Using project based learning to improve speaking skill for second year students at a university in vietnam

i UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG USING PROJECT- BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR SECOND YEAR STU

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UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

USING PROJECT- BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE

SPEAKING SKILL FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM ( Sử dụng phương pháp dạy học theo dự án để tăng cường kỹ năng nói cho

sinh viên năm thứ hai tại một trường đại học ở Việt nam )

M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60140111

Ha Noi, ngay 17 thang 1 nam 2018

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FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

USING PROJECT- BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE

SPEAKING SKILL FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM ( Sử dụng phương pháp dạy học theo dự án để tăng cường kỹ năng nói cho

sinh viên năm thứ hai tại một trường đại học ở Việt nam)

Field: English language teaching methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Võ Đại Quang, Ph.D

Ha Noi, ngay 17 thang 1 nam 2018

Hanoi, 2017

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Assoc Prof Vo Dai Quang for his whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as profound guidance he gave me while I was doing my research

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers and staff of Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Vietnam, University of Languages and International Studies, whose support and consideration have enabled me to pursue the course

I would also like to express my whole-heated thanks to teachers and all students

at Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 for their helps and their willingness to participate

in the research Without their help, this thesis would not have been completed

Last but not least, I owe my sincere thanks to my family and my kind-hearted

friends, who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study

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ABSTRACT

Speaking is considered as one of the most challenging and difficult skills for second language learners Learning speaking is not only about producing words and sentences but communicating effectively with other speakers For many language learners, this is a difficult goal to reach In order to help students improve their speaking skill, a new method of teaching was implemented Project- Based Learning is expected to use as new method of teaching in class to change students‟ learning attitude, enhance students‟ speaking ability and provide new skills for students With these objectives, the researcher adopted t- test to see the differences between the students‟ speaking ability before and after using the new learning technique Then she used survey and interview to gather information about students‟ attitude towards this learning method The result collected and processed from the experiment proved that students have made significant improvement in their speaking skill by using Project- Based learning and their learning attitude by using this method was positive This supported the research objectives and laid a foundation for further research in the future

Keywords : Project- Based Learning, speaking skill, improve

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 The aims of the study 4

1.3 The scope of the study 5

1.4 Research objectives 6

1.5 Research questions 6

1.6 Research significance 6

1.7 Research method 7

1.8 The outline of the study 8

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Theoretical Review 9

2.1.1 The importance of speaking 9

2.1.2 The speaking activities in classroom 11

2.1.3 Test of speaking 15

2.1.4 Type of scoring rubrics 17

2.2 Project- Based Learning 19

2.2.1 Characteristics of Project – Based Learning 19

2.2.2 Previous studies 25

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Research method 28

3.1.1 The nature of the data 29

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3.1.2 Context of the study 29

3.1.3 Data collection techniques 30

3.1.4 Procedures 32

3.2 Data analysis 37

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS 40

4.1 Findings 40

4.1.1 The t- test results 40

4.1.2 The survey 46

4.1.3 Interview 51

4.2 Discussion 54

4.2.1 Project - Based Learning 54

4.2.2 Group work 55

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 65

5.1 Conclusion 65

5.1.1 Concluding remarks on objective 1 65

5.1.2 Concluding remarks on objective 2 67

5.2 Suggestion for further research 67

REFERENCES 69 APPENDIX

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Analytic Rubric with the Criteria of Speaking Performance (Adapted

from Brown (2003) and O‟Malley and Pierce (1996)) 18

Table 3.1 Experimental research procedures 32

Table 3.2 Procedures of the project 36

Table 4.1 Mean and Standard Deviation of Control and Experimental group in the pre- test 40

Table 4.2 The result of variables between Experimental group and control group in pre- test 40

Table 4.3 Scale Criteria and Tests‟ Scores of Experimental Group 41

Table 4.4 Scale Criteria and Test‟s Scores of Control Group 41

Table 4.5 One sample Kolmogorov- Smirnov test 43

Table 4.6 The result of independence t- test sample 43

Table 4.7 The group statistics of experimental group 44

Table 4.8 Group statistics of control and experimental group in the post- test 44 Table 4.9 The result of post- test between experimental group and control group 45

Table 4.10 The score Criteria 46

Table 4.11 The Interpretation of the survey result 47

Table 4.12 The result of students‟ responses to opened- ended questions 49

Table 4.13 The result of interview 52

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 The category of speaking performances 13 Figure 2 Steps of developing Project- Based Learning in the classroom 23

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter will provide the overview of the study such as rationale, research scope,

research objectives, research questions, significance, methods, and design of the study

1.1 Rationale

Effective English speaking has become an urgent requirement for students of the

21st century Nowadays, English language has been considered as the most common language of the world when its influence is represented in almost every aspect and area

of life from education to politics, culture and business This proves strongly the strength and influences of this language on people‟s lives in this century It is now impossible to find a country where learning English has not become a norm From undeveloped countries in Africa to the most prosperous nations in Europe, all people know a little English which they can use and understand simple English of others, even in many countries learning English is compulsory in school and they have standard tests to verify students‟ English capacity This approves the concept that English is becoming more and more important in our lives

In Vietnam, English has been considered as a compulsory subject in all levels of school Students have learned English at young age and continued enhancing their competence at university level Moreover, the teaching of English has been emphasized and invested greatly since 2020 project English becomes an important subject in all levels of school In the future, by the year 2025, Vietnamese students are expected to reach CEF level after graduation This proves the importance of teaching and learning English towards students Therefore, it can be said that English is taught popularly in Vietnam and a lot of Vietnamese students know and be capable of using English

One of the compulsory language skills to second year English- majored students

at Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 is speaking It is an important skill in teaching and

learning English as a second language According to Cameron ( 2001: 40) , speaking is the active use of the language to express intentional meanings so that other people can make sense of them At the same time, it is the language users to combine language components appropriately and deliver intended messages successfully so that listeners can understand the information For university students, speaking helps them to express their ideas, opinions, thoughts and share these with other students and speakers In university, speaking is the pivotal skill that prepares students in English department to become teachers who can speak English and communicate with English speakers For others, spoken English lays a foundation for students to specialize in and discover diverse cultures all over the world and acts as a bridge to promote and develop their career Speaking English also pushes students into awareness of surrounding changes by using English to read and transact ideas so that they are ready

to engage in global changes Most importantly, speaking helps students understand context and become ready to communicate with people around the world For those reasons, speaking is one of the crucial skills that helps to contribute to the spread and dominance of English

In the relation between speaking and teaching this skill in school, teachers take greater responsibility for teaching speaking in comparison with other skills Thus, it is the teacher‟s role to help students speak as much as possible Which means is teachers have to work harder and spend more time for thinking about new strategies and practical, useful and applicable activities to help students speak and achieve the improvement with their learning Concerned about Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 students, this is a challenging mission for teacher to teach speaking The students study English as their major come from different background and they have different purposes of learning These students don‟t enjoy a good foreign language setting to learn because they don‟t have English speakers to interact and communicate frequently Students have to go out to the capital to talk with foreigners if they want to improve their speaking fluency and pronunciation This is time- consuming and students can not afford for this often Then, the other difficulties about teaching these students come from themselves Many students are not comfortable to speak since they

hold a belief that their English is not good They are shy and embarrassed to make mistakes and speak as much as possible Otherwise, students have troubles with vocabulary; they do not have enough words to express; therefore, they are afraid of speaking Besides, students are not engaged in the classroom As a result, they do not take part in learning process actively

Taking into account these challenges, it is the teacher‟s responsibility to find the teaching method which is able to encourage students to learn English and produce effective results Towards students‟ learning, it is a long –term plan to maintain and keep students‟ interest to speaking When students perceive the importance of speaking and meaning and value of speaking skill in their life, they will put effort and attempt for it This is very significant for teacher to understand her students‟ purposes and learning interest and find out suitable and practical method of teaching to students Project- Based Learning is one of instructional approaches to learning which allows students to plan, design and carry out projects that can produce a final product such as magazine, drama, presentation ( Paton 2000:13) Project- Based Learning is an open, accessible and practical method of teaching when it allows students free chances

to speak and upgrade other skills during their project work By joining and collaborating to complete an output product, students are more responsible with their assigned tasks and look for new ways to finish their roles This is beneficial for their learning and later career Through the Project- Based Learning, students are engaged

in a variety of activities and purposeful communication to complete project work, so that they have opportunities to use language both inside and outside class to communicate and exchange ideas Project - Based Learning provide students with multiple tasks to do during the learning process such as design journal, magazine, rehearse drama, edit writing and practice presentation so students are able to expose to language learning by taking a various role in their work process The force of cooperating with other members to find out the best form of projects and make the best product would motivate students to learn and improve their language skills

For students at Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2, Project- Based Learning is an appropriate approach to teach speaking English because it can engage students in

active learning and self - study Working with Project- Based Learning means students work in a group with other members and actively involved in learning activities to complete their work, otherwise, they will fall behind More importantly, through this period of working together, students are expected to improve their speaking skills thank to all the tasks they have to go through to complete their projects Students are expected to share responsibility, to cooperate with other members, to argue and defend

if necessary And through these activities, students are more confident, more flexible and responsible in their group work Moreover, they are believed that in order to complete their projects, students will get access to a certain number of resources and documents to obtain knowledge for their project theme So their knowledge and understanding about authentic material will be enhanced From these reasons, the researcher wants to implement the Project-Based Learning in class to produce effective result for students‟ learning and confirm the role of Project- Based Learning

as an approach to accomplish learners‟ expectation in improving their speaking skill From the explanation stated previously that describes about the importance of speaking towards students and the need to find out the appropriate method of teaching

to help students engage and motivate them in learning, the researcher attempt to use Project- Based Learning to see whether the implementation of this method can be effective to improve the speaking skill of second year English students at Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 or not

1.2 The aims of the study

The study aims at investigating the effectiveness of Project- Based learning on students‟ speaking results and students‟ attitude toward new learning method Therefore, through the process of experimenting and all data collected, the researcher expects to achieve positive influence of Project- Based Learning on speaking skill and

students‟ attitude towards the new learning method From this result, it will make a

contribution to the study of further Project- Based Learning research and teachers can apply this technique to teaching and improve students‟ oral language and other skills

1.3 The scope of the study

The project aims at applying Project- Based Learning to teaching English speaking to second year university students in Vietnam and find out the effectiveness

of this teaching technique on improving students‟ oral skill The research was conducted at class 41B Education The researcher choose to study this topic because speaking is one of the most important skills in learning a foreign language which can change students‟ life greatly Moreover, students here have great troubles with learning this skill since it is difficult and challenging to cope with There are several problems that may affect research study process One of the reasons is that speaking requires many language components such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency which are difficult for students to obtain through traditional learning model Besides, speaking has received great attention from school and education administration , especially the 2020 project that requires graduates reach C1 before graduating school; therefore, to maintains both the goal of the research and the objective of school curriculum which guarantee that after semester students meet up the school‟ requirements are difficult to reach at the same time

Then, students are from different background and have different learning purposes but they follow the same learning program, so it is the teacher‟s responsibility to make sure that students can follow with the projects and achieve the goal at the end of the semester Through project work, it is a challenge for teacher to make students understand the importance of speaking, which does not only help them improve speaking skill, knowledge and understanding a specific field through project work but also enhance their confidence, motivation and encourage them to learn and take responsibility for their learning process

Through the study, the researcher expect to find out the effectiveness of Project- Based Learning on enhancing students‟ speaking skill and obstacles as well as challenges that the students encountered during their learning to process to make improvement and well preparation before she implements this method of teaching in the future

1.4 Research objectives

The purpose of this research is to find out the effectiveness of using Project- Based Learning to improve second year students‟ speaking skill The researcher would use appropriate data collection techniques to achieve the purpose of the study In this research, there are two objectives that the researcher needs to answer First, it is the influence of using Project- Based Learning in speaking class whether it is able to enhance students‟ speaking skill or not Then, it is necessary to see students‟ attitude towards using of this method of teaching in class whether they favour the method of teaching or show different opinions about the new learning method Ignoring all unnecessary factors, it is important to see whether the use of Project-Based Learning in classroom changes and improve students‟ oral speech or not In order to obtain these objectives, the study will employ experimental design, survey and interview to collect quantitative and quantitative data to answer the research questions

1.5 Research questions

The objectives of the thesis can be elaborated into the following research questions

1 What are effects of Project- Based Learning on students‟ speaking skill?

2 What are students‟ attitudes towards the implementation of Project- Based

Learning?

1.6 Research significance

This research is expected provide a positive result of the implementation of Project- Based Learning approach that hopefully enhances students‟ speaking skill For students, through the projects which are formed under Project –Based Learning, students have opportunities to enjoy the various and interesting stages of project works Under researcher‟s guide and instruction, students have chances to get involves

in different world of knowledge by reading and researching authentic materials Besides, they are expected to explore their learning interest by working with other peers and experience they have got during the project time Students also have

opportunities to know other members better, strengthen their relationship and develop important skills in learning such as collaboration skill, problem solving, and communication Most importantly, through a variety of tasks that students have to experience to complete their project, students are able to improve their speaking skill and language knowledge

Project- Based Learning does not only bring benefits to students but it also provides great opportunity for teacher to learn By adopting new teaching technique in speaking class, the researcher also gain a lot of benefits from carrying out this Project- Based Learning Firstly, the researcher learns to organize speaking activities effectively and bring great interest to students By preparing materials for students and guidance for the students, the researcher can select the most appropriate, practical, useful beneficial learning activities for students to enjoy, therefore, they can improve their understanding and knowledge as well as speaking ability, too

Secondly, through the process of learning, the researcher is able to observe the class, to summarize the problems and difficulties that the students may encounter during their learning process, from that the researcher will have proper change to improve the situations This will result in the improvement of the researcher‟s flexibility toward organizing class and engage the students in speaking process

For others concerning Project- Based Learning, they will have an explicit understanding of how to implement Project- Based Learning to second year English language students at university level, both complexity and advantages of this technique

in real learning environment Thus, it increases their awareness of the second year students‟ speaking need and characteristics of these students toward learning speaking The result of this research will support data and further research on the same topic which are expected to increase the quality of learning process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language at university level in Vietnam

1.7 Research method

As has been stated in research objectives, this research dealt with the effectiveness of Project-Based Learning in improving students „speaking In order to

gather the result, this research used t- test, survey and interview The first step is to collect data The researcher would deliver two tests to two groups of students, one is control which follows the traditional style of study and another is experimental group

which enjoys the treatment of Project- Based Learning The test is called t- test and

processed by using SPSS.22 The survey and interview will be delivered after the t- test results to gather more students‟ personal ideas about the use of Project- Based Learning in class

1.8 The outline of the study

The research would present the study in logical ways following 5 chapters

Chapter 1 : The introduction

This chapter was a brief description of the research including the rationales for conducting the research, the aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and design of the study

Chapter 2 : Literature Review

This chapter introduced some concepts, theoretical frameworks and related studies

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter introduced the research context and methodology of the study

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

This chapter presented the major findings from t- test, students‟ survey, interviews to answer research questions, and some discussions to help students overcome the difficulties in learning English speaking skill

Chapter 5: Conclusion

This section gave some concluding remarks, some limitations existing in this study,

implication for my teaching, and suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will discuss relevant studies and theories concerning the research

2.1 Theoretical Review

This research attempts to find out the importance of speaking towards students, distinguished characteristics of Project- Based Learning in class and some of previous studies related to Project –Based Learning in educational settings

Thus, it is important to understand the basic theory of speaking and speaking –

related theories

2.1.1 The importance of speaking

In Oxford dictionary, speaking is defined as the action of conveying information

or expressing one‟s feeling in speech From this definition, it can be seen that speaking includes a speaker and an intended message followed in the speech In the study of speaking and communication, some linguists referred speaking as the ability of using a language in an oral communication This requires speakers to be able to function in language to transform his or her idea to other Thanks to speaking, students are able to convey his ideas to listeners and get the feedback, therefore, the communication is successful and the purpose of communication is complete

While speaking, students can express their feelings, thoughts, and attitude, explain, demand, request, critics towards a certain phenomenon They are able to perform other tasks such as telling stories, interviewing, conversing with other people

by using language in multiple- context settings In speaking activities, students are required to understand a text and be able to provide feedback by the requirements of the tasks Therefore, speaking is a skill that students should master to help them to interact with other people

Besides, speaking also plays an important role in improving students‟ other language skills It is considered as a productive skill that leads learners to develop their reading and writing and speaking in learning a foreign language Linse (2005) also

stated that speaking is the first step that needs to be learned by young English language learners before they can read and write in English

In teaching and learning a foreign language, speaking is one of the most important and basic skills in learning to a student This skill is considered as a productive skill which requires learners to release the message by following linguistic rules and at the same time meeting up with communication environment setting If reading and listening are skills to lay a foundation for language learners to reach the higher level of language learning, speaking can be regarded as a skill which derive and develop from these skills Nunan (1991) also claimed that speaking is the most important aspect of a learning a second language This can be explained that learning a language is measured in the ability of learners to carry out conversation in the target language This concept is more supported because nowadays, the ability to communicate and converse with foreign language learners in the target language is the tenet of learning a foreign language all over the world

Compared with other skills, speaking seems to be one of the most important skills of four (reading, listening, writing, speaking) and get the most attention from educators and learners Ur ( 1996) also asserts that people who know a language are usually referred to as speaker of that language

It is popularly believed that the purpose of teaching and learning English language is to give learners opportunities to learn and to use English effectively in communication Thus, it is teacher‟s role to prepare appropriate oral English materials for students to express themselves in the target language, to use language components effectively to meet the requirements of conversation settings It is also important that teacher set up effective classroom activities to make students engaged in the lesson and take on learning actively

By providing authentic materials and learning activities, students have more opportunities to use language to interact with their peers and to enhance their skill through practising tasks Moreover, when students are engaged into the learning and motivated about studying English, they tend to explore more the world of language This will help them to increase self- study and learning autonomy For example, when

students are motivated to use language freely and naturally in class, and they are able

to use simple English to communicate and exchange ideas; consequently, they are opener with language and tend to focus on the aspects or the themes they concern From then, they will spend more time researching and understanding language Students are also encouraged to use language if they feel their learning is meaningful and useful This is clearly seen in class When teachers and students discuss something and if students are encouraged to speak and give out ideas, they will find a way to use the language properly to convey their thoughts accurately and make the readers understand

Once, students feel the need of learning and importance of speaking, they will automatically look for most suitable method of learning to enhance their language competence The more students try to speak English regularly, the more they will know about the language and improve their vocabulary, grammar, structure According to Harmer ( 2001), speaking activities can lead students to be excellent language speakers who are able to process language in their head and make it coherent and meaningful and release it out in a form that are not only comprehensible but

conveys the meaning it is intended

For Ha Noi pedagogical University 2, speaking does not only help students to learn to perform speaking tasks by combining language components and carry out speaking activities to interact with others but also prepare them to become a teacher in the future For this purpose, the learning of speaking skill is more necessary for students They needs to realize importance of speaking English and start practising under teacher‟s guide and instruction Adam (2013) stated “ I believe that oral language is important not only as a vital communication tool that empower us in daily life but also as valuable way to learn” This also means Adam admits the importance

of oral activities in our daily life and probably the most important communication tool

2.1.2 The speaking activities in classroom

The speaking activities are the ones that are designed and delivered by teacher to class so that students can carry out oral speaking tasks to meet up the requirements of

teacher or the exercise In learning a foreign language, teaching speaking takes a lot of time and preparation from teacher who has responsibility to design different speaking activities to facilitate students speaking and enhance their skills Predominantly, speaking activities in classroom are based on traditional learning style Students often follow textbook‟s instruction and discuss speaking tasks with each other Teacher can give feedback and correct their pronunciation and grammar When designing speaking activities, teacher needs to understand the principles for teaching speaking The teacher should be aware of the differences between second language and target language learning contexts At this point, the challenge a teacher face may be determined partly by the target language context (Brown, 2000; 54) The differences

of language uses and cultural aspects should be introduced to students to help them avoid making the same mistakes which do not exist in two languages The speaking activities also guarantee to improve or at least give students practice with fluency and accuracy For language learners, it is important that speaking activities provide them opportunities to develop both accuracy and fluency While accuracy is the extent that students‟ speech matches what other people say when they use target language , fluency refer to how speakers use the language quickly, confidently and naturally with proper hesitations and pause in their communication One other important principle of designing speaking activities is to offer students opportunities to talk and interact by using group work, team work, pair work, and limiting teacher‟s talk If the teacher takes part in so much into student‟s talk then students will not have time for speaking

In fact, this can prevent and discourage students to speak also The role of speaking in teaching language is to teach students how to speak; consequently students are able to produce language by themselves When students carry out group work and pair work, they would be able to play different roles in communication and discussion, if teacher

is removed or limited in these practices, then students enjoy more on diverse roles of speaking

Next, the speaking tasks should be practical, meaningful and useful It is a fact that students learn more if they see the application and usefulness of what they learn Speaking activities should involve to practical purposes that students find useful for

their learning In addition, it is the responsibility of teacher to design activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking for students This means teacher should combine and engage interactional speech which is used to communicate with someone for social purposes to establish and maintain

social relationships with transactional speech which involves communicating to get

something done in classroom since the language learners will have to speak target language in both transactional and interpersonal settings, finally this practice will help students master the target language

Brown ( 2004) has proposed a six different categories of classroom speaking performances

Figure 1 The category of speaking performances

Step 3: Responsive

After repeating and get familiar with the language, students produce the language themselves They will respond to teacher‟s question and interact with other classmates in a very simple form of language Typical activities for this stage is question and answer, give instruction and

After repeating and get familiar with the language, students practice some speaking

performances which focuses on grammatical and phonological aspects of language

Speaking activities in language classroom can be diverse and presented in many different formats O‟Malley and Pierce ( 1996) says that authentic activities such as

The purpose of this technique is to provide students opportunities to practice short

conversation to convey idea, exchange information, and opinions with others Students can adopt short interview, dialogue with other classmates ( Brown, 2000: 273)

Step 5: Interactive ( Interpersonal ; dialogs)

At this stage, students are directed to produce conversations It is necessary for students

to engage social themes into their conversations Slangs, idioms, phrasal should be

encouraged and introduced to students‟ conversation ( Brown, 2000: 274)

Step 6: Extensive ( Monologue)

Step 4: Interactive ( Transactional dialogs)

At this level, students are able to produce and take part in producing language frequently They can join the monologue, respond to speech, change their positions when

communicating Some forms of this technique that students can implements are

presentations, story telling, making news reports ( Brown,2000: 274)

role- play, drama, simulations can be useful to use real life conversation Repetitions, pauses, interruptions, body language, gestures can be implemented in these situations and make the conversations more natural

The teacher is also expected to create speaking tasks to foster and motivate students in learning the speaking skill and make them practice speaking English consistently By using the right and appropriate activities that match students‟ interests and ability and syllabus inspire students to learn Usually, in classroom, discussion is commonly used to stimulate students to negotiate and express their opinions Harmers( 2001: 272) mentions the whole range of discussion from basic to high level of students The buzz group is a good organization of students into different team to have quick discussion with other members in a group before any member is asked to speak

in public Students are also expected to predict the content of some reading, or talk about their reaction after reading and discussing the reading with other members

2.1.3 Test of speaking

Test of speaking skill is necessary to assess students‟ oral ability It is an assessment tool to help teacher know a student‟ strength and weakness in their speaking ability Thus, the teacher can use different kind of tests as a way to measure the teaching and learning process , sometimes they want to see whether their method

of teaching speaking skill is effective or not Another benefit of testing is that it helps teacher discover students‟ oral great speaking and the results collected from test would let teacher decide the appropriate teaching technique to apply to certain type of students and therefore, allow them to participate in a particular course or program The test of speaking is popular in school as a requirement of the school program When teacher tests students‟ speaking ability, they will consider it as a productive skill However, unlike writing which is also a productive skill, speaking test is more difficult to measure In speaking, there is no true or wrong answer It is the reflection

of how students use language to perform certain tasks, therefore, teacher should create

a scoring standard sheet which contains elements reflecting the characteristics of speaking skill

Also, teacher need to think about rubrics, criteria and assessment for students‟ tests Among these preparations, assessing and scoring students‟ speaking skill is the most difficult Indeed, it is quite difficult to assess a productive skill which covers many aspects of the language that a teacher has to be an expert in the field Speaking is not simply a skill lonely but a combination of other languages skills which may not correlate with each other In speaking test, students have to use a range of vocabulary

to express ideas while he needs to be accurate in pronunciation and grammar The combination of many language component aspects accurately at short time may discourage students in speaking and communicating

It has been mentioned previously that giving scores to students‟ speaking test is also difficult task for teacher or test taker The reason is speaking involves many aspects of language skills and language components which speaker can fail in their test It is easy and possible to find some students who are strong at vocabulary but lack

of fluency and expression ability They know many words but they can not express the language properly and communicate with each other The similar situation can happen

to some students who have good pronunciation and intonation but they lack words and vocabulary to express and convey their ideas The other difficulties that the teacher may find in giving students‟ speaking score is that some students are able to make meaningful sentences in term of grammar and semantics and make it comprehensible but the other students can deliver the message of their speech but they can not make correct sentence structures The difficulty of testing a student‟ speaking is that it can not have a perfect standardization of giving the scores to students The teacher can base on a scoring rubrics but in practice, the process of testing and scoring are influenced by language uses that students adapt Therefore, according to (Brown : 143) speaking test is not about single skill testing Teacher should be careful to specify and calculate to produce an appropriate rubrics for speaking test due to the complexity of oral testing process; consequently, the teacher will achieve a fair and high reliable index of scoring result for students

2.1.4 Type of scoring rubrics

Testing students‟ speaking ability in language teaching is an important step to help teacher recognize the strength and weakness of student‟s oral ability Through the process, the teacher will know whether their approach to teaching is effective in the class and students can learn better by using their teaching technique or not Usually, the teacher will adopt a scoring scale that consists of basic features to evaluate students‟ performance in assessment and give them reliable evidence on achievement

of the students‟ performance According to (McManara, 2000) rubrics play an important role in assessing the people‟ work by using criteria to select the expected target in the assessment

The criteria of a scoring rubrics is that it gives students clear ideas about what they achieve in speaking Each criteria in the scoring rubrics is clear and reflect the most important aspect of the language and the level which students are at and may aim

to obtain In general, a typical scoring rubrics for speaking will include the most important aspects of that skill which are pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, grammar and comprehension These criteria are followed and adopted by many teachers in designing scoring rubrics for students since it reflect almost full factors of speaking skill The most frequently used scoring rubrics in speaking test is holistic and analytical These two types of rubrics has different criteria for speaking performance but they still guarantee to test and assess students speaking skill While a holistic scoring rubrics tends to focus on overall quality, proficiency, content and skill; it involves assessment on multi - dimensional level ( Mertler, 2001) The characteristics

of holistic scoring rubrics is the assessment of the entire work as a whole ( Zane, 2011)

on the contrary, analytic scoring rubrics reflect the criteria of each language aspect separately, so the speaker can see their individual language aspects achievement solely In this way, analytical scoring rubric is presented into different rows and each role containing a different aspect of criterion This means analytical rubrics is a table that outlines the criteria for scoring an oral performance The following tables are figures of analytical rubric for speaking test

Table 2.1 Analytic Rubric with the Criteria of Speaking Performance

(Adapted from Brown (2003) and O’Malley and Pierce (1996))

Results occasional non – native pronunciation errors, but the speaker is always intelligible

Uses extensive vocabulary but may lag behind native

speaking peers

Masters a variety of grammatical structures

3( good) Confident with

Results some consistent phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation patterns, but the speaker is intelligible

Uses varied vocabularies

Uses a variety

of structures with

occasional grammatical errors

Results phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation patterns that cause the speaker to be occasionally unintelligible

Uses adequate vocabulary;

some word usage irregularities

Uses some complex sentences, applies rules

of grammar but lacks control of irregular forms

Results phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation patterns that cause the speaker to be unintelligible

Uses limited vocabulary

Uses predominantly present tense verbs, demonstrates errors of omission (leaves words out, word endings off)

Repeats wrong pronunciation

Uses functional vocabulary

Has no mastery of sentence construction

2.2 Project- Based Learning

2.2.1 Characteristics of Project – Based Learning

Project-Based Learning is an instructional model that involves students in investigations of compelling problems that ultimately result in authentic products Projects provide stronger classroom learning opportunities for students which can vary widely in subject matter and scope, and can be delivered at a wide range of grade levels Nonetheless, they tend to share defining features Projects go beyond challenging questions that cannot be answered by conservative learning Grant (2002:1) regards Project- Based Learning as an instructional method centered on the learner This approach of learning gives students the right to decide on their self –learning and take responsibility for their learning success Under the treatment of Project- Based Learning, students will listen to teacher‟s instruction and guidance at first to understand the characteristics of Project - Based Learning implemented in their class Then they carry out the work with their group actively and decisively During the process, every individual has to discuss with other members to agree on the tasks they take, the role they follow They also need to support others to complete the joint

project of group Therefore, Project- Based Learning can help to develop student‟s interaction and communication skills After finishing the projects, students are usually expected to be a better and more confident language speaker

Projects also put students in an active role such as: problem solver, decision maker, investigator, or documentarian These tasks provide different kind of challenges for students during learning process, thus, engage them into diverse roles and different experiences Ultimately, students will learn a variety of necessary skills for their life

Project- Based Learning is a practical and executive learning with the use of projects as systematic teaching method which involves students in learning knowledge and skills through research assignments, constructional instructions, authentic questions, and well-designed products Project- Based Learning uses diverse questions

to stimulate students‟ creativity as well as concentration and make students having central role in design, inquiry, problem-solving, decision making processes so giving students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously Blumenfeld ( 1991) explained that Project- Based Learning is a model which organizes learning comprehensively based on challenging questions or problems, which involves students

in designing, problem solving, decision making, or investigation activity of project assignments; giving opportunities for autonomous working over a particular period; and end up on a realistic product or presentation Similarly, characteristics of Project- Based Learning by Thomas (2000) focuses on learning that gives students the opportunity to work autonomously in constructing their own knowledge, and reaches the peak to produce real products The optimal results of Project- Based Learning are diverse which can accounts for presentation, drama, game show, journal and magazine These products can be completed by individual and group work, but in Project - Based Learning, group work are more flavored and adopted by teachers Since working this way, students can best explore the benefits of project work

In learning English, Project- Based Learning offers great opportunity for students to interact, use the language to communicate and exchange ideas so that students can promote their reaction on language perception, improve their language

skills such as pronunciation by discovering the mispronunciation of their partners, expand their vocabulary of certain topic by listening to their partners‟ speaking Consequently, this experience will help them learn and build up their speaking skill Generally, Project - Based Learning has a very deliberate structure and principles of how it constructs learning This model has been implemented in many schools not just for language learning and teaching but also for other science subjects Project - Based Learning involves certain steps in learning and teaching and may vary

in different environment but it often starts with planning, creating, and processing In a more detail, Project- Based Learning starts with the essential question which many researcher calls research question , design a plan for the project, creates a schedule- a period of time for achieving final results, monitor the students and the progress of the project, assess the outcome, evaluate the experiences According to Paton ( 2000), in Project- Based Learning, students are the decision makers who determine their design and plan on what they carry out to complete the project From this statement, it can be understood that studying with Project-Based Learning, learners actively improve their knowledge and skills through the project with the help of the teacher and engage into the learning automatically

Hugg and Wurdinger (2007) also stated that if Project- Based Learning is applied together with the appropriate exercises and tasks, then it can be applied to a wide range of courses that will enhance students' life skills and provide real benefits to the community

From the description of Project- Based Learning, it can be seen that Project- Based Learning is different from traditional instruction since it involves learners in a multiple tasks and roles of learning, at the same time, Project- Based Learning centers

on learners and put students into integrated activities in real world situations In traditional teaching and learning, teacher becomes the center of the class and handles class most of the time The students passively listen and receive the information They will not have many opportunities to take part in different roles in learning This also means students can not present their ideas often actively and have debate and sharing with teacher in class The learning of this approach is focused on activities which

mainly delivering the material and asking the students to write and memorize the language rules One another feature of traditional class which limit students „ ability to communicate and develop their problem solving skill is that students passively get the assignment from teacher, do the exercise base on a regular basis of rules and standards The student‟s oral performance is expected to be correct and accurate in grammar, pronunciation It requires the accuracy more than the involvement and participation of language learners

From the analysis of characteristics of Project- Based Learning and other method of teaching, it is believed that Project- Based Learning can bring many benefits to language learners When students work in group and complete the final product, they will interact with other members in discussing the product in target language Moreover, through the project, students are expected to explore the knowledge of their project themes by researching and reading, watching more sources

to finalize the best product for the team When they settle down to work on their product, they will be motivated to learn more and develop their passion for learning According to Solomon 2003 learning by Project- Based Learning, students have opportunities to use diversity of skills which are problem solving, creativity, teamwork

as well as language skills, at different periods, so students‟ language skills are improved

In order to apply the Project- Based Learning successful in language class, teacher needs to understand the characteristics of this method Then, teacher can discuss with the students steps that are needed in completing the project work Since the project involves many different kind of tasks that students have to take on;

therefore, it is important for teacher to clarify step by step clearly for students (Stoller

1997) proposed 10 stages of implementing Project- Based Learning in classroom From the figure, it shows teacher and learners certain steps to carry out project, therefore, they will not go beyond the project and clearly understand of what they have

to do Stoller‟s model is also useful and efficient to help teacher manage the learning process and facilitate students develop their product work and content learning

Figure 2 Steps of developing Project- Based Learning in the classroom

Step 9: present final product

Step 10: evaluate the project

Step 1: agree on the theme of the project

Step 5: gather information

Step 2: determine the final outcome

Step 3: structure the project

Step 4: prepare students for the language demand

Step 6: prepare students for the language demand step 7

Step 7: compile and analyze information

Step 8: prepare students for the language demands of step 9

Step 2 and 3 give students an opportunities to decide their final outcome base on their preferences and on their strength In this stage, teacher should explain the features of each project before let the students decide the format of their final outcome This will motivate them to devote their energy on their favorite project Afterward, all groups need to negotiate their project structures Students have to submit to teacher their final ideas about the structures and get the feedback on their choice This step will help students completely well prepare and focus on their project

Step 4 , after agreeing on the format and structure of their project, teacher has to explain for students the language demanded in their projects and introduces sources to help them have a consultation and investigation to support their projects

Step 5, all groups have a clear idea of what they have to do for their projects, this time every group member should be assigned on different role which suit their strength and preferences to begin their role Usually at this stage, students start searching and gathering information and write at their own notes They will use this information and edit for the language demanded in step 6

Step 7, students have information and language demanded in step 6 continue to compile and analyze information They have to edit and remain necessary and important information for their projects language demand at stage 8 Otherwise, group member need to gather all parts of their project and arrange them into appropriate order as they discussed previously

Step 9 and 10 groups have to submit their projects to the teacher and present their final products to other groups Teacher and other group students have to observe and give presenting group feedback on their performances Then every group have to discuss and edit their projects under teacher‟s instruction Finally, teacher will evaluate the students‟ performances and announce the results

After carrying our Project – Based Learning in classroom, teacher will find out that by applying Project- Based learning in class, students can explore their strength and develop their motivation for learning When students have opportunities to work, negotiate and discuss with other members on the project, they will develop their problem- solving, communication skill, critical thinking and responsibility for

learning Through its process, Project- Based Learning is potentially motivating, encouraging and challenging students to learn Finally, it will build in learners‟ responsibility, self- esteem and improving their language skill, language content and knowledge as well as cognitive abilities (Fried-Booth, 1997; Simpson, 2011; Solomon, 2003; Stoller, 1997)

From the illustrations above, it is obvious that Project- Based Learning has been studied by many researchers and implemented by lecturers achieved great effects The effectiveness of using Project- Based Learning to boost students‟ speaking skill definitely has promise in teaching English but it is important to have more knowledge

of teaching speaking especially when using Project -Based Learning technique The purpose of teaching speaking can be determined due to the authentic materials or the real life topics that are designed to have group activities and practices, can improve the students‟ interest and desire Project - Based Learning is useful long– term learning method to foster students‟ abilities for life-long learning through contextualizing learning that presents them with problems to solve In doing so, students need to combine a variety of skills to bring about good results on their performances That is students have to collaborate their learning motivation and enthusiasm, their problem-solving abilities, research skills, sense of collaborations, resource management skills, longing for communication and information sharing with language use awareness, and more importantly, such a process of engaging in various types of projects may turn their life experiences into advantages With strict and high requirement of society, speaking English is on the verge of continual transformation in terms of teaching and learning For students, their competence in oral communication is emphasized and invested heavily, especially university level, no matter what forms of evaluation are conducted To a large extent, this lays a foremost and pioneering foundation for adopting Project- Based Learning as an effective instructional approach to enhance Vietnamese students‟ English performance

2.2.2 Previous studies

There are some previous researches of Asian researchers relate to the use of

Project- Based Learning in class which focused to find out whether the application of Project- Based Learning is effective to improve students‟ foreign language skills The first researcher is Mehmet Gültekin (The Effect of Project - Based Learning on Learning

Outcomes in the 5th Grade Social Studies Course in Primary Education Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice 5) Mehmet Gültekin conducted a research dealing with the effects of project-based learning upon learning outcomes in social studies courses among fifth grade In this study, he employed quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze the data The results showed that there was a significant correlation between the academic successes of experimental and control groups In addition, participants and lecturers indicated that project-based learning increased the success by providing students with various skills and making learning more enjoyable, entertaining, and meaningful However, few problems were also reported such as arguments between group members and difficulties in carrying out the project

Kornwipa Poonpon, a lecturer of Khon Kaen University, Thailand conducted research entitled Enhancing English Skills Through Project-Based Learning In this research, the researcher employed an interdisciplinary- based project to carry out the research A semi- structure interview was used to collect students‟ responses about the use of Project- Based Learning in class Results of the study revealed how the interdisciplinary-based project should be implemented in a language classroom to enhance the learners‟ English skills

The other researcher who studied the Project- Based Learning is Gökhan Baş Bas investigated the effects of Project-Based Learning on students „academic achievement and attitudes towards English lesson of 9th grade students The process took place between 2010 and 2011 There were 60 students joined the study The researcher adopted the independence t- test to collect data between control and experimental group to find out a significant difference between the attitude scores of the experiment group and the control group The data was processed by using computer software SPSS17.0 At the end of the research, it was showed that the students who were educated by project-based learning was more successful and had

higher attitude levels towards the lesson than the students who were educated by the instruction based on student textbooks

The results of the previous studies show that the use of Project- Based Learning effectively affected to the students‟ language skill These study results would lay a foundation for the further research and encourage more researchers to carry out the study in the field to find out the new discovery These researches would be good references for the researcher in this study to learn about the method, the design and process to apply the Project- Based Learning in the classroom

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher introduces the methodology that the she used to find out the answer to the research questions Thus, it is organized into research method, research setting, research population and sample, data gathering technique and instrument, data analysis However, the researcher also includes the research plans and its procedures to implement the research

The researcher chose two groups : Experimental group ( EG) and control group ( CG) According to Nunan ( 2006: 254) : experimental group design is an design which possesses random assignment, an experimental group, a control group and a pre- test and a post- test for each group In this design, both groups are designated pre –test and post – test but the treatment is only given to experimental group( EG)

Diagram of experimental design

Experimental group ( EG): R O X O

Control group (CG) : R O O

X: represents an exposure of a group to an experimental viable or event, the

effects of which are being measured

O: represents an observation or measurement recorded on an instrument ( pre- test and post- test)

R: indicates random assignment

3.1.1 The nature of the data

A research needs data to be analysed to prove the problem and to answer the research questions According to Nunan ( 2006:8) data is the empirical evidence or information that one gathers from the experiment according to the rules of the procedures Data can be divided into qualitative data and quantitative data Qualitative data is about descriptive statements which can be made about a subject based on observations, interviews or evaluations Qualitative data is presented in in- depth interviews, direct observation and written documents In other words, qualitative data

is expressed as words, pictures, and objects while quantitative data is mainly presented

in numbers In this research, the researcher combined two kinds of data both qualitative and quantitative to analyse the experiment and results on the basis of concepts or themes

The quantitative data is used to control the result from the test to answer the first research question and qualitative data is used to provide information resulted from interview to answer the second question The t- test was used to find out the relationship between students‟ speaking skill and the Project- Based Learning

3.1.2 Context of the study

The research was conducted at Ha Noi Pedagogical University 2 in a period of three months during the first semester from August until the end of semester of academic year 2016-2017 The sample consists of 60 students from K41 B English Education students These students have different background knowledge and purposes for learning However, their levels do not typically differentiate so the process of using Project- Based Learning did not cause any disparity among groups During the implementation of the research, the researcher wrote down her own

observation and how students study speaking with the new method of teaching

The samples of the research were second year students ( K41.B – English Education students) This class was divided into two groups : experimental group which began the class from period 5 to 7 and enjoyed the application of Project- Based Learning and control group period 8 to10 which followed the traditional style of teaching English in class There were 30 students in experimental group and 30 from control group During the project, students in experimental group made the projects with the different form of journal, game show and drama while the control group learned the textbook and do the task- based problems under the instruction from the textbook and the teacher The researcher discussed with other teachers topics, competence standard and skills which developed among students during the project time

3.1.3 Data collection techniques

In the research, the researcher gathered the data in three stages The first stage was gathering quantitative data using t-test The pre-test was conducted for experimental group on Friday, 22nd, August, 2016 and for the control group was also

on Friday, 22ND, 2016 The pre-test was done in the form of oral test and last for 120 minutes The material for the test was taken from the selected topics for speaking which was circulated only in faculty The test was divided into 2 parts, part one was about self- greeting, part 2 required students answer a question which students had to express his or her opinion and prove it The researcher did this with one foreign teacher and gave students‟ scores on the basis of their pronunciation, idea expression and fluency The same test was taken for control group with the same materials

After that, the researcher delivered the post- test to students after the implementation of Project- Based Learning The post- test was conducted for the experimental group on 12th, November, 2016 The researcher used analytic rubric with the criteria of speaking performance adapted from Brown to process speaking scores for both pre- test and post- test The researcher observed students‟ performances in two tests and consulted with other teachers to decide on the final scores for pre- test and

post- test After analysing and obtaining the scores from two tests of two groups, the researcher will analyse scores to compare students‟ speaking performance before and after the implementation of the Project- Based Learning

The second stage was to gather data by using survey In order to gather objective results, the researcher used closed- ended questions and open- ended for students in experimental group The survey was divided into 2 sections Part 1 contained 10 closed- ended items asking students about the aspects of Project-Based Learning The researcher used the Linkert scale items for strongly agree and strongly disagree to get the result from students The lowest score was for strong disagree and the highest score used if students has positive answer about the Project The sentences were designed easily and understandable for students to answer During the survey, if students had any problem, they could raise their hands and asked for supports from researcher Part 2 contained 5 open- ended questions which asked students‟ personal opinions about the Project- Based Learning The purpose of this survey is to find out the strength of Project- Based Learning in class and its benefits to students‟ learning as well as their students „opinions about using this method The survey was distributed to the experimental group on 19th, November, 2016

Finally, the third stage which researcher gathered information was using interview The interview was used to obtain the data support for the previous date gathered from the result of questionnaire and to verify the qualitative findings of the research The interview was conducted on Friday, 26th, November 2016 The respondents were 3 students from experimental group They were chosen to answere questions related to the implementation of Project- Based Learning in class The respondents were selected based on their scores One got the highest score, one got the lowest score and the other selected at randomly The questions in the interview were based on the result of survey The researcher made arrangement for students and guide them to answer the questions The interview consisted of 5 questions, all of which were aimed to help the research get more information from the students and strengthen survey results