The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill ( a classroom action research at grade nine of oxford center)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT TRẦN THỊ HẢO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEBATE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUD

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

TRẦN THỊ HẢO

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEBATE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT GRADE NINE OF OXFORD CENTER)

Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy khả năng nói của học sinh (Một nghiên cứu hành động ở học sinh khối 9 tại

trung tâm Oxford)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

TRẦN THỊ HẢO

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEBATE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT GRADE NINE OF OXFORD CENTER)

Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy khả năng nói của học sinh (Một nghiên cứu hành động ở học sinh khối 9 tại

trung tâm Oxford)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan PhD

HANOI - 2015

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “Theimplementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill (Aclassroom action research at grade nine of Oxford center)” is the result of my ownwork for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and InternationalStudies, Hanoi National University The material in this thesis has not beensubmitted for assessment in any other courses of study

Hanoi, November 2015Signature

Trần Thị Hảo

I am, first of all, greatly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Ms Mai Thi Loan,for encouraging me to complete this work Without her valuable instructions,comments, criticisms and corrections, this research would have been madeimpossible

My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to all my colleagues,students at Oxford Center who have stimulated and guided my thinking during thetime I did this research

Last but not least, I owe a big debt to my loved family who always stand by

me as well as give me strength and encouragement during my course and during thetime I fulfilled the research

There is no doubt that speaking skill is one of the essential skills in teachingand learning English Nowadays, a lot of students have difficulty in learningspeaking skill From this fact, the thesis was conducted to evaluate whether theactivity called “debate technique” could help the student improve their speakinglevel The material that the researcher chose was “Solutions – IntermediateStudent’s book” This book is in current use for the grade nine at Oxford center

The data collection instruments employed in this study were tests (pre-testand post-test), questionnaire for students and questionnaire for teachers These testshelped researcher to find out how far the implementation could help studentsimprove their speaking skill In addition, the questionnaires helped the author findout the effective ways that debate technique should be conducted

Research findings have indicated that after applying debate technique, thestudents’ speaking score increased significantly Based on the findings, thesuggestions would be given for better application of the use of debate technique inspeaking lessons

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Chart 1: Raw marks in speaking test (pre-test) 22

Chart 2: Raw marks in speaking test (post-test) 24

Chart 3: Students’ attitude towards debate technique 26

Chart 4: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the implementation of debate technique 27

Chart 5: Steps students follow during speaking lessons 28

Chart 6: Students’ favorite debate style in speaking lessons 29

Chart 7: Teachers’ frequency of implementing debate technique to teach speaking skill32 Chart 8: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the use of debate technique 33

Chart 9: Teachers’ choice about debate style in speaking lessons 34

Chart 10: The steps that teachers conduct a debate activity 34

Table 1: Frequency distribution (pre-test) 22

Table 2: Mean and Std Deviation (pre-test) 23

Table 3: Frequency distribution (post-test) 24

Table 4: Mean and Std Deviation (post-test) 25

Table 5: The effectiveness of debate technique in speaking lessons 30

TABLE OF CONTENT

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of charts and tables v

Table of content vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Methods of the study 2

7 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Concept of speaking 4

1.1.1 Definition of speaking 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of a speaking lesson 5

1.2 Concept of debate 7

1.2.1 Definition of debate 7

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using debate technique in speaking 8

1.3 Previous study 9

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 11

2.1 Research method 11

2.1.1 Overview of action research 11

2.1.2 Rationale for the use of an action research 12

2.2 Description of the context of the research 12

2.2.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at Oxford center 12

2.2.2 The teaching program and material 13

2.3 Description of the research 14

2.3.1 Participants 14

2.3.2 Data collection instruments 14

2.3.2.1 Tests 14

2.3.2.2 Questionnaires 14

2.4 Data collection procedures 15

2.5 Data analysis method 16

2.6 The use of debate technique in the speaking lessons 17

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 Tests 19

3.1.1 Aim 19

3.1.2 Participants 19

3.1.3 Test description 19

3.1.4 Data analysis and finding 22

3.1.4.1 Pre-test 22

3.1.4.1.1 Frequency distribution 22

3.1.4.1.2 Correlation 23

3.1.4.2 Post-test 24

3.1.4.2.1 Frequency distribution 24

3.1.4.2.2 Correlation 25

3.2 Questionnaire for students 26

3.2.1 Aims 26

3.2.2 Participants 26

3.2.3 Data analysis 26

3.2.3.1 Students’ attitude towards debate technique 26

3.2.3.2 The improvement of students’ speaking skill after they had been taught through implementation of debate technique 27

3.2.3.3 Steps students follow during speaking lessons 28

3.2.3.4 Students’ favorite debate style in speaking lessons 29

3.2.3.5 The effectiveness of implementation of debate technique in speaking lessons .30 3.2.3.6 Some disadvantages of implementation of debate technique in speaking

3.3 Questionnaire for teachers 32

3.3.1 Aims 32

3.3.2 Participants 32

3.3.3 Data analysis 32

3.3.3.1 Teachers’ frequency of implementing debate technique to teach speaking skill .32

3.3.3.2 The improvement of students’ speaking skill after they had been taught with the use of debate technique 33

3.3.3.3 Teachers’ choice about debate style in speaking lessons 34

3.3.3.4 The steps that teachers conduct a debate activity 34

3.3.3.5 Difficulties when designing a speaking lesson with implementation of debate technique 35

PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 36

1 Recapitulation 36

2 Implications 36

3 Limitations of the research 38

4 Suggestions for further studies 38

References 39 Appendix 1 I Speaking test (pre-test) I Appendix 2 V Speaking test (post-test) II Appendix 3A: Survey questionnaire for students III Appendix 3B: Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy kĩ năng nói của học sinh V Appendix 4: Survey questionnaire for teachers VII Appendix 5: A sample lesson plan VIII Appendix 6: The formula of mean, standard deviation and median X

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

English is considered a compulsory subject in almost schools in Vietnam fromprimary schools to universities and has gained its significance among variousforeign languages in the world One of the main goals when teaching a foreignlanguage (FL) now is to promote students’ communicative competence especially inthe context of industrialization and modernization

The communicative competence is carried in both oral and written form;however, in many aspects of life, “speaking is the process of building and sharingmeaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbol in a variety of context”(Chancy, 1998:13) A good oral communicative competence may be paid moreattention to than written ability It is obvious that being able to speak English bringsmore opportunities for students in their study as well as in the future careerprospect At Oxford Center, the students are taught four skills: reading, writing,listening and speaking skill The problem is that, due to the demand ofexaminations, students’ focus is on grammar and when being transferred to the highschool, students may lack speaking skill which is one of the most important areas inlearning English Students also may have some difficulties in communicating usingEnglish such as fears of public speaking or being passive in speaking lessons and so

on It is really important for the teacher to find out the effective techniques to helpstudents improve speaking skill

There are several techniques to be used to teach speaking skills One of thetechniques in teaching speaking skill is debate technique It is seen as an activelearning process because students will learn more through a process of constructingand creating, working in a group and also sharing knowledge

Based on the explanation above, the researcher decides to conduct a research

on “The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill.”

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at applying debate technique to improve the students’ speaking skill To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to:

- To measure the improvement of students’ speaking skill after the

implementation of debate technique

- To find out the effective ways of using debate technique to teach speaking skill for Oxford Center’s students

3 Research questions

In order to reach the above aims and objectives, the study is going to seek answers for the following research questions:

 How far does the use of debate technique improve the students’ speaking skill

at the grade nine of Oxford Center?

 How should the debate technique be implemented to improve the students’ speaking skill?

4 Scope of the study

The theory of English teaching speaking is complex comprising a number ofcomponents However, the research focuses on the implementation debate technique

to improve the students’ speaking It was conducted among nine-grade students atOxford Center

5 Significance of the study

In terms of theory, the author expected to contribute the effective ways toteach English speaking skill The study is hoped to raise teachers’ awareness of theimplementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill In terms ofpractice, the findings of this study can be used as a reference for teachers of English

in general and teachers at Oxford Center in particular to improve their teaching

6 Methods of the study

The data serving the research analysis and discussion will be collected by means of:

- Pre-test and post-test for both experimental and control groups;

- A survey questionnaire for experimental group;

- A survey questionnaire for teachers of English at Oxford Center

7 Design of the study

The study will be divided into three parts:

Part 1: Introduction shows rationale, aims, objectives, research questions,

scope, significance, methods and design of the study

Part 2: Development includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review deals with some theoretical background of

teaching and learning speaking, knowledge of debate and previous studies

Chapter 2: Research methodology focuses on the research method-action

research, action research procedure for this study, the current situation of teachingand learning at Oxford Center, participants of the study, data collection instrumentsand data collection and analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Data analysis

This chapter provides an analysis of the collected data in the action stage: tests( pre-test and post-test), questionnaires for students and questionnaire for teachers

Part 3: Recommendations and conclusion summaries the results of the

study Recommendations and limitations of the study are also pointed out Finally,some suggestions for further studies are presented

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Concept of speaking

1.1.1 Definition of speaking

Some people may think that speaking competence is the product of languagelearning; however, speaking becomes an essential factor of the language learningprocess besides listening, reading and writing According to Florez (1999:98),speaking is an interactive process which students produce and receive information

to create the meaning Bailey (2003:7) also defined speaking is the productive aural/oral skill which contains the systematic verbal utterances production in order toconvey the meaning It can be understood in a simple way that speaking is thecapable of speech using language to express or exchange thoughts among people(Mart, 2012:12)

Speaking is not a simple skill; it requires the experience and practice with theother language skills According to Thornbury (2005:78), second language speaking

is different from first language speaking due to the lack of vocabulary and grammarknowledge of learners; the process of arranging grammar and words which is notautomatic in producing second language Speaking is defined as a complex process

of exchanging thoughts not only by using verbal expressions but also non-verbalsymbols such as gestures, body language and facial expressions From thecommunicative point of view, Harmer (2001:23) stated that speaking has variousaspects including two major categories, namely accuracy and fluency Accuracy isthe correspondence between students’ speech and what they actually say when usingthe target language (Bailey, 2003); and the correct use of vocabulary, grammar,pronunciation practiced through guided activities (Harmer, 2001) Fluency is theability to maintain speaking confidently with few hesitations or unnatural pause,false starts, word searches and so on (Bailey, 2003)

In short, speaking competence happens when the speakers have ability tocommunicate by exchanging the information accurately and fluently with suitableselection and use of vocabulary and structures Generally, speaking is the ability toexpress something in spoken language by arranging ideas into words so that peopleunderstand the message conveyed (Al-Tamimi & Attamimi, 2014) In this study, theterm speaking is one of the four skills related to language learning and teaching.

1.1.2 Characteristics of a speaking lesson

Florez (1999:108) provided a general outline of a speaking lesson followingfive patterns of preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and extension In thefirst step of preparation, teachers have to create a speaking context and emphasizethe awareness of speaking skills which is focused; for example, asking forclarification, stressing key words or word form reduction In presentation step,teachers can model a speech which will be the target for the lesson and makelearners become more attentive when observing the use of language produced by theteachers Practice stage requires all students to participate in controlled and guidedactivities using the target structures Students may be asked to monitor and assesstheir own work in terms of skills being examined in evaluation step And finally,extension involves activities requiring students to combine the new skill or strategywith what they have acquired, or using the target skills in a different context or realcommunicative situation

As mentioned above, speaking is not only one of four important skills inlanguage learning process but also becomes an advantage for learners in social lifewhen applying for a job, for instance To master a second language, students shouldbecome a good speaker who meets the demand of two criteria- accuracy andfluency; thus, they should be taught speaking activities which are organizedappropriately to help them achieve the aim Therefore, characteristics of a speakinglesson have been studied so that teachers can follow and limit the shortcomingsaffecting students’ speaking competence According to Ur (2000:87), five features

of a good speaking lesson are following:

 Students talk a lot

Study showed that teacher-dominated classroom talk is considered one type ofunequal power discourse (Bailey, 2003:67) However, classroom activities must bedesigned in such ways that most of the time assigned is captured by learners withnot too much teachers’ talk or pause Teacher talks too much, which becomes theargumentative issue among teachers when teaching the second language They alsosuggested finding the root of the problem and starting from there; for example, due

to the different cultures or the lack of motivation to speak in class One furtherinteresting point given by Bailey (2003:68) is that students can play different roles

of a teacher when the teacher is eliminated from the conversation Thus, teachersshould give students their own power in some situations such as deciding the topics,asking questions or even giving feedback

 All students get equal opportunity to speak

Some teachers may have a bad habit of calling talkative students to make aspeech while ignoring the other passive ones Students who have fears of publicspeaking may depend on the dominant students in class, especially in group workactivities; so they have fewer chances to talk However, a good speaking lessonmeans that participation is even, which the minority of active students should notdominate classroom discussion and contributions must be reasonably distributed

 Students are highly motivated

The role of motivation is mentioned in the definition section that it becomes anessential factor in course design Macnamara (1971:112) confirmed that “theessential difference between a classroom and the street as a place to learn alanguage is motivation” (Rubin, 1975:43) A speaking class should be the placewhere students are motivated to talk as much as possible After finishing a lesson,students have willingness to communicate, which makes the lesson becomesuccessful Hence, motivation turns to a characteristic of a speaking lesson and has

an intimate relation with speaking activities

 Language used is comprehensible

Speaking is not only transferring messages to other people but also iscommunication To make it as communication, language should be used explicitlytogether with fluency and accuracy so that the information can be conveyedeffectively Bailey (2003:98) pointed out that learners at the beginning andintermediate levels must be given opportunities to improve their fluency andaccuracy

 Students talk in the target language

Cole (1998:145) showed that there are very few reasons for using mothertongue during language speaking activities It is suggested that first language shouldnot be used when teachers give the instructions of the exercises or games which arenot too complicated In addition, teachers should not use the first language inpronunciation except for explaining abstract words The ability to define words anddescribe things using target language is considered a useful tool that languagelearners should master Therefore, teachers need to try hard and encourage students

to speak in foreign language during speaking lessons

From my point of view, one speaking lesson should have five patterns ofpreparation, presentation, practice, evaluation and extension These steps should beincluded in a speaking lesson so that the teachers can follow and limit theshortcomings affecting students’ competence

1.2 Concept of debate

1.2.1 Definition of debate

A debate has been described as a form of argument that “has strict rules ofconduct and quite sophisticated arguing techniques” (ACT Debating Union Inc.1996) It must have a topic that has scope of argument, i.e there must be at least twosides of the topic

According to Mabrur (2002:5), debate is technique which involves two ormore speakers, discussing certain topics; giving their opinions, thoughts and facts;then giving respond to relevant questions of comments from others in the class

Havorsen (2005:8) said that debate forces students to think about the multiple sides

of an issue and it also forces them to interact not just the details of a given topic, butalso with one another Debate can be implemented as the alternative way to teachspeaking Debate is different from other techniques In debate, the students aregiven some topics to be discussed One or among students of them present theiropinions and facts concerning the topics The next step, he gives responses to thequestions and comments from his friends in the class

In my opinion, debate or debating is a formal method of interactive andrepresentational argument This technique involves at least two speakers whodiscuss about certain topics and give their ideas about certain ones

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using debate technique in speaking

There are a lot of researches discussing about the advantages and disadvantages

of using debate technique in speaking lessons It cannot be denied that debate bringscertain benefits for students and teachers Debating is a teaching strategy that provides

a framework for students to explore and develop a range of views over an issue.According to Halvorsen (2005: 98) debate encourages students to:

 Improve the quality of their responses as they are provided with thinking time and they can build upon their own ideas

 Stay on task as they have to present their ideas and listen to their peer

 Present their views to an authentic audience

 Develop co-operative learning skills

 Develop research skills

 Formulate an argument

 Explore a variety of views

Krieger (2005:76) acknowledged the usefulness of debate in language learningbecause it “engages students in variety of cognitive and linguistic ways” Teachersoften use the debate to effectively increase students’ involvement and participationduring sessions

However, debate technique also has some disadvantages in speaking lessons.According to Halvorsen (2005: 98), the weaknesses of debate implementation are:

 Debate is only used for certain subjects especially in speaking subject

 The implementation of debate needs long time

 Debate can make the students emotional in defending their argument Sometimes,they are very emotional in expressing their argument; moreover, if they must defend theirstand or opinion which is in contradiction with theirs

 Teachers get difficulties in controlling the debate complementation

It is my belief that debate technique has several significant advantages It canhelp the students develop their co-operative skills, research skills and build theirown ideas However, debate technique also has some shortcomings such asdifficulty to apply in certain topics, long time to implement, etc In summary, theteachers need to make use of the advantages and limit the disadvantages of debate

In the context of Viet Nam, there are also many studies about improvingspeaking skill in the classroom However, there are not many studies aboutimplementation of debate technique in speaking lesson Tran Thi Mai (2008) carriedout a research on implementing task-based teaching to improve students’ speakingskill for 10 graders at Ngo Quyen upper secondary school An action research wasplanned and implemented with such data collection instruments as questionnaire,classroom observation, and document analysis The results showed that to improvestudents’ involvement in speaking lessons, teachers should modify the activitiesfrom textbook to make them suitable for their students Moreover, organizing debategroups in large classes is considered an important factor to help modify pre-speaking activities more successful.

Hoàng Đức Đoàn (2009) conducted a study on motivation in learning Englishspeaking of the second-year tourism major students at Tourism and Foreignlanguage department in Sao Do College of industry In the study, she presented thepotential values of using group work, role-play and debate activities From theresults, it can be concluded that language teachers should apply more debatetechnique to their speaking lessons

Bùi Thị Ánh Tuyết (2009) conducted a study on using classroom activities tostimulate students’ presentation in English speaking lessons at Marie Curie School

in Hai Phong The research found out that it was necessary and beneficial forteachers to use debate technique in teaching speaking skill In addition, students alsofelt motivated and interested in their teachers’ use of debate technique in class.Given the teaching and learning situation, the researcher is aware ofimportance of debate activities mentioned in the previous studies The fact is thatthere has been little research into implementing debate technique to improvestudents’ speaking skill Therefore, the researcher decided to make an actionresearch to explore the effects of debate technique on improving the grade – ninestudents at Oxford Center

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

2.1.1 Overview of action research

The term action research can be understood as the combination betweenimplementing a plan and developing the understanding of the effectiveness of thisimplementation Action research can revitalize the whole learning community, aswell as help teachers in changing or reflecting on their classroom practices(Calhoun, 1993:12) After that, Cunningham (1993:98) defined action research as aterm for describing a spectrum of activities that focus on research, planning,theorizing, learning and development “It describes a continuous process of researchand learning in the researcher’s long-term relationship with a problem”

The aim of action research defined by Todd (2010:2) is to “develop theteaching situation and the teacher-researcher rather than generate new knowledge”.The research does not face the problems of reliability and generalization becauseaction research “generates findings which are useful within a specific context ratherthan findings applicable across many different situations” (Todd, 2010:5) Withsuch merits, action research was selected for this study, which is small-scale andpractical in nature

Also, McTaggart (1994:5) believed that action research is a form of reflective investigation conducted by participants to solve the problems in society,which consists of four steps planning, action, observation, and reflection:

self-a Planning: a problem is identified and a plan of action is developed

b Action: the plan is put into action

c Observation: the effects of the action are observed

d Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated and become the basis forfurther planning

In short, the aim of action research is to identify problematic situations orissues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertake practical

interventions in order to bring informed changes in practice Action research ischosen as the research method in this study as it is suitable for the real situation andhelps to develop the participants’ understanding in order to improve educationalpractices.

2.1.2 Rationale for the use of an action research

Mills (2003: 4) defined that action research is “any systematic inquiryconducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that theirparticular school operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn.” Theinformation is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflectivepractice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educationalpractices in general, and improving student outcomes

Whenever English teachers find out a problem, they need to make a furtherlook into the problem and give a suitable solution Therefore, they often carry outaction research for most of the time

2.2 Description of the context of the research

2.2.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at Oxford center.

Oxford center was founded in 2005 It is situated in Van Quan urban town, HaDong, Ha Noi Nowadays, it has four branches with modern equipment Eachbranch is a big building with 6 floors Each branch consists of about 10 classroomswith 35 chairs and tables in each class The tables and chairs are designed to besmall and beautiful, which is suitable with students In the class, there are 1 TV or 1projector, 1 board, 35 tables and chairs with many beautiful pictures on the wall.This center has more than 100 classes with various levels

Teachers in this center include both Vietnamese and native teachers.Vietnamese teachers are people who already have experience and graduated fromuniversity with the major of English education In addition, native teachers arepeople who have certificate in teaching and come from England or America.Besides, Oxford center has many staffs that master English and are willing toanswer any questions from students’ parents

First of all, the current common English teaching method is teachers’explanation for students In general, the students are quite passive in learning; theyjust listen and get knowledge in four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing,especially in speaking skill As a result, this teaching method does not encouragestudents to practice speaking because the teachers act most of time in the class.Secondly, almost all students at Oxford center wish to improve their speakingskill They want to learn this skill in such a creative and active way like: working inpairs, working in groups, debating activities This reason makes teacher think aboutthe suitable methods for their students.

The final problem is the students’ different level in speaking English Some ofthem are good, but some of them are not really good at English even though theyhave chances to learn with foreign teacher two hours a week

Having found those problems, I would like to do the research called: “Theimplementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill

2.2.2 The teaching program and material

The course book called “Solutions – Intermediate Student’s book” written byTim Paul A Davies, 2006, Oxford University Press

The Student’s Book contains;

- Ten topic- based units, each covers seven lessons

- Five Language Review/ Skill Round – up sections, providing a language test

of the previous two units and a cumulative skill-based review

- Five Get Ready for your Exam sections providing typical exam tasks and preparation

- Ten Vocabulary Builders with practice and extension

- Ten Grammar Builder Reference sections containing grammar reference and further exercises

As for the syllabus, each unit is taught in two weeks, each period lasts fiftyminutes The course lasts 24 weeks of studying The main aim of the course focuses

on students’ speaking skills

2.3 Description of the research

2.3.1 Participants

Students targeted in this study belong to the grade – nine students of OxfordCenter In this study, 70 students are chosen from two classes to take tests: pre-testand post-test After that, 35 students in class A and 15 teachers are chosen to answerfor questionnaire The majority of students will be within the 14 – 15 age range Theresearch was conducted at Oxford Center in Hanoi The reason for choosing is thatthe students at that level are almost not good at speaking English They are afraid oftalking in English, lack vocabulary and confidence This study is expected to helpthem to improve their speaking skills by applying debate technique

2.3.2 Data collection instruments

Both questionnaires and tests were employed in this research so as to get theaccurate data These instruments help the researcher get more in-depth data foranalysis

2.3.2.1 Tests

The aims of tests were to answer the first research question that how far debatetechnique can help students make progress in their speaking skill The timeallowance for each student in the test is 6-8 minutes The test consists of pre-testand post test with the equivalent difficulty level The pre-test was carried out at thefirst week of the course The post-test was carried out at week 12 in the course

2.3.2.2 Questionnaires

The questionnaire is one of the most popular instruments in gathering data ineach research It is easy to prepare and can be given to large groups of subjects atthe same time It also helps the researcher get a large amount of information with ashort period of time In this research, the researcher exploited two kinds ofquestionnaire: one for students and one for teachers

 Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire for students aims at finding out their opinions and attitudes towards the implementation of debate technique in speaking lessons It was

delivered to students in class A after being taught with debate technique It consists

of six questions which focus on six main aspects that the researcher would like toinvestigate as follows: question 1 aimed at finding the students’ attitude towardsdebate technique in general; question 2 worked out the degrees in which debatetechnique could help the students improve their speaking skill; question 3 found outsteps that the students follow during debate time; question 4 clarified what debatestyle that the students would like to join in speaking lessons; question 5 clarifiedstudents’ benefits when they use debate technique; question 6 worked out thedrawback of using debate technique

When delivering the questionnaire, the author translated it from English toViet Namese to make sure students understood the question completely Especially,students were allowed to write in Vietnamese about the drawbacks of using debatetechnique so that they could express their feeling directly

 Questionnaire for teachers

The questionnaire for teachers consists of five questions which aim at findingout the ways and what kind of debate styles the teachers used to teach speaking:question 1 aimed at finding out the frequency the teachers use debate technique inspeaking lessons; question 2 worked out the degrees in which debate technique canhelp students improve their speaking skill; question 3 found out debate style whichthe teachers choose to teach; question 4 aimed at finding out how the debatetechnique should be conducted in speaking lessons; and question 5 clarifieddifficulties the teachers encountered while designing the lessons

2.4 Data collection procedures

The researcher carried out this study during the process of teaching Therewere 35 students in each class Debate technique is a method that the author applied

to just class A Class B was taught without using debate technique

The use of instruments in the data collection was primarily illustrated in thefollowing timeline

Pre intervention While intervention Post intervention

Lessons Questionnaire for students

Questionnaire for teachers

2.4.1 Pre intervention

The purpose of the pre intervention stage is finding out the students’ level inspeaking skill It is also the data to compare with post-test to explore how far debatetechnique can help students in speaking skill Therefore, a pre-test of speaking skillwas used for both classes A and B

2.4.2 While intervention

In this phase, the experimental class (A) was taught with implementation ofdebate technique in 12 weeks The control class (B) was taught without applyingdebate technique

In class A, the researcher gave one idea which is linked to the topic and could

be debated among the student groups in each lesson In debate time, teacherfollowed the certain steps: introduce the topic, assign the affirmative and thenegative, give time for research, keep track of time, and make a judgment Inaddition, the students were directed to follow these following steps: brainstormideas, organize ideas, structure the speeches, and prepare the speeches

2.4.3 Post intervention

A post-test was used to find out the results if students got any progress in theirspeaking skill after using debate technique in speaking lessons Also, the surveyquestionnaire for students was delivered to the experimental class to find out what theythought, students’ steps in debate, what their preferred debate style, the advantages ofdebate and how much they enjoyed the effectiveness of using debate technique inspeaking lessons In addition, a survey questionnaire was also delivered to teachers ofEnglish at Oxford Center to find out how they used debate technique in the class

Consequently, for each research question, participants’ scores or responseswere calculated and transferred into numerical form The data was then tabulatedand charted for clearer presentation and easier comparison

2.5 Data analysis method

The researcher first made a pre-test for 70 students from two classes To avoidinconsistency or possible biases, the data was generated and analyzed by theresearcher alone, and then displayed in forms of charts and tables The informationfrom the pre-test was known as reflective data Given that the data was valid, itcould be stated that there were no possible influences of the researchers duringcollection, interpretation, evaluation of the data (Seliger & Shohamy, 1986)

The research was carried out by both quantitative and qualitative methods Thequantitative method employed the multiple choice questions to evaluate how fardebate technique could help students improve their speaking skill The researchertook advantage of the software Microsoft Excel to calculate the percentage ofmarks, mean, median and standard deviation This software was in fact cheap,convenient and effective

Besides, the qualitative method was based on open-ended questions Theresearcher translated questionnaire for students from English to Vietnamese Theresearcher then analyzed key words, phrases or main ideas from certain questions togive some suggestions to make a good debate activity for both students and teachers

In short, the methodology of the study has been displayed as the guidelines forthe researcher to follow during the implementation of the study

2.6 The use of debate technique in the speaking lessons

In this study, debate technique was designed and based on the topics that studentsare learning in the speaking lessons It was carried out in about fifteen to seventeenminutes via the following steps:

2.6.1 Introduce the topic

The teachers introduced the topic that would be given to debate Teachers couldchoose a topic which students can relate and perhaps one with practical application

2.6.2 Assign the affirmative and the negative

There are two sides to any debate Naturally, one will argue for and another against the resolution Ideally, teachers should divide the class into four groups and assign two

groups to each of two resolutions Then the teacher assigns one of each pair of student

groups to the affirmative This group will argue for the issues being presented Theother two groups will be the negative and will argue against the resolutions Duringthe debate, the other groups will serve as the judges and decide which sidepresented a stronger case voting for the winners of the debate at its conclusion.

2.6.3 Give time for research

Students have 3-4 minutes to research the issue Not only that, they needadditional instruction on the specific vocabulary that may be involved Make sureall of students understand any specialized vocabulary so the efficacy of theirarguments does not depend on simple comprehension

2.6.4 Keep track of time

First, the affirmative group receives two minutes to present their case to theaudience The negative group then receives two minutes to present their case Afterboth sides have a chance to speak, both teams receive two minutes to prepare arebuttal and summary The order of speech is reversed now and the negative sidepresents their rebuttal and summary for the first two minutes The last to speak isthe affirmative team who then presents their rebuttal and summary for two minutes.The debate is now concluded

2.6.5 Make a judgment

The overall purpose of speaking is more important than the specific outcome

of the debate Still, the students will probably want to know who won Todetermine the winner, have the audience vote on which team they think make themost convincing argument With this, the teachers’ own opinion will be very useful

in evaluation This combination will identify your winners

2.7 Summary

In this chapter, the author presents the context of the study, the teaching andlearning at Oxford Center In addition, the researcher gives some backgroundinformation about debate technique in speaking lessons at Oxford Center Tests andquestionnaires are the data collection instruments of this study In the last part, theauthor describes the implementation of debate technique in speaking lessons

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the researcher focuses on analyzing the data collected frominstruments such as pre – test, post – test, questionnaire for students andquestionnaire for teachers

3.1 Tests

3.1.1 Aim

The aim of two tests (pre-test and post-test) was to make it clear whether thecomplementation of using debate technique helps students improve their speakinglevel or not

3.1.2 Participants

70 students of class A and class B are involved in these two tests The students

in class A were taught with the implementation of debate technique and the students

in class B were taught without debate technique

3.1.3 Test description

The pre-test and post-test were delivered to students at the beginning and atthe end of week 12 The two tests were designed like an interview between ateacher and a student The teacher gave out five different topics which made theirstudents use debate technique in the answers The students had an opportunity tochoose one of five topics which they picked up from their teacher After that, thetests were collected and marked To get rid of subjectivity and personal bias, thestudents’ responses have been evaluated in term of grammar, vocabulary,comprehension, fluency ,and pronunciation, by using the scale suggested by Brown(2004:172-173)

No Aspect of Score Description

assessment

1 Pronunciation 1.7 – 2.0 Have few traces of foreign accent

1.3 – 1.6 Always intelligible, though one is conscious of

a definite accent

0.9- 1.2 Pronunciation problems necessitate

concentrated listening and occasionally lead tomisunderstanding

0.5 – 0.8 Very hard to understand because of

pronunciation problems

0.1 -0.4 Pronunciation problems to severe as to make

speech virtually unintelligible

2 Grammar 1.7 – 2.0 Makes few (if any) noticeable errors of

grammar or word order

1.3- 1.6 Occasionally makes grammatical and word

order errors which do not obscure meaning0.9 – 1.2 Make frequent errors of grammar and word

order which occasionally obscure meaning0.5 – 0.8 Grammar and word order errors make

comprehension difficult Must often rephrasesentences and/or restrict him to basic pattern.0.1 – 0.4 Errors in grammar and word order so

severe as to make speech virtuallyunintelligible

3 Vocabulary 1.7 – 2.0 User of vocabulary and idioms are virtually

that of native speaker

20

0.9 – 1.2 Frequently uses the wrong words, conversation

somewhat limited because of inadequatevocabulary

0.5 – 0.8 Misuse of word and very limited vocabulary

makes comprehension quite difficult

0.1 – 0.4 Vocabulary limitation is so extreme to make

conversation virtually impossible

4 Fluency 1.7 – 2.0 Speech as fluent and effortless as that of a

native speaker

1.3- 1.6 Speed of speech seems to be slightly affected

by language problems0.9 – 1.2 Speed and fluency are rather strongly affected

by language problems

0.5- 0.8 Usually hesitant, often forced into silence by

language limitation

0.1 – 0.4 Speech is halting and fragmentary to make

conversation virtually impossible

5 Comprehension 1.7 – 2.0 Understand everything without difficulty

1.3 – 1.6 Understand nearly everything at normal speed,

although occasional repetition may benecessary

0.9 – 1.2 Understand most of what is said at slower than

normal speed with repetition Have greatdifficulty in which is said

0.5 – 0.8 Speak slowly and with high frequent repetition0.1 – 0.4 Not understand even simple conversation

English

3.1.4 Data analysis and finding

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It can be seen from the table and the chart above that the marks of the twoclasses are ranged from two to nine in which mark four, five, six are the mostcommon and students in class B seem to get higher marks In class A, most of thestudents have mark four and five which are taken up of 54%, whereas 51% of thestudents in class B get marks four and five In general, the students in two classesare at the low level of speaking skill, very few of them get mark seven, eight andnine Especially, none of them in both classes get mark 9 or 10.

3.1.4.1.2 Correlation

Table 2: Mean and Std Deviation (pre-test)

(The formula to calculate mean, standard deviation and median can be seen

clearly in the appendix.)

The table above shows that the mean of class B is higher than class A ( 5.2 incomparison with 5.0) which indicates that students in class B are a little bit betterthan those in class 10 A) The median of the two classes are 4.5 and 5 which isfairly corresponding to the mean One of the significant numbers on the table is thestandard deviation of 1.21 (class A) and 1.38 (class B) implies a very small spread

of scores which indicates a narrow range of ability in students in both classes Inconclusion, the students’ speaking level in class A is a bit lower than the students’speaking level in class B

3.1.4.2 Post-test

3.1.4.2.1 Frequency distribution

Table 3: Frequency distribution (post-test)

Score Number of tests %