A study on the use of language activities to enhance 11th grade student's speaking skill in pham hong thai school, hung nguyen district, nghe an province

LIST OF CHARTSTable 4.1: Class size, gender and average years of learning English of participants...45Chart 4.1: The frequency of using speaking tasks in textbook...46Chart 4.2: The atti

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NHUNG HONG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

IN PHAM HONG THAI SCHOOL

MA THESIS IN EDUCATION

VINH - 2011

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐẠO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VINH

NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG HỒNG

NGHI£N CøU NH÷NG HO¹T §éNG NG¤N NG÷

NH»M PH¸T TRIÓN Kü N¡NG NãI CHO HäC SINH KHèI 11 TR¦êNG THPT PH¹M HåNG TH¸I - H¦NG NGUY£N - NGHÖ AN

Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và Phương pháp dạy học môn Tiếng Anh

Mã số: 60.14.10

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC

Người hướng dẫn khoa học:

PGS TS NGÔ ĐÌNH PHƯƠNG

VINH - 2011

I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Nhung Hong, being a candidate for thedegree of Master accept requirements of the College related to the retentionand use of Master’s graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paperdeposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study andresearch, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarianfor the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

November, 2011Signature

Nguyen Thi Nhung Hong

Also, sincere thanks are due to the teachers and 11th students of PhamHong Thai school for allowing me to administer the test and interview scheduleduring their invaluable time class Without their patient in participating in doingquestionnaires as well as interviews, the study could not have been completed

Last but not least, I would love to send my gratitude to my family andfriends for their continual encouragements during the time I conducted the study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF CHARTS 4

ABBREVIATIONS 5

ABSTRACT 6

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Rationale 7

1.2 Aims of the study 7

1.3 Research questions 6

1.4 Scope of the study 8

1.5 The organization of the study 8

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Review of previous studies 10

2.2 Theoritical background to language activities and speaking skill .13

2.2.1 Language activities 13

2.2.1.1 Definition of the language activities 13

2.2.1.2 The language activities are used in speaking lessons and their effectiveness 14

2.2.1.3 Teacher roles and learner roles in applying language activities 20

2.1.1.4 Setting 21

2.2.1.5 Features of language activities 24

2.2.1.6 Position of language activity in foreign language teaching 25

2.2.1.7 Ingredients for successful language activity 26

2.2.2 Speaking skill 29

2.2.2.1 Definition of speaking skill 29

2.2.2.2 The role and status of speaking in language learning and teaching .30

2.2.2.3 Characteristics of speaking 32

2.2.2.4 Principles in developing speaking skill 33

2.2.2.5 Approaches to the teaching of speaking 34

2.2.2.6 Classroom activities to develop speaking skill 37

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 39

3.1 Participants 40

3.1.1 Survey questionnaire for students 40

3.1.2 Students-Interviewees 40

3.1.3 Teachers- Interviewees 40

3.2 Type of research 41

3.3 Data collection instruments 41

3.3.1 Two developed research instruments 41

3.3.2 Instrumental development 42

3.3.2.1 The design of the questionnaire 42

3.3.2.2 Justification for two data collection instruments 42

3.4 Descriptions 43

3.4.1 Students 43

3.4.2 Teachers 43

3.5 Procedures of data collection 43

3.6 Methods and procedures of data analysis 44

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 45

4.1 Result from the survey questionnaires 45

4.1.1 The frequency and interest of each kind of language activities in class 48

4.1.2 Difficulties that the teachers have when using language activities

55

4.2 Findings and discussion 56

4.3 Implications 57

4.3.1 Implications for teaching each kind of language activities 57

4.3.1.1 Role play 57

4.3.1.2 Discussion 59

4.2.1.3 Prepared talks 61

4.2.1.4 Questionnaire 61

4.2.2 Giving students inspiration by activities involving the lesson 63

4.2.3 Using the situation in introduction 63

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 67

5.1 Summary of findings 67

5.2 Limitations of the research 68

5.3 Further research 69

REFERENCES 71 APPENDIX

LIST OF CHARTS

Table 4.1: Class size, gender and average years of learning English

of participants 45Chart 4.1: The frequency of using speaking tasks in textbook 46Chart 4.2: The attitude of students towards doing speaking tasks in

textbook 47Chart 4.3: The evaluation of the effectiveness of speaking tasks in

textbook 48Chart 4.4: The frequency of using acting from a script/simulation and

role play, given by students 49Chart 4.5: The frequency of using acting from a script/simulation and

role play, given by teacher 50Chart 4.6: Interest in acting from a script/simulation and role play,

given by students 50Chart 4.7: The frequency of using communication games,given by

students 51Chart 4.8: The frequency of using communication games, given by

teachers 51Chart 4.9: The interest of using communication games 52Chart 4.10: The frequency of using discussion in class,given by

students 53Chart 4.11: The frequency of using discussion in class,given by

teachers 53Chart 4.12: Interest of the students in discussion 54Chart 4.13: Some kinds of language activities that teachers have

difficulties when teaching speaking skills 55

LA: language activities

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

Language activities are introduced widely all over the world and this isnot also a strange conception to teachers of English in Vietnam Nevertheless,due to teacher’s low proficiency, class size, facilities schedules, using it in class

is not a simple duty to the teachers

The effectiveness of a lesson greatly depends on the activities the teachersuse in the classroom and the extent to which students are involved in thoseactivities Especially, in speaking lesson, the understanding of whether studentsenjoy the language activities and which ones can motivate them could helpteachers in choosing the right ones for their students A survey is conductedamong students of Pham Hong Thai high school and data from the survey would

be carefully analyzed to draw a clear picture of language activities employed inspeaking lesson

The results from the questionnaire and textbook’s evaluation will providethe researcher with a comprehensive understanding of the current situation ofusing language activities to enhance 11th students’ speaking skill in Pham HongThai school Generally, the students are not interested in doing speaking tasksthat are given in the textbooks Also, they are not aware of whether these tasksare effective for them or not Nevertheless, they express their desire for sometypes of language activities that they have chances to work with

For the teachers, most of them admit that they often have difficulties inusing language activities to teach speaking skill for their 11th grade students

The study aims to serve as a useful source of reference for teachers,students and those who concern about this subject matter

To fascinate students, language activities (including games and activities)(Simon, 1984) need to be carefully designed and effectively used in speakinglessons because “language games and activities provide an opportunity forlearners to try out their newly acquired competence in a context where they feelpsychological secure” (Simon, 1984, p.6) Therefore, it is really essential toknow whether the language activities have the good effects on teaching speakingskill to the students of Pham Hong Thai high school With the aim to access themethod on teaching speaking skill through the language activities, the writerwould like to choose this topic It is supposed that some former studies havementioned this issue, however, it will be deeply carried out in this paper.

1.2 Aims of the Study

According to the importance of the participation of students I classspeaking lessons, this study aims at investigating the use of language activities toenhance speaking skill for 11th grade students in Pham Hong Thai highschool

With the reasons mentioned above, the specific aims of the study,accordingly, are:

+ To investigate the reality of using language activities to teach speakingskill for 11th grade students in Pham Hong Thai highschool.

+ To clarify the teachers’ viewpoints in the necessity of applying thelanguage activities in teaching speaking skill

+ To learn about the students’ attitude toward practicing their speakingskill through the language activities

+ To find out the students’ problems in speaking skill and elementsleading to such difficulties

+ To contribute to overcome such difficulties and give some suggestionsmethods to apply language activities in speaking lessons

1.4 Scope of the Study

The current study only emphasizes on in-class activities in speaking classthat are used in communicative language teaching programme

Participants in this study are students of 11th grade, Pham Hong Thaihighschool, Nghe An

1.5 The organization of the Study

The study contains five following chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

In this chapter, it introduces the theoretical foundations for the whole

paper Besides providing the definitions of key terms such as language activity and speaking skill, the chapter presents some of the basic issues in relation to

some theoretical questions and related studies on language activities, as well asthe role of language activities in enhancing speaking skill for students;

Chapter 3: Methodology

The chapter covers the research design, elaborates the participants, theinstruments,the three-phase procedure of collecting data and the procedure ofprocessing data from the survey questionnaire and interviews

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

In this chapter, the data takes from the survey questionnaire for studentsand teachers is analyzed and categorized The findings are used as thecornerstone for the recommendations in the next chapter

Chapter 5: Recommendations and conclusion

The researcher gives out some language activities adapted from the tasks

in the English 11 textbook as samples for the secondary teachers to consider

In addition, the chapter will present the author’s suggestion on mentionedproblems and after that, summarize all the main points raised in the paper, thelimitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter, as its name suggests, provides an overview of the literaturerelated to this study, laying the solid foundations for the subsequence

development for the paper Not only are key terms like language activity,

speaking skill defined but critical background information about the key terms is

also presented to ensure a thorough understanding of the research matters.Besides, this review will reveal the research gap, thus rationalizing the need tocarry out the study

2.1 Review of previous studies

In recent years, it is seen that there have many researches, whichinvestigate into applying Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) orCommunicative Approach in teaching English language aspects as well as thefour language skills Among them, the issue of applying language activities intoteaching speaking skills can be drawn attention of many educators as well asresearchers There were some studies that refer to some aspects of the topic One

of them that contained most is “Some problems in speaking activities offreshmen of English Department of College of Foreign Languages” by LePhuong Lan Her study had a part that mainly focus on “pointing out types ofspeaking activities freshmen like best” … (p.10) However, she did not do well

in her survey because, to concentrate on the goal, the study should have madesurvey questionnaires such as which activities that the freshmen like best instead

of only which activities she often does The question only helps her find outwhat freshmen do in speaking class Moreover, it is sure that she feel interestedwhen she does what she likes, so the question “How do you feel in the speakingactivities” and “how is your class atmosphere in speaking” was redundant In the

list of the activities for the freshmen to choose, there were some activities thatseem to be not relevant Group work and pair work are only the way that anactivity is done not a kind of activity Because of it, the result of the survey wasnot completely exact One of the pioneering studies on the application ofeliciting techniques into English lessons is “Eliciting spontaneous speech inbilingual students: Methods and techniques” by Cornejo, Ricardo and Najar(1983) In this research, the three researchers first presented an overview ofstudies using traditional techniques to elicit language from students beforerecommending the use of interviews as a way to elicit students’ talk Some otherinnovative techniques were put forward to foster students’ spontaneousconversations, both with their teachers and students While the studycould provide significant background theory and practical recommendations, itstill had two perceivable limitations Since it was conducted outside Vietnam,the scope of the study did not reach Vietnamese language teaching and learningcontext Also, the subjects of the study were bilingual students whoseculture, education and other conditions were totally different from VietnameseEFL students’ The gap that no specifications for Vietnamese students weremade as communicative language teaching became the most prevailing approachimplemented in almost every upper-secondary school in Vietnam, there havebeen several researches on the field The first one is “Using elicitationtechniques to teach Vocabulary to 11th form students in Hanoi” by Pham(2006) On shedding light on the issue, the author attempted to investigatethree aspects: the situation of teaching vocabulary to 11th form students inHanoi, the application of elicitation techniques to teach vocabulary to thesesubjects and pedagogical recommendations to make a better use of elicitationtechniques in teaching vocabulary Knowing that his effort in conducting thisstudy was praiseworthy and the findings had a significant contribution to thefield, there were still some limitations that should be addressed Firstly,

the study centered around the teaching vocabulary Although this was one ofthree core teaching components where the employment of elicitation techniquescould be considered a must in modern EFL classrooms, the results of a thoroughinvestigation into this field only could not represent that of the others namelygrammar, pronunciation and four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading andwriting Secondly, the classroom settings where the survey of this research wasconducted were not yet introduced the new textbook which still followed the oldteaching methods

One year later, another research on enhancing speaking skill was carriedout by Tran (2007) named “eliciting technique to teach speaking skill tograde-10 students in HFLSS” Firstly, she investigated the real situation ofteachers’ using eliciting techniques to teach grade-10 students in HFLSS inHanoi Then, outstanding advantages of this practice could be drawn out.Hindrances to the employment process of this technique were diagnosed fortimely and necessary pedagogical adjustments Notably, the author gave aclose look at the speaking skill as the focus It means that the whole study shedlight on the issue of how to employ eliciting technique to teachspeaking skill, not others This can be seen as the first limitation of the study.The second problem is that the subjects of the study were studentsfrom FLSS only, which could hardly be generalized into a wider population ofother institutions across the city and country

These listed gaps intensify the significance of the current study whichtargets at techniques teachers use to elicit students’ talk to develop numerousskills simultaneously, rather than any single one, and among grade 11students in some selected schools in Pham Hong Thai school for a greatergeneralization

Therefore, the study mainly focuses on investigating on applying thelanguage activities into teaching speaking English language to 11th grade

students in Pham Hong Thai school The result of the study can be the goodfoundation of next ones so that it could help educators multiply teaching stylesand students enhance their speaking skill.

2.2 Theoritical background to language activities and speaking skill

2.2.1 Language activities

2.2.1.1 Definition of the language activities

Language activities are activities that are used in teaching a language forteachers’ aims In speaking class, language activities are often exerted becausethe use of language activities is a way for the teacher to improve the students’ability to use the language meaningfully Also, they can alter the environment ofspeaking lesson (Carrier, 1980).This will make the speaking lesson “a kind ofbridge for learners between the classroom and the world outside” (Hadfield &Hadfield, 1999) more interesting

Some learners question that whether Games is a kind of languageactivities? The answer is yes because according to Carrier (1980), “the term

“games” is used whenever there is an element of competition between individualstudents or team in a language activities” (p.10) The answer is also supported byNoor Eka Chandra (2008) “it can be said that language games not only function

as time filling activities but also they can bring some educational values thatenable the children to learn the language “from Wittgenstei’s opinion

To sum up, a language activity is a piece of work that involves all thelearners in; the comprehension of the foreign languages (spoken or written); theproduction of the foreign languages (spoken or written) or interaction in theforeign languages During a language activity, learners’ attention is principallyfocused on meaning rather than form, that is, on what is being expressed ratherthan on the linguistic forms used for expressing it In addition, as far as possible,

a language activity resembles activity which students or other people carry out indaily life,thus reproducing processes of daily communication A language

activity is usually part of a sequense which often creates a context for theactivity Beside, both teachers and learners can evaluate this task, in relation toboth process and outcome A language activity has the ultimate purpose ofdeveloping students’ability to communicate in English, so it has a pedagogicpurpose.

2.2.1.2 The language activities are used in speaking lessons and their effectiveness

The language activities used now are the activities for communication.Enhancing is praised as a very effective technique used in languageclassroom from which both students, as the center of the class, and teacherscan benefit

Firstly, enhancing involves the class by focusing students’ attention andmaking them think In the production stage, it is likely that teachers will be thosewho talk most of the time in order to convey as many new knowledge units aspossible within a certain amount of time while students almost do nothing butlisten Doff (1988: 159) diagnosed the problem: “Obviously, this part of lessonwill be dominated by the teacher-he or she is using English to introduce newmaterials” As a consequence, students may lose concentration and enthusiasmeasily Henceforth, if teachers can activate students’ minds more by askingquestions, by pushing them to think and encouraging them to contribute,they will be more engrossed in the lesson Also revealed from this idea bythe author, by being required to answer teachers’ questions throughout thelesson, students can develop their critical and independent thinking together withmany other skills needed for learners of foreign languages Sooner or later, theycan overcome andeliminate passiveness which is one of inherent weaknesses ofVietnamese learners

Secondly, Doff (1988: 161) believed that “eliciting encouragesstudents to draw on what they already know or partly know Therefore, it is a

useful technique for mixed ability classes or those of different learningbackgrounds.” Before introducing new knowledge, teachers tend to remindstudents of the old one or ask them about personal experience By attempting toanswer teachers’ questions, students have opportunities to scan theirbackground knowledge system, checking what they have or partly havealready in their minds In addition, by sharing knowledge in full view of thewhole class, students, irrespective of their gaps in terms of competence, canlearn much from one another

It is taken for granted that elicitation directly and mainly benefitstudents However, in the meantime, teachers are at great advantage First,elicitation can be used for presenting new language as well as reviewingwhat was taught earlier (Doff, 1988:161) Moreover, eliciting gives teachers achance to see what students know and what they do not and so adapt theirpresentation to the level of the class Therefore, it is clearly seen thatelicitation plays the role as testing tools that teachers can use to measure thelevel of the class In short, language activities are beneficial to both students andteachers Teachers should take every chance, when possible, to apply thistechnique in language classrooms The following activities are come up withmost popular in speaking class (Harmer, 2004)

a Acting from a script/Simulation and Role-play

The activity is like Simulation and Role –play because they both requirethe students to take on roles in the play or in a conversation, etc Acting from ascript seems to be in simulation and role –play because when the teachers donot have the students act the script completely, the activity will becomeSimulation and Role-play

Simulation and Role –play has three advantages (Harmer, 2004)

+ The students can be good fun and motivating

+ They allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinion andbehavior than they might be when speaking for themselves, since they do nothave to take the same responsibility for what they are saying

+ By broadening the world of the classroom to include the world outside,they allow students to use a much wider range of language than some more task-centred activities may do

b Communication games

The activities are used as Information gap games (puzzles, draw/describe

a painting, put /describe things in the right order, find the similarities anddifferences between two pictures, etc)

The activities make the students talk together more to find the details thatare cut, different or similar They can help the student think and react morerapidly to reach the best score Moreover, the groups in class can take part in theactivity to compete with the other groups to get gifts The advantage of usingwas summarized by Carrier (1980) as following:

1 Games add variety to the range of learning situations

2 Games can be used to change the pace of a lesson and so maintainmotivation

3 Games can be used to punctuate long formal teaching units and renewstudents energy before returning to more formal learning

4 Games can give hidden practice of specific language points withoutstudents being aware of this

5 Games encourage students‘ participation and can remove theinhibitions of those who feel intimidated by formal classroom situations

6 Games can change the role of the teacher from that of formal instructor

to that of manager or organizer of activities that students enjoy participating in.This can be useful in reducing teacher students’ distance or conflict

7 Games can act as a testing mechanism, in the sense that they willexpose of weakness and the need for remedial work

This technique is widely advocated by many ELT experts since it is veryeffective in many ways Traditionally, there used to be a common conceptionthat all learning should be serious and solemn in nature This is a meremisconception as it is possible to learn a language and enjoyed oneself at thesame time (Lee, 1995: 35), Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (1984:1) believedthat “language learning is hard work…Effort is required at every moment andmust be maintained over a long period of time Games help and encourage manylearners to sustain their interest and work” Therefore, it is clearly seen that goodgames can be used during a burdensome lesson Communication games helpteachers to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful Thelearners want to take part and in order to do so they must understand what othersare saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express theirown point of view or give information (Wright 1984:1) If communication gamesare well-chosen and appropriately used, they can give students a break andsimultaneously create chances for them to practice new skills in a highlyamusing and motivating way (Ersoz, 2000) In order to fully obtain thesebenefits, one thing that teachers should take into consideration is that “whenever

a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, culturalcontext, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should

be taken into account (Nguyen and Khuat,2003)

without fear of embarrassment This will contribute to their self-confidence asspeakers and to their motivation to learn more (“Developing speakingactivities”) The activity not only helps the teachers see whether their studentsunderstand what they are learning but also improves the students’ ability tospeak before crowd The activity is also more useful in small groups because thestudents“have a chance to think of ideas and the language to express them beforebeing asked in public” (Harmer,2004)

d Prepared talks

The activity has more advantages than discussion because it allows thestudents to have more time to prepare at home On the other hand, they canchoose the topics they like and think of what will happen in their presentationsuch as a game, some questions, so on They also make their own play bywriting their transcript The activity is really effective when it is held by a group.Each member of the group has their opinion so the thing can make theirpresentation more unique and interesting

e Questionnaires

Harmer (2004) assumed as following:

Questionnaire is very useful because, by being pre-planned, it ensure thatboth questioner and respondent have something to say to each other Dependingupon how tightly designed they are, they may well encourage the natural use ofcertain repetitive language patterns-and thus be situated in the middle of ourcommunication continuum” (p 274)

Also, it can be more useful when it is used for the students to makeacquainted together in the beginning lessons The questionnaires can be aboutone’s hometown, interests, and hobbies, etc

Making questions

Asking questions is the leading technique employed to enhance students

to speak or, to be more specific, ideas and responses from students Questioning

offers a number of benefits As acknowledged by Darn, S (2008), askingquestions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the mostimportant tools which teachers have at their disposal Questioning is crucial tothe way teachers manage the class, engage students with content, encourageparticipation and increase understanding Also, according to the writer, whilequestioning can be an effective tool, there is both an art and science to askingquestions Some of the rules, teachers should take into account are to considerthe quantity of questions to raise in appropriate time and place to keep teacherspeaking time to the minimum while maximizing students’ contributions andwhat questions to ask students

Regarding question types, scholars had numerous different ways ofclassification Grammatically, Doff (1988:23-24) gave quite a basiccategorization including:

Yes/no question

This type of question means to check students’ comprehension byanswering yes or no It helps teachers see whether students understand any pointrelated to the lesson or not Therefore, yes/no question cannot help much inenhancing speaking skill but is still employed in classroom for certain purposes

Alternative question

This type of question can be called alternative question By being asked toselect one option among some available ones, students are made to thinkcarefully for the right answer With this type of question, teachers can motivatestudents to review their knowledge in order to justify their choice As a result,alternative question is regarded as a relatively effective instrument to provokestudents’ responses

Wh-question

Wh-questions, or questions beginning with what, who, where, when,which, etc , can be asked to obtain specific information These kinds of

questions tremendously exploit students’ existing knowledge or check theircomprehension of the new knowledge Henceforth, wh-questions are by far mostfavored to enhance speaking skill of 11th grade students in class-time.

According to Darn (2008), as discovered, there have been a number oftypologies and taxonomies of questions Socratic questioning forms the basis ofeliciting (Ur, 1996: 53) Meanwhile, Darn (2008) found out that Bloom’staxonomy identifies six types of questions by which thinking skills may bedeveloped and tested In the context of language teaching and learning Bloomhimself maintained that “The major purpose in constructing a taxonomy ofeducational objectives is to facilitate communication…” Darn (2008) said thatclassroom questions can fall into two main types:

+ Display questions: these questions help enhance learner’ priorknowledge and to check comprehension of the knowledge that has been taught.Display questions often focus on the form of meaning of language structures anditems, the answers of which are already known by teachers

+ Referential questions: These questions are used to foster students’ skills

of providing further information, giving an opinion, explaining or clarifying.They often focus on content rather than language, require “follow-up” or “probe”questions, and the answer is not necessarily known by the teacher

The difference of the two taxonomies of questions, one presented by Doff(1988) and the other by Darn (2008), results from the different angels of viewsand focuses However, both of them agree on the fact that questions are used forthe main purpose of checking students’ comprehension of the new knowledgeand provoke their prior knowledge

2.2.1.3 Teacher roles and learner roles in applying language activities

a Teacher roles

Unlike the traditional teaching styles, in language activities, teachers playimportant roles in teaching it It is supposing that teachers are expected to be theinstructors

First of all, teachers are expected to be the facilitators of communication.They are supposed to help learners better express their expectation and directlearners’ active participation to what is most beneficial to the educationalpurposes.

Secondly, the teachers intend to be observers, who help the students tocatch up with them and notify their difficulties

Last but not least, the teachers acts as the active participants in thelearning process, genuinely engaging in the class and contributing their ideas,opinions or relating personal experiences

b Learner roles

In the traditional approach, learners are the passive recipients of thelanguage learning process They have little control over their learning or nochance to raise their voice about what and how to teach They are supposed towait passively to be crammed with the huge amount of theoretical knowledge

However, when doing communicative tasks, students are required to putlanguage to a range of uses, to negotiate meaning, to draw on their ownresources rather than simply repeating and adsorbing language Moreover,learners are also considered as the negotiators of the learning process, they cannegotiate with the teacher what to speak about and how to do it They are forced

to learn how to work well in groups negotiating with partners to reach a finalproduct, which then can be appreciated by their classmates

2.1.1.4 Setting

Setting is supposed to refer to classroom management, which is theorchestration of the learning environment of a group of individuals within aclassroom setting Classroom management is a term used by teachers to describethe process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptivebehavior by students Also, it implies the prevention of disruptive behavior

According to Nunan (1988), there are two different aspects of the learningsituation Nunan refers to these as “mode” and “environment”.

Classroom management focuses on three major components: contentmanagement, conduct management, and covenant management Each of theseconcepts is defined and presented with details in a list of observable elements ineffective teaching practices

Research shows that a high incidence of classroom disciplinary problemshas a significant impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning In thisrespect, it has been found that teachers facing such issues fail to plan and designappropriate instructional tasks They also tend to neglect variety in lesson plansand rarely prompt students to discuss or evaluate the materials that they arelearning In addition, student comprehension or seat work is not monitored on aregular basis

In contrast, strong and consistent management and organizational skillshave been identified as leading to fewer classroom discipline problems

In this light, content management "does not refer to skills peculiar toteaching a particular subject but rather to those skills that cut across subjects andactivities" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p 128) Doyle stressed that the core ofinstructional management is gaining and maintaining student cooperation inlearning activities (as cited in Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p 128)

Related to content management, Kounin (as cited in Froyen & Iverson,

1999, p 129) places a special emphasis on instructional management skills,sequencing and integrating additional instructional activities, and dealing withinstruction-related discipline problems

Conduct management is centered on one’s beliefs about the nature ofpeople By integrating knowledge about human diversity (and individuality, atthe same time) into a particular instructional philosophy, teachers could managetheir classrooms in a better, more effective way

Researchers have pointed out the importance of assisting students inpositive behaviors In planning classroom management, teachers should considerusing an assertive communication style and behavior In addition, they shouldalways know what they want their students to do and involve them in therespective learning activities, under the general conditions of clearly andexplicitly stated school wide and classroom rules.

According to Iverson and Froyen (1999), conduct management is essential

to the creation of a foundation for "an orderly, task-oriented approach to teachingand learning" (p 217), thus leading to granting students greater independenceand autonomy through socialization

An effective conduct management plan should also result from teachercontrol and administration of consequences The following components of such aplan are focused on in this summary: acknowledging responsible behaviors,correcting irresponsible and inappropriate behavior, ignoring, proximity control,gentle verbal reprimands, delaying, preferential seating, time owed, time-out,notification of parents/guardians, written behavioral contract, setting limitsoutside the classroom, and reinforcement systems All of these components arepresented so they can be identified in examples of best teaching practices

Covenant management stresses the classroom group as a social system.Teacher and student roles and expectations shape the classroom into anenvironment conducive to learning In other words, the culture of any givenschool is unique to that school However, it is directly influenced by the culture

of the larger community whose educational goals are to be met A strongconnection between school and community must be constantly revised andmodified according to the requirements of societal dynamism As schoolsbecome very diverse, teachers and students should become aware of how to usediversity to strengthen the school/classroom social group

Quality schools are defined by teacher effectiveness and studentachievement under the auspices of building strong interpersonal skills In this

light, teacher and student relationships are essential to ensuring a positiveschool/classroom atmosphere Classroom management discipline problems can

be dealt with either on an individual basis (between teacher and student) or bygroup problem solving (class meetings) As mutual trust builds up betweenteacher and students, the latter are gradually released from teacher supervision

by becoming individually responsible This is how both “educators andstudents become co-participants in the teaching-learning process, striving tomake the most of themselves and their collective experience" (Froyen &Iverson, 1999, p 256)

2.2.1.5 Features of language activities

Language activities are categorized by two key features

Firstly, it must contact with authentic target language Students arerequired to use real language In classes where communicative language teaching

is applied, students’ attention is not on the code of the language but on themeaning By using authentic materials in the classroom, even when it is not in anauthentic situation, it still provides the learners with many significant advantages(Martinez, 2000) Martinez (2000) summarized several benefits of usingauthentic materials By using authentic material, students are exposed to realdiscourse, as in videos of interview with famous people where intermediatestudents listen for general idea Authentic materials keep students informedabout what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educationalvalue Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teacherscan keep abreast of such changes Reading texts are ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, e.g students are given a news article and asked to lookfor specific information Also, teachers can have students practice some of themicro-skills of listening, e.g basically, students listen to news reports and theyare asked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc Differentauthentic materials such as books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide

variety of text types, and language styles not easily found in conventionalteaching materials Thus, it can help student extend their vocabulary and helpmemorize them in a number of meaningful recycling Authentic materials canencourage reading for pleasure because they are likely to contain topics ofinterest to learners, especially if students are given the chance to have a sayabout the topics of kinds of authentic materials to be used in class As a result,learners will keep high motivation and interest in language teaching throughthese meaningful interactions with the materials

Its second feature is experiential property In contrast, with analytic factor,experiential feature is global and non-analytic Learners are invited to uselanguage for a purpose that is to focus on the message rather than specific aspect

of the code Through experiential strategy, students become involved inlanguage

2.2.1.6 Position of language activity in foreign language teaching

In normal language teaching, communication is more than severaltechniques which can be used Communicative tasks should be viewed astechniques of communicative language teaching, in which the role of the learner

is emphasized on active participants rather than passive receptors Language tasksare a useful tool for language development Tasks provide input to learners andopportunities for meaningful language use (Robinson,1984;Swain,1995) Inaddition, language tasks are likely to create a rich linguistic environment which

is capable of activating the learners’ intuitive heuristics More specifically, tasksprovide highly natural contact and communicative situations for learning andteaching process Tasks play roles of motivation and stimulations in languageclassroom Being switched from dry and theoretical lessons, students now areput in real life situations where they use not only the language but also thecapacity, the background knowledge to cope with the tasks Therefore, it iscertain that the students are doing the best to achieve the sketched-out targets

Learners learn more about reality and are more willing when they enjoy thelearning process.

2.2.1.7 Ingredients for successful language activity

It can be seen that language activities are great opportunities forlearning But what goes into making a language activity a success? The truth

is, the success of language pair and group work activities is almost alwaysdetermined by the work the teacher does before the students begin the activityitself This includes both what is done by the teacher before the class starts andwhat is done in class to set up the task

Before looking at the role of the teacher, it might be worth clarifying what

is meant by "language activities" These are fluency-based activities While suchactivities may involve students practicing a particular grammatical form, they arelikely to do more than this The key element is that the activity is based around arealistic situation This could be anything from an encounter in a departmentstore, to a group of friends discussing holiday plans Within this kind of context,the students should be required to negotiate for meaning This is likely to requiremultiple turn taking

Before class, it is often helpful for teachers to ask themselves a few

questions when preparing for communicative activities:

+ What can be done to set the scene/create a context?

Try to picture a realistic situation where the language forms you havebeen teaching might be used Try to imagine both the location of theconversation and the relationship between those involved

+ What is the purpose of the task?

Within the context that you have thought of, try to imagine why theparticipants would be talking What would their objectives be? How do youthink they would respond to each other? For example, if the task involves giving

advice to a sick friend, perhaps he or she has already considered some of thefriend's suggestions.

+ How can I generate interest in the activity?

There is no doubt that activities go better when students are interested inthem Depending on the activity, there are various ways you can generate studentinterest Providing personal examples may be helpful Modeling the activity in

an enthusiastic way may help Having students reflect on similar experiencesthey are familiar with may also work

+ Will the students require preparation time?

Most research these days suggests that students perform better if theyhave been given preparation time This is pretty logical when you think about it.Without preparation time, students are required to do two things at once: usetheir English language resources effectively and be creative Preparation timecan often take care of some of the pressure that comes with having to be creativewhile using the language spontaneously

+ What type of groupings will be appropriate?

Would the activity work best with students in pairs or groups? Shouldthey be seated or standing? Should they be facing each other or not?

+ What type of exchanges should the students be expected to produce?This may well be the most crucial element of the planning process.Perhaps the best way to gain a sense of the language the students will need toproduce in order to complete the activity is to write out a sample dialogue.Language activities often throw up language needs for which the class work hasnot prepared the students Writing out a sample dialogue can often highlightthese needs It can also enable the teacher to get a sense of potentialdemands/pitfalls in the activity This kind of planning allows the teacher toidentify potentially useful conversational gambits, and to consider what isneeded to ensure a reasonably natural flow to the conversation

The success of communicative language activity refers to in- class andbefore- class preparation.

In class, once the teacher enters the classroom, the process of preparing

the students for the activity begins Following are a few stages that teachers (andstudents) might find helpful

Set the scene and generate interest: For example, this might be the time tointroduce a personal anecdote related to the communicative activity It is alsoimportant to make sure students know where they will be talking, who they will

be talking to, and why they will be talking

Model preparatory task: If the teacher has decided to allow planning time,

it might be worth demonstrating how this time is to be used For example, theteacher might begin creating a list of suggestions for a sick friend

Student preparation time: The students write while the teacher monitors

Modeling: T-S, S-T, S-S This is perhaps the most crucial element for

successful communicative language activities It can be used:

- To show target language in action and elicit relevant language

- To clarify/illustrate the requirements or the objective of the task

- To add useful/necessary conversational gambits

- To highlight the type of conversational framework needed

- To identify potential problem areas

- To gauge the students' readiness to begin the activity

- To build student confidence

Pair work: Monitor, interrupting only if students really get stuck Monitor

in order to:

a) aid the flow of conversation when necessary,

b) identify any common errors or areas of breakdown,

c) offer encouragement, and

d) recognize when best to change the pairings.

Deal with problems: While you do not want to interrupt students in themiddle of a conversation, error correction can still be done effectively Writetypical problems that you have heard on the board After conversations havebeen completed, draw attention to these problems Encourage the students tooffer suggestions for solving the problems

Pair work: New pairings By repeating the activity with a new partner,students can attempt to incorporate the corrections and suggestions made duringthe previous stage

2.2.2 Speaking skill

2.2.2.1 Definition of speaking skill

According to linguistics science, speaking skill refers to communication

It is supposed to be one of the most important practical skills Speaking is theproductive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, is more complicatedthan it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words Speaking is

an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receivingand processing information

(Brown,1994;Burn&Joyce,1997) Speaking is “an interactive process ofconstructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processinginformation” (Florez, 1999, p.1) It is “often spontaneous, open-ended andevolving” (bid., p.1), but it is not completely unpredictable

Speaking is such a fundamental human behavior that we do not stop toanalyze it unless there is something noticeable about it For example, if a person

is experiencing a speech pathology (if a person stutters or if his speech isimpaired due to a stroke or a head injury), we may realize that the speech isatypical Likewise, if someone is a particularly effective or lucid speaker, wemay notice that her speech is atypical in a noteworthy sense What we fail tonotice on a daily basis, however, are the myriad physical, mental, psychological,

social, and cultural factors that must all work together when we speak It is even

a more impressive feat when we hear someone speaking effectively in a second

or foreign language

According to Brown and Yule’s opinions (1983), spoken languageconsists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation However,speaking is a skill, which deserves attention as much as literacy skills in bothfirst and second language because our learners often need to speak withconfidence in order to carry out a lot of their most basic transactions (Bygate,1991) Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of conversationcalled dialogue and monologue

Brown and Yule (1983) point out the ability to give uninterrupted oralpresentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or moreother speakers for transactional and international purposes It is much moredifficult to extemporize on a given subject to a group of listeners That explainswhy speaking skill generally has to be learnt and practiced carefully beforegiving a presentation

A comprehensive discussion of the nature of speaking is provided byBygate (1987), who shows that in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it

is obviously necessary to have micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand somegrammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together toform sentences However, these motor perceptive skills, as Bygate calls them,are not sufficient since while producing sentences, we often have to adapt them

to the circumstances He then presents the second set of speaking skills: theinteraction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic motor-perceptionskills in deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining the intendedrelation with others

2.2.2.2 The role and status of speaking in language learning and teaching

Speaking has been recently considered by many methodologists a priority

in language teaching Of all the four skills, Ur (1916: 120) concludes, speaking

seems intuitively the most important Most language learners, she adds, areprimarily interested in learning to speak Similar view is held by Nunan, whosays that the ability to operate in a second language can be actually equated tothe ability to speak that language Hedge gives the evidence that speaking hasrecently obtained, at least from textbook writers, the attention it deserves:

“Learners need to develop at the same time a knowledge of grammar,vocabulary, functional language and communicative skills Attention to thesystems of language is crucial, but the development of fluency and contextualappropriacy are equally important goals” The reasons for learning to speakcompetently are formulated as follows: Learners may need the skill to establishand maintain relationships, to negotiate, to influence people Speaking is the skill

by which learners are assessed when the first impression is formed (Hedge: 261)

The development of speaking skill, in terms of its importance in languageteaching, can be illustrated by the position ascribed to this skill in differentapproaches to teaching Presumably the most striking contrast would be revealed

in comparison of the recent view on speaking with the views held by advocates

of grammar-translation or audio-lingual method In these approaches the skill ofspeaking was rarely emphasized in connection to its purpose, i.e the ability touse a language in real-life situations, the ability to communicate If it wasaddressed, then it usually was only in terms of accuracy That can be seen in thefollowing quotation by Mackey: “Oral expression involves not only [….] the use

of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also thechoice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”(Bygate: 5) The quotation reflects the conception of speaking at that time Theemphasis on the formal part, i.e the correct sounds, the correct choice of wordsand inflections etc., led to the accuracy oriented practice Types of activities such

as oral drills, model dialogue practice and pattern practice (“The Audio-lingualmethod”) were widely used in teaching speaking The result was that, although

learners knew the patterns and memorized the rules, they were not able to usetheir knowledge in practice They were not capable of exploiting the rules andpatterns in real interaction One of the possible causes of their “inability” could

be the lack of opportunities to use their theoretical knowledge in purposefulcommunication They were not exposed to situations when they would be made

to use whatever language they had at their disposal to convey their message or totry to understand their interlocutor’s message There was not much prominencegiven to the fact that there was a difference between “knowledge about alanguage” and “skill in using it” in communication

2.2.2.3 Characteristics of speaking

Speaking has the following characteristics:

Firstly, its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which itoccurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, thephysical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous,open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable.Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situationscan be identified and charted

Secondly, speaking requires that learners not only know how to producespecific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary(“linguistic competence”), but also that they understand when, why, and in whatways to produce language (“sociolinguistic competence”)

Thirdly, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions differentfrom written language A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills andknowledge to succeed in a given speech act

Lastly, Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in manyways The reason is that almost all people can speak, and so take speaking skilltoo much for granted He also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention everybit as much as literacy skills Learners often need to be able to speak with

confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions Bygatealso highly appreciates speaking skill by stating that speaking is the mediumthrough which much language is learnt.

To sum up, it is undeniable that speaking is key to communication Byconsidering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class,and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help learners improve theirspeaking and overall oral competency

2.2.2.4 Principles in developing speaking skill

a Communicative competence

According to linguistics, traditional language teaching has beendominated by “form” rather than “meaning” one To know deeply aboutlinguistic and communicative competence is of great help for language teachers

to facilitate the process of language learning

In the light of CLT, it is undeniable that the most important goal inlanguage learning is the ability to use the language for communication.Communication only takes place when we make use of sentences toperform a variety of different acts of an essentially social nature Hence, we donot communicate by composing sentences but using sentences to makestatements of different kinds, to achieve particular communicative goals Forexample, sentences to describe, to record, to classify, to ask question and so

on Communicative competence, according to Hyme’s opinion, is of “moregeneral sort of grammatically and ability to be grammatical” (Hyme,1972:269) He listed four factors that are required while striking forcommunicative competence

perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions inapplying his knowledge of the language in actual performance” Therefore,linguistic competence can be simply understood as the ability to formgrammatically correct utterances.

Discussing what is meant by linguistic competence, Chomsky (1965: 4)said that: “Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal listener-speaker in a completely homogeneous speech community, who knows theirlanguage perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions

in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance” The perfectknowledge referred to here is the abstract system of rule by which anyand all the well-formed sentences of his knowledge can be properlybrought into display It is the perfect knowledge that a person owns tocommunicate successfully in real conversation makes up of the linguisticcompetence With similar view, Brumfit et al (1991:192) believe that linguisticcompetence is concerned with the tactic knowledge of language structure.The knowledge mentioned here is commonly not conscious or available forspontaneous report, but necessarily implicit in what the speaker and listener cansay Linguistic competence, therefore, can be simply understood as the ability toform grammatically correct utterances It is the linguistic competence that helps

to participate in normal discourse and communicate in a foreign language

If we really consider communication the importance goal of language learning,

it is well-advised that we should focus on linguistic competence

2.2.2.5 Approaches to the teaching of speaking

2.2.2.5.1 Proficiency or the native speaker

There are two very different views of the goal of language teaching,native speaker and proficiency Davies (1994) distinguishes the two verydifferent views of the goal of language teaching, the goal of the native speakerand the goal of a proficiency level "A second language learner may attain native

speaker levels of proficiency and therefore be indistinguishable from a nativespeaker" (1994:145) He also points out that the native speaker seems at firstmore obvious, less abstract Proficiency, however, appears to be less easilygraspable and it is an abstract construct, which does not occur in nature As aresult, we have to invent it, find something to stand for it.

Since the native speaker is a fine myth, in teaching speaking we need it as

a model, a goal and almost an inspiration, but not a measure Davies (1994:157)confirms that what is crucial for language teaching is the definability of partialproficiency The native speaker is the construct whereas proficiency is its metric

2.2.2.5.2 Accuracy or fluency

Accuracy in language teaching involves the correct use of vocabulary,grammar and pronunciation In controlled and guided activities, accuracy isusually the focus and the teacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy isimportant Ongoing correction is often appropriate during accuracy activities Infreer activities the teacher's hopes are the students' correct use of the languageand ability to communicate as well

Fluency can be considered to be the ability to keep the talk going whenspeaking spontaneously When speaking fluently students should be able to getthe message across with whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless ofgrammatical and other mistakes Normally, students should not be correctedduring fluency activities In feedback afterwards, on the other hand, favourablecomment on strategies is needed to increase their fluency

2.2.2.5.3 Phases to teach speaking

Byrne (1991: 22-31) distinguishes three following phases to developlearners' oral ability:

Phase 1: The Presentation Phase

In this phase teachers play a centre role They work as an informationprovider as they know the language, select teaching materials and the ways to