Using stimulating activities to improve 10th form students english speaking skill a case study at thuan an upper secondary school in thua thien hue

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THANH BÌNH USING STIMULATING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE 10 TH FORM

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ THANH BÌNH USING STIMULATING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT THUAN AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THUA THIEN HUE ( Sử dụng những hoạt động khích lệ để nâng cao kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10: Một nghiên cứu điển hình tại Trường THPT Thuận An tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Code: 60 14 10Cohort: MA 17

HANOI ,SEPTEMBER, 2010

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ THANH BÌNH USING STIMULATING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE 10 TH FORM STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT THUAN AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THUA THIEN HUE ( Sử dụng những hoạt động khích lệ để nâng cao kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10: Một nghiên cứu điển hình tại Trường THPT Thuận An tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Code: 60 14 10Supervisor : Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

HANOI- 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

1.1.4 What a successfully speaking learner should do 7

1.2.2 Types of stimulating activities in teaching speaking skills 9

Chapter 2: The use of stimulating activities to improve 10 th form students’ 16

speaking skill at Thuan An USS

2.1.1 An overview of Thuan An Upper Secondary School 16

2.1.2 The English teaching and learning situation at Thuan An USS 16

2.1.2.1 Description of the students at Thuan An USS 17

2.1.2.2 Description of the teachers at Thuan An USS 17

2.2.1.2.3 Interview 21

3.1.1 Analyzing result of post-survey questionnaire 24

3.2.1 The use of three stimulating activities to intensify students‘ participation 33

3.2.2 The effectiveness of three stimulating activities used in class 34

3.2.3 The students‘ response on the use of three stimulating activities 34

PART C: CONCLUSION

2 Recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities in class 37

APPENDICES I

Appendix 5: Transcribe video taped lessons (Unit 12+ Unit 13) XIII

Table 1, 2, 3, 4: The students‘ attitudes towards the proposed stimulating activitiesTable 4, 5: The effectiveness of the stimulating activities used in 10A class

ABBREVIATIONS

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English Foreign Language

USS: Upper Secondary School

R: Researcher Ss: Students St: Student

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

1.1 Background of the study

After the historic upheaval, Vietnam‘s economy, politics and culture have beenundergone extensive changes Thanks to the open-door policy, Vietnam has diplomaticrelationship with countries all over the world English becomes an indispensable means ofcommunication with the rest of the world

It can be said that English is the most important international language because itprovides ready access to the world scholarship and world trade Since then English hasbecome a compulsory subject in Vietnamese curriculum, its teaching and learning have beenpaid much attention

The aims of foreign language instruction, especially English language instruction, iscommonly defined in terms of four essential skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking,

of which speaking is becoming the most important aspect in developing one‘scommunicative competence (Moore, 1992: 9)

However, in reality, the teaching and learning of English in Vietnamese high schoolshas encountered many difficulties in language proficiency, in speaking skills in particular

In 2006, a survey questionnaire was conducted in an upper secondary school in HoChi Minh City by Kim Lien with the title ―Why can‘t students speak English after sevenyears learning at high school?‖ In this survey, 86.6% of two hundred 12th graders believedthat they did not have the ability or the self-confidence to communicate in English Therewere many reasons for this but the most important one was the students‘ motivations andattitudes However, the survey pointed out that textbooks had contributed to the difficultiesexperienced when learning English At that time, they used the old series published in the1980s The out-of-date information made teachers and students bored with teaching andlearning In addition, the new policy of examinations focusing only on reading skills throughthe multiple-choice format discouraged students from paying much attention to speakingskills 52.1% of students in the survey said that they had hardly any speaking or listeninglessons and 44.4% of students said that they never had those lessons but practised grammarexercises and learning vocabulary instead However, that survey was carried out in 2006,when the new volume of English textbooks was not applied in high schools

introduced the new English textbook to high school students throughout the country Ingeneral, these new textbooks achieved the goal of teaching English through a communicativeapproach Each unit contains four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, withvarious interesting topics relevant to the age of the students The new textbooks have manyadvantages; however, they have been a challenge to the students In a recent survey of threehigh schools in Son La Province, Bui (2008) discovered a surprising statistic: less than 5%

of students earned good marks, even in the national graduation exams The main problemwas that the new textbooks were too difficult for them, with a large amount of newvocabulary In addition, many topics were remote from their daily lives and backgrounds,and were therefore difficult for learning English is limited since they have to spend moretime doing chores, such as planting maize, cassava, or gathering firewood

1.2 Reasons for the study

As a teacher of English at Thuan An Upper Secondary School in Thua Thien Hue, Ialso have the same difficulties I find the new textbooks more effective than the old ones thatwere used years ago However, my teaching seems to encounter a significant problem: thestudents do not pay much attention to their speaking skills, they usually keep quiet inspeaking lessons There may be two reasons for this One is that the semester and finalexaminations only focus on reading skills and the other is that their lack of backgroundknowledge

The first reason, which is a basic one for every high school student, is the motivationfor studying It is undeniable that passing examinations is one of the most importantmotivations in studying However, according to the policy from MOET, the semester andfinal examinations only focus on reading skills through the multiple-choice format Thegraduating student often has five other subjects in the examination, therefore they only payattention to practising reading skills and grammatical points as well as vocabularies andstructures Teachers of English themselves take advantage of the little time they have toprovide reading practice and help with solving problems in grammar exercises in order toachieve the short-term goal of passing the final examination

The lack of background knowledge is also a basic reason for students having poorspeaking skills Most students at my school received their primary and secondary education

at Phu Thuan and Phu Hai and a few of students came from Hue City These are the two

poorest coastal communes of Phu Vang District, Thua Thien Hue province, so the learningconditions are very poor and they are deprived of chances to speak English While most urbanstudents start learning English in primary schools, my students do not start until secondaryschools and then they learn in difficult conditions In addition, outside class time, thecommunicative environment in English is limited An annual survey in my school of Englishspeaking skills for the 10th graders has given a low result: more than 60% of students havedifficulties when answering simple questions about their names, addresses, age or their hobbies.

As a result, they feel scared of speaking English, of making mistakes, and of not conveying theirsentiments to listeners It indicates that my students have limited vocabulary They often usemother tongue Hence, most of the students are not confident to use English in speaking class.For instance, when I asks them to come forward to have a conversation with their friends, theyrefuse it They are shy to perform English conversation in front of their friends Thus, mostspeaking classes are monotonous and unsuccessful Sometimes, in speaking classes, I have toguide the ideas in Vietnamese, and then help the students translate the ideas into English Inreality, these classes are the most ineffective ones

With the above problems, teachers and learners often pay less attention to speaking skillsthan to the others As a result, the aim of the communicative approach, which the authorshave designed in the textbooks, is ineffective Short-term studying is another consequence ofthese attitudes, in which learners will only study for the reading and writing examinations Amore serious consequence is the unequal knowledge between the urban and rural students.Having poor English-speaking skills will inhibit the students‘ ability to communicate,consequently, they will be unable to obtain enough information and knowledge for globalintegration

Against the problems above, some stimulating activities should be used to overcomethem I am interested in applying these activities to improve the speaking skills of Thuan Anstudents in English classes based on the syllabus of MOET so that I will conduct theresearch entitled ―Using stimulating activities to improve 10th form students‘ Englishspeaking skills‖ My objective is to find the most effective ways of helping them toovercome the barrier of low self confidence when studying speaking skills I want to helpthem become familiar with English and to enjoy learning it more and more Furthermore,training cadres for coastal areas is the aim of Thuan An Upper Secondary School in ThuaThien Hue Province, so being good at English will be a gateway leading to opportunities towork with international projects for developing economics or cultures

The aims of the study are:

- To study the use of three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to intensify students‘ participation in speaking activities at Thuan An Upper Secondary School

- To suggest some recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities: games,video, role play to enhance their learners in speaking skills and develop communicative skills

3 Research questions

The study intends to find out the answers to the following questions:

3.1 What are stimulating activities?

3.2 To what extents are they effective?

4 Scope of the study

- The study only focuses on using three stimulating activities: games, video, role play toimprove English speaking skills for 10th form students at Thuan An Upper Secondary School inThua Thien Hue

- The reasons for choosing only three activities for 10th form students are as follows:

+ The students are not experiencing final examination pressures;

+ The topics in Tieng Anh 10 are still basic and simple;

+ The students have time to master speaking skills step by step and consider speaking

as an essential skill in an English learning

5 Significance of the study

5.1 Theoretical significance of the study

 Related to this research, it is hoped that this research can be used as a reference forother researchers who want to conduct a research on students‘ speaking skill using threestimulating activities: games, video, role play at upper secondary schools level

 The result of the research can be useful for English teacher in the use of three

stimulating activities: games, video, role play to improve the speaking skill

5.2 Practical significance of the study

There are some benefits for the teacher and the student:

 It will provide variations for other teachers in designing teaching English especially speaking skills for High School Students

 It will help the students to solve their problems in speaking skills

 The writer hopes that this research will benefit both the teaching and learning of English

A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods will be used for this research Thereason for this combination of the two methods is that because I will identify the problemsbased on data collected in questionnaires However, I will also have class observations andinterviews with 10A students of Thuan An Upper Secondary School in Thua Thien HueProvince.

7 Design of the study

The study is organized around three parts with three chapters:

Part A- Introduction- consists of background of the study, reasons for the study, aims of

the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, researchmethodology and design of the study

Part B- Development- is divided into three chapters:

Chapter 1 provides a review of related literature, in which the definition of speaking and

teaching speaking, factors affecting English speaking abilities and what a successfulspeaking learner should do are examined It also deals with stimulating activities whichconsists of definition, types of stimulating activities, and some items used as stimulatingactivities in speaking class as well as previous studies in teaching speaking skills

Chapter 2 presents the use of stimulating activities to improve 10th form students‘ speaking

skills at Thuan An Upper Secondary School It provides the current situation of teaching andlearning English speaking skills at Thuan An Upper Secondary School and a research on theuse of stimulating activities It gives research methodology which consists of researchquestions and participants of the study It also gives research instruments, data collectionprocedures, technique for analyzing data

Chapter 3 provides discusses the findings of the study, data analysis and findings through

an analysis of all data collected by means of classroom observations, post-surveyquestionnaires and individual interviews In this chapter, the writer describes the process ofteaching speaking through stimulating activities such as: games, video, role play at Thuan

An Upper Secondary School

Part C- Conclusion-summarizes the main points which have been explored in the study,

and made some recommendations on how stimulating activities should be used to improve

10th form students It also discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestionsfor further research

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS 1.1 General issues

As a way of start, I will first provide the notions of speaking, teaching speaking, factorsaffecting English speaking abilities and what a good speaking learner should do Then I willreexamine different types of stimulating activities the foreign teacher often uses to teach aspeaking class Detailed of these contents are presented in the sections that follow:

1.1.1 What is “speaking”?

There are many definitions of speaking According to Chaney, (1988:13) speaking is

―the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbalsymbols, in a variety of contexts‖ According to other researchers such as Brown (1994),Burn and Joyce (1997), speaking is ―an interactive process of constructing meaning thatinvolves producing and receiving and processing information‖ In a related study, Bygate(1987) had a detailed definition which states that ―speaking is the skill by which learnersare most frequently judged and through which they make and lose friends It is the vehiclepar excellence of social solidarity, social ranking, of professional advancement and ofbusiness It is also the medium through which much language is learnt‖

1.1.2 What is “teaching speaking”?

Nunan (2003) considered ―teaching speaking‖ as a way to teach ESL learners toproduce the English speech sounds and sound patterns It can help learners use word andsentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriatewords and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subjectmatter Teaching speaking aims to teach the learners how to organize their thoughts in ameaningful and logical sequence, how to use the language quickly and confidently with fewunnatural pauses, which is called fluency

1.1.3 Factors affecting English speaking abilities

There are many factors that influence the success or failure in learning English speaking.However, the three most important factors are motivation, attitude and learning strategies

Motivation is the first important factor affecting a language learner According toGardner (2001), motivation refers to the driving force in any situation In the socio-educational model, motivation to learn the second language is viewed as requiring threeelements First, the motivated individual expends effort to learn the language That is, there

is a persistent and consistent attempt to learn the material by doing homework, by seekingout opportunities to learn more, by doing extra work and so on Second, the motivatedindividual wants to achieve the goal Such an individual will express the desire to succeed,and will strive to achieve success Third, the motivated individual will enjoy the task oflearning the language Such an individual will say that it is fun, challenging, and enjoyable,even though at times enthusiasm may be less than at other times

Attitude is the second factor which has an influence on the language learning.Gardner and Lambert (1972) defined attitude as the persistence that a learner has to follow

an object Language learning attitude has a relationship to motivation Language learnerswho have extrinsic or intrinsic motivation will have the more positive attitude than thosewithout motivation or who consider language learning a compulsory subject

Within second or foreign language education, a number of definitions of languagelearning strategies have been used by key figures in the field Early on, Tarone (1983:67)defined a language learning strategy as ―an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguisticcompetence in the target language to incorporate these into one‘s interlanguage competence‖.Rubin (1987:22) later wrote that language learning strategies ―are strategies whichcontribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and affectlearning directly‖ In their seminal study, O‘Malley and Chamot (1990:1) defined languagelearning strategies as ―the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help themcomprehend, learn, or retain new information‖

1.1.4 What a successful speaking learner should do

A speaker‘s skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (VanDuzer, 1997) Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patterns ofspecific discourse situations They must also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking,rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns& Joyce, 1997) For example, a learnerinvolved in an exchange with a salesperson must know the usual pattern that such aninteraction follows and access that knowledge as the exchange progresses The learner mustalso choose the correct vocabulary to describe the item sought, rephrase or emphasize words

expressions to indicate satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service According to Brown(1994), other skills and knowledge that instruction might address include the following:

 Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the language;

 Using grammar structures accurately;

 Assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared knowledge orshared points of reference, status and power relations of participants, interest levels, ordifferences in perspectives;

 Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs;

 Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, or checking for listener comprehension;

 Using gestures or body language; and

 Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech

such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to

maximize listener comprehension and involvement

Teachers should monitor learners‘ speech production to determine what skills andknowledge they already have and what areas need development

1.2 Stimulating activities

As an attempt is made to answer the first research question: What are stimulating

activities? We will address the issues related to stimulating speaking activities Then in

answer, we will examine the concepts of stimulating, stimulating activities Finally, we willsuggest some requirements for using stimulating activities in language teaching classes.Otherwise, this chapter will find out the answer for the first research question

1.2.1 Definition: According to Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary, ―stimulating‖ is to

―make people feel enthusiastic; full of interesting or exciting ideas‖ (2005:1057) Up tonow, there is no definition of the researchers about ―stimulating activity‖ According toJeremy Harmer (2001), students need frequent changes of activities: they need activities thatare exciting and stimulating their curiosity: they need to be involved in something active.The span of concentration of our students is less Thus, we have to assign some interestingactivities to draw their attention

Hence, ―stimulating activities‖ are: ―Through a variety of fun, interesting and usefulactivities which are given by teachers may attract students‘ motivation, participation in thelearning process so as to stimulate students in the classroom communication includes:games, discussion, music, dramatic stories, role play and the etc‖ In English languageclassrooms, by using stimulating activities, the teacher is able to improve the students‘speaking ability because they are interesting techniques to apply in classroom The studentsbecome comfortable to speak everything and get opportunity to develop their communicativecompetence more freely In other words, stimulating activities can be considered effectivetools that teachers should benefit from to stimulate their students to raise much more voice inclass That is the new setting of a modern language classroom where students are the center

of attention in class

1.2.2 Types of stimulating activities in teaching speaking skills

Rudolph Kampmeier cited by Mc Connell (1987:1) argues that ―Teaching is a stimulatingactivity on the part of those who are service, since it provides the open mind with techniquesand advances to meet the challenges of the student‖

Thus, a number of classroom techniques such as role play, discussion, communication gamesand problem-solving, and using stories are recommended as appropriate to stimulate naturalcommunication by theorists such as Harmer (2001), Livingstone (1983), Littlewood (1981),Ladousse (1987), Ur (1981) In order to help students gain success in speaking, there aremany activities to stimulate students talk in speaking class as follows:

1.2.2.1 Role play

According to Stephen D Hattings (1993:165) based on his observation in the conversationclass, the role play would seem to be the ideal activity in which students could use theirEnglish creatively and it aims to stimulate a conversation situation in which students mightfind themselves and give them an opportunity to practice and develop their communicationskill

1.2.2.2 Simulations

For others, simulations stimulate student (Joan Andorfer, 2008) Burns & Gentry (1998) statethat the teacher must take on some additional responsibilities in role playing/ simulation Inparticular, the teacher must keep learners motivated by stimulating their curiosity andkeeping the material relevant, creating a "tension to learn"

According to Bang (2008:30) drama-oriented activities are capable of stimulating thelearners' interest in the English classroom by inducing them to invent a scenario, practice itsdiscourses, and express them both individually and collectively Stated simply, the activitiesencourage both teacher and student for creativity and spontaneity Through the dramaticactivities learners not only gain an understanding of grammatical structure in a context butalso experience the dynamic, and productive use of the language to influence, control,entertain, and inform, that is, as if in real communicative circumstances.

1.2.2.5 Short stories

Puji Rahayu (2008) claims that stories can help to stimulate students overall facility ofcreativity They contribute to multicultural awareness, tolerance and familiarity with eachothers beliefs Stories are akin to a magnet for students to be drawn to reading We canexploit the stories to get our students to practice the many language skills required for overallproficiency The subsequent sections illustrate how this may be done The aim of using thestories was not only to develop communicative ability in English, but also to introduceIslamic values to Indonesian students Teaching the past tense is very much aided by usinghistorical stories Biblical stories can be used with Christian pupils

1.2.2.6 Discussion

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students mayaim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussiongroups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set

by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students

do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things Hence, İsmailÇAKIR (2006) claims that ―Discussion stimulates communication among students, and it

helps to achieve communicative practice With this activity students have an opportunity to develop sharing and co-operative skills‖.

1.2.2.7 Video

It is universally recognized that videos as visual aids have a lot to contribute to the process oflanguage learning and teaching, combining education and entertainment Supporters agreethat videos stimulate student interest to acquire the target culture, as well as language (e.g.,Stempleski, 1992; Tomalin, 1992) Video is supposed to communicate meaning better thanany other media (Tomalin, 1992) Here it will be useful to look at the advantages of video inlanguage classes from different perspectives

1.2.3 Three most stimulating activities used in speaking class

There is a variety of stimulating activities to use in the teaching and learning process Eachstimulating activity has its own advantages and using the right activities in the right way toteach, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making theEnglish language classroom a fun and dynamic place In this study, in reality of my teachingand talking with my students the researcher suggests using some kinds of stimulatingactivities to intensify students‘ participation in speaking activities

1.2.3.1 Games

1.2.3.1.1 Definition

There are many definitions of the word game

A form of play or sport, especially a competitive one with rules (Pocket Oxford, 1992: 359)

An activity or sport involving skill, knowledge, or chance, in which you followed rules and try to win against an opponent or to solve a puzzle (Collins Cobuild, 1987: 596)

Moreover, some writers have defined a game as:

hidden processes underneath (Turtledove, 1996: 3).

An activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun (Hadfield, 1990: 5)

An agreeable way of getting a class to use its initiative in English and as it is gentlycompetitive, it increases motivation It is also a contrast to periods of intensive study(Haycraft, 1978: 94)

Thus, the definitions above —dictionaries and authors—have general similarities amongstthem, they coincide principally in three aspects: competition, rules and enjoyment:

Based on the concepts above, definition of game is considered a valuable technique,which includes three principal elements: competition, rule(s), and enjoyment, which should

be well established by a teaching-learning objective Any teacher would be able to use games

in order to increase the student‘s motivation towards the English language, at the same timethat students can better develop or improve his/her own abilities of learning

1.2.3.1.2 Advantages

The use of games in the classroom has many advantages Carrier (1980: 6) mentions some ofthem:

 ―Games give a variety of tools to facilitate the teaching-learning process‖;

 ―Games are flexible‖ ;

 ―Games make the lesson less monotonous‖;

 ―Games raise the students‘ motivation‖ ;

 ―Games make students produce language subconsciously‖ ;

 ―Games stimulate students‘ participation and give them confidence‖ ;

 ―Games transform the teacher‘s role from that of formal instructor to that of an

organizer or/and moderator of the class‖ ;

 ―Games can also serve as a testing mechanism‖

In conclusion, games can be used to give students enjoyment and useful practice in classes.More importantly, games provide an opportunity for real communication Games canincrease student-student communication, but reduce the teacher‘s domination of the

classroom Playing games also helps students build solidarity between all participants andapplaud each other‘s efforts to win This can be useful in reducing teacher-student distance.Hence, game or competition is stimulating activities to students because the more studentsenjoy, the more they learn.

1.2.3.2 Videos /DVDs in language teaching and learning

1.2.3.2.1 Videos/ DVDs as a language-visual aids

"English teachers all over the world cry out for materials which can make English comealive for their students TV, video, and the newer video-related technologies provide justsuch a resource " (Stempleski (1995:48) qtd in Lebedko)

It is universally recognized that videos as visual aids have a lot to contribute to the process

of language learning and teaching, combining education and entertainment Supporters agreethat videos stimulate student interest to acquire the target culture, as well as language (e.g.Stempleski, 1992; Tomalin, 1992) Video is supposed to communicate meaning better thanany other media (Tomalin, 1992) Here it will be useful to look at the advantages of video inlanguage classes from different perspectives

1.2.3.2.2 The advantages of videos /DVDs in language teaching

Jeremy Harmer (2001:282) claims that video has many advantages:

In conclusion, learners are extremely excited about the programs which combine foreignlanguage learning with entertainment By listening to English songs, watching films or

the foreign language environment naturally At the same time, they have a lot of fun, theystart finding out that learning English is far from boring but very easy and interesting withvideo programs which are specially designed for language learning purposes The learnershould want to see more to ask questions, to follow up ideas and suggestions By generatinginterest and motivation, video clips can create a climate for success learning Hence, video is

In this case, Gillian Porter Ladousse (1995:5) illustrated that when students assume a ‗Role‘,they play a part (either their own or somebody else‘s) in specific situation ‗Play‘ means that

is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as an inventive and playful aspossible

What is meant by imaginary people is that students can become anyone they like for a shorttime The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star…, the choice is endless Studentscan also take on the opinions of someone else 'For and against' debates can be used and theclass can be split into those who are expressing views in favour and those who are against thetheme

Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and practiced through roleplay in imaginary situations 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lostproperty' are all possible role-plays

From those explanation above, the writer views that role play is a technique which involvesfantasy or imagination to be someone else or to be ourselves in a specific situation for awhile, improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario It aims at the students toencourage thinking and creativity, lets students develop and practice new language andbehavioural skills in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can create the motivation andinvolvement necessary for learning to occur

1.2.3.3.2 Significance of role play in teaching speaking

It has been mentioned before that role play is one of the activities to promote speaking.Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling toothers by using words or sounds of articulation

Larsen Freeman (1986) explained that role plays are important in the communicativeapproach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in differentsocial contexts and different social roles

A role play is a highly flexible learning activity which has a wide scope for variation andimagination According to Ladousse (1995), role play uses different communicativetechniques and develops fluency in the language, promotes interaction in the classroom andincreases motivation Here peer learning is encouraged and sharing of responsibility betweenteacher and the learner in the learning process takes place

Role play can improve learners‘ speaking skills in any situation, and helps learners tointeract As for the shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask, where learners withdifficulty in conversation are liberated In addition, it is fun and most learners will agree thatenjoyment leads to better learning

Several reasons for using role play in teaching speaking quoted from Ladousse (1995) asfollows:

a A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom and we can train ourstudents in speaking skill in any situations through role play

b Role play puts students in situation in which they are required to use and develop thosephatic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, butwhich are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses

c Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives It is helpfulfor these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in thefriendly and safe environment of a classroom

d Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask

e Perhaps the most important reason for using role play is that it is fun

In conclusion, role play is a technique which can develops students‘ fluency in target

motivation and makes the teaching - learning process more enjoyable Therefore, role play is

a stimulating activity

1.2.4 Prior studies related to teaching speaking

In 1996, together with her colleagues, Tsui A carried out a study to find out thechallenges facing the teaching and learning of speaking skill The result of their researchshows that learners‘ low motivation is the big problem In the study, they also suggest someactions that teachers should take to improve their learners‘ motivation Some very effectivesolutions may be cited as follows: making instructional goals explicit to learners; breakinglearning down into different achievable steps; linking learning to the needs and interests oflearners; allowing learners to bring their own knowledge and perspectives into the learningprocess, etc

Recently, in their minor study, Julie Mathews-Aydinli and Regina Van Horne (2006)have pointed out that multilevel classes can prevent challenges to teachers, as it is verydifficult to design or organize speaking activities for many learners with different levels andinterests The suggested solutions are also presented in their study As for them, there aresome things that teachers should follow in order to promote success of multilevel classes notonly in speaking lessons but also in other ones The suggested solutions are:

(1) Assessing learners‘ needs to find out what learners need and want to learn;

(2) Planning parallel lessons for learners at different levels, then divide learners into pairs or groups to carry out different activities;

(3) Grouping strategies and purpose (determine when whole-group activities, small-group activities, pair work, and individual work are appropriate);

(4) Using native language to clarify instructions so that all students remain engaged or allowing learners to use native language to negotiate meaning when possible;

(5) Using project-based learning (learners are presented with a problem to solve or a product

to develop) and thematic instruction (work in groups based on their interests rather than theirEnglish proficiency levels);

(6) Using self- access material (teacher can keep a collection of self-access materials in their classrooms so that students can select materials and work individually)

1.3 Summary

The literature related to the topic of the thesis has been reviewed in this chapter It hasdiscussed the concepts and ideas concerning the issue of speaking in terms of speaking inlanguage learning Stimulating activities are chosen as a theme of this study as it is the mostfeasible factor that English teachers can intervene in their attempt to improve their students‘speaking skills The next chapter will report the use of stimulating activities to improve the

10th form students speaking skills at Thuan An USS

CHAPTER 2

ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT THUAN AN USS

In this chapter an attempt is made to carry out a small-scale research on the use ofstimulating activities to improve 10th form students‘ speaking skill at Thuan An USS As away of start, I will first provide the current situation of teaching and learning Englishspeaking skills at Thuan An USS Then I will present a small-scale research to find out theanswer to two research questions:

2.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English speaking skills at Thuan An USS

2.1.1 An overview of Thuan An Upper Secondary School

Thuan An Upper Secondary School is located in the centre of Thuan An seaport, PhuVang district, Thua Thien Hue and was established in 2000 It‘s not far from Hue city, about

10 km The school has 38 classes with over 1500 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12.The teaching staff composes of 105 teachers with 14 compulsory subjects, of whom one-third is young, creative and well trained whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic

2.1.2 The English teaching and learning situation at Thuan An USS

2.1.2.1 Description of the students at Thuan An USS

The majority of students in the study at Thuan An USS are aged from 15 to 16 Most

of the students come from communes in the district where there are very difficult situationsfor living and learning Most of their parents are fishers and farmers Their main work isdoing fishing and farming Some of them do not take good care of their children They havebeen learning since grade 6, a small number of students started in grade 1 to 5 coming fromHue City Therefore, their English proficiency is somehow better than student from ruralparts due to the availability of opportunities to attend part-time English courses and chances

to contact with English speaking people Among them, there are a few of students who arereally interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English By

contrast, the other part of students is lowly motivated They tend to regard English as lessimportant than other subjects and they study English in order to pass the examinations.Most students are, to some extent, good at grammar, but bad at listening and speakingthe target language They can do written exercises on English grammar accurately but theycan hardly communicate in English Using English to communicate is a big challenge formost of them who think that learning a foreign language means learning grammatical rules

or a list of irregular verbs As a result, they either keep silence all the time or do notparticipate in the speaking activities

2.1.2.2 Description of the teachers at Thuan An USS

If students are the most important factors in learning process, teachers are the mostimportant factors in the process of teaching and learning a target language To carry out thisprocess properly, the teachers need to have good experience of teaching and understanding

of the syllabus The staff of English teachers, the school has 10 English teachers consisting

of 1 male and 9 females are aged from 23 to 40 Most of them graduated from Hue College

of Pedagogy and they are active, hard-working, kind-hearted and enthusiastic in working Ofthe 10 teachers, there is 1 teacher who got M.A degree at College of Foreign Languages,Hue University At present, there are 4 teachers studying M.A course, 1 from Faculty ofPost- Graduate Studies, Hanoi National University, and the other 3 from College of ForeignLanguages, Hue University The youngest teacher finished university last year, so she hasnearly one-year teaching experience The oldest has 18-year teaching experience They havemany chances to study when they attend the annual workshops for English teachers, whichare held by Thua Thien Hue Department of Education and Training, or by the BritishCouncil

2.1.2.3 The syllabus

At Thuan An Upper Secondary School, English is one of the compulsory subjects in thecurriculum and it is the subject which students have to pass at the national examination bythe end of grade 12th to be qualified for the secondary school diploma The syllabus and thenew textbooks for English including ―English 10‖, ― English 11‖, ―English 12‖ are thecontinuation of that of the textbooks at secondary schools and are prescribed by the Ministry

of Education and Training in 2006 which regarded as updated but very difficult ones Thesyllabus is designed to bring students the following objectives:

After finishing high school, students are able:

 To acquire listening comprehension skill at a simple level of the topics they havelearnt;

 To exchange information of English at a simple level about the situations

relating to the topics they have learnt;

 To understand the main ideas of reading texts in the area of personal interests,social issues, cultural issues, scientific and technical issues on the basic of the knowledge theyhave learnt (accompanying with meaning deducing and dictionary consulting);

 To write a series of sentences about personal details, things and topics they are familiar with; and

 To write paragraphs (of about 100-150 words) of the topics they have learnt

2.1.2.4 The English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

The new English textbook ―Tieng Anh 10‖ (the set of standard textbooks) was written by agroup of textbook compilers: Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh et aland was published in 2006 The syllabus of the textbook ―Tieng Anh 10‖ is the continuation

of those textbooks at secondary schools ―Tieng Anh 10‖ textbook consists of sixteen unitsfor two terms Each unit focuses not only on four different language skills: reading,speaking, listening and writing but also such language elements as pronunciation, grammarand vocabulary

English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 150periods, 3 periods per week Each period is 45 minutes long

The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Thuan

An Upper Secondary School is ―English 10‖ which was designed under theme- based approachwith 16 topics corresponding with 16 units Each unit is about a theme There are 5 parts in eachunit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which avariety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice Also, there exist a ―Test yourself‖ afterevery 3 units The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved inthe previous units The ―Test yourself‖ is constructed as follows: Listening, Reading,Pronunciation and Grammar According to the Ministry of Education and Training (2005: 19-25), by the end of the 10th form students should be able:

 To listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialoguewith the length of 120- 150 words of the topics they have learnt Understand texts that aredelivered at a slow speed;

 To ask and answer and exchanging information in English at a simple level about thesituations relating to the topics they have learnt Perform some basic language functions such asgiving instructions, expressing opinions, asking direction, asking and giving information, etc;

 To comprehend passages of appropriately 190-230 words about the topics they havelearnt Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail Develop vocabularycomprehension: gap-filling, matching, synonym/ antonym, etc; and

 To write texts (of about 100-120 words) relating to the topics based on models or prompts for personal or basic communicative purposes

Speaking lesson is the second one in each unit introduced just after the reading lesson Thesespeaking lessons are under the tendency theme-based and task-based approaches In general,the textbook provides students with a variety of topics and speaking activities with the aim

of helping students improve their speaking skill To be more specific, some of the topics are

of the students‘ interest such as talking about an excursion (Unit 6) or talking about music(Unit 12), etc However there are some speaking topics that are unfamiliar and far from thestudents‘ background knowledge such as talking about the mass media (Unit 7), talkingabout advantages and disadvantages of zoos (Unit 10) Consequently, the students will losetheir interest during the lesson Therefore, stimulating activities should be exploited tomotivate students in these speaking lessons

2.1.2.5 Classroom facilities

At Thuan An Upper Secondary School, English teaching and learning activities aremostly carried out inside the classrooms which are designed for lecture lessons It means thatthe seats are arranged orderly in front of the teacher in rows and classroom equipment is just

a chalkboard and a cassette recorder

In terms of class size: There are 40 students in each class It is not easy to carry out acommunicate task in a mixed-ability and large class Firstly, applying a new method in bigclass size is very hard such as conducting communicative activities in classroom For a bigclass size, I can not organize pairs work and groups work successfully when the tables inrows seem immovable Moreover, it is really difficult for me to control or carry outclassroom activities suitable for all class members as well as helps them involve to their

learning more effectively In reality, in big class size, learners don't have much time topractice and give their ideas in front of class So, teachers will not make them develop theirlearning abilities The focus on creating a communicative environment also means that there

is lot of unavoidable noise in the classroom Though this noise is claimed to be positive andnecessary for a communicative classroom, it affects the learning of next-door class

Secondly, when employing an innovation in teaching and learning, the lack ofequipments and facilities is a big problem for colleagues in general and for me in particular

In my school, equipments and facilities are inadequate such as lack of TV set, videotape,laboratory, headphone/microphone and projector and internet The school has one languagelab with two overhead projectors, two LCD projectors and 4 cassette recorders for 10teachers, but the teachers hardly use them as teaching aids except cassette recorders because

of two reasons: First, these teaching aids are not enough if many classes want to use them atthe same time For example: no much projector to use power point for teaching English moreeffectively, no TV set and videotape for them to practice English skills through film, dailycommunicative situations, etc Second, most of the teachers are not used to using andexploiting modern teaching visual aids such as LCD projector or computer except somespecial days such as: Teachers‘ Day, Women‘s day, Observation, Demonstration Teaching.The materials for reference and self- study at Thuan An library are not many English books.English newspapers and magazines, which are good sources of current target language, arenot available These are the reasons I think that they effect on our teaching a lot

2.2 A RESEARCH ON THE USE OF STIMULATING ACTIVITIES

2.2.1 Research Methodology

As discussed in the rationale for the present research, the aim of this study is to tackle someissues that are not yet fully addressed in the use of three stimulating activities in EFLteaching in Thuan An Upper Secondary School For such purpose, a case study is designed

to answer two research questions

2.2.1.1 Participants of the study

My research was conducted with Thuan An Upper Secondary School Grade 10th students inthe second semester 2009-2010, who were aged between 15 and 16 For most students thiswas their fourth year of learning English and there were 40 students in 10A class The schoolwas located in Thuan An town, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue Most of them were good

at grammar but bad at speaking because my students have limited vocabulary and they oftenuse mother tongue Hence, most of the students are not confident to use English in speakingclass Moreover, there was no oral exam at the final examination Forty focal students fromthis class were participated in this study, eighteen boys and twenty two girls.

2.2.1.2 Research instruments

In order to carry out this research, I used different types of research instruments such asclassroom observations, questionnaires, classroom activities, and interview to the students.Using various types of research instruments will bring many advantages:

2.2.1.2.1 Classroom observation

The researcher observes and teaches in the classroom of 10A students at Thuan An UpperSecondary School The researcher only observed students in a class to find out the students‘response, their bravery, participation and everything which is found during the teaching andlearning process using stimulating activities (games, video and role play)

2.2.1.2.2 Questionnaire (1) can be conducted on a small scale with 40 participants in a

certain period of time, (2) simplifies the collection of figures and information, (3) respectsthe rule of anonymity in order to help participants give their opinions freely, (4) gives theresearcher time for analysing the data and ideas to bring out the judgments, and (5) is thebase step for the interviews afterwards

2.2.1.2.3 Interview is the stage following on from the questionnaire but is based on a

selection of typical research subjects In the interview, the questions can be open in order togive the researcher a chance to allow an interviewee to develop and elaborate on his ideas

As a result, the researcher can explore a new avenue of research but respect the theme of thequestionnaire and the research Moreover, an interview can create a chance for theinterviewer and the interviewee to share ideas expansively and cooperatively, without anyimposition as in a questionnaire

2.2.2 Data collection procedures

Data have very important role in a research, because without data it is impossible to getresult of the research There are some methods of collecting data They are observation,interview, document and test To obtain the data, the research has to use the followinginstruments:

2.2.2.1 Stimulating activities

I selected two topics from two units from English 10 (basic) and used some stimulatingactivities for each They were designed carefully on Power Point software The firststimulating activities were about Unit 12 which talks about music The second stimulatingactivities were based on Unit 13, where the topic was about films and cinema Eachstimulating activity required the students to do a task of some kind For example, forstimulating activity 1, I used Shack attack game, the Ss choose a letter on the screen fromletter A to letter Z If Ss choose a right letter, Ss will have a present If Ss choose a wrongletter, the shark will attack them (See Appendix 6)

2.2.2.2 Classroom observations through computer: Video taped speaking lesson

The writer, who was also the teacher of the class, does the observation directly towardteaching speaking learning-process in 10A class at Thuan An Upper Secondary School in thesecond semester 2009-2010 from 10 March 2010 to 23 March 2010 In this research, thewriter acts as an active observer The writer interacts with the students as well as the teacher

In this case, the writer of class video taped speaking lessons to find out the students‘response, their bravery, participation and everything which is found during the teaching andlearning process using stimulating activities (games, video and role play) The writerrecorded the learners as they worked on the speaking tasks for each stimulating activity(games, video and role play) then transcribed videotaped speaking lessons what they said(See Appendix 5)

2.2.2.3 Post-survey questionnaire for students

This kind of survey includes 6 questions was written in Vietnamese to make sure thatstudents understood all questionnaire items They were dispensed to 40 students from 10Aclass This class was chosen to do the piloting procedure All the forms were returned (SeeAppendix 1)

The survey for students focus on investigating the following issues:

 The students‘ attitudes towards the proposed stimulating activities (games, video androle play): the issue is aimed at examining whether the students can understand the activities and

if the activities are suitable to their levels

 The effectiveness of the activities when being experimented in class: the issueinvestigates the students‘ comments on the effectiveness of the activities in helping

students to check the students‘ confidence and the willingness in using the target language as well as developing their communicative skills.

2.2.2.4 Post-observation interviews

Interviews are a useful strategy for finding out what individuals feel and prefer (Cohen et al.,2000) I interviewed the learners in Vietnamese to make it easier for them to express theiropinions The interviews were done individually, as soon as possible after two lessons weretaught The interview was done on a face-to-face and one-on-one basis Each intervieweewas asked 4 questions:

1 Do you like three stimulating activities: games, video and role play in these lessons? Why? Or why not?

2 Do you think three stimulating activities: games, video and role play help you in yourlearning of English? If yes, in what way? If not, please tell me your reasons

3 Do you have any problems in speaking lessons when your teacher uses three

stimulating activities: games, video and role play?

4 Do you have any obstacles during the use of three stimulating activities: games,

video and role play in speaking class?

I did not audio record the learners‘ answer but wrote them down word for word and then translated them into English

2.2.3 Technique for analyzing data

The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively The results were presented innumbers and percentage and analyzed with the help of quantitative approach There are all 6tables which were displayed The six tables perform the statistic data of the students‘attitudes towards three stimulating activities: games, video and role play and theeffectiveness of the activities when being experimented in 10A class The qualitative datafrom classroom observations and interviews were analyzed both descriptively andinterpretively and then transcribed to find out the students‘ response, their bravery, theirparticipation and to confirm the students‘ attitude toward the technique of teaching speaking

by using three stimulating activities during the English lessons

2.3 Summary

In this chapter, I made a study on the current situation of teaching and learning Englishspeaking skills and the methodological framework and a description of the instruments for

data collection of the study; and the next part, which are the most important in this study, present the findings of the study as well as the discussion of the results of these findings.

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, we will analyze the students‘ attitudes toward the proposed stimulatingactivities and the effectiveness of three stimulating activities used in class, the students‘response, their bravery, participation and everything which is found during the teaching andlearning process using three stimulating activities based on post-survey questionnaire forstudents, classroom observations and post-observation interview Then we will discuss theuse of three stimulating activities technique to intensify students‘ participation in speakingactivities, the effectiveness of three stimulating activities used in class and the students‘response on the use of three stimulating activities presented in chapter 2 Details of thesecontents will be presented in the sections that followed:

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Analyzing result of post-survey questionnaire

After observing the three stimulating activities: games, video and role play, the researchergave a survey for 40 students with some questions about their attitudes toward the proposedstimulating activities and the effectiveness of the activities when being experimented in class

Findings 1: From the students’ survey

Table 1: Question 1: Are the activities easy to understand?

Degree Number of respondents Percentage (%)

designed activities with completely 100% of the choice for ―easy‖ degree This may result

from the visual characteristic of the stimulating activities

Table 2: Question 2: Are the activities suitable in comparison with your level?

Degree Number of respondents Percentage (%)

(No./40)

It is revealed from the figures in Table 2 show that there is 100% of the respondents agree

that the piloted activities are suitable in comparison with the students‘ level This can be seen

as a great effort of the researcher in making the activities easy for students to participate in

Table 3: Question 3: Are the activities interesting and attractive?

Degree Number of respondents Percentage (%)

(No./40)

Another criterion of an effectiveness design is the interest and attract of the activities If

students are really interested, they will pay much attention and get involved in the

presentations The statistic showed in Table 3 indicates that most of the presentations the

students participated in are interesting and attractive (97.5%) This can be seen as a great

success of the designer in the modification process in order that the designs become

interesting and attractive

Table 4: Question 4: Are the activities new and creative?

(No./40)

New and creative 37 92.5%

As for most of the investigated students (92.5%), the piloted activities are really new andcreative It means that students hadn‘t had many chances to take part in the stimulatingactivities like these ones

Table 5: Question 5: Are the activities useful for you to make you more confident and feel motivated when learning English?

Degree Number of respondents Percentage (%)

Table 6: Question 6: Are you willing to participate in other activities like this one? If yes, how often?

Degree Number of respondents Percentage (%)

(No./40)