A comparative analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce pre intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking english at ha noi foreign language teaching center

*** ***DƯƠNG THỊ NHÀN A Comparative Analysis among Several Types of Communicative Activities to Reduce Pre-Intermediate Level Learners' Anxiety in Speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Langu

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DƯƠNG THỊ NHÀN

A Comparative Analysis among Several Types of Communicative Activities to Reduce Pre-Intermediate Level Learners' Anxiety in Speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center

Phân tích so sánh một số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm

sự lo lắng của người học khi nói tiếng Anh tại trung tâm Anh

ngữ sư phạm Hà Nội M.A MINOR THESIS

Field:

Code:

English Methodology 60.14.10

HÀ NỘI – 2011

*** ***

DƯƠNG THỊ NHÀN

A Comparative Analysis among Several Types of Communicative Activities to Reduce Pre-Intermediate Level Learners' Anxiety in Speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center

Phân tích so sánh một số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm

sự lo lắng của người học khi nói tiếng Anh tại trung tâm Anh

ngữ sư phạm Hà Nội M.A MINOR THESIS

Field:

Code:

Supervisor:

English Methodology 60.14.10

Nguyễn Thu Lệ Hằng, M.A.

HÀ NỘI – 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements……… i

Abstract……… ii

Table of Contents………iii

List of Tables and Charts………vi

List of Abbreviations……… vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1.1 Rationale of the Study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Research questions 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

1.7 Definitions of Terms 4

PAT TWO: DEVELOPMENT……….5

Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 5

1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching 5

1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety 6

1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety 7

1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety 7

1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning 8

1.3 Communication Activities 10

1.3.1 Definitions of Communicative Activities 11

1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English 11

1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities 12

1.3.3.1 Role – Play 13

1.3.3.2 Information – Gap 14

1.3.3.3 Discussion 14

1.3.4 Using Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking

English……… 15

1.3.5 Summary 16

Chapter II: METHODOLOGY……… 18

2.1 Research methods 18

2.1.1 Rationale for Action Research 18

2.1.2 Questionnaire Survey 19

2.1.3 Observational Method 20

2.2 Research Design 21

2.2.1 Action Research Procedure 21

2.2.2 Subjects of the Study 23

2.3 Summary 23

Chapter III: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS……… 25

3.1 Pre-action research survey 25

3.1.1 Classroom observation 25

3.1.2 The Pre- Questionnaire 27

3.2 Action plan implementation 30

3.2.1 Role-play activities 30

3.2.1.1 Samples of role-plays 31

3.2.1.2 Procedure of a role-play activity 31

3.2.1.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 32

3.2.1.4 Findings and Notice 33

3.2.2 Information gap activities 33

3.2.2.1 Sample information gap activities 33

3.2.2.2 Procedure of an information gap activity 34

3.2.2.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 34

3.2.2.4 Findings and Notice 35

3.2.3 Discussion activities 35

3.2.3.1 Sample discussion activities 35

3.2.3.2 Procedure of a discussion activity 36

3.2.3.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 36

3.2.3.4 Findings and Notice 37

3.3 Observation Results 37

3.4 Post action research survey 39

3.5 A Comparative Analysis of Some Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English 42

3.6 Summary 43

PART THREE: CONCLUSION………45

Summary of the Study 45

Limitations of the study 46

Suggestions for further research 46

References……….48 Appendices……… I

Appendix 1………. I Appendix 2……….III Appendix 3……… V

Appendix 4……….VI

Appendix 5……… VIII Appendix 6……… X

List of Tables

Table 1: The causes of the learners’ anxiety in speaking English

Table 2: Some communicative activities used in speaking lessons

Table 3: The learners’ feeling about CA used in speaking lessons

Table 4: The learners’ feelings after participating in communicative activities in speaking

lessons

Table 5: Effectiveness of reducing the learners’ anxiety in speaking English

through communicative activities

List of Charts

Chart 1: I feel anxious when speaking English in class

Chart 2: The learners’ participation extreme in communicative activities used in speaking

Action ResearchStandard DeviationMean

Techniques that Encourage and Measure Oral Communication

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the Study

Nowadays, with the development of technology and information together with thespread of globalization, English becomes a global language because it is broadly used invarious fields of our life such as in technology, business, commerce, communication and

so on As a result, learning English for communication skills has created a huge demandfor teaching and learning English around the world The fact shows that communicativeapproach of teaching English is preferred in learning English Teaching English is not only

on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of theircommunicative ability Therefore, in order to develop the learners‟ communicative ability,teachers need to create a good classroom environment which motivates their speakingactivities

In recent years in Vietnam, English has been playing a very important role in thedevelopment of the country firstly because it is an international language and secondly it isalso seen as a mean to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnamand other countries Consequently, more and more people desire to know and focus onEnglish to keep pace with the update development in technology in the world Therefore,English is not only widely taught at schools, universities, but it also is taught at manyforeign language centers as part-time classes and others

In Ha Noi, there are more and more English centers established everywhere with a lot

of learners Most of them are students, engineers, or workers, who come to the centers withthe hope to have a good command of English to use it effectively in all four skills.Regarding speaking skills, the majority of learners agree that this macro skill is always atthe top of their demand for many aims such as passing oral examinations at universities,having good communications, getting good jobs, etc However, most of second languagelearners experience varying degrees of anxiety when asked to express their views in front

of other people This is true even when their language abilities are rather good In fact,there is an excessive amount of anxiety negatively influencing many language learners‟behaviors and educational outcomes Campbell and Ortiz (1991: 159) show that languageanxiety among university students to be „alarming‟ and estimate that up to one half of alllanguage students experience debilitating levels of language anxiety

As a teacher of English in Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center for nearly twoyears, I have found that learners would like to speak English a lot but they lack confidence

in speaking and they are usually passive and find it challenging while communicating withEnglish-speaking people In speaking lessons, there are hardly many communicativeactivities for teaching speaking English used by teachers Consequently, learners are tooshy or even keep silence and do nothing in speaking lessons Moreover, they think thatspeaking English is very difficult for them and they become fed up with learning this skill

In fact, the attempt to create a negotiating and students-centered learning atmosphere inEnglish by teachers is usually unsuccessful The achievement of effective communicativeteaching becomes a daily headache to all English teachers here Inevitably, the lack oflearners‟ participation in speaking activities leads to the teacher-centered learning inEnglish lessons and learners‟ anxiety in learning a second language, especially in speaking

English These reasons actually drive the researcher to the study “A comparative analysis

among several types of communicative activities to reduce Pre- intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center”

with the aim of suggesting some communicative activities to reduce these learners‟ anxiety

in speaking English

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims at suggesting some communicative activities to reduce learners‟anxiety in speaking English and compare which activities are the most effective for them

In order to achieve these aims, the following objectives are established:

- Firstly, to review the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center

- Secondly, to investigate the current activities used in teaching speaking English at this center

- Thirdly, to suggest some communicative activities to reduce pre-intermediate level learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at this center

- Fourthly, to make a comparison about which activities have effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3 Scope of the study

To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, teachers can make use of various

activities and a number of techniques should be done However, within the framework ofthis M.A Minor Thesis, it is too ambitious to list all communicative activities to reducelearners‟ anxiety in speaking English Therefore, this research only focuses on threecommunicative activities (that is, role-play, discussion, and information gap) and thencompares their effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking classes.

Moreover, due to the limit of time, only a foreign language center in Hanoi is chosenfor the research All of 20 learners chosen are studying in a Pre-intermediate level class

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to complete this research, qualitative method will be used The participants

of the study are the learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center Morespecifically, the researcher planned classroom observations and did questionnairesconsisting of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire to gather in-depth information aboutthe real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and which communicativeactivities used in their speaking lessons It is believed this method will bring about acomplete look into this research

1.5 Research questions

The study is to apply some communicative activities and compare them with the aim

of finding out the most effective one to reduce learners‟ speaking anxiety at Ha NoiForeign Language Teaching Center To achieve this aim, answers to the followingquestions are sought:

+ Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center? + Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, role- play, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’

anxiety in speaking English?

1.6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three main parts:

Part One, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, design of the study, and definitions of terms

Part Two, DEVELOPMENT, is composed of four chapters as follows:

- Chapter One, Literature review, is concerned with a brief review ofknowledge about overview of communicative language teaching, foreign language

anxiety, communicative activities and benefits of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English.

- Chapter Two, Methodology, is about the research method, research design, data analysis and the rationale for using five activities

- Chapter Three, Data Presentation and Analysis, is the part relating to action research survey, action plan implementation, observation results, post-action researchsurvey, and a comparative analysis of communicative activities to reduce

pre-learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

Part Three, CONCLUSION, consists of four sub-parts: Summary of the study, Limitations

of the study, and Suggestions for further studies

1.7 Definitions of Terms

- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): CLT is an approach to the teaching of second

and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal

of learning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages”

- Foreign language anxiety: This is considered as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions,

beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the

uniqueness of the language learning process”

- Communicative activities (CA): include any activities that encourage and require a learner

to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the community Thesecommunicative activities contain a communicative purpose in any situations and a concentration

on language content not language form and communication without

teachers‟ interference

- Action research (AR): is the first and foremost situational, being concerned with the

identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is toimprove the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is beingcarried out

- Comparative analysis: This term refers to comparing two or more things to get some

certain results

PAT TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW

The main aim of this chapter is to present some theories relating to foreign languageanxiety and communicative activities The first section overviews the theory ofCommunicative Language Teaching and its application in teaching speaking skill Afterthat, this second part refers to definitions of foreign language anxiety, its potential sourcesand some its effects on learning a foreign language Next comes to some definitions ofcommunicative activities, benefits of using them in teaching speaking English, and sometypes of communicative activities given out in this part The final one of this chapterpresents some advantages of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety inspeaking English

1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is interested by the researchers such asChomsky, Richards & Rodgers (1986), Al-Mutawa and Kailani (1989), Hedge (2000) and

so on This is an approach to the teaching of second oreign languages that focuses oninteraction as both the means and the fundamental aim of learning a language Moreover, it

is considered as a “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” orsimple the “communicative approach” According to Hymes (1972), he considers the goal

of learning a language is to develop “communicative competence” “Communicativecompetence” here not only refers to knowledge of the grammatical rules of a language andhow to form grammatical sentences but also to know when, where and to whom to usethese sentences in a speech community Similarly, Nunan (2004) states that “language can

be thought as a tool for communication rather than as sets of phonological, grammaticaland lexical items to be memorized lead to the notion of developing different learningprograms to reflect the different communication needs of disparate grasps of learner” (p.7).CLT is an approach rather than a method of English language teaching focusing onstudents‟ needs and individual affective factor, advocating several language- learningprinciples or kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning Richards andRodgers (1986:71) confirm some characteristics of CLT as follow:

“Language is a system of the expression of meaning; the primary function

of language is for interaction and communication; the structure of

language is reflects its functional and communicative use; the primary

units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,

but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

discourse.”

Larsen- Freeman (1986) shares the same idea about meaningful tasks andcommunicative functions, that is, “almost everything that is done is done with acommunicative intent.” More specifically, there are a lot of communicative activities such

as games, role plays, simulations, and problem solving tasks, which give students anopportunity to practice communicating meaningful in different contexts and in differentroles

Although CLT has many advantages in developing learners‟ communicativecompetence, it has some barriers such as high English language proficiency from teachers,large class sizes to handle, lack of teacher training in effective CLT strategies, lack ofpractice among teachers in using effective CLT strategies, much time on the part of theteacher needed for preparing effective CLT activities, and much time required in theclassroom for implementing effective CLT activities (Rowe, nd.)

In conclusion, CLT is a new way of teaching and learning a foreign language,especially English It is mainly focus on the approach of teaching a language with the aim

of developing learners‟ interaction along with their communication Although it has somelimitations above, its benefits of using CLT in teaching and learning English to developlearners „communicative ability are not unacceptable Providing for real communicativeactivities in a language course by using CLT is thus considered to be one of the mostimportant recent development in the curriculum

1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety

Learning a foreign language is not simple for learners because there are variousfactors affecting their learning such as intelligence, motivation, attitude, age, gender,personality, anxiety, and so on (Skehan, 1989, cited in Wu, 2010: 174) Learningacquisition should be achieved naturally, but learning a foreign language in the classroom,for most students, is full of challenges One of the know challenges comes from learners‟affective factor, that is, foreign language anxiety Its definition, sources as well as someeffects in language learning will be discussed in the following parts

1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety

Foreign language anxiety in this study is conducted as a variable that can influencelearner‟s decisions to speak English Therefore, it is very important for the researcher toconsider the different research addressed the area of language anxiety

Horwitz et all (1986) state foreign language anxiety as “a distinct complex of perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from theuniqueness of the language learning process” (p.128) According to Speilberge (1983),anxiety is defined as the “subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness andworry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (p.15) In describinglanguage anxiety, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) write:

self-“The anxious student may be characterized as an individual who

perceives the L2 as an uncomfortable experience, who withdraws from

voluntary participation, who feels social pressures not to make mistakes

and who is less willing to try uncertain or novel linguistic forms” (p.112)

Therefore, it can be concluded that foreign language anxiety is the distinguishedfactor accompanied with learners‟ anxious feelings and stress along with their behaviorsduring their learning process It is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon Whenlearners face with classroom anxiety – provoking situations, they often feel less oriented,less assertive than in the others Therefore, teachers of English or instructors should knowthat most of learners‟ anxiety relate to their mental feelings and behaviors and find out theeffective ways to reduce this

1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety

It is obvious that language anxiety has a great influence on learner‟s languagelearning Therefore, there have been a lot of the earlier studies of its causes According toYoung (1991: 427), there are six potential causes of language anxiety including personaland interpersonal anxieties, learner beliefs about language learning, instructor beliefs aboutlanguage teaching, instructor-learner interactions, classroom procedures and languagetesting From this list we can see that the author classifies the causes into three mainaspects, that is, the aspects of learners, teachers and instructional practice to which Bailey‟findings also followed (cited in Na, Z 2007)

However, the most influential findings are from three authors Horwitz, Horwitz andCope (1986) They divide the causes of language anxiety into three types, that is,communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation.

Communication apprehension is defined as “apprehension about others‟ evaluation,avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectations that others would evaluate oneselfnegatively.” (Horwitz et al., 1986, p.128) Moreover, in learning a foreign language, theauthors (1986) state that communication apprehension as manifested into difficulty inspeaking in dyads or groups (oral communication anxiety), or in public (“stage fright”), or

in listening to or learning a spoken message (receiver anxiety).Next, the concept of testanxiety is defined as “a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure Test-anxious students often put unrealistic demands on themselves and feel that anything lessthan a perfect test performance is a failure” (Horwitz et al., 1986: 127-128) Last is fear ofnegative evaluation which may stem from learners‟ classroom and require continualevaluation In a similar manner, Young (1991) maintains that this fear, irrespective ofwhether it is real or imagined, must be an important situation that contributes to foreignlanguage anxiety This is broader in scope than test anxiety because it is not limited to test-taking situations In contrast, it can happen in any social, evaluative situation (Horwitz etal., 1986)

In fact, the reasons why learners often cope with foreign language anxiety result frompersonal and interpersonal anxieties as well as learner- instructor beliefs and interactions

In other word, it dates from anxiety of being low or negatively evaluation and difficulties

in oral communication Test anxiety is one of the above main factors of foreign languageanxiety, yet this study will not focus on it because of my above learners‟ aspects Most ofthem are from the different universities or companies with the aims of learning English as acommunication or for their future job, so the study only discusses about two main sources

of foreign language anxiety, that is, communication apprehension and fear of negativeevaluation

1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning

It can be said that language anxiety is regarded as a simple transfer of other generalkinds of anxiety such as trait anxiety to language learning It is a phenomenal issue caused

by the unique stress imposed on students in language classes This has a great influence onsecond language acquisition

Some researchers confirm that a certain amount of anxiety in language learning canenhance the learning process such as Alpert & Haber (1960) In Bailey‟s (1983) study ofcompetitiveness and anxiety, it was found that facilitative anxiety was one of the keys tosuccess, and closely related to competitiveness Horwitz et al (1986) affirm that languagelearners who are anxious about learning a language separate from cognitive processinglimitations He emphasizes that language anxiety itself can inhibit language learning

In contrast, studies reveal that anxiety may result in adverse effects on languagelearning, it is also believed that anxiety could motivate language learning Krashen (1985)acknowledges the influences of the affective filter in second language anxiety in relation toinput The higher the affective filter the less input someone is able to process According tothe author, this affective filter consists of emotive reactions such as language anxiety (cited

in Zgutowicz, 2009, p 20) More specifically, Crookall and Oxford (1991) assert thatserious language anxiety may adversely affect students: self-esteem, self-confidence, andultimately hamper proficiency in language acquisition Similarly, Turula (2004), and VonWorde (2003 state that anxiety has a negative effect in language learning Fears,nervousness, insecurity and lack of self-confidence are related to language anxiety.MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) found that speaking is by far the main agent of anxiety-arousal, and that students with high anxiety perform worse than those with low anxiety.Supporting this view, Liu (2007) describes that:

“ all the correlations involving language anxiety were found to be

negative As language anxiety scores increased, the ratings of ideas

expressed, output quality, and self-rated competence declined .It

was also found that anxious students tended to underestimate their

ability and more relaxed students tended to be overestimate their

ability.” (p.120)

From these previous researches, the researcher finds that language anxiety plays animportant role in learning a foreign language Although it can enhance learners‟ ability atsome extents, it mostly prevents learners from their language acquisition Besides, foreignlanguage anxiety has a great influence on speaking, writing, reading and listening abilityamong learners Especially about the anxiety in speaking skill, the researcher totallyagrees with the opinion of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) that students are very self-

conscious when they are required to engage in speaking activities that expose their

inadequacies, and these feelings often lead to “fear, or even panic” (p.128)

1.3 Communication Activities

It can not deny that anxiety greatly influences in learning English in general as well

as in speaking English in particular As Young (1991: 429) states that “anxieties associatedwith classroom procedures center primarily on having to speak in the target language infront of a group” Therefore, it can be concluded that speaking activities in the classroomcreate the most foreign language anxiety As a result, reducing learners‟ anxiety inspeaking activities is of great importance in teaching and learning English This leads tomany researchers focusing on some techniques to reduce learners‟ anxiety in learning alanguage, especially English However, the researcher in this study only emphasizes onsome communicative activities with the aims of reducing learners‟ foreign languageanxiety Definitions and benefits of communicative activities are also discussed in thefollowing parts

1.3.1 Definitions of Communicative Activities

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner

to speak with and listen to other learners When defining communicative activities, Harmer(1991: 50) states that:

“Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristics

at the communicative end of the continuum Students are somehow

involved in activities that give them both the desire to communicate

and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of the language

Such activities are vital in the classroom since here the students can

do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree

of language autonomy.”

Sam (1990) considers communicative activities as “the techniques which areemployed in the communicative method in language teaching The language-usingactivities for communication are not restricted to conversation and may involve listening,speaking, reading, writing or an integration of two or more skills.” Furthermore, the authorstates some characteristics of communicative activities such as being purposeful, beinginteractive and conducted with others and often involving some form of discussion,

authentic materials are used together with realistic situations and authentic models, andcommunicative are based on the information gap principle.

Referring to some principles of using communicative activities for language teachingand learning techniques, Morrow (1981) gives out some: First, „Know what you are doing‟means that each part of the lesson focuses on some operation which student would want toperform in the target language Second, „the whole is more than the sum of its parts‟ refers

to the fact that it is necessary to work in the context of the whole in communication.Communication cannot easily be analyses into its various components without its naturebeing destroyed in the process Third, „the processes are as important as the forms‟ are theprocesses of communication such as information gap, choice and feedback should be as far

as possible replicated in trying to develop the ability of the student to communicate in thetarget language Forth, „to learn it, do it‟ means that practicing communicative activitieshelps students learn to communicate In this situation, teachers no longer dominate thelearning situation, but she provides all the help the students needs to play an active role intheir own learning Last, „mistakes are not always mistakes‟ is that there is the need forflexibility in deciding to treat different things as „mistakes‟ at different stages of thelearning process towards communicative competence (Cited in Sam, 1990)

The researcher finds the definition made by Sam (1990) meaningful and profound Itsupplies with a full insight of communicative activities, that is, they help them interact witheach other as well as encourage learners‟ communicative ability in learning a language

1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English

It is clear that communicative activities play a very important role in developinglearners‟ communicative competence in general, as well as their speaking English ability

in particular Littlewood (1981:17) argues that there are some contributions thatcommunicative activities can make to language teaching such as “whole-task practice‟,improving motivation, allowing natural learning, and creating a context that supportslearning

First, communicative activities can provide “whole-task practice” In foreignlanguage learning, learners practice various kinds of communicative activity with thewhole- task practice designed to suit learner‟s level of ability

Second, communicative activities improve motivation The author goes on sayingthat the learners‟ ultimate objective is to participate in communication with others Their

motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroomlearning is related to this objective and helps them to achieve it with increasing success.Thirds, communicative activities allow natural learning The author shows thatlearners‟ language learning only happens in natural processes of using the language forcommunication Therefore, communicative activity is an important role of the totallearning process.

Forth, communicative activities create a context that supports learning According tothe author, communicative activities supply many chances for learners to practice theirspeaking skill, especially positive personal relationship among learners and betweenlearners and teacher Such relationship can help to “humanize the classroom and creates anenvironment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn

To sum up, offering communicative activities can help turn English classrooms into

an active and enjoyable place where learners can learn what they need and want to learn.Some above contributions of communicative activities such as enhancing motivation,creating a good learning environment and supporting a natural learning make theresearcher interested and apply them for the aims of the study

1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities

Littlewood (1981: 20) divides communicative activities into two types: functionalcommunication activities and social interaction activities The first type is “the ability tofind language which will convey an intended meaning effectively in a specific situation”.Some activities of this type includes comparing sets of pictures; noting similarities anddifferences; working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; discoveringmissing features in a map or a picture, reconstructing story –sequences The second one is

“the ability to take account of the social meaning as well as the functional meaning ofdifferent language forms” Activities of this consist of conversation and discussionsessions, dialogues and role-play, simulations, skits, improvisations and debates Althoughthere are a lot of communicative activities in teaching English, but in this study theresearcher only gives out some below with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety inspeaking English at an English center

1.3.3.1 Role – Play

Role-play is considered as a technique in the process of teaching a language in whichparticipants assume and act out roles so as to resolve conflicts, practice appropriatebehaviors for various situations According to Shi Zheng (2006, cited in Liu, 2010), role-play is one method of getting to imagine they are someone else and play that part Morespecifically, doing role-play activities is a way to practice, or rehearse, situations that mayhappen in real life The purpose of this is to prepare the students for the real-life languageuse (Gu Yeguos, 1998, cited in Liu, 2010)

Richards (1985) states that collaborative communication activities such as role-playshave the following characteristics, that is, providing chances to practice strategies foropening, developing, and terminating conversational encounters; requiring learners tocooperate to develop meanings; requiring the use of turn-taking rules; helping learnerspractice use of conversational routines and expressions; involving learners in differentkinds of roles as well as encouraging the use of different speaking styles; giving outnegotiated completion of tasks; involving information sharing; concentrating oncomprehensible and meaningful input and output; and demanding learners‟ participationwith a large number.” (Cited in Liu, 2010)

When referring to some advantages of using role-play in teaching language, Jarvix,

L & Odell, K & Troiano, M (2002) give out some such as: First, role-play increaselearners‟ interest in the subject matter and understanding of course content; Second, it raiselearners‟ involvement in lessons, they are not passive recipients of the instructors‟knowledge, but they take an active part; Third, it helps learners have empathy andunderstanding of different viewpoints, take on role of a character together with learningand acting as that individual would do in the typical setting To support this, Mc Gregor(1993) adds that role-playing has also been seen to be effective in reducing racialprejudice

The researcher completely agrees with the above researchers that role-play has a lot

of benefits in teaching a language, especially in speaking English It allows learners todraw their personal experience of situations and encourage them in their speakingactivities Role-plays encourage them to be interested in speaking activities as well as take

an active part in these ones Therefore, their anxiety in speaking English is not a seriousproblem any more

1.3.3.2 Information – Gap

An information gap activity is the one where learners are missing the informationthey need to complete a task and need to talk to each other to find it Neu & Reeser (1997,cited in Rapton, nd.) state that one person has certain information that must be shared withothers in order to solve a problem, gather information or make decisions in an informationgap activity These types of activities are extremely effective in the FL classroom.According to Lee, J F and VanPatten (2003), information-gap is one type of activity topromote negotiation The gap refers to information that one person possesses but others donot Gaps, therefore, create the absolute need to communicate as well as the need tocooperate (p 65) Moreover, Richards (2006:18) supports more ideas that “more authenticcommunication is likely to occur in the classroom if students go beyond practice oflanguage forms for their own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources inorder to obtain information.”

Brown and Yule (cited in Rong, R & Lanying, X 2008) state that we are usuallymotivated to tell people things we assume they do not know; information gap activities,then, can provide students with a reasonable purpose to communicate in the foreignlanguage As a result, this type is really useful for various things such as providingopportunities for extended speaking practice, representing real communication, andmotivating learners This advantage, therefore, urges me to plan this study with the aim ofreducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3.3.3 Discussion

Discussion is the process of discussing, talking in which the pros and cons or variousaspects of a subject are considered Like pair and group work, discussions in the classroomcan help enhance learners‟ interaction and negotiation in their speaking skills As Qui-ling(2008) states that group discussion is one of the activities to encourage learners to use theirknowledge to practice it in a friendly environment as well as motivate them to speak aforeign language to improve their communicative skill The author adds more that usingthis technique, discussion, helps learners “gain the initial sense of language use in real-lifesituations and acquire the knowledge of expressing and exchanging ideas with peers.”When referring to some advantages of using discussion in teaching speaking, Harmer(1991) states that one of the reasons that discussions fail is that learners are reluctant to

give an opinion in front of the whole class, or they can not think of anything to say and arenot confident of their language use Therefore, the author gives out one suggestion, that is,

„buzz group‟ with the aims of solving the problem In this buzz group, learners can discussquickly in small groups before being asked to express their ideas to the rest of the class.However, he confirms that using discussions is good for providing activities which forcelearners to reach a decision or a consensus, often as a result of choosing between specificalternatives (pp 272-273) Johnson and Rodger (1975: 78) share the same ideas withHarmer (1991) about the advantages of discussions, they add more that learners should bearranged so that each can see all other members of his group and can be heard withoutshouting and disturbing the other groups

In conclusion, the benefits of discussions outweigh its drawbacks The mostimportant benefits for teachers is that discussion can help learners to enhance theircommunicative ability, sharpen their social skills and foster their cooperation and teamspirit in learning speaking skill Consequently, the author of the study totally agrees thatdiscussion is a good technique for teachers to use in teaching speaking English, especially

in reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3.4 Using Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking

English

The anxiety in learning language, specifically speaking English, has a great number

of negative influences on learners It prevents their speaking ability and leads them to fear

or panic whenever they are asked to speak English As second language educators, our goal

is to have our learners speak with confidence in the target language, so we must make aneffort to provide our learners with a greater variety of opportunities to speak in the targetlanguage Therefore, some recent approaches to foreign language teaching such asCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) are directed at reducing learners‟ anxiety.According Taveen (2007: 2), the author confirms that “these approaches lay emphasis onpair or group work and learning through communication in the target language as a way toreduce language anxiety Consideration of learner anxiety in the modern languageclassroom is deemed highly essential in order to help learners develop their communicationskills in the target language.”

Burden (2004: 17) states that “anxiety is often a manifestation of feelings ofincompetence… the teacher can alleviate anxiety and foster a less confrontational

atmosphere by encouraging pair work, group activities for mutual support andreassurance.” According the author, by using these activities for teaching language,teachers can reduce negativity, raise learners‟ self-belief and assist them to reduce theiranxiety Generally, communicative activities are considered as an effective means toreduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English To share the same ideas, the authors such asOsboe, S, Fujmura, T and Hirschel, R (2007) conducted a study on students‟ confidenceand anxiety in L2 speaking activities and received the results that students‟ proficiencylevel in the L2 may also correlate with comfort speaking to other L2 learners and theyappear to enjoy greater confidence in pairs and small groups than in whole-class situations.Additionally, small group discussions and topics that are familiar to students can enhancethe level of comfort Therefore, communicative activities play a great role in making agood environment to encourage their learners‟ speaking ability as well as reduce theiranxiety.

In summary, communicative activities are of the important role in enforcing learners‟speaking skill as well as reducing their anxiety in speaking English The researcher of thisstudy totally agrees with some characteristics of communicative activities given out byRichards (2006: 23) such as: developing learners‟ communicative competence; creating theneed for communication, interaction, and negotiation of meaning through the use ofactivities such as information sharing or role play; making use of content that connects tolearners‟ lives and interests; allowing them to personalize learning by applying what theyhave learned to their own lives These are the reasons why this study focuses on applyingsome of the above communicative activities with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety inspeaking English in the classroom

1.3.5 Summary

In conclusion, the researcher has reviewed the general overview of CLT, learners‟anxiety in speaking English, especially the solution of reducing it through usingcommunicative activities Learners‟ anxiety in speaking English is caused by some such ascommunication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation Consequently,anxiety has negative effects in language learning such as fears, nervousness, insecurity andlack of self-confidence Therefore, reducing learner‟s anxiety in speaking English in theclassroom is very necessary to develop their speaking ability One of the techniques for thisaim is using communicative activities such as role play, discussion and information

gap All of these activities bring about some benefits of reducing learners‟ anxiety inspeaking English They help learners reduce negativity, increase their self-belief, and assistthem in learning English Moreover, they enforce their cooperation and interaction amonglearners as well as help them feel confident in their speaking skill In the following part,Chapter Two will display the methodology of the study.

Chapter II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the procedures used in carrying out investigations, includingthe methods used to collect and analyze the data in the study It concludes of four sections.The first section describes various research methods and the rationale for each The secondone presents the research design including the action research procedures and the detailsabout the subjects of the study The third one is some reasons of using four activities in thestudy Last is the one which summarizes the main ideas presented in the whole chapter

2.1 Research methods

In this section, three categories are addressed They are some information aboutaction research with the rationale for action research, questionnaire survey, andobservational method

2.1.1 Rationale for Action Research

An action research (AR) is not only about research, but about action too In otherword, it means “learning by doing”, which helps identify a problem, find the ways to solve

it, as well as bring about social changes or practical actions (O‟Brien, 1998) Therefore, the

AR should be done by all teachers at any time All of these lead the researcher to choosethe AR as the most useful method to carry out this study

Action research is becoming increasingly significant in language education It is theprocess of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes andimprovement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998, p.1) Kemmis and MacTaggart (1988,cited in Nunan, D 1992: 17) state that AR is planned by „practitioners‟-classroomteachers- rather than outside researchers Moreover, they go on saying that AR is

“collaborative‟, and it is aimed at changing things Its distinctive feature is that it seems

“likely to lead to improvement, and for evaluating the results of strategies tried out in

practice Action research is a group activity” Similarly, Ferrance (2000: 6) shows that an

AR is a reflective process allowing for inquiry and discussion, as well as a collaborativeactivity among colleagues “searching for solutions to everyday, real problems experienced

in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement.”Nunan (1992: 18) also accepts that collaboration is highly desirable, but he arguesthat it is not the leading characteristics of AR According to the author, any teacherinterested in exploring processes of teaching and learning in their own context can carry

out an AR He also disputes that AR is not necessarily concerned with change He adds that

a „descriptive case study of a particular classroom, groups of learners, or even a singlelearner‟ if initiated by a question, supported by data and interpretation, and carried out by a

„practitioner investigating aspects of his or her own context and situation‟ is considered as

a really AR

Moreover, AR can help a researcher fill the gap from the theory to practice (MacNiff,Lomax &Whihead, 1996: 13 and Zuber-Skerrit, 1992: 16, cited in Songsiri, 2007: 47).According to Warrican (2006), the author states that AR is widely used in languageteaching but also as an approach for external innovators who seed to effect educationalchange (cited in Songsiri, 2007) Therefore, this study is an action research project ofreducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English though some communicative activities withthe aim of bringing about some changes for the current teaching and learning situation at

Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center

In conclusion, this brief consideration of the previous researches of action researchconvinced me that this was the appropriate method to use to investigate how to reducelearners‟ anxiety and improve their speaking skills as well as find out communicativeactivities which are the most effective

2.1.2 Questionnaire Survey

Questionnaires are very cost effective and useful for studies involving large samplesizes Additionally, they are familiar to most people because nearly everyone has had someexperience completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people apprehensive.Therefore, to investigate the aspect of teaching and learning speaking English, I use one ofthe research methods, that is, questionnaire survey, for my study

Questionnaires, as one of the most common forms of data collection tools, can easily

be assessed in terms of reliability which refers to the ability of questionnaire to produce thesame results in different implementations, leading to a consistency and dependability of theresults Richards and Lockhart (1994: 10) confirm that questionnaires are a useful way of

“gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning, such asbeliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to collect a largeamount of information relatively quickly.”

Questionnaire surveys play a very important part in my study because they help me

investigate learners‟ actual learning situations in speaking lessons From this, I am able todesign a suitable action plan to experiment in my own class Most of the questions areclose-ended so that they are easy for the respondents to complete In addition,questionnaires reduce bias There is uniform question presentation and no middle-manbias Therefore, the researcher‟s opinions will not influence the respondents to answer allthe questions in a certain manner Questionnaires are easy for the researcher to analyze tocollect data for this study.

To sum up, the researcher chooses to use questionnaire surveys because they requireless time and less expense Furthermore, they help me collect considerable data anddifferent ideas in a relatively short time Thanks to these positive features, I still continueusing this method to enhance the success of the study after having implemented the actionplan together and planned the observation results

2.1.3 Observational Method

Class observation is also the useful methodology for this study In fact, I cannotcollect data to monitor the desired change only by making questionnaire survey.Additionally, none-verbal gestures and facial expressions used by learners whichcommunicate without the use of words cannot be recorded As for Good and Brophy(1974, cited in Estacion, A., MacMahon, T., Quint, J., Melamud, B., Stephens, L., 2004:9), they show clearly that teachers are unaware of some of their behavior They add thatlearners‟ surveys may capture learners‟ attitudes toward what teachers do but are unlikely

to provide a complete and accurate picture of teachers‟ actual behavior

Richards (1994:12) suggests observation is a way of gathering information aboutteaching, rather than a way of evaluating teaching; although generally observation isassociated with evaluation He goes on saying that “the observation of classroom teachers

is serious business; it should not be approached casually” (p.22) According to him, thereare two kinds of observations in the classroom: observations by teachers of a cooperatingteacher-class; and peer observation, in which one teacher observes a colleague‟s class

In this study, the researcher uses the first kind of observations given out by Richards(1994) for several reasons First, I want to collect information not only about my learners‟real ability but also their reaction to a particular speaking activity given out by myself.Second, my AR is conducted in an evening class at a foreign language center while

teachers are very busy for their own work, so it is very difficult for me to ask any teachers

to come to observe my lesson Third, I am afraid that the presence of anyone else in theclassroom will make the learners either alter their behavior or too conscious of beingobserved that they might do the tasks differently As a result, I will collect some worseinformation or not be the truth

In order to do my own observations, I designed and printed an observation checklist

(see appendix 1) with the aim of collecting the data and information with ease.

Furthermore, learners‟ speaking can be affected by many non-linguistic factors such asfacial expressions, body language and the change of their voice tones, speaking speeds,louder or softer ability according to the situation and the importance of the message theywant to convey (Harmer, 1998) Therefore, I decide to measure the learners‟ speakingcompetence by calculating the number of utterances they produce, the number of timesthey use their mother tongue and assess their attitude towards the communicative activities

2.2 Research Design

This section focuses on some procedures of AR used in this study as well as givesout some details of subjects of the study

2.2.1 Action Research Procedure

Referring to the procedures of an action research, the author of this study follows thesteps based on the figure below by Somekh in McBride & Schostak, J (1989) She givesout an elaborate listing with distinguished steps in a research process

Figure 1: Detailed Action Research Procedures (adapted from Somekh, B in McBride & Schostak, J 1989)

From the figure above, this study will be planned in turn with the following seven steps:

 Step 1: Identifying or defining a problem, that is, selecting an aspect in theteaching process to examine in more details In this step, I talked to students and discussed with mycolleagues at the center As a result, I found that one of the major learners‟ biggest

problems might be their anxiety in speaking English Therefore, I decided to take action to help them to reduce it

 Step 2: Collecting data The first survey aimed at searching for the currentsituation of teaching and learning speaking English as well as which communicative activitiesused in speaking lessons To collect the pre-action research data, I planned class observationsand the pre-questionnaire

 Step 3: Analyzing the data and generating hypothesis After collecting the dataand analyzing it, I found that there are few communicative activities in their speaking lessons,which make them not confident or even difficult for them to speak in class Therefore, I decided

to study whether applying communicative activities for speaking English has good effects onreducing their anxiety or not

 Step 4: Planning action: developing an action plan to help bring about desiredchanges In the action plan, I intend to carry out three communicative activities (role-pay,

discussion, and information gap) in two-hour sessions of a speaking class (see appendix 3 for the

whole action plan).

 Step 5: Taking the action: The action plan lasts nearly three months with the participation of the researcher and the twenty learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center

 Step 6: Collecting post- action research data to check if the desired change has

made, using the observation checklist (see appendix 4) and the second questionnaire survey (see

- The first step is described in the Introduction

- The second and the third are discussed under the title “the pre-action research

survey”

- The fourth and the fifth are combined into one heading “The action research”.

- The sixth and the seventh are intervened in “the post action research survey”

2.2.2 Subjects of the Study

The study will be conducted in a course of nearly three months at Ha Noi ForeignLanguage Center, where the data will be collected, analyzed and improvement strategieswill be tried out All participants in this study include twenty learners, 9 male and 11female students Most of them are students from universities in Ha Noi whereas only threeare workers from offices or companies Their ages are between 19 and 29 In addition,most of them have been learning English for at least 6 years from their secondary and highschools except three learners who have not learned English for a long time Their levels ofEnglish are pre-intermediate, and they have three classes per week with integrated skills(reading, writing, listening and speaking) in a lesson

Although they took a test before joining the class, their level of English proficiency is

a mixture, ranging from elementary to pre-intermediate Even though they are learningEnglish at their universities, they still come to this center because they said they were notgood at some basic grammar points More importantly, they were lack of communicativeability and they did not know how to express their ideas in front of the others For sevenlearners who are workers or staff, their jobs force them to the center because theysometimes work with their foreign partners in English Therefore, all my learners enrollthese courses with the aims of improving their speaking proficiency

That is to say, all participants were interested in the study, appreciated that anything Itry to do is to help them be fluent speakers of the English language In short, being aware

of the huge difficulties, the author of this study has come to a conclusion that both teachersand learners must take action to “save ourselves” – that is, reducing learners‟ anxiety alongwith improving their speaking skill As a result, an action plan must be made and put intoaction immediately

2.3 Summary

To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and compare the effects of usingcommunicative activities in speaking lessons, action research procedures (identifying aproblem, collecting data, analyzing the data, planning action, taking the action, collectingpost-action research data, and evaluating the results of findings) were one of the main

factors to be used in this study It can be said that this study is widely used in languagelearning and teaching for promoting both learners and the teachers‟ development.

To reach the purpose of the study, the author processed to interview twenty learners

at a foreign language center in Ha Noi and recognized their problem in speaking English.Finally, the author decided to apply three of many other communicative activities, that is,role-play, discussion, and information gap for their speaking lessons with the aim ofreducing their anxiety and comparing their effects on learners Therefore, learners, theteacher worked and learned together through action research procedures, they all reachedmuch progress in both learning and teaching English at their own pace In short, I totallyagree with the following extract from Nunan (cited in Elydirim & Ashton, 2006:4) thatclassroom action research happens when teachers reflect critically about the teachingsituation, recognizing learning or instructional problems and plan methods to cope withthem

Chapter III: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

In this chapter, a full report of the AR consisting of the pre-action research survey,the action plan implementation, and the post- action research survey as well as thedescription and the analysis of the data collected through surveys on practical situation ofteaching and learning speaking skill at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center are presented anddiscussed The three main stages of the study will be shown in the following

3.1 Pre-action research survey

Learning English is to learn how to use and communicate with the others in Englishsuccessfully It will be of great success if learners combine all skills, especially promotetheir speaking skill, during their learning periods For the twenty learners at this center,they did not spend much time practising speaking English in their lessons Even some arenow aware that one of their main purposes in learning English is to be able to speakEnglish fluently, but they still do not talk readily in class at ease They are shy, notconfident or even anxious about speaking English As a result, this brings about somelimits during their lessons In order to help learners overcome such difficulties as well as tosolve the problem, teachers must find out the causes of their awkward situation, onlybasing on which we can seek for appropriate solutions

After studying the theoretical backgrounds of communicative activities, I have a verystrong impression that applying role-play, information gap and discussion activities willhelp reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Before designing a detailed action plan,however, I will do a class survey to find out whether my learners‟ attitude to speaking anddifferent types of speaking activities are good enough for what we intend to do in theaction plan to be carried out successfully

3.1.1 Classroom observation

With the aim of recognizing the learners‟ problem in speaking English, I observedtwo of their fifteen-minute speaking activities integrated in a reading comprehension task.All learners were supposed to discuss the questions relating to the topic of the reading texts

“Tales of two cities” (John& Liz, S 2007 p.18) and “Brat camp” (John& Liz, S 2007.

p.42)

I concentrated my observation on learners‟ participation in speaking English in class

by counting the number of times the whole class spoke English It was really a