Developing supplementary materials to teach speaking skills for first year english major at phuong dong university

In order to help the first year EnglishMajors at PDU overcome their specific difficulties in learning speaking skills, the option ofselecting or designing supplementary materials comes t

PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY

PHÁT TRIỂN TÀI LIỆU BỔ TRỢ ĐỂ DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨNHẤ

T CHUYÊN ANH TAỊ TRƯỜNG ĐAỊ HOC̣ PHƯƠNG ĐÔNG

M.A Minor Thesis

Hanoi, 2011

M.A Minor Thesis

Supervisor : PHẠM THỊ THANH THỦY, M.A

Hanoi, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 3

3 Aims of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 An overview of speaking skills and teaching speaking skills 5

1.1.1 Definition and characteristics of speaking skills and teaching speaking skill 5

1.1.2 Principles for Teaching Speaking Skills 5

1.1.3 Structure output and communicative output speaking Activities 7

1.2 Materials Development in Language Teaching 8

1.2.1 Definition of Language Teaching and Learning Materials 8

1.2.2 Effective Language Teaching and Learning Materials 8

1.2.3 The Roles and Limitation of Textbooks 9

1.2.4 Textbook evaluation 10

1.2.4.1 Definition of textbook evaluation 10

1.2.4.2 Methods for textbook evaluation 11

1.2.4.3 Criteria for textbook evaluation 12

1.3 Supplementary materials in teaching language skills 13

1.3.1 Definition of supplementary materials 14

1.3.2 Form and process of supplementation 15

1.4 Related study on supplementary materials 16

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Background to the study 17

2.1.1 Study context 17

2.1.2 The textbook in use 18

2.1.3 The participants 18

2.2 Research method 19

2.3 Instruments of data collection 19

2.4 Data collection procedures 20

2.5 Data analysis procedures 21

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22

3.1 Presentation and analysis of data 22

3.1.1 Students’ motivation and difficulties in learning Speaking subject during their first semester 22

3.1.1.1 Students’ motivation in learning English 22

3.1.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning Speaking skill 23

3.1.2 The evaluation of the textbook “Let’s Talk 1” by teachers and students. 24

3.1.2.1 The teachers and the students’ general evaluation of the content of the textbook “Let’s Talk 1” 25

3.1.2.2 The teachers and students’ detailed evaluation of the textbook’s content 26

3.1.3 The attitudes and preferences of students and teachers to the use of supplementary materials in speaking lessons. 30

3.1.3.1 The students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials in speaking lessons. 30

3.1.3.2 The students’ and teachers’ preferences to the use of supplementary speaking materials 31

3.1.3.3 Students and teachers’ preferences of forms that the added materials for each aspect should be in. 33

3.2 Discussion 34

3.2.1 Students’ Difficulties in Learning Speaking Skills 34

3.2.2 Students and Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook “Let’s Talk 1”’s Content. 37

3.2.3 Teachers and Students’ Attitudes and Preference of Supplementary Materials 39

3.3 Recommendations 40

3.3.1 Supplementary Materials for Vocabulary and Speaking activities 41

3.3.2 Supplementary Materials for Grammar 41

3.3.3 Supplementary Materials for Pronunciation 42

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 43

2 Limitations of the study 43

3 Suggestion for further research 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDICES I Appendix 1 Principles of teaching speaking skills I Appendix 2 Checklist to identify gaps in a coursebook II Appendix 3 Questionnaire for teachers VI Appendix 4 Questionnaire for students (English version) VIII Appendix 5 Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) XIII Appendix 6 Student interviews XV Appendix 7 Translation of student interviews XXIII Appendix 8 Samples of supplementary materials XXX

:Master Degree

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1a The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the

speaking topics in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 26Table 1b The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the languageinput in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 27Table 1c The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the

speaking activities in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 28

materials 31Chart 5 Teachers’ preference of when to use supplementary speaking materials 31Chart 6 The students’ and teachers’ preferences to which aspects should be

supplemented. 33Chart 7 Students’ and teachers’ preferences to the forms of supplementary

vocabulary materials 36Chart 8 Students’ and teachers’ preferences to the forms of supplementary

grammar materials 37Chart 9 Students’ and teachers’ preferences to the forms of supplementary

pronunciation materials 38Chart 10a Students’ and teachers’ preferences to structure output speaking

activities 39Chart 10b Students’ and teachers’ preferences to communicative speaking

activities 39

A potential remedy for this situation, in the opinion of the researcher, is applyingsupplementary materials to go with the textbook in speaking lessons It seems to be a bettersolution than choosing another new textbook since there is no textbook that perfectly fits in

a particular teaching and learning environment (Ansary & Babaii, 2002); and it is hard touse a commercial textbook without some form of adaptation to make it more suitable forthe particular context in which it is used (Richards, 2005)

Furthermore, in the process of learning speaking skills, the first year EnglishMajors at PDU often express a feeling of stress, nervousness or anxiety In addition, their

results in the final speaking examinations are usually low and under syllabus requirement.This fact can be triggered to many difficulties the students have to face in their learningprocess It seems that the textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ which is designed for a wideinternational audience, cannot cater for every specific need of individual learner in such aparticular local learning and teaching environment as Phuong Dong University Severalstudents claim that the textbook gives them little help to overcome their difficulties inlearning speaking skills According to Williams (1983, p.81), ―the textbook can presentexamples of common difficulties, but there are problems specific to different languagegroups which are left for teacher to deal with‖ In order to help the first year EnglishMajors at PDU overcome their specific difficulties in learning speaking skills, the option ofselecting or designing supplementary materials comes to the research‘s mind as a first andforemost choice.

With the supplementary materials, the gap between the textbook and students‘needs can be narrowed down Choosing the most suitable and relevant supplementarymaterial, however, necessitates careful research In addition, in Phuong Dong University,research to date of this topic is inadequate There exist some researches about developingsupplementary reading and writing materials for first year English Majors, but there is noresearch concerning speaking skills This has inspired the author to conduct a researchentitled ―Developing supplementary materials to teach speaking skills for first yearEnglish Majors at Phuong Dong University‖

2 Scope of the Study

As this is only a small-sized scale study, it is only concerned with providingnecessary information to help teachers at PDU choose suitable supplementary materials forfirst year English Majors in their speaking lessons of the second semester The matter ofapplying such materials in real teaching and examining their effectiveness is beyond thescope of this small study Furthermore, in this study, the course book ―Let‘s talk 1‖ isevaluated in order to identify the gap between it and the students‘ needs However, thisevaluation is only concerned with the content of the textbook By the words ―contents‖,the author means the language input, the speaking topics and the speaking activities

3 Aims of the Study

Firstly, it is an attempt to figure out students‘ difficulties in their process of learningspeaking Once the teachers realize the difficulties that their students have to face, they canwork out what should be selected as supplementary materials for their students Secondly,this study aims at examining the evaluation of the teachers and students towards the coursebook ―Let‘s talk 1‖; then, based on that evaluation, the author hopes to identify gapsbetween the course book and the needs of students The last aim is investigating teachersand students‘ attitudes as well as their preferences to the choice of supplementarymaterials

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study is designed to answer thefollowing questions:

(1) What are the difficulties of the first year English Majors at PDU when learning speaking skills as perceived by themselves and by their teachers?

(2) How do the teachers and first year English Majors at PDU evaluate the textbook

―Let‘s Talk 1‖ in terms of its content?

(3) What are the attitudes and preferences of the teachers and first year EnglishMajors at PDU to the supplementary materials going with the textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ in thespeaking lessons?

This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to teachersteaching speaking in that it will provide teachers with necessary and important information

to help them choose the most suitable speaking supplementary materials that have highapplicable value in practice

5 Methods of the Study

This study focuses on developing supplementary materials for teaching speakingskills to first year English majors A survey method is employed to collect quantitative andqualitative data In order to seek answers to the above research questions, two sets ofquestionnaire were designed and delivered to the teachers and the first year EnglishMajors Besides, with the hope that the reliability of the obtained information from the

questionnaires will increase, semi-structured interviews with first year English Majorswere carried out.

6 Design of the Study

The study is divided into three parts named introduction, development andconclusion Part A is introduction which provides an overview of the study including therationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the research method

as well as the design of study The second part, development has four distinguishablechapters Chapter 1 deals with literature review This chapter reviews theoreticalbackground on which the whole study is based Chapter 2 is Methodology, which brieflypresents the methodological framework of the study It covers the setting, the subjects, theinstruments and procedure of data collection and data analysis Chapter 3 presents dataanalysis, findings, discussion and brings about some recommendations on how to selecteffective supplementary materials to go with the course book ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ The finalpart, Conclusion, which is not less important than the preceding ones, comes up with thesummary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study

In conclusion, in this part, an overview of the study has been presented includingthe rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the research questions and the significance

of the study The research method employed by the researcher as well as the design of thestudy is also addressed The first chapter in the next part will devote to literature review inorder to provide a theoretical framework for the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.An Overview of Speaking Skills

1.1.1 Definition of Speaking and Teaching Speaking Skills

Of the four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking iscomplementary as Byrne (1991, p.9) proves ―if one man is good at speaking skill, otherskills will be much supported‖ Defining the term ―speaking‖, Florez (1999, cited inM.Bailey, 2005) states that speaking is ―an interactive process of constructing meaningthat involves producing, receiving and processing information‖ In this process, there arefive elements involved including pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, gesture and mimics,fluency and accuracy (Harmer, 2001) In the process of teaching and learning a foreignlanguage, teaching speaking skills means helping students develop the ability to producegrammatically correct and logically connected utterances that are appropriate in specificcontexts with acceptable pronunciation (Fararwati, 2010) Besides, Vicka (2008) defineteaching speaking skills is the instruction of the teacher to the students to encourage them

in using the language orally to express their ideas, feeling and opinions to someone else.Despite expressing in different ways, it can be inferred from these two definitions that themost important goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency

1.1.2 Principles for Teaching Speaking Skills

When teaching speaking, there are some principles that teachers should follow toensure the effectiveness of speaking lessons Such principles are discussed in the work ofNunan (1991) and Brown (1994) in which Nunan (1991) suggests five principles andBrown (1994) proposes six ones (see Appendix 1) Despite the difference in their lists,both of them share one common thing that teachers should focus on both fluency andaccuracy when teaching speaking skill This opinion is supported by Brown and Nation(1997) saying that communicating effectively in a language requires both the knowledge ofthe language as well as the ability to use the language in real time interaction; thus teachersshould provide students with form-focused speaking, meaning-focused speaking andactivities that aim at fluency development The researcher of this study totally agrees withthis principle and also believes that fluency and accuracy are two most important elements

in speaking process In the definition of Richards (2006, p.14), ―Fluency is naturallanguage use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintainscomprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or hercommunicative competence‖ while ―accuracy focuses on creating correct examples oflanguage use.‖ Thus, it may not be too much to say one can speak fluently withoutaccuracy or vice versa, and accuracy as well as fluency is necessary for successfulcommunication.

In teaching speaking skills, various scholars (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997)suggest a common approach adopted in speaking lessons which follows this sequence ofinstruction: Presentation, Practice and Production In line with this view, Burkart (1998)states that teachers can help students develop their communicative efficiency by using abalanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output andcommunicative output In the view of Burkart, language input may be content-orientedwhich focuses on different topics and information, or form-oriented which emphasizes onappropriate ways of using the language The amount of content-oriented or form-orientedinput given in a lesson depends on each teaching and learning context as well as onstudents‘ competence levels Structured output serves the role of a bridge between thepresentation and practice stage of a speaking lesson in which students are required toproduce controlled responses correctly using specific forms or structures introduced in thepresentation stage Communicative output is the final stage whose purpose is learnerscompleting a task through communicative output activities At this stage, unlike structureoutput stage, accuracy is not a main consideration unless the lack of it interferes with themessages In summary, structured output activities are those focusing on developinglearners‘ accuracy while communicative output activities give students opportunities todevelop their language fluency In the following section, the author will introduce somepopular speaking activities that can be used as either structured output or communicativeoutput activities

A large number of existing speaking activities can be found in resources However,due to the limitation of this small study, some applicable ones will be introduced Theresearcher prefers the list of speaking activities proposed by Harmer (2001) Harmer

(2001) recommends some examples of structured output activities are practical situation,guessing game, information gathering activities and jigsaw; for communicative activitiessuch as role play, discussion, opinion sharing activity, and prepared talks.

situations such as asking for directions in a city and ordering meals in a restaurant

variations For example, one student chooses a famous person, and the others ask yes-noquestions until the identity of the person is determined

students were required to collect information Students can practice a set of structures andlanguage repeatedly but in a meaningful way

"puzzle," and the partners must cooperate to fit all the pieces into a whole picture The puzzlepiece may take one of several forms It may be one photo from a set that tells a story It may beone sentence from a written narrative

cards is a good support especially for students at lower levels as cards help them remember theirroles A whole class brainstorming can be helpful as well to help them predict what vocabulary,grammar, and idiomatic expressions they might use

opinion Students are asked to discuss the issue in group and give their opinions and the reasonswhy they think so

feeling, or attitude The activity may require using factual information, formulating arguments,and justifying one's opinions For some topics, there may be no right or wrong responses and noreason to expect the same answers or responses from different individuals or different groups

topic of their own choice with or without agreement with the teacher Such talks are not designedfor spontaneous conversation and more ―writing-like‖ Prepared talks

represent a defined and useful genre of speaking and if properly organized, can be greatly interesting for both listeners and speakers.

In short, there are many authors discussing the issue of speaking activities inlanguage teaching and learning A variety of speaking activities do exit and they can beexploited effectively in different ways depending on particular teaching and learningcontexts However, in this small study, the researcher only prefers to address those eightspeaking activities discussed above

1.2.1 Definition of Language Teaching and Learning Materials

It is widely acknowledged that language teaching and learning materials constitute

a key component in most foreign language courses Language teaching and learningmaterial is defined by Tomlinson (1998, p.2) as ―anything which is used by teachers orlearners to facilitate the learning of a language‖ He also gives a list of various things whichcan be considered materials such as cassettes, videos, CD-Roms, dictionaries, grammarbooks, readers, workbooks or photocopied exercises, etc In line with this definition, amore elaborate description of materials was given by Ian McGrath (2002) This linguistdescribes materials not in broad sense as Tomlinson, but only in terms of text materials:Text materials include those that have been either specifically designed forlanguage learning and teaching (e.g textbooks, worksheets, computer software);authentic materials (e.g off-air recordings, newspaper article) that have beenspecially selected and explored for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher;teacher-written materials; and learner-generated materials (p.7)

From this definition, it can be implied that teachers can use their homegrown teachingmaterials to achieve teaching objectives in their particular and unique teaching and learningsituation In this study, the researcher prefers to understand materials in broad sense as inthe definition of Tomlinson

1.2.2 Effective Language Teaching and Learning Materials

Discussing the effectiveness of materials, Tomlinson (1998) spends one chapter inhis book providing a detailed list of fourteen characteristics that effective languageteaching and learning materials should have Following is the summary of four main

features that the researcher considers most important Firstly, materials should attract andsustain learners‘ motivation through novelty, attractive layout, appealing content as well as

a variety of texts, tasks and activities This wide range of tasks and activities can cater forlearners‘ differences in learning styles and affective attitudes Besides, what is covered inmaterials should meet learners‘ needs Thirdly, materials should provide exposure to richand varied authentic input Lastly, materials should help learners feel confident and at ease.Among a number of ways to make learners feel ease and develop confidence suggested byTomlinson (1998), the researcher finds two most interesting suggestions namely providingappealing, challenging but achievable classroom tasks, and not forcing premature speaking

in the target language ―until they have gained sufficient exposure to the target languageand sufficient confident in understanding it‖ (p.19) This can be done by devising activitieswhich introduce new language points before asking students to speak

In short, effective materials can inspire teachers and facilitate the learner‘s process

of foreign language acquisition It is made clear by Cunningsworth (1979, p.31) that

―course materials are not intrinsically good or bad- rather they are more or less effective

in helping students to reach particular goals in specific situations‖ Therefore, when ateacher evaluates that a particular material is good, what he/she really means is itseffectiveness in facilitating foreign language acquisition and learning Referring tomaterials used in most language courses, whether it is a skill-based course or an integratedskill basic series, there is a core coursebook According to McGrath (2002), the term

―coursebook‖ refers to a textbook on which a course is based Therefore, these two terms

―coursebook‖ and ―textbook‖ will be used interchangeably by the researcher in thisminor thesis The following section addresses the roles and limitations of textbooks

1.2.3 The Roles and Limitation of Textbooks

The undeniably important roles of textbooks have been discussed widely by manylinguists in different books and articles For instance, Hutchinson & Torres (1994, p.135)state that ―no teaching –learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevanttextbook‖ Likewise, Sheldon (1988) concludes that ―textbooks represent the visible heart

of an ELT program‖ Furthermore, Schmidt, McKnight and Raizen (1997, cited in Kulm,Roseman and Treistman, 1999) underline the dominant role of textbook saying textbookmakes ―the leap from intentions and plans to classroom activities, by making content

available, organizing it, and setting out learning tasks in a form designed to be appealing tostudents‖ Sharing similar views, Crawford (2002) states that it is not necessary for atextbook to control all things teachers and learners do in the language classroom; however,

it can support them by giving the structure and predictability needed for acceptable andsuitable communicative activities The learning content packaged professionally in atextbook can help achieve teaching and learning purposes

On the other hand, textbooks may have several potential limitations Richards(2005) argues that textbooks may deskill teachers in a way that teachers primarily followeverything prepared in textbooks without any change or creativity The researcher totallyagrees with Richards‘ (2005) opinion that no matter how important a textbook is inlanguage teaching and learning, it should only serve the supporting role rather thandominating role In order to ensure the facilitating role of textbooks, there is a necessity forteacher to develop skills in evaluating, adapting as well as supplementing publishedmaterials These skills will also help teacher deal with another limitation of textbook,namely the mismatch between a commercial textbook written for international markets andunique needs of a particular group of learners Richards (2005, p.47) states ―Sincecommercial materials are generally intended for a wide audience, they typically focus onvery general needs and cannot address the specific needs of individual learners‖ Thislimitation implies that finding a textbook among an enormous diversity of commercialtextbooks available in the market nowadays that perfectly fits a particular teaching andlearning situation is rather impossible One textbook which can be effective in one teachingand learning context might be a wrong choice in another context

In conclusion, the necessity of textbook cannot be neglected, yet problems do exist.The situation implies that in order to choose an effective instructional material for aparticular group of learners, as teachers, it is essential firstly to well-understand thebackground, level and learning needs of their learners; and then to make careful evaluation

of such material to ensure its relevance and suitability for students‘ learning needs as well

as for their particular teaching and learning context with the final aim of maximizinglearning potentials This implies that textbook evaluation has an important and special role

in teaching and learning process The following section addresses the literature review oftextbook evaluation

1.2.4 Textbook Evaluation

1.2.4.1 Definition of and Reasons for Textbook evaluation.

Textbook evaluation plays a key role in education and it is important for the teachersince it can provide valuable information for the future going of classroom practice; for theplanning of courses and for the management of learning tasks and students Tomlinson(1998) defines materials evaluation as the systematic judgment of the value of materials inrelation to the aims of the materials and the learners who are using them In addition,Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p.96) see evaluation as ―a matter of judging the fitness ofsomething for a particular purpose‖ They share with Tomlinson that ―the evaluationprocess should be systematic‖ and add that it ―is best seen as a matching exercise:matching your analyzed needs to available solutions‖ (1987, p.105) The essence of thisdefinition is its attention to the students‘ needs in evaluating materials and therefore isadopted in this thesis

Reasons for textbook evaluation activities are also numerous and varied One of themajor reasons is the need to adopt new coursebook In other words, the evaluation helps toselect a relevant and appropriate textbook for a language course Another reason asCunningsworth (1995) emphasizes is to identify particular strengths and weaknesses in acoursebook which is already in use Such activities, in turn, will let teachers make optimumuse of the textbook‘s strong points and strengthen the weaker areas by adapting andsubstituting materials from other books As the definition and significance of textbookevaluation have been discussed, the researcher is now concerned with the methods andcriteria being followed in the process of evaluation

1.2.4.2.Methods of Textbook Evaluation

In general, three basic methods can be discerned in the literature on textbookevaluation For convenience, McGrath (2002, p.25) refers them to the impressionistic, thechecklist, and the in-depth method As indicated in their names, impressionistic analysis isconcerned to obtain a general impression of the material while the checklist and the in-depth are two methods of close evaluation As used in isolation each of these methods hasits limitations as well as its specific benefits However, in the opinion of the researcher, thechecklist method triumphs over the others due to its numerous advantages, some of whichare clearly stated by McGrath (2002, p27) as following:

 It is systematic, ensuring that all elements that are deemed to be important are

considered

 It is cost effective, permitting a good deal of information to be recorded in a

relatively short space of time

 The information is recorded in a convenient format, allowing for easy comparison

between competing sets of material

 It is explicit, and, provided the categories are well understood by all involved in the

evaluation, offers a common framework for decision-making

Even though ―an ―off-the-shelf‖ checklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particularcontext‖ (McGrath, 2002, p.27), for these above advantages, the checklist method is chosen

as the major method to evaluate the textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖

1.2.4.3 Criteria for textbook evaluation.

When the concern is the evaluation of materials, the selection of the criteria is quitesubjective Prior studies on checklist evaluation have been carried out broadly with variousfocuses (Williams (1983); Hutchinson and Waters (1987); Sheldon (1988); Cunningsworth(1995); Ansary (2002)) However, the most important thing to consider when designing orchoosing a checklist is the appropriateness of criteria to the evaluative purpose In thisstudy, the reason for textbook evaluation is to check its relevance and suitability tostudents‘ needs and demands In other words, the evaluative purpose is to identify gaps inthe textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ and students‘ needs Therefore among many checklistsavailable, the author prefers to base on the checklists proposed by Acklam (1994, seeAppendix 2) which emphasizes sufficiency, variety and relevance and the one created byRichards (2005) Richards (2005) proposes a list of criteria for macro level of evaluationwhich concerns three factors namely teachers, learners and tasks Due to the focus of thisstudy, the criteria concerning learner factors are presented here There are five criteria asfollowing:

 The content interests the students

 The level is appropriate

 The cost is acceptable

 It is motivating and challenging

 The format is attractive and colorful (Richards, 2005, p.51)

Since the nature of the teaching/learning environment may vary from contexts tocontexts, Sheldon (1988) emphasizes, ‗global list of criteria can never apply in most localenvironments, without considerable evaluation‘ (p 242) The researcher then can base onthese criteria to design her questionnaire to evaluate the content of the textbook ―Let‘stalk 1‖.

1.3 Supplementary Materials in Teaching Language Skills

1.3.1 Definition of Supplementary Materials

According to Tomlinson (1998), supplementary materials are such ―materialsdesigned to be used in addition to the core materials of a course They are usually related tothe development of skills of reading, writing, listening or speaking rather than to thelearning of language items‖ (p.13) As discussed above, ―textbooks represent the visibleheart of an ELT program‖ (Sheldon, 1988); however, Ansary and Babaii (2002) argue that

―no textbook is perfect; therefore, teachers should have the option of assigningsupplementary materials based on their own specific needs in their own specific teachingsituation‖ (p.6) In line with this idea, Biemer (1992, p.25) claims that teachers must realizethat ―textbook is not the only tool in classroom, it is a tool to be used It may be the majortool, but there are other materials that can be used too‖

The reasons for teachers to use other materials beside textbook have been identify

by McGrath (2002) as follows Firstly, they wish to bridge the gap or mismatch betweentextbook and official syllabus or public examination or students‘ needs Secondly, teachersuse supplementation because they think that students need to expose a wide range oftextual materials or have more practice of particular kinds, and lastly teachers need tosupplement a coursebook in order to cater for various language competence levels ordifferent needs of specific individuals in a class Another reason for using supplementarymaterials is raised by Brown (1994, p.152), that is, to promote learners‘ motivation, which

is one of the key factors in learning Furthermore, Richards (2005) underlines theimportance of supplementary materials by claiming that when a textbook has somelimitations, it should be modified or supplemented to help teachers use them more suitablyand effectively The researcher agrees with these opinions and also thinks that in theprocess of choosing suitable supplementary materials for a language course, the role ofteachers is really significant Teachers are those who directly use a textbook and directly

work with students; accordingly, they are the most likely to recognize differentbackgrounds, experience and learning styles that students bring to class, as well as the gapbetween the textbook and students‘ needs This makes the researcher believe that teachersare only ones who can choose suitable ways to supplement a textbook The researcher‘sidea is supported by Williams (1983) saying that ―the textbook can present examples ofcommon difficulties, but there are problems specific to different language groups which areleft for teachers to deal with‖ Tomlinson (1998) considers supplementing a sub-type ofmaterial adaptation while McGrath (2002) distinguish adaptation and supplementation astwo different ways to bridge the gap of a textbook and a particular teaching and learningcontext Despite this difference, both of them agree one common thing that supplementarymaterials are of great importance to maximize learning potentials In this study, theresearcher prefers the view of Tomlinson.

1.3.2 Forms and Process of Supplementation

Drawing upon the literature on supplementation, discussed in the following section,the present study seeks to investigate some ways to supplement a course book and theprocess of designing supplementary materials McGrath (2002) suggests twosupplementing ways namely utilizing items from other published materials and devisingteacher‘s own materials According to McGrath, using materials from another publishedsource is the most common form of supplementation This may be because it is easier andmore convenient to borrow something, ―even if some form of minimal adaptat ion isinvolved‖ (p.83) It can be inferred that when some items from published materials are used

to supplement a core book, teachers can follow exactly what has been professionallyprepared or can make a little adaptation to such materials The research er believes that inmost case, minimal adaptation is necessary to increase the suitability of supplementarymaterials for a particular teaching and learning context The second supplementation way,using teacher-own designed materials, has its own benefits In case that the suitablepublished supplementary material that is available needs large - scale adaptation, preparingtheir own materials is a better choice for teachers (McGrath, 2002) Moreover, teacher-prepared materials are likely to be more up-to-date and more relevant to students‘ needsand interests than equivalent coursebook materials since teacher know their own studentswell (Block, 1991, cited in McGrath, 2002) Despite

these merits of teacher-owned designed materials, the researcher of the present studyprefers supplementation using published materials This preference lies on the assumptionthat ―materials are best prepared by professionals and by publishing houses which canensure a high level of production‖ (Sheldon, 1988).

Concerning the process of choosing supplementary materials, McGrath (2002)

classifies two types namely syllabus driven process and concept driven process The

former states that teachers choose or design suitable supplementary materials after theyhave identified what they need to supplement Furthermore, teachers choose materials with

a particular class or particular group of learners in mind The latter states that teacherschoose some interesting materials accidentally with the hope that they can use suchmaterials as supplementation in their future teaching Unlike syllabus driven process, inconcept driven process, teachers have no class or no learn groups in mind when choosingmaterials In this present study, the researcher follows syllabus driven process

In summary, the relevant literature for this small study has been presented Firstly,

a variety of ideas on materials development have been viewed in order to providefoundation knowledge to supplement the currently-used textbook ―Let‘s Talk1 ―.Secondly, definitions and characteristic of speaking skill as well as the process of teachingspeaking skill have been discussed Furthermore, two most important elements in speakingprocess, fluency and accuracy, along with the speaking activities used to develop eitherfluency or accuracy are also the concern of the literature review The following section willdevote the literature on related studies about supplementary materials in order to prove thesuitability of the present study in the research area

1.4 Related Studies on Supplementary Materials

Research on supplementary materials has sought to mainly focus on using authenticmaterials to supplement a coursebook (Rogers and Medley, 1988; Senior, 2005; Huong Do,2008), developing supplementary material for reading skills (Thuy Le, 2009; Thuy Pham,2007; Hoa Dao, 2010) For example, Thuy Pham (2007) does a study on developingsupplementary materials to improve reading skills for the first year English Majors atMilitary Science Academy with the aim of bridging the gap between the textbook ―Causeand Effect‖ and students‘ needs The findings of the study indicate the unsuitability of thetextbook to the students with regard to their needs, levels,

learning styles and learning techniques; and from those findings, the researcher presentssome suggestions on selecting appropriate supplementary materials for students to use intheir self-study with an aim of enhancing students‘ reading ability In addition, to theresearcher‘s best knowledge, there are two theses outside Vietnamese context studying onsupplementary materials The first one is ―Brighten your English classroom withunconventional supplementary materials‖ by Lydie (2007) and the second one entitled

―Adopting supplementary materials to enhance listening and speaking s trategy use byTaiwanese college EFL learners‖ is conducted by Chwo, G S., Jonas, A., Tsai, C &

Chuang, C (2009) The former aims at special population - children with specific learning

disabilities This thesis raises the important role of supplementar y materials in increasechildren‘s motivation and the author from his experience gives a list of unconventionalsupplementary materials that can be used to help children with learning disabilities learnEnglish According to Lydie (2007), the best practice for Czech primary school teachers is

in the interconnection of textbooks and supplementary materials The latter investigates ifsupplementary materials can be adopted to enhance college EFL learners‘ listening andspeaking strategy use Unlike Thuy Pham‘ s study (2007) which only stops at givingsuggestions on how to choose suitable supplementary reading materials, this study focuses

on finding the effectiveness of using supplementary materials in real teaching situation.The participants of this study are non-English majors This study‘s findings indicate theeffectiveness of adopting supplementary materials to enhance strategy use as well aslearning outcome It is then suggest that in order to expand students‘ learning capacity,more and diverse material s should be used to supplement the existing textbook in thelistening and speaking course

In summary, there are studies on development of supplementary materials;nonetheless, little has been documented concerning the development of supplementaryspeaking materials, especially in the context of Vietnam This study fills this gap bydeveloping supplementary speaking materials for first year English Majors at PhuongDong University who are using the textbook ―Let‘s talk 1‖ in their speaking less ons.More specifically, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the textbook and then from thatevaluation, the researcher hopes to figure out the mismatch between that textbook andstudents‘ needs so that she can suggest ways to choose suitable supplementary materials to

be used in the speaking lessons

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is covered with information about the context, the textbook in use, thesubject under investigation and then the research methods and the instruments arefollowed More importantly, data collection and data analysis procedures are presented

2.1 Background to the Study

2.1.1 The Study Context

The study is conducted at Phuong Dong University, one of the most famous privateuniversities in Hanoi In this university, Department of Foreign Language takes animportant position, especially English Division that has the most numbers of studentsyearly enrolling The strength of English Faculty lies in the teaching staff with 25 teacherspermanently employed 13 of them have Master Degrees in TESOL or TEFL, five arestudying master courses and 7 already have B.A degrees Most of them are active,enthusiastic, and full of inspiration for teaching though they are very busy due to heavyworkload In English Division, all English Majors have to spend the first two semestersfocusing on learning four language skills and pronunciation, each of which is taughtseparately and counts for 2 credits This means there is one lesson per week during the 15week course for each language skill There are only four classes of fresh students and eachone has from 25 to 30 students In English Division, the teaching facilities are inadequate.Cassette players are the most popular equipments There are only two rooms equipped withprojectors and two lab-rooms which are not in good conditions because almost of thecomputers are out of date and vulnerable to viruses Besides, there is only one small libraryfor the whole Foreign Language Department with some sorts of materials for reference butnot enough to satisfy the demand of students

2.1.2 The Textbook in Use

For the past five years, the book ―Let‘s talk 1‖ has been used as a core book toteach speaking skill for first year English majors The book was written by Leo Jones andpublished by Cambridge University Press in 2002 It is an English Language Textbook forforeign speakers The book consists of 16 units and 2 review puzzles Each unit containstwo lessons, each of which includes pair work and group work, listening exercises andcommunication tasks At the end of the book, from page 114 to 121, there are grammar

references, which summarize some basic grammatical knowledge In this publishedtextbook, both accuracy and fluency are focused In English Division, this textbook islearnt in two different semesters The speaking course of the first semester covers all theunits from number 1 to number 7 In the second semester, rather than covering every singlelesson in the last half of this book, the syllabus only focuses on 14 out of 18 lessons left.Following are the 14 lessons from the book selected as the materials to teach speaking skill

in second semester for first year English Majors:

Unit 8- A Let‘s see a movie Unit 11- B There‘s plenty to do

Unit 9- B Sleep and dreams Unit 13- A I know that name

2.1.3 The Participants

The study is carried out with the participation of 12 (out of 25) teachers and 94 (out

of 108) first year English Majors Participant selection was based on their availability,capacity and desire to commit their time to the research The teaching staff of Englishfaculty has 25 females however only 12 of them have already dealt with the textbook

―Let‘s talk 1‖ during their teaching time at PDU Of the total number of 108 students infour classes under investigation namely 510701 A1, 510701 A2, 510701 B1, 510701 B2, 4were absent on the days of the questionnaire delivery and 10 did not return thequestionnaire they had received Therefore, the total number of students who participated

in the research was 94 The age of participants ranged from 18 to 22 The students comefrom different regions of Vietnam, mostly the North and a few are from Hanoi City.Despite of the diversity in background, it can be said that their English proficiency is lowerthan the syllabus requirement According to syllabus requirement, the level that thestudents should be in is pre-intermediate level However, based on their results in the finalexamination of the first semester, it can be concluded that a majority of the students areonly at or a little bit above elementary level Their typical learning style is rote learningand in learning English, they prefer everything being translated In the process of learning

speaking skill, whenever being asked to say something in English, most of them tend tothink in Vietnam first and then try to translate word by word into English.

2.2 Research Method

In this small thesis, the survey method was used to collect quantitative andqualitative data According to Babbie (1973), the survey is a non-experimental, descriptiveresearch method Surveys can be useful when a researcher wants to collect data onphenomena that cannot be directly observed Data are usually collected by questionnaires,although sometimes researchers directly interview subjects In this study, the researchersused both questionnaires and interviews to collect qualitative and quantitative data Of twobasic survey‘s types, cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys, this small studyfollowed cross-sectional survey, which is used to gather information on a population at asingle point in time

2.3 Instruments of Data Collection

In this study, the main means of data collection is questionnaire that is a relativelypopular instrument to collect data, especially with high number of participants To obtaindata for the study, two written questionnaires with a mixture of close and open-endedquestions were administered to the subjects The questionnaire for students consisted of 14items, and the one for teachers has 13 items; some of which were adapted from anestablished questionnaire (Thuy Pham, 2007), and some were developed by the researcherbased on the review of literature on material evaluation and supplementary materials Inorder to establish content validity, the two questionnaires were reviewed by two Englishprofessors The researcher then clarified the wording and grammar

The questionnaires mainly aimed at surveying (1) students‘ difficulties in learningspeaking skills, (2) the teachers‘ and students‘ evaluation of the currently used textbook‘scontent and (3) their opinions and preferences towards using supplementary materials inspeaking classes There is a question about motivation of the students in learning speakingskills, which is not in the questionnaire for teachers In order to avoid misunderstandings,the questionnaire for students was written and administered in Vietnam

Beside the two sets of questionnaire, the researcher also conducted semi-structuredinterviews with students in order to collect in-deep information and be able to explain the

quantitative data received from the questionnaire Five students were interviewed to furtherunderstand their perspectives on three main categories of the questionnaire The interviewposed 3 main questions:

1 What are your difficulties in learning Speaking skills?

2 How do you think about the textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ regarding to its speakingtopics, speaking activities and language input (vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation)?

3 Do you think it is necessary to use supplementary materials in speaking lessons?Which aspects should be supplemented and when do you want the supplementary materials to beused?

2.4 Data Collection Procedures

From May 15th to 20th, 2011, the questionnaire for students was administered to

104 first year English majors during their regular English speaking lessons Beforedelivering the questionnaire to the students, the researcher gave clear explanation of thesurvey questionnaire‘ purpose Then, the students were encouraged to read all the items inthe questionnaire and raise questions if they were not clear During this time, the researcherwas present in the class to directly explain some difficult terms such as grammar-basedcommunicative activities, structure output activities and communicative activities; answerany upcoming questions and clarify any misunderstandings After ensuring that all theparticipants understood the questionnaire, the researcher asked them to bring it home andreturn it one week later with the hope that the students would have enough time to responsethe questionnaire carefully The students‘ response rate was 96% because 10 students didnot return the questionnaire they had been given Secondly, the questionnaire for teacherswas delivered on the Division‘s monthly meeting The researcher was always ready toanswer any questions raised by the teachers Unlike the case with the students, theteachers‘ responses were collected immediately after they have finished There was areturn rate of 100 % from the teachers In short, there were 94 responses from students and

12 responses from teachers being coded for statistical analysis Besides, the structured interviews with 5 volunteered students took place on two days, 26th and 27th ofMay, 2011 The interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in order to eliminate the effects

semi-of a possible language barrier The interviews were audio taped, and transcribed for furtheranalysis

2.5 Data Analysis Procedures

The analysis of data is presented in two forms, that is, numerical and non-numericaldata in this section Quantitative statistics were calculated for the analysis of the datacoming from the questionnaires Participants‘ answers to each question were calculated interms of frequency and percentages To aid analysis of the data and interpretation of theresults, points 1 and 2, and points 4 and 5 of the five-point Likert-scale were sometimes

combined during the data analysis procedure Regarding the qualitative data from the

interviews, all the interview sessions were audio recorded and transcribed Transcriptionswere analyzed and categorized in the light of the research questions of the study The maincategories defined from the data coming from student interviews were (a) students‘difficulties in learning Speaking skill, (b) the ―Let‘s talk 1‖ textbook‘s evaluation in terms

of content, (c) things they want to be supplemented

To sum up, this chapter has presented the study context, the participants,instruments and procedure of data collection and data analysis To get data for the research,two sets of questionnaire and a semi-structured interview have been designed and delivered

to the teachers and students The information obtained from these instruments is processedthoroughly The following chapter will devote to data presentation and analysis as well asfinding discussion and some recommendations

CHAPTE THREE: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS DISCUSSION

AND SOME RECOMMENDATIONS

3.1 Presentation and analysis of data

This section of the paper presents the results of the study Results from thequestionnaire are reported in terms of frequencies and percentages The results arepresented within the following parts: Students‘ motivation and difficulties in learningSpeaking subject during their first semester; the evaluation of the textbook ―Let‘s Talk 1‖

by teachers and students, students and teachers‘ preferences of supplementary speakingmaterials

3.1.1 Students’ Motivation and Difficulties in Learning Speaking Subject during their Second Semester

To the question about students‘ motivation and difficulties of learning English,more than one option is acceptable; therefore, the results in the following charts arepresented in percentage that the options are chosen

3.1.1.1 Students’ motivation in learning English.

1 Want to pass tests and get good marks 3 Want to learn for future job

2 Feel interested in learning English 4 Other motivation

Chart 1 Students’ motivation in learning English

Most students stated at least one motivation for their learning English According toChart 1, students‘ most frequent motivation of learning English is found to be ―want to

learn for future job‖ (68 %) 24.4 % of these students are motivated by their love of Englishwhile only 17 % of them responded that their motivation to learn English is only gettinggood marks and passing tests Interestingly, 10 students did not choose any option amongthe motivation list given in the questionnaire but gave their own motivation 6 out of these

10 students share the same opinion that they are motivated by English as the growinginternational language They reported that if they learned English well, they could gotravelling and talk with many people around the world 2 students indicated that learningEnglish is the preparation for their future study abroad Sadly, the rest 2 students wrote thatthey learned English because they had no other choice It means that they hardly aremotivated in learning English From this result, it seems that extrinsic motivationoutweighed intrinsic ones in the participants‘ responses The students‘ motivation forlearning English may influence their attitudes and learning styles in the learning process

3.1.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking skills.

Chart 2 highlight students‘ difficulties in learning Speaking skill perceived by both

of the students and teachers When being asked about their difficulties, many of thestudents chose all the items in the list given by the researcher Expectedly, nearly half ofthe students declared their fear of making errors as their difficulty in learning speakingskill It is noticeable that vocabulary shortage is the problem chosen by the highest number

of the students (93.6%) Lack of grammar knowledge is the second most serious problemwhich was listed as one of the challenges by 63 % of the respondents The students alsohave serious trouble with several pronunciation aspects such as mispronouncing soundsand words (40 %); wrong word stress (62 %) and lack of intonation when speaking (58 %).Only 4 out of 94 students stated that lacking speaking ideas causes them trouble in learning

to speak Most of these difficulties fell into eight major problems identified by Richards(1996)

This chart also shows the teachers‘ perception of students‘ difficulties in learningspeaking skill As can be seen from this chart, the teacher participants have quite similaropinion with their students in that they also considered lacking vocabulary is the mostfrequent difficulty that the students have to face (92 %) Secondly, about three fourth of theteachers agreed that their students had serious pronunciation problems However, theteachers seem to take the problems related to grammar less serious than their students

with only 42 % of them listed lacking grammar knowledge in speaking as their students‘ problem.

1 Fear of making errors; 2 Mispronunciation of sounds and words; 3 Wrong word stress (for example, `particular or parti’cular instead of par`ticular); 4 Lack of

intonation in speaking; 5 Lack of grammar knowledge; 6 Lack of vocabulary; 7 Lack of speaking ideas (Don’t know what to speak)

Chart 2 Students’ difficulties in learning Speaking skill as perceived by themselves and their teachers

The interviews with the students corroborated the questionnaire results that lack ofvocabulary is the most common difficulty that the students have to face All of 5 students

in the interviews revealed that their fear and unconfidence when they speak English can beattributed to their lack of vocabulary items related to various topics 4 out of these 5students showed their worry about the bad pronunciation of themselves and theirclassmates 2 of them also explained that even the shortage of grammar knowledge causeproblems to them These difficulties can intrigue the teacher in the process of teachingspeaking skill The teachers certainly have to take their students‘ difficulties intoconsideration when they choose supplementary speaking materials so that such

materials can not only satisfy students‘ needs and interest but also help them overcome their problems.

3.1.2 The Evaluation of the Textbook “Let’s Talk 1”

3.1.2.1 The students and the teachers’ general evaluation of the content

of the textbook “Let’s Talk 1”.

Chart 3a & 3b Students and teachers’ general evaluation of the textbook’s content

As can be seen from chart 3a and 3b, the students and teachers generally sharedsimilar view about the textbook‘s content This statement is supported by more than half ofthe students (60 %) and 7 out of 12 teachers (58 %) reported that the textbook‘s content isfair It is not surprised that no one in both types of respondents evaluated the textbook‘scontent to be excellent 18 students and 3 teachers underestimated the content of thecurrently used textbook; On the contrary, 20 students and 2 teachers indicated thatgenerally, the content of ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ was good It can be inferred that although thebook is not a perfect choice, to both of the teachers and students, the textbook‘s content isacceptable Following is the detailed evaluation of both teachers and students about thetextbook‘s content which involves the speaking topics, speaking activities and the languageinput

3.1.2.2 The teachers and students’ detailed evaluation of the content of the textbook “Let’s Talk 1”.

When asked about their opinions regarding the textbook‘s content, participantsrated the measures on a 5-point Likert Scale—(1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree,

(3) undecided, (4) agree, or (5) strongly agree Table 1a, 1b and 1c shows the frequency and percentage of the student and teachers‘ opinions toward the textbook‘s content.

From table 1a, it can be inferred that both of the teachers and students satisfied withthe speaking topics of the textbook Two opinions related to the speaking topics receivedhighest positive response from the participants among 8 ones listed in the questionnaires.93.6 % of the students and 83 % of the teachers thought that the speaking topics wereinteresting Similarly, 82 % of the students and 92 % of the teachers agreed and stronglyagreed with the suitability of such speaking topics to students‘ English competence

A The speaking topics in the textbook are interesting

B The speaking topics in the textbook are appropriate to English proficiency level of students

Table 1a The detailed evaluation of the students and teachers about the speaking topics

in the textbook “Let’s talk 1”

On the other hand, from table 1b, it is shown that the three opinions about thelanguage input amount in the textbook ―Let‘s talk 1‖ agreed by the smallest number ofparticipants Regarding to the vocabulary input, although the majority of the students (86.5

%) and of the teachers (83 %) seemed to satisfy with the relevance and appropriateness ofthe vocabulary items to students‘ level, the above table indicates the biggest proportion ofthe students (91.5 %) and of the teachers (92 %) were against the opinion that each lessonsupplies students with enough vocabulary work to help them prepare their speaking

Regarding to the grammar input, 84% of the students and 75% of the teachers agreed andstrongly agreed with the clarity and the suitability to students level of the grammar work;however, most of the students and teachers (78.7% and 75% respectively) did not satisfywith the sufficiency of grammar work in this textbook Furthermore, the students andteachers shared similar evaluation of the pronunciation input in the textbook 93.6% of thestudents and 100%of the teachers responded that this textbook included no materials forpronunciation work.

D The vocabulary tasks are suitable for the students’ proficiency level

E There is enough grammar work to help the students prepare their speaking

F The grammar presentation at the grammar references at the end of the book are clear and suitable for the students’ proficiency level

G The textbook includes material for pronunciation work such as individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress and intonation

Table 1b The detailed evaluation of the students and teachers about the language input

in the textbook “Let’s talk 1”

The interview with 5 students reveals similar results Most of the students in theinterview reported that they liked the speaking topics; however, the language input was toosimple and boring 4 out of 5 students said that for each unit, the textbook supplied severalvocabulary items; however, it is not enough for them and they were still in dire need fornew words to help them express their ideas in the speaking activities 2 of the interviewedstudents revealed that the grammar presentation supplied by the textbook was clear andcomprehensible; however, very monotonous and simply in form of summarizing tables.These students expressed a desire for a more detailed grammar presentations as well asmore grammar practice to help them speak English with higher accuracy in each topic 4students in the interview showed their worry and nervousness about their pronunciation.They shared that even though they were learning pronunciation subject along withspeaking subject, they still wished to have some kind of pronunciation practice in speakinglessons, especially intonation practice These findings have shown that the students are notsatisfied with the sufficiency of the language input supplied by the textbook In otherwords, in terms of language input, this textbook fails to meet the needs of the students

Table 1c The detailed evaluation of the students and teachers about the speaking

activities in the textbook

Regarding to the speaking activities in the textbook, according to table 1c, theparticipants showed different opinion 27.6 % students perceived that the speakingactivities in the textbook are not various while 51.1% agreed with the variety of thespeaking activities in the textbook This difference in opinion may be resulted from thediversity in students‘ English competence Those students who are at lower level ofEnglish may feel satisfied with the speaking activities available in the textbook; howeverfor more able students might think such speaking activities are not enough When askedabout the motivation that the speaking activities give to them, except for 4 students having

no opinion, there were one half of the students reported that they cannot be motivated bythe speaking activities in the textbook whereas 43 out of 94 respondents agreed andstrongly agreed that the speaking activities can motivate them to talk more The resultsindicate that not all of the students satisfy with the speaking activities; perhaps becauseseveral of the students are more demotivated than the others, therefore the teachers have tothink carefully to adapt or supplement the speaking activities somehow to make them moreinteresting and attracting to the students

The teachers had more negative view about speaking activities than the students Asstated above, there are still a number of students showing their agreement with the varietyand suitability of the speaking activities whereas 7 out of 12 teachers (58%) declared theirdisagreement and strong disagreement with the diversity and appropriateness of thespeaking activities In parallel with the above finding, 83 % of the teachers did not thinkthat such speaking activities in the textbook could motivate their students to speak Englishmore In other words, a high number of the teachers feel dissatisfied with the speakingactivities available in the book Interestingly, one teacher even noted in ―others‖ optionthat the boredom and repetition of some speaking activities in some units were one ofcausative factors demotivating her students

With respect to pronunciation work in this textbook, unlike a majority of thestudents who, in the questionnaire and interview, showed their dissatisfaction with the lack

of pronunciation section in the book, most of the teachers saw no problem with this Eventhough the teachers all responded that the textbook did not address some pronunciation

aspect, it is interesting that 6 of them noted in the ―others‖ option that it was not necessaryfor the textbook to address some aspects of pronunciation because the students alreadylearn pronunciation separately as an independent subject.

3.3.3 The Attitudes and Preferences of Students and Teachers to the Use of Supplementary Materials in Speaking Lessons

3.3.3.1 The students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials in speaking lessons.

As illustrated in chart 4, almost of the participants responded to the use ofsupplementary materials in a favorable manner Except for 2 students giving no responses,

96 % of the students thought that it was necessary to use supplementary materials in theirspeaking lessons Similarly, all 12 teachers agreed with the use of supplementary materials

Chart 4: Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials

3.3.3.2 The preferences of the students and teachers to the use of supplementary speaking materials.

 The preference of when to use supplementary materials

Chart 5 Students’ and teachers’ preference of when to use supplementary materials

When asked about when would the students and teachers like supplementarymaterials to be used, the illustration in chart 5 clearly indicated both the students andteachers shared the same view on the favorable time of using supplementary materials 64

% of the students and 75 % of the teachers proposed that these materials should beassigned for students both at home and in class Other options including ―at home‖ and

―in class‖ were listed by a small number of respondents Only 13 % of the students and 8

% of the teachers suggested the ―at home‖ option while 23 % of the students and 17 % ofthe teachers preferred added materials to be used only in class The semi-structuredinterview with students corroborated the results of two sets of questionnaire results Most

of the students in the interview chose to use supplementary materials both at home and inclass They explained that this would increase the flexibility and comfort for both teachersand students and added that it depended on which aspects the supplementary materialsfocus on or on difficulty level that teachers wanted students to learn at home or in class.From this result, it is possible for the researcher to make final decision to assignsupplementary materials for students to work with both at home and in class

 The preferences of the students and teachers to which aspects should be

supplemented

The two sets of questionnaire also dealt with the issue of which aspects thesupplementary materials should focus on as perceived by both of the students and teachers

The result was highlighted in Chart 6 below (more than one option is acceptable; therefore,the results in the following tables are presented in percentage that the options are chosen).Firstly, it is worth noticing that the respondents only chose among five aspects in the listgiven by the researcher, not giving any further choice in the ―other‖ option As shown inChart 6, vocabulary is considered the top priority aspect that should have additionalmaterials as 91 % and 92 % of the students and teachers respectively chose this option.Besides, a high percentage of the students (60 %) and teachers (83 %) preferred to havesupplementary speaking activities Similarly, a large number of the students (76 %) andhalf of the teachers responded that the students should have grammatical supplementarymaterials This result is easy to understand, as stated above; most of the respondents werenot very satisfied with the amount of vocabulary items, grammar points in the textbook

―Let‘s Talk 1‖ Using supplementary materials is exactly a remedial action to limit suchweaknesses of the textbook ―Let‘s Talk‖

Despite several similarities in their perception of what should be supplemented,there is one noticeable difference in the preference of the students and teachers Aconsiderate number of the students want to have additional materials for pronunciation andintonation (61%), on the contrary, this aspect received little favor from the teachers Only 3teachers thought that their students should get this kind of supplementary materials Theoption of having supplementary materials about speaking topics is not a favor of bothstudents and teachers Only 5 students and 1 teacher chose this option These results areimportant for the teachers when selecting or designing supplementary materials in order tobalance between their own thoughts and beliefs with the needs and interests of theirstudents