The use of subtitled english movies and its effects on EFL high school students’ speaking ability

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRINH THI LOAN THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY Major: Teaching En

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRINH THI LOAN

THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRINH THI LOAN

THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen

Nghệ An, 2017

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “The use of subtitled English movies and its effects

on EFL high school students’ speaking ability” is the result of my own work The

data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been submitted to any university or institution

Vinh, August 2017

Author’s signature

Trinh Thi Loan

The research findings indicated that the students’ speaking fluency and accuracy are expectation of the course In addition, the results from the study also revealed the improvements of the application of English subtitled movies From detailed findings, some implications for teaching speaking skill were proposed Limitations of the study were pointed out and further research was suggested

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, who directly supported and encouraged me during the preparation of this study I am truly grateful to her for her professional advice, invaluable support and guidance she offered to help me carry out the study

I am also grateful to my colleagues and students of the two classes at Thieu Hoa high school who helped me to gather data for my study

I would also like to thank my friends for their friendship and proofreading in the preparation of my thesis

Last but not least, I owe special heartfelt appreciation to my family Without whose unceasing support, patience and understanding, I could not have been able

to complete my study

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT ii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale………… 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 The speaking skill 4

2.1.1 Nature of speaking 4

2.1.2 Speaking in foreign language learning 5

2.1.3 Assessing speaking ability 8

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability 10

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity 11

2.2.3 Methods to assess speaking ability 13

2.3 Teaching the speaking skill 16

2.3.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking ability 16

2.3.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking 18

2.3.3 Principles for teaching EFL speaking 19

2.3.4 Techniques for teaching EFL speaking 21

2.4 Multimedia and second language acquisition 23

2.4.1 Theories about multimedia 23

2.4.2 Influence of multimedia on second language acquisition 25

2.4.3 Krashen’s Input Hypothesis 27

2.4.4 Correlation between input and output 29

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2.5 Subtitled English movies 32

2.5.1 Definition 32

2.5.3 The importance of using subtitled English movies 33

2.5.4 Principles for choosing subtitled English movies 37

2.5.5 The use of subtitled English movies in language teaching 41

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 48

3.1 Research questions 48

3.2 Participants 48

3.2.1 The Control Group 48

3.2.2 The experimental Group 49

3.3 Instruments 50

3.3.1 General English test 52

3.3.2 Pre-test and post-test 53

3.4 Procedure 53

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… ……….56

4.1 Results from the experiment 56

4.1.1 General English test 56

4.1.2 Pre-test results 59

4.1.3 Post-test results 62

4.1.4 The improvement that the two groups made 64

4.1.4.1 The improvement of fluency that the two groups made 64

4.1.4.2 The improvement of accuracy that the two groups made 64

4.2 Discussion of the main findings 73

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 78

5.1 Conclusion 78

5.2 Implications of the Study 79

5.3 Limitations 80

5.4 Suggestions for further research 80

REFERENCES 82

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APPENDIX A 83

APPENDIX B 87

APPENDIX C 88

APPENDIX D 89

APPENDIX E 90

APPENDIX F 90

APPENDIX G 90

APPENDIX H 90

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LISTS OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The control group’s background information 49

Table 3.2: The experimental group’s background information 49

Table 3.3: Topics of speaking in English 12 50

Table 4.1 The experimental and control group’s score in general English test 56

Table 4.2 The average total scores and standard deviations of general English test in the experimental group and the control group 59

Table 4.3 The experimental and control group’s score in pre- test 59

Table 4.4 The average total scores and standard deviations of pre- test in the experimental group and the control group 60

Table 4.5 The experimental and control group’s score in post- test 62

Table 4.6 The average total scores and standard deviations of post- test in the experimental group and the control group 63

Table 4.7The increase difference of fluency between the pre-test scores and the post test scores by all participants (p) in both groups 67

Table 4.8 Summary of the increase levels of all participants for both groups 68

Table 4.9 Means and standard deviations of speaking accuracy of the pre-test and the post-test of both groups 69

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LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure1 Simplified version of Grass’s model of IIO, applied to multimedia Error! Bookmark not defined

Figure 4.1a: The general test scores of the control group 57

Figure 4.1b: The general test scores of the experimental group 58

Figure 4.2a: The pre- test scores of the control group 60

Figure 4.2b: The pre- test scores of the experimental group 61

Figure 4.3a: The post test scores of the control group 64

Figure 4.3b: The post test scores of the experimental group 65

Figure 4.4 The pre-test and the post test mean's score of fluency for both groups 66

Figure 4.5 The pre-test and post-test mean’s score of accuracy for both groups 70

Figure 4 6: Control group’s score type distribution 71

Figure 4.7: Experimental group’s score type distribution 72

Regarding some factors that really influence the quality of the speaking skill, Shumin (2002:204) emphasizes that when people learn to speak a foreign language, they require more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules, and learners need to acquire the knowledge of how native speakers use the language in context In short, understanding those factors really facilitate EFL learners’ awareness of the speaking skill and improve its quality

As a common problem was occurred in a speaking class is that teachers frequently feel it difficult to involve students in the speaking activities In fact, English teachers should work hard to attract the students to speak a lot in the class

It occurs because many EFL learners face some problems in learning speaking; many English learners are reluctant and unmotivated (Nunan, 1999), the students are reluctant, fearful of making mistakes, or lack of adequate vocabulary (Fauzan, 2014).These problems are still frequently experienced by teachers and become a challenge for them in teaching speaking in the class

In the practices of the teaching of EFL speaking in Vietnam, both English teachers and students still have been encountering many problems Based on

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some research, there have been at least four main issues that some researchers and teachers often investigate Widiati and Cahyono (2006:277) report that the teaching of EFL speaking for secondary- level students deal with teaching problems, classroom activities, teaching materials, and assessment These things are related to the improvement of the teaching quality of EFL speaking that would point out obvious picture of the teachers’ position and what they are necessary to do

As stated above the importance, the factors, and the problems of the speaking skill discussed above, subtitled English movies play good impact on developing speaking ability as Kelly’s (1985) idea that the subtitled English movies have obviously given the contribution to language learning in many ways

In other words, the movie is potentially fruitful to provide fun and interesting learning experience to encourage the student s’ motivation, self confidence, and

of course improve their speaking skill, in terms of their grammar, vocabulary, fluency and pronunciation Moreover, it also would offer the students a comprehensible input of English that helped them to recognize how the target language is used, and uttered in the real context

For the above-mentioned reasons the researcher has decided to conduct the

study entitled “The use of subtitled English movies and its effects on EFL high school students’ speaking ability” at her work place- Thieu Hoa high school There

are two benefits expected from this study Theoretically, it gives out useful references for further research on using subtitled English movies to develop high school students’ speaking skills Practically, the result of this research will suggest new directions for exploiting the effects of subtitled English movies to improve the quality of teaching English, especially the quality of teaching speaking skill

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aimed to examine the effect of subtitled English movies on EFL high school student’s speaking competence The writer mainly assess two aspects of speaking, they are speaking fluency and speaking accuracy

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1.3 Research questions

The study was set to answer the following research questions:

- How do subtitled English movies affect EFL learners’ speaking accuracy?

- How do subtitled English movies affect EFL learners’ speaking fluency?

1.4 Scope of the study

There are many strategies to improve speaking skill for EFL learners, and using subtitled English movies is one of the most effective strategies This study was set to investigate the effects of subtitled English movies on helping students to developing their speaking skill Only two aspects were examined: accuracy and fluency

1.5 Method of the study

The method employed in this study is experimental All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion were based on the data analysis The combination

of different instruments used in this research helped to gain reliable data, thus the researcher had a close investigation into how subtitled English movies affect on students’ speaking competence

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter I, The Introduction, includes rationale for the study, the aims, methods, scope, and design of the study Chapter II comes the second, in which a theoretical background was presented Chapter III presents the methodology of the study Chapter IV also consists of findings and discussion, in which the data is described and discussed Chapter V comes last A conclusion of the study, the limitations of the study, and suggestion for further research are also mentioned in the last chapter

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CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter focuses on the literature review and theoretical background of the study It presents a brief review of the literature on the topics that are generally related to the research in this thesis Previous studies on the speaking skill, the teaching speaking skill, the principles of using subtitled English movies in EFL speaking instruction will be mentioned

2.1 The speaking skill

Speaking skills is the ability to communicate in a new language - target language - based on its grammatical, contextual, social, and cultural rules There are many factors affecting the students’ learning speaking We can name some of major factors: voice, accent, intonation, stress, pronunciation, speed, etc The students often feel difficult to have the correct stress and intonation as the native speakers They also feel it not easy to keep up with the speed of speech by native speakers The teacher at class can partly help the students solve these problems However, in fact, many teachers also face the same difficulties Each language has its own phonetic characteristics, which not many language learners can imitate In this case, sound and image from audio-visual materials can help much when the students can hear the direct pronunciation and see the operation of articulator organs The students’ leaning speaking can be fostered by the effective sound and image from audio-visual materials

2.1.1 Nature of speaking

There are many definitions of speaking that have been proposed by some experts in language learning Speaking is one of the four language skills taught in the teaching of English People speak in order to express their idea, their feeling or respond to the other’s talk When the others can understand what has been talked,

it means that the speaker gets the meaning across Thornbury (2005: 20) mentions that speaking is an interactive real time activity to express meaning to interact with others that unplanned and just continues based on situations However, the teacher must notice that in EFL context the students seldom try to produce their foreign

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language because they aware about the gaps in their knowledge A speaker requires attention to precise details of the language She/he needs to find the most appropriate words and the correct grammar to convey meaning accurately and precisely and also need to organize the discourse, so that a listener will understand

In addition, Brown (2001) writes that when someone can speak a language it means that he/she can carry on a conversation reasonably competently According

to Thornbury (2005), speaking is an interactive skill that requires the ability to have cooperation with the other aspects of language Speaking skill needs to be developed and practiced independently from the other aspects of language, such as grammar and listening In that case, the teaching and learning process will be as interesting as possible to be conducted in each classroom in order to make the students become more interested in learning the other aspects of language

2.1.2 Speaking in foreign language learning

Learning and Teaching English as a foreign language requires learner‘s interaction, production and communication to what is called the speaking skill The aim of producing this skill is to achieve a higher development of abilities of receiving and producing the second language either in oral form Speaking is regarded as the main skill to be developed because it is necessary for displaying the language proficiency, the importance is mainly on speaking because learners are going to be put in situations where communication in English is needed

2.1.2.1 Definition

There is no much difference between speaking in the first language and speaking in the second language Second language speakers also produce speech through a process of conceptualizing, formulating, and then articulating, during which there is a process of self-monitoring (Thornburry, 2005: 28)

Thornburry (2005) states that the difference is on the language itself The knowledge of second language speakers is not as extensive and as established as their knowledge of the first language Second language speakers tend to formulate utterances in the first language and, then, translate it into the second language

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He also states that the pressure to be accurate – to avoid making humiliating errors may mean that the self monitoring process is overused and over-prolonged, again with a negative effect in terms of fluency In order to be understood, second language speakers apply, at least, two strategies in speaking, namely communicative strategy and discourse strategy

Thornburry (2005: 40) proposes the terms of the basic knowledge that enable speech in a second language, as follows:

- A core grammar

- A core vocabulary of at least 1000 high-frequency items

- Some common discourse markers

- A core -phrase book of multi-word units (chunks)

- Formulaic ways of performing common speech acts, such as requesting or inviting

- Mastery of those features of pronunciation that inhibit intelligibility

2.1.2.2 Speaking competence

Speaking competences consist of four elements They are grammatical competence (linguistic competence), sociolinguistic competence (pragmatic competence), discourse competence, and strategies competence (Scarcely & Rebecca, 1992)

Grammatical or linguistic competence enables speakers to use and understand grammatical structures, sentence structures accurately and

unhesitatingly, and thus, it contributes to the speaker’s fluency (Scarcella &

Rebecca, 1992) Grammatical competence is concerned with mastery of the linguistic code (verbal or non-verbal) which includes vocabulary knowledge as well as knowledge of morphological, syntactic, semantic, phonetic and orthographic rules This competence allows the speaker to use data and abilities required for comprehending and expressing the factual meaning of utterances (Canale & Swain,

1980, cited in Bagarić & Djigunović, 2007)

in different roles and with different status In other words, as Hymes (1972) explained speakers should know “when to speak, when not, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner”

Discourse competence is the knowledge of discourse rules such as cohesive and coherence to present then produce unified written or spoken language As described by Celce-Murcia (2007) that discourse competence refers to the selection, sequencing, and arrangement of words, structures, and utterances to achieve a unified spoken message This is where the top-down communicative intent and socio cultural knowledge intersect with the lexical and grammatical resources to

express messages and attitudes and to create coherent texts

Strategic competence is collected of facts of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that are reminded to compensate for crashes in communication due to deficient competence in one or more components of communicative competence These strategies include paraphrasing, circumlocution, repetition, reluctance, avoidance of words, structures or themes, guessing, changes

of register and style, modifications of messages etc( Celce- Murcia, 2007)

Strategic competence consists of using communication strategies which

come into play when the learners are unable to express what they want to say because they lack the recourses to do so successfully They compensate for this either by changing their original intention or by searching for other means of expression

The learners can use achievement strategies to explain what they are trying

to say and find the ways of compensating for their insecure or inadequate

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knowledge of English; as a result, they keep the conversation going and may encourage the listener to provide the necessary language

Moreover, learners can use reduction strategies to avoid the forms of which

they are uncertain and select the perhaps structure which they know The question arising is whether strategic competence can be trained Certainly teachers can help students early in a language program by teaching them appropriate questions for requesting help (eg: what does it mean? How do you say?), and the language to ask for vocabulary items (eg: what do you call the person who? What do you call the thing that?) The teacher can also act as listener in classroom interaction and respond to students’ appeals for help, providing language at the point of need

2.1.3 Assessing speaking ability

According to Porter and Roberts in O’Malley (1996), assessment of oral language should focus on a student’s ability to interpret and convey meaning for authentic purposes in interactive contexts It should include both fluency and accuracy Cooperative learning activities that present students with opportunities to use oral language to interact with others whether for social or academic purposes are optimal for assessing oral language

Brown and Yule (1983:120) state that the oral component of English language assessment may be based on a very general impression of how well students speak This normally takes the form of an oral interview in which the examiner asks students questions, or prompts students to talk on certain, sometimes pre-arranged topics

Furthermore, every opportunity for speaking in the classroom should be taken It is by asking students to do communication that realizes their need of language and doing conversation with them to increase their fluency and confidence For example, students may be reluctant to speak in front of many people However, there are ways of providing a safer, less public environment in which they can begin to practice speaking The ways are by repetition work and pair work activities Besides, teachers also pay attention to aspects such as accuracy and

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fluency in students' speech According to Gower et al (1995: 99), the accuracy involves the correct use of the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation In controlling and guiding activities, teachers usually focus on the accuracy and it is important for teachers to give feedback to students Fluency can be defined as an ability to keep going when students speak spontaneously When students speak fluently, they should be able to get the message across with whatever resources and the abilities they have got regardless grammatical structures and other mistakes

Moreover, Thornbury (2005) states that there are two ways to assess students’ speaking ability The first is known as a holistic scoring In the holistic scoring, the teacher only gives a single score on the basis on an overall impression This holistic way has advantages of being quick and is perhaps suitable for informal testing of progress Then, the second way is through an analytic scoring which gives separate scores for different aspects of the task This scoring takes longer, but requires the teacher to take the variety of factors into account and it is probably fairer and more reliable However, one disadvantage is that the score may be distracted by all categories and lose sight of the overall situation performed by the students Therefore, four or five categories are probably to be the maximum criteria Meanwhile, Blaz (2000) argues that speaking is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of different ability which often develops at different rates She states that there are five components that are generally recognized in analyses of the speech process They are pronunciation, task completion, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehensibility Each element characteristics are then defined into four short indicators This helps to make the test reliable, since it avoids subjectivity because it provides clear, precise and mutually exclusive indicator statements for each point of the scale

Regarding the way in assessing the students’ speaking ability proposed by Thornbury (2005) and Blaz (2000), the researcher proposes to incorporate the analytic scoring with the rating scale By combining the analytic scoring and rating

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scale techniques, the process of assessing the students’ speaking ability will be more precise and easier

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability

The following are indicators stated by Brown (2000: 271-274) indicating that one can be called having a speaking ability They are as follows:

- Imitative He/she is able to imitate a word or phrase or possibly a sentence

- Intensive He/she is able to produce short stretches of oral language designed to demonstrate ability in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationship (such as prosodic elements – intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture)

- Responsive He/she is able to respond a very short conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments

- Transactional (dialogue) He/she is able to take the two forms of either transactional language which has the purpose of exchanging specific information

- Interpersonal It has the purpose of maintaining social relationships with the transmission of facts and information

- Extensive (monologue) He/she is able to develop (monologue) oral production including speeches, oral presentation, and story telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited or ruled out together

Meanwhile, Ur (1999: 120) says that the characteristics of a successful speaking activity are as follows:

First, learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learners’ talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

Second, participation is even Classroom discussion is not determined by a minority of talkative participants; all get chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

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Third, 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

Last, 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

From the statement above, it can be concluded that someone owns a certain language speaking competence if he/she can produce oral language to participate in any kind of activity He/she can also respond the other ones’ speaking to maintain his/her social relationship Besides, his/her language is acceptable and easily comprehensible at the level of language accuracy

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

Many researchers and language practitioners believe that the constructs of second language performance and second language proficiency are multi-componential in nature and that their principle dimensions can be adequately, comprehensively and captured by the notions of complexity, accuracy and fluency (Shehan 1998)

Accuracy (or correctness) is probably the oldest, most transparent and most consistent construct of the triad, referring to the degree of deviancy from a particular norm (Hammerly 1991; Wolfe-Quintero et al 1998) Deviations from the norm are usually characterized as errors Straightforward though this characterization may seem, it raises the thorny issue of criteria for evaluating accuracy and identifying errors, including whether these criteria should be tuned to prescriptive standard norms (as embodied by an ideal native speaker of the target language) or to non-standard and even nonnative usages acceptable in some social contexts or in some communities (Ellis 2008; James 1998; Polio 1997) There is not the same amount of (relative) denotative congruence in the applied linguistics community with regard to fluency and complexity as there is with regard to accuracy

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Historically, and in lay usage, fluency typically refers to a person's general language proficiency, particularly as characterized by perceptions of ease, eloquence and ‘smoothness’ of speech or writing (Chambers 1997; Freed 2000) Language researchers for their part have mainly analyzed oral production data to determine exactly which quantifiable linguistic phenomena contribute to fluency in L2 speech (e.g Lennon 1990; Kormos and Dénes 2004) This research suggests that speech fluency is a multi-componential construct in which different sub-dimensions can be distinguished, such as speed fluency (rate and density of delivery), breakdown fluency (number, length and distribution of pauses in speech) and repair fluency (number of false starts and repetitions) (Tavakoli and Skehan 2005)

As befits the term, complexity is the most complex, ambiguous and least understood dimension of the CAF triad For a start, the term is used in the SLA literature to refer both to properties of language task (task complexity) and to properties of L2 performance and proficiency (L2 complexity) (e.g., Robinson 2001; Skehan 2001) L2 complexity in turn has been interpreted in at least two different ways: as cognitive complexity and as linguistic complexity (DeKeyser 2008; Williams and Evans 1998) Both types of complexity in essence refer to properties of language features (items, patterns, structures, rules) or (sub) systems (phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical) thereof However, whereas cognitive complexity is defined from the perspective of the L2 learner-user, linguistic complexity is defined from the perspective of the L2 system or the L2 features Cognitive complexity (or 4 difficulties) refers to the relative difficulty with which language features are processed in L2 performance and acquisition The cognitive complexity of an L2 feature is a variable property which is determined both by subjective, learner-dependent factors (e.g aptitude, memory span, motivation, L1 background) as well as by more objective factors, such as its input saliency or its inherent linguistic complexity Thus, cognitive complexity is a broader notion than linguistic complexity, which is one of the (many) factors that may (but need not) contribute to learning or processing difficulty

of implicit and explicit knowledge influence the acquisition process The differential evolution of fluency, accuracy and complexity would furthermore be caused by the fact that ‘the psycholinguistic processes involved in using L2 knowledge are distinct from acquiring new knowledge To acquire the learner must attend consciously to the input and, perhaps also, make efforts to monitor output, but doing so may interfere with fluent reception and production’ (Ellis 1994: 107) Researchers who subscribe to the view that the human attention mechanism and processing capacity are limited (e.g Bygate 1999; Skehan 1998; Skehan and Foster 1999) also see fluency as an aspect of L2 production which competes for attention resources with accuracy, while accuracy in turn competes with complexity Learners may focus (consciously or subconsciously) on one of the three dimensions

to the detriment of the other two A different view is proposed by Robinson (2001, 2003) who claims that learners can simultaneously access multiple and non-competitional attention pools; as a result manipulating task complexity by increasing the cognitive demands of a task can lead to simultaneous improvement of complexity and accuracy

2.2.3 Methods to assess speaking ability

Regarding to assessing speaking ability, the teachers should give out objective grades in speaking class, and they can use the following criteria for evaluating students’ speaking abilities

First is to create a rubric Most teachers will be familiar with the concept of grading with a rubric, a table with different criteria and a grading scale The columns in the table will represent potential skill levels of the students For each

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criterion, define what level of the ability a student at each of the levels would exhibit Take the average level among the criteria and we have an objective grade with suggestions for areas in which our students can improve

Second criterion is based on pronunciation Pronunciation is a basis quality

of language learning Though most second language learners will never have the pronunciation of a native speaker, poor pronunciation can obscure communication and prevent an ESL student from making his meaning known When evaluating the pronunciation of our students, listen for clearly articulated words, appropriate pronunciations of unusual spellings, and assimilation and contractions in suitable places Also, listen for intonation Are students using the correct inflection for the types of sentences they are saying? Do they know that the inflection of a question is different from that of a statement? Listen for these pronunciation skills and determine into which level the students fall

Vocabulary should also be taken into consideration After noting students’

pronunciation levels, move to vocabulary Vocabulary comprehension and vocabulary production are always two separate banks of words in the mind of a speaker, native as well as second language We should encourage students to have a large production vocabulary and a larger recognition vocabulary For this reason it

is helpful to evaluate our students on the level of vocabulary they are able to produce Are they using the specific vocabulary we have instructed them in the semester? Are they using vocabulary appropriate to the contexts in which they are speaking? Listen for the level of vocabulary our students are able too produce without prompting and then decide how well they are performing in this area

The next criterion relates to accuracy Grammar has always been and forever will be an important issue in foreign language study Writing sentences correctly on

a test, though, is not the same as accurate spoken grammar As students speak, listen for the grammatical structures and tools we have taught them Are they able to use multiple tenses? Do they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? All

Being able to say what you mean with a foreign language is one thing, being able to interact with others is another Ask your students questions Observe how they speak to one another Are they able to understand and answer questions? Can they answer you when you ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses

in a conversation? All these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clear and effective communication in English A student with effective interaction skills will be able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happening around him Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far if he or she cannot listen to other people and respond appropriately Encourage our students to listen as they speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation

Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in our students’ speaking How comfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Are there great pauses and gaps in the student’s speaking? If there are then your student

is struggling with fluency Fluency does not improve at the same rate as other language skills You can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent You want your students to be at ease when they speak to you or other English speakers Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterion when evaluating speaking

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2.3 Teaching the speaking skill

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p 13) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

Now many linguistics and EFL teachers agree on that students learn to speak

in the second language by "interacting" Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other

in the target language In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students

collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task

2.3.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking ability

There are some influential factors in developing the speaking skill The factors that influence the speaking skills of the students are interest, motivation and environment The students’ interest to study and practice the speaking skill is an important factor By having strong interest, the learners will try to give a great attention to improve their speaking They will manage some activities that enable to increase skill

Dealing with the above opinion, it is necessary to know that one of the causes of the failure in teaching English at school is that the teacher still teaches with the routine activities without considering that it will make the students bored,

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and lost their attention to the teaching and learning process As the result, the students will not be able to catch the lesson easily because of their lost interest and participation

In other words, the technique used by the teacher in teaching English to the students, especially speaking skill, should be able to create an interesting atmosphere, so that the students will be comfortable, enthusiastic, excited, and interested in joining the lesson in the teaching learning activity It also can be said that: support, sacrifice, and diligence are the result of interest If someone has interest in something he will join and follow the activity, even in a long time

Motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning Motivation is a way of how individuals get interested, react to events that get their attention and engage in certain specified behaviors particularly in the learning process Motivated individuals will involve whole heartedly in the teaching learning process and they will have an intention to learn more and more Students can be motivated to perform well because of factors such as interest curiosity, the need to obtain information or solve a problem, or the desire to understand Learner motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant, as well as more productive Motivation has relationship with the power to move It can raise effort, power, and energy to do something

Environment is an important factor in gaining the speaking skill One of the reasons for the students’ failure to learn or maintain their second language is there is

no contact between learners and the community in which the language is spoken The components of this factor can be home environment, school environment, community environment, etc The environment that encourages the greatest amount

of use of the language is beneficial Based on the statements above, the writer can conclude that the successful students depend on their interest, motivation, and environment surrounding them It means that the students motivate themselves to achieve English, although there are extrinsic factors influencing their study

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However, the intrinsic interest and motivation has a stronger influence than the extrinsic one

2.3.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking

Ur (1996: 121) suggests fundamental problems that appear in the speaking class, as follows:

The first problem students often encounter is inhibition Speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience It is quite different from the other three skills, reading, listening and writing Learners are often inhibited about trying

to say things in a foreign language in the classroom They are usually worried in making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

“Nothing to say” is another problem Even if the learners are not inhibited, they often complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive

to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak

In speaking lessons, students seem to struggle with low or uneven participation Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In large group this means that each one will have only very little time to talk The problem is compounded by the tendency that some learners are dominant, while others speak very little or not at all

Mother-tongue use is considered as one of the most common difficulties in speaking foreign language In a class where the learners speak the same mother tongue, there is a tendency for them to use it because it is easier, more natural, and safe These problems are often found in the writer‘s class It can be seen from the following indicators First, students could not answer teacher‘s questions When the teacher asked questions, they just smiled and kept silent Second, students could not express their ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical forms Students did not know the English words and how to apply them in various grammatical forms Third, students often produced mispronounced words Fourth, most students used mother tongue in speaking class Instead of using various expressions in

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English, students expressed their ideas in the mother tongue Fifth, students could not pronounce the English words well

2.3.3 Principles for teaching EFL speaking

In the speaking activity, it is very important for the teacher to acquire the ability to teach appropriately Consequently, some principles of teaching speaking states in Nunan (2003:54-56) should be mastered by the teacher of language Those principles are as follows:

Be aware of the differences between second language and foreign language learning contexts Learning speaking skills in the foreign language context is very challenging, because the students only have little opportunities to practice in their environment Most of the people around them use their mother tongue rather than the foreign language Meanwhile, in the second language context, English is used to communicate in the society like English in UK and Singapore

Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy Fluency and accuracy are important in speaking skills Teachers need to develop their students’ fluency and accuracy by giving a lot of practice of speaking Some mistakes that the students made are a natural side when they learn a new language

Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting teacher talk A language teacher should not talk all the time and should give their students to talk in the classroom Group work and pair work can be the interesting activities that provide the students to practice speaking

Plan speaking tasks that involve the negotiation for meaning Speaking tasks mean activities to communicating appropriately and acceptably with others in the target language The negotiation for meaning happens when other students try to understand what their friend said by asking clarification, confirmation, or explanation

Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking There are two purposes in speaking They are transactional and interactional purposes Transactional purposes mean

First, use techniques that cover the spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning, and fluency In speaking activities, the students need to be a good speaker in order

to transfer the message to the others with appropriately and communicatively To be communicatively, they need to make their conversation meaningful, keep the interaction, and fluent in deliver it in order to make others understood about what they are saying

Second, provide intrinsically motivating techniques An English teacher needs to motivate the students to do the activities in the teaching-learning process

By explaining the benefit of the activities and materials to their future live well, they will be willing to do the activities

Third, encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts An English teacher needs to use the authentic language in meaningful contexts in the teaching-learning process It is not easy to do that; it takes the teachers’ energy and creativity to make an authentic context But, with the resource materials the teacher can make the authentic and meaningful context

Four, provide appropriate feedback and correction in most EFL students, they still make some mistakes in learning a language The teachers’ role in giving feedback and correction is needed for the students to diagnose, improve, and develop their skills The teachers can give the feedback and correction in the end of the lesson

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Next, capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening Speaking and listening are two skills that integrated When the teachers teach speaking, they cannot lose the listening section So, when they need to teach speaking and to reach the goal of speaking section, the listening goals are also coincide naturally

Then, give students opportunities to initiate oral communication Speaking is

an activity that forces the students to speak In this case, the teachers should give a lot of interactive activities and interesting techniques to support the students to willing to speak The teachers should give a lot of opportunities to the students during the teaching-learning process

Last, encourage the development of speaking strategies Students sometimes cannot develop their own personal strategies to make a good and meaningful communication The teachers need to give some practices like asking for clarification, asking someone to repeat something, using conversation maintenance cues, getting someone’s attention, and etc

In conclusion, there are some principles in teaching speaking that should be mastered in order to be a good English teacher For example, one of the challenges for foreign language teachers is that they should motivate their students to speak in the target language, and so on By keeping the principle in teaching speaking, the problems that usually happen in the teaching-learning process of speaking can be minimize For example, the students can be more confident by giving more opportunity through interactive activities They will always participate in the

classroom so the classroom atmosphere can be more enjoyable

2.3.4 Techniques for teaching EFL speaking

The Advanced Learner Dictionary of Current English (Oxford, 1987: 887) stated that in general, technique is method of doing something expertly While Brown (2001: 16) defines that technique is any of a wide variety of exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives

It can be inferred that techniques are the method of doing something through the activities or tasks Thus, technique is really important and is needed to do

Description of an object is a speech activity done by the students to describe

a certain object or event surrounding the students, probably a picture or something else (http://tefl.org/teach/speak/) This is also to train the students to express their ideas spontaneously in foreign language In this case, the teacher should avoid correcting the grammatical mistakes Just let them speak out

Pair work is a part of open pairs where the students talk to one another across the class under the teacher’s control (Byrne (1987: 31) The learners get a chance to work independently; pair work is good motivation and also good preparation for group work when they have to take a lot the responsibility for what they do They also can face and talk directly to one another, so it is much closer to the way we use the language outside classroom

Oral presentation is a short talk on a topic which the student has either been asked to prepare beforehand or has been informed of shortly before the test (Cross, 1991: 59)

Dialogue is a short conversation between two persons It can be presented as the language model in the manipulative phase of language learning The learners in this case are grouped into pairs The teacher‘s role is to prepare the students linguistically for what they have to say and to provide props which serve as stimuli for conversation In this case the learner is given a task to fill in a form which contains the information about his partner In order to do this, each learner in turn must ask questions and supply answers As a final activity, random learners are asked to tell the form in a narrative form

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2.4 Multimedia and second language acquisition

Technology has become an integral part of our life in the past half decade Machines have social origins, and they emerge from the needs of society Teachers need technologies relevant to the teaching-learning situation (Cakir, 2006) According to Wright (1976) many media and many styles of visual presentation are useful to the language learner That is to say those multimedia materials are useful

to language learning and teaching when they are presented at the right time and place

River (1981) explains that multimedia clearly contributes to the understanding of another culture by providing vicarious contacts with speakers of the language, though both audio and visual means Multimedia material brings “real life” into the classroom Multimedia materials show students how people behave in the culture whose language they are learning by bringing into the classroom a wide range of communicative situations Fries (1945) proposed that the most effective materials are those that are “based upon a scientific description of the language to

be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner” It’s clear that multimedia materials provide an effective way for students to easily and clearly compare their own culture with that of the target culture, by actually seeing it This is useful for both advanced language learners and novices

2.4.1 Theories about multimedia

Several cognitive theories are used to explain the value and effect of multimedia presentations in language learning environments The most prominent is the generative theory of multimedia learning proposed by Mayer (1997), which draws on Wittrock’s generative theory and Paivio’s dual-coding theory, is also used

to explain the relationship between of multimedia and language learning

2.4.1.1 Dual-coding theory

Dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1969, 1971) is the foundation for later multimedia learning and multimedia language learning theories Paivio and Begg

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(1981) assumed that memory and cognition are related to the sensory modality It hypothe- sizes that the two systems are served by two independent but interconnected coding systems: one specialized in dealing with verbal information and the other with nonverbal information The verbal system, deals with non-visual codes such as words, speech, language, or semantic codes; the other system, the visual system primarily deals with visual codes, such as images, pictures, concrete objects, or events In the learning process, the human mind creates separate verbal and visual mental representations (“encoding”) for incoming information using each

of the systems Although the two systems work independently, they are interconnected: representations in one system can activate those in the other For instance, objects can be named, and words can evoke the images of the objects in mind The relationship of the two systems has been shown to have positive effects

on recall

The dual-coding theory holds that when learners use both systems to encode information, they will learn and retain the information better than when they use only one system Generally, each of the systems functions independently, but most information processing requires connections and reinforcement verbal and visual systems, and hence the probability that they are retained in working memory and retrieved later from long-term memory is higher than when the presentation contains verbal information alone (Kobayashi, 1986)

The dual-coding theory has recently received supporting evidence from research in neural sciences By examining the scanned brain images of learners who were studying German vocabulary items, Fliessbach, Weis, Klaver, Elger, and Weber (2006) found that an anterior region in the precuneus - a bilateral region of the brain responsible for processing visual contents - was more strongly activated during the intentional encoding of concrete, more imageable words as compared to abstract, less imageable words Such a finding implies that the visuospatial systems

in the brain are involved in processing vocabulary, thus lending support to the coding theory

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2.4.1.2 The generative theory and second language acquisition

The application of the generative theory of multimedia learning to second language is based upon the dual-coding theory, the assumption that learners of a second/foreign language have two separate verbal systems (L1 and L2) and a common imagery system There is a suggestion that translations of words via simultaneous verbal and visual presentations would not only link the two verbal systems, but that this storage in the second verbal system would also have an additive effect on learning (Paivio & Desrochers, 1980) Mayer’s (1997, 2001, 2002) cognitive (generative) theory of multimedia learning is probably the most influential theory for L2 learning via multimedia in the past ten years, and has been referred to as a theoretical basis by many studies (e.g Al-Seghayer, 2001; Jones & Plass, 2002; Jones, 2003; Chun & Payne, 2004) The theory takes a step beyond dual-coding theory in modeling the detailed learning process in a multimedia environment

According to the theory, such a process contain three subcomponents: (a) selecting relevant verbal and visual information from the multimodal input, (b) organizing the selected information into the verbal and visual mental representations, and (c) integrating the resulting verbal and visual representations with each other (Mayer, 1997, 2001) Learning is therefore more likely to occur when learners can build meaningful connections between the verbal and visual mental representations Many design principles for effective multimedia learning have been proposed on the basis of this theory, such as presenting relevant verbal and visual information simultaneously (a principle that is applied in the design of many multimedia Computer Aided Assessment (CAA) materials), reducing cognitive load (e.g Mayer & Moreno, 2003; Moreno, 2004), and taking learner differences into consideration (e.g Moreno & Duran, 2004)

2.4.2 Influence of multimedia on second language acquisition

With constant popularization and development at full speed of multimedia technology that the computer used, the computer second language teaching of the

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multimedia has already become a kind of inevitable trend, and influenced all aspects

of the second language teaching The numerous scholars and teachers have already begun to explore it in this aspect It gets to outstanding achievements The key characteristic of the multimedia technology includes the diversification of information carrier, interaction, controlling and integrating aspects The multimedia computers indeed create a significant influence in English language teaching and learning as an effective kind of teaching way and a useful supplementary means

Nowadays, the prevailing traditional teaching methods and situations are unpopular while multimedia technology featuring audio, visual, animation effects naturally and humanly make us more access to information In addition to this such characteristics as abundant-information and crossing time and space, multimedia technology provides a sense of reality and functions very well, which greatly motivates students’ interest in study and their involvement in class activities Students can experience the subject which strengthen him a knowledgeable one

Traditional teaching has less importance in the students’ capacity to understand certain a language and hampers their understanding to structure, meaning and function of the language, and makes the students passive recipients of knowledge So it is difficult to achieve the target of communication With teachers’ instructions leading students’ thought patterns motivating students’ emotions, the multimedia technology classes set in new-type internet classroom seek combination

of teaching and learning and provide the students greater knowledge The modern English teaching method can activate students’ thinking; the visual and vivid course ware transforms English learning into capacity cultivation And such in-class activities as group discussion, subject discussion, and debate can also provide more opportunities for communication among students and between teacher and students

So multimedia technology teaching has separate inspired students’ positive thinking and communication skills in various social practices

The multimedia teaching can offer the students abundant information; the output of multimedia comprehensive English far more plentiful than textbooks, and

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it displays vivid cultural background, rich content and true-to-life language materials whish are much natural and closer to life Not only could learners improve their listening capacity or ability, but also learn the western culture Acquiring information through various channels can equip the students with knowledge and bring about information-sharing among students and make them participate actively

in class discussion and communication The combination of human-machine communication and interpersonal communication leads to overall development of students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills

Multimedia teaching enriches teaching content and makes the best of class time It breaks the “teacher- centered” teaching pattern and eventually improves class efficiency It is very common that the school and university students have their leaning effectively

Always English classes are very large crowded more in classroom During such circumstances, it is highly difficult for the students to have speaking communication The utilization of multi-media sound lab materializes individualized and co-operative teaching

The traditional teaching model predominantly gives prominence on teachers’ instruction, and the information given was limited On the contrary, multimedia technology goes beyond time and space, creates more vivid, visual, authentic atmosphere for English learning, induces the students’ initiatives and economizes class time meanwhile increases class information

2.4.3 Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

The comprehensible Input Hypothesis, proposed by Krashen, is a part of his theory of second language acquisition He noted the idea that language learners acquire language when they understand messages or receive “comprehensible input” The input can be in the form of oral and written language The input hypothesis answers the question of how a language acquirer develops competency over time

It states that a language acquirer who is at "level i" must receive

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comprehensible input that is at "level i+1." In other words, the input materials must be slightly higher than the learners’ current level Krashen stressed that the structures “i + 1” (above the existing level of competence) are understood by using context, knowledge of the world together with the existing competence “i” The comprehensible input is done with the help of context and extra-linguistic information

Adding subtitles to films would appear to increase the chances to help the learners to comprehend the content of the films Newman and Koskinen (1992) suggested that subtitled television is a valid form of comprehensible input, thus making subtitled films a source of comprehensible input, and leading to foreign language acquisition Moreover, subtitled films provide learners with the opportunity to experience the target language in a rich, more natural context (William, 1960)

The use of visual images, as a video-based instruction, has been claimed by many researchers to be effective in making listening input more comprehensible (Terrell, 1993; Mac William, 1986; Stempleski, 1990, 1991, 1992; Katchen, 1996; Raphan,1996) Authentic listening materials are also recommended as a means of providing students with more realistic contexts and comprehensible input (as cited in Lin, 2002) Hwang and Huang (2011) claimed that multimedia have beneficial effects on language learning because of abundant and authentic comprehensible input

Krashen’s Affective Filter hypothesis captured the relationship between affective variables and the process of second language acquisition by assuming that learners fluctuate with respect to the strength and level of the Affective Filter

A student with high motivation, high self-esteem and low anxiety will have a low affective filter, and will be able to take full advantage of the input On the other hand, a student with low motivation, low self-esteem and high anxiety will have a high affective filter, and will not be able to effectively process the input, even if it

is “comprehensible.”

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To sum up, Krashen suggested that language learners might be distracted by emotional factors in language learning process Negative emotions are formed through passive moods, including low motivation, low self-esteem, and anxiety

In order to reduce learners’ pessimistic mood and improve their learning motivation, Krashen implied that language teachers should create a comfortable, lower affective filter and motivation stimulating study environment, in which learners can develop higher self- esteem and a greater sense of confidence and fulfillment King (2002) stated, “Films provide more pedagogical options and are

a rich resource of intrinsically motivating materials for learners”

2.4.4 Correlation between input and output

Among SLA theories, “The best under peer scrutiny and actual pedagogical application is the Input-Interaction-Output (IIO) theory” (Block, 2003) And among the several extant versions of this model, Gass’s (1988, 1997) version is the most developed The researcher is going to discuss why multimedia material can be effective in language learning and teaching in the process of SLA by exploring the core concepts in Gass’s IIO model: Input, Comprehension Input, Noticing, Intake, Integration and Output (see Table 1)

“Input, the target language available to the learner, is considered the most important factor in SLA” (Gass 1997) Language learners only will produce

“output” when they got enough “input”; so obviously, rich “input” is the basic criterion of SLA

Much work has been done in identifying the characteristics that good input material should have (Krashen, 1982) These characteristics do not describe the material per se but the kind of criteria that should apply when selecting material for use in class Materials which allow “input” are likely to be strong on affective appeal; they are chosen because of their interest value to the learners rather than the type of structure or vocabulary they contain; they are not grammatically sequenced;

at the same time, they are not likely to be much beyond the level of the pupils; finally 8 they provide a lot of contextual support to facilitate comprehension

of the perfect ways to do this; multimedia material can be comprehensible to a variety of students because of the rich context it provides and its visual features which can help students’ comprehension in a way that other resources can’t

Furthermore, it’s important to remember that it is the learner who determines what the input is after all Comprehensible input alone does not guarantee learning;

as learners exhibit “input preferences”, choosing to pay attention, or not pay attention, to input based on perceived value or need (Beebe, 1985) When teachers make the lesson more interesting and enjoyable, this helps promote comprehension Multimedia presentations are attractive, challenging, and stimulating as long as they are chosen carefully and used properly

The next stage is Noticing and Intake Noticing is very important in language learning process The tradition way to teach a second language is to correct learners’ errors; however, recent research has found that language learners need to correct their errors by “noticing” them themselves, otherwise no matter how many times you correct them, they will make the mistake again and won’t be ready for