Using speaking worksheets to improve efl learners’ speaking ability

1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY --- THESIS: USING SPEAKING WORKSHEETS TO IMPROVE EFL LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language

1

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY -

THESIS: USING SPEAKING WORKSHEETS TO IMPROVE EFL

LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

ABSTRACT

Using cues as stimuli to facilitate speaking is appreciated by language educators, especially those in favor of communicative teaching However, little research has been carried out in Viet Nam regarding this aspect of pedagogy, given the need to improve its low-competence learners in speaking This study examined the use of worksheets as stimuli

in speaking lessons, and aims to investigate the beliefs of teachers and students about the use of worksheets in English language speaking classrooms Eighty four 10th students from two classes at a high school in Nghe An province, one of the two was randomly assigned to

be the experimental group while the other was assigned to be the control group were involved Before the experiment, all participants in the two classes did a General English test and then sat pre- test A post-test was administered after the treatment to measure the participant„s speaking fluency and accuracy The collected data were analyzed in terms of fluency (number of words per minute) and accuracy (number of errors per 100 words) The data collected from the experiment yielded interesting findings The results showed that there was an improvement in students‟ accuracy and fluency in spoken English after the implementation of the speaking worksheet strategy Thus, it can be said that using speaking worksheet strategy could improve students‟ speaking ability The study will be a useful reference for teachers and practitioners in designing stimuli for English speaking lessons

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Tran Thi Ngoc Yen Without her valuable direction, keen insight, precious orientation, warm encouragement, and constant support throughout this project, I would not have accomplished my thesis I would like to thank her very much for her support, enthusiasm and understanding over these past months

I would also like to thank all of the lecturers who taught me during the two year-course for their valuable knowledge, enthusiastically detailed guidance and useful suggestions Next, I wish to express my sincere thanks to all teachers of English who assisted and encouraged me alot during my course and the two classes at Phan Dang Luu high school I worked with in order to gather the data for my study

Last but not least, I would like to express my deep thanks to my family members for supporting me with all their love and sympathy in completion of this thesis

No matter how hard I have tried to fulfill my task, I realize that this thesis is far from being perfect due to my limitations of knowledge and ability Therefore, any criticisms, ideas and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are greatly appreciated

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The speaking skill

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill

2.1.2 Functions of speaking

2.1.3 The nature of speaking ability

2.1.4 Micro and macro skills of speaking ability

2.1.5 The aspects of speaking ability

2.2 Assessing speaking ability

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

2.2.3 Rubrics for assessing EFL speaking ability

2.2.4 Methods to assess speaking ability

2.3 Teaching speaking to EFL learners

2.3 1 General outline of a speaking lesson

2.3.2 EFL learners‟ difficulties in learning to speak English

2.3.3 Factors affecting EFL learners‟ speaking ability

2.3.4 Methods and activities to improve speaking ability

2.4.4 Benefits of worksheets in English language teaching

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research questions

3.2 Materials

3.3 Participants

3.4 Procedures

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results

4.1.1 General English test results

4.1.2 Pre-test and post-test results

4.2 Discussion

4.2.1 The effects of speaking worksheets on EFL learners‟ speaking fluency

4.2.2 The effects of speaking worksheets on EFL learners‟ accuracy in grammar

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of findings

5.2 Implications

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

APPENDIX D

APPENDIX E

English is divided into four skills which are as follows: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; therefore, speaking is the second skill and has an important role in communication Speaking is the first way to interact with others in the social community Furthermore, the success in learning a language at first can be seen from the ability of the learner‟s speaking According to Brown and Yule (1983), spoken language production is often considered one

of the most difficult aspects of language learning In reality, many language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language in the target language Ur (1996) stated that speaking seems to be the most important skill of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) because people who know a language are usually referred to as speakers of that language The major goal of all English language teaching should be to give learners the ability to use English effectively, fluently and accurately in communication (Davies & Pearse, 1998) However, not all language learners after many years studying English can communicate fluently and accurately because they lack necessary knowledge, ideas, vocabulary and so on….Besides, some teachers do not often use interesting teaching methods or techniques that can motivate learners to speak

As a teacher of English at a high school in the rural area, I have been teaching students a large number of speaking lessons for many years I noticed that most of the students were not willing to take part in speaking activities They were nervous to produce utterances in English in or out of the classroom Because of the speaking anxiety, many of them were unable to answer the questions in speaking tests, some made a lot mistakes in grammatical item and vocabulary Gradually, they found speaking lessons difficult and boring all time Therefore, having taken account internal factors that affects negatively EFL learners to

speak, I made up my mind to use speaking worksheets in order to reduce students‟ anxiety and encourage them to speak With this, students-students interaction could be promoted and they also had a lot of opportunities whether in pairs or groups to practice speaking accordance to the real situations and context use of how English conversation is actually performed On the other hand, with given target expressions, vocabulary, and grammar included in the worksheets, this might help the EFL high school students to achieve not only accuracy but also fluency in speaking Afterwards, I have found that using speaking worksheets has benefited my students so much in improving their ELF accuracy in spoken language as well as the motivation in their spirit of learning foreign language

As things can be seen above, I have decided to carry out a research on “ Using speaking worksheets to improve EFL learners’ speaking ability” with the hope to help EFL

learners improve their accuracy and fluency in speaking

1.2 Aims of the study

The study aimed to explore the effects of worksheets on EFL learners‟ speaking ability

It focussed on two aspects of speaking performance: fluency and accuracy

1.3 Research questions

This research set out to seek for the answers to the following questions:

1 Does the use of speaking worksheets help EFL learners to improve their speaking fluency?

2 How does the use of speaking worksheets affect EFL learners‟ grammar accuracy in speaking?

1.4 Scope of study

This study only focussed on using speaking worksheets to improve English speaking ability Fluency and accuracy are the two aspects examined in this study

1.5 Method of the study

The main method employed in this study is experimental All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion were based on the data analysis The combination of different instruments used in this research helped to gain reliable data

1.6 Thesis design

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1- the Introduction, is a brief overview of the study with more details of rationale,

aims, research questions, scope of study and method of the study as well as design of the study

Chapter 2 is the literature review This chapter presents the theoretical background of the

research which contains four main issues: speaking ability, assessing speaking ability, teaching speaking to EFL learners, Worksheets in English language teaching

Chapter 3, deals with the research methodology In this chapter, the focus will be on

background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect data and the procedure of data collection

Chapter 4 presents the results and discussions of the effects of the use of speaking

worksheets to improve EFL learners‟ speaking ability

Chapter 5 is the conclusion, devoted to the summary of the findings and implications

accuracy and fluency to help teachers and students at high schools to get over difficulties in learning and teaching English This chapter also provides the limitations of the study as well

as some recommendations for further study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Speaking skill

It discusses the definition of speaking, the nature of speaking, the function of speaking, and the aspect of speaking ability, and macro and micro skill of speaking ability

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill

We cannot deny that speaking is an integral skill and the key to communicate with other

people and it seems much more difficult than other skills English is spoken all over the world as an international language for people‟s interaction purpose

People use the term “speaking” in various ways According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009, p 414), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing one‟s thoughts and feelings in spoken language” According to Burn and Joyce (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Scheter (1999) defined speaking as to utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings to express thought by words, as the organs may be so obstructed that a man may not be able to speak Chaney (1998, p.13), however, considered speaking a process: “speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts” Sharing the same viewpoint, Florez (1999, p 1) added that speaking is an “interactive” process, which consists of three main stages “producing, receiving and processing information.” In language teaching and learning, speaking is considered a skill to practice and master In this light, Nunan (2003, p 48) put it that “speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning.” Also considering speaking as a skill, both Bygate (1987) and Hilferty (2000) reached the same conclusion about the distinction between knowledge and skill in speaking lessons

Bygate (1987, p 3) considered speaking as crucial in the teaching of speaking Indeed, to

be a good learner of speaking, studying knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, etc is not enough but the skill to use this knowledge to communicate successfully is indispensable Hilferty (2000)stated that speaking is also understood is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the oral skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words

In summary, the concepts of speaking are various, i.e speaking as an action, a process and a skill In this study, the term “speaking” will be used to refer to a skill related to language teaching and learning process

2.1.2 Functions of speaking

In 2012, Brown and Yule in Fauzi (2012, p 4) described a useful distinction between two basic language function These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationship

When considering the development of speaking ability between monologue and dialogue, people can‟t help mentioning another basic distinction The ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation is very clear from interacting one people and another speaker for transactional and intersectional purpose, while, all native speakers can and do use language interaction, not all native speaker have the ability to be extempore on a given subject to group of listeners Furthermore, in 2012, Brown and Yule in Fauzi (2012, p 4) discussed that most language teaching is concerned with developing skills in short intersectional exchanges in which the learner is only required to make one or two utterance

at a time

For the above statement, in 2012 Bygate in Fauzi (2012, p 5) distinguished that “

between motor-perceptive skill, which are concerned with correctly using the sound and structures of language, and interactional skill, which involves motor perceptive skill for the purpose of communication” motor perceptive skill are developed in the language classroom

through activities such as model dialogues, patterns practice, oral drills and so on, until relatively recently, it was assumed that the mastery of motor perceptive skill was that needed all one, in order to communicated successfully

2.1.3 The nature of speaking ability

In Islamiyah in 2007, Brown (2007, p.14) introduced that speaking has been a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed, those observations are invariably collared by the accuracy and fluency He also stated that speaking is the product

of creative construction of linguistic strings; the speakers make choices of lexicon, structure, and discourse

According to Poerdarminta (in Islamiyah, 2007, p.14), the classical meaning of speaking is the ability to talk, and to speak The main purpose of speaking is to send the message for the other one or to be able to communicate about something in language and understood by someone who becomes a listener

Tarigan (in Islamiyah, 2007, p 14) shared “a similar view on speaking is one of the

language skills in oral form to express the speakers’ ideas to everybody else while speaking

is the informal interchange of thought and information by spoken words”

2.1.4 Micro and macro skill of speaking ability

Micro skills of speaking involved in speaking that the speaker has to pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough for people to distinguish them This includes making tonal distinctions

People should use stress and rhythmic patterns and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said Use the correct forms of words This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case or gender Put words together in correct word order and use vocabulary appropriately Use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partner Make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses Make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information Make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what you are saying (Carol J Orwig 1999, P 23)

According to Sharma (2010, p 5), Macro Skills of Speaking are the skills that should be implemented in speaking activities: appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals Use appropriate styles, registers, implicative, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, conversion rules, floor keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face-to-face conversations Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feeling, new information and given information, generalization and exemplification Convey facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you

2.1.5 The aspects of speaking ability

Valetto in Fauzi (2012, p 7) said that “The elements which are in speaking cover

phonetic transcription, grammar, vocabulary, the effective and speaking” whereas

Darmodihardjo in Fauzi (2012, p 7) believed that “the requirements of effective speaking”

are: intonation, phonetic transcription and environment expression The opinion describes

that, to able communicate effectively, it must be considered that situation of sound utterance, pronunciation and physical

Meanwhile, Haris in Fauzi (2012, p 7) clarified as follows: “Like writing, speaking is

complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of number of the different abilities which often developed of different rates either four of five components are generally recognized in analyse of the speak process: (a) pronunciation concluding the segmental features vowel, and consonants, vocabulary, stress and intonation pattern the flow speech, (b) grammar, (c) vocabulary, (d) fluency (the case and speed of the flow speech) The solve probably be added, (e) comprehension for oral communication certainly requires a subject the response

to speak as well as imitation”

2.2 Speaking ability

As for Hartley & Sporing (1999), testing oral proficiency has become one of the most important issues in language testing since the role of speaking ability has become more central in language teaching There are three characteristics that distinguish performance assessments from other types of tests They are focused mainly on content However, testing speaking is difficult and cannot be assessed as precisely and without difficulty as other language skills It takes considerable time, effort and training (Hughes, 2003) Despite the difficulty of evaluating speaking tests, they should be designed, and administered regardless

of how costly they might

Another authors, Freed (1995) and Fulcher (1996) referred to how fluent the speaker is can be used in a range of senses One of the narrowest definitions include a few features, such as pausing, hesitations and speech production rate, whereas in a broad sense the reference is made to speaking proficiency Unless the term is defined explicitly, it is simply not clear what a speaker or writer means by it Definitions of fluency often include references to flow or smoothness, rate of speech, lack of unnecessary pausing, absence of distressing hesitation, length of utterances, and connectedness (Koponen, 1995) These characterizations are complex, however, because they are not simply descriptions of a speaker„s speech but also of a listener„s perception of it

One central part of fluency is related to temporal aspects of speech, such as speaking rate, speech-pause relationships, and frequency Both kinds of studies indicate that when speakers become more fluent their speech rate increases and the speech flow contains fewer pauses and hesitations (Lennon, 1990; Freed, 1995) They also pause at semantically sensible places, which listeners perceive as the speakers„ planning the content of what they

are saying rather than groping for words More speakers that are fluent tend to speak more and their phrases are longer

To focus on the more lexical aspects of fluency, Hasselgren (1998) defined it as “the

ability to contribute to what a listener, proficient in the language, would normally perceive

as coherent speech, which can be understood without undue strain, and is carried out at a comfortable pace, not being disjointed or disrupted by excessive hesitation” She suggested

that small words are significant in this because they help speakers produce relevant turns and understand the relevance of other speakers„ contributions She has a summary of the tasks of small words that they express the communicative intention of the speaker, with respect to what is to be communicated and how it affects the interactional roles of the participants They point to the textual context in which an utterance has relevance They indicate the cognitive effect of the previous utterance They enrich the explicature of an utterance, notably by indicating degree of commitment and vagueness They also indicate the state of success of the communication, acknowledging this, or appealing for confirmation, or assistance in bringing it about

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability

Brown (2004, p 141-142) indicated that one can be called have speaking competence if he/she is able to imitate a word or phrase or possibly a sentence (imitative), produce short stretches of oral language design to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationship Such as prosodic elements-intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture, intensive ability (intensive) He or she responds a very short conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like (responsive) or takes the two forms of either transactional language which has the purpose of exchanging specific information, or interpersonal exchanges which have the purpose of maintaining social relationships (interactive) Maintain social relationships with the transmission of facts and information (interpersonal) Develop (monologue) oral production including speeches, oral presentations, and story-telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listener is either highly limited or ruled out together (extensive)

Whereas, Ur (1999, p 120) said that the characteristics of a successful speaking activity are as follows: Learners talk a lot, as much as possible of the period of time allotted

to the activity is in fact occupied by learners„ talk This may seem obvious, but oven most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses Participation is even, Classroom discussion is not determined by a minority of talk active participants; all get chance to speak, and

contributions are fairly evenly distributed Motivation is high, learners are eager to speak; because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

According to Richard and Rodgers (2001, p 90) fluency is the ability to produce written or spoken language easily This indicates that spoken language is produced naturally with hurtles They also added fluency is the ability to speak with a good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary and grammar Meanwhile, Simon and Schuster

in Amin (2006, p 22) defined fluency as: (1) the quality of flowing, smoothness, freedom from harshness, (2) the ability to write or to speak easily, smoothly, expressively, readiness

or smoothness of speech

Fluency in speaking does not lie totally only on accuracy as mastering the language system but it also lays on the fluency as using the language system communicatively, and without too much hesitation

It can, therefore, be said that fluency is the ability to produce communicative language even though it is not in perfect utterances but in continuous speech and smooth It asks students to perform it naturally as long as understandable and communicable Fluency

is the ability to speak in an easy smooth manner Fluency is also as an aspect to be assessed

by the researcher because of this aspect as one of aspects that can indicate the students speaking ability

Accuracy in speaking means when someone can produce correct sentences in pronunciation, grammar and word choice There are three so it can be understood components of accuracy They are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation According to Alexander et al (1998, p 830), pronunciation is the way in which a language

or a word particular is pronounced Teaching pronunciation deals with recognition or understanding the flow of speech and production of words Teahcing pronunciation is intended students can produce speech which is intelligible in the areas where they use it When a teacher teaches English, he makes sure that the students„ utterances can be understood They need to be able to say what they want to say This means that students„ pronunciation should be at least adequate for the purpose It is obviously, sending message orally without acceptable and good pronunciation is impossible Certainly, pronunciation cannot be separated from intonation and stress Pronunciation, intonation and stress are

largely learnt successfully by imitating and repetition Therefore, the teacher should have good standard of pronunciation in order that the students can imitate the teacher in teaching and learning process

Language used by humans thereby must present some characteristics that make it so unique and different from the way animals communicate Yule„s work (2006, p 9-12) outlined the six crucial attributes of human language The first feature presented by the author is displacement This trait allows users of a language to discuss events, people and things not present in the immediate environment The second property is arbitrariness, which informs people that a relationship between a linguistic form and its meaning does not exist − it is entirely arbitrary For example, deducing the meaning of a word wardrobe from only the form would be difficult for a novice of a second language learner There are some onomatopoeic words that seem to mirror the sounds they stand for, but they are relatively occasional The next feature, productivity, informs us that the possibility to produce the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite Children are able to create new sentences they have hitherto never heard What is more, people who find themselves in new situations can describe the new position, whilst animals cannot The fourth characteristic of human language is discreteness, which points out the distinctions among sounds of a language are significant To illustrate this phenomenon, the apparently small

difference between the /p/ and /b/ sounds is meaningful when used in words like pig and

big The last but one quality of human language is duality This property notifies that people„s language is organized at two levels At one level, we are able to produce separate

discrete sounds, like /i/, /p/ and /n/ At another, the mentioned sounds may be arranged into

“nip”, but also into “pin” Finally, cultural transmission informs us that while physical

features such as face shape or the eye color may be inherited, a language cannot Children are born with an innate capacity to acquire language, but they do not have a genetic predisposition to acquire a specific one

At this point, another significant question should be explained, namely: what does it

actually mean to know a language? Yule (2006, p 169) defined it as “[t]he general ability

to use language accurately, appropriately and flexibly as communicative competence”

The first component of this definition emphasizes the accuracy of producing and understanding words and structures, which Yule then names as grammatical competence The only concentration on that competence will surely not provide a student with the ability both to provide and produce L2 precisely, and for that reason other elements of communicative competence must be distinguished

Until 2001, Harmer (2001, pp 269 - 271) clarified that if a person was able to speak a language it meant that the speaker possesses the knowledge of the target language„s features, and he or she had the ability to process information on the spot The author indicated that language„s features make reference to linguistic competence It comprised the following elements as connected speech, expressive devices, lexis and grammar, and negotiation language Students should be aware that natural processes like omitting words

or weakening sounds occur in real-life situations during speeches Activities which practice connected speech, rather than activities focused only on individual phonemes, improve learner„ fluency

It is also advisable to try to implement certain suprasegmental features in order to show emotions and attitudes, for instance by varying the speed of utterance or changing facial expressions Students also need to know various phrases and conversational patterns since

negotiation language involves expressions people often use for clarifications, such as “could

you explain it to me one more time, please?”

Moreover, in 2001 Harmer added that not only are the above-mentioned language„s

features necessary to succeed in speaking process but “[s]success is also dependent upon

the rapid processing skills that talking necessitates” (Harmer 2001, p 271) The skills were

language processing, interacting with others and (on-the-spot) information processing Language processing allowed retrieving the words and phrases that are stored in one„s memory and then arranging them in syntactically correct sentences Then effective speaking also requires a good deal of listening to and understanding other participants‟ feelings, as well as cultural and social rules such as turn-taking or how loud to speak” Moreover, the

pace of processing information plays an important role − the faster a speaker is able to respond, the more efficient communication is

The next question was linguistic knowledge about the notion of communication and then about a language is very important when investigating teaching speaking a foreign language The areas of communicative competence attempt to explain what knowledge about a target language a learner should possess

2.2.3 Rubrics for assessing EFL speaking ability

We are in a small classroom at our local language school It is almost the end of the semester, and our speaking class has been fun all year They have learned vocabulary, done role plays and strategic interaction, and practiced speaking to one another and to

us The big question now is how do we evaluate their progress? We either speak or we don‟t, right? It‟s either good or it isn‟t The good way is this: we can give objective grades

in a speaking class Just use the following criteria as we evaluate our students‟ speaking abilities, and we can give them helpful feedback as to their language learning and also a fair and well earned grade

1.Create a Rubric

Most teachers will be familiar with the concept of grading with a rubric, a table with

different criteria and a grading scale If we have never created a rubric before, it‟s really quite easy Simply choose the criteria on which we will grade students and list them along the left side of the page Then create an even number of columns along the top of the page Four is the easiest to start with if this is our first rubric These columns will represent potential skill levels of our students For each criterion, define what level of the ability a student at each of the four levels would exhibit For example, the most straightforward way

to label the boxes on the rubric would be, “Meets expectations high, meets expectations low,

slightly underperforms, does not meet expectations.” The more rubrics we make, the more

detailed we can be in our descriptions Then, as we evaluate each student, determine at which level he or she is performing Take the average level among the criteria and we have

an objective grade with suggestions for areas in which our student can improve

2 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a basic quality of language learning Though most second language learners will never have the pronunciation of a native speaker, poor pronunciation can obscure communication and prevent an ESL student from making his meaning known

When evaluating the pronunciation of our students, listen for clearly articulated

words, appropriate pronunciations of unusual spellings, and assimilation and contractions

in suitable places Also listen for intonation Are students using the correct inflection for the

types of sentences they are saying? Do they know that the inflection of a question is different from that of a statement? Listen for these pronunciation skills and determine into which level our student falls

3 Vocabulary

After noting the students‟ pronunciation levels, move to vocabulary Vocabulary

comprehension and vocabulary production are always two separate banks of words in the

mind of a speaker, native as well as second language Teachers should encourage the students to have a large production vocabulary and an even larger recognition vocabulary For this reason it is helpful to evaluate the students on the level of vocabulary they are able

to produce Are they using the specific vocabulary the teachers have instructed them in this semester? Are they using vocabulary appropriate to the contexts in which they are

speaking? Listen for the level of vocabulary the students are able to produce without prompting and then decide how well they are performing in this area

4 Accuracy

Grammar has always been and forever will be an important issue in foreign language study Writing sentences correctly on a test, though, is not the same as accurate spoken grammar As the students speak, listen for the grammatical structures and tools teachers have taught them Are they able to use multiple tenses? Do they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? All these and more are important grammatical issues, and an effective speaker will successfully include them in his or her language

5 Communication

A student may struggle with grammar and pronunciation, but how creative is she when communicating with the language she knows? Assessing communication in our students means looking at their creative use of the language they do know to make their points understood A student with a low level of vocabulary and grammar may have excellent communication skills if she is able to make you understand her, whereas an advanced student who is tied to manufactured dialogues may not be able to be expressive with language and would therefore have low communication skills Don‟t let a lack of language skill keep the students from expressing themselves The more creative they can be with language and the more unique ways they can express themselves, the better their overall

communication skills will be

6 Interaction

Being able to say what people mean with a foreign language is one thing, being able to interact with others is another Ask the students questions Observe how they speak to one another Are they able to understand and answer questions? Can they answer when teachers ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses in a conversation? All these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clear and effective communication in English

A student with effective interaction skills will be able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happening around him Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far

if he or she cannot listen to other people and respond appropriately Encourage the students

to listen as they speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation

7 Fluency

Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in the students‟ speaking How comfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Are there great pauses and gaps in the student‟s speaking? If there are then our student is struggling with

fluency Fluency does not improve at the same rate as other language skills Teachers can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent Teachers want the students to be at ease when they speak to them or other English speakers Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterion when evaluating speaking

These criteria, pronunciation, vocabulary, accuracy, communication, interaction and fluency are all markers of a student‟s overall speaking abilities

However, students may excel in one and struggle in another, and not necessarily the ones teachers might think Thus, in the limitation of this study, the researcher assessed the students„ speaking performances using the speaking marking criteria The first criteria are accuracy included word choice, grammar and pronunciation The second criteria are fluency including words per minutes

2.2.4 Methods to assess speaking ability

In categorizations of Underhill„s (1987) oral language testing methods and Luoma„s (2004) speaking task types, with an emphasis on Underhill„s work where the different testing methods were discussed in greater detail and more comprehensively Luoma ranked that the tasks into three groups of open-ended, semi-structured and structured speaking task types, differing somewhat from the lists Underhill provides Bachman (1990, p 77) stated that with the great number of different testing methods it is impossible to compile a comprehensive list of all the methods used in 1990 but As Underhill (1987, p 44) admitted there are over sixty methods with which to test oral skills before In 1990, Weir (1990, p 42) said test methods were used to formulate tests but they are not in themselves tests He revealed that it is possible to talk about a good test or a bad test, or a valid or invalid test, but this is not possible for methods

Some of the most often used techniques are summarized here as mentioned above, they are grouped into the three categories of direct, semi-direct and indirect methods It has to be noted here however that for instance Bachman (1990, p 77) does not consider certain methods listed here, such as sentence completion and multiple choice, as ―methods‖ at all but rather as combinations of various features of task types, instructions and types of input Moreover, since Weir (1990, p 42) told that different methods are used to construct tests but they are not in themselves tests There are indeed different interpretations of testing methods

To begin with, the so-called direct methods, or open-ended speaking tasks, (Luoma,

2004, p 48), measure speaking skills directly and the test situation resemble a real-life communication situation (Underhill, 1987, p 44 - 45) Luoma claims that even though the

open-ended speaking tasks direct the discussion, they allow the test takers a certain freedom

to utilize their cognitive skills in performing the tasks

One of the direct methods is discussion/conversation, which of course encourages the learner into a communicative approach Indeed, conversation is perhaps the most natural way for two people to communicate The interviewer gives the learner a chance to speak his mind but at the same time has an important role as a perceptive person leading the conversation Additionally, the interviewer„s job is to generate an appropriate atmosphere for a successful dialogue to take place When considering different types of personalities a disadvantage of this testing technique may be that a shy learner might feel underprivileged compared to an outgoing co- learner Indeed, a successful conversation method in testing oral skills requires the learners„ willingness to propose new topics for discussion, ask questions, and articulate disagreement when they are aware they are being evaluated As the learners need to be ready to take certain risks in the communication The conversation can also take place in groups, which contains its own challenges as a method, for instance the question of how all the participants can equally be taken into account

The second one is interview It is believed to be the most popular of oral testing methods (Underhill 1987, p 54) It is a direct method, demanding the presence of both the learner and the interviewer It is a method but at any rate permits both parties to express their opinions freely Underhill argues that it can be placed between two other categories, namely discussion/conversation and question and answer The interviewer has a list of questions and/or topics to be brought up in the dialogue However, superior to the question and answer-method (see 4.1.1.2) the interview provides the learner a better chance to illustrate one„s foreign language ability by explaining and justifying one„s opinions more deeply The questions should be designed in such a manner that the learner„s speech in the interview is

as representative of the stage of her language skills as possible

However, it is argued that the interview method is not quite suitable for measuring advanced learners„ oral skills because the rating scales do not measure up to the highly developed learners„ skills (Underhill 1987, p 56) On the other hand, with better matching rating scales, it is a more appropriate method with the beginners and with learners on the intermediary level Moreover, with the same structured interview questions, the results are more comparable between various learners (Huhta and Suontausta 1993, p 236) In spite of the shortcomings of the interview, it seems to be an excellent method for testing oral proficiency The test taker has to both understand what the interviewer is saying and to

respond understandably In other words, this method measures communicative skills and is therefore suitable for assessing speaking skills from a communicative point of view

Thirdly, Underhill (1987, pp 58 - 59) claimed that form-filling as another oral language testing technique Within this method, the interviewer and the learner cooperate in order to fill in form inquiring information on for instance personal matters The authenticity of this method is obviously one of its strengths since in real life one often has to fill out several types of forms for various official purposes In addition, it is a communicative way to bring forth new knowledge Nevertheless, there are disadvantages to this method as well Huhta and Suontausta (1993, p 240) remark that 48 the learner may for instance feel uneasy with the tester and thus influence the situation in an undesired way

Fourthly, a learner-learner joint discussion/decision making technique is that only two

or more learners are present in the test situation, i.e the writer does not take part in it Thus,

it is completely up to the learners to keep up the conversation Often the participants get to read certain information from various sources beforehand and then discuss that in the test The importance of conversation is underlined in this technique, not the conclusion of the group discussion Indeed, the participants of the test are told in advance that they will be assessed on the basis of the way they communicate their own opinions, reason them and examine those of the others (Underhill 1987, p 49) These conversations can be recorded for later evaluation This method, for instance, lets the learners be more in charge of what takes place in the situation than how it usually is when learning foreign languages in the classroom Thus, as Underhill (1987, p 50) claimed, free conversation skills need to be taught and practiced in classrooms since not all learners could manage in authentic discussions

Fifthly, following Underhill, in role-play the student is to a certain extent an actor in a programmed drama rather than a representative of herself (Underhill 1987, p 32) The learner therefore uses her own expressions to fill in the preset parts to complete the play in her part For a shy person this can offer opportunities to boldly express herself as someone else than who she really is but on the other hand, it can be an uncomfortable experience for

an outgoing individual who would like to communicate views of her own On the other hand, if the participant is more outgoing a personality and more eager to act, then she has an advantage in this testing method Before the test takes place, the participant is provided with simple instructions on what she is to accomplish in test: which role and situation she is given, who she is and where Often asking questions is a useful skill in the types of tasks this method supplies Moreover, Underhill (1987, pp 51 - 53) introduces possible problems

concerning this technique such as lack of enthusiasm of the participant, for instance on cultural grounds, in which case other testing methods are preferred

Finally, learner-learner description and re-creation is a method in which two learners work in co-operation and support one another One learner describes for instance a model for the other, and she builds the model according to the instructions she gets The one who

is giving the directions cannot see the outcome of her advice Their language skills are evaluated on the basis of the accuracy of the language, which can be measured in the quality

of the form produced, and the time taken in the process (Underhill 1987, pp 56 - 57) The description task can also be profiled so that the other learner building the model could ask specifying questions from the former Underhill summarizes that this method is especially appropriate for evaluating the ability of the learner to give thorough description and to follow instructions Furthermore, he states that this mode suits well for testing communication skills for the reason that the learners transfer information to one another For semi-direct methods, firstly, or semi-structured speaking tasks as Luoma (2004, p 49) names them, include features of both of the indirect and direct methods, for instance using a picture to tell a story is an example of such a method In other words, the learner communicates meanings of an unauthentic communication situation According to Luoma (2004, p 49), a semi-structured task is one where the examinee must react in situations, i.e she either reads or hears about the social situation where she should picture herself to be in and she is then asked to utter what she would say in that situation

To begin with, using a picture or a picture story as an oral language testing method means that the learner is given one picture or a series of pictures and she is to describe them

in her own words in a free manner After the learner„s speaking turn, the interviewer may ask questions about unclear points or things that the learner had left unmentioned Often this leads into a discussion In Underhill„s words (1987, pp 66 - 67), utilizing a visual stimulus

is an effective way to give a topic for conversing Indeed, the pictures are quick to understand and every learner is expected to 51 comprehend the message and thus the possible inadequate reading skills will not get in the way of comprehension A good picture can be encouraging and motivating for discussion Nevertheless, for instance cultural reasons may inhibit the learner from making judgments that the interviewer expected in the situation Additionally, deficiencies in vocabulary may play a negative and a demotivating role in the overall procedure

Moreover, giving instructions/description/explanation represents a technique in which the learner is to describe a familiar object or a routine occurring frequently in everyday life,

such as describing how to prepare a favourite dish from her country or explaining how she would advise someone to look for a job (Underhill 1987, p 69) The learners are provided with a list of topics where to choose one Furthermore, they are given a little time for getting ready to talk As Underhill states, a known topic may serve as an incentive for a fruitful production of speech in a foreign language

The last discussed semi-direct method here is question and answer –method which proceeds from simple questions to more demanding ones (Underhill, 1987, pp 61- 63) The questions presented to the learner are relatively unconnected and thus do not normally build

up into a conversation However, if adjustments are allowed in the time frame, this might happen Indeed, the interviewer must be observant and note if there are any such points, i.e answers, where the learner would like to share some more of her experience if requested This method of testing is especially suitable for lower levels of language proficiency As a disadvantage of this technique, it is rather unauthentic as it offers little communicative approach to the learners

Indirect testing methods, or Luoma„s (2004, p 50) category of structured speaking tasks, stand for those methods where the learner is not in direct communicative contact with the tester and the real world (Underhill, 1987, p 76) Moreover, they firmly lead the test taker to say exactly what she is supposed to say (Luoma 2004, p 48) The most indirect methods are those which indeed test oral skills indirectly, for instance in written mode

To begin with, reading aloud is perhaps one of the easiest ways accessible to assess foreign language oral skills (Underhill, 1987, pp 76 - 77) The learner is given one or more passages of text five or ten minutes before the test takes place She must then read the texts aloud to the interviewer If a dialogue has been chosen for this task, the interviewer reads the other part aloud Different types of passages may be chosen to increase the variety of the texts in the test An advantage of this technique indeed is that it can be adjusted to different levels of oral language skills, i.e more difficult texts are administered to the more advanced learners Moreover, this method produces a great comparability between learners if they are

to read exactly the same passages As a disadvantage, this is neither an authentic nor a communicative task In fact, this technique is fit for measuring mechanical skills of a learner, such as pronunciation and intonation patterns

A cloze test is a method where the learner must fill the blanks in the text with appropriate words The cloze test is said to match up with real communication since it in a way involves some disturbing noises on the line altering parts of the message being conveyed Consequently, it can be stated that to perform a cloze test, the learner is required to take

applicable action These tests are simple to construct and easy to evaluate As a disadvantage Weir (1990, p 47) mentions that cloze tests do not correlate well with productive tests of speaking On the other hand, they are said to be of better use in tests of syntax for instance Certainly, the central issue is that is it difficult to correlate the test scores of cloze tests with what the learner can do in real life communication situations Reading a blank dialogue is a technique where the learner is provided with a discussion with only one part written in (Underhill, 1987, pp 64 - 65) The learner can prepare in advance and make up the omitted lines of the dialogue Together with the interviewer they read the conversation aloud This method is particularly valuable in making the learner ask questions Underhill proposes that at higher levels, learners may be demanded to perform more challenging language functions, such as persuasion or polite disagreement However, this method seems rather unsuitable for testing the language ability of upper secondary school students who should already have capabilities to produce more free conversation Giving a verbal essay means that the candidate is asked to speak for a few minutes on either one or more specified general topics (Weir, 1990, p 74) The advantage of this method is that the candidate has to speak at length which enables a wide range of criteria to

be applied to the output However, the topic may not be interesting to the candidate, which may make it difficult for her to talk about it Additionally, performing well in such a test may be dependent on background or cultural knowledge and draw upon factors such as creativity or imagination Moreover, the use of tape recorders might distress some of the candidates and thus affect their performance

Translating/interpreting is a technique in which the interviewer asks the learner to translate bits of a native language text into the foreign language (Underhill, 1987, p 79) As

a testing technique it is quick to be administered and fits into the sequence of many other testing techniques; it could for example take place after reading aloud test Nevertheless, translating/interpreting seems as one the least usable oral language testing methods since what it measures are certainly not communicative skills If the purpose of the test is to assess pronunciation or grammatical accuracy, they can be assessed through other, more sensible methods

In brief, as can be seen, there are various methods for assessing speaking ability; some

of them are more usable than others The lack of testing methods is thus not a hindrance for testing oral proficiency It is rather a question of choosing the most appropriate method according to what aspects of speaking ability are tested However, if the purpose of the test

is to measure communicative competence, the direct methods are the most suitable

2.3 Teaching speaking to EFL learners

Teaching, which is defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do

something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand.” Teaching is also defined as one of the means by which

education is achieved (if it is) and education is a common purpose of teaching Teaching is the process of carrying out those activities that experience has shown to be effective in getting students to learn A teacher is defined as a person whose professional activities involve the transmission of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are stimulated in a formal curriculum to students enrolled in an educational program

Teaching and learning have a close relationship We cannot define teaching apart from learning Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners to learn, setting the conditions for learning Your understanding of how the learners learn will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques If you look at learning as a process of operant conditioning, through a carefully paced program of reinforcement, you will teach accordingly If you view second language learning as a deductive rather than an inductive process, you will probably choose to present copious rules and paradigms to your students rather than let them ―discover‖ those rules inductively Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is ability to converse with others much more than the ability

to read or write They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication Therefore, if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in lass can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be

2.3 1 General outline of a speaking lesson

Kayi (2006) stated that in a speaking lesson, warm-up activities are essential for all aspects of ESL learning They should be corporated into every lesson Warm-up activities are light switches in the students‟ mind, which makes the other stages more effective

Pre-speaking is the stage in which the teacher presents new materials to the students in

an exciting and informative way and lay the foundation for the rest of the lesson

While-speaking is the stage in which the teacher lets the students begin to practice applying new materials in a guided way The activities can be designed in pairs or in small groups

Post-speaking is the stage where students‟ speaking ability is best expressed

The speaking session activities Division of the session time

Table 1 General outline of a speaking lesson

(Adapted from Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Kayi, H (2006))

2.3.2 EFL learners’ difficulties in learning to speak English

Burn and Joyce (1997, p 134) identify three sets of factors that may cause reluctance on the parts of students to take part in classroom tasks involving speaking They suggest that this reluctance may be due to cultural factors, linguistic factors, and psychological factors Cultural factors derive from learners„ prior learning experiences and the expectations created by these experiences Students meet difficulties in communication when they are not familiar with the cultural or social knowledge of the target language which required to process meaning in communication According to Burn and Joyce, the linguistic factors that inhibit the use of the spoken language include difficulties in transferring from the learners„ first language to the target language in term of the sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns Difficulties in understanding the English grammatical patterns which are different from that

of their mother tongue.Psychological factors include cultural shock, previous negative social

or political experiences, lack of motivation, anxiety or shyness in class, especially if their previous learning experiences were negative

In language teaching and learning which mostly occurred in classroom setting motivation is seen as a key consideration in determining the preparation of learners to the communication to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitude towards

learning the language That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strikes to learn the language because of a desire

to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity Thus, raising motivation inside the classroom is necessary in a language class However, many learners are still unmotivated The reasons for this negative attitude may be they were lack of success over time or lack of perception of progress They may perceive in relevance of materials or lack of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program or receive inappropriate feedbacks Sometimes, they might be bored with the lecture or classroom setting Moreover, students are perhaps unmotivated because of their teachers„ uninspired teaching

Nevertheless, teaching and learning English in non – English speaking environment such

as Vietnam, the learners do not have many chances to practice English outside the classroom This picture can be described as almost every student only speaks English, discuss the English topics when they come to class After the lesson, they come back to their real life with their family and their work The learners never speak English to their relatives

or their family members because all of them are Vietnamese and they only use Vietnamese

in communication Therefore, when the learners use English in communicating to Vietnamese, they may be laughed at and be thought that they are self-important

Thus, in order to develop their second language proficiency, students should try their best to overcome all their difficulties in learning English especially in speaking English They need to practice English as much as possible such as participating in the widest possible range of situations in which English is used as a mean of communication For example, students watch films in English, make friends with foreigners to communicate in English or gain experience from their peers

2.3.3 Factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking ability

During experiences in teaching it was observed that most of the learners were reluctant

or had difficulties in expressing ideas orally in English and that is due to some factors that highly influence and affect negatively their learning process and inhibit them to practice and improve their speaking skill, even those who know about the foreign language system To

be knowledgeable about a foreign language is not just practicing the speaking skill of this language because knowing how things must be done doesn„t mean the ability to do these things Many scholars studied the identification of the affective factors that are related to foreign/second language speaking learning from many perspectives: we can summarize them in the following elements

2.3.3.1 Age or Maturational Constraints

Many researchers agreed that learning a foreign/second language (speaking) in early childhood offered to learners the possibility to achieve higher proficiency than those who begin to learn it as adults in spite of the similarities of the stages they go through Because the child is exposed to a natural environment (speaking in real time) and he is not yet aware

of the social distance or its values Moreover, the child„s brain is characterized by a high degree of flexibility which he eventually loses through the phenomenon of fossilization (his brain become fossilized) And to justify this point of view, four main arguments were proposed in the Encyclopedia Dictionary of Applied Linguistics written by K Johnson and

H Jonson (1999, p.13) as follow: “(a) The language faculty is just as capable of learning

L2s in older learners as in child learners, but 'affective' factors like threatened self-esteem, low EGO PERMEABILITY and perceived social distance act as a barrier between L2 data and the language faculty (Krashen, 1982); (b) Input to adult learners is less well-tuned than

to children, so that older learners do not get the data they require to be fully successful; (c) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (development of advanced thinking processes) somehow inhibits language learning ability (Krashen, 1982); (d) Changes in the nature of the brain with age cause a decline in language learning ability (see Critical Period Hipothesis) For

a review of these explanations, see Long (1990)” (Johnson &Jonson, 1999, p 13)

Capitalization is originally found in the text Consequently, one can conclude that the age plays an important role in affecting or limiting adult learners' ability to speak the target language fluently and to be native-like

2.3.3.2 Aural Medium

The failure in comprehending what is uttered results in the failure in responding correctly because listening plays the role of feedback when it comes to the development of speaking abilities due to the fact that listening precedes speaking The fleetingness of speech, together with the features of spoken English- loosely organized syntax, incomplete forms, false starts, and the use of fillers‖ are the main factors that hinder the EFL learners„ understanding and influence negatively the development of their speaking competences

2.3.3.3 Socio-Cultural Factors

Very often, the breakdown in communication occurs because choosing the appropriate expressions or terms to particular situations when speaking in a foreign/second language is difficult for learners or non-native speakers; and it is frequently due to their own cultural norms interference Another reason is that they do not master the nonverbal communication system of the target language leading to the misinterpretation of the nonverbal messages

which; in fact, differ from culture to culture (Shumin, 1997, p 8) Therefore, speaking a foreign language requires knowing the culture of the target language in addition to its linguistic and paralinguistic systems especially in particular social contexts

2.3.3.4 Affective Factors

The most esential impact on language learning success or failure is the affective side of

the learner (Oxford, 1990, p 140), because „affective” means “related to feelings„ Such factors are “emotions, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude and motivation” (Shumin,

1997, p 8) The complexity of the task of learning foreign/second language has a remarkable impression on the human anxiety (Brown1994) as cited in (Shumin, 1997, p 8) Learners can suffer from inhibition or anxiety in relation to a number of aspects that they face during the teaching-learning process namely the language itself Moreover, there are other factors like speaking in front of other learners or the language class, the behavior of their peers, their standing in the competition with fellow learners, the process of taking test, and; finally the native speakers„ attitude of the foreign language The affective factors are all

interrelated in a certain manner as demonstrated by Shumin (1997, p 8) “Sometimes,

extreme anxiety occurs when EFL learners become tongue-tied or lost for words in an unexpected situation, which often leads to discouragement (lose of motivation) and a general sense of failure (emotion) Adults, unlike children, are concerned with how they (adult learners) are judged by others They are very cautious about making errors in what they say, for making errors would be a public display of ignorance, which would be an obvious occasion of "losing face" (louse of self- esteem/confidence that lead to take a negative attitude toward speaking in this language)” Due to the interference of those

affective factors, the development in the EFL learners„ speaking skills will be inhibited, slow and restrained In conclusion, the central objective of learning English as a foreign/second language is communicating in which the speaking skill is a major element Speaking requires a special attention and instruction in EFL teaching-learning process, and

in order to provide effective instruction that leads to competent speakers of English, it is necessary for EFL teachers to perform a series of tasks that aim at providing learners with the confidence and the skills needed to take advantages of the classroom opportunities They should take special considerations to carefully examine the real objectives behind teaching-learning speaking, the aspects of speaking and its components and the factors affecting EFL learners„ speaking abilities as those previously stated In other words, the careful analysis of these areas, simultaneously with sufficient language input and activities that promote the

speaking skill, will provide guidance and gradually support learners to speak English fluently and appropriately

2.3.4 Methods and activities to improve speaking ability

2.3.4.1 Accuracy-oriented activities

A classroom activity may aim either at accuracy or fluency An accuracy-oriented activity such as pattern drills is usually used in the teaching of a new target item The primary purpose is to help students achieve accurate perception and production of a target item which can be a sound, a word, or a sentence structure The texts are usually composed

of separate ("discrete") items: sentences or words; texts may be used in any mode (skill), regardless of how they are used in real life (dialogues may be written, written texts used for listening); the target items are usually practiced out of context or situation There are some activities such as: students' attention is focused on a particular target item; their output is usually predictable; their performance is assessed on how few language mistakes are made; students' errors are corrected; tasks do not usually simulate real- life situations

2.3.4.2 Fluency-oriented activities

A fluency-oriented activity such as extensive reading and information gap aims to develop the students' spontaneous communications skills in using what they have already learned The primary purpose is to help students practice language in listening, speaking, reading, and/or writing activities to develop fluency in using the language in spontaneous communication The texts are usually whole pieces of discourses: conversation, stories, etc.; texts are usually used as they would be in real life: dialogues are spoken, articles and written stories are read; an effort is made to use authentic material from real life There are some activities such as: students' attention is focused on communicating information and expressing ideas; their output may not always be predictable; their performance is assessed

on how well ideas are expressed or understood; students' errors are not corrected unless it interferes with communication; tasks often simulate real-life situations

2.4 Worksheets in English language teaching

2.4.1 Definitions

A worksheet, in the word's original meaning, is a sheet of paper on which one performs

work (( Cambridge Dictionaries online Cambridge University Press Retrieved 25

September 2014.) They come in many forms, most commonly associated with children's school work assignments, tax forms, and accounting or other business environments Software is increasingly taking over the paper-based worksheet

It can be a printed page that a child completes with a writing instrument No other

materials are needed It is "a sheet of paper on which work schedules, working time, special

instructions, etc are recorded A piece or scrap of paper on which problems, ideas, or the like, are set down in tentative form." In education, a worksheet may have questions for

students and places to record answers

In the classroom setting, worksheets usually refer to a loose sheet of paper with questions or exercises for students to complete and record answers.They are used, to some degree, in most subjects, and have widespread use in the math curriculum where there are two major types The first type of math worksheet contains a collection of similar math problems or exercises These are intended to help a student become proficient in a particular mathematical skill that was taught to them in class They are commonly given to students

as homework The second type of math worksheet is intended to introduce new topics, and are often completed in the classroom They are made up of a progressive set of questions that leads to an understanding of the topic to be learned

As an assessment tool, worksheets can be used by teachers to understand students‟ previous knowledge, outcome of learning, and the process of learning; at the same time, they can be used to enable students to monitor the progress of their own learning

2.4.2 Types of worksheets

Worksheets range in type from straight-text multiple-choice questions to illustrated puzzles and mind games Here are a few examples of worksheet types that have proved particularly effective in teaching English For each type I list language points it works well with

Matching worksheet concept

Here are some ideas:

- match abbreviations or contractions to long form (Co ↔ Company)

- match synonyms (right ↔ correct) or antonyms (right ↔ left)

- match word to definition (hot ↔ having a high temperature)

- match baby animal to adult animal (cub ↔ lion)

- match sound to animal (croak ↔ frog)

- match numeral to written number (5 ↔ five)

- match written time to spoken time (4:30 ↔ half-past-four)

- match phonemic symbol to word with corresponding sound (/i:/ ↔ sheep)

- complete the collocation (make ↔ your bed)

- complete the sentence (If you bite your nails ↔ you'll get sore fingers.)

- question/response (How are you? ↔ I'm fine, thank you.)

- listening task (Who stole the money? ↔ John)

- match picture to word (picture of dog ↔ dog)

* Word Scrambles Worksheets

Word scrambles or jumbles help improve vocabulary and spelling In this type of worksheet the letters of each word are mixed up and students have to put them into the proper order

Word scramble worksheet concept

Here are some different types of words we can scramble:

- key vocabulary - spelling list words

- names of students in the classroom - teachers‟ last names

- names of places - number words (thousand, million etc)

- words that are commonly misspelled - words with silent letters or other unique features

- words based on a sound you are working on - holiday or special event vocabulary

- grammar terms - almost anything

* Jumbled Sentences Worksheets

Here, each sentence is presented with its words all mixed up and students have to put them into the correct order (for example: walked/dog/the/boy/his → The boy walked his dog | time/go/to/it's/almost/school/to → It's almost time to go to school)

Here are some examples:

- sentences in a particular tense - sentences in mixed tenses

- interrogative sentences - negative sentences

- adjective order (complete sentence, or just adjectives and noun)

* Sorting Worksheets

With sorting worksheets, students are presented with a collection of items (words, phrases, phonemic characters etc) and asked to "sort" them into particular categories (for example: male and female; stress on first, second and third syllable; Africa, Asia, Europe, S America) From the examples, we can see that there might be two, three, four or more categories This usually depends on the particular language point and level One of the most common ways of doing this is to have all the items entered randomly in a box at the bottom

of the worksheet, with a column for each category above - into which students write the appropriate item

Sorting worksheet concept

Here are some ideas (the figures in brackets represent the number of possible columns):

- sort into positive and negative (2)

- sort into phrases and clauses (2)

- sort clauses into dependent and independent (2)

- sort into prefixes and suffixes (2)

- listening task - he said, she said (2)

- listening task - mentioned/not mentioned (2)

- listening task - true/false/not mentioned (3)

- sort nouns into person/place/thing (3)

- sort words into parts of speech (2, 3, 4)

- sort verbs into tenses (2, 3, 4)

- sort words by word stress (2, 3, 4)

* Other Worksheets

There are several other types of worksheet, including:

- Multiple Choice Worksheets are basically quiz-type exercises

- Gap Fill Worksheets where students insert the right words in gaps in the text

- Word Puzzle Worksheets include crosswords, word search and word maze

- Labelling Worksheets where students annotate an illustration

* Features of Effective Worksheets

There are many different types of worksheet, but we can discern some common features that tend to make any worksheet work better for our students When selecting or making a worksheet, bear in mind that an effective worksheet:

- is appropriate to the age, level and ability of the students

- can be created (and stored) on a computer and is thus easy to edit and print repeatedly

- has excellent presentation

- has a font that is easy to read and of large enough size

- uses images for a specific purpose only, and without cluttering up the worksheet

- does not have irrelevant graphics and borders

- has margins that are wide enough to avoid edges getting cut off when photocopying

- makes good use of space without being cluttered

- has a descriptive title at the top and a space for the student to write their name

- gives students sufficient space to write their answers

- has clear, unambiguous instructions

- uses bold OR italics OR underline for emphasis, but not all three

- uses colour sparingly, and with regard to available photocopying resources/costs

- focusses on one learning point (except perhaps for more advanced students)

- is no longer than one or two pages (that is, front and back of a single sheet)

- should be accessible to the learner (at that level) and answerable in a relatively short period, say 5 to 15 minutes (worksheets are not exam papers)

- should have the easier tasks first - success is motivational

- only uses images that can be photocopied clearly (line drawings, for example, tend to photocopy better than photographs)

- if appropriate is divided into sections, each with a clear heading

- is not formal or stuffy; instead it uses words in a way that encourages students to explore and learn on their own

2.4.3 Principles of using worksheets in teaching English

Worksheets help learners to engage more thoroughly with specific elements of a foreign language – both in the classroom and at home This only works if the worksheets are well-designed, however This is easily achieved with the right structure and a few tricks

Do learners of English as a foreign language actually need worksheets in the first place? Should students not rather hear and produce as much spoken language as possible? According to linguistic studies, listening and speaking alone are not in fact sufficient if a student is to learn the grammar of a foreign language (Swain 1988) Learners additionally require structured exercises focusing on specific points of grammar Worksheets are the ideal learning aid in this context – though only if the worksheet is well-designed To this end teachers should take note of a few general rules which in principle apply to all subjects

* THE IDEAL STRUCTURE

A good worksheet follows a set structure:

- A header containing general information which places the worksheet within the lesson context

- Clear instructions

- The exercise itself, including illustrations, highlighted points and sufficient space for answers

- Possibly additional exercises, each with their own instructions

The header is the foundation for an organized approach to learning and contains information: about the subject; about the stage, class or level; about the topic and lesson unit; about further materials such as the textbook, and possibly any source references This makes it easier for learners to keep their worksheets well-organized, to review specific topics and to repeat exercises when necessary

* MOTIVATIONAL CONTENT

A few points also need to be observed with respect to content – and ideally also with

respect to grammatical issues: content needs to be up-to-date This applies to technology (no

telephone booths), to lifestyle and relationship constellations (not limited to married couples with children, a house and a dog), and to information about the country and its culture

Content must have some relevance to the lives of the learners It must also be appropriate

Where a worksheet contains several exercises, all of them should relate to the same topic – preferably in terms of both grammatical topic and content This ensures that learners will not be overburdened or distracted by too much new vocabulary Furthermore, intensive engagement with a single topic anchors the content more firmly in the memory

* NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN: FORM

Yet even the very best content is of little use if poor readability or other aspects relating

to form place demands on the learner‟s cognitive capacities – for good readability is important Teachers should therefore avoid poor-quality photocopies of worksheets Worksheets should provide sufficient space for answers so that students are not forced to write illegibly Wherever possible, pictures should be used to illustrate content It may be useful to underline the forms to be learnt, or to print them in bold type Empirical studies show that learning is facilitated and accelerated in particular by illustrations (Carney et al 2002) and highlighting (Schmidt 1992)

* PECULIARITIES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Since foreign language lessons are not generally conducted in the native tongue of the teachers or learners, instructions on worksheets must be expressed in particularly straightforward and clear terms However, the use of such simple language in foreign language lessons can easily induce the teacher to adopt childish themes, yet learners are in many cases teenagers or young adults who are not interested in the same topics as children

As a general rule, information about the country and its culture is important (cf Salomo), and lessons should also draw on the experiences of the learners themselves

* USING SPECIAL SOFTWARE TO COMPILE WORKSHEETS

Teachers can also use specialized software (not all of which is available free of charge)

to compile worksheets The advantage of worksheet software is that pre-defined structures and functions can help save time Another benefit of digital material is that it is more readable, better structured and takes up less space because teachers can use a digital template rather than a photocopy With programs on the Internet, it is easy to create worksheets with a clear structure, illustrations, highlighted points and text manipulations such as cloze texts or colour-coded syllables In this way, teachers can quickly and effectively design worksheets which will benefit their students

2.4.4 Benefits of worksheets in English language teaching

Worksheets are generally popular with learners because they are usually intimidating and user-friendly as well as providing a finite exercise (ideally one page) where learners get rapid feedback and can often judge for themselves their own abilities and progress They are also a convenient, often free, resource for teachers that can easily be saved and printed as required

- they can make good fillers and warm-ups

- useful for revision, practice and test preparation

- they can reinforce instruction

- they are handy for homework

- some worksheets can be done in pairs or small groups, helping develop communication and teamwork skills

- in large classes, when stronger learners have finished we can have some worksheets handy to keep them happy

- worksheets can help stimulate independent learning

- they can provide a good deal of repetition, often vital for internalizing concepts

- they are useful for assessment of learning and/or progress (especially targeted to specific areas)

- they are flexible and can supplement a text book very well

- they let students keep their work as reference material if they so wish