AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL LABAPPLICATIONTO ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS

The English subject's primary focus aims to develop the fluency and proficiency of language skills for students in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and linguistic knowledge.. Altho

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL-LAB APPLICATION TO

ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS

MÔN: TI NG ANH

S GIÁO D C VÀ ÀO T O NGH AN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL-LAB APPLICATION TO

ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

1.1 Rationale 2

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research methods 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

2.1 Literature review 5

2.2 Theoretical background 6

2.2.1 Listening skill 6

2.2.2 Communicative skills 8

2.2.3 Esl-lab application 9

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11

3.1 Participants 11

3.2 Questionnaires 11

3.3 Interview 12

3.4 Data collection 12

3.5 Implementation of esl lab 12

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 13

4.1 The first cycle of using Esl-lab 13

4.2 The procedure of input acquisition and practice 14

4.3 The procedure of output practice 16

4.4 The third cycle of oral performance 18

4.5 What are students’ attitudes toward the Esl-lab? 22

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 23

5.1 Recapitulation 23

5.2 Implication 24

REFERENCES 25

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In the globalization era, cooperation among countries has promoted the development of the economy, culture, and society The largest language which has been spreading around the globe is English It helps people connect, have better understandings of the world, its challenges through information booming that satisfies advantageous access to travel, education, and cultures

In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum from grade

3 to grade 12 It helps students improve English communication and contribute to developing other skills for work and study more effectively Besides, this subject provides students with an essential international communication tool to update new knowledge about cutting-edge science and technology, cultural discovery Learning English raises their insights into people of other countries and makes them aware of global citizens

The English subject's primary focus aims to develop the fluency and proficiency

of language skills for students in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and linguistic knowledge Although more and more students excel in learning English, the number of students having difficulties in listening and speaking skills has increased steadily This evidence can be observed at most high schools in Vietnam that they cannot perform enough verbal communication in English in the classroom and outside the classroom This problem is caused by many factors, including the geographical location, environment for practicing English, learning styles, acquisition abilities, and others The study "An investigation into the efficiency of ESL-lab application to enhance communicative skills for ethnic students" is selected to solve the challenges in listening and speaking students face The application of Esl-lab intends to get students involved

in essential listening, vocabulary, and grammar tasks because these play a vital role in attracting students' attention to the voice of native speakers, encouraging them to identify the vocabulary in context, and practicing post-listening task verbally Another interesting point of Esl-lab is that learners can interact with the system whenever they aspire to have their devices, such as mobile phones, computers connected to the internet Finally, the learning process combined with technology integration meets the needs of the fourth industrial revolution facilitating students with the skills to explore the online system, practice free English listening exercises in bulk, discover global cultures, accumulating more vocabulary, and communicating better

1.2 Aims of the study

The purposes of the study are aimed at:

- investigating students’ attitudes toward listening and speaking skills when using Esl-lab

- exploring how effectively Esl-lab helps students enhance their communicative skills

- devising learning and teaching methods to support students with the improvement of communication

1.3 Research methods

This paper employs action research with three cycles to investigate the effectiveness of applying Esl-lab The first cycle deals with introducing Esl-lab to students regarding the content website and entering listening practice In this process, they open the system and do the listening exercises Turning to the second cycle, the survey will be given to students with the aims of eliciting the problems they face while using Esl-lab, navigating their attitudes toward listening and speaking tasks they have done All the collected data will focus on orientating appropriate methods for students

to improve the following listening results The methods relate to listening tactics and different strategies provided for students to apply

Besides, the students' results are saved after each task in detail to satisfy the assessment's needs After that, the author checks the students' understanding by a set of questions relating to the listening content Students are asked to produce communicative performances in the third cycle through different activities, including interviews and presentations The author also provides feedback and recommendations for students to improve their performance

Furthermore, students are encouraged to share their voices regarding what they learned, how they learned, and what they wish to further English skills via the interviews The recorded speech will be evidence for the efforts and expectations they make Finally, the research covers the efficiency of Esl-lab to promote students' progress in learning English

1.4 Scope of the study

In this study, there are 90 participants who are the 11th graders at Que Phong high school Que Phong is a mountainous district located in the west of Nghe An province

It is 173 kilometers away from Vinh city and shares a border with Laos Que Phong has many people from the Thai, Mong, and Kho Mu ethnic groups Most students at this school come from remote communes of Que Phong districts and had disadvantaged backgrounds

Due to the influence of impoverished life and other factors, they have many difficulties in learning English Besides learning English at school, they have very little guidance to improve their English listening and speaking skills for themselves Despite having internet connections, very few students explore English materials online for their study

According to the new general education program requirements, the integration of information technology is the focus of quality enhancement of teaching and learning

In the English subject, listening and speaking are essential skills that require learners to practice frequently Recognizing the students' challenges, the Esl-lab is used to help students practice language skills better without paying any fees for it The selected listening and productive tasks of the Esl-lab are at the elementary level, which meets fulfilment’s learning progress This website is a motivation for them to improve their English and have autonomy in self-study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND 2.1 Literature review

There have been a number of considerable papers regarding the enhancement of oral skill in various ways

The paper on communication among undergraduates conducted by a group of scholars in Malaysia (2011) showed that verbal communication, written communication, and social communication encourage students to develop discussion and presentations in class and engage in real-world career success

Omer and Aslihan (2009) focused on factors affecting students’ performance on listening skill The author employed different research methods investigating students’ progress, including questionnaire, in-class listening tasks, out-of-class context and their voices on listening The research results revealed that their learning achievement was strongly supported by their father’s education and computer time increase The next effect related to the number of books they read in a month The assisting tools, such as radio, newspaper, and players, significantly contributed to motivating students’ performance tasks in class

Dilek (2019) researched an effective method to develop watching/listening comprehension skills in Turkish teaching to enhance word and sentence in a discourse This approach activates students’ thinking on language elements, semantics, socio-cultural knowledge and the utterance conveyed by the speaker The final results stated that students were able to use language and strategies constructively and effectively Neri and Santi (2019) put forward research on improving listening skill by using some listening applications After performing the three stages, including pre-test, treatments, and post-test, the students’ ability to listen improved Furthermore, their interest in learning was motivated by modern media, especially smartphones

Erwin (2014) did a study on improving speaking skill through communicative activities According to Shumin in Richards and Renandya (2002), speaking effectiveness consists of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence The applied activities were discussion, role play, simulation, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interview, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing, finding the difference to increase students’ speaking skill The contents of those are related to human real-life and connected with four components of communicative competence

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Listening skill

Listening is one of four Basic English skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening (Spratt et al., 2005:30) Like reading, Listening is a creative skill (Rivers, 1981:160), as it involves responding to language rather than producing it Listening involves making sense of the meaningful (having meaning) sounds of language We do this through context and our knowledge of the language and the world

Anyone who uses language well has a number of different abilities He may read

a book, write letters, speak on the telephone, listen to the radio In the most general way, we can identify four primary skills: listening and understanding, speaking, reading and understanding and writing (Harmer 1983:16) Speaking and writing are skills and involve some kinds of productive skills that the language users apply Listening and reading are receptive skills in that the language learner is receiving written or spoken language

Adrian Doff (1998:199) mentioned some types of listening Active Listening, Empathic Listening, Critical Listening, Casual Listening, Focused Listening

Active listening is a communication technique that requires listeners to respond

to what the speaker had said in his own words This model includes listening with comprehension and with a purpose

Empathic listening is also called active or reflective Listening It is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and trust It is an essential skill for third parties, and disputants enable the listener to receive

an accurate response The response is an integral part of the listening process and can

be critical to the success of a negotiation/meditation

Critical listening reflects the ability to listen critically is essential in a democracy There is practically no place he can go where critical Listening is unimportant, whether

on the job, in the community, at service clubs, in the place of worship or the family Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual do require us to place a premium on critical Listening and the thinking that accompanies it

Casual listening is many times we listen to someone or something without any particular purpose At such times, we often do not listen to them with much concentration unless we hear something which interests us This type of Listening is often found in a social context when we interact with others

Focused listening or ‘Intensive Listening’ for information or for transacting business The listener is attentive and concentrates on what the speaker is saying

The listener as Critic is an evaluation that shows the speaker’s authentic image and compares it with the ideas he might attain The precautions while listening to the verbal messages

1) Avoid making fast assumptions

2) Paying particular attention to the intended meanings when the speaker uses words describing strong feelings

3) Be alert to the ways by language manipulation

4) Hear with the speaker’s ear interact with you

5) Be alert to the impact of non-verbal messages

Howett and Dakin (1974) considered that listening is the ability to explore and recognize the content others are saying This involves detecting speakers’ accents or pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and grasping the messages

Wolgin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening as a process of receiving, attending

to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli

Pearson (1983) stated, “Listening involves the simultaneous organization and combination of skills in phonology, semantics, and knowledge of the test structure, all

of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process

Hirsh (1986) gave another definition that listening is an aspect of skills, including neurological response and interpretation of sounds to understand and produce meaning

by reacting, selecting ideas, remembering, attending, analysing, and including previous experience

Bentley and Bacon (1996) stated that listening is an integral part of the second language learning process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input According to Brown (2001), listening is not solely a process of unidirectional receiving audible symbols He supposed that listening comprehension is the psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain

Listening comprehension is one of the most challenging skills to learn in a foreign language (Longman, 1987:156) Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, and television), a message, and a receiver (the listener) Listeners often must process messages as they come, if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead Besides, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of

vocabulary, structure, and delivery rate The listening process's complexity is magnified

in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language

2.2.2 Communicative skills

Speaking is the natural state of language, as all human beings are born to speak their native languages This verbal communication involves not only producing meaningful utterances but also receiving others' oral productions Speaking is thus regarded as a critical skill in learning a second or foreign language by most language learners, and their success in learning a language is measured in terms of their accomplishment in oral communication (Nunan, 1998; Nunan, 2001)

Even though acquiring oral skills is considered to be necessary, speaking did not have primacy in language learning and teaching in the past Historically, learning a structural language, rote memorization of sentence patterns and vocabulary and using literary language were considered superior to practising the spoken language These pedagogical activities were supported by the Grammar Translation Method (Richards

& Rodgers, 2001) However, in the mid-nineteenth century, the importance of teaching grammar for grammar's sake decreased due to the existence of opportunities for achieving conversational skills in learning a foreign language Europeans were travelling more and sought to build business and personal connections through learning and to use the languages of Europe Some language specialists, especially Frenchman

F Gouin (1831-1896), developed new language teaching methods, which impacted language pedagogy Gouin supported the idea that language learning requires using spoken language related to a sequence of natural physical actions: walking across a room, opening a door, and so on (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) Other innovations in language teaching encouraged ways of language learning using a speech-based approach to language instruction These innovations supported by a Direct Method of language teaching dominated language teaching in the 20th century

Speaking plays a vital role in communication Ur (1996), Bailey and Savage (1994: vii) claim that "for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill because of the desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real-time" In Ur's opinion, speaking is intuitively considered as the most crucial skill of the four ones According to Haws and Thomas (1994), it is all too easy to make the mistaken assumption that just any kind of speaking activities can develop students" competence

in an ESL spoken English course If the course's focus is on conversational skills, this will not ensure that learners will develop the ability to use language for informative purposes, which is the aspect of spoken English that students most often have difficulty

with These skills must be introduced as a component in their own right and explicitly taught

Also, the authors state that one of the related problems that teaching speaking encounters is motivation To encourage language learners to speak without hesitation, the teacher should raise a willingness and a need to talk in each learner by providing them with familiar topics or situations they feel they need or are reasonable to talk about The resultant lack of interest and motivation can be attributed to the purposelessness of the language they are being asked to produce

In speaking, learners try out new vocabulary and develop a working knowledge

of language form and structure once visually prompt and culturally familiar information

is provided In oral learning, facing clues like intonation and gesture enhances understanding (Dawes, 2008: 44)

Knowing a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary does not help learners of

a foreign language master it; they also need to employ the forms and the new vocabulary items in real-life situations The teacher's role has been shifted from building repertoire

to teach and test items to building students' skills in using these items (Jensen, Santrock

& Franklin: 2007:32)

Oral skills should be taught before writing skills Time for the oral rehearsal of the sentence is crucial (Hiatt & Rooke, 2002: 31) National and international research suggests that a student's voice is of great significance when it involves the active participation for decision making, the opportunity for learning exploration and construction, learning personalization, leadership distribution and authentic real-life situations (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development,2009)

In speaking tests, it is necessary to get students to recognize that there is a difference between knowing about a language and the skill to use it (Bygate, 2003) By this, learners of the language treat what they learnt and processed sounds and words to compose oral outcomes for specific purposes, suiting the context in which it occurs Such a process includes the participants or the speaking partners, the experience, the physical environment and the purposes for speaking (Baker & Wenstrup, 2003) Speaking is integrated with listening skill Speakers should have their audience and receive feedback to understand the meanings of the speakers' messages (Jones,1996)

2.2.3 Esl-lab application

The Esl-lab website was established by Randall, who graduated with a master's degree in TESL Since his profession's inception, he had excellent chances to travel globally to share technological applications in education and absorb new knowledge of cultures and neighbors' identity His research interests include video technology, CALL, language teaching, teacher training, and learner autonomy Apart from ESL, he

also creates more websites fulfilling English learning, such as Daily ESL, EZSlang, and Train Your Accent

To use the online recording files on the Esl-lab.com, the computer needs installing some assisting software and the Internet connection At this forum, the listening practice tasks range from the three levels: Easy, Intermediate, and Difficult Therefore,

it is efficient for learners to practice and improve their English by selecting proper exercises levels

In case learners do not identify what level of English they are achieving currently; the easy level will be a perfect choice Each audio file lasts from 1 to 3 minutes, which focuses on the listening types and their equivalent levels For easy level listening exercises, the conversation length is short and separated The recorded sentences are simple, and speaking speed is slow, so listeners can get familiar with the content and avoid distraction

Turning to the intermediate and challenging levels, the conversations' length will

be longer; the recorded sentences are more complicated, the speaking speed is faster with the mixture of people's voices of different countries and territories, which fosters the more challenging levels of listening tasks Therefore, the initial selection of level-based listening tasks helps learners establish a stable listening basis and prevent boredom

After choosing the level of listening tasks, they can see many alternative topics about life, such as education, family, sport, travelling It is convenient to practice with favorite topics and boost listening skill

Like other listening practice websites, Esl-lab integrates more pieces of conversation for learners to follow and reference the scripts under the position of audio files That it becomes more unique compared to other websites is the system of attached exercises which are diversely designed in the form of multiple-choice questions and gap-filling

Learners can both listen and complete the questions below Then, the system will check the answers, making it possible for them to identify their scores The exercises will be more difficult in conjunction with the higher level They do not have to worry much if the results do not meet their expectations

A bonus for Esl-lab is that each listening always provides some essential idioms, explanation, vocabulary, and examples below the conversation This helps learners review and accumulate more lexical resources to explore the meaning and apply it in

the real world like the way native speakers do

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Participants

The 11th graders are the main participants of this study Their English level ranges from elementary to pre-intermediate Because of facing underprivileged backgrounds, their learning is also a barrier for knowledge acquisition and practice This practice results from the unique feature of a mountainous high school located in Que Phong district, an impoverished area in the West of Nghe An Students have undergone the lack of learning facilities in remote communes, which is far away from the town, about more than 30 kilometres Most of their parents work as farmers, so they

do not have enough time to manage their children's learning The other reasons are low academic achievement, harsh road conditions to travel, and living far from school Most ethnic students have very few opportunities to take extra lessons after school, so free learning resources enrich learning styles

The focus of extending communication throughout the English curriculum at schools stems from the new general education program's requirement and the direction from the National languages project 2020 Many schools in big cities of Vietnam have implemented various models to diversify the English-speaking environment for students and spur the students' communication with foreigners, which results in exceptional outcomes of students' progress in English Another factor contributing a step forward in oral skill is the internet-based learning resource Like students in big cities, ethnic students here have access to the internet via different devices The practice

of the English language is becoming more and more convenient

3.2 Questionnaires

To collect the data for this study, one perception questionnaire is used to measure students’ attitudes toward listening tasks they completed on the Esl-lab The questions are designed in close-ended and open-ended For close-ended questions, the participants find it easy to fill a tick from number 1 to 5 equivalent to their opinions (1 Strongly Disagree, 2 Slightly Disagree, 3 Neutral, 4 Slightly Agree, 5 Strongly Agree) The open-ended questions aim at asking students about their difficulties in learning business English

Brown (2001) states that “Questionnaires are certain written instruments that show responses to a set of questions or sentences, either by writing down their answers

or sorting out from existing answers

Markey & Gass (2005) claims that using questionnaires in language researches a valuable instrument that lets researchers investigate and gather information on participants‟ beliefs and motivations in such a short time with comparable information elicited from several correspondents For the outstanding advantage of questionnaires

mentioned above, the author decided to use questionnaires in this paper to investigate students‟ attitudes and motivations towards communication acquisition

3.3 Interview

The researcher observed the speaking lesson done by students through different tasks of communication After the class observation, the author interviewed some students to reaffirm the collected results from students’ practice

3.4 Data collection

Data analysis is a process of inspecting, transforming, and modelling data to highlight useful information, suggesting conclusions, and support decision-making One of the aims of giving an evaluation was to know how far the students mastered English speaking skills by applying the Esl-lab

The questionnaire was designed through a google form, which makes participants available to provide feedback Finally, the google system automatically synthesizes the answer and launches the data through graphs

3.5 Implementation of esl lab

First and foremost, the website esl-lab.com was provided for students with the introduction of the whole page and some steps to access communication interaction The technical guidance was essential for them to get familiar with the tasks Then, they were assigned a listening task on the system to complete There was a sequence of exercises for checking listening comprehension and speaking Next, the teacher investigated the final score they got on listening

The marks on the correct answers they accomplished encourages their curiosity

to discover new topics This is the very first time they have had access to the forum in which English language is used, so the guidance needs to foster their learning motivation In addition, the listening part is crucial to the development of post listening skill

Turning to the speaking, students have the opportunity to make some utterances

on the topic’s content The main focus is they demonstrate the answers to the questions set by the system and some requirements made by the teacher The procedure assessing the speaking performance bases on the rubric and the input they had