Adapting speaking tasks in the textbook tieng anh 10 to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at thuong cat high school a case study

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG ADAPTING SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG

ADAPTING SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG

ANH 10” TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPEAKING

LESSONS AT THUONG CAT HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY

Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

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Một nghiên cứu điển hình

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

HA NOI, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG

ADAPTING SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG

ANH 10” TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPEAKING

LESSONS AT THUONG CAT HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY

Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

nhằm tăng hiệu quả các giờ dạy nói tại trường THPT Thượng Cát :

Một nghiên cứu điển hình

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

HA NOI, 2016

DECLARATION

I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Adapting speaking tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at Thuong Cat High School: A case study.” as my own study in the fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Nhung

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have benefited a great deal of support from a number of people during the time carrying out this thesis

I would like first and foremost to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to

my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa for his invaluable and insightful comments, his deliberate guidance and wholehearted supervision without which the thesis would not have been possible

My thanks are also offered to all my respected lecturers in the M.A course, Assoc Prof Lê Hùng Tiến, Prof Nguyễn Quang, Assoc Dr Lê Văn Canh, Assoc Dr Lâm Quang Đông, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn…., for their informative and valuable lectures that have enlightened my research path of the study

Special acknowledgement is also given to my students from class 10D1 Thuong Cat High School for their participation in the lessons My appreciation is also extended

to my colleagues in the English Division of Thuong Cat High School for their assistance and work sharing

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family and my close friends for their understanding, love, and support

ABSTRACT

In the teaching context of Thuong Cat High School in Bac Tu Liem, Ha Noi, the adaptation of speaking tasks in the textbook „Tieng Anh 10‟ is necessary because teaching and learning speaking is not usually efficient The students can hardly take part in speaking tasks seriously though they have the desire to speak English This mini action research is conducted in order to investigate how adapted tasks help students of low level to get more involved in speaking, as well as improve their language accuracy and fluency Oral tests together with survey questionnaire and observations are the main instruments of data collection They are delivered to 40 grade-10 students to collect individual scores, their opinions about speaking tasks in the textbook and their behaviors while doing speaking tasks Based on the data, together with advantages in methodology, the speaking tasks are adapted and speaking activities are implemented as pilot teaching is employed to realize the objectives of the action research The results indicate that most of the adapted tasks bring about some clear improvement in the students‟ participation and their language proficiency without omitting available textbook tasks Finally, some limitations of the study are discussed

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1: The students‟ motivation in learning English speaking

Table 2+3: The students‟ opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 10

Table 4: The students‟ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons

Table 5: The students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Table 6: Factors prevent the students from participating in speaking in the class

Table 7: The students‟ opinion about the way their teacher taught English speaking

Table 8: The students‟ evaluation of their teacher‟s task adaptation

Table 9: The students‟ scores in the Pre-test

Table 10: The students‟ opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking tasks

Table 11+12: The students‟ opinions about the topics of speaking tasks

Table 13+14: The students‟ opinions about the speaking tasks

Table 15: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 14

Table 16: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16

Table 17: The students‟ scores in Post-test after Unit 12

Table 18: The students‟ scores in Post-test after Unit 16

Figure 1: The students‟ motivation in learning English speaking

Figure 2: The students‟ opinions about the textbook‟s topics in the textbook Tieng Anh 10

Figure 3: The students‟ opinions about the textbook‟s speaking activities in the textbook Tieng Anh 10

Figure 4: The students‟ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons

Figure 5: The students‟ participation in speaking lessons

Figure 6: : Factors prevented the students from participating in speaking in the class

Figure 7: The students‟ opinion about the way their teachers taught speaking

Figure 8: The students‟ evaluation of their teacher‟s adaptation

Figure 9: The students‟ scores in the Pre-test

Figure 10: The students‟ opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking tasks

Figure 11: The students‟ opinions about the topic‟s familiarity of the speaking tasks

Figure 13: The students‟ opinions about the speaking tasks‟ ease

Figure 14: The students‟ opinions about the speaking tasks‟ interesting organization

Figure 15: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 14

Figure 16: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16

Figure 17: The students‟ scores in the Post-test after Unit 12

Figure 18: The students‟ scores in the Post-test after Unit 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 The teaching of speaking 5

1.1.1.1 The role of spoken English 5

1.1.1.2 Nature of spoken discourse 5

1.1.1.3 Functions of speaking 6

1.1.1.4 Implications for teaching 7

b Talk as transaction 8

1.1.2 Related factors affecting students‟ speaking 9

1.1.2.1 Context 9

1.1.2.2 Teachers 10

1.1.2.3 Learners 10

1.1.2.4 Materials 11

1.2 Tasks and task adaptation 11

1.2.1 Tasks in FL/SL learning and teaching 12

1.2.2 Task adaptation in FL/SL learning and teaching 12

1.2.2.1 The need of task adaptation 12

1.2.2.2 What is adaptation? 12

1.2.2.3 Reasons for adaptation 13

1.2.2.4 Approaches to task adaptation 14

1.3 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS 17

2.1 The case of the study 17

2.1.1 Setting of the study 17

2.1.2 The learners 17

2.1.3 Speaking materials 18

2.2 An action research 18

2.2.1 Applied steps 18

2.2.2 The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 10 20

2.3 Instrumentation and Procedures 27

2.3.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary Survey 28

2.3.2 Instrument 2: Oral tests 29

2.3.3 Instrument 3: Survey Questionnaire 29

2.3.4 Instrument 4: Survey for Response to Adaptation 29

2.3.5 Instrument 5: Class Observation Sheets 30

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 31

3.1 Data analysis of Preliminary Survey (See Appendix 1) 31

3.1.1 Personal information of the students‟ taking part in the survey 31

3.1.2 The students‟ awareness of studying English in general 31

3.1.3 The students‟ opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 33

3.1.4 The students‟ evaluation of their current speaking lessons 34

3.1.4.1 The students‟ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons 34

3.1.4.2 The students‟ participation in speaking lessons and the reasons 35

3.1.4.3 The students‟ opinions about the way their teachers taught English speaking 38

3.2 Data analysis from initial observations (see appendix 5) 39

3.3 Data analysis of Pre-tests (see Appendix 2) 43

3.4 Data analysis of Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 3) 44

3.4.1 In terms of language (vocabulary) 44

3.4.2 In terms of topic 45

3.4.3 In terms of speaking tasks 47

3.4.4 The students‟ suggestions for the teacher‟s adaptation of speaking tasks 49

3.5 Data analysis of Survey for response to adaptation (see Appendix 4) 49

3.5.1 Data analysis of response to task adaptation of Unit 14, delivered on April 17 th , 2015 (Number of participants: 40) 50

3.5.2 Data analysis of response to task adaptation of Unit 16, delivered on May 14 th , 2015 (Number of participants: 40) 52

3.6 Data analysis from while-observation: 53

3.6.1 While-observation ( See Appendix 5) 53

3.6.2 Reflection on the adaptation 53

3.7 Data analysis from Post-tests 56

3.7.1 Post-test after Unit12 56

3.7.2 Post-test after Unit 16 57

PART III: CONCLUSION 58

1 Recapitulation 58

2 Major findings and conclusion 58

3 Limitations of the study: 59

REFERENCES 60 APPENDIX 1 III

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In the past ten years, teaching English speaking at school has earned a lot of attention and investment from both experts and teachers as well as learners and their communities The three main reasons must be: first, the key practical role of English speaking has received the social awareness; second, modern information technology has brought learners an easy access to native speakers‟ talks; third, many methodology courses sponsored by the government have helped teachers to approach some new teaching methods As a result, students‟ speaking ability has improved much in general

Despite all of the above advantages, I see no much progress in the class I teach at Thuong Cat High School By observing, I notice most of my students hesitate to participate in English speaking tasks Even as the teachers have managed to engage them in, their talks show some problems of using accurate and fluent language

Some researchers have been particularly interested in the same situation in teaching English skills and tried to improve it by adaptation (Phùng Thị Hoa Mơ, 2010; Nguyễn Thị Trang, 2012) However, most of them conclude that poor textbooks and students‟ low motivation are the main reasons Whereas the students in my class of 10D1 confirm that they want to speak English much more than reading, writing, grammar, and they find almost all the topics interesting Moreover, the new set of textbooks do have several strong points, which are available task-based contexts and carefully guided communication practice

Considering their English scores at the beginning of the course, I realize that most

of my students are of low level, some are better but no one is excellent Therefore, I

do a preliminary research, search the Internet and read ESL/EFL studies I find that spoken discourse has its own characteristics and, thus, the teaching must be

distinctive I wonder if I can help them by providing them with more language input together with knowledge background, and by adapting some speaking tasks in the

textbook „Tiếng Anh 10‟ I do hope that these changes will help them to have such

achievements as participating more in speaking activities and producing somewhat more accurate and fluent language

All of these above have inspired me to conduct the study titled “Adapting speaking

tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 to improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons

at Thuong Cat High School: A case study.”

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at improving the effectiveness of English speaking lessons for the 10th grade students at Thuong Cat High School by means of the adaptation of

speaking tasks in the textbook „Tieng Anh 10‟

4 Scope of the study

Task adaptation is such a broad topic that it cannot be wholly discussed within the

framework of this paper; therefore, only one specific aspect will be central to the speaking tasks‟ adaptation

The study focuses on only one class of grade-10 students, so the results of the study are not applied to all students at Thuong Cat High School or ones at other high school

5 Methods of the study

First, the study titled “Adapting speaking tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 to

improve the effectiveness of speaking lessons at Thuong Cat High School.” is a case study It is conducted in class 10D1 at Thuong Cat High School in Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi City 40 students of class 10D1 are all at the age of 17 All of them have learnt English since they were at grade 3, but most of them are low-level English speakers Though they pay much attention to study English, their English is

not very good in general and their speaking ability is of low level in particular

Second, the study is an action research According to Nunan (1992: 19), an action

research includes seven steps They are: initiation, preliminary investigation,

hypothesis, intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up Details of these

steps will be presented in chapter 2 of Part II

The action research lasts during the second term from Unit 9 to Unit 16 It is about

18 weeks Oral tests together with survey questionnaire and observations are the main instruments of data collection They are delivered to 40 grade-10 students to collect individual scores, their opinions about speaking tasks in the textbook and their behaviors while doing speaking tasks

Based on the data, together with advantages in methodology, the speaking tasks are adapted and speaking activities are implemented as pilot teaching is employed to realize the objectives of the action research Two approaches to adaptation that

guide this research are making accuracy-based practice meaningful and adapting

fluency-based activities, Hedge (2000: 273- 281)

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts namely Introduction, Development and

Conclusion

In the first part, Introduction, the reasons for the research, aims, research

questions, scope and methods of the study are mentioned

The second part, Development, contains three chapters:

- Chapter One focuses on theoretical background of the study, which is about

features, and functions of spoken discourse, implications for teaching, and purposes

as well as two main approaches of adaptations: accuracy-based practice and

fluency-based activities

- Chapter Two not only describes the case of the study at Thuong Cat High School but also presents the applied steps of an action research in details and the instrumentation of the study

- Chapter Three deals with a comprehensive data analysis

The last part, Conclusion, provides the recapitulation, major findings and

limitations of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The teaching of speaking

In order to help students to develop their English speaking ability we need insights about the nature of spoken discourse, so we will be able to find a useful methodology to select and design appropriate classroom activities

1.1.1 Speaking

1.1.1.1 The role of spoken English

The mastery of English speaking skills plays a very important role for many foreign language learners Consequently, learners tend to evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English lessons basing on how well they feel they have improved in their speaking ability or proficiency

In addition, teachers and textbooks make use of a variety of approaches in the

teaching of oral skills, which shows that “ oral skills have hardly been neglected in

EFL/ESL courses” Therefore, it is observed that “ how best to approach the teaching of oral skills has long been the focus of methodological debate”, Richards

(2009:21)

Reflecting on the textbook Tieng Anh 10, I think teachers can take a great deal of advantages in methodology

1.1.1.2 Nature of spoken discourse

According to McCarthy and Carter, 1997 (cited in Richards, 2009:21), it is recent advances in discourse analysis that have revealed the nature of spoken discourse and its differences from written discourse Luoma, 2004 (cited in Richards, 2009:22) points out some of the following features of spoken discourse:

 Conjoined short phrases and clauses

 May be planned or unplanned

 Employs more vague or generic words than written language

 Employs fixed phrases, fillers and hesitation markers

 Contains slips and errors reflecting on-line processing

 Interactions are jointly constructed

 Shows variation, reflecting speaker roles, speaking purpose, and the

context

Among them, I pay much attention to the two following features:

First, “spoken discourse is usually unplanned and often reflects the processes of

constructions”, Richards (2009:2) Thus, errors must be carefully chosen to be

treated in order that the correction does not ruin fluency In my opinion, errors that impede communication should be directly corrected Tricia Hedge (2000:289) gives

an example of such error: “ They ate smoked worm” is not immediately apparent as

“They ate smoked eel”, and “long trees” can be misunderstood as “tall trees” Besides, the assessment of fluency should be much more flexible, which will be discussed in detail in the part of adaptation

Second, “interactions are jointly constructed”, which asks for shared background,

active and intelligibility participation It implies that in addition to fluency, accuracy must be put in consideration and speaking activities must be well designed so that engaging students in can be successful Moreover, the topic of speaking tasks in textbooks should be familiar to students, or else some preparation must be made before each lesson

1.1.1.3 Functions of speaking

Richards uses a three-part framework, which is expanded from Brown and Yule‟s one, to classify the interaction functions of speaking: talk as interaction, talk as

transaction, and talk as performance Their forms and functions are quite different and therefore they require different teaching approaches

a Talk as interaction

This refers to “conversation” which serves as primarily social function The focus is more on speaker‟s wish to present themselves other than on the message Brown and Yule, 1983 (cited in Richards, 2009:25) describe its main features as follows:

 Has a primarily social function

 Is jointly constructed

b Talk as transaction

The focus of this kind of talk is on what is said or done The message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately are focused on rather than the participants and their interacting manner

Some main features are given by Richards (2009:29):

 It has a primarily information focus

 Linguistic accuracy is not always important

c Talk as performance

This type of talk refers to public talk transmitting information in front of an audience According to Richards (2009:32), the main features of talks as performance are:

 It reflects predictable organization and sequencing

 Form and accuracy is important

1.1.1.4 Implications for teaching

a Talk as interaction

Though mastering such skills is difficult and may not be the most important to most

students at school, I think they should practice a wide range of topics to present good images of themselves in situations which call for interaction talks

Two simple activities Richards uses to practice topic management are “in the hot seat” and “question time” In the first activity, a student sits on a chair in front of the class and makes a statement about something he or she did recently The other members of the class have to ask three or more questions about the topic which the student has to answer quickly Then another student takes the hot seat With the activity called question time, before students begin a lesson on a new theme, he prepares up to 15 questions related to the theme and put them on a handout First, he asks students around the class to answer the questions quickly Then students practice asking and answering the questions in pairs

b Talk as transaction

In terms of the level of linguistic accuracy that students achieve when carrying out tasks as transaction, some scholars like Thornbury,1998 and Kumaravadivelu,1991 state that practicing these tasks focuses on task accomplishment rather than grammatical practice and a gradual modification of their language output over time takes on more and more target-like forms However, Higgs and Clifford, 1982 (cited

in Richards 2009:37) claim that communication tasks often develop fluency at the expense of accuracy Richards (2009:39) recognizes that low-level students often heavily rely on vocabulary and memorized chunks of language while carrying out communication tasks Therefore, to improve the quality (accuracy and fluency) of language produced as students practice, he suggests:

 Pre-teaching certain linguistic forms

 Reducing the complexity of the task

 Giving time to plan the task

 Repeating performance of the task

c Talk as performance

According to Johns,1996 (cited in Richards, 2009:42), teaching this type of talk requires a different teaching strategy which involves providing examples or models

of speeches, oral presentation, stories,etc through video or audio recordings or written examples Guiding questions are:

 What is the speaker‟s purpose?

 Who is the audience?

 What kind of information does the audience expect?

 How does the talk begin, develop, and end? What moves or stages are

involved?

 Is any special language used?

1.1.2 Related factors affecting students‟ speaking

Students‟ participation in classroom speaking activities and their English output can

be affected by a variety of factors originating from context, learners, teachers, materials and classroom activities In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed

1.1.2.1 Context

Most of factors are “ outside the teacher‟s control but they will bear heavily on

decisions about choice of resources and classroom procedure” (Hedge, 2000:24)

She mentions the following factors:

- The extent to which the materials in use train for public examinations

- The hours available for teaching

- The existence of institutional or departmental policies

- The physical constraints of the classroom

- Class size

- The resources available

- The cohesion that exists among English language teachers

- The status of teachers in the hierarchy

- The financial/contractual status of teachers

- The interest of management in continuing professional development

 Examination system

Examination system is a heavily constraining factor where examinations are considered gatekeepers to higher education or good jobs Teachers would be of high risk not to train students for these

1.1.2.2 Teachers

Harmer, 1991 (cited in Hedge, 2000:26) identifies teachers‟ roles “as controller in

eliciting nationality words; as assessor of accuracy; as corrector of pronunciation;

as organizer in giving instructions for the pair work, initiating it, monitoring it, and organizing feedback; as prompter while students are working together; and as resource if students need help” All of these are common to a wide range of

classroom methods Hedge (2000: 22-31) says that they can be seen in lesson plans but only the ability to manage activities and interactions can put them in practice Only when teachers have competence in management of interaction can the mentioned roles create beneficial conditions for language learning

1.1.2.3 Learners

Individual differences exist and play a significant role in language learning

However, they are just the useful distinctions to classify them in order to have some

possible implications for teaching Because there are not “certain attitudes,

personality characteristics, emotional disposition, and learning strategies that somehow create the generically „good language learner‟” (Hedge, 2000:24)

In addition to individual differences, students in Thuong Cat High School share some common characteristics that affect their learning in general and speaking in particular They are of low-level, which leads to limitations in language output

(accuracy and fluency) and anxiety (participation)

1.1.2.4 Materials

O‟Neill, 1982 (cited in Hedge, 2000:36) outlines the benefits of textbook materials:

“they can offer a grammatical and functional framework which provides for the common needs of a group of learners; they allow students to prepare in advance; they provide quality of presentation, and they do not necessarily prevent a creative spinning-off in the classroom into all kinds of other activities.” Because of all the

factors of teachers and learners mentioned above, textbooks should be learning

guides for students, and “good teachers have always taken a positively critical

approach to appraising and developing their work”

1.2 Tasks and task adaptation

No course book will be totally suited to a particular teaching situation The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our requirement, but rather for the best possible fit between what the course book offers and what we as teachers and students need Two approaches that guide this research are

making accuracy-based practice meaningful and adapting fluency-based activities,

Hedge (2000: 273- 281)

1.2.1 Tasks in FL/SL learning and teaching

Many linguists argue whether tasks can involve learners in working with particular kinds of language Brumfit, 1984a (cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001:19) stresses that students should be provided the freedom to improve in fluency activities Skehan,

1998 (cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001:19) believes that tasks can only provide conditions for influencing the level of learners‟ complexity, accuracy or fluency In contrast, Loschky and Bley-Vroman, 1993 (cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001:19) argue that tasks can target language features Therefore, Carter and Nunan (2001:19) state that the key question is how tasks operate and how to make tasks operate effectively within classroom contexts

1.2.2 Task adaptation in FL/SL learning and teaching

1.2.2.1 The need of task adaptation

No certain set of activities can ensure that different groups of students practice the speaking and problems can be found around the activities Hedge (2000:281-283) believes that whenever a problem occurs, which leads to students‟ failure, they can feel frustrated to perform and they do not behave in them as the activities suggest they should This usually obstacles the possible contributions to speaking activities and presents limitations to the development of English speaking ability It suggests

to us the need to create range and variety in language activities to adapt to the teaching and learning context

1.2.2.2 What is adaptation?

According to Tomlinson (1998: xi), adaptation is “making changes to materials in

order to improve them suitable for a particular type of learner.” In the aspect of

adaptation techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix-xi) mention adaptation as the

action of employing “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing,

editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or

modifying cultural/ situational content.” Differently, Stevick (1972), cited in Mc

Donough and Shaw (1993: 83) emphasizes teachers‟ role of bridging a gap between

materials and learners: “the teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in

ways that will be satisfying to those who learn from it.”

In brief, adaptation requires teachers to change and revise materials to make them more accessible to the teaching context

1.2.2.3 Reasons for adaptation

There are always some practical reasons for adapting materials in order to make them as accessible and useful to learners as possible However, reasons for adaptation have varied and changed as the field has developed and views on language acquisition and teaching practice have become better informed by research and experience There are two most frequently cited purposes for adaptation:

First, to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e to mould it to the needs and interests of learners, the teachers‟ own capabilities and such constraints as time, or as Mc Donough and Shaw (1993:85) put it: “to maximize the appropriateness of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances”

Second, to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the materials, such as linguistic inaccuracy, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen and Bowen 1978) or lack of variety

Looking deeper into McDonough and Shaw‟s definition of purpose it can be seen that maximizing the appropriateness of teaching materials (by, e.g., modifying them

in such a way that they seem more relevant to learners‟ interests and needs) is important because when teachers make changes to a course book “to better suit our particular purposes” what teachers are really trying to do is to improve students‟

participation to increase the effectiveness of the learning experience

1.2.2.4 Approaches to task adaptation

Brumfit, 1984a (cited in Hedge, 2000:283) suggests that beginners “need a strong

focus on learning to use grammar, vocabulary, and features of pronunciation in more controlled, intensive forms of practice, but that they will then need opportunities to use the resources they have acquired in fluency work which stimulates real language use.” However, Carter and Nunan (2001:19) prefer “to engage learners‟ fluent processing to begin with and only subsequently lead them

to integrate accurate language features into that fluent „base‟”

I myself base on types of activities to decide whether fluency-focus or focus should be paid more attention Also, I tend to practice accuracy work within fluency activities; because John and Liz Soars in the Introduction to Headway Upper Intermediate Teacher‟s book (page iii), argue that students who have passed

accuracy-through the „intermediate stage of a programme and who have „sufficient linguistic

confidence an ability to survive in a target language environment and understand the gist of what is going on around them‟ will still have inaccuracies and a relatively

narrow range of vocabulary Therefore, “maintaining or even increasing the amount

of accuracy work might eliminate some of these mistakes and enrich their language repertoire”

I believe the two following approaches can produce effective adaptation:

a Making accuracy-based practice meaningful

Learners in communicative classrooms need to be exposed to inputs that they can attend to, and given opportunities to produce output in activities with more control

Controlled activities may deal with “a grammatical structure, a phonological

feature, a conventional gambit, a communicative function, or the time sequencers that might be needed in telling a story”, all of which have a conscious focus on

language (Hedge, 2000:273)

Hedge (2000:273-276) gives two suggestions:

 Contextualizing

Contextualized practice “aims to make clear the link between linguistic form and

communicative function”, which “means finding a situation in which a structure is commonly used.” [ For the example of contextualizing, see appendix 6-1]

 Personalizing

Personalizing “the language enables students to express their own ideas, feelings,

preferences, and opinion”, which “makes the language more memorable” To make

it motivating, students must be allowed to choose what they say in some degree so

that they can “make use of language resources in interpersonal situations” [ For

the example of personalizing, see appendix 6-2]

b Adapting fluency-based activities

In textbooks, it can be seen a lot of available fluency-based activities Making use most of them and adapting some is what I choose to contribute to the development

of students‟ speaking skills

Hedge (2000:277-281) suggests three basic types of activities used for adaptation:

 Free discussion

In free discussion, students can cover a wide range of topics and practice strategies required in interpersonal communication such as taking and holding turns, encouraging responses, etc However, more proficient or more confident students may dominate over anxious ones, thus participation from all members of the group may not take place

To overcome this, teachers need to support students with materials that can focus on the discussion, provide content and linguistic resources Reporting stage after taking note the discussion accurately also makes students follow the arguments In

addition, goals should be established Group roles can ensure equality of

opportunity for all group members [ For the example of group roles, see appendix 6-3]

 Role-play

Role-play can be an effective “fluency activity if it is performed in pairs or groups

rather than one group acting in front of the class” and it should be based on

real-life situations Thus, role-play encourages a large number of students to participate

in the activity Another advantage is that as students take on different roles they will have a chance to practice language that varies according to the setting [ For the example of role-play, see appendix 6-4]

 „Gap’ activities

„Gap‟ activity “involves each learner in a pair or group possessing information

which other learners do not have The learners‟ information must be shared in order

to achieve an outcome” One value of this fluency-based type is that it can push students to more accurate output while negotiating meaning and adjusting the conversation [ For the example of „gap‟ activities, see appendix 6-5]

1.3 Summary

To conclude, with the awareness of factors affecting students‟ participation and

language performance together with two main approaches to adaptation, I myself adapt some activities in Tieng Anh 10 to make them more communicative, suitable

to my students‟ ability in class 10D1 at Thuong Cat High School Contextualizing,

group roles, role-play and personalizing are adaptation techniques I use in the

research Details of these above contents will be presented in chapter 2 and 3

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter will analyze:

 The case of the study with the description of the setting, the learners

and the materials used by the students

 The applied steps of an action research in details and the adaptation

of speaking tasks in „Tieng Anh 10‟

 The procedure and instruments applied to collect data

2.1 The case of the study

2.1.1 Setting of the study

The study is conducted in class 10D1 at Thuong Cat High School in Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi City At Thuong Cat High School as well as other high schools all over the country, English is one of the three compulsory core subjects in the national examination for GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education)

The students have three 45-minute periods of English a week, that is, 51 periods in term 1 and 54 periods in term 2 However, there are only seven speaking lessons in each term

2.1.2 The learners

The study is carried out with the participation of 40 students of class 10D1 In general, the students are at the age of 17 There are 21 girls and 19 boys They all live in Bac Tu Liem district All of them have learnt English since they were at grade 3, but most of them are low-level English speakers Though they pay much attention to studying English, their English is not very good in general and their speaking ability is of low level in particular

At the time of the study, the students were in their second term of the school year

The second term begins with Unit 9

2.1.3 Speaking materials

The textbook Tieng Anh 10, edited by Hoang Van Van and written by Hoang Thi

Xuan Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Vu Thi Loi, Do Tuan Minh and Nguyen Quoc Tuan, published by Nha xuat ban giao duc, is a theme-based textbook It is intended to provide students with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical items and language skills

The textbook is used for grade-10 students It consists of 16 units Each unit has one speaking lesson All the speaking lessons in the textbook follow three stages of pre-speaking, while-speaking and post-speaking The speaking tasks are not too difficult with coherent stages They are intended to be suitable for students of all levels

2.2 An action research

2.2.1 Applied steps

The study in fact is an action research According to Nunan (1992: 19), an action

research includes seven steps They are: initiation, preliminary investigation,

hypothesis, intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up The applied

steps in details are as follows:

Step 1- Initiation: In the process of teaching the textbook Tieng Anh 10, I observe

that most of the students hesitate to participate in speaking tasks Even as the teachers manage to engage them in, their talks show some problems of the accuracy and fluency of their language performance The students confirm that they want to speak English much more than reading, writing, grammar, and they find almost all the topics interesting, though What should be done?

Step 2- Preliminary investigation: I carry out the preliminary survey and do some

initial observations to find out how speaking tasks are managed, how often the

students take part in speaking activities and how the language produced is Also, I ask the students to take an oral pre-test The students‟ scores help me evaluate their English speaking levels at the beginning of the study Besides, I search the Internet and read academic studies on ESL and EFL

Step 3- Hypothesis: By collecting and reviewing the baseline data, I come to the

hypothesis that the students‟ speaking achievement is not high because they often encounter problems associated with language and background knowledge due to their low English speaking levels; and that the adaptation of some speaking tasks

by „making accuracy-based practice meaningful‟ and „adapting fluency-based

activities‟ Hedge (2000: 273- 281) can help the students improve the accuracy and

fluency of their language performance

effective adaptation: „making accuracy-based practice meaningful‟ and „adapting

fluency-based activities‟, Hedge (2000: 273- 281) In this study, task 2 of Unit 14

and task 3 of Unit 16 are adapted as samples (See part 2.2.2 of Chapter 2)

Next, teaching plans for adapted tasks are delivered I observe the class and take notes the teaching-learning activities and the students‟ behaviors When the students finish the tasks, I provide them with survey for response to the adaptation

Step 5- Evaluation:

Before the adaptation, the students‟ scores show their low speaking achievement because of such problems as they do not have enough vocabulary, feel shy when they speak in front of others, they are still rigid to express their ideas

During the adaptation, two oral post-tests are delivered to the students in order to evaluate their speaking progress: one is after Unit 12 and another is after Unit 16

(See Appendix 2) Also, data analysis, reflection and comparison are done to

investigate the students‟ speaking improvement in terms of participation, language accuracy and fluency In this study, data analysis, reflection and comparison for task

adaptation of Unit 14 and Unit 16 are recorded (See Chapter 3)

After the adaptation, the students find the adapted tasks less challenging and achievable They respond in English more freely, have the feelings of being understood and take part in speaking lessons more actively All prove a considerable improvement in the students‟ participation, language accuracy and fluency

Step 6- Dissemination: I discuss the effectiveness of the adapted tasks to the

students and colleagues

Step 7- Follow-up: I suggest some more adapted activities to teach other speaking lessons basing on the textbook Tieng Anh 10 to the students

2.2.2 The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 10

Based on the findings from the students‟ statement of the way they often do their speaking activities and from my pre-observations, together with the knowledge of some teaching approaches acquired through reading, some adaptation techniques are employed to involve the students in the English speaking and make the tasks more accessible to them The tasks of Unit 14 and Unit 16 are adapted, using

common adapting techniques such as „contextualizing, personalizing, role-play,

group role and „Gap‟ activity‟ I remain all the language materials in the textbook

because of my limited ability Furthermore, the textbook is written by a group of linguistic experts, so it is a reliable and useful source of language Only the organizing of speaking activities is in concern

 Samples of adaptation

 Unit 14 (Page 147, the textbook Tieng Anh 10)

Rationale for adaptation:

Task 2-as a while speaking one is considered rather long and with many pieces of

information Low level students tend to be confused with time-consuming work and become bored with repeated language or activities Therefore, the adapted version

of Task 2 in the textbook by „Gap‟ activity is aimed to enhance every student‟s participation, push students to more accurate output while negotiating meaning and adjusting the conversation

Adapted version plan of Task 2:

- Task: While-speaking, Task 2

- Aims and objectives: maximize students‟ listening and speaking time on World Cup tournaments

- Type of activity: “Gap” activity

Task 2:

- Preparation:

+ Teacher: two sets of cards, each set has two diferent cards The first card (Card A) will contain the information about four World Cup tournaments which the second card (Card B) does not have

- Set 1:

+ Card 1A:

Times Year Host country Winner Score Runner-up

2 1934 Italy Italy 2-1 Czechoslovakia

+ Card 2A

Times Year Host country Winner Score Runner-up

10 1974 West Germany West Germany 2-1 Netherlands

+ Teacher asks a pair to read aloud the example

+ Teacher plays roles with a good student as an example

 “Gap” activity in group work

- Teacher introduces the task: Now you are going to work in groups of four, ask and answer about blank World Cup tournaments to fill your cards in two different pairs

- Teacher makes sure each group contains two similar sets of cards (A group= 1A- 1B, 1A- 1B or A group= 2A- 2B, 2A- 2B) and each student will work with two different parners of the group The leader appointed will control the practice of all group member

- Students should base themselves on the model conversation in the textbook

- Teacher goes round checking and offering help

- Finally, teacher calls on some pairs perform in front of the class While students speak, teacher takes notes of their errors if any and feedbacks after that

 Unit 16 (Page170, the textbook Tieng Anh 10)

Rationale for adaptation:

Task 3 -as post speaking one also seems to be rather difficult for Ss because it

requires a background knowledge as well as a wide range of vocabulary and expressions An adapted version of this task is presented to meet that demand and to help the students generate ideas and present them in English illegibly and fluently

Adapted version plan:

- Task: post-speaking, task 3

- Aims and objectives:

+ To improve the students‟ participation and language accuracy, fluency and complexity

+ Students can talk about a historical place they have been to or know about

- Type of activity: Contextualizing, Role-play, Group roles, Personalizing

 Contextualizing and Role-play

- The teacher sets the context of a radio program: imagine that you are the guest of a

radio program “My favorite historical place” and you are asked about your

favourite historical place that you have been to or know about by the M.C of the show

- The teachers asks Ss to work in groups of four, casts the roles of the interview and lets the students act the show

 Group roles

- Each group acts out the show

+ One student, who is the M.C of the show, is appointed by the teacher as the leader The M.C should ask the questions for the fllowing suggestions:

- Teacher lets students practice all the questions, calls one student write the questions on board and asks students to take notes carefully all the questions before working in groups

Name of the historical place

where

when

with whom

special features construction

visiting hours

+ One student is the guest of the show

+ The others listen, provide help and take notes all the possibilities

- Making sure all group member change the role, which is followed by the teacher and the leader of the group

- Teacher calls some students act out the show in front of the class

- While students speak, teacher takes notes of their errors if any and feedbacks after that

 Personalizing the reporting

- Students form new groups with the cards from teacher and report about one historical place among those that they have learned from their former group They are advised to use their own words

- The teacher gives each group a set of card numbered from 1 to 4, which is then delivered to group members With the teacher‟s instruction, all of the students with cards number 1 move to form a new group of four Ss The same to the other three groups

- Students work in new groups and make the reporting: one student report while others take notes

- Some students are called to report before class

- While students speak, teacher takes notes of their errors if any and feedbacks after

that

2.3 Instrumentation and Procedures

The data collected from student-based evaluation and respond-based evaluation (Ellis, 1997: 39-40) help conduct this mini action research The former is to check

whether the speaking tasks are useful, based on the students‟ attitudes to the speaking tasks Thus, the data is practical and reliable Doing the later, the teacher has to see the actual outcomes by examining not only the products but also the processes of the tasks

Oral tests are utilized as the main data collection instruments, questionnaires and class observations are functioned as supplementary sources of information Because the students‟ scores are counted into percentages and all the informants answer the same questions, the data collected are easy to be summarized, analyzed and reported Furthermore, the subjects are free to give their ideas without having to provide personal information For that reason, the researcher has more uniform and accurate data

To avoid misunderstanding and ensure the accuracy of the data, both types of questionnaires are written in Vietnamese and distributed with the researcher‟s clear explanation

The researcher asks the participants to read the tasks before hand and lets them respond to a survey questionnaire one period before each reading lesson, and sets aside 15 minutes after each speaking lesson so that they are not under pressure of time

The instruments and procedures used to gather the information for the study will be described as follows:

2.3.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary Survey

The Preliminary Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 1) is delivered to the students

at the beginning of the second term, after they finish the first term It is designed with four parts Part 1 with three questions seeks information about students‟ sex, time of learning English and English result of the previous semester The questions

in part two is designed to find the students‟ general attitudes towards speaking: the