Using language games to develop 5th graders’ speaking skill

The teaching aim of this classroom project was to promote fluency in the speaking skill of students in order to have good communication in English, and the learning aim was to develop fl

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

ĐỒNG THỊ VÂN

USING LANGUAGE GAMES

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

VINH - 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

ĐỒNG THỊ VÂN

USING LANGUAGE GAMES

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Dr TRAN BA TIEN

VINH - 2018

CERTIFICATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Using communication games to develop

5th graders’ speaking skill” is the result of my own work and the contents of this

research have not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution

Vinh, July 15th 2018

Signature

Dong Thi Van

ABSTRACT

This study is an Action Research project that focuses on implementing language games for teaching speaking skill to 5 th graders in a primary school in Vinh city, Vietnam The teaching aim of this classroom project was to promote fluency in the speaking skill of students in order to have good communication in English, and the learning aim was to develop fluency in the English language by interacting orally in language games The study was conducted with 2 cycles The information was collected through observations, video-recordings, photographs, and personal journals After each cycle the researcher made some modifications for improvement It was found that using language games was a good way to improve the students’ English fluency and accuracy, as well as motivation to learn the speaking skill

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have completed without the assistance and encouragement

of many people whom I would like to acknowledge

First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr Tran Ba Tien for his constant support from the beginning to the end of the thesis implementation Without his kind assistance and critical comments I could not have completed the work

Secondly, I wish to express my sincere thanks to the staff and lecturers who have taught me during the M.A program at Vinh university

Thirdly, I am in debt to my colleagues and students at Trung Do Primary school for their help and cooperation during my research

Last but not least, I wish to devote my special thanks to my dear family whose love and encouragement made a significant contribution to the accomplishment of the research

Vinh, July 15th 2018

Chapter 2: Theoretical background

2.1 A review of English language teaching methods 4

2.1.1 Grammar-Translation Method

2.1.2 The Series Method

2.1.3 The Direct Method

2.1.4.The Audiolingual Method (ALM)

2.1.5 Suggestopedia

2.1.6 The Silent Way

2.1.7 Total Physical Response (TPR)

2.1.8 The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

2.3.2.1 Development of teaching speaking methods 20

2.3.2.2 Characteristics of successful speaking activity 24

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Teaching English to primary school students has drawn considerable attention in Vietnam in recent years Therefore, to promote the learning and practice of English in general and at primary school in particular, the Ministry of Education and Training has launched various innovation programs, most notable of which is the National Foreign Language Project 2020, which promotes the introduction of English education at grade 3 This is the evidence of efforts in view of strengthening language learning from early age

In order to develop an appropriate level of English in learners, the four skills, and their sub-skills, need to be taken into consideration This includes recognizing speaking, and interaction as well, as an essential part in the development of the learning process given the fact that speaking is involved in almost all human being’s actions in their daily life, considering, through this, the idea of learning as a way to acquire useful knowledge

to be used in real life According to Bygate (1987) speaking is like a bridge that allows people to have and lose friends, through which individuals can progress socially Besides, speaking tends to be underestimated about the amount of practice that it requires, but it should be considered differently

To deal with the shortcomings of textbooks in use, the Pilot English Curriculum for Primary Education was developed This curriculum began to be implemented in the school year 2010-2011 in Vietnam Trung Do primary school is one of the three schools

in Vinh to be selected for the pilot program The objective of the new program is to develop students’ English language competence with four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, among which listening and speaking are the most important for primary students According to the pilot program, students will start learning English at grade 3 with over 400 periods for grades 3 to 5 Upon finishing grade

5, they are expected to achieve level A1 of the Common European Framework of

Reference for languages (CEFR) and their vocabulary stock is estimated at around 600 words

Although the focus of the primary school English is on listening and speaking, most teachers tend to spend more time teaching reading and writing with little attention paid to oral and aural skill development for such reasons as large class size and limited resources As a result, most of primary school students are unable to speak English as expected They often feel shy and reluctant to speak in front of other people Another reason is that speaking activities in class are not motivating enough When forced to speak, they often give Yes/No or very short answers, or even worse they use Vietnamese instead

After three years teaching the pilot program, I have made great efforts to diversify my teaching activities to develop pupils’ speaking skill, among which language games have shown multiple benefits Language games are not only fund and motivational, but also effective for speaking skill development Students no longer feel reluctant to communicate orally and they always show competition in learning The atmosphere in

my English class is relaxing and exciting This is the reason for my decision to conduct

research on “Using language games to develop 5 th graders’ speaking skill”

1.2 Aims of the study

The study aims to find effective ways to:

- Investigate students’ attitude toward using games in speaking lessons

- Find effective ways to make use of games to teach the speaking skill to 5th graders

1.3 Scope of the study

Due to time and resources constraints, the study limits itself to language games to teach speaking skill The participants include 2 groups of 5th grade students at Trung

Do Primary school, Vinh city

1.4 Research questions

The study attempt to answer the following research questions:

1 What is the students’ attitude toward using games in speaking lessons?

1.5 Significance of the study

The study is conducted with a view to improve 5th graders’ skill It is hoped that the study would make a contribution to the practical aspect of English teaching, namely enhancing the quality of teaching and learning the oral skill for primary school students Furthermore, this study is hoped to make a theoretical contribution to language teaching methods in the context of Vietnam

1.6 Organization of study

The study is structured with five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 provides a general introduction which details the rationale, aims, the

methods, research questions and the design of the study

Chapter 2 presents the theoretical background This chapter discusses the

theoretical issues which lay the foundation for the research

Chapter 3 describes the Methodology of the study It details the research

methods, research setting, participants and data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4 is concerned with Findings and discussion It presents the results of the

action research and the discussion of the findings

Chapter 5 is “Conclusion part It makes a summary of the study and offers

implications for teaching the speaking skill to the 5th graders using language games

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 A review of English language teaching methods

Over the last two centuries, foreign language teaching in general and English education in particular has undergone tremendous changes in methods of instruction

Although the buzz word Communicative Language Teaching, or CLT for short, is

dominating most English curricula, other methods of teaching, to various extent, are still seen in many classes It is, therefore, highly worth making a historical review of English language teaching methods so that one can have an overall picture of the theoretical background in question

2.1.1 Grammar-Translation Method

From the turn of the nineteenth century until the early 20th century, the translation method ruled In the few instances of attempted coups, it lost some ground, but academia always beckoned it back Despite its antiquity, or because of it, the grammar-translation method is still alive and well in language classrooms throughout Europe, Asia, and even in America It is easy to teach; it requires no more than the ability

grammar-to memorize lists of isolated vocabulary words; and it aims low in terms of oral communication and aural comprehension No one teaching or learning a target language

is required to speak, pronounce, or even understand the spoken language Because the target language is taught in the students’ native language, it is possible for students to have studied it for years without having been required to participate in the most elementary conversation

Indeed, the real challenge confronting students and teachers in the translation classroom is overcoming boredom A typical one-hour class might begin with ten minutes of synchronized verb declensions This might be followed by the instructor’s explanation of a particular grammatical feature of the target language The instructor might then assign students a series of fill-in-the-blank exercises or sentence constructions that demonstrate the grammar point Other features of the grammar-translation class

grammar-identifying antonyms and synonyms, drilling vocabulary words, memorizing vocabulary lists, creating sentences with the new vocabulary words, and writing compositions in the target language Except for the repetition drills, most of the above work is written

One might wonder why this obviously antiquated method is still used Aside from the aforementioned virtue of being easy for both teacher and student, some claim it is the most effective way to introduce literature in the target language That is, in learning how

to read in the target language, students are exposed to a variety of grammatical structures, thousands of vocabulary words in context, and they learn to translate across linguistic borders Most ESL instructors have witnessed the results of the grammar-translation method in students who have studied English as a foreign language in their native countries They are often able to read and write English sometimes better than native speakers but they have had no experience listening to or speaking the language In fact, ESL teachers face the challenge of defossilizing incomprehensible deviations in students’ pronunciation and inflections Furthermore, grammar-translation students are accustomed

to doing fill-in-the-blank exercises, learning grammar rules before applying them, memorizing lists of vocabulary words, and creating artificial sentences to prove their mastery of the lexicon and syntax When they are exposed to more creative methods of language instruction, they often find it difficult to perform and espcially, their communicative competence is far from satisfactory That was the reason for the appearance of the Series Method

2.1.2.The Series Method

It is told that Gouin’s theory of language acquisition rose out of his own failure

to learn German The modern observer can only wonder why he bothered spending a year

in Germany sequestered in his study, memorizing thousands of verb declensions and vocabulary words, and all the while, avoiding conversation with native speakers of German After a year of learning German in that way, he could barely communicate with people in the target language he had been learning Discouraged and effectively monolingual, he returned to his native France and discovered that during his twelve-month absence, his three-year-old nephew had become miraculously fluent in French Wondering how a toddler could so easily out-perform his own considerable intellect, he

decided to observe his nephew and other children who were in the process of acquiring language As a consequence, he was able to theorize that the language one uses is related

to one’s actions at the time of the utterance On these bases, he developed the Series Method, which sought to teach second language by recreating conditions in which children learn a first language Specifically, the teacher does an activity: walking to the door and simultaneously verbalizes the process of walking to the door: “I walk toward the door I draw near to the door I draw nearer to the door I get to the door I stop at the door” The student then mimics the instructor As time goes on, the student is able to expand his/her linguistic skills: “Am I walking to the door?” “Did I walk to the door?” “I

am thinking about walking to the door “I am walking to the window”

Although the method was deemed successful, it faded after a brief time of glory and the old grammar-translation method returned in most educational settings

2.1.3 The Direct Method

Second language theorists maintain that the first real method of language teaching was the Direct Method, which was developed as a reaction against the monotony and ineffectiveness of grammar-translation classes The Direct Method was the brainchild of Charles Berlitz, a nineteenth-century linguist whose schools of language learning are famous throughout the world It borrowed and applied Gouin’s findings of the previous generation, seeking to imitate his naturalistic approach In light of Gouin’s miserable failure in German, Berlitz wanted to immerse students in the target language He believed, as did Gouin, that one could learn a second language by imitating the way children learn their first language; that is, directly and without explanations of grammatical points and using only the target language Therefore, grammar was taught inductively The objectives were speaking and listening comprehension, not translation; for this reason, vocabulary was introduced in context and through demonstrations and pictures; and an emphasis was placed on correct usage and pronunciation Students learned to write by taking dictation in the target language.A typical Direct Method class had few students Students might first take turns reading aloud, preferably a dialogue or anecdotal passage To test for understanding, the teacher would then ask questions in the

Following the question-response session, the instructor might dictate the passage to the

students three times Students would then read the dictation back to the class

The Direct Method was popular in Europe and the United States, especially during the first quarter of the twentieth century Nevertheless, its very intensity and necessarily small class sizes made the method impossible for public schools In addition, it was considered a weak method because it was not supported by heavy-duty theories and it depended too much on teachers’ ability to teach, as well as their fluency in the target language So, it was back to the old reliable grammar-translation method until the

Behaviorism began to shine its light on the field of second-language teaching

2.1.4 The Audiolingual Method (ALM)

The Audiolingual Method was first known as the Army Method because it had been adopted by the military during the Second World War when it became evident that most Americans were hopelessly monolingual ALM is not unlike the Direct Method in that its purpose is to teach students to communicate in the target language The Audiolingual Method is a purely behavioristic approach to language teaching It is based on drill work that aims to form good language habits, and it makes use of extensive conversation practice in the target language Students enter the target language classroom with their cognitive slates entirely blank at least in theory and they receive various linguistic stimuli and respond to them If they respond correctly, they enjoy a reward and repeat the response, which promotes good habit formation If they respond incorrectly, they receive

no reward and therefore repress the response, which represses the response

Its theoretical support also comes from post-war structural linguists Structural linguists analyze how language is formed, not in a historical-descriptive, or diachronic, sense, but

as it is “currently spoken in the speech community” Language was now seen as a set of abstract linguistic units that made up a whole language system The realization that all languages are complex, unique systems allowed linguists to understand the multifaceted, singular structure of English without comparing it to Latin, which had long been the paragon of excellence among prescriptive grammarians This led to new thinking in terms

of how language should be taught Individual structures should be presented one at a time

and practiced via repetition drills Grammar explanations should be minimal or

nonexistent, for students will learn grammatical structures by inductive analogy

A typical ALM class consists of ten-minute drill periods interspersed with activities such as the reading and memorization of a dialogue The instructor then examines a grammar point by contrasting it with a similar point in the students’ native language (The teacher speaks in the native language, but discourages its use among students.) This

is followed by more drills chain drills, repetition drills, substitution drills Target language vocabulary is introduced and learned in context, and teachers make abundant use of visual aids Like its predecessors, ALM focuses on the surface forms of language and rote learning While some students, especially those who could memorize dialogues, did well in the classroom, they still were not able to use the target language to communicate in real life situations Their language is also often formulaic

2.1.5 Suggestopedia

Another theory was developed by Georgi Lozanov in 1979 It states that when the mind and body are relaxed, the brain absorbs knowledge without effort Thus, another academic panacea was applied in the language classroom, producing yet another group of graduates who couldn’t speak the target language The Suggestopedia classroom uses music particularly Baroque music with its ideal sixty beats per minute to help soothe students as teachers employ various language-learning activities In this classroom, even adult learners are encouraged to behave as pliable, suggestible children, and to regard their teacher as a super-mentor parental figure Imagery, music, suggestion, relaxation, comfy armchairs, and dim lighting are the essential ingredients of the Suggest opedia classroom With soft music playing in the background, students role-play and learn vocabulary under the guidance of the all powerful teacher In a typical lesson, the teacher plays a piece of music, preferably Baroque, but any emotionally charged music will do S/he then reads a passage from a text in the target language, trying to harmonize with the music while maintaining a slow, rhythmic pace Students follow along with their own texts and translation Students then return their translations to the teacher, close their eyes and settle back to listen to a replay of the music and reading performance

2.1.6.The Silent Way

The Silent Way found its way into classrooms following the publication of Gattegno’s

text, also called The Silent Way The Silent Way “is based on a theory of learning and

teaching rather than on a theory of language” The objective is to make learning automatic by encouraging students to discover, rather than memorize, the lexicon and prescriptive rules of the target language This is achieved by teaching students to associate physical objects specifically, color-coded rods with phonemes The teacher is supposed to be a facilitator who only intervenes in students’ learning if they are wandering hopelessly off course In addition to the colored rods, classroom materials include a sound/color wall chart, with each color representing a phoneme; a 500-word color-coded word chart; a spelling chart, or Fidel, that color-codes all possible spellings for every phoneme; and wall pictures that represent everyday scenes.While the Silent Way encourages students to become active discoverers, it also leaves them to their own limited communicative devices Once the uniqueness of the phonemic rods wears off, the

Silent Way classroom resembles any other language classroom

2.1.7 Total Physical Response (TPR)

Total Physical Response harkens back to Gouin’s Direct Method of the mid-nineteenth century James Asher reasoned that since children in the process of acquiring their native language seem to listen more than they speak and often react physically to speech, second language learners might learn a target language in the same way In addition, he felt that language classes were too stressful for learners, and he wanted to create an atmosphere in which learners didn’t have to do anything other than respond to imperatives such as “Go

to the door!” or “Walk slowly to the chalkboard!” Students could absorb other linguistic forms, such as questions by watching and imitating the teacher shrug his/her shoulders, look confused, and ask, “Where is the book?” In these ways, students magically begin asking questions and creating their own commands In theory, this process guides them to fluency in the target language.TPR can be an effective methodology in small doses when language learners have no knowledge of the target language It has the advantage of

getting students out of their seats, which alleviates boredom and allows students to associate specific actions with specific language

2.1.8 The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The Communicative Method began to develop during the late 1970s CLT does not teach about language; rather, it focuses on language for communication It is often associated with the Functional-Notional Approach; that is, the emphasis is on functions such as time, location, travel, measurements In short, it seeks to recreate real-life social and functional situations in the classroom to guide students toward communicative competence The linguistic accuracy that was deemed so essential in grammar-translation, the Direct Method, and other approaches is a mere trifle in the Communicative classroom Ideally, grammar is not taught explicitly at all Teachers avoid upsetting their students by requiring them to identify or recognize nouns, verbs, or direct objects; instead, they guide them to second-language proficiency by employing

“the three Ps” presentation, practice, and production Teachers present the target language via everyday situations; they give students time to practice the language via structured situational dialogues; and, finally, they step aside for students’ production of the language the phase in which they are able to function independently in the target language

It is worth noting that CTL is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study Language learners in environments utilizing CLT techniques, learn and practice the target language through the interaction with one another and the instructor, the study of "authentic texts" (those written in the target language for purposes other than language learning), and through the use of the language both in class and outside of class

Learners converse about personal experiences with partners, and instructors teach topics outside of the realm of traditional grammar, in order to promote language skills in all types of situations This method also claims to encourage learners to incorporate their personal experiences into their language learning environment, and to focus on the learning experience in addition to the learning of the target language

According to CLT, the goal of language education is the ability to communicate in

competence was commonly given top priority CLT also focuses on the teacher being a facilitator, rather than an instructor Furthermore, the approach is a non-methodical system that does not use a textbook series to teach English, but rather works on developing sound oral/verbal skills prior to reading and writing.Language teaching was originally considered a cognitive matter, mainly involving memorization It was later thought, instead, to be socio-cognitive, meaning that language can be learned through the process of social interaction Today, however, the dominant technique in teaching any language is communicative language teaching

It was Noam Chomsky's theories in the 1960s, focusing on competence and performance in language learning, that gave rise to communicative language teaching, but the conceptual basis for CLT was laid in the 1970s by linguists Michael Halliday, who studied how language functions are expressed through grammar, and Dell Hymes, who introduced the idea of a wider communicative competence instead of Chomsky's narrower linguistic competence The rise of CLT in the 1970s and early 1980s was partly

in response to the lack of success with traditional language teaching methods and partly due to the increase in demand for language learning In Europe, the advent of the European Common Market, an economic predecessor to the European Union, led to migration in Europe and an increased population of people who needed to learn a foreign language for work or for personal reasons At the same time, more children were given the opportunity to learn foreign languages in school, as the number of secondary schools offering languages rose worldwide as part of a general trend of curriculum-broadening and modernization, and foreign-language study ceased to be confined to the elite academies In Britain, the introduction of comprehensive schools, which offered foreign-language study to all children rather than to the select few in the elite grammar schools, greatly increased the demand for language learning

This increased demand included many learners who struggled with traditional methods such as grammar translation, which involves the direct translation of sentence after sentence as a way to learn language These methods assumed that students were aiming for mastery of the target language, and that students were willing to study for years before expecting to use the language in real life However, these assumptions were

challenged by adult learners, who were busy with work, and some schoolchildren, who were less academically gifted, and thus could not devote years to learning before being able to use the language Educators realized that to motivate these students an approach with a more immediate reward was necessary,and they began to use CLT, an approach that emphasizes communicative ability and yielded better results

Additionally, the trend of progressivism in education provided further pressure for educators to change their methods Progressivism holds that active learning is more effective than passive learning;consequently, as this idea gained traction, in schools there was a general shift towards using techniques where students were more actively involved, such as group work Foreign-language education was no exception to this trend, and teachers sought to find new methods, such as CLT, that could better embody this shift in thinking

CLT teachers choose classroom activities based on what they believe is going to

be most effective for students developing communicative abilities in the target language Oral activities are popular among CLT teachers, as opposed to grammar drills or reading and writing activities, because they include active conversation and creative, unpredicted responses from students Activities vary based on the level of language class they are being used in They promote collaboration, fluency, and comfort in the TL The six activities listed and explained below are commonly used in CLT classrooms

3 The students converse in pairs for a designated amount of time

This activity gives students the chance to improve their communication skills in the TL in a low-pressure situation Most students are more comfortable speaking in pairs rather than in front of the entire class Instructors need to be aware of the differences between a conversation and an utterance Students may use the same utterances repeatedly when doing this activity and not actually have a creative conversation If instructors do not regulate what kinds of conversations students are having, then the students might not be truly improving their communication skills

Interviews

An interview is an oral activity done in pairs, whose main goal is to develop students' interpersonal skills in the TL For example:

1 The instructor gives each student the same set of questions to ask a partner

2 Students take turns asking and answering the questions in pairs

This activity, since it is highly-structured, allows for the instructor to more closely monitor students' responses It can zone in on one specific aspect of grammar or vocabulary, while still being a primarily communicative activity and giving the students communicative benefits

This is an activity that should be used primarily in the lower levels of language classes, because it will be most beneficial to lower-level speakers Higher-level speakers should be having unpredictable conversations in the target language, where neither the questions nor the answers are scripted or expected If this activity were used with higher-level speakers it wouldn't have many benefits

Group work

Group work is a collaborative activity whose purpose is to foster communication

in the TL, in a larger group setting For instance:

1 Students are assigned a group of no more than six people

2 Students are assigned a specific role within the group (E.g., member A, member

B, etc.)

3 The instructor gives each group the same task to complete

4 Each member of the group takes a designated amount of time to work on the part

of the task to which they are assigned

5 The members of the group discuss the information they have found, with each other and put it all together to complete the task

Students can feel overwhelmed in language classes, but this activity can take away from that feeling Students are asked to focus on one piece of information only, which increases their comprehension of that information Better comprehension leads to better communication with the rest of the group, which improves students' communicative abilities in the target language

Instructors should be sure to monitor that each student is contributing equally to the group effort It takes a good instructor to design the activity well, so that students will contribute equally, and benefit equally from the activity

Information gap

Information gap is a collaborative activity, whose purpose is for students to effectively obtain information that was previously unknown to them, in the target language Forexample:

1 The class is paired up One partner in each pair is Partner A, and the other is Partner B

2 All the students that are Partner A are given a sheet of paper with a time-table on

it The time-table is filled in half-way, but some of the boxes are empty

3 All the students that are Partner B are given a sheet of paper with a time-table on

it The boxes that are empty on Partner A's time-table are filled in on Partner B's There are also empty boxes on Partner B's time-table, but they are filled in on Partner A's

4 The partners must work together to ask about and supply each other with the information they are both missing, to complete each other's time-tables

Completing information gap activities improves students' abilities to communicate about unknown information in the TL These abilities are directly applicable to many

real-world conversations, where the goal is to find out some new piece of information, or simply to exchange information

Instructors should not overlook the fact that their students need to be prepared to communicate effectively for this activity They need to know certain vocabulary words, certain structures of grammar, etc If the students have not been well prepared for the task

at hand, then they will not communicate effectively

Respect is key with this activity If a student does not feel like their opinion is respected by the instructor or their peers, then they will not feel comfortable sharing, and they will not receive the communicative benefits of this activity

In doing this activity, students have the opportunity to speak with a number of classmates, while still being in a low-pressure situation, and talking to only one person at

a time After learning more about each other, and getting to share about themselves, students will feel more comfortable talking and sharing during other communicative activities

Since this activity is not as structured as some of the others, it is important for instructors to add structure If certain vocabulary should be used in students' conversations, or a certain grammar is necessary to complete the activity, then instructors should incorporate that into the scavenger hunt

In conclusion,the above-mentioned summary of English language teaching over the last two centuries show that second language instruction has come a long way since the bad old days of rote learning Still, it is not the end of the story The trend since the late 1990s has been toward eclecticism, and this is probably the healthiest approach for it accommodates many styles of learning and endeavors to do more than elicit monosyllabic utterances from students Furthermore, an eclectic approach allows teachers to glean the effective elements from many methods that really work in the classroom A little TPR is a great warm-up activity; a little prose translation is often a welcome relief from guided conversation in the target language; and a five-minute session of target-language only can give students a sense of true accomplishment Language learning methodologies certainly mirror the times in which they thrive; but some have claimed to have virtues that are not evident beyond their theoretical framework I have attended many faculty meetings in which the chair insisted that teachers “make sure the kids are having fun in language class” as though having fun were the one and only criterion for success On the other end

of the spectrum, I have observed language classes whose professors demean learners who don’t respond to their textbook approach to language instruction Neither extreme fun or misery is laudable or effective The eclectic approach takes the best that theorists have to offer and incorporates it with techniques that work Language learning is difficult business Students’ attitudes about school and authority, their home situations, literacy, self-confidence, academic level, identification with their native language and country are

teachers have a tremendous challenge in trying to give their students the tools with which

to function on all levels in the target language Regardless of what methods to be used, the learner’s communicative competence is of paramount importance in foreign language

teaching The following part will further discuss the communicative competence issue

2.2 The communicative competence

With regards to communicative competence, Chomsky (1965) pioneered in

coining the terms competence and performance The former is an idealized capacity that

is located as a psychological or mental property or function and ‘performance’ as the production of actual utterances To put it other ways, competence involves “knowing” the language and performance involves “doing” something with the language The difficulty with this construct is that it is very difficult to assess competence without assessing performance

Hymes (1972) was the first to point out that the Chomskyan notion of competence dealing with the ideal speaker-listener in a homogeneous speech community provides no place for competency for language use, i.e The theory fails to account for the whole socio-cultural dimension.As a linguist and anthropologist, Hymes was concerned on the one hand with linguistic theory, and on the other hand with the socio-cultural aspect of language According to Hymes, what one is inevitably concerned with is “performance” - the actual use of language in a concrete situation; its use moreover by speaker-listeners who are far from “ideal” and whose language behaviour cannot be characterised as that of any “homogeneous speech community" Hymes points out that Chomsky‟s narrow concept of competence represents a “Garden of Eden”view which disregards questions of use by relegating them to the area of performance This limitation of Chomsky‟s linguistic competence led Hymes to coin the term “communicative competence” It is a wide term including not only linguistic Knowledge but also knowledge of a set of sociolinguistic codes and rules for using them Communicative competence, he claims is

“the most general term for the speaking and hearing capabilities of a person - competence

is understood to be dependent on two things: (tacit) knowledge and (ability for) use" The actual theory of communicative competence that he suggests involves knowledge (and abilities) of four types

1 Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible

2 Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available

3 Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated

4 Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails Hymes (l972, p.12)

According to Hymes (ibid.), there is a capacity for performance that he calls an

‘ability for the effective use of language in actual communication This ability consists of

both knowledge about the language and specific skills in using the language In short,

communicative competence generally refers to a learner's ability to use language to communicate successfully

Canale and Swain (1980) expanded Hyme’s concept from the perspective of second language learning They proposed the communicative competence with four key components:

5 Grammatical competence: includes knowledge of syntax, vocab, phonology

6 Discourse competence: refers to the ability to connect sentences to form meaningful

whole out of a series of utterances It deals with cohesion and coherence in different types of texts

7 Socio-linguistic competence: is related to knowledge of socio-cultural rules of

language and discourse It is concerned with the learners' ability to handle for example settings, topics and communicative functions in different sociolinguistic contexts

8 Strategic competence: strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication,

such as the use of reference sources, grammatical and lexical paraphrase, requests for repetition, clarification, slower speech, or problems in addressing strangers when unsure of their social status or in finding the right cohesion devices It is also concerned with such performance factors as coping with the nuisance of background noise or using gap fillers

This model of communicative competence has served a framework for second and

2.3 The speaking skill

2.3.1 The definition of speaking

Speaking is one of the most important skills in language learning Thus, people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak

Speaking can be defined in various ways depending on the researcher’s perspective According to Oxford dictionary, it is the action of conveying information or expressing one's feelings in speech In the view of foreign language teaching, speaking is considered as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997).Speaking requires learners to not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also that they understand when, where, why and in what ways to produce language It is a kind of bridge for learners between classroom and the world outside and a medium through which much language is learnt…, (Bygate, 1997: vii) To know the language learners can speak, it is necessary to get them to actually, say something To do this they must act on knowledge

of grammar and vocabulary The application of this knowledge can be realized by speaking practice

As speaking is to communicate, it generally becomes main goal of learning in language In the first language acquisition, speaking is among the first skills to be mastered It is also similar for second or foreign language learning It means when someone wants to master a certain language, the first language skill he or she wants to acquire is speaking because it will enable them to communicate ideas with other people When developing the speaking skill, there are two key components for learners to accomplish successful communication, namely fluency and accuracy

Fluency is a term that means the flow with which words and sentences are associated when speaking The term “fluent” is defined by Chambers Concise Dictionary

as being “able to speak and write a particular language competently and with ease” In this meaning, fluency is considered as the ability to get across communicative intent

without any interruption or many pauses that causes limitation at the moment of communicating with another person According to Nation (1991), fluency is the ability to connect the features of speech easily, and without the need to strive hard to think on what

to say when talking, or without the unnecessary pauses, and the excessive hesitation Hedge (1993) also argues that non-fluency in an English language learner is recognized when there is an amount of pauses, repetitions, and self-corrections that prevent the facility of expression Under this conception, fluency is the way an information is delivered quickly and with knowledge of the language Richards (2006: 14) noted that

“fluency is developed by creating classroom activities in which students must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstanding, and work to avoid communication breakdowns” In this meaning, fluency can be developed in group

activities as it provides meaningful opportunities to expose the language

Accuracy refers to the use of the correct form of the communicative competences such as the grammar and vocabulary without any mistake According to Bryne (1988), accuracy is when speech does not contain errors affecting the discourse features of a language It is important to highlight that the accuracy is more difficult to develop in young language learners, but teachers who focus more on context than on meaning, help students to produce grammatically correct written and spoken language

2.3.2 Teaching the speaking skill

2.3.2.1 Development of teaching speaking methods

Learners often consider speaking the most demanding skill when learning a foreign language The majority of them starts learning a language being motivated by the ability to speak, get their message across and interact with other speakers of a target language They aim for accurate and fluent speech production that is appropriate to a given situation Although speaking seems to be an effortless task, it is

in fact cognitively highly demanding process involving ‘the myriad complex processes’ working interactively (Goh & Burns, 2012, p.35)

Historically, teaching speaking has not always been the main objective of language learning and teaching, but it is emphasised in current approaches and it is the skill that learners and teachers strive for and struggle with most often

With the Grammar-Translation Method, the teaching of the second language grammar is emphasized Its major technique is translation from and into the target language In practice, reading and writing are the main focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or listening The student’s native language is maintained

as the reference system in the acquisition of the second language Language learners are passive in language learning and teachers are regarded as an authority, i.e it is a teacher-centered model

The Grammar-Translation Method has been facing various attacks from reformers Some criticizes that this method often creates frustration for students by a tedious experience of memorizing endless list of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary, and the limitations of practice techniques never emancipate the learner from the dominance

of the first language; others says that this method pay little attention to the student’s communicative competence

In spite of the severe attacks, the Grammar-Translation Method is still practiced in many schools, especially in EFL settings There are several reasons for this outdated method to be in use today First, the form-focused testing practices are still common in some parts of the world (as in Vietnam) Secondly, the large class size is an obstacle to communicative activities As a result, teacher resort to teaching grammar instead Finally, Grammar-Translation Method appears relatively easy to apply and it makes few demands on teachers, which is perhaps the exact reason of its popularity

As mentioned above, at the turn of the 20th century, the Direct Method became popular It was a radical change from Grammar-Translation Method by the use of the target language as a means of instruction and communication in the language classroom, and by the avoidance of the use of the first language and of translation as a technique It is a shift from literary language to the spoken everyday language as the object of early instruction In this method, the learning of languages was viewed as analogous to the first language acquisition, and the learning process involved were often interpreted in terms of an association’s psychology

The Direct Method was a first attempt to make the language learning situation one

of the language use It demanded inventiveness on the part of teachers and led to the

development of new techniques of language, such as demonstrations of pictures and objects, the emphasis on questions and answer, spoken narratives, dictation and imitation, etc Nevertheless, two questions will be raised inevitably about this method: one is how

to safeguard against misunderstanding without translating (especially, some abstract ideas), without reference to the first language; the other is how to apply this method beyond elementary stage of language learning Furthermore, this method requires teachers who are native speakers or have native-like fluency in the foreign language they teach, but in practice, it is difficult to meet these requirements

The need for the Allies troops to learn foreign languages in a short time during World War II brought about the appearance of the Army Method It was later developed into the Audio-lingual Method during the 1950s and 1960s This method was the first to claim openly to be derived from linguistics and psychology Audiolingualism reflects the descriptive, structural, and contrastive linguistics of the fifties and sixties Its psychological basis is behaviorism which interprets language learning in terms of stimulus and response, operant conditioning, and reinforcement with an emphasis on successful error-free learning It assumes that learning a language entails mastering the elements or building blocks of the language and learning the rules by which these elements are combined, from phoneme to morpheme to word to phrase to sentence Therefore, it was characterized by the separation of the skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing and the primacy of the audio-lingual over the graphic skills This method uses dialogues as the chief means of presenting the language and stresses certain practice techniques, such as pattern drills, mimicry and so on Listening and speaking were now brought right into the centre of the stage in this method, tape recordings, and language laboratory drills were offered in practice

As one of the most popular methods in the history of foreign language teaching, the audio-lingual method is of some great contributions to language teaching, for example, it attempted to make language learning accessible to large groups of ordinary learners because it proposed that language teaching should be organized in such a way as not to demand great intellectual feats of abstract reasoning to learn a language In addition, it stressed syntactical progression, while previously methods had tended to be

preoccupied with vocabulary and morphology In spite of these contributions, audiolingualism was also criticized in many ways First, its theoretic foundation was attacked as being unsound both in terms of language theory and learning theory by Chomsky’s theory of TG grammar; second, the practical results fell short of expectations and students were often found to be unable to transfer skills acquired through Audiolingualism to real communication outside the classroom Therefore, it ignores the communicative competence in teaching practice

With the development of Functional linguistics and Social Constructivist psychology, the Communicative Approach to second and foreign language teaching appeared Under the influence of British applied linguists such as Halliday (1974), who stressed the functional and communicative potential of language), sociolinguistics works

by Dell Hyms (1972) and some philosophy works by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), the communicative method was advocated in language teaching It saw the need to focus

on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastering of structures

This communicative teaching method aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching, and develops procedures for teaching the four skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication It encourages activities that involve real communication and carry out meaningful tasks It believes that language is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process Language learners are expected to be negotiators, teachers to be an organizer, a guide, an analyst,

a counselor, or a group process manager

It is no doubt that the communicative method developed quite fast, it dominates language teaching in many countries because it not only makes language learning more interesting, but helps learners develop linguistic competence as well as communicative competence However, problems also arose in the initial wave enthusiasm about it For example, can this method be applied at all levels in teaching? How such an approach can

be evaluated? How suitable it is for non-native teachers? How it can be adopted in situations where students must continue to take grammar-based tests? Of course, these issues will help us have a better application of the communicative method

In summary, each of the aforementioned methods has contributed new elements and has attempted to deal with some issues of language learning However, they derived

in different historical context, stressed different social and educational needs and have different theoretical consideration Therefore, in teaching practice, in order to apply these methods effectively and efficiently, practitioners should take these questions in mind: who the learners are, what their current level of language proficiency is, what sort of communicative needs they have, and the circumstances in which they will be using English in the future, and so on In a word, no single method could guarantee successful results

2.3.3 Characteristics of successful speaking activity

The goal of teaching speaking is communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest They also should observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situations According to Ur (1999, p 120), there are some characteristics of a successful speaking activity as seen from the students’ perspective:

(1) Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

(2) Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of

talkative participants; all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

(3) Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in

topic and have something new to say about it, or just because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

(4) Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterance

that is relevant, easily comprehensive to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

From the teacher’s side, successful teaching of the speaking skill is characterized

(1) Choose the right topic: Learners will be more motivated to participate in an activity

which they are interested in and which relates to their lives or experience

(2) Be specific: Speaking activities with a clear communicative goal work best For

example, ‘Tell your partner what you did at the weekend and find one thing you have

in common’ gives learners a specific task and an end goal so that they know when they have achieved it Vague activities like ‘Talk about things you like’ can leave learners wondering what a teacher wants

(3) Give support and preparation time: Sometimes, a speaking activity falls flat because

learners simply don’t feel ready to speak Make sure they have the language they need and give them a bit of time to prepare This could be time to read instructions for a role play for example Making notes can help, but writing a speech interferes with fluency

(4) Allow learners to work together: If learners talk in pairs or groups, they get much

more speaking practice than when you are asking questions to one learner at a time You could demonstrate the speaking activity with a strong learner first, to make sure that learners are clear about what you want them to do

(5) Provide a clear purpose: Activities where learners have to exchange information in

order to complete an activity provide a real reason for speaking These are sometimes known as ‘information gap’ activities This could be a simple question and answer activity, or something more complex like a group activity where learners have different information which they have to share in order to solve a puzzle

2.3.4 Problems with speaking activities

According to Ur (1996:121), there are some problems faced by the learners in speaking activities The problems include inhibition, the lack of theme to be spoken, the low of participation, and the use of mother tongue Those problems can be explained as follows:

Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some

real time exposures to an audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things

in a foreign language in the classroom, such as worried about mistakes, fearful of criticism, or shy of the attention that their speech attracts

Lack of theme to be spoken: Some learners get the difficulties in thinking of

anything to say, they have no motivation to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

Low participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be

heard In a large group, this means that each one will have only very little time to talk This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all

Use of mother tongue: In a number of classes, the learners share the same mother

tongue They may tend to use it because of some reasons Firstly, it is easier Secondly, it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language The last, they feel less

“exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue If they are talking in small groups, it can be quite difficult to keep using the target language

There are some solutions which can be applied to overcome the problems in speaking activity (Ur, 1996, pp.121-122)

Use group work: This increases the sheer amount of student talk going on in a

limited period of time and also lowers the inhibitions of students who are unwilling to speak in front of the full class It is true that group work means the teacher cannot supervise all students speech, so that not all utterances will be correct, and students may occasionally slip into their native language; nevertheless, even taking into consideration occasional mistakes and mother tongue use, the amount of time remaining for positive, useful oral practice is still likely to be far more than in the full class set up

Base the activity on easy language: In general, the level of the language needed

for a discussion should be lower than used in intensive language learning activities in the same class It should be easily recalled and produced by the participants, so that they can speak fluently with the minimum of hesitation It is a good idea to teach or review essential vocabulary before the activity starts

Make a careful choice of topic and task to stimulate interest: On the whole, the

clearer the purpose of the discussion the more motivated participants will be A good topic is one which students can relate using ideas from their own experience and

knowledge It should also represent a genuine controversy Some questions or suggested lines of thought can help to stimulate discussion A task is essentially goal-oriented It requires the group, or pair, to achieve an objective that is usually expressed by an observable xxxi result such as brief notes or lists, a rearrangement of jumbled items, a drawing, and a spoken summary

Give some instruction or training in discussion skills: If the task is based on group

discussion then include instructions about participation when introducing it For example, tell students to make sure that everyone the group contributes to the discussion appoints a chairperson to each group who will regulate participation

Keep students speaking the target language: Teachers might appoint one of the

groups as monitor, whose job is to remind participants to use the target language, and perhaps report later to teacher how well the group managed to keep it Even if there is no actual penalty attached, the very awareness that someone is monitoring such lapses helps participants to be more careful

2.4 Using games to teach speaking skill

2.4.1 The definition of games

According to Hadfield (1996, p 4) a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun He also said that there are two kinds of games: competitive games and co–operative games A competitive game is games in which the player or teams race to

be the first to reach the goal And co – operative games is games in which players or teams work together towards a common goal Chen (2005) also said in his journal that the benefits of using games in language learning are promote communicative competence, create a meaningful context for language use, increase learning motivation, reduce learning anxiety, encourage creative and spontaneous use of language, and construct a cooperative learning environment

In teaching and learning activities, there are many activities to develop speaking skill Games have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, serves as a good communicative activity The aim of all language games for students is to use the language However during the game play learners also use the target language to

persuade and negotiate their way to desire the result Games offer students a fun and relaxing learning atmosphere When students join in games, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated, so communicative competence is achieved Games activities are an excellent way of motivating learners to speak And introduce competition into language building activities In other words, games create a meaningful context for language use The competitive atmosphere also makes learners concentrate and think intensively during the learning process Students acquire a great deal of language by concentrating and listening intensively, but unconsciously Much of our mother tongue competence is gained through using language in play

2.4.2 Characteristics of games

According to Kleur (1998), games have many characteristics: Firstly, a game is governed by rules To make a simple activity into a game rules is important Secondly, a game has objectives One of the rules is the achievement of an objective This objectives can be something like making points correctness of finishing an activity first Thirdly, a game is a closed activity It means games must have beginning and an end It must be easy for the player and the teacher, to know who is about to reach the aim There are many advantages of using games in the classrooms Games are welcome break from the usual routine of the language class, they are motivating and challenging, games provide language practice in the various skills – speaking, writing, listening and reading… They create a meaningful context for the language use

Games can be played by class, individual, pair and group work Pair work is easy and fast to organize It is provide opportunity for intensive listening and speaking practice Group work is essential if some games require four to six players According to Wright (1997, p.5) pair work is better than group work if there are discipline problems

He also said that for all the reason we often prefer to organize games in pair or general class work, rather than in group work

2.4.3 Kinds of games

According to Wright et al (1997), there are several types of games:

Picture games: A picture game is a game in which the use of pictures plays a

major part In this games involve comparing and contrasting pictures, considering differences or similarities, considering possible relationship between pictures

Psychology Games: This game has included the variety of games which might all

lead to a greater awareness of the working of human minds and sense There is much individual variation of opinion and experience in psychology games, and also encourage concentration and language use

Magic Trick: In magic trick games repetition is authentic needed Because magic

trick always attract attention and invite comment, there is a potentially large occurrence

of other language

Caring and Sharing Games: All the games in this section demand encourage trust

and interest in others The difficulty of these games is learners’ shyness or reluctance to share xxxvi personal feelings and experience with other class members Only the teacher can decide how and when to make the attempt to introduce the learners to caring and sharing activities

Sound Games Sound: effects can create in the listener’s mind and impression of

people, places, and actions There is a demand for the listener to contribute through imagination This inevitably leads to individual interpretation and individual points of view and to express opinion and ideas

Card and board games: The examples of these games are snake and ladders We

can make variations in order for the full value of achievement

Story Games: This game provides a framework for learner to speak and write at length instead of engaging in short exchange The teacher should decide that it might be helpful to correct certain errors that re made, them make a written or mental note of the errors during the story telling, but delay delaying with them until afterwards

Word Games: This game focus of intentions is initially on the word rather than the

sentence: spelling, meanings, words for sentence-making, words as inferred from contexts, or words as categorized according to grammatical usage However, learners are

required in many cases to go beyond the initial focus and to communicate in full sentences, sometimes to pursue ideas and argue at some length

True/false games: This game is to decide which it is, someone makes a statement

which is either true or false

Memory Games: Essentially, these games challenge the player’s ability to

remember The inevitably differences between what players remember lead to discussion,

in which opinion and information are exchanged

Question and answer games: This section a variety of games designed to create

contexts in which the leaner want to ask question in order to find something out, usually connected with grammatical points

Guessing and speculating games: In guessing and speculating game, someone

knows something and the others must find out what it is It is useful for the less sophisticated learner and/ or the learners whose English is limited However, learners with a wider range of English at their command should be required to think and speak in

a more extended, connected way

2.4.4 Reasons for using language games to teach the speaking skill

Haldfield (1999) suggests that language games should be treated as a central, not

a peripheral part of the foreign language teaching program for the following reasons Besides being fun, they likewise comprise a goal and are governed by rules Silvers

(1992) in his book Games for the Classroom and English Speaking Club, says that many

teachers often perceive games as the time – fillers and a break from monotonous drilling He claims that many teachers often overlook the fact that in a relaxed atmosphere, real learning can occur, and students are able to use the language they have been exposed to and have practised earlier In reality, games increase positive competition among students participating in a language activity (Greenall1990)

Lee (1995), the author of the work Creative Games for the Language Class,

states that there is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there are hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning However, she adds that it is possible to learn a language as well as to

enjoy oneself at the same time, and one of the best way to do so is by using educational games

The rationale for using games in a foreign language classroom can be found in the fact that students can benefit a great deal by learning through games Many experienced writers ensure us that games have educational value She states the reasons for using games as follows Games may represent a break from the usual routine, but they can also be highly motivating and challenging Furthermore, games are a successful encouragement for students to interact, communicate and sustain the effort of learning and they provide a meaningful context for language use, generate fluency, lower anxiety and introduce fun and relaxation(Lee,ibid.)

Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left

at the end of a lesson Yet, as Lee observes, a game should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do Even if the games result only in producing noise and in entertaining students, they are worth playing since they motivate learners and promote competence and fluency Moreover, they let students see beauty in a foreign language, not just problems they face with while learning a language

It must be, however, acknowledged that using language games has both advantages and disadvantages The positive aspects of games include:

 Through fun and apparently less demanding practice, games increase learners‘ motivation and promote learning (Hansen,1994)

 Group and peer work may induce teamwork and enable successful interaction (Rinvolucri & Davis,1995)

 By lowering the affective filter (Krashen, 1985), games provide favourable conditions for effective language acquisition (Wierus,1994)

 Through a meaningful context, students are provided with a comprehensible input (Krashen,1985)

 Each of the four basic skills may be practised by the use of games (Lee, 1995) The disadvantages maybe:

 Discipline issues, learners may get excessively noisy