation of materials should be performed for giving an opinion about our materials’ suitability to our “particular purpose” Since there is no ideal textbook for every teaching learning situation, ELT material evaluation has taken place in research to explore the extent to which it can

be modified (Cunningsworth 1995: 136)

In terms of material textbook adaptation, materials adaptation should be based

on the results of materials evaluation Of course different materials have different potential areas for adaptation It is very important for us to adapt textbooks to meet our teaching and students’ needs in order to maximize learning potentials For a long time the textbook was the ‘bible’ and the teaching manual which gave in minute details of what to teach However, with the advent of CLT, textbooks have become too restrictive Teachers need to select and design tasks to practices interactive ability that simulates real-life language Merely following a textbook is unlikely to simulate small-group interaction Specific tasks of the kind are rarely found in textbooks They need to be redesigned for this purpose A textbook is just a simple tool in the hands of teachers Adaptation is, therefore, a natural step to take following textbook evaluation

as it is necessary to make up for the limitations of the textbook

Grant (1987) has listed the following principles for materials adaptation: 1) Making dialogues communicative

2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful

3) Meet your learners’ needs, both external and psychological

4) Use models of real, authentic language

Additionally, Graves (2003) points out, any “course book must be adapted

to your particular group of learners.” He suggests ways of considering how to modify one’s own course book:

 Select from the textbook the writing activities you want your students to do

 Reject the other writing activities as not being useful for the purpose of

your lesson (you may of course use them some other time with the students.)

 supplement the textbook by finding some extra speaking activities which

could work for your students

 If necessary, adapt the extra activities to be suitable for your lesson and for

your students’ needs

Using the first letter of each of the words in the list, the acronym SARS are made He also suggests the incorporation of SARS into lesson planning

1.5 Theoretical frameworks

A number of theoretical evaluative frameworks have since been published (e.g in Williams, 1983; Breen & Candlin, 1987; Sheldon, 1988; McDonough & Shaw, 2003; Cunningsworth, 1995; and McGrath, 2002) They have proposed the use of checklist or checklist like evaluation forms to see how textbook materials can match up with student needs Harmer (1991) suggested that the use of evaluation forms would be useful to see whether it is appropriate for students Following a quick impressionistic evaluation, detailed checklists can be constructed to perform in-depth evaluation on a textbook, to enable examination of the appropriateness of the textbook in serving demands of the syllabus and educational needs of the students (Cunningsworth, 1995).These have mostly been checklist-based, usually in the form of questions to be answered to determine the extent to which the materials fulfill a set of criteria

Teaching and learning situations are unique and evaluation frameworks need

to be edited and adapted to each situation As priorities in language teaching have

evolved, so have the teacher and learner needs, and classroom materials Williams (1983, p.251) calls it a “question of relevance.” Using someone else’s checklist without adapting it means we accept another’s view for our own situation In this present study, the researcher will use some of the criteria for evaluating speaking activities and exercises in textbooks proposed by Gloria Luque Agulló (2007) and design some criteria to evaluate a textbook based on based on Nunan (1989), Ellis (1998), Cunningsworth (1995) and Savignon (2002)

1.6 Summary

The sections discussed in this chapter will help to work as the basis for evaluation of the speaking activities designed in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 for grade 10 students at Gia Loc high school, Hai Duong They will be used in constructing the researcher's own checklists to analyze the content of the speaking lessons and to design the students’ questionnaire

CHARPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter consists of five sections The first section delineates the overall research design Section two describes the context of the study, and section three depicts the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 Section four gives an insight into the research methodology that was followed to conduct the research It contains the description

of a content analysis with the researcher own checklist, and the description of a survey with its participants and instruments Finally, section five outlines the data collection procedure

2.1 Research Design

The study aims to respond to the research questions of qualitative and quantitative nature, data collection and analysis techniques from both methodologies, thus mixed-method approach was chosen as the methodology of this research To evaluate the speaking lessons in the textbook Tieng Anh 10, a content analysis was employed Additionally, a survey was used to examine the suitability

of these speaking lessons for grade 10 students at Gia Loc high school in Hai Duong

2.2 The context of the study

The data for this study was collected in an upper secondary school in Gia Loc, Hai Duong over a period of seven months This high school is a state school with a student body of 1516 students The total classes are thirty six and each class

is about 40 – 45 students There are twelve 10th grades with 541students There are eighty one teachers and most of them are well-trained They are considered the most hard-working and enthusiastic teachers of all in the province There are eight English Language teachers at the school Their teaching experience ranged from 5

to 27 years with an average of 11 years Six of them held a B.A degree and 1 was M.A in teaching methodology All the teachers involved to the study had taken a training course organized by Hai Duong department of education and training on using and the new textbook Tiếng Anh 10 and the approach to teaching The researcher is one of the full-time staff of this school and has been teaching English for more than twelve years

All the students at Gia Loc high school live in rural areas In order to enter and study in the school, the students have to pass the high school Entrance Examination with high marks each year The subjects in this exam include Mathematics, Literature and one of the other subjects However, in the recent years, English hasn’t chosen in the high school entrance exam in Hai Duong Therefore, the students do not focus much on learning English in lower secondary schools and most of them have very low English proficiency when they start to attend Gia Loc high school As a result, they often have a great anxiety in English classrooms However, when they become high school students, most of them pay much more concerns about English as a core subject and hope that their English level will be improved by their great efforts 2.3 The textbook Tiếng Anh 10

The textbook Tiếng Anh 10 has 16 units with topics Every unit consists of 5

lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and a Language Focus one This

book was designed with various learning tasks, the purpose of which is to set up communicative situations for students to practice English language Furthermore, the book focuses on learners’ communicative competence without ignoring learners’ linguistic competence It is also accompanied with a great number of team work and group work activities to develop students’ communicative competence And students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes/ CDs accompanied with the books The activities in the textbook are designed based on specific tasks (both pedagogical and real-life), each of which is clearly instructed The method of task-based language teaching has many advantages First, it provides situations where students use language Second, it lowers the methodological burden on the teacher […]: the teacher does not have to

be concerned about how to design activities for teaching as usually seen when using the traditional set of textbooks (MOET, 2006b, p 54, )

As for the general objectives of skills of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, after finishing the textbook, students will be able to:

Table 2.1: General objectives of skills for Tiếng Anh 10 ( standard)

(MOET, 2006a, adapted from Minh, 2007, p 17 )

Listening

Understand the main ideas and details of monologues/dialogues of

120-150 words on the 6 topics covered Understand texts that are delivered

Writing Write texts of 100-200 words on familiar topics based on models or

prompts for personal or basic communicative purposes

In terms of speaking lessons, each consists of three or four tasks, sequenced from more controlled to freer types in terms of language which students are required to produce The initial tasks usually provide some language input in the form of examples for students to work in pairs or groups to practice language functions followed by somewhat freer activities in which learners are supposed to produce language on their own Objectives of the speaking sections

in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 are listed as follows:

Table 2.2: Objectives of speaking lessons in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10

(adapted from the book map of the textbook)

1 A day in the life of - Talk about daily activities by using given

information and pictures

2 School talks - Start, continue and close a conversation

3 People’s background - Talk about people’s background

4 Special education - Talk about school life

5 Technology and you - Talk about new technology in daily life and uses of

modern inventions

6 An excursion - Talking about a boat trip abroad

7 The Mass Media

- Talk about different types of the mass media

- Talk about advantages and disadvantages of the mass media

8 The story of my village - Talk about plans to improve life of a village and

their possible results

- Talk about national parks and nature conservation

11 National parks - Use conditional sentences type 3 to express regrets

- Talk about an excursion

12 Music - Ask and answer questions about music

- Talk about favorite kinds of music

13 Films and cinema

- Ask and answer questions about the plot of a film based on prompts

- Tell what kinds of film they like and dislike

- Express their opinions about a film, using attitudinal adjectives

14 The world cup

- Use some football vocabulary to ask and answer about the World Cup and to talk about the World Cup winners

- Talk about a historical place based on the given information

1 Does it provide natural, authentic conversations?

2 Does it provide effective speaking strategies for facilitating communication?

3 Are the contents of the topics familiar and interesting?

4 Are accuracy and fluency taken into account?

5 Is group and pair work sufficiently used?

6 Is visual support provided?

2.4.2 The survey

In this survey, A close ended structured questionnaire was developed for the 227 grade 10 students in Gia Loc high school The unstructured interviews were administered to the three teachers of English in an attempt to gain in-depth information for the research question The data were obtained by quantitative (questionnaire)and qualitative methods (interviews) The use of mixed method approach – a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches is the major strength of this research design

2.4.2.1 The participants

The participants of this study consisted of 227 students and 3 teachers of English at Gia Loc High school, Hai Duong The students were not randomly chosen but the researcher selected 5 from 12 10th grades randomly for the study from 10 A, 10C,

10 E, 10H and 10P In each class, there were maximum 45 students Each class had both males and females The three English language teachers selected used the

textbook Tieng Anh 10 in their classes in school year 2012 -2013 They were

female with their teaching experiences of 5, 8 and 15 years

2.4.2.2 Instruments

The first data collection tool used in this research included a questionnaire ( see Appendix 1) A four point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 to 5, was used to show the participants’ levels of agreement with a list of statements The facet of the items was only focused on suitability of the speaking lessons the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 to the students at Gia Loc high school The time required to complete the questionnaire was approximately 20 minutes The questionnaire comprises 10 questions developed in consideration to some questions used in previous studies The participants were instructed to circle the most appropriate answer for each item The options are sequenced from strongly disagree, disagree, not sure, agree and strongly agree Before delivering the questionnaire, the researcher had explained each item carefully in Vietnamese and asked participants to respond to each item before going to the next one Furthermore, the researcher asked respondents to go over each item again after completing the questionnaires in order not to miss or misunderstand anything It was administered to 227 respondents The researcher received 216 correctly answered sheets The second data collection tool used in this research was an interview guide comprising the 10 questions related to ten criteria mentioned above was prepared by the researcher to gain in-depth information for the research question ( see appendix 3) The interviews took approximately 30 minutes individually and they were recorded by the researcher

2.4.2.3 Evaluation criteria

The criteria for the survey were developed based on Ellis (1996), Cunningsworth (1995), Savignon (2002), especially based on the seven principles for task-based language teaching in Nunan (1989) The study was based on 10 criteria that are as follows:

1 The speaking lessons in the book motivate the students

2 The speaking lessons are related to the previous knowledge of the students

3 The speaking lessons are according to the interest of the students

4 The speaking lessons are according to the students’ level ability

5 The speaking lessons develop speaking skills of the students

6 Students enjoy participating in speaking activities

7 The vocabulary items are appropriate to the students

8 The topics are interesting and motivating enough for students to enjoy talking about

9 The instructions and examples in the textbooks are understandable

10 The speaking activities address learning targets

2.4.2.4 Pilot Testing

For the improvement and refinement of research instrument, the questionnaire was administered first to some students and then in the light of their suggestions, some of the items were rephrased and modified for the final administration on the whole sample

2.5 Data Collection Procedures

In order to analyze the students’ responses to the questionnaires, all of the responses were quantified First, the collected data were entered in the Excel software After that, the frequency and percentage of the individual items were calculated and analyzed with this program So as to have precise information from the interview A tape recorder was used All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese for the participants to fully articulate their views without being constrained by the use of English or it helped them to avoid getting confused in understanding the English interviewing questions and giving answers to the asked questions They were then fully, translated and analyzed by the researcher

Finally, the conclusions were drawn based on the major findings of the questionnaire together with the interviews The analysis, results and discussion were not divided into small categories because the survey only focused on suitability of speaking lessons to grade 10 students at Gia Loc high school

2.6 Summary

In conclusion, based on the research purpose, the study used a content analysis to examine whether the speaking activities are according to CLT principles The study also employed a questionnaire and an interview guide to evaluate the