(Luận văn thạc sĩ) the effects of applying language games in motivating non major english first year students in speaking lessons a study at a college in bac ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ TUYẾT THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING LANGUAGE GAMES IN MOTIVATING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ TUYẾT

THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING LANGUAGE GAMES IN MOTIVATING NON-MAJOR ENGLISH FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS: A STUDY AT A COLLEGE IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

Hiệu quả của việc áp dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ tới việc khuyến khích sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên Anh trong các giờ học nói: Một nghiên cứu tại một trường cao đẳng ở Bắc Ninh

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ TUYẾT

THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING LANGUAGE GAMES IN MOTIVATING NON-MAJOR ENGLISH FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS: A STUDY AT A COLLEGE IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

Hiệu quả của việc áp dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ tới việc khuyến khích sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên Anh trong các giờ học nói: Một nghiên cứu tại một trường cao đẳng ở Bắc Ninh

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi 2019

DECLARATION

I, hereby, declare that my thesis entitled: The Effects of Applying Language

Games in Motivating Non-major English First Year Students in Speaking Lessons: A Study at a College in Bac Ninh Province is the result of my own work,

submitted in the fulfillment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis This minor thesis or any part

of the same has not been submitted for higher degree to any other university or institution

Signature

Đỗ Thị Tuyết

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My research has been completed with the support of many people

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Hoàng Văn Vân for his enthusiastic and helpful guidance, insightful comments and encouragement without which my thesis would not have been completed

Secondly, I am indebted to all my lectures in Post-graduate Faculty, University of Languages and International Studies for their precious assistance, knowledge and enthusiasm

Thirdly, I am also grateful to all the participants, students of students in classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology for their enthusiastic participation and cooperation during the duration

of conducting the research

Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my family, especially

my parents, who have given me constant support, both spiritual and material, and love during the completion of this research paper

ABSTRACT

An English speaking lesson cannot be successful without students‟ active participation and students‟interest in the lessons Second foreign language learners should be offered the opportunity to get involved in the lessons and fulfill their learning orientations The goal of conducting this action research is to enhance students‟ motivation in speaking lessons by using language games The research, therefore, checks the students‟level of participation and interest in speaking lessons

at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology In addition to this, the thesis tries to find out the factors affecting the students‟ participation and learning motivation The researcher uses action research to conduct the study whose subjects are fifty two students of students in classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology These fifty two students took part

in completing questionnaires reflecting their appreciation of learning speaking English and what factors affects negatively their participation and learning motivation Class observation, pre-test, post-test and survey questionnaires were employed to find the answer to one research question The findings of the research revealed that students‟ poor participation and low motivation resulted from both students themselves and their former teacher and that using language games in speaking lessons helped enhance students‟ participation and motivation in terms of both quality and quantity

Lastly, it is hoped that the results of this thesis could benefit for developing teaching and learning English at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology

TABLE CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF CHARTS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 The aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Methods of the study 3

7 Design of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2 General issues 5

2.1 What is speaking 5

2.1.1 Definition of speaking 5

2.1.2 The importance of speaking 5

2.1.3 Phrases to teach speaking 6

2.1.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 7

2.1.5 Problems with speaking activities 7

2.2 Students’ motivation 8

2.2.1 What is motivation 8

2.2.2 The role of motivation in Foreign Languages learning 9

2.3 Language games 10

2.3.1 Definition of language games 10

2.3.2 The purpose of language games 10

2.3.3 Types of language games 11

2.3.4 Language games as a motivator for students to speak 12

2.4 Previous studies related to how to motivate students during speaking lessons 13 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Description of the context of the research 15

3.1.1 An overview of Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology 15 3.1.2 The teaching program and materials 15

3.1.3 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology 16

3.2 Action research……….16

3.2.1 What is an action research? ………16

3.2.2 Rationale for the use of an action research 17

3.3 Description of the research 22

3.3.1 Subjects of the research 22

3.3.2 Data collection instruments 22

3.3.3 Data analysis procedure 25

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage- Questionnaire 1 26

4.1.1 Students‟ attitude towards the speaking skill and the causes of students‟ low motivation in speaking classes 26

4.2 Intervention 30

4.3 Data from the intervention stage 30

4.3.1 Data collected from observation sheet 30

4.3.2 Data collected from the questionaire 2 31

4.3.3 Data collected from the tests 37

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 40 5.1 Main findings 40 5.2 Recommendations based on the findings 41

5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further research 44 5.5 Conclusion 44 REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: I APPENDIX 2: III APPENDIX 3: XI APPENDIX 4: XII APPENDIX 5: XIII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students‟ attitude towards speaking skill 26

Table 2: Students‟ motivation, learning styles, anxiety in speaking lessons 27

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ reasons for learning English 28

Chart 2: Factors that make students involuntary to speak English in the classroom 28 Chart 3 Observation sheet that looks at overall class motivation 30

Chart 4: Students‟ evaluation on how easy the language games are 31

Chart 5: Students‟s evaluation on how appropriate the language games are 31

Chart 6: Students‟ feeling on how much they like the language games 32

Chart 7: Students‟ level of participation in recent speaking lessons 32

Chart 8: Students‟ feeling after playing the games 33

Chart 9: Students‟ level of motivation in recent speaking lessons 33

Chart 10: Students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of language games 34

Chart 11: Students‟ ideas on the benefits of language games 34

Chart 12: Students‟ desires on what stages language games should be applied 35

Chart 13: Students‟ suggestions on What the teacher should do to make the application of language games more effective 36

Chart 14: Students‟ desires on how often they join the language games 37

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This part states the rationale of the study, the aims, objectives, the scope of the study, and the design of the rest of the thesis The research questions are also identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole study

1 Rationale of the study

People around the world communicate through many ways such as body language, verbal language, signals and gestures Among them, verbal language plays the most important role in communication For that reason, communication skills in which speaking skill is a big part of learning any language because “of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important” (Ur, 2000: 120) It is the fact that students and teachers pay more attention to other 3 skills (writing, reading, and listening) than speaking skill due to the necessary of high school graduation exam Students usually learn English as a compulsory subject to pass the final tests which mainly include grammar and vocabulary Therefore, when they continue to study at colleges or universities,

learning speaking skill is a big challenge to them

Being an English teacher for 5 years, I find most of my students have problems in speaking lessons They easily become speechless in their oral performance or they are reluctant to speak in English although they may be good at other skills It is not a surprise as “the quality of learning engagement in the classroom does not depend on students‟ cognitive abilities alone, but is also

influenced by complex motivational and effective factors.”(Kubanyiova, 2006)

As far as we know, in learning a Foreign Language, students will learn more effectively if they learn in a fun, relaxed learning environment and have more opportunities to communicate in the context of the real world Therefore, the use of language games in Foreign Languages teaching is one of the most effective ways to increase student learning, one of the determinants of success in learning a Foreign Language At the same time, they help and motivate students to maintain their

learning and excitement with learning In addition, they help teachers create contexts in which practical language is useful and understandable to learners Learners want to participate in the game, they have to understand what other people are saying or writing, and they have to say or write things to express their own views or to present information to help others understand Language games can be used to develop all four skills for students: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing However, in schools in Vietnam, the skill that students find the most difficult is speaking skill This is the reason why the researcher only mentions the effect of language games on the teaching and learning of English speaking skills in

this study From there the researcher decides to choose the topic: The Effects of

Applying Language Games in Motivating Non-major English First Year Students

in Speaking Lessons: A Study at a College in Bac Ninh Province

2 The aims of the study

The study aims at improving students‟ motivation in speaking lessons at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology through using language games

To attain this aim, the following objectives need to be accomplished in the research:

- revealing factors that discourage students from taking part in speaking lessons and the factors that bring their low motivation in speaking class, and

- examining language games applied during speaking classes to enhance the students‟ participation and interest in speaking activities and measuring the effectiveness of language games by using action research

3 Research questions

With the current situation of teaching and learning of English speaking skills

at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology and after studying the principles of applying language games, the researcher would like to have an action research aiming at finding the answer to the following question:

How effective are language games in increasing students’ motivation in speaking

lessons?

4 Significance of the study

The study is conducted with the expectation that the findings will help teachers at Viet Nhat college clearly acknowledge the significance of speaking skill and how language games impact on their students‟ speaking so that they spend more time and effort making speaking lessons in classroom more useful Besides, students can find suitable strategies to improve their speaking skills

- Theoretical significance: The study is intended to help English language teachers understand better the effects of using games to motivate students in speaking lessons It is also intended to give some recommendation to help to take advantage

of language games successfully in all phases of teaching speaking

- Practical implications: The study provides language teachers and language

learners many types of language games used at every stage of the Lifeline –

Elementary textbook

5 Scope of the study

This study is conducted at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology, in Que Vo district, Bac Ninh province It limits itself to the findings of using language games in enhancing motivation of oral performance

The participants are 52 non major English first years students from 2 classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 because it is assumed that they are unfamiliar to the new learning environment and new teachers after they finish high schools period Therefore, it would be very helpful for both students and teachers in learning and teaching speaking if the study could identify the adverse effective degree of language games on speaking skill

6 Methods of the study

To carry out this study, the researcher uses the quantitative method in which the questionnaire surveys, pre-test, post-test and class observation are used as the instruments for data collection.The questionnaire surveys consist of multiple choice questions and open-end questions delivered to 52 students in classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology Besides,

class observation is also applied to help researcher to get more information about

the change of students „motivation during the application of language games

7 Design of the thesis

There are five chapters in this study They are presented as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction – presents the rationale for choosing the topic, the

aims, the significance, scope of the study, and the research questions

Chapter 2: Literature review – provides concepts relevant to the study such

as theoretical background of speaking, language games and motivation Furthermore, the findings of the previous studies are also mentioned in this chapter

Chapter 3: Methodology –presents the subjects of the study and research

instruments with the aims to collect data Specifically, questionnaire and class observations are used as the tools to collect data

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion – presents data analysis and discusses the

results obtained from the data In addition, some strategies for students and teachers to apply effectively language games in speaking classes are also discussed in this chapter

Chapter 5: Conclusion – recapitulates what has been studied, points out

limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The second chapter states some general issues of speaking skills, students‟ motivation and language games Some previous studies related to how to motivate students during speaking lessons are also mentioned in this chapter

edition, published in 2007, speaking is definedas “activities of giving speeches and talks, to indicate the opinion you are giving”

According to Burns & Joyce (1997) and Brown (1994), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and processing information In other words, it is the action of passing on information or expressing one‟s thoughts and feelings as speaking involves two skills: oral interaction and oral presentation In addition, “speaking is the ability to pronounce articulation of sounds or words for expressing, starting and conveying thought, ideas, and feelings” (Tarigan, 1990: 15) We can see the complexity of speaking although it only uses language by producing ordinary sound, not rhythm as singing production Learners who want to master speaking skill should do well on vocabularies, pronunciation, grammar and fluency It is undeniable that all components mentioned above must be achieved by learners In brief, speaking is considered a really crucial tool for human social control

2.1.2 The importance of speaking

In social contexts, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and

know how to speak, but not by those who do not have this skill In language learning, speaking plays an utmost important role among the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) confirms that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean that they are able to speak the language It cannot be denied that speaking deserves as much more attention than written skills In order to carryout many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence

2.1.3 Phrases to teach speaking

Byrne (1988) distinguishes three following phrases to develop learners‟ oral ability: the presentation phrase, the practice phrase and the production phrase

In presentation phrase, teachers are the center of learning and teaching activities They work as an information provider What students usually do in this phrase is

to observe and listen to the teacher, i.e they passively receive information Normally, they are only asked to practice (role-play) and dramatize a dialogue or

to talk about what they have to learn from a prose based on the previous answers

at the end of this phrase

Unlike the presentation phrase, at practice phrase learners have to do most of talking as they are provided maximum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking The learners, at this phrase, answer the teacher‟s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to the topic At the end of the practice phrase, Ur (1996) suggested what the teacher should do is to enhance the learners‟ fluency of speaking First, attention must be fully paid by the learners Secondly, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated Thirdly, learners understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term memory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson

In the last phrase of learning speaking, the production phase, learners are given chances to speak English freely Being in a real situation, learners use English

by themselves without depending on the teacher‟s help Free activities are also in the form of individual work, pair work or group work However, pair work and group work are of great importance and effectiveness as all learners can have chance to participate in talks, and they seem more confident and more motivated Moreover, this can save a great deal of time In the process of teaching speaking, improvement of the speaking ability will be gained if these three phrases are followed orderly However, they might not be applied as expected because of the time limitation, types of learners and materials in use, etc

2.1.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

There are many characteristics of a successful speaking activity which are introduced by Ur (1996) as follows:

- Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses

- Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a

minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

- Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

- Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the criteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned-above criteria

2.1.5 Problems with speaking activities

According to Ur (1996), there still exist some problems with speaking

activities as follows:

- Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking

requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a Foreign Language in the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners

complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

- Low or uneven participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he

or she is to be heard, and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little time talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all

- Mother-tongue use: In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share

the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it: because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a Foreign Language, and because they feel less

“exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue If they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes – particularly the less disciplined

or motivated ones – to keep to the target language

In order for the learners to develop their communicative skills, it is advised that the language teachers should help the learners to overcome these problems with speaking activities

intrinsic or extrinsic The term is generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well In this study motivation refers to human motivation According to various theories,motivation may be rooted in a basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or

it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or optimism Motivation is related to, but distinct from, emotion

In short, motivation can be briefly defined as the students‟ desire and need to learn, the driving force that make him work hard, pay attention to his learning

2.2.2 The role of motivation in Foreign Languages learning

When we read or hear the word “motivation”, many words and expressions are triggered in our minds: goal - desire - will - effort- ambition - energy - persistence - achieve - inspire - reward In fact, motivation is very much part of our everyday personal and professional life Learning and teaching English as a second/Foreign Languages is no exception in this respect

Research over the last three decades has consistently underlined the important role of motivation in successful language learning Many researchers consider motivation as one of the main elements that determines success in developing a second or Foreign Languages It determines the extent of active, personal involvement in second/Foreign Languages learning (Gardner&Lambert, 1972; Oxford &Shearin, 1994; Ushioda, 1996; Dornyei, 2001) Oxford and Shearin (1996: 121-122) points out: “Motivation is important because it directly influences how often use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learnt (the target language), how well they do on curriculum-related tests, how high their general profanely level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain L2 skills after language study is over…”

Besides, Kanfer (1998:12) points out that “Motivation is psychological mechanisms governing the direction, intensity, and persistence of actions not due solely to individual differences in ability to overwhelming environmental demands that coerce of force action”

Indeed, when we think of how to encourage slow learners to work harder, how to create an attractive learning atmosphere or how to reward the hard-working students we indeed deal with motivation.Therefore, motivation is crucial for second/Foreign Languages learning and it is essential to understand what our Students‟ motivation is

2.3 Language games

2.3.1 Definition of language games

The term of “Language games” refers to the models of primitive languages that invent to clarify the working of language in general It refers to games which enable them to learn So, it can be said that, language games not only function as time filling activities but also can bring some educational values that enable the children to learn English While Mc Cabe (1992) defines a language games as spoken routine for two or more players, meant to repeat many times This implies that such repetition will enable the children to communicate effectively since playing language games will help the children to develop language and thought From the definition above, it can be clearly seen that language games do not only provide supportive activities and practices that can motivate the students to interact and communicate, but games can also create opportunities for students to acquire the language is a meaningful way In short, it can be said that, language games are

able to help students use and practice the target language in a relaxed way

2.3.2 The purpose of language games

The purpose of language game is that it can be a very useful teaching technique for the effective and joyful learning Games are also believed to be able to give the positive effect on the student‟s interest and motivation in studying English

as well as to increase their speaking ability According to Steinberg (cited in Arifin,

2003) emphasized that games are viable method to achieve many educational objectives such as reinforcement, review reward, relax, inhibition, reduction, attentiveness, retention and motivation

2.3.3 Types of language games

Classifying language games into categories can be very difficult because categories often overlap Therefore, different linguists use different ways to classify language games According to Hadfiled (1987), “language games can be divided into two further categories: Linguistic games and communicative games Linguistic games focus on accuracy, such as applying the correct antonym On the other hand, communicative games focus on successful exchange of information and ideas, such

as two people identifying the differences between two pictures which are similar to one another but not exactly alike Hadfield (1987) also classifies language games into many more categories as follows:

- Sorting, ordering or arranging games For example, students have a set of

cards with different products of them, and they sort the cards into products found at

a grocery store and products found at a department store

- Information gap game: In such games, one student has access to the

information which is not held by the other student, and this student must acquire the information to complete the task successfully Information gap games can involve a one-way information gap or a two-way information gap

- Guessing games: In these games, someone knows something and the

others must find out what it is

- Matching games: As a name applies, participants need to find a match for

a word, picture or card

- Labeling games: These are forms of matching, in that participants match

labels and pictures

- Puzzle-solving games: The participants in the game share or pool

information in order to solve a problem or a mystery

- Role play games: The terms role-play, drama and simulation are

sometimes used interchangeably but can be differentiated Role play can involve students playing roles that they do not play in real life, such as dentists, while simulations can involve students performing roles that they already play in real life

or might be likely to play, such as a customer at a restaurant Dramas are normally scripted performances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with their own words, although preparation is often useful

2.3.4 Language games as a motivator for students to speak

The importance of motivation in second language teaching and learning has been discussed for many years Motivation is a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity Therefore, those who are motivated participate actively in class and usually get good study results

Since motivation is something very personal, it is not easy to develop However, according to Light Brown and Spada (1999): “If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to learn.” With a view to creating such a learning atmosphere, using language games, which have long been advocated for assisting language learning, in speaking classes seems

to be a good choice for the following reasons:

- Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting

Language learning is hard work Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time Games help and encourage many students to sustain their interest and work Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort After all, learning language involves long term effort

- The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety and

encourage shyer students to take part in speaking classes positively, especially when games are played in small groups

- Games also help the teachers to create contexts in which the language is

meaningful and useful The students want to take part and in order to do so they must understand what others are saying and they must speak in order to express their own point of view or give information

Games are student-centered in that students are active in playing the games and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with teachers as facilitators

2.4 Previous studies related to how to motivate students during speaking lessons

So far, several studies have been carried and reported by many researchers which have been purposed to motivate students to speak English and improve English skills, particularly speaking skill

Sikapang (1993) stated in his finding of stimulation through game technique that the lack of practice in speaking English in the classroom becomes one of the big obstacles for the students in English speaking fluency He claimed that the game technique employed firmly stimulated the students to speak English

Arini Siska Savitri (2013) conducted a study relating to using language games to enhance students‟speaking skill This study is an action research that aims

to describe the types of language games and their implementation to improve the students‟ speaking ability at grade VIIA of SMP Ma‟arif Terpadu Muntilan in the academic year of 2012/2013 The data of this study were qualitative and quantitative The qualitative data were obtained by observing the teaching and learning process during the implementation of the actions and interviewing the students and the collaborator about the implemented actions The qualitative data were in the form of questionnaire, field notes and interview transcripts Meanwhile, the quantitative data were gained by assessing the students‟ speaking performances

through the pre-test and post-test The improvement covers: the students were more motivated and more interested in getting involved in English lesson, the students‟ fluency, pronunciation, accuracy and vocabulary were increasing, and it was easier for the students to perform speaking by using language games

Zemmit Saliha (2015) conducted a research in which the author used descriptive methodology of investigation including two questionnaires were devoted to 40 first year LMD students and their 5 teachers of oral expression at the department of English at Mohammed Kheither Biskra University The results revealed that the usefulness of games is very essential to overcome the students‟ difficulties and develop their speaking skill

Relating to motivating students in speaking lessons, Ha Thi Huong Son (2002) conducted a study from 100 students in three schools (40 students from Xuan Dinh high school, 30 students from Language specialised school and 30 students from Phan Dinh Phung High School) This thesis focuses on using language games to motivate 11th form students in Ha Noi in speaking activities The researcher only used one data collection instrument: survey questionnaire The research showed that groups can contribute their ideas or findings, interesting stories or incidents during carrying out game In such atmosphere, shyness or inhibition can be completely eliminated

Do Huu Truong (2014) conducted a study from 120 students in three classes

at Hai Phong Polytechnics College This thesis focuses on how to motivate the first year students at Hai Phong Polytechnics College in speaking activities The researcher used two survey questionnaires

Pham Thi Quyen (2006) carried a study from 100 students and 30 teachers at three secondary schools in Ha Noi: Xuan Dinh, Phan Dinh Phung, Viet Duc high shools to find out the use of language games to develop English speaking skill for

10th –form students at secondary in Ha Noi The researcher used two survey questionnaires, small talks, and observation sheet as instruments to collect data for the research

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the method used to carry out the research There are three parts in this chapter: research context, action research definiton and its procedure Description of the research which includes participants, data collection instruments and data analysis procedure is aslo mentioned in this chapter

3.1 Description of the context of the research

3.1.1 An overview of Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology

Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology is located in QueVo district, a countryside area near Bac Ninh city The college has 39 classes with 1052 students ranged from first year students to third year students The teaching staff composes 42 teachers with 32 compulsory subjects, of whom five are teachers of English Their English teaching experiences range from 3 years to

20 years

3.1.2 The teaching program and materials

At Viet Nhat College, General English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum The syllabus and the textbooks for General English including

Lifelines –Elementary” and Lifelines – Pre-intermediate by Tom Hutchinson are

suggested by the Ministry of Education and Training

Lifelines – Elementary is the current text book used for teaching and learning

General English for first year students General English curriculum for first year student is divided into two semesters with a total of 150 periods, 5 periods per

week Each period is 50 minutes long

The textbooks are designed under theme-based approach with 24 topics corresponding with 24 units Each unit is about a theme which includes 5 parts arranged as follows: Grammar, Vocabulary, Reading and Writing, Listening and Speaking, and pronunciation Speaking part is sparsely presented in each unit and the teachers at the college don‟t give much attention to teach speaking through language games

3.1.3 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology

It is said that students and teachers in high school pay more attention to other

3 skills (writing, reading, and listening) than speaking skill due to the requirement

of high school graduation exam Students usually learn English as a compulsory subject to pass the final tests in which focus mainly on grammar and vocabulary Therefore, when they continue to study at colleges or universities, learning speaking skill is a big challenge to them Therefore, most teachers find themselves unable to implement efficiently their tasks Besides, it impossible to carry out individual checks which is essential for evaluating and adjusting their teaching methods and materials To make matters worse, the levels of proficiency of the students are mixed while it is extremely difficult for the teacher to carryout so many teaching plans simultaneously Most students enrolled Viet Nhat College of Languages and Technology with relatively poor knowledge of English since it is neither their major nor a requirement for university entrance exam This made them more demotivated and disinterested in English in general and in improving their speaking skills in particular

3.2 Action research

3.2.1 What is an action research?

Mills (2003) defines action research as “any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular schools operate how they teach and how their students learn The information is gathered with the goal of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practies in generals, and improveing student outcomes”

According to Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988), there are three characteristics of an action research, they are: carried out by practitioners, collaborative and aimed at changing things Action research is also for teacher professional development The teacher will become a better teacher because he/she knows how to find out and

solve his/her problems in teaching scientifically on his/her own

3.2.2 Rationale for the use of an action research

Action research helps teachers focus on one aspect of their practice they would like

to improve Specific questions and a finite time period bind each interaction This ensures natural pauses for reflection and planning The aim of action research is changing things for better This research was conducted by me, a teacher of English During 6 weeks of the first semester of school year 2018-2019 The researcher recognized a real problem in her speaking class that most of the students in her class were not interested in the lesson and involuntarily joined speaking activities Most

of them had a poor speaking performance This research was conducted with a hope that language games could stimulate students‟ speaking performance and encouraged the students to raise their voice more during speaking lessons through language games

This research was carried out in the real context of my classroom which aimed at professional development through changing my methods of teaching to increase students „motivation and English performance

3.2.3 Action research procedure

To carry out this study, an action research is chosen by the researcher This action

research is implemented basing on the 7 steps proposed by Nunan (1992) as follows:

Step 1 Problem identification–identifying the problems (week 1 and week 2):

The researcher asked the students do the pre-test to know the result of speaking ability of students From the pre-test result and her own experience as a teacher of English at Viet Nhat College of Languages and Technology for 5 years, the researcher has found the scores are very low and she has found a common problem

of all speaking classes It is impossible to teach speaking skills to the students who are not interested in speaking and likely to sit silent until the end of the lessons Therefore, the assessment is not correct and cannot motivate both the active and the passive ones

Step 2 Preliminary investigation –collecting data through a variety of means (week 3 and week 4): The researcher gave students pre-task survey

questionnaire to find out the causes of low participation and motivation, what teaching method is most likely to suit them After defining the difficulties encountered when students join speaking classes, which are low, uneven participation among group members and poor cooperation, she then introduced the

language games to solve these problems

Step 3 Hypothesis –developing research questions: The researcher

conducted classroom observation and had some discussion with students about the reasons for ineffective learning of speaking in order to form the hypothesis of the study basing on the initial data collected: applying language games in motivating non-major English first year students in speaking lessons The research questions

then were set up, followed by the theoretical background for the study

Step 4 Intervention – devising strategies and innovation to be implemented (From week 5 to week 10): Based on the analysis of the data

collected from Questionnaire 1, the researcher wrote the lesson plans and prepared for plan implementation Speaking lesson plans for unit 5 (lesson 3), 6(lesson 4),7(lesson 5),8(lesson 6),9(lesson 7), and 10(lesson 8) were designed In these speaking lessons, language games were used as a main technique to motivate the students to speak

Sample games used in teaching speaking

+ Warm-ups

A warm-up activity is often a short and fun game which the teacher can use with his students The purpose of warm-up activities is to stimulate the student‟s minds before studying a new lesson Warm-ups should last about three to five minutes

Unit 5: Likes and Dislikes

Type of games: Matching games Classroom management: Group work

Material: Pictures and card Time: 5 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher divides the class into groups of four or five students The teacher gives each group a set of pictures of leisure activities and cards containing the names of the leisure activities Students work in groups and quickly match each leisure activities with their name Which group finishes first and has the correct

answers will be the winner Then the teacher asks students: Do you like taking part

in leisure activities like these? Which leisure activities do you like to do?

Cards:

Card 1: go swimming

Card 2: go fishing

Card 3: play cards

Card 4: listen to music

Card 4: go out with friends

Card 5: go skating

Card 6: go shopping

Card 7: surf on the Internet

Card 8: sleep

Card 9: reading books

Card 10: watch films on YouTube

Unit 6: Daily life

Type of games: Sorting, ordering or arranging games

Material: energy posters and hand out

Class management: Pair work

Time: 5 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher asks students to work in pairs Teacher sticks the following posters on the blackboard or alternatively print these posters and distribute them to students Teacher then gives the handouts to the pairs and asks students to match the daily activities with the correct picture

+ Pre-speaking stage

This stage is carried out before students speak The pre-speaking activities are aimed at preparing students with everything necessary for speaking They also involve thought and reflection, and provide opportunities for students to plan and organize for speaking Normally, pre-speaking stage often lasts from five to fifteen minutes depending on each lesson

Unit 7: Places

Type of games: Labeling game Class management: Whole class

Material: Picture Time: 5 minutes

The teacher prepares a set of pictures of rooms such as: Living room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen and ask students to match the pictures with the name of cards And then let them tell about the rooms in the house

Using some questions:

What do you often do at the living room/bedroom/bathroom/kitchen?

What do you have in your living room/bedroom/bathroom/kitchen?

Unit 10: Travel

Type of games: Guessing games Class management: Group work

Material: Pens, paper Time: 5-7 minutes

Procedure:

Teacher divides students into two groups: A and B and then teacher tells the rule of the game: One member from each group will go and stand in front of the class with their backs facing the board Teacher will write a word/ expression which describes an action and was learnt from the previous lesson on the board Other students from each group have to explain the word by using their actions, face expressions, and sounds so that their representative can guess the word The student with the quickest and correct answer will get 1 point for their group Students take turn to be the representative After some turns, the group with more points will be

Kitchen Bedroom

the winner

+ While-speaking stage

This stage is the main part of a speaking lesson in which students use language input provided in pre-speaking stage to express personal feelings, ideas, or viewpoints, to converse and discuss or to describe one event, to tell a story, etc.…Time spent on this stage is nearly twenty to thirty minutes

Unit 8: Entertainment

Type of games: Role-play Class management: Group work

Material: handouts Time 15 minutes

Procedure:

The teacher asks students to work in pairs: one plays the role of the journalists and the other plays the role of interviewee Teacher distributes the interview form to each pair and asks them to interview a friend of his or hers who has just won the first international prize in Mathematics and takes notes the answers The students can change their roles and make another interview Then the teacher asks some students to report what they have gained from the interview

+ Post-speaking stage

Students‟ production can be seen clearly in this stage The activities in this stage are for students to reflect upon their performance Therefore, post speaking stage should last for 8 to 10 minutes

Unit 10:Travel

Type of games: story telling

Class management: group work

Time: 10 mins

Procedure:

The whole class will be divided into groups of 6 people The teacher will ask the groups to tell about the story of their last summer vacation The teacher can start with the sentence in past simple tense: “Last summer, I and my family go to Ha Long bay……”

Then the students in each group one by one add more sentences using past simple

tense After 5 minutes, the teacher will ask the students to stand up to talk about

their story She will choose the best story from these stories

Step 5 Evaluation –collecting data again and analyze it to work out the findings:

Questionnaire 2, Post-test, and observation sheet were also analyzed to gather information about the students‟ attitude towards using language games in speaking lessons Through the students‟ responses, the researcher could evaluate the

effectiveness of these activities exactly

Step 6 Dissemination –reportingon the results by running workshops or issuing a paper: While carrying out the study, whenever the researcher

encountered any problem or noticed any progress with the teaching of speaking skills using language games, she shared the experience with other teachers for

dissemination as well as for their advice and consultation

Step 7 Follow-up: In this step, lessons and suggestions for better

application were made in this final step

3.3 Description of the research

3.3.1 Subjects of the research

This action research is carried out in two classes of first-year students The participants are 52 non-major English first years students from 2 classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 because it is assumed they are unfamiliar to the new learning environment and new teachers after they finish high schools period Therefore, it would be very helpful for both students and teachers in learning and teaching speaking if the study could identify the adverse effective degree of language games

on speaking skill

The participants have 2 English classes a week, one lasts for 3 periods and the other,

last for 2 periods The textbook for their first course of general English is Lifelines –

Elementary by Tom Hutchinson

3.3.2 Data collection instruments

The researcher uses the quantitative method in which the questionnaire

surveys, class observation, pre-test and post-test are used as the instruments of data collection.The questionnaire surveys consist of multiple-choice questions and open-end questions delivered to 52 students in classes Korean 1 and Chinese 1 at Viet Nhat College of Foreign Languages and Technology Besides, class observation is also applied to help researcher to get more information about the change of students

„motivation during the application of language games

- Questionnaires: To collect more truthful and reliable data for analysis, the

researcher also handed out survey questionnaires to the students at the end of the semester after series of language games structured speaking lessons were conducted The questionnaires were made to survey the students‟ preference towards the language games This is a less time-consuming tool yet effective and reliable as the students were not asked to enter their names

+ Pre-intervention survey questionnaire (see Appendix1): was conducted at

the first week of the research with 52 students The researcher used questionnaire to investigate students‟ attitude towards speaking skill, students‟ motivation, learning styles, anxiety in speaking lessons, students‟ reasons for learning English and factors make students involuntary to speak English in the classroom The result from the questionnaire could help the researcher identify possible reasons for students‟ low motivation and participation in speaking classes

+ Post-intervention survey questionnaire(see Appendix2)

The researcher use questionnaire with the hope of finding out students‟ attitude towards speaking skill and their evaluation of teaching methods after 6 weeks of applying language games in speaking class, students‟ evaluation on how appropriate the language games are students‟ level of participation in recent speaking lessons and students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of language games Before having students fill in the questionnaires, the researcher spent 15 minutes to guide them to answer as well as explaining difficult terms By doing this, the researcher could be sure that the students could fully understand the questions

- Class observation (see Appendix 3): Class observation is another method

to collect data for the research The observation was conducted in class Korean 1 and Chinese 1 in the first semester of the school year 2018-2019

The observational record is frequently referred to as field notes - detailed,

non-judgmental, concrete descriptions of what has been observed The observation form used to measure the students‟ participation and their on-task behaviour in the group was developed by Peacock (1997) The observation was entirely conducted

by the researcher herself (in each lesson observed, the researcher observed all 6 tables in the classroom) The researcher prepared clearly observation sheet in which the purposes of the research and data interpretation keys are mentioned

Observations were conducted before and after the intervention The researcher would compare and analyze the data from the observation sheets to show the difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment This helped the researcher draw the conclusion about how much the student improve their speaking skill and increase learning motivation in speaking class

- Pre-test and post-test: For the purpose of comparison, the students‟

individual scores in pre-speaking tests were noted down before implementing language games Post-speaking tests were taken after the intervention period The

purpose of pre-test and post-test were as follows:

+ Pre-test is used to establish a base of the subjects‟ speaking which was

used as a covariance in the statistical analysis of post-test result

+ Post-test is used to detect whether the first cohort maintain any gains or

even continued to make progress, or whether there was any tendency for their gains

to wash out, also to see whether the second cohort made gains similar to those of experimental The post-test scores were then compared with the pre-test scores to identify the statistically significant difference, if any, for the acceptance or rejection

of the research hypothesis

+ Pre-test and Post- test samples:

The researcher delivered some small pieces of paper in which the number of speaking card is written Students give the answer according to the questions written

on that card For example:

Card 1

Part I: Introduce yourself

Part II: Answer some general questions such as: Can you play a musical

instrument?

Do you play any sports?

Part III: Topic Talk about the person you like most in your family

Card 2

Part I: Introduce yourself

Part II: Answer some general questions such as: What do you do in your spare

time? What are you good at?

Part III: Topic Talk about your hobbies

3.3.3 Data analysis procedure

The data collected from the classroom observation was analyzed to find out the frequency of participation of each student in every activity

The second observation sheet which consists of a series of interaction categories aiming at recording the nature of participation and motivation during language games application, the questionnaires were analyzed qualitatively These sources of data showed the improvement in speaking skills the students made when playing language games

The changes towards greater participation and motivation of the students can

be easily seen in the tables which were made from the collected observation forms

of activities

The students‟ reflection on language games speaking lessons were studied and categorized to serve the purpose of answering the research questions which are the student‟s participation and motivation, the improvement in speaking skills they made with the application of language games

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter first analyses the data gathered for the study through three data collection instruments (pre-intervention and post-intervention questionnaires; pre-test and post- test; and observations) and then discusses its findings against the two research questions

4.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage- Questionnaire 1

4.1.1 Students’ attitude towards the speaking skill and the causes of students’ low motivation in speaking classes

Table 1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Nevertheless, most of them feel reluctant to speak English in class 90.4% of the students always feel unwilling to speak English in class Among these students,

18 students constantly are always reluctant to speak, 19 students frequently feel unwilling and 10 students occasionally are reluctant to speak Only 5 students said that they spoke whenever the teacher tells them to do so From these figures, it is true that the frequency of student‟s unwillingness in speaking class is very high

It can be concluded that most of the students consider English speaking is very important

Nonetheless, very few of the students are willing to participate in speaking activities in class The reasons for this situation should be found and the answer to this question lies on questions 3, 4 and 5 in Questionnaire 1

Table 2: Students’ motivation, learning styles, anxiety in speaking lessons

Question 3 3 What are you likely to do in English speaking class?

(You can choose more than one response)

A Keeping silent all the time 23.1

B Just answering simple questions 76.9

C Volunteering to answer as much as possible 7.7

D Knowing the answer but too shy to volunteer 55.8

E Speaking something when the teacher asks me 73.1

G Speaking when you feel like 61.5

H Speaking for getting marks 67.3

I Speaking to enhance my communication skill 21.1 When asked to talk about what students are likely to do in a speaking lesson, 23.1% said that they kept silent all the time so as not to disturb the others Most of the students (76.9 and 73.1%) claimed that they only answered the simple questions and only spoke when being asked by the teacher 29(55.8%) out of 52 students admitted that they know the answer, but they were too shy to volunteer 30 students used mother tongue in speaking lessons The lowest percentage of the respondents (7.7%) was seen volunteer to speak as much as possible, while 67.3% said that they participated in speaking activities for getting marks Only 21.1% of the students

wanted to enhance their communication skill through speaking activities These figures show that the students‟ poor motivation, passive learning, and anxiety make

a big influence on speaking outcome

Question 4 What are your reasons for learning English speaking?

Chart 1: Students’ reasons for learning English

A English is essential for my future career

B It is obligatory to study English speaking at our school

C I find it interesting to learn speaking English

D I want to communicate in English

In question 4, only 14 out of 52 students stated that they liked English speaking skill, 14 students wanted to be able to communicate in English, 31 students thought that English speaking is necessary for their future career, whereas

32 students admitted that they learn English because it is obligatory at schools.To sum up, several students see the necessity of English for their future work, yet most

of them studied just because of the compulsory of the subject

Question 5 What factors make you unvoluntary to speak English in the classroom?

Chart 2: Factors that make students involuntary to speak English in the classroom

14

6 0

A Being not interested in English speaking

B Learning target is for tests (not for communication)

C Being afraid of losing face with my classmates

D Boring teaching methods

E Not receiving enough enthusiasm from the teacher in English speaking class

F Not having anything to say

G Having stressful atmosphere in speaking lessons

H Being shy

I Lacking of vocabulary

J There is nothing that stimulates me to speak

To find out the factors causing the students‟ low motivation, the researcher

gave out the question What factors make you involuntary to speak English in the

classroom? A great number of students claimed that they found nothing to

stimulate them to speak (35 students), had stressful atmosphere in speaking lessons (34 students), were shy (32 students) and received boring teaching methods (30 students) Other factors raised by 5,24, 25 and 20 students were being not interested

in English speaking, learning target is for tests (not for communication), learning afraid of losing face with my classmates and lacking of vocabulary respectively Only 3 students criticized their students for not giving enough enthusiasm, and 15 students expressed that they had nothing to say in English speaking lessons

The findings in Questionnaire 1 reveal a lot of useful facts relating to the students‟ motivation First, most of them learned English speaking because this skill will be tested at the end of the semester More than half of them clearly believe in the importance of English speaking to them, but they are still hesitated to join speaking activities The main causes are: having nothing to stimulate the students to speak, stressful atmosphere in speaking lessons and boring teaching methods These findings are very important because it would assist the researcher build the hypothesis of using language games to motivate students in speaking lessons and decide on the intervention afterward