Improving grade 10th students’ speaking proficiency at a high school in dien bien through using role play activities

Furthermore, the results of each speaking examination are usually low, therefore, as a teacher of English at a high school, I would like to find a certain suitable method to help my stud

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI TRUNG NGA LINH

IMPROVING GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PROFICIENCY

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN DIEN BIEN THROUGH USING ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES

Cải thiện khả năng nói tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường

THPT ở Điện Biên qua sử dụng các hoạt động role-play

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, June 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI TRUNG NGA LINH

IMPROVING GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PROFICIENCY

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN DIEN BIEN THROUGH USING ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES

Cải thiện khả năng nói tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường

THPT ở Điện Biên qua sử dụng các hoạt động role-play

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi, June 2018

DECLARATION

I, Bùi Trung Nga Linh, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Improving grade 10thStudents‟ speaking proficiency at a high school in Dien Bien through role-play activities” is the result of my own research, and that the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, June 2018 Student‟s signature

Bùi Trung Nga Linh

I am also grateful to the lectures and all the staff members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU for providing me valuable lessons, support and encouragement in fulfillment of this thesis

My thanks also go to the principal, teachers and the 10th graders at X high school

in Dien Bien for their cooperation and support for my data collection

Finally, but most of all, my thanks to my beloved family who always supported and encouraged me to overcome the difficulties during my study

Hanoi, June 2018

Bùi Trung Nga Linh

ii

ABSTRACT

This action research aimed at improving students‟ speaking proficiency by implementing role-play technique The research subjects were 32 grade 10thstudents in class 10A1 at X high school in Dien Bien city in the first semester The role-play activities were organized in each speaking lesson from unit 1 to unit 8 of the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10” This research was carried out in two cycles including

4 steps: planning, doing action, observing and reflection The qualitative data were obtained by observing, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires the grade 10 students in class 10A1 The instruments used to collect data were observation, teaching diaries, interviews, and questionnaires Pre-test and two post-tests were administered to obtain the quantitive data which were in the forms of speaking scores The research findings showed that the use of role-play activities improved students‟ speaking skills The improvement could be seen from:

(1) Students‟ pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency (2) Students‟ confidence, enthusiasm, and opportunities to speak

(3) The mean score of pre-test (4.984), post-test 1 (6.437), and post-test 2 (7.703)

In conclusion, role-play was a trustworthy technique in promoting students‟ speaking competence

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

ABBREVIATION vi

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vi

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Research objectives 3

3 Research questions 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Speaking 5

1.1 Definition of speaking 5

1.2 Difficulties in speaking 5

1.3 Teaching Speaking 8

1.3.1 Aspects of speaking 8

1.3.2 Types of speaking activities 10

1.3.3 The role of teachers in teaching speaking 14

1.3.4 Assessing speaking skills 16

2 Role-play 18

2.1 Definition of role-play 18

2.2 Types of role-play 19

2.3 Procedures for making successful role-play activities 22

iv

3 Previous research on techniques/methods to improve students‟ speaking

proficiency in general and role-play in particular 26

3.1 Techniques/methods used to improve students‟ speaking skill in general 26

3.2 Prior studies on using role-play to enhance students‟ speaking proficiency in particular 27

4 Summary 29

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 30

1 Research type 30

2 The setting of the study 31

2.1 An overview of X high school 31

2.2 The course outline of teaching and learning English 31

3 Selection of the participants 33

4 Data collection methods 34

4.1 Class observation 34

4.2 Testing students‟ performance 34

4.3 Semi-structured interviews 35

4.4 Questionnaires 35

5 Data analysis 35

6 Data collection procedure 36

6.1 Research cycle 36

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 39

1 Research findings 39

2 Discussion of the research findings 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 45

1 Conclusion 45

2 Implications 46

3 Suggestions 46

3.1 For teachers 46

3.2 For students 47

v

3.3 For further studies 47

REFERENCES 48 APPENDICES 52

vi

ABBREVIATION

ECAs: Extracurricular activities

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Sample 1 of scoring rubric speaking 16

Table 2: Sample 2 of scoring rubric speaking 17

Table 3: Speaking activities and topics designed for class 10A1 32

Table 5: The mean score of the pre-test 41

Table 6: The mean score of the pre-test 41

Table 7: The mean score of the post-test 2 41

Table 8 : A summary about the improvement of students‟ speaking ability 43

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Action Research Process 30

Figure 2: The procedure of the research 38

Figure 3: The comparison of the mean score of each aspect among the tests 42

Figure 4: The comparison of the total mean scores of the students‟ speaking skills 42

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English has been used more and more widely, and it is considered as one of the most important languages in every part of the world It plays an instrumental role in all aspects such as education, travel and business, internet, and so on It helps people communicate with each other even they come from other countries Understanding the necessity of English in the development of society in the integration and globalization in general and of each individual in particular, the demand for learning English Vietnamese people gets stronger and stronger power That is the reason why the teaching and learning English has been paid more attention recently in Vietnam, and it cannot be denied that English is now a compulsory subject in language teaching programs at many schools and universities

In teaching language, there are four major language skills taught such as listening, speaking, reading, writing Of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as „speakers‟ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing (Ur, 1996, p.117) It can be understood that when a man goods at speaking; he also goods at listening, reading and writing He will know how to use language actively to express and convey the message to the listeners easily Actually, the recent research also demonstrated that speaking is an important factor which helps the learners form and develop their language learning process such as developing listening skills (Regina, 1997), writing skills (Trachsel & Severino, 2004) and reading competence (Hilferty, 2005) Although it is considered as the central skill integrated with other skills, it is also seen as one of the most difficult and challenging skills that the language learners have to face Thus, this is the reason why the students are not interested in speaking lessons as well as find it very difficult to participate in speaking activities Based on my observation and teaching experience, there are some problems in teaching – learning speaking I can see that most my students are unwilling to

participate in all oral activities because of nervousness, lack of confidence or ideas They tend to sit passively, take notes, rarely contribute to any lessons, and even let the teacher talk all the time Another problem is, most the pairs get stuck when teacher asks them to act out in front of the class They do not know how to express what they want to say in English, and they are afraid of making mistakes Furthermore, the results of each speaking examination are usually low, therefore, as

a teacher of English at a high school, I would like to find a certain suitable method

to help my students have ability to communicate confidently in English During attending four years at Hanoi National University of Education and from my own experience, I realize that creating enjoyable and effective activities in the classroom plays a vital role; moreover, the learners‟ language performance will be more successful if they practice in real or realistic communicative task, so I think that using role-play technique can be seen as a good way to motivate and give students opportunities to enhance their speaking skills As identified by Harmer (2001, p.352), role-play can be used as the teaching tool to encourage students‟ oral fluency or to train them to be aware to speak in specific situations by playing role to

be another person in that case This leads the learners to practice directly and have experiences in solving the problems in real world situation as natural as possible In line with Harmer, Ladousse (2009, p.5) also states that role-play is an enjoyable activity and does not threaten the students It brings up various experiences into classroom such as broadening the knowledge about grammar, vocabulary and creating more chances for the children to make the conversation, communication games and humanistic exercises In other words, the students can have more opportunities to speak by doing these activities

The above reasons have inspired me to conduct an action research to on

“Improving grade 10th Students‟ speaking proficiency at a high school in Dien Bien through role-play activities” I hope that the research will make a little contribution

to enhance the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills as well as teaching and learning language for both teachers and students at this school

2 Research objectives

This action research is conducted in order to:

 Seek how “role-play” activities improve English speaking skills and develop communicative skills for the grade 10th students at a high school

in Dien Bien

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the objectives mentioned above, the study is designed to answer the following research question:

 “How does role-play help grade 10 students at a high school in Dien Bien

overcome their difficulties in speaking lessons?”

4 Scope of the study

This study is only a small-sized scale study and it is conducted to find out the

students‟ difficulties in learning speaking English as well as examine how role-play activities help them improve their speaking ability Thus, there is only one grade 10 class at a high school in Dien Bien is selected for study

5 Design of the study

The study is organized into three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

 Part A, Introduction, introduces the importance of learning English, especially learning speaking English; presents the rationale, the objectives when applying the role-play activities to improve speaking skills for the students who have never been acquainted with this technique before

 Part B, Development, is divided into three chapters:

 Chapter I defines some key terms related to this topic with a critical literature review of previous related studies

 Chapter II illustrates the research methodology with the elaboration on the participants, data collection and analysis instruments as well as researchprocedure

 Chapter III analyzes and discusses the results found from the data to get

the answer to the research questions

 Part C is the conclusion of the study which summarizes and synthesizes the main issues discussed in the thesis, points out some implications of the research and recommends some suggestions for teachers, students and further studies

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

be understood in a simple way that speaking is a process of communication between the sender and the receiver to exchange information, ideas, opinions, views, or feelings

Besides, Chaney and Burk (1998, p 13) have another definition of speaking basing

on linguistics They state that speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” while Nunan (2003, p.48) defines that “Speaking is the productive aural/oral skill and it consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning” These researchers‟ opinions have some differences but they share one perception; that is,speaking is identified as a process a person uses the language to express his or her ideas, feelings and thoughts and shares information to other through communication

From these above definitions, speaking skill is always related to communication It can be stated that speaking can be seen as a skill which uses language accurately to express meanings, and to get knowledge and information from other people in the whole life situation

1.2 Difficulties in speaking

Of the four language skills, speaking remains the most difficult skill to master for the majority of English learners, and they are still incompetent in communicating orally in English As highlighted by Afisa and Yolanda (2015, p 9), there are four difficulties in speaking faced by students such as student‟s lack of vocabulary, poor pronunciation, poor arrangement of words and anxiety Learners‟ lack of vocabulary is the result from their limited knowledge of meaning and small vocabulary; this leads to difficulties in understanding the conversation Therefore, it

is necessary to provide the students with the suitable amount of vocabulary to help them study speaking easily The next difficulty the students experience is poor pronunciation of words This is because many English words may be pronounced in one way but may be written in another For example, the students tend to confuse and feel difficult in pronouncing when some words end with the /s/ sound but it is pronounced as /z/ sound The students are also confused in arranging words in correct order Then, there are still some mistakes in their grammar The last difficulty mentioned in Afisa and Yolanda‟ dissertation is the students‟ anxiety They are often afraid in speaking English because they are worried of making mistakes In addition, they are unconfident and nervous when the teacher asks them The difficulties in learning speaking English come from various reasons According to Ur (1996, p 117), there are four factors that cause difficulty in speaking such as inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation and mother tongue In producing English speech, students are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism, or simply shy Sometimes, they have no motive to express their thinking, feelings by themselves If speaking is a compulsion, there is are few learners who can talk while the others choose to be silent during the lesson Mother-tongue use is the last factor causes speaking difficulties to the learners Students tend to use the mother tongue with their friends because it is easier to interact Sometimes, the difficulties also come up from the learners, teaching strategies, curriculum, and environment (Raba‟ah, 2005, p.193- 194) Brown (2001, p 270-271), in contrast, claims other eight factors that cause to speaking difficulty to

students which can be represented as follows:

in providing the clearer meaning, but most students do not know how to make short meaningful utterances Next, reduced forms are the common troubles the learners get in learning process They usually use during native speakers‟ conversations In order to improve speaking skills as well as communicate naturally like native English speakers, it is quite challenging for the non-native English speakers Here is

an example for illustrating this factor: I want to go for a spin = I wanna go for a

spin In this example, it can be seen clearly that the item “wanna” is reduced from

the phrase “want to”, and it makes the speaking become better The fourth factor is performance variables which refer to the students‟ performance of hesitations, pauses, backtracking and correction, such as the use of “fillers” like “uh, hm, as we know, and so on Commonly, the learners tend to answer the teachers‟ questions directly in a shortest way without thinking and do not know how to continue this

topic to make it better For instance, when the teacher asks “Do you like playing

football?”, instead of answering more information about it, the learners just say

“Yes” and finish their conversation immediately The next aspect is colloquial

construction It refers to the students‟ use of informal language ability in ordinary or familiar conversation The quality of speaking will be decreased if the learners

apply rigorous formal sentences in all conversations The other factor mentioned by Brown is rate of delivery The rate refers to the speed at which a person speaks: quickly or slowly Speedier talkers prevent listeners from absorbing the ideas while slow talkers make the receiver feel uncomfortable Stress, rhythm and intonation are the aspects that cause difficulties to the students‟ learning speaking Different from other languages, English has its own stress, rhythm and intonation Those aspects belong to the pronunciation stress and are executed in order to convey meaning, message and feelings by changing the tone Obviously, if keeping in the same tone, speakers cannot convey what they want and what they say means The last factor is interaction which needs the creativity of conversational negotiation

1.3 Teaching Speaking

Speaking is one of the central elements of communication which enables students

to use their English to communicate in real life situation; therefore, speaking is often seen as the most important aspect that attracts attention from many researchers and teachers Nunan (2003), in reporting a study conducted by Kayi (2012), expresses “what the teaching speaking to teach ESL students means” According to him, teaching speaking is teach to the students produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns; use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm

of the second language; select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter; organize the students‟ thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence; use language as a means of expressing values and judgments; and use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency In order to reach these above objectives, it is important that teachers should care about the elements of an effective communication such as aspects of teaching, activities to promote students‟ speaking, the teachers‟ role in teaching speaking and the way to assess students‟ speaking skills These components will be discussed in detailas follows

1.3.1 Aspects of speaking

Aspects of speaking can also be divided as many ways According to Hughes

(2003, p.118), there are five components of speaking, namely pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension Pronunciation refers to the way

a word is pronounced To make the communication become better, it is necessary that students know how to pronounce the words clearly so that the others can understand the meaning of messages Grammar is another important component of speaking Using the correct grammar structure will help people know the real meaning of the sentences that the speakers would like to convey The third aspect is vocabulary This can be seen as the most important element in speaking English or other languages because it will show a person‟s speaking ability by using various suitable vocabulary in conversation Next, speaking is a process of exchanging ideas between speaker and listener; therefore, a smooth and accurate speaking will make human easy to understand the meaning Comprehension is the last aspect the students should master in communication In order to make effective communication, both speaker and listener have to understand other‟s meaning Similar to Hughes‟s viewpoint, Roger et al (2005, p 99-100) and Richards (2015, p.426-427) summarize speaking aspects into two main types: accuracy and fluency They define accuracy as follows:

“Accuracy involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation

In controlled and guided activities, the focus is usually on accuracy and the teacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy is important Ongoing correction is often appropriate during accuracy activities In freer activities the teacher is hoping for the correct use of language but is also keen to encourage the students‟ attempts to use the language they have in order to communicate In feedback the teacher will probably comment on correct use of language but also

on how successfully the students communicated” (Roger et al 2005, p 99)

“Accuracy can refer to a number of different of a person‟s spoken English It conventionally refers to features of grammar, pronunciation and word choice, but, as we have seen from the discussion above, there are many other aspects of spoken language that are involved in oral communication, including choosing

appropriate topics, using language that matches the formality or informality of the occasion and using conventions associated with different genres – such as conventional ways of opening and closing small talk and conversations”

(Richards, 2015, p 427)

And they define fluency as follows:

“Fluency can be thought of as „the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously‟ When speaking fluently students should be able to get the message across with whatever resources and abilities they‟ve got, regardless of grammatical and other mistakes Normally, students should not be corrected during fluency activities However, in feedback afterwards you can comment favorably on any strategies the students used to increase their fluency.” (Roger

be ready for finding and guiding the suitable ways to help them improve these aspects

1.3.2 Types of speaking activities

There are many activities to promote students‟ speaking ability suggested by researchers which are represented as follows:

Drawing on several research of many scholars, Kayi (2012) presents the following

thirteen activities to promote students‟ speaking:

a Discussion

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things

b Role-play

Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel Thus, the teacher can tell the student that

"You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and"

c Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role-plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on

d Information gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need

e Brain storming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristic of brainstorming is

that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas

f Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format

of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have

g Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and

"introduce" his or her partner to the class

h Story completion

For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on

i Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and,

in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class

 Hearts represent love and relationships

 Spades represent an unforgettable memory

 Card represents best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group For example:

If the topic "diamonds: earning money" is selected, here are some possible

questions:

 Is money important in your life? Why?

 What is the easiest way of earning money?

 What do you think about lottery? Etc

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or

no students get little practice in spoken language production Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences

k Picture narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating

l Picture describing

For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills

m Find the differences

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures

Beside these activities, Richards (2015, p 433) adds more activities to promote students‟ speaking skills, such as dialogue work with the aim at teaching fixed expressions and routines; study transcriptions of spoken language which is used to develop awareness of nature of authentic interactions, grammar, differences between casual and formal interactions; surveys and questionnaires that are used to develop communication strategies; ranking activities to express opinions and justify choices; jigsaw activities are used to give accurate descriptions; repeating an activity several times to develop fluency and use more complex language; record the students‟ performance to identify errors and recognize need for more complex language; and tasks should be used to present information clearly and practice comprehension checks

In short, there are a great variety of activities that can be used in a spoken English class; however, it does not mean that the teacher has to apply all of these activities

in teaching speaking They should consider and select the suitable techniques to help their students be ready to engage in speaking lessons

1.3.3 The role of teachers in teaching speaking

The role of teacher in the classroom can affect the success of teaching and learning process Teachers should play such of different roles in teaching speaking As collected from other researchers‟ study, Asfa (2010, p 10-11) claims the teacher‟s role can be seen as:

 Prompter: It means that students sometimes get lost, cannot think what to

say next, or in some other way lose the fluency the teacher expects of them

It is better if the teacher will help them leave to struggle out of situation by offering discrete suggestion

 Participant: Teachers can be seen as a good model for the students

simulate In some activities, the teachers may participate in discussion or role-play themselves with their students to ensure the continuing of students‟ engagement and maintain creative atmosphere However, they do not participate too much and give their students more opportunities to practice

 Feedback provider: When students are practicing or have finished the

speaking activity, the direct correction may cause inhibition and make them unwilling to the next activities On the other hand, helpful and gentle correction may get students out of the mistakes or errors they have made Corresponding to these roles, Kayi (2012, p 12) suggest some actions the teachers should do while teaching oral language:

 Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge

 Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation

 Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time Step back and observe students

 Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response

 Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more

 Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great It was a good job I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice"

 Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking Correction should not distract student from his or her speech

 Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other people who can help

 Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs

 Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities

 Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language

In conclusion, teachers‟ role is a crucial part in teaching speaking classes, and it can affect the success of teaching and learning process

1.3.4 Assessing speaking skills

Assessment plays a vital role in the teaching speaking skills It not only helps the teachers identify whether their teaching methodology is suitable with the students but also evaluates the students‟ performance in speaking From that, the teacher can find out the appropriate method to help their learners overcome the difficulties in the learning process as well as let the students know what their strengths and weaknesses are The learners‟ oral ability can be assessed through oral examinations such as interview, role-playing, acting out a conversation in pairs or groups, discussing and solving a problem and so on Obviously, the aspects of teaching speaking will be tested basing on these oral testing tasks Thus, it is extremely necessary to the teacher to form a rating scale to score the learners‟ performance The following table will present a sample of scoring rubric speaking

Table 1: Sample 1 of scoring rubric speaking

Fluency 3 Has a generally smooth flow, with self-correction and

little hesitation

2 Speaks slowly, using hesitant or halting speech

1 Makes no attempt or shows constant hesitation

Vocabulary 3 Uses excellent vocabulary with relative ease

Demonstrates an increasing knowledge of words and expressions

2 Uses vocabulary that is just adequate to respond No attempt is made to use a variety of expressions

Generally understood, but limited to the very basic

1 Makes no attempt, or response is totally irrelevant or inappropriate

Pronunciation 3 Can be understood in the target language, but may make

few or minor errors Makes an effort to sound “native,” i.e., uses target language speech patterns, intonation, and phrasing

2 Can be understood in target language, but may make one

or two major errors and/or has some interference from English language speech sounds, patterns, and rules

1 Makes major errors and/or uses English pronunciation rules to speak in the target language, or doesn‟t/can‟t respond

Grammar 3 Demonstrates good use of grammatical structures Makes

no grammatical errors, or a few minor grammatical errors that do not interfere with communication

2 Uses a range of grammatical structures, but may make several grammatical errors that do not interfere with communication

1 Makes many grammatical errors that negatively affect communication, or doesn‟t/can‟t respond

Comprehension 3 Shows ability to understand the target language when

spoken at a somewhat normal rate of speed, with only one repetition or rephrasing, if necessary

2 Can understand the target language when spoken at a somewhat normal rate of speed, with more than one repetition or rephrasing

1 Does not seem to understand the target language

Another way to assess students‟ speaking performance is shown in more detail in Richards‟s (2015, p 437 – 438) book He states that the students‟ performance should be scored by using the following rubric:

Table 2: Sample 2 of scoring rubric speaking

Low High Clarity of expression

Overall evaluation 1 2 3 4 5

In conclusion, there are many ways to assess students‟ speaking proficiency The examiners or teachers can themselves contribute the suitable rubric for testing depending on the speaking aspects that they would like to evaluate

2 Role-play

2.1 Definition of role-play

There are many types of activities used to teach speaking skills such as jigsaws, task-completion, opinion – sharing, information – transfer, but the most common activity which is usually used in speaking lessons is role-play In defining of the term “role-play”, it is also defined in some different ways According to Ladousse (1987, p 5), he defines role-play in separated word: “role” and “play” He states that when students assume a „role‟, they play a part (either their own or somebody else‟s) in a specific situation „Play‟ means that the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as inventive and playful as possible A group of students carrying out a successful role-play in a classroom has much in common with a group of children playing school, doctors and nurses, or Star Wars Both are unselfconsciously creating their own reality and, by doing so, are experimenting with their knowledge of the real world and developing their ability to interact with other people (Ladousse) A few years later, Roger et al (2005, p 105) share the similar point of view “A role-play is when students take the part of particular person: a customer, a manager, a shop assistant, for example As this person, they take part in a situation, acting out a conversation.” Simultaneously, Richards (2005,

p 20) makes a shorter definition about role-play, he highlights that “role-play is an activity in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchanged based on given information or clues.” From these definitions mentioned above, the role-play can be described easily as a technique which people imagine to become others or be themselves in a specific situation in order to create a real world in

scenario

Role-play is regarded as one of the most effective teaching methods in teaching

and learning foreign language because of its conveniences As Harmer (1991) points out, role-play can help the students have the motivation in learning, and students will have more opportunities to show off themselves candidly and comfortably Ladousse (1987, p 6-7) agrees with Harmer‟s opinion about why teacher should use role-play in the classroom He claims that role-play is used to help the teacher train their students in speaking skill in any situation, and students also can develop their social speaking skill from a low level by using role-play However, role-play activities should be appropriate with the students‟ language teaching syllabus Besides, he also states that role-play helps students learn how to interaction with each other in a range of situations around their life, and it will be become a good mask to shy students Finally, role-play activities are fun activities because it not only improves students‟ learning attitude, motivation but also increases the learning atmosphere From the explanations above, it can be concluded that role-play plays an important role in teaching speaking lessons It will help students have a range of knowledge such as vocabulary, structure, intonation, and pronunciation about close topics around their daily life to improve their speaking skills easily This is really

a good challenge and opportunity to practice language in various situations In addition, students are also trained to deal with unpredictable nature of language to enhance their

“conditional reaction” in speaking better

Based on the observation, role-play activities might be appropriate to learners at a high school in Dien Bien city By doing this, pupils can make communication creatively and meaningfully when they are applied the real situations in real life As

a consequent, they will have more opportunities to practice and expand their speaking capability naturally In other words, the more opportunities students practice, the more successful they will have

2.2 Types of role-play

According to Ladousse (1995, p.13), there are four types of role-play The first one

is the role which is resembled the situations in students‟ life like a doctor and a patient, or the interactions between teachers and students in the class The second

type of role-play is playing in a variety of situations that students may or may not have direct experience For example, a customer is complaining or a passenger is asking for information The third type of a role-play activity is that students play themselves basing on indirect experience but the teacher will give many indirect examples with the information about it An organization or a person; for instance, will explain to the volunteers about a project of protecting the environment The last type of role-play is fantasy roles In this type, students can play themselves in imaginary situations like playing astronauts in the moon

Considering types of role-play, on the other hand, Littlewood and William (1981) divide role-play into four other types The first one is role-play through instructions Students will be given cues, and response to their partner basing on suitable cues The second type is role-play through cues and information (open-ended dialogues) There are some guides for the questions which will be given to only one student, and the other has to respond The third type is role-play controlled through particular situation and goals The last one is role-play in the form of debate or discussion which means that the students practice the situations in free selection without cues or information provided from the teacher

Holding different ideas from the two authors mentioned above, Byrne (1986, p.115) categorizes role-play activities into two shortened ways These are scripted and unscripted role-play According to him, a scripted role-play is a role-play activity in which students use prompts or scripts provided by the teacher to make the dialogue basing on the same or nearly same situations in the textbook For more details, Doff (1988, p.231-234) illustrates this type by giving a model conversation between a customer named Angela and a post office clerk described as follows:

Angela: Good morning I want to send a letter to Singapore

Clerk: Yes, Do you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail?

Angela: I think I‟ll send it by air mail I want to get there quickly How much

does it cost?

Clerk: To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, please

Angela: (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are

Clerk: Here‟s your stamp, and here‟s 20 pence change

Angela: Thank you Where is the post box?

Clerk: You want the air mail box It‟s over there, by the door

Angela: Thank you

(Adapted from Teach English Trainer's Handbook: A Training Course for Teachers)

In order to teach this type based on the dialogue, the teacher should do some steps

as follows:

Firstly, the teacher guides the role-play by writing the prompts (what? / where? / air mail/ cost/ post box) If necessary, go through the prompts one by one by asking the questions and getting students to find the answers to help them know more about the content of the dialogue sample

Secondly, the teacher can call two good students or act out him or herself with a student to practice the dialogue One is Angela and the other plays the post office clerk They can improvise the conversation to the similar one by changing the underline words in the dialogue such as new places and prices, or making another conversation shorter than the presentation dialogue which still covers the main points

Finally, the teacher will call out a few pairs of students to get them have other conversations in turn based on the prompts This type also can be organized by asking students to practice in pairs before perform in front of the class

Another type of play activity mentioned by Byrne (1986) is unscripted play Different from scripted role-play, unscripted role-play is a type of activity that the situations do not depend on the text books It can be understood more easily that the students perform their roles in free way without any script After the instructions

role-or illustrated pictures are given by the teacher, the learners have to decide the suitable language that they will use and brainstorm the ideas the conversation should be developed Then, they will have enough time to practice before performing in front of the class Clearly, in order to do this activity, the good preparation from both teachers and students is extremely necessary Here is an example of procedure in the unscripted role-play:

Topic: School, education

Situation might be: You meet some foreign visitors to your country They are interested in your school Answer their questions about it

From the explanation above, the teacher can select a suitable form of role-play depending on the level of the students For the beginners or who does not good at English, the teacher can choose the scripted role-play while unscripted role-play should use for the upper level students to develop their creative thinking and motivation

2.3 Procedures for making successful role-play activities

In order to use role-play activity efficiently, there is no doubt that teachers play a vital role It is necessary that teachers understand how to make some good steps for role-play This part will discuss some steps that the teachers should do and their role

in preparing a good role-play process

As highlighted by Kodotchigova (2002), there are six steps to making a successful role-play activity The first step is choosing a situation According to him, this is an important step that the teacher should select a circumstance which is appropriate to students‟ needs, level and interests; or the teacher also let the learners to choose the situation by themselves The topic should be the situations students tend to encounter in their life such as reading a book, watching a movie or self-created

situations based on cultural differences After choosing a context for a role-play, the next step is role-play design It is pointed out that the teacher will have to give ideas for how the situation is developed, and all of these developments probably be changed from simply to more challenging depending on the students‟ level Students are at an intermediate or advanced level; for instance, the situation variation will generate more challenges, promote the learners‟ motivation and make the role-play more interesting The third step is linguistic preparation For the beginner, the language prediction is possible but it is quite difficult to prefigure accurately what language students will need at the higher level students; therefore, the introduction vocabulary before asking students to practice role-play from the teacher is very essential By doing this, the pupils will feel more confident to act out the role-play Then, the teacher can elicit the development of the role-play scenario from their students by asking some questions to help their learners make sense what they have to do For example, in the case of returning an item of clothing back to the store, the teacher can give some suggestions by asking the following questions and writing the students‟ answers on the board

“In this situation, what will you say to the salesperson?”

“What will the salesperson say?”

“Can the customer say it in another way?”

“What else can the salesperson say?”

In his journal, the writer also refers to factual preparation is the fourth step of making a successful role-play activity This step is represented that the teacher should provide the concrete information and describe the students‟ role clearly in order to help them execute the conversation confidently Kodotchigova (2002), in reporting a study conducted by Byrne (1983, p 90-91) recalls an example of cue cards with detailed instructions as follows:

Cue Card A:

YOU ARE A TAXI-DRIVER

1 Greet the passenger and ask him where he wants to go

2 Say the price Make some comments on the weather Ask the passenger if he likes this weather

3 Answer the passenger's question Boast that your son has won the school swimming competition Ask if the passenger likes swimming

Cue Card B:

YOU ARE A PASSENGER IN A TAXI

1 Greet the taxi driver and say where you want to go Ask what the price will be

2 Answer the taxi-driver's question and ask what kind of weather he likes

3 Say that you like swimming a lot and that you learned to swim 10 years ago when you went to Spain with your family

The fifth step the writer mentions in his journal is assigning the roles At the beginning level, the teacher can take one role and act it out as the model Then, he/she will ask students to practice in groups, consider and assign the role for each students based on their abilities and personalities It is no doubt that the optimum interaction can be reached if the teacher let the students work in one group with their friends; however; the grouping all the shyest students in a group should be avoided After assigning the learners‟ role in role-play situation, the teacher should give students enough time to prepare their dialogues and it is better when the teacher encourages some volunteers to act out a role-play in front of the class to motivate other groups Sometimes, the students have role-play exercises for the home task They are asked to learn useful words and expressions, think about what they can say and then act out the role-play in the next class The last important thing

at this stage is that whether taking any part in the role-play or not, the teacher‟s role should be a listener to take note and feedback the students‟ errors during the role-play It is recommended that the teacher avoids intervening in a role-play with error corrections not to discourage the students Follow-up is the last step in making a successful role-play procedure The meaning of this stage is that the teacher will ask other students to give opinions or comments about the presentation group‟s performance in order to discuss what has happened in the role-play and what they

have learned instead of correcting the students‟ mistakes immediately

Similar to Kodotchigova‟s viewpoints, Liu and Ding (2009, p 142-143) suggest more detail about the role of the teacher in creating an effective role-play procedure They state that the teacher should let the students be free to interact with each other rather than controlling all their actions in the class By doing this, the role-play will help them reduce their anxiety and facilities in language learning In addition, they also identify preparing for success, feeding in appropriate language and correcting errors are three vital factors for preparing role-play procedures the teacher should

do At the first period, selecting a real and relevant topic is extremely necessary The teacher should try to keep the roles they ask the students to play as real to life

as possible In addition, they also have to try to think through the language that the students need and make sure the language has been presented In order to make a good preparation for a successful role-play activity, the teacher can bring the realia and props and rearrange the furniture if necessary The second factor the writers highlight is feeding-in language As students practice the role-play they might find that they are stuck for words and phrases; therefore, it is better if the teacher will feed the new appropriate language for their learners By doing this, the pupils will broaden and know how to use new vocabulary and structure in a real and natural way Error correction is the last step Liu and Ding refer to There are many ways to correct students‟ mistakes when using role-play activity As mentioned above, the teacher should avoid pointing out and correcting the errors on the spot or straight after the role-play to ensure that the students do not lose confidence and motivation

in the next practice Instead, the school teacher should let their learners to spot and correct their own mistakes by using audio cassette or video records the students‟ dialogue before (Self-correction); or maybe let the other fellow students correct the mistakes made by their peers However, the teacher should remind students to be careful to keep peer-correction a positive and profitable experience for all involved

In conclusion, teachers play an important role in preparing a good role-play procedure They can be the facilitator who provide suitable new words and

structures, the spectator who watches students practice the role-play activities and offer some positive comments or advices at the end; and sometimes are the participant who take part in the role-play with their students when necessary

3 Previous research on techniques/methods to improve students’ speaking proficiency in general and role-play in particular

3.1 Techniques/methods used to improve students’ speaking skill in general

There has been a lot of research talking about techniques/ methods to increase students‟ speaking ability such as using extracurricular activities, pair and group work activities, games, debate summarized as follows:

Le Dinh Thang (2014) conducted an experiment to investigate the contribution of extracurricular activities (ECAs) in improving students‟ speaking skills He and all teachers of English group organized three extracurricular activities including Drama, English singing and retelling stories contest, and English speaking club for two 10th form random classes, account for 90 students The result of the study showed that the use of ECAs is very useful for the students in learning speaking skill They felt more confident in using English, their communicative competence was better and they could speak English more fluently At the same time, their teamwork skills are also improved remarkably The researcher also summarized three solutions suggested from other teachers‟ ideas to enhance the quality of using ECAs in teaching speaking skills Firstly, ECAs should be led by students so that they can enhance their creation Secondly, the ECAs should be designed suitable belonging to students‟ interest and levels Finally, the teacher should combine with the organizations in the school

Using pair work and group work activities to improve students‟ speaking proficiency is another popularly method applied by many researchers as Pellowe (1996), Syamsuddin (2000), and Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung (2008) They shared the same viewpoint that using pair/group work activities was considered as an effective way in enhancing students‟ speaking performance A recent research conducted by Tran My Hanh (2014) also confirmed that this method should be added in teaching

and learning speaking English Her research was carried out within seven weeks with two different classes – a control class taught by asking students to work individually and one target class taught by asking students to work in pairs and groups using a variety of activities such as role-play, interview, and games She concluded that the students‟ attitudes towards to pair work and group work is positive The target class which is applied this method performed speaking skills more confidently better than the control class By using this method, the students had more opportunities to communicate the real life situations and their speaking ability was improved considerably

Using games is also considered as one of the most effective techniques that many researchers used widely in developing students‟ communicative ability Chen (2005), Urrutia Leó and Vega Cely (2010), Zhu (2012), Wickramanayake (2016), and Dewi et al (2017) executed the studies related to games in improving students‟ speaking competence Both of them asserted that using games in teaching and learning speaking skills created enjoyable and dynamic atmosphere for the students

By using this technique, students had more chances to use the foreign language, develop their interest, and reduce their anxiety and stress in learning process

Arung and Jumardin (2016) also carried out an action research with the implementation of debate technique in enhancing students‟ speaking skills This action research was conducted in two cycles, and 31 students at class XI/IPA-2 who were the second year students of scientific department were as subjects of this study They concluded that students can improve their speaking skill after being taught by debate technique This technique helped them feel more confident and be willing to defend their viewpoint and their team in class discussions

Based on the review of some relevant studies, it can be seen that there are many aspects that can be offered for research to improve teaching and learning speaking skills for both teachers and students The following part will discuss one aspect belonging to developing students‟ speaking skills namely role-play with several significant studies

3.2 Prior studies on using role-play to enhance students’ speaking

proficiency in particular

Role-play is categorized as a good technique and is widely applied in teaching speaking Although it is not a new technique, it is appreciated to use in developing learners‟ speaking ability by many researchers because of its‟ many significant contributions

In the relation to this topic, Sukatri (2016) pointed out there were some improvements of students‟ speaking skill by using role-play activities First of all, the implementation of role-play created the enjoyable learning atmosphere Students were interested and active in the learning process In addition, they also became more confident and eager in learning and speaking English Through observations, interviews and tests, it could be concluded that students actually overcame the difficulties in pronunciation, vocabulary, accuracy and fluency thanks to applying the role-play in teaching and learning process

At the same time with Sukatri‟s study, Citraningtyas (2016) also conducted an action research to illustrate the effectiveness of role-play activities at class XI and this writer concluded that the students‟ speaking skills was actually enhanced by using role-play activities Besides having more chances to practice speaking, students also felt more interested when engaging in fun and enjoyable activities in classroom They also could learn how to express their ideas with good pronunciation in natural way like the foreigner

As reported by Arham et al (2016), role-play was indeed an effective strategy should be applied to stimulate students to speak English By using role-play in speaking lessons, students became more active and acknowledge their central role

in the learning process instead of depending totally on their teachers like before In addition, students had more opportunities to use the language in a more realistic and practical way based on their knowledge or real experiences they read or saw in their life As a result, they knew how to work and solve the problem professionally Based on the result of the previous studies, it is concluded that role-play has many considerable contributions in boosting learners‟ oral ability Therefore, this is

certainly worthwhile for me to conduct a similar research on this subject

4 Summary

From all the above information, it can be seen that there is a range of useful activities applied in teaching speaking for the students currently including role-play activities; however, speaking is not an easy skill that whoever can master Actually, there has not been a study relating a role-play activity affecting 10th grade students‟ performance in the speaking classes at a high school in Dien Bien yet Moreover, based on my observation, I realize that most teachers tend to teach grammar than foster pronunciation, vocabulary and give more opportunities to the students to express their ideas These are the reasons why I would like to conduct a research on improving students‟ speaking ability by using role-play activities

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

1 Research type

As stated, this research entitled “Improving grade 10th students‟ speaking proficiency at a high school in Dien Bien through using role-play activities” was an action research The aims of the study were to find out the difficulties students experience in learning speaking as well as to know how role-play activities affect the improvement of students‟ speaking proficiency

There were two cycles in this research and each cycle included four steps, namely planning of the action, implementing the action, observation and doing reflection This procedure of action research was proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1998, p.14), and it could be presented as follows:

Figure 1: Action Research Process

(Source: Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988, p.14)

2 The setting of the study

2.1 An overview of X high school

I named the school where I carried out my research X to ensure its information security This study was conducted at X high school placed in a small town in Dien Bien city Founded in 1966, X high school was known as one of the oldest schools with good teaching quality in Dien Bien

At this school, the teachers tended to use the mix-methods between the traditional method and the audio-lingual method to teach their students; however, they still felt fail in improving their students‟ speaking skill Thus, it was necessary to seek a suitable way to minimize the difficulties in teaching and learning English and

enhance the quality of English speaking lessons

The students who attended to X high school have the age range from 15 to 18 Among them, there is a large difference in students‟ attitudes in learning English Some of them were very interested in English, and the others; however, just focused

on the other main subjects like Math and Literature Although they had acquired English since they were at grade 6, their English proficiency was still not good and they tended to unable to practice in each speaking lesson In fact, all these students had never engaged in any role-play activities in their classes; therefore, this was a chance to apply a new technique to help them balance all the subjects as well as feel interested in learning English as other subjects

2.2 The course outline of teaching and learning English

In this research, the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10” was used for the grade 10th students This textbook consisted of 16 units which wa s equivalent to 16 different topics, but

I chose only eight topics because I just want to introduce to the students how to use role-play in the class and focus more role-play activities to see how role-play activities are actually effective in the classroom Each speaking lesson had diverse activities such as individual work, pair work, group work, role-play In order to evaluate the effectiveness of using role-play, so I asked students to work in individual and group work in the short time and concentrate on practicing role-play