Using graphic organizers to improve high school EFL students’ speaking performance

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN TÊN ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN USING OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO IMPROVE EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE MASTER

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN TÊN ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN

USING OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO IMPROVE

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’

SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

VINH 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN NGỌC QUYÊN TÊN ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN

USING OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO IMPROVE

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT’S SPEAKING PERFORMANCE MASTER THESIS OF EDUCATION

Major: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Đình Phương

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Assoc Prof Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong, my supervisor, for his encouragement and enthusiasm He was willing to spend his time giving me good advice and making corrections many times in order for this research paper to be completed

I would like to thank the teachers and students at Chau Thanh High School where I have been teaching and gathering information for my study

I am also indebt my lecturers, my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their available comments and encouragement

Last, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents and younger sister for their love, care, tolerance and encourage

TABLES OF CONTENT

Pages

ACKNOWLEDEMENTS i

TABLES OF CONTENT ii

TABLES AND FIGURES iii

ABSTRACT v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Methods of the study 4

1.6 Design of the study 5

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The nature of speaking 7

2.2 Speaking performance 8

2.2.1 Characteristics of speaking of speaking performance 8

2.2.2 Factors affecting Speaking Performance 9

2.2.3 Types of classroom Speaking Performance activities 11

2.3 The teaching and learning of speaking 14

2.3.1 Stages of a speaking lesson 14

2.3.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson/ activity 16

2.4 Graphic Organizers 17

2.4.1 Definition of graphic organizers 17

2.4.2 Types of Graphic Organizers 19

2.4.3 Previous researches related on the effect of Graphic Organizers on student’s performance 23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research questions 27

3.2 Participants 27

3.3 Material 28

3.4 Research method and Procedure 30

3.4 1 Methods 30

3.4 2 Procedures 30

3.5 Instruments of Data Collection 32

3.5 1.Tests 32

3.5.2 Questionnaires 33

3.6 Data Collection Procedure 33

3.7 Analytic Procedure 34

Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Results 35

4.1.1 Students attitudes towards using Graphic Organizers in speaking lesson 35

4.1.2 The effects of Graphic Organizers on students’ speaking 39

4.2 Findings 46

4.3 Discussion 47

4.4 Applying Graphic Organizers in speaking class 49

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the study 57

5.2 Limitation of the study and suggestions for further study 58

REFERENCE 60

APPENDIX 63

LISTS OF TABLES Table 4.1.1 Students’ feeling and attitudes towards learning speaking skill

Table 4.1.2 Students’ feeling and attitudes towards learning speaking skill

with Graphic Organizers

Table 4.2.1 The pre-test result of two groups

Table 4.2.2 Mean and SD in the pre English speaking test

Table 4.2.3 Mean and SD in the post English speaking test

Table 4.2.6 The number of students in pre test and post test results of two groups

Table 4.2.7 The incidental probability (p) in pre test and post test results of

two groups

Table 4.4.3 The compare and contrast matrix of kinds of music

Table 4.4.6 KWL Graphic Organizer of lizards

LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 4.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking English

Figure 4.1.4 The benefits of using Graphic Organizers in learning speaking English Figure 4.1.5 Students’ feeling about the motivation and interest of using

Figure 4.4.4 The net word tree of disadvantages and disadvantages of zoos

Figure 4.4.5 The problem and solution Map of discussing the problem and solutions that

may occur in ocean environment

ABSTRACT

Speaking plays an important part in teaching and learning English and it is recognize

as the principle objective of language courses However, how to improve students’ speaking performance in classroom is not an easy task In order to improve the quality of speaking classes, the study just focuses on using Graphic Organizers to improve EFL 10thgrader’s speaking performance It is, therefore, the need for teachers to instruct the students Graphic Organizers and apply them into speaking period The study has been conducted for the aim of testing the effectiveness of using Graphic Organizers at Chau Thanh High School Students are divided into two groups called Experimental Group and Control Group The Experimental Group are taught speaking skill with Graphic Organizers while normal way is still applied in the Control Group Both groups have to take the pre test and post test After that a set of questionnaire included 8 questions is used

to investigate students’ attitudes, perspectives towards speaking and Graphic Organizers While the study provides some implications for teachers and researchers in general, it is not free from limitations The limitations are found in the data collection instruments and the number of strategies to be taught

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale

Speaking is considered one of the most important skills, especially in learning English as a foreign language It may be the best way to express the learners’ ability during learning English process The integral part of English teaching is to make students able to communicate well By speaking, people are able to discuss or raise their opinions about events happening around the world People who have ability in speaking will be better in sending and receiving information or message to another Therefore, students are often evaluated their success in English language learning on how well their improvement

on speaking the language

It seems that the concept of speaking is quite familiar to everyone; however, not anybody can give an exact definition of speaking In order to clarify this concept, the researchers define speaking as a hard skill to be mastered by the learners

Speaking in a foreign language is very difficult and competence in speaking takes a long time to develop Brown and Yule (1983) defined speaking as “a skill by which people are judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say speaking is an important skill which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people's thoughts and personalities Johnson (1995) argued “Speaking skill is the ability

in using oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other people

as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer.” Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are depending on the context

in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence")

(Nunan,1999:216)

The learning of language involves acquiring the ability to compose correct sentences and it involves an understanding of which sentences or parts of sentences are appropriate for a particular context (Krashen, 1982) We do speaking in order to communicate with each other Better communication means better understanding of others and themselves Communication is a continuous process of expression, interpretation, and negotiation The opportunities for communications are infinite and include systems of signs and symbols (Baker, 2003) Communication requires a sender, a receiver and a medium It can be said that both hearers and speakers do interactions by giving responds to what they have heard and listened to

Generally, people who encounter others through this oral communication have a certain goal that they want to achieve, the goal that underlies people to do the communication Spoken language is a primary phenomenon We speak a great deal more than we write, that is why language should be taught initially through speech Spoken language is essential to any language learning Learning to speak a foreign language is a learning that requires knowledge of the language and its application In mastering the speaking skill, the teacher must train and equip the learners with a certain degree of accuracy and fluency in understanding, responding and in expressing themselves in the language in speech

In language classroom, it is significant to develop students’ speaking ability However, speaking skill is one of essential skills but it is also the most difficult skill to develop According to Lukitasari (2003), there are some common problems that the students at high school face with during learning English speaking The first problem is that the environment does not support the students to speak English frequently Second, students do not want to talk or say anything because they suffer from a fear of making mistakes Third, students have low motivation to learn English, which may be one of the main difficulties of teaching speaking

Speaking lesson actually causes many difficulties to both teachers and learners in Vietnam In traditional method, grammar and vocabulary were emphasized more than other skills at Vietnam’s high schools Students do not pay attention to speaking and listening skills because these skills were not usually required in national graduation exams

or university entrance exams In addition, they have very little chance to practice speaking

in class and the problem is they usually feel unconfident when being asked to perform their ideas in front of the class For instance, they occasionally read sample conversations

in the text books and try to remember the structures in a passive way They seem to find difficult to express their ideas, discuss and exchange their thoughts with their friends Especially when being asked to make a speech or a presentation, they often feel confused

as they do not know how to organize and present their ideas: which ideas should come first and which one will be followed; which words should be selected for presenting; how

to connect the ideas with others during presentation To help the students improve their speaking skills, it is necessary to find ways to help them overcome their problems

A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task (Robinson,1995) It now widely applied in many fields, including teaching language It may help students to take note, learn vocabulary, review the lesson, and logically organizer idea By applying Graphic Organizers in teaching speaking, the aim of this paper is to help students improve their speaking performance As a tool to support students’ thinking and learning processes, many research students have shown that Graphic Organizers help students:

- Brainstorm ideas

- Develop, organize, and communicate ideas

- See connections, patterns and relationship

- Assess and share prior knowledge

- Highlight important idea

- Learn vocabulary

- Classify or categorize concepts, ideas and information

- Improve social interaction between students and collaboration among peers

The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “Using graphic

organizers to improve EFL high school’s speaking performance” It is hoped that this

study will provide teachers with a deep understanding the role of Graphic Organizers in speaking and help students develop their speaking skill which lead to their learning successfully as well as it will help the English teacher to overcome some problems in teaching speaking

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims to use Graphic Organizers to improve speaking performance for 10thgrade students at Chau Thanh High school The specific objectives of the study are:

- to investigate the students’ attitude towards using Graphic Organizers in speaking lessons

- to suggest way to use graphic organizers to encourage the 10th graders in Chau Thanh High School in speaking lessons

- to examine how 10th graders’ speaking performance may be improved when applying Graphic Organizers on speaking lesson

1.3 Research questions

The study is to answer two following research questions:

1 What are the 10th graders’ attitudes towards using graphic organizers in speaking lesson?

2 How may the use of Graphic Organizers improve the 10th graders’ speaking

performance?

1.4 Scope of the study

There are many ways to encourage students to learn English, but all these issues can not be fully covered in this paper Due to the limit time and length of the minor thesis, this paper only focuses on exploiting the using of Graphic Organizers as a way of improving

10th graders’ speaking performance at Chau Thanh High School

1.5 Methods of the study

The main method is experimental method and questionnaires

Procedure:

80 students of two classes 10 A5 and 10 A6 at Chau Thanh High School participated

in this results They were divided into two groups: The control group and the experimental group Before the treatment, both groups had to do a pre-test which had the format of PET speaking test and it included three parts

After that, the experimental group would be taught speaking with Graphic Organizers while the control group adopted traditional methods Post test which another PET speaking test was used to investigate how the use of graphic organizers influences on their speaking performance The pre-test was used at the start and post test was used at the end to determine whether students improve their speaking performance

The results of both pre-test and post-test were collected for analyzing the information The questionnaires to survey students’ attitudes are delivered after introducing graphic organizers in speaking performance They were just delivered for the Experimental Group

Data is collected and compared from the pre and post test to show whether students improve their speaking performance

1.6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of the following main parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and the scope of the thesis

The research questions, method and the design of the study are also included in this chapter

Chapter 2: Literature Review covers the concepts relevant to the study: theoretical

backgrounds of teaching speaking skills, definition and advantages of using graphic organizers as well as suggested ways to introduce graphic organizers in speaking lessons

Chapter 3: In this chapter the methodology of the study is described

Chapter 4: Finding and discussions presents and discusses findings of the difficulties

in teaching and learning speaking in Chau Thanh High School and some suggestions to

use graphic organizers to solve these problems

Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the findings and addresses the summary of the

study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews theories related to speaking strategies as well as teaching speaking in general and applying Graphic Organizers in speaking in particular All of these serve as a basis for measuring the effectiveness of using Graphic Organizers to improve the learners’ speaking performance which is carried out and presented in the next chapter

2.1 The nature of speaking

The nature of speaking has been discussed by many researchers

Little Wood (1981) states that oral communication is two-way processes between speaker and listener and it involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill

of understanding (or listening with understanding) For him, speaker and listener participate in oral communication process, and they use a productive skill which is speaking and receptive skill which is listening

Nunan (1999) shows that speaking also requires learners not only know how to produce language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also they have to understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language It means the learning of language involves the ability to make correct sentences which are appropriate for a particular context

Additionally, Richards and Renandya (2002) states that effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions that involves both verbal and nonverbal communication such as gestures, body language, and expressions are needed in conveying messages directly Brown (1994) agrees that -body language; gestures, eye contact, physical distance and other nonverbal messages play an important role in communication and successful oral communication involves:

a the ability to pronounce the words clearly

b mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns

c an acceptable degree of fluency

e skills in taking short and long speaking turns

f skills in the management of interaction

g skills in negotiating meaning

h conversational listening skills

j using appropriate conversational way

Generally, spoken language is a primary phenomenon We speak more than we write, that is why spoken language should be taught at first Learning to speak a foreign language requires knowledge of the language and its application in every particular situation Therefore, the teacher should teach learners with a certain degree of accuracy and fluency in understanding, responding and in expressing ideas in the spoken language

2.2 Speaking performance

2.2.1 Characteristics of speaking performance

In speaking performance, both fluency and accuracy are important Learners should be developed speaking skill through classroom activities

Fluency

Fluency is the main characteristic of the speaker performance and it is the essential goal that teachers aim to achieve in teaching speaking skill It means people speak easily, quickly, and few pause in order not to break down the Brown & Yule (1983) also states that “the term fluency relates to the production and it is normally reserved for speech It is the ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness, or undue hesitation.”

Accuracy

The second characteristic of speaking performance is accuracy Learners often need to be not only fluent but also accurate in the speaking foreign language If people speak English with a high level of accuracy it means they speak correctly with very few mistakes So, second language teachers emphasized accuracy in their teaching process Learners should pay attention to the correctness and the completeness of language form

when speaking For instance, they should focus on the grammatical structure, vocabulary and pronunciation

Grammar

Brown & Yule (1983) shows the difference between spoken grammar and written grammar and they list the following features of spoken grammar:

- Omission: one or more words in clause will be emitted (E.g Any luck? instead of

“Did you have any luck?”

- Repetition: spoken language is produced spontaneously, in real time, and we do not have time to plan what we are going to say This often results in repetition and additions

- Vagueness: It is more likely to be a sign of a skilled speaker Some examples of

vagueness in spoken English include: ish, kind of/ kinda, …, or something,…and things

like that

- Discourse markers: it is used in spoken English differently than those in written

English (E.g Well…, anyway…, I mean…, You know…)

Vocabulary

To achieve accuracy in terms of vocabulary means to choose the appropriate word

in the appropriate context Learners often use the same word or expression in different context which does not mean the same thing Thus, learners have to be able to use words and expressions accurately

Pronunciation

Canale & Swain (1980) stated that “the lowest level of knowledge speaker draw on

is the pronunciation” (p.24) Therefore, to speak the English language accurately, learners need to be knowledgeable about its phonological rules For example, they should be aware about the different sounds and their articulations Also, they should know about the stress, intonation, pitch…etc All these components help them to speak the language effectively and for better performance

2.2.2 Factors affecting speaking performance

In order to help students overcome problems in learning speaking, it is necessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance Students’ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come from performance conditions (time pressure, planning, standard of performance and amount of support), affective factors (such as motivation, confidence and anxiety), listening ability and feedback during speaking activities

Performance conditions

Students perform a speaking task under a variety of conditions Nation & Newton (2009) believe that performance conditions can affect speaking performance The four types of performance conditions include time pressure, planning, the standard of performance and the amount of support

Affective factors

One of the most important influences on language learning success or failure is probably the affective side of the learner Krashen (1982) states affective factors include a variety of affective factors which are influence to success in second language but most of those studies examined the three categories: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety

Listening ability

According to Doff (1998), speaking skills cannot be developed if we do not develop listening skills Students must understand what is said to them to have a successful conversation Shumin (1997) shares the ideas of Doff (1998) by stating that when one person speaks, the other responds through attending by means of the listening process In fact, every speaker plays the role of both a listener and a speaker Therefore, one is certainly unable to respond if he/ she cannot understand what is said It means speaking is closely related to listening

Topical knowledge

Topical knowledge is defined as knowledge structures in long-term memory (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) In other words, topical knowledge is the speakers’ knowledge of relevant topical information The information that topical knowledge

provides enables learners to use language with reference to the world in which they live Bachman & Palmer (1996) state certain test tasks may be easier for those who possess the relevant topical knowledge and more difficult for those who do not Bachman & Palmer (1996) believe that topical knowledge has effects on speaking performance

Feedback during speaking activities

Most students want and expect their teachers to give them feedback on their performance However, all speaking production should not be dealt with in the same way Harmer (1991) asserts that the decisions that the teachers make about how to react to students’ performance will depend on the stages of the lesson, the activities, the types of mistake made and the particular student who is making that mistake If the teachers correct whenever there is a problem, the conversational flow as well as the purpose of the speaking activity will be destroyed (Harmer, 1991) If the students are corrected all the time, they can become afraid to speak They suggest that the teachers should always correct the students’ mistakes positively and with encouragement

2.2.3 Types of classroom speaking performance activities

Speaking should be practiced in class through activities Therefore, teachers should apply different oral activities in speaking lessons to encourage their students to speak Language learners need to practice the language regularly inside the classroom through performing different activities The finally aim of communicative activity in class is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in real life According to Davies

& Pearse (2000), there are many different activities that can be done in classroom to help the learners to develop their speaking skill Those below are some of the common one

Discussion

The most common activity used in speaking classes is discussion This activity gives the students the opportunity to talk and share their interests, opinions, and experiences Students often are unwilling to give their opinions in front of the whole class So, to avoid such problems, the teacher should divide the class into groups When getting into groups, students will easily to exchange ideas or give suggestions Teachers

should be careful in planning and setting up a discussion activity First of all, the topic must be interesting, easy to talk about, and touching their real-life situations Celle-Murcia & Olshtain (2000) stated that “students need to be clear about what they are to discuss, why they are discussing it, and what outcomes is expected” Second, well grouping or pairing students is a step for a successful discussion, and finally every student should participate in the discussion in order to make all the students speak and use the target language

Role-play

It is an enjoyable activity for most of the students particularly those who like to imitate the others Role play is an authentic technique because it encourages a large number of students especially if it is based on real-life situations; moreover, it helps them

to reduce their fears in front of the whole class because usually it should be performed in pairs or groups Thus, each student has to perform a role In addition, role play activity gives the students the opportunity to practice and develop variety of socio-cultural speech acts that are appropriate to the situation and to the characters For example, when requesting, apologizing, complaining, thanking… etc This activity can be performed from prepared scripts, student's imagination or experience The success of the role play depends on the choice of the topics and to the teacher's motivation

Communicative tasks

Those activities are very entertaining for both students and teachers because they make a sense of humor in the classroom In addition, they are directed to achieve some extra linguistic goals Canale & Swain (1980) showed that communicative activities are characterized by some features:

- The tasks should be from real-life situations

- Achieving some outcome by using language in funny way

- Make the students practice and interact

- The students use their language without limitations

Therefore, those are some of the communicative tasks that can be used in classroom to make the students speak and engage in classroom interaction

Jigsaw activity

This activity should be done better in groups rather than individually, in such tasks the teacher arranges four flashcards and tells the learners about the general idea that these cards uphold Then, s/he distributes the cards for four subgroups (one per each) After a moment the teacher asks the members of all the subgroups number one, for instance, to describe what s/he has seen Later on, the teacher and subgroup number one members decide upon the idea that this card upholds

Find the differences

Here, the teacher gives each two students two pictures about the same thing however there are a slight differences about them So, the students will stand in front of their classmates and each one describes a piece from his picture than the audience try to guess where the difference between them is The teacher role here is to create a sense of competition between the audiences

Chain story

This activity is so funny because the teacher tries to create a story with his/her students First of all, the teacher must make their students motivated to do such activity Then he will begin the story after that he gives turns to the students Each student should create a new sentence from his imaginations and by the end they finish with a new story

Academic presentations

This type of activity gets the learners present academic presentations with formal characteristics It can be presented individually, in pairs or in groups A discussion takes place when the students finish their presentation For instance, students will be divided into small groups and each group will choose and prepare a topic before presenting Each group can select a group leader; he is a person who gives tasks for each member After preparing their own topic, they can take turn to present in front of the class This activity

is useful in developing team spirit and responsibility of each member

2.3 The teaching and learning of speaking

2.3.1 Stages of a speaking lesson

A simple speaking activity consists of three main stages: Setting up, Speaking practice and Feedback (Richard, 2000)

Setting up

The teacher introduces students the speaking topic The specific steps are:

- Explaining (The teacher has to breaking instructions into small steps.)

- Demonstrating (It is especially important in speaking activities, when students are often working in pairs or groups that they know exactly what to do.)

- Double checking is step to make sure every student knows what to do

- Practicing the language with the whole class

- Giving clear signals when to start and stop

- Circulating and listening (Teacher goes around while students are speaking and listening)

- Not interrupting but carrying a piece of paper and noting down mistakes and problems

- Controlling the activity (Teacher makes sure that it’s not too noisy and English is spoken.)

Feedback

Students may report to the rest of the class on what they have talked about in their pairs or groups The teacher gives feedback and deals with any problems The teacher may go through with the following steps:

- Bringing the class back together

- Asking a few students to report back

- Giving feedback on the language practiced/ correcting mistakes

 The teacher writes mistakes taken during practice on the board

 Students try to correct them

 The teacher explains again if necessary

 The teacher focuses on pronunciation if necessary

The stages of speaking lesson are also divided into three different main stages: speaking, while-speaking and post speaking There is no exact time for each stage in a skills lesson in general and a speaking lesson in particular; however, the teacher should notice that most of the time must be for while stage, which gives students enough time for practicing speaking skill

Pre-speaking stage (Presentation stage)

The stage prepares students for getting them to think about the topic or situation before they speak about it Pre-speaking tasks can be:

- Discussion or brainstorming (where students collect all their ideas on the topic)

- Vocabulary preparation (where the teacher teaches key vocabulary to aid comprehension)

- Prediction (where students guess what they may learn about)

A good pre-speaking is also necessary to involve integrating skills, maybe listening and sometimes reading (for example, an information gap text) This stage should be kept short, about 10 minutes equivalent the presentation stage of a Grammar lesson, but giving

enough time for students to assimilate to what they are going to speak Warm-up activities

may be included in this stage In this stage, the teacher’s role is to get students think about what they are going to speak before they speak The teacher will have to set up the Pre-task and his/her clear instructions are required

While-speaking stage (Practice stage)

This stage is the time for students to practice speaking The teacher does not have

to do a lot of things because students will be working on the while tasks individually or in pairs, in groups When working on the tasks, they may have some difficulties because of a lack of language variety; therefore, during this stage, the teacher may monitor and assist weaker students with their difficulties in completing while tasks instead Also, the teacher needs to evaluate how well students have completed the tasks and whether they are ready

to go to the next stage or not Activities called communicative ones are truly essential to

be applied in this stage for the purpose of helping students practice speaking skill They can be a role play, a game or a discussion Depending on the lesson and the classroom condition, the teacher will choose and set up the suitable activities for students

Post-speaking stage (Personalization stage)

After students have practiced speaking skill in the while stage, they may do an extension activity in this stage This helps students take the information or whatever they have produced in the previous stage and do something meaningful with it The post task is usually “an information transfer” – a production type of exercise where they respond to what they have just learnt They respond in the way that relating what 10 they have learnt

to their own experience For instance, if they talk about a world famous football player in the while stage, they may talk or write about their own favorite one in this follow-up stage Writing is a very appropriate integrating skill for this stage If students conduct a questionnaire on their friends in the while task, they may write up the results in a short paragraph, for example

2.3.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

According to Richard (2000) some advice for teachers is suggested to create a good speaking lesson plan:

- Learners talk a lot: Learners should be speaking for most of the lesson or activity This helps to achieve the goal of teaching English for communication

- Participation is equal: All of the students should be grouped and organized so that

they can participate in the lesson/ activity not just a minority of talkative students

- Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and they want to contribute to the lesson/ activity

- Language is appropriate: Learners’ discussion should be relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and at an acceptable level of language accuracy

- Teacher monitoring and modeling: The teacher should be walking around and monitoring conversations to ensure that the lesson is meeting its objectives and that the level of the activity is appropriate

2.4 Graphic Organizers

2.4.1 Definition of graphic organizers

A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task (Hall and Strangeman, 2001) Miller (1998) describes graphic organizers as diagrams or illustration of written or oral statements Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps, concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers, or concept diagrams They include semantic maps, semantic feature analysis, cognitive maps, story maps, framed outlines, and Venn diagrams (Kim et al., 2004)

Graphic Organizers include words, images or symbolic patterns (conceptual, hierarchical, cyclical and sequential) They present verbal, visual, and logical learning styles

Graphic Organizers have different lay outs but they usually have a similar purpose They depict the relationships between facts and figures or key concepts and ideas within a learning task According to Robinson (1995), a variety of types of organizers are chosen for their appropriateness for the content They are the effective tool in planning, instruction, and assessment They can enhance and facilitate students’ understanding and develop their full potential

Graphic Organizers can be classified either in terms of their design or their function Functionally, Graphic Organizers can be grouped into two categories: those that depict basic information structures (whole-to-part, cause/effect, etc.) and those that serve

specialized needs (project planning, goal setting) For the language classroom, the most common functions are:

For example, if the speaking presentation focuses:

 on sequential manner, a list or a timeline is often used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

 a compare/ contrast mode, a 2-column chart or Venn diagram is used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

 a central theme, a mind map or a network tree is used

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

2.4.2 Types of Graphic Organizers

There are a wide variety of designs for depicting the same basic information structures, but all serving the same basic purpose of visually revealing to learners how the

information is structured According to Bromley (1999), some common designs include:

Clock, Cluster/Word Web, Describing Wheel, E-Chart, Fact and Opinion, Five W's Chart, Flow Chart, Four-Column Chart, Goal-Reasons Web, Hierarchy chart, Idea Wheel, KWL/KWHL Chart, Ladder, Observation Chart, Persuasion Map, Planning Chart, Progress Report, Sequence Chart, Spider Map, Step-by-Step Chart, Story Map, T-Chart, Time Line, Tree Chart, Venn Diagram

Choosing the appropriate organizers involves consideration of function, purpose, the nature of the material/information, the classroom activity and personal preference Some initial questions to consider are:

 Is only one topic involved, or are there many?

 Is it a complex topic?

 Is the information linear or cyclical?

 Are there similarities and differences, pros and cons?

 Is this time involved? Are there hierarchical level?

After considering these questions, in this research, the researcher focuses on six basic Graphic Organizers which are able to apply to teaching speaking skills in the English textbook for grade 10 in Vietnam

Venn diagram

Description

A Venn diagram consists of two (or sometimes as many as five) overlapping circle

It is used to help students compare and contrast two characters, setting, events, or other literary element

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Cause and effect map

Description

A cause and effect map is one of the effective organizers used to show relationships of all factors (causes) that lead to the given situation (effect) It is usually preceded by cause and effect analysis

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Problem and Solution Map

Description

One of the organizers to promote critical thinking, a problem and solution map is applied to teaching speaking in which problems and solutions for a problem are discussed This reading guide also helps students improve productive skills by talking or writing clearly and persuasively about the anticipated results if solutions are carried out

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Compare and contrast matrix

Description

The compare and contrast matrix is used as a means of comparing different historical events, geographical regions, cultural and traditional differences or political

systems It is best suited to speaking presentation that is full of details and requires the students to learn many facts about different people, places, or events (Miller, 2011)

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

Network tree

Description

A network tree is a type of graphic organizer that shows connections of facts and information related to the speaking topic It is made of a series of oval of two or three different sizes connected by many branches to show how facts and information branch off

of a main idea or topic

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

K-L-W chart

Description

A K-L-W chart helps students understand what they know (K), what they want to know (W), and what they learned (L) when speaking or researching a topic

Bromley, K (1999) 50 graphic organizers for reading, writing and more

2.4.3 Previous researches related on the effect of Graphic Organizers on Students’ performance

The idea of Graphic Organizer is based on Ausebel’s assimilation theory of cognitive learning (Ausebel et al., 1978) According to them, the information is organized

by mind in a hierarchical top-down fashion The cognitive approach to learning seeks to understand how incoming information is processed and structured into memory (Weinstein & Mayer,1986) Cognitive learning is that the memory system, which its short term and long term sorting and encoding components, guide the learning process Learning is the best achieved when the information is presented systematically and store

in the students’ brain in an organized, meaningful and useable manner (McElroy & Coughlin, 2009)

Studies have shown that meaningful learning can be assisted through the use of Graphic Organizers (GOs) Students who used Graphic Organizers as a learning strategy performed better than the students who used underlining ( Amer, 1994), note-taking ( Reader & Hammond, 1994), discussing with co-students (Chularut, De Backer, 2004), or outlining (Robinson & Kiewra, 1995) McElroy and Coughlin (2009) state that there were several examples of GOs for how professor can apply cognitive learning theory to their classroom teaching of counter analysis using GOs GOs also can be used in all phases of learning from brainstorming ideas to present findings They can be used individually or in large group

This part will provide a review of the literature concerning the use of Graphic Organizers in the classroom to aid in the comprehension of social studies content

Hall and Strangeman (2001) believed that different varieties of graphic organizers improve their effectiveness for learning The following six graphic organizers have great utility in the classroom because they correspond to six common patterns into which most information can be organized: descriptive patterns, time-sequence patterns, process/cause-effect patterns, episode patterns, generalization/principle patterns, and concept patterns Graphic organizers provide speakers with new approaches to speak that build on their schema and extend their knowledge The speakers are given a clearer, more distinct, visual method of organizing information (Chang et al., 2002) In speaking performance, they assist learners to:

(1) Clarify and organize information into categories (main ideas, supporting ideas, topic sentences, facts, opinion, etc.)

(2) Organize information for better understanding

(3) Construct meaning of difficult words and sentence dividing into lexis

(4) Understand the topic by associating with prior knowledge

Moreover, a Graphic Organizer (also known as a concept map, mind map or relationship chart) is usually a one-page form with blank areas for learners to complete with ideas and information which are connected in some way Some organizers are very specific; others are versatile According to Griffin, the information on a Graphic Organizer could just as easily be written on a form or list, but the organizer offers certain advantages:

(1) Graphic Organizers provide the learner with a different way of seeing and thinking about information

(2) Language barriers (words, grammar) are removed, so that learners can focus on the connections between information

(3) The visual display conveys complex information in a simple-to-understand manner Showing (as opposed to telling) how information is structured is a way of facilitating understanding In most cases, dual-presentation (visual representation plus is more successful than either approach alone, regardless of whether the student is a visual or auditory learner

(4) Analytical, critical, planning and creative thinking skills are developed To create the map, the learner has to identify the relationships between items, examine the meanings attached to them, and priorities the information and decide where each item should be placed on the map Students are more likely to become strategic learners

(5) A lot of information can be converted into a structured, easy-to-read, graphic display A large amount of information can be displayed to provide the "big picture" of a topic

(6) Changes can easily be made to allow learners to take different perspectives and clarify their thoughts Organizers are easy to edit, revise, and add to

(7) Creating the map helps the learner to generate ideas and see the possibilities associated with a topic as the map grows

(8) Graphic organizers have multiple uses They can be used to structure writing projects, summarize reading texts, organize and store vocabulary, and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research and brainstorming

(9) Subject-matter is comprehended faster and more efficiently Because the demands

of processing the language are reduced, content can be considered at more sophisticated levels

(10) While organizers often represent an individual's arrangement of information, they can also be used at group or class levels A class flow-chart of the storyline of a class reader may help all the students to follow the plot

(11) Since most graphic organizers use short words or phrases, and sometimes drawings, they can be used with all levels and with young and less-able learners

(12) The teacher is given a record of the learner's thinking process Graphic organizers can be used to assess students' knowledge and understand of the content, thinking skills and creativity

Graphic organizers are communication devices that show the organization or structure of concepts as well as relationships between concepts, which give variety of benefits to teachers and learners From above given advantages, teachers should choose appropriate ways to introduce Graphic organizers to their classes

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter has presented a literature review which is a necessary theoretical background for present study This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and analysis in the study

3.1 Research questions

The study aimed to find out the answer for these following questions:

1 What are the 10th graders’ attitudes towards using graphic organizers in speaking lesson?

2 How may the use of Graphic Organizers improve the 10th graders’ speaking performance?

3.2 Participants

This study will be carried out at Chau Thanh high school in a rural area in Long An,

a province in the South of Vietnam The school has about 600 students whose age ranges from fifteen to eighteen Most students come from small villages of Chau Thanh district English is taught in this school as a foreign language In generally, students in this school have several difficulties when studying English The problem is that most of students do not have good command in English and this number of students is the majority Students are often scared about learning English and learn English with the aim to pass the exam They frequently concentrate on easier skills than others such as vocabulary or grammar Speaking and writing are mostly ignored during English classes Therefore, it is very

difficult for the teachers to make a balance in teaching these classes

In Chau Thanh High School, the tenth graders range from 15-16 years of age The school includes about 220 students from 6 classes which are ranged from 10A1 to 10A6

In this study, the researcher chooses two classes 10A5 and 10A6 to participate in this research 10A5 with 40 students is assigned as a control group with the traditional speaking approach, and the other 10A6 also with 40 students is the experimental group

which will be taught graphic organizers in speaking lesson

They all are living in Chau Thanh district All of them have been learning English for four years at secondary schools They have also learnt and got to know speaking skill at secondary school In many speaking lessons, they have also learnt to present a topic or report their group’s work to the whole class However, only few of them can present topic required in the English text book 10 in front of the class This means that they seem to be beginners in speaking English when they entered high school After interviewed, Most of them said that they had never been introduced Graphic Organizers before Therefore, teacher, also the researcher, explains carefully to them about the Graphic Organizers

before applying it in teaching speaking lesson

3.3 Material

The material used for this study is The TIENG ANH 10 text book which consists of

16 units:

Unit 1: A day in a life of

Unit 2: School talks

Unit 3: People’s background

Unit 4: Special education

Unit 5: Technology and you

Unit 6: An excursion

Unit 7: The mass media

Unit 8: The story of my village

Unit 9: Undersea world

Unit 10: Conservation

Unit 11: National parks

Unit 12: Music

Unit 13: Films and cinema

Unit 14: The world cup

Unit 15: Cities

Unit 16: Historical places

The content of the English text book is designed on particular topics which is the basement to choose and organize the content and materials According to this view, students are considered as the central and the major subject of the learning process They may actively and creatively participate in the activities; the tasks with help learners improve communicative English skills Teachers play roles as a controller, counsellor and organizers of the teaching and learning process Each unit is separated into 5 parts:

Part A Reading

Reading lesson is often the first to be taught in order to develop reading skills for learners such as scanning, or skimming This also helps students to get to know with the topic and provides them knowledge, vocabulary, information…to speak, listen or write A reading passage is often from 190-230 words in length Teaching and learning process are divided into three stages: Before reading, while reading, and post reading

Part B Speaking

Speaking is a productive skill Topic relating to the topic of the unit will be presented for students to speak This part helps students develop speaking skills through daily conversations, dialogue, report or presentation Teaching and learning process are divided into three stages: Before speaking, while speaking, and post speaking

Part C Listening

Similarly with reading lesson, it is also divided into three stages: before listening, while listening, post listening Listening skills such as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for main idea, ect

“Tieng Anh 10” and these topics are familiar to students’ daily life such as routine activities, environment issues, and places of scenic beauty or modern technology It is also included integral grammar points which are useful for students However, students often get boring and tired in some speaking periods The speaking tasks seem to be more difficult than other skills The design of speaking tasks quite simple but their requirement

is not easy especially in post speaking period Students are usually asked to report or present the topic, which can sometimes not be covered within a period of only 45 minutes Therefore, it is very necessary for teachers to organize, arrange and apply some new activities to avoid boredom in the classroom

Part E Language Focus

Learners’ language competences are consolidated in this lesson There are two main parts in this section: Pronunciation and Grammar

There are four lessons a week for each class: three main lessons and one optional lesson The school year includes two semesters The first semester lasts 19 weeks with 57 periods and the second semester lasts 18 weeks with 54 periods Students have to finish tests during the school year: two final exam tests, four 45- minute written tests, four 15 –minute written tests, two speaking tests, two or three oral tests

3.4 Research methods and procedures

3.4.1 Methods

This research used pre-test and post-test experimental design, which was consider testing the effect of the study Quantity approaches were utilized to measure the effect independent variable on dependent variable

3.4.2 Procedures

The research lasted during 8 weeks in the second semester at Chau Thanh High School At the first stage, 80 students from the class 10A5 and 10A6 took part in the study They were divided into two groups: Group 1 (Experimental Group) and group 2 (Control Group) Before the treatment, the lesson plan had been prepared carefully and all participants in two groups have to participate in the test The first test for two groups is a

pre speaking test (See Appendix 2) Every student in two groups chooses a given topic and

speaks for 3 or 4 minutes The marks of the speaking test were based on the rubric for

speaking performance (See Appendix 3)

There were 80 students who were taken part in my experience They had similar level of English and knowledge They were sixteen years old and they learn English as a second language The speaking component in the program was performed in a conventional way: first, the teacher provided pre-speaking activities which provided explanations of vocabulary and structure The second activity was for students speaking tasks The third activity was using Graphic Organizers for the experimental group while the control group did not use The control group followed the speaking tasks in the text book The last activities students had presented the given topic for two groups

At the beginning of teaching in experimental group, the teacher showed the participants vocabulary or structure related to the speaking topic After that, the teacher delivered the Graphic Organizer templates and required them to collect the ideas for the topic and the students had to follow it to think more ideas that helped them understand deeply the main topic of the speaking task To do this activity, the teacher divided the students into 8 groups Each group had a copy of graphic organizer template and they had to try to complete the template with their own ideas Each group had a group leader, he or she had responsibility to divide the tasks and control others member’s activities in his or her group Each group also had their secretary and he or she had responsibility to write down group’s ideas Then, the teacher showed their students some advice make their speaking more coherent For example, they could use transition words, connectors and the teacher went around helping students After collecting ideas, the students tried to connect the ideas to create a complete speaking presentation The next step was every group would take turn to present the topic in front of the class Other groups listened and gave their comment or added the information to the topic During 4 lessons applied Graphic Organizers, every students had to take part in presenting in front of the class Their presentation was carefully recorded for analysing the data The teacher’s feedback was

given at the end of every lesson

In the fact that there were three similar ways in teaching speaking but the third step had different between Group 1 and Group 2 In Group 1, the teacher used Graphic Organizers for students collecting main ideas of the topic For example, in lesson 1, the teacher used “Problem and Solution Map” In lesson 2, “Net word Tree” was implemented while “Timeline” was conducted in lesson 3 The last lesson “Compare and Contrast Matrix” was used Meanwhile, the teacher used the same strategy for their students Therefore, both groups practised different strategy It means the teacher can compare the advantages of using Graphic Organizers to check student’s speaking performance improvement

At the third stage, when the teacher had finished teaching the task, the teacher recognized the level of increasing students’ speaking performance easily by collecting the results of the speaking test that students had done after two months The results of two

groups were calculated by the mean and standard, the average of the entire test which

was described on the charts in Chapter 4

In the fourth stage, the important problem of the treatment was how to have good results from the speaking test Motivation plays an important role in successful result It means that when the teacher had finished teaching lessons, the teacher had also ten questions for students answer about the advantages and disadvantages of learning Graphic Organizers The learning Graphic Organizer strategy was the problem which the students must discuss more and more because this is the new method to help them easy organize the speaking coherently and logically

3.5 Instruments of Data Collection

3.5.1 Tests

Tests were administered to explore the students’ speaking proficiency, and then are used to collect data about subjects’ ability and knowledge of the second language Of course, in order to give concise results tests must be well designed to measure students’ ability A good test should have five main characteristics: validity, reliability,

discrimination, practicality and backwash

In order to satisfy all the criteria for a good test, in this study the tests were taken from the Sample PET Tests, which is also known as Preliminary English Test It is thought to be suitable for the participants’ level of language proficiency At the time of the study, their English proficiency was at elementary level, so simple speaking tasks were chosen to be more appropriate for the subjects All of these tests are included in Appendix 2 The reason for choosing these test items is that all of them can be regarded as standardized tests They are developed by experts and therefore considered to be well constructed, reliable and valid

3.5.2 Questionnaire

In survey research, a questionnaire is an instrument that is comprised of a set of questions to be asked to the participants of the survey Questionnaires usually ask questions that elicit ideas and behaviors, preferences, traits, attitudes and facts

In this research the questionnaires is delivered after introducing the Graphic Organizers to students in order to investigate their attitudes towards Graphic Organizers

3.6 Data Collection Procedure

The data collection procedure were implemented in the early of January and ended

in the first week of March 2017 All of the procedures involved the following steps:

- In the first week of January, 80 students in two groups took part in the Pre-test

before starting the second term of the school year These tests scores were gathered and

the analysed to identify the students’ speaking proficiency

- The treatment of Graphic Organizers on the Experimental Group lasted for 8 weeks from the first week of January to the last week of February

- In the first week of March, all students in two groups were required to take the Post-test And the test scores from these tests were collected and analysed to compare with the score of pre-test to find out how effective Graphic Organizers were to the improvement of students’ speaking performance