A comparative analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce pre intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking english at ha noi foreign language teaching center

List of Tables Table 1: The causes of the learners’ anxiety in speaking English Table 2: Some communicative activities used in speaking lessons Table 3: The learners’ feeling about CA us

Phân tích so sánh một số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm sự

lo lắng của người học khi nói tiếng Anh tại trung tâm Anh ngữ

sư phạm Hà Nội

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HÀ NỘI – 2011

Phân tích so sánh một số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm sự

lo lắng của người học khi nói tiếng Anh tại trung tâm Anh ngữ

sư phạm Hà Nội

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thu Lệ Hằng, M.A

HÀ NỘI – 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements……… i

Abstract……… ii

Table of Contents………iii

List of Tables and Charts………vi

List of Abbreviations……… vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1.1 Rationale of the Study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Research questions 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

1.7 Definitions of Terms 4

PAT TWO: DEVELOPMENT……….5

Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 5

1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching 5

1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety 6

1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety 7

1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety 7

1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning 8

1.3 Communication Activities 10

1.3.1 Definitions of Communicative Activities 11

1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English 11

1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities 12

1.3.3.1 Role – Play 13

1.3.3.2 Information – Gap 14

1.3.3.3 Discussion 14

1.3.4 Using Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking

English……… 15

1.3.5 Summary 16

Chapter II: METHODOLOGY……… 18

2.1 Research methods 18

2.1.1 Rationale for Action Research 18

2.1.2 Questionnaire Survey 19

2.1.3 Observational Method 20

2.2 Research Design 21

2.2.1 Action Research Procedure 21

2.2.2 Subjects of the Study 23

2.3 Summary 23

Chapter III: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS……… 25

3.1 Pre-action research survey 25

3.1.1 Classroom observation 25

3.1.2 The Pre- Questionnaire 27

3.2 Action plan implementation 30

3.2.1 Role-play activities 30

3.2.1.1 Samples of role-plays 31

3.2.1.2 Procedure of a role-play activity 31

3.2.1.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 32

3.2.1.4 Findings and Notice 33

3.2.2 Information gap activities 33

3.2.2.1 Sample information gap activities 33

3.2.2.2 Procedure of an information gap activity 34

3.2.2.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 34

3.2.2.4 Findings and Notice 35

3.2.3 Discussion activities 35

3.2.3.1 Sample discussion activities 35

3.2.3.2 Procedure of a discussion activity 36

3.2.3.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 36

3.2.3.4 Findings and Notice 37

3.3 Observation Results 37

3.4 Post action research survey 39

3.5 A Comparative Analysis of Some Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English 42

3.6 Summary 43

PART THREE: CONCLUSION………45

Summary of the Study 45

Limitations of the study 46

Suggestions for further research 46

References……….48 Appendices……… I

Appendix 1……… I Appendix 2……….III Appendix 3……… V Appendix 4……….VI Appendix 5……… VIII Appendix 6……… X

List of Tables

Table 1: The causes of the learners’ anxiety in speaking English

Table 2: Some communicative activities used in speaking lessons

Table 3: The learners’ feeling about CA used in speaking lessons

Table 4: The learners’ feelings after participating in communicative activities in speaking

lessons

Table 5: Effectiveness of reducing the learners’ anxiety in speaking English through

communicative activities

List of Charts

Chart 1: I feel anxious when speaking English in class

Chart 2: The learners’ participation extreme in communicative activities used in speaking

lessons

Chart 3: The learners’ interests in communicative activities

List of Abbreviations

CAs: Communicative Activities

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the Study

Nowadays, with the development of technology and information together with the spread of globalization, English becomes a global language because it is broadly used in various fields of our life such as in technology, business, commerce, communication and

so on As a result, learning English for communication skills has created a huge demand for teaching and learning English around the world The fact shows that communicative approach of teaching English is preferred in learning English Teaching English is not only

on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability Therefore, in order to develop the learners‟ communicative ability, teachers need to create a good classroom environment which motivates their speaking activities

In recent years in Vietnam, English has been playing a very important role in the development of the country firstly because it is an international language and secondly it is also seen as a mean to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries Consequently, more and more people desire to know and focus on English to keep pace with the update development in technology in the world Therefore, English is not only widely taught at schools, universities, but it also is taught at many foreign language centers as part-time classes and others

In Ha Noi, there are more and more English centers established everywhere with a lot of learners Most of them are students, engineers, or workers, who come to the centers with the hope to have a good command of English to use it effectively in all four skills Regarding speaking skills, the majority of learners agree that this macro skill is always at the top of their demand for many aims such as passing oral examinations at universities, having good communications, getting good jobs, etc However, most of second language learners experience varying degrees of anxiety when asked to express their views in front

of other people This is true even when their language abilities are rather good In fact, there is an excessive amount of anxiety negatively influencing many language learners‟ behaviors and educational outcomes Campbell and Ortiz (1991: 159) show that language anxiety among university students to be „alarming‟ and estimate that up to one half of all language students experience debilitating levels of language anxiety

As a teacher of English in Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center for nearly two years, I have found that learners would like to speak English a lot but they lack confidence

in speaking and they are usually passive and find it challenging while communicating with English-speaking people In speaking lessons, there are hardly many communicative activities for teaching speaking English used by teachers Consequently, learners are too shy or even keep silence and do nothing in speaking lessons Moreover, they think that speaking English is very difficult for them and they become fed up with learning this skill

In fact, the attempt to create a negotiating and students-centered learning atmosphere in English by teachers is usually unsuccessful The achievement of effective communicative teaching becomes a daily headache to all English teachers here Inevitably, the lack of learners‟ participation in speaking activities leads to the teacher-centered learning in English lessons and learners‟ anxiety in learning a second language, especially in speaking

English These reasons actually drive the researcher to the study “A comparative analysis

among several types of communicative activities to reduce Pre- intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center”

with the aim of suggesting some communicative activities to reduce these learners‟ anxiety

in speaking English

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims at suggesting some communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and compare which activities are the most effective for them

In order to achieve these aims, the following objectives are established:

- Firstly, to review the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center

- Secondly, to investigate the current activities used in teaching speaking English at this center

- Thirdly, to suggest some communicative activities to reduce pre-intermediate level learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at this center

- Fourthly, to make a comparison about which activities have effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3 Scope of the study

To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, teachers can make use of various

activities and a number of techniques should be done However, within the framework of this M.A Minor Thesis, it is too ambitious to list all communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Therefore, this research only focuses on three communicative activities (that is, role-play, discussion, and information gap) and then

compares their effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking classes

Moreover, due to the limit of time, only a foreign language center in Hanoi is chosen for the research All of 20 learners chosen are studying in a Pre-intermediate level class

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to complete this research, qualitative method will be used The participants

of the study are the learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center More specifically, the researcher planned classroom observations and did questionnaires consisting of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire to gather in-depth information about the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and which communicative activities used in their speaking lessons It is believed this method will bring about a complete look into this research

1.5 Research questions

The study is to apply some communicative activities and compare them with the aim

of finding out the most effective one to reduce learners‟ speaking anxiety at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center To achieve this aim, answers to the following questions are sought:

+ Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center? + Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, role- play, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English?

1.6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three main parts:

Part One, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, design of the study, and definitions of terms

Part Two, DEVELOPMENT, is composed of four chapters as follows:

- Chapter One, Literature review, is concerned with a brief review of knowledge about overview of communicative language teaching, foreign language

anxiety, communicative activities and benefits of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

- Chapter Two, Methodology, is about the research method, research design, data analysis and the rationale for using five activities

- Chapter Three, Data Presentation and Analysis, is the part relating to action research survey, action plan implementation, observation results, post-action research survey, and a comparative analysis of communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

pre-Part Three, CONCLUSION, consists of four sub-parts: Summary of the study, Limitations of the study, and Suggestions for further studies

1.7 Definitions of Terms

- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): CLT is an approach to the teaching of second

and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal

of learning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages”

- Foreign language anxiety: This is considered as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions,

beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process”

- Communicative activities (CA): include any activities that encourage and require a learner

to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the community These communicative activities contain a communicative purpose in any situations and a concentration on language content not language form and communication without teachers‟ interference

- Action research (AR): is the first and foremost situational, being concerned with the

identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is

to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research

is being carried out

- Comparative analysis: This term refers to comparing two or more things to get some

certain results

PAT TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW

The main aim of this chapter is to present some theories relating to foreign language anxiety and communicative activities The first section overviews the theory of Communicative Language Teaching and its application in teaching speaking skill After that, this second part refers to definitions of foreign language anxiety, its potential sources and some its effects on learning a foreign language Next comes to some definitions of communicative activities, benefits of using them in teaching speaking English, and some types of communicative activities given out in this part The final one of this chapter presents some advantages of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is interested by the researchers such as Chomsky, Richards & Rodgers (1986), Al-Mutawa and Kailani (1989), Hedge (2000) and

so on This is an approach to the teaching of second oreign languages that focuses on interaction as both the means and the fundamental aim of learning a language Moreover, it

is considered as a “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simple the “communicative approach” According to Hymes (1972), he considers the goal

of learning a language is to develop “communicative competence” “Communicative competence” here not only refers to knowledge of the grammatical rules of a language and how to form grammatical sentences but also to know when, where and to whom to use these sentences in a speech community Similarly, Nunan (2004) states that “language can

be thought as a tool for communication rather than as sets of phonological, grammatical and lexical items to be memorized lead to the notion of developing different learning programs to reflect the different communication needs of disparate grasps of learner” (p.7) CLT is an approach rather than a method of English language teaching focusing on students‟ needs and individual affective factor, advocating several language- learning principles or kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning Richards and Rodgers (1986:71) confirm some characteristics of CLT as follow:

“Language is a system of the expression of meaning; the primary function

of language is for interaction and communication; the structure of

language is reflects its functional and communicative use; the primary

units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,

but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

discourse.”

Larsen- Freeman (1986) shares the same idea about meaningful tasks and communicative functions, that is, “almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent.” More specifically, there are a lot of communicative activities such

as games, role plays, simulations, and problem solving tasks, which give students an opportunity to practice communicating meaningful in different contexts and in different roles

Although CLT has many advantages in developing learners‟ communicative competence, it has some barriers such as high English language proficiency from teachers, large class sizes to handle, lack of teacher training in effective CLT strategies, lack of practice among teachers in using effective CLT strategies, much time on the part of the teacher needed for preparing effective CLT activities, and much time required in the classroom for implementing effective CLT activities (Rowe, nd.)

In conclusion, CLT is a new way of teaching and learning a foreign language, especially English It is mainly focus on the approach of teaching a language with the aim

of developing learners‟ interaction along with their communication Although it has some limitations above, its benefits of using CLT in teaching and learning English to develop learners „communicative ability are not unacceptable Providing for real communicative activities in a language course by using CLT is thus considered to be one of the most important recent development in the curriculum

1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety

Learning a foreign language is not simple for learners because there are various factors affecting their learning such as intelligence, motivation, attitude, age, gender, personality, anxiety, and so on (Skehan, 1989, cited in Wu, 2010: 174) Learning acquisition should be achieved naturally, but learning a foreign language in the classroom, for most students, is full of challenges One of the know challenges comes from learners‟ affective factor, that is, foreign language anxiety Its definition, sources as well as some effects in language learning will be discussed in the following parts

1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety

Foreign language anxiety in this study is conducted as a variable that can influence learner‟s decisions to speak English Therefore, it is very important for the researcher to consider the different research addressed the area of language anxiety

Horwitz et all (1986) state foreign language anxiety as “a distinct complex of perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (p.128) According to Speilberge (1983), anxiety is defined as the “subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (p.15) In describing language anxiety, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) write:

self-“The anxious student may be characterized as an individual who

perceives the L2 as an uncomfortable experience, who withdraws from

voluntary participation, who feels social pressures not to make mistakes

and who is less willing to try uncertain or novel linguistic forms” (p.112)

Therefore, it can be concluded that foreign language anxiety is the distinguished factor accompanied with learners‟ anxious feelings and stress along with their behaviors during their learning process It is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon When learners face with classroom anxiety – provoking situations, they often feel less oriented, less assertive than in the others Therefore, teachers of English or instructors should know that most of learners‟ anxiety relate to their mental feelings and behaviors and find out the effective ways to reduce this

1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety

It is obvious that language anxiety has a great influence on learner‟s language learning Therefore, there have been a lot of the earlier studies of its causes According to Young (1991: 427), there are six potential causes of language anxiety including personal and interpersonal anxieties, learner beliefs about language learning, instructor beliefs about language teaching, instructor-learner interactions, classroom procedures and language testing From this list we can see that the author classifies the causes into three main aspects, that is, the aspects of learners, teachers and instructional practice to which Bailey‟ findings also followed (cited in Na, Z 2007)

However, the most influential findings are from three authors Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) They divide the causes of language anxiety into three types, that is, communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation

Communication apprehension is defined as “apprehension about others‟ evaluation, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectations that others would evaluate oneself negatively.” (Horwitz et al., 1986, p.128) Moreover, in learning a foreign language, the authors (1986) state that communication apprehension as manifested into difficulty in speaking in dyads or groups (oral communication anxiety), or in public (“stage fright”), or

in listening to or learning a spoken message (receiver anxiety).Next, the concept of test anxiety is defined as “a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure Test-anxious students often put unrealistic demands on themselves and feel that anything less than a perfect test performance is a failure” (Horwitz et al., 1986: 127-128) Last is fear of negative evaluation which may stem from learners‟ classroom and require continual evaluation In a similar manner, Young (1991) maintains that this fear, irrespective of whether it is real or imagined, must be an important situation that contributes to foreign language anxiety This is broader in scope than test anxiety because it is not limited to test-taking situations In contrast, it can happen in any social, evaluative situation (Horwitz et al., 1986)

In fact, the reasons why learners often cope with foreign language anxiety result from personal and interpersonal anxieties as well as learner- instructor beliefs and interactions In other word, it dates from anxiety of being low or negatively evaluation and difficulties in oral communication Test anxiety is one of the above main factors of foreign language anxiety, yet this study will not focus on it because of my above learners‟ aspects Most of them are from the different universities or companies with the aims of learning English as a communication or for their future job, so the study only discusses about two main sources of foreign language anxiety, that is, communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation

1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning

It can be said that language anxiety is regarded as a simple transfer of other general kinds of anxiety such as trait anxiety to language learning It is a phenomenal issue caused

by the unique stress imposed on students in language classes This has a great influence on second language acquisition

Some researchers confirm that a certain amount of anxiety in language learning can enhance the learning process such as Alpert & Haber (1960) In Bailey‟s (1983) study of competitiveness and anxiety, it was found that facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success, and closely related to competitiveness Horwitz et al (1986) affirm that language learners who are anxious about learning a language separate from cognitive processing limitations He emphasizes that language anxiety itself can inhibit language learning

In contrast, studies reveal that anxiety may result in adverse effects on language learning, it is also believed that anxiety could motivate language learning Krashen (1985) acknowledges the influences of the affective filter in second language anxiety in relation to input The higher the affective filter the less input someone is able to process According to the author, this affective filter consists of emotive reactions such as language anxiety (cited

in Zgutowicz, 2009, p 20) More specifically, Crookall and Oxford (1991) assert that serious language anxiety may adversely affect students: self-esteem, self-confidence, and ultimately hamper proficiency in language acquisition Similarly, Turula (2004), and Von Worde (2003 state that anxiety has a negative effect in language learning Fears, nervousness, insecurity and lack of self-confidence are related to language anxiety MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) found that speaking is by far the main agent of anxiety-arousal, and that students with high anxiety perform worse than those with low anxiety Supporting this view, Liu (2007) describes that:

“ all the correlations involving language anxiety were found to be

negative As language anxiety scores increased, the ratings of ideas

expressed, output quality, and self-rated competence declined It

was also found that anxious students tended to underestimate their

ability and more relaxed students tended to be overestimate their

ability.” (p.120)

From these previous researches, the researcher finds that language anxiety plays an important role in learning a foreign language Although it can enhance learners‟ ability at some extents, it mostly prevents learners from their language acquisition Besides, foreign language anxiety has a great influence on speaking, writing, reading and listening ability among learners Especially about the anxiety in speaking skill, the researcher totally agrees with the opinion of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) that students are very self-

conscious when they are required to engage in speaking activities that expose their inadequacies, and these feelings often lead to “fear, or even panic” (p.128)

1.3 Communication Activities

It can not deny that anxiety greatly influences in learning English in general as well

as in speaking English in particular As Young (1991: 429) states that “anxieties associated with classroom procedures center primarily on having to speak in the target language in front of a group” Therefore, it can be concluded that speaking activities in the classroom create the most foreign language anxiety As a result, reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking activities is of great importance in teaching and learning English This leads to many researchers focusing on some techniques to reduce learners‟ anxiety in learning a language, especially English However, the researcher in this study only emphasizes on some communicative activities with the aims of reducing learners‟ foreign language anxiety Definitions and benefits of communicative activities are also discussed in the following parts

1.3.1 Definitions of Communicative Activities

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner

to speak with and listen to other learners When defining communicative activities, Harmer (1991: 50) states that:

“Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristics

at the communicative end of the continuum Students are somehow

involved in activities that give them both the desire to communicate

and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of the language

Such activities are vital in the classroom since here the students can

do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree

of language autonomy.”

Sam (1990) considers communicative activities as “the techniques which are employed in the communicative method in language teaching The language-using activities for communication are not restricted to conversation and may involve listening, speaking, reading, writing or an integration of two or more skills.” Furthermore, the author states some characteristics of communicative activities such as being purposeful, being interactive and conducted with others and often involving some form of discussion,

authentic materials are used together with realistic situations and authentic models, and communicative are based on the information gap principle

Referring to some principles of using communicative activities for language teaching and learning techniques, Morrow (1981) gives out some: First, „Know what you are doing‟ means that each part of the lesson focuses on some operation which student would want to perform in the target language Second, „the whole is more than the sum of its parts‟ refers

to the fact that it is necessary to work in the context of the whole in communication Communication cannot easily be analyses into its various components without its nature being destroyed in the process Third, „the processes are as important as the forms‟ are the processes of communication such as information gap, choice and feedback should be as far

as possible replicated in trying to develop the ability of the student to communicate in the target language Forth, „to learn it, do it‟ means that practicing communicative activities helps students learn to communicate In this situation, teachers no longer dominate the learning situation, but she provides all the help the students needs to play an active role in their own learning Last, „mistakes are not always mistakes‟ is that there is the need for flexibility in deciding to treat different things as „mistakes‟ at different stages of the learning process towards communicative competence (Cited in Sam, 1990)

The researcher finds the definition made by Sam (1990) meaningful and profound It supplies with a full insight of communicative activities, that is, they help them interact with each other as well as encourage learners‟ communicative ability in learning a language

1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English

It is clear that communicative activities play a very important role in developing learners‟ communicative competence in general, as well as their speaking English ability in particular Littlewood (1981:17) argues that there are some contributions that communicative activities can make to language teaching such as “whole-task practice‟, improving motivation, allowing natural learning, and creating a context that supports learning

First, communicative activities can provide “whole-task practice” In foreign language learning, learners practice various kinds of communicative activity with the whole- task practice designed to suit learner‟s level of ability

Second, communicative activities improve motivation The author goes on saying that the learners‟ ultimate objective is to participate in communication with others Their

motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to achieve it with increasing success Thirds, communicative activities allow natural learning The author shows that learners‟ language learning only happens in natural processes of using the language for communication Therefore, communicative activity is an important role of the total learning process

Forth, communicative activities create a context that supports learning According to the author, communicative activities supply many chances for learners to practice their speaking skill, especially positive personal relationship among learners and between learners and teacher Such relationship can help to “humanize the classroom and creates an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn

To sum up, offering communicative activities can help turn English classrooms into

an active and enjoyable place where learners can learn what they need and want to learn Some above contributions of communicative activities such as enhancing motivation, creating a good learning environment and supporting a natural learning make the researcher interested and apply them for the aims of the study

1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities

Littlewood (1981: 20) divides communicative activities into two types: functional communication activities and social interaction activities The first type is “the ability to find language which will convey an intended meaning effectively in a specific situation” Some activities of this type includes comparing sets of pictures; noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or a picture, reconstructing story –sequences The second one is

“the ability to take account of the social meaning as well as the functional meaning of different language forms” Activities of this consist of conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role-play, simulations, skits, improvisations and debates Although there are a lot of communicative activities in teaching English, but in this study the researcher only gives out some below with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at an English center

1.3.3.1 Role – Play

Role-play is considered as a technique in the process of teaching a language in which participants assume and act out roles so as to resolve conflicts, practice appropriate behaviors for various situations According to Shi Zheng (2006, cited in Liu, 2010), role-play is one method of getting to imagine they are someone else and play that part More specifically, doing role-play activities is a way to practice, or rehearse, situations that may happen in real life The purpose of this is to prepare the students for the real-life language use (Gu Yeguos, 1998, cited in Liu, 2010)

Richards (1985) states that collaborative communication activities such as role-plays have the following characteristics, that is, providing chances to practice strategies for opening, developing, and terminating conversational encounters; requiring learners to cooperate to develop meanings; requiring the use of turn-taking rules; helping learners practice use of conversational routines and expressions; involving learners in different kinds of roles as well as encouraging the use of different speaking styles; giving out negotiated completion of tasks; involving information sharing; concentrating on comprehensible and meaningful input and output; and demanding learners‟ participation with a large number.” (Cited in Liu, 2010)

When referring to some advantages of using role-play in teaching language, Jarvix,

L & Odell, K & Troiano, M (2002) give out some such as: First, role-play increase learners‟ interest in the subject matter and understanding of course content; Second, it raise learners‟ involvement in lessons, they are not passive recipients of the instructors‟ knowledge, but they take an active part; Third, it helps learners have empathy and understanding of different viewpoints, take on role of a character together with learning and acting as that individual would do in the typical setting To support this, Mc Gregor (1993) adds that role-playing has also been seen to be effective in reducing racial prejudice

The researcher completely agrees with the above researchers that role-play has a lot

of benefits in teaching a language, especially in speaking English It allows learners to draw their personal experience of situations and encourage them in their speaking activities Role-plays encourage them to be interested in speaking activities as well as take

an active part in these ones Therefore, their anxiety in speaking English is not a serious problem any more

1.3.3.2 Information – Gap

An information gap activity is the one where learners are missing the information they need to complete a task and need to talk to each other to find it Neu & Reeser (1997, cited in Rapton, nd.) state that one person has certain information that must be shared with others in order to solve a problem, gather information or make decisions in an information gap activity These types of activities are extremely effective in the FL classroom According to Lee, J F and VanPatten (2003), information-gap is one type of activity to promote negotiation The gap refers to information that one person possesses but others do not Gaps, therefore, create the absolute need to communicate as well as the need to cooperate (p 65) Moreover, Richards (2006:18) supports more ideas that “more authentic communication is likely to occur in the classroom if students go beyond practice of language forms for their own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to obtain information.”

Brown and Yule (cited in Rong, R & Lanying, X 2008) state that we are usually motivated to tell people things we assume they do not know; information gap activities, then, can provide students with a reasonable purpose to communicate in the foreign language As a result, this type is really useful for various things such as providing opportunities for extended speaking practice, representing real communication, and motivating learners This advantage, therefore, urges me to plan this study with the aim of reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3.3.3 Discussion

Discussion is the process of discussing, talking in which the pros and cons or various aspects of a subject are considered Like pair and group work, discussions in the classroom can help enhance learners‟ interaction and negotiation in their speaking skills As Qui-ling (2008) states that group discussion is one of the activities to encourage learners to use their knowledge to practice it in a friendly environment as well as motivate them to speak a foreign language to improve their communicative skill The author adds more that using this technique, discussion, helps learners “gain the initial sense of language use in real-life situations and acquire the knowledge of expressing and exchanging ideas with peers.” When referring to some advantages of using discussion in teaching speaking, Harmer (1991) states that one of the reasons that discussions fail is that learners are reluctant to

give an opinion in front of the whole class, or they can not think of anything to say and are not confident of their language use Therefore, the author gives out one suggestion, that is,

„buzz group‟ with the aims of solving the problem In this buzz group, learners can discuss quickly in small groups before being asked to express their ideas to the rest of the class However, he confirms that using discussions is good for providing activities which force learners to reach a decision or a consensus, often as a result of choosing between specific alternatives (pp 272-273) Johnson and Rodger (1975: 78) share the same ideas with Harmer (1991) about the advantages of discussions, they add more that learners should be arranged so that each can see all other members of his group and can be heard without shouting and disturbing the other groups

In conclusion, the benefits of discussions outweigh its drawbacks The most important benefits for teachers is that discussion can help learners to enhance their communicative ability, sharpen their social skills and foster their cooperation and team spirit in learning speaking skill Consequently, the author of the study totally agrees that discussion is a good technique for teachers to use in teaching speaking English, especially

in reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English

1.3.4 Using Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking

English

The anxiety in learning language, specifically speaking English, has a great number

of negative influences on learners It prevents their speaking ability and leads them to fear

or panic whenever they are asked to speak English As second language educators, our goal

is to have our learners speak with confidence in the target language, so we must make an effort to provide our learners with a greater variety of opportunities to speak in the target language Therefore, some recent approaches to foreign language teaching such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are directed at reducing learners‟ anxiety According Taveen (2007: 2), the author confirms that “these approaches lay emphasis on pair or group work and learning through communication in the target language as a way to reduce language anxiety Consideration of learner anxiety in the modern language classroom is deemed highly essential in order to help learners develop their communication skills in the target language.”

Burden (2004: 17) states that “anxiety is often a manifestation of feelings of incompetence… the teacher can alleviate anxiety and foster a less confrontational

atmosphere by encouraging pair work, group activities for mutual support and reassurance.” According the author, by using these activities for teaching language, teachers can reduce negativity, raise learners‟ self-belief and assist them to reduce their anxiety Generally, communicative activities are considered as an effective means to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English To share the same ideas, the authors such as Osboe, S, Fujmura, T and Hirschel, R (2007) conducted a study on students‟ confidence and anxiety in L2 speaking activities and received the results that students‟ proficiency level in the L2 may also correlate with comfort speaking to other L2 learners and they appear to enjoy greater confidence in pairs and small groups than in whole-class situations Additionally, small group discussions and topics that are familiar to students can enhance the level of comfort Therefore, communicative activities play a great role in making a good environment to encourage their learners‟ speaking ability as well as reduce their anxiety

In summary, communicative activities are of the important role in enforcing learners‟ speaking skill as well as reducing their anxiety in speaking English The researcher of this study totally agrees with some characteristics of communicative activities given out by Richards (2006: 23) such as: developing learners‟ communicative competence; creating the need for communication, interaction, and negotiation of meaning through the use of activities such as information sharing or role play; making use of content that connects to learners‟ lives and interests; allowing them to personalize learning by applying what they have learned to their own lives These are the reasons why this study focuses on applying some of the above communicative activities with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English in the classroom

1.3.5 Summary

In conclusion, the researcher has reviewed the general overview of CLT, learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, especially the solution of reducing it through using communicative activities Learners‟ anxiety in speaking English is caused by some such as communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation Consequently, anxiety has negative effects in language learning such as fears, nervousness, insecurity and lack of self-confidence Therefore, reducing learner‟s anxiety in speaking English in the classroom is very necessary to develop their speaking ability One of the techniques for this aim is using communicative activities such as role play, discussion and information

gap All of these activities bring about some benefits of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English They help learners reduce negativity, increase their self-belief, and assist them in learning English Moreover, they enforce their cooperation and interaction among learners as well as help them feel confident in their speaking skill In the following part, Chapter Two will display the methodology of the study

Chapter II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the procedures used in carrying out investigations, including the methods used to collect and analyze the data in the study It concludes of four sections The first section describes various research methods and the rationale for each The second one presents the research design including the action research procedures and the details about the subjects of the study The third one is some reasons of using four activities in the study Last is the one which summarizes the main ideas presented in the whole chapter

2.1 Research methods

In this section, three categories are addressed They are some information about action research with the rationale for action research, questionnaire survey, and observational method

2.1.1 Rationale for Action Research

An action research (AR) is not only about research, but about action too In other word, it means “learning by doing”, which helps identify a problem, find the ways to solve

it, as well as bring about social changes or practical actions (O‟Brien, 1998) Therefore, the

AR should be done by all teachers at any time All of these lead the researcher to choose the AR as the most useful method to carry out this study

Action research is becoming increasingly significant in language education It is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998, p.1) Kemmis and MacTaggart (1988, cited in Nunan, D 1992: 17) state that AR is planned by „practitioners‟-classroom teachers- rather than outside researchers Moreover, they go on saying that AR is

“collaborative‟, and it is aimed at changing things Its distinctive feature is that it seems

“likely to lead to improvement, and for evaluating the results of strategies tried out in

practice Action research is a group activity” Similarly, Ferrance (2000: 6) shows that an

AR is a reflective process allowing for inquiry and discussion, as well as a collaborative activity among colleagues “searching for solutions to everyday, real problems experienced

in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement.” Nunan (1992: 18) also accepts that collaboration is highly desirable, but he argues that it is not the leading characteristics of AR According to the author, any teacher interested in exploring processes of teaching and learning in their own context can carry

out an AR He also disputes that AR is not necessarily concerned with change He adds that a „descriptive case study of a particular classroom, groups of learners, or even a single learner‟ if initiated by a question, supported by data and interpretation, and carried out by a

„practitioner investigating aspects of his or her own context and situation‟ is considered as

a really AR

Moreover, AR can help a researcher fill the gap from the theory to practice (MacNiff, Lomax &Whihead, 1996: 13 and Zuber-Skerrit, 1992: 16, cited in Songsiri, 2007: 47) According to Warrican (2006), the author states that AR is widely used in language teaching but also as an approach for external innovators who seed to effect educational change (cited in Songsiri, 2007) Therefore, this study is an action research project of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English though some communicative activities with the aim of bringing about some changes for the current teaching and learning situation at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center

In conclusion, this brief consideration of the previous researches of action research convinced me that this was the appropriate method to use to investigate how to reduce learners‟ anxiety and improve their speaking skills as well as find out communicative

activities which are the most effective

2.1.2 Questionnaire Survey

Questionnaires are very cost effective and useful for studies involving large sample sizes Additionally, they are familiar to most people because nearly everyone has had some experience completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people apprehensive Therefore, to investigate the aspect of teaching and learning speaking English, I use one of the research methods, that is, questionnaire survey, for my study Questionnaires, as one of the most common forms of data collection tools, can easily

be assessed in terms of reliability which refers to the ability of questionnaire to produce the same results in different implementations, leading to a consistency and dependability of the results Richards and Lockhart (1994: 10) confirm that questionnaires are a useful way of

“gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly.”

Questionnaire surveys play a very important part in my study because they help me

investigate learners‟ actual learning situations in speaking lessons From this, I am able to design a suitable action plan to experiment in my own class Most of the questions are close-ended so that they are easy for the respondents to complete In addition, questionnaires reduce bias There is uniform question presentation and no middle-man bias Therefore, the researcher‟s opinions will not influence the respondents to answer all the questions in a certain manner Questionnaires are easy for the researcher to analyze to collect data for this study

To sum up, the researcher chooses to use questionnaire surveys because they require less time and less expense Furthermore, they help me collect considerable data and different ideas in a relatively short time Thanks to these positive features, I still continue using this method to enhance the success of the study after having implemented the action plan together and planned the observation results

2.1.3 Observational Method

Class observation is also the useful methodology for this study In fact, I cannot collect data to monitor the desired change only by making questionnaire survey Additionally, none-verbal gestures and facial expressions used by learners which communicate without the use of words cannot be recorded As for Good and Brophy (1974, cited in Estacion, A., MacMahon, T., Quint, J., Melamud, B., Stephens, L., 2004: 9), they show clearly that teachers are unaware of some of their behavior They add that learners‟ surveys may capture learners‟ attitudes toward what teachers do but are unlikely

to provide a complete and accurate picture of teachers‟ actual behavior

Richards (1994:12) suggests observation is a way of gathering information about teaching, rather than a way of evaluating teaching; although generally observation is associated with evaluation He goes on saying that “the observation of classroom teachers

is serious business; it should not be approached casually” (p.22) According to him, there are two kinds of observations in the classroom: observations by teachers of a cooperating teacher-class; and peer observation, in which one teacher observes a colleague‟s class

In this study, the researcher uses the first kind of observations given out by Richards (1994) for several reasons First, I want to collect information not only about my learners‟ real ability but also their reaction to a particular speaking activity given out by myself Second, my AR is conducted in an evening class at a foreign language center while

teachers are very busy for their own work, so it is very difficult for me to ask any teachers

to come to observe my lesson Third, I am afraid that the presence of anyone else in the classroom will make the learners either alter their behavior or too conscious of being observed that they might do the tasks differently As a result, I will collect some worse information or not be the truth

In order to do my own observations, I designed and printed an observation checklist

(see appendix 1) with the aim of collecting the data and information with ease

Furthermore, learners‟ speaking can be affected by many non-linguistic factors such as facial expressions, body language and the change of their voice tones, speaking speeds, louder or softer ability according to the situation and the importance of the message they want to convey (Harmer, 1998) Therefore, I decide to measure the learners‟ speaking competence by calculating the number of utterances they produce, the number of times they use their mother tongue and assess their attitude towards the communicative activities

2.2 Research Design

This section focuses on some procedures of AR used in this study as well as gives out some details of subjects of the study

2.2.1 Action Research Procedure

Referring to the procedures of an action research, the author of this study follows the steps based on the figure below by Somekh in McBride & Schostak, J (1989) She gives out an elaborate listing with distinguished steps in a research process

Figure 1: Detailed Action Research Procedures (adapted from Somekh, B in McBride & Schostak, J 1989)

From the figure above, this study will be planned in turn with the following seven steps:

 Step 1: Identifying or defining a problem, that is, selecting an aspect in the teaching process to examine in more details In this step, I talked to students and discussed with my colleagues at the center As a result, I found that one of the major learners‟ biggest problems might be their anxiety in speaking English Therefore, I decided to take action to help them to reduce it

 Step 2: Collecting data The first survey aimed at searching for the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English as well as which communicative activities used in speaking lessons To collect the pre-action research data, I planned class observations and the pre-questionnaire

 Step 3: Analyzing the data and generating hypothesis After collecting the data and analyzing it, I found that there are few communicative activities in their speaking lessons, which make them not confident or even difficult for them to speak in class Therefore, I decided to study whether applying communicative activities for speaking English has good effects on reducing their anxiety or not

 Step 4: Planning action: developing an action plan to help bring about desired changes In the action plan, I intend to carry out three communicative activities (role-pay,

discussion, and information gap) in two-hour sessions of a speaking class (see appendix 3

for the whole action plan)

 Step 5: Taking the action: The action plan lasts nearly three months with the participation of the researcher and the twenty learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center

 Step 6: Collecting post- action research data to check if the desired change has

made, using the observation checklist (see appendix 4) and the second questionnaire survey (see appendix 2)

 Step 7: In this step, I analyze the data collected and evaluate the results of findings

In this scale of the study, the author is going to present the steps mentioned above a bit differently:

- The first step is described in the Introduction

- The second and the third are discussed under the title “the pre-action research survey”