Using information gap activities to improve 11th graders speaking skills masters thesis in education theory and methods of teaching english 60 14 01 11

In contrast, by using information gap activities, the teacher will motivate students to speak English and will create like-real situations where one of them has some information and othe

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed

in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere

Author

Chu Thị Hồng Thúy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii

ABSTRACT viii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1

1.2.Objectives of the study and research questions 2

1.2.1 Objectives of the study 2

1.2.2 Research questions 2

1.3.The significance of the study 3

1.4 The scope of the study 3

1.5 Research Methodology 3

1.6 Organization of the study 3

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1.Speaking Skills 5

2.1.1 The nature of speaking 5

2.1.2 Characteristics of the communicative approach 6

2.1.3 The roles of speaking in language learning and teaching 7

2.1.3.1 Speaking creates motivation 7

2.1.3.2 Speaking releases students’ inhibitions 7

2.1.3.3 Speaking helps to improve other language skills 8

2.1.3.4 Speaking is fundamental to human communication 8

2.1.4 Teaching speaking 8

2.1.4.1 Principles for teaching speaking 9

2.1.4.2 Problems in learning and teaching speaking skill 10

2.1.4.3 Characters of successful speaking activities 11

2.1.5 The evaluation grading scale of speaking skills 12

2.1.6 Classroom speaking activities 13

2.2 Information Gap Activities 14

2.2.1 The nature of information gap activities 15

2.2.2 Benefits of information gap activities 17

2.2.2.1 Increase students’ talk time in class 17

2.2.2.3 Promote students’ equal participation 18

2.2.2.4 Build students’ confidence 18

2.2.2.5 Develop students’ fluency and accuracy 18

2.2.3The teachers’ roles in the information gap activities 19

2.2.4 Speaking activities based on information gap activities 20

2.2.5 Factors affecting the choice of information gap activities 21

2.2.6 Strategies of implementing information gap activities 22

2 2.7 Typical procedure to conduct an information gap activity 25

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Research setting 27

3.1.1 An overview of Dien Chau 5 high school 27

3.1.2 Teachers 27

3.1.3 Students 28

3.1.4 The English Language syllabus 28

3.2 Subject of the research 29

3.3 Research design 29

3.4 Research procedures 30

3.4.1 Planning 30

3.4.2 Action 31

3.4.3 Observation 31

3.4.4 Reflection 31

3.5 Research instrument 31

3.6.1 Observation 32

3.6.2 Interview 32

3.6.3 Questionnaire 32

3.6.4 Test 32

3.7 Data analysis 34

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 36

A Description of data 36

4.1.Data of observation 36

4.2 Data of interview 37

4.2.1 The description of data from interview with English teachers of 11th grade of Dien Chau 5 high school 37

4.2.2 The description of data from interviews with students of 11th grade of Dien Chau 5 high school 38

4.3 The implementation of information gap activities in teaching speaking 39

4.3.1 Cycle 1 39

4.3.2 Cycle 2 42

4.4 The improvement of speaking skills after using information gap activities 45

4.5 Students’ responses to the implementation of teaching speaking by using information gap activities 48

Table 3 Table of data showing the students’ responses in learning speaking though information gap 49

B Interpretation of data 51

4.1 Data of observation 51

4.2 Data of interview 51

4.3.The improvement of information gap to improve speaking ability 52

4.4 Students’ responses to the implementation of information gap in teaching speaking 52

Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 54

5.1 Conclusions 54

5.2 Implications 55

5.2.1 Preparing a good lesson plan 55

5.2.2 Organizing the class activities 56

5.2.3 Giving instructions 58

5.2.4 Creating real communication information gap activities in speaking lessons 59

5.2.5 Providing support 59

5.3 Limitations of the study 60

5.4 Suggestions for further study 60 REFERENCES I APPENDIX III Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students III Appendix 2: Pre – test IV Appendix 3 V Appendix 4 XIV Appendix 5 XVI

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1 Action research cycles by Kemmis and McTaggart 30 Table 1 Scoring Rubric of Speaking Performance 33 Table 2 The table of data showing the students’ progressing score in

speaking after being taught through information gap activities 45 Table 3 Table of data showing the students’ responses in learning speaking

though information gap 49

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I especially would like to express my endless gratitude to

my supervisor, Dr Tran Ba Tien, for his helpful encouragement, constructive comments and precious advice at all stages of the development of this graduation paper There is no doubt that the study would be impossible to be accomplished without his constant assistance I would also like to express my appreciation to all lecturers at department of post graduate studies of Vinh university for the

knowledge, guidance and encouragement they give during my study

I also address my gratitude to the principal of Dien Chau 5 high school for giving me permission to conduct the research in the school and the English teacher for help, assistance and cooperation Many thanks are also given to the students of grade 11A2 for being cooperative during the research

My sincere thanks also go to my beloved family who always become my motivation especially to finish this thesis

Finally, I realized that this thesis is still far from being perfect Therefore, any criticisms, ideas and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are highly appreciated

To collect data, the researcher used instruments of observation, interviews, questionnaires and the students’ achievement in pre test and pot test in order to support the data collected The data obtained was presented in two ways: qualitatively and quantitatively

The research findings showed that the information gap activities were effective in improving the speaking abilities of the student in class Information gap activities can motivate the students to speak English This can be seen from the improvements after each cycle This can be seen by the rise in the students’ mean scores in the test results: 48,97 in the pre test and 68,3 in the post test The improvement was also seen based on the result from the students’ responses that showed positive and good responses from the students

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

In the time of internationalization and globalization, English is considered as a mean of communication all over the world English becomes crucial to communicate in many things, like business ,education, politics, social relationship and many other aspects In Viet Nam , since the development of market economy, English is not only a great interest but also an increasing demand for most people English now is therefore a compulsory school subject in many schools and universities In all the four skills of learning English, speaking obviously plays the most vital part in communication However, most Vietnamese learners find it hard

to be able to use English in the real life The reasons may come from the fact that traditional language teaching method like the Grammar- Translation one which has been applied to teach English in our country for ages In many English classes, teacher and student exchanges have little communicative value because there is no real information being exchanged Teachers often spend a large of proportion of class time asking “display” questions for which they and their students already know the answers Here are three examples of typical display questions:

1 When presenting the new word “book” , the teacher holds up a book and says: this is a book What is it?”

2 When teaching the sentence pattern for habitual actions, the teacher asks a student,” Do you sleep everyday?”

3 When demonstrating the present continuous tense, the teacher performs the activity, such as walking to the door, and while doing so says “ I am walking to the door What am I doing now?”

These display questions serve only to elicit inauthentic language practice to: present a new word( example 1), elicit a sentence pattern( example 2) or practice a

grammatical structure (example 3) They are not communicative They demonstrate usage rather than use of the target language

In contrast, by using information gap activities, the teacher will motivate students to speak English and will create like-real situations where one of them has some information and other does not; thus, they must use the target language to share that information The students must speak in order to be able to finish the task

In other words, information gap activities give students opportunities to manipulate English appropriately not only inside but also outside the classroom

There have been a number of previous studies on how to exploit information gap activities in the speaking class Nevertheless, no researchers have examined the practice of using information gap activities to improve speaking skill for the grader

11th in Dien Chau 5 high school This has given the researcher desire to carry out a research study on this issue

1.2.Objectives of the study and research questions

1.2.1 Objectives of the study

This study has some objectives in line with the problems stated above:

To describe the atmosphere in improving the teaching of speaking to the students by using information gap activities

To know whether the students’ scores in speaking improved after using information gap activities

To know the responses from the students after implementation information gap activities

2 How did the students respond to the implementation of information gap activities?

1.3.The significance of the study

Doing this research , the researcher expected that the results are useful for the English teacher of Dien Chau 5 high school in teaching speaking, so that the English teacher can create more communicative and active activities for the students

by using information gap activities The researcher also hope to help students have a better atmosphere in an English speaking class in which they are encouraged to speak or to state their ideas, thoughts orally in English Furthermore, using information gap activities can motivate them to speak English as often as possible,

so that they can improve their ability in speaking skills

1.4 The scope of the study

Due to limited time and experience, this study focuses on how the students’ speaking skills can be improved by using information gap activities

The study was limited to teach English language textbook Tieng Anh 11 which is now in use in the high schools

The study was applied in the school year 2015/2016 second semester by implementing information gap activities

1.5 Research Methodology

This research is a classroom action research which is intended to make a contribution to the improvement of teaching and learning process by using information gap activities

1.6 Organization of the study

This graduation paper covers five main parts as follows:

Chapter 1 – Introduction would provide readers with overall information

about the research including the rationale for the study, aims and research questions, significance, scope , methodology as well as the organization of the study

Chapter 2 – Theoretical background would deal with two major concepts,

namely, speaking skill in CLT and information gap activities with a hope to providing theoretical background for the following chapters

Chapter 3 – Methodology would show the methods used to find out the

necessary data for the study In particular, this chapter consists of the subject of the research, research design, research procedures, research instrument, data collection , data analysis

Chapter 4 – Research findings is designed to present some crucial findings

based on the analysis and synthesis of the data collected

Chapter 5 – Conclusion and implications summarize briefly the main content

of the study, indicate summary of findings, give out suggestions for further research

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.Speaking Skills

Speaking is one of the productive activities in daily life and is the most important language skill because it is the main skill needed to carry out a

conversation Different linguists have different definitions of “speaking” as

follows

Speaking is to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stags ( Oxford Advanced Dictionary,1995,p.13) Chaney (1998,p.13) stated that : “ speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”

Byrne (1976, p.8), speaking is “a two-way process between speaker and listener, involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding” This view is also shared by Scott, R (1981) who regards speaking

as “an activity involving two (or more) people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contributions

at high speed” Through the interaction, each participant will try to achieve his communicative goals and fulfill his ability of interpreting what is said to him

Brown and Yule (1983, p.6) have a different access to speaking skill by discussing the nature of speaking in spoken language and written language They hold that written language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into highly structured paragraphs Spoken language, on the other hand, is composed of short, often fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciation They also put emphasis on the transactional and interactional function of spoken

language, which is the most important function In other words, the primary purpose

of speech is the transfer of information and the maintenance of social relationships Based on the previous definitions, the researcher concludes that speaking is the process of sharing with other persons, one’s knowledge, interests, attitudes, opinions or ideas These are important aspects of the process of speaking which the speaker’s ideas become real to him and his listener In general, speaking skill is the ability to say , to address, to make known, to use or be able to use a given language

in the actual communication The highest level of speaking skill is the ability to speak fluently, appropriately and understandably every time, everywhere and in every situation This is the aim as well as desire of many language learners It also explains why Bygate considers speaking skill as “a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills in both first and second language” (1987, p.2)

2.1.2 Characteristics of the communicative approach

The following characteristics are outlined by Brown as follows:

1 Classroom goal are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

2 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learners to accomplish those purposes

3 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

4 In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively in unrehearsed context (Brown, 1994,p.245)

In addition, Harmer (2001,p.84) suggests that features of communicative language teaching imply “ the language learning that takes care of itself”, and agrees with Brown that the accuracy of the language is less important than successful achievement of the communicative task

As pointed out, the researcher found out that the characteristics of the communicative language teaching asserted on the students’ ability to communicate

in the target language including not just linguistics structures, but also semantic notions and social functions Moreover, students work in groups or in pairs to transfer and negotiate meaning in situations ( real life situations where one person has information that the other lacks It is clear that the teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate communication and as ( Klippel,1991,p.8) assured that teachers should be careful not to correct students’ errors too frequently because it makes the students hesitant and insecure in their speech For developing speaking activities there are many aspects that should be taken into consideration when organizing activities that aim at developing speaking skills

2.1.3 The roles of speaking in language learning and teaching

2.1.3.1 Speaking creates motivation

Motivation is defined as the learner’s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language (Crook and Schmidt, 1991) Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, “Success is measured in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the target language” Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in learning In other word, students’ motivation for speaking will be increased since they talk with others and for their own sake On the other hand, if the right activities are given in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising learners’ motivation and can make a dynamic English language classroom

2.1.3.2 Speaking releases students’ inhibitions

The more students have chances to express themselves, the more confident they will be Talking with other students in a small group and presenting a topic in front of the class enable students to get rid of their timidity and shyness

a large audience later As a result, they will be more eager and confident to take part in the speaking activities

2.1.3.3 Speaking helps to improve other language skills

It is undoubted that speaking and listening are the two inter-dependent macro skills A student who is good at speaking is more likely to be good at listening than the others do and vice versa A student who speaks English well also has a higher chance of reading and writing English better than the others (Richards, 1943, as cited by Nation, 1990, p.21)

2.1.3.4 Speaking is fundamental to human communication

In our daily life most of us speak more than we write, yet many English school teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing They almost ignore speaking and listening skills This is not a good balance If the goals

of the language course are truly to enable the students to communicate in English, speaking skill should be taught and practiced in a language classroom

2.1.4 Teaching speaking

Speaking is one of the English skill that should be developed by the students

in the language learning process Richard (2008,p19) states that the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second language or foreign language students Therefore, classroom activities the develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech would be an essential component of a language course

Teaching speaking should include students’ participation The students’ participation and involvement can be created through various speaking tasks Harmer (1998,p87) states that there should be a task to complete so that the students can use the language to complete and perform the task

In the past when teaching speaking was not given a crucial role, speaking activities were only the practice and repetition of examples of a single structure, words or sentences The result of purely structural practice is the ability to produce

a range of usage, but not the ability to use form appropriately As for Hymes (1971),

L2 learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge but also the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships

In order to use the language effectively, he insists, learners need to develop communicative competence more than knowing a set of grammatical, lexical, and phonological rules In this sense, the learners now concentrate on using language for communication rather than just mastery of language forms

According to Richard ( 2008,p29) there are three core issues need to be addressed in planning speaking activities for an English class The first one is determining the focus of the speaking skills The second issue is identifying the teaching strategies to teach Lat, the teacher need to determine the expected level of the speaker task and the criteria that will be used to asses the performance

Teaching speaking, in the researcher’s opinion, is the way for students to express their emotion, communicative needs, interact with other persons in any situation and influence the others For this reason, in teaching speaking skill it is necessary to have clear understanding involved in speech and also encourage the potential of the learners to develop their speaking skill naturally Overall, teaching speaking skill emphasizes on the activities to make the students active and creative

2.1.4.1 Principles for teaching speaking

In teaching speaking, the teacher needs to consider some principles in order to make the activities fit to students’ needs Nunan (2003) and Kayi (2006) suggest some principles that help in teaching speaking

1 The teachers should be aware of the difference between second and foreign language

2 The teachers should give students chance to practice with fluency and accuracy

3 The teachers should provide opportunity for students to talk by using group work and pair work and limit the teachers’ talk

4 The teachers should plan speaking task to involve negotiation of meaning

5 The teachers should design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interact ional speaking

6 The teachers should ask eliciting questions such as “ what do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?” in order to prompt students to speak more

7 The teachers should provide written feedback like “ your presentation was really great It was a good job I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice”

8 The teachers should not correct students’ presentation mistakes very often while they are speaking Correction should not distract student from his or her speech

9 The teacher should involve speaking activities not only in class but also out

of class, contact parents and other people who can help

10 The teachers should circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need to help while they work in groups or pairs

11 The teachers should reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time step back and observe students

In the light of the principles of teaching speaking as mentioned above, it could

be concluded that English teachers, when teaching young learners, have constantly

to keep in mind the fact that they deal with a mixed class with varied abilities, expectations, motivation level, knowledge and, last but not least, different learning styles Moreover, English teacher should create a classroom environment where students have real life, communication, diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulties in expressing themselves in the target language Therefore, the teachers need to vary their approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold on to expand and grow

2.1.4.2 Problems in learning and teaching speaking skill

Speaking is considered the most important but most difficult-to-develop skill Therefore, in the process of learning teaching this skill, there are obviously some practical problems as pointed by Ur, P (1996, p.21)

- Inhibition: Speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to an

audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in front of the whole class: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners

complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no knowledge of the target topic, of vocabulary to talk

- Low or uneven participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if she or

he is to be heard; and in a large group, this means that each one will have only very little talking time This problem is compounded by the tendency of some leaders to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all

- Mother-tongue use: In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share

the same mother-tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel less

“exposed” if they are speaking their mother-tongue

2.1.4.3 Characters of successful speaking activities

Sometimes spoken language is easy to perform, but in some cases it is difficult In order to carry out the successful speaking, students have to fulfill some characteristics of a successful speaking activity Ur( 1996,p.120) lists some characteristics of a successful speaking activity which can be used to asses the teaching and learning as follow

1 Learners talk a lot : As much as possible of the period of time allocated to the activity is in fact occupied by learners talk This may be 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 participant 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 the topic and have something new to say about it or they want to contribute to achieve a task objective

4 Language is of an acceptable level: learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to teach other and of acceptable level of language accuracy

2.1.5 The evaluation grading scale of speaking skills

The testing speaking is the most complex task to assess with precision It is difficult to judge utterances the testee answers in real time, while recording is expensive and time consuming However, it does not mean that speaking test can not be measured in a correct way

Thornbury ( 2005,p.125) explains that a test of speaking is time taking and not easy The teacher needs much time to test every student’s performance and sometimes every tester need to find right criteria to be used Thus, he also gives an example of criteria There are four categories: grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation and interactive communication

In grammar and vocabulary, the aspects to be considered are the accuracy and appropriateness of syntactic form and vocabulary

For discourse management, the thing to consider is the ability to express ideas and opinions in the coherent and connected speech

Then, the comprehensible utterances like sounds pronunciation and appropriate linking words are the focus of pronunciation

Last, interactive communication refers to the ability to interact and to respond appropriately and at the required speed and rhythm

The different criteria are proposed by Brown ( 2004, p.147) He mentions the three components of testing speaking skills as follow

1 Comprehension: Comprehension for oral communication certainly requires

a subject to respond to speech as well as to initiate it

2 Grammar: It is needed for students to arrange a correct sentence in conversation, or the student’s ability to manipulate structure and to distinguish appropriate grammatical form in appropriate ones The utility of grammar is also to learn the correct way to gain expertise in a language in oral and written form

3 Fluency: Fluency can be defined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately

4 Pronunciation: Pronunciation is the way for students to produce clearer language when they speak It deals with the phonological process that determine how sounds vary and pattern in a language

5 Vocabulary: One can not communicate effectively or express their ideas both oral and written form if they do not have significant vocabulary So, vocabulary means the appropriate diction

2.1.6 Classroom speaking activities

Most of the English teachers face the problem of having passive students who show no willingness to speak in class, or students who seem interested enough to speak but find it difficult to express themselves

Traditional classroom speaking practice often takes the form of drills in which one person asks a question and another gives an answer The question and the answer are structures and predictable and often there is only one correct, predetermined answer The purpose of asking and answering the question is to demonstrate the ability to ask and answer the question

In contrast, the purpose of real communication is to accomplish a task, such as conveying a telephone message, obtaining information or expressing an opinion To create classroom speaking activities, the teacher should provide students with communicative activities in which the student can engage activities in teaching and learning process They must use the target language to share some information Speaking activities which can improve students’ speaking competence as suggested by Richard ( 2006, p19) are:

1 Information gap activities: this refers to the fact that in real communication,

people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess In this activity , each student has different information and they need to obtain information from each other in order to finis a task They must use target language

to accomplish it

2 Jigsaw activities: These are also based on information gap principle

Typically, the class is divided into groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity The class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole In so doing, they must use their language resources to communicate meaningfully and take part in meaningful communication practice

3 Task completion activities: puzzles, games map reading and other kinds of

classroom tasks in which the focus is on using one’s language resources to complete

a task

4 Information gathering activities: student conducted surveys, interviews and

searches in which students are required to use their linguistic resources to collect information

5 Opinion sharing activities: activities in which students compare values,

opinions or beliefs , such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance that they might consider in choosing a date or spouse

6 Information transfer activities: These require learners to take information

that is presented in one form and represent it in a different form

7 Reasoning gap activities: these involve deriving some new information

from given information through the process of inference, practical reasoning

8 Role plays: activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise a

scene or exchange based on given information or clues

2.2 Information Gap Activities

Information gap activity is an activity which is based on information gap principle that in real communication People normally communicate in order to get information they do not process Real communication is likely to occur in the

classroom if students practice language forms on their own way and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to express their ideas Because of the benefits of information gap activities, the researcher wants to exploit information gap activities in the speaking class

2.2.1 The nature of information gap activities

To help students develop their communicative efficiency in speaking, there are some activities used in classroom to promote the development of speaking skills in our learners The discussions below center on information gap activities as one of the strategies that the researcher used to investigate the effectiveness of these activities on improving speaking skills for the 11th grader at Dien chau 5 high school

The concept of Information gap activities is an important aspect of communication in a CLT classroom According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic by Richard, Platt and Weber (1985,p40), “ Information gap( in communication between two or more people) is a situation where information is known by only some of these present” Information gap activities are useful activities in which one person has information that the other lacks They must use the target language to share the information This definition is supported by Thornbury (2005, p80) as he states that, there is a knowledge gap that can only be bridged by using language The students have to communicate in order

to achieve the task outcome

While, Harmer(1991,p48) defines information gap as a “gap” between the two persons in the information they possess, and the conversation helps to close that gap

so that now both speakers have the same information” Stern (1999,p.32) defines it

as “ information is known by only one student in a pair and it can be conveyed by different exercises to the other students”

An information gap activity, in class terms, means that one student must be in

a position to tell another something that the second student does not already know

A look at the example given by Johnson and Morrow (1981, p.62) will provide a clear view

If two students are looking at a picture of a street scene and one says to the other, “where is the dog?” when he knows that the dog is sitting outside the post-office because he can see it as clearly as his fellow-student can, then this is not communicative There is no information gap But if one student has the picture of the street scene and the other has a similar picture with some features missing which

he must find out from the first student, then the same question becomes real, meaningful-and communicative

The two following examples offered by Brown and Yule (1983) will distinguish information gap activity with other ones

Activity 1: The teacher gives the student an object to describe

Activity 2: The student A is provided with a simple drawing of a line, a square and a triangle with a pen and a sheet of blank paper The student A’s task is to instruct the student B to produce, as accurately as possible, the drawing which the student A can see but the student B can not

In activity 1, the student has to create, for himself, an artificial information gap between his knowledge and the teacher’s He has to behave as if the teacher does not know what the object looks like This behavior is regarded as being additional and highly artificial There is no information gap because both the teacher and the student can see the object clearly and then this is not genuinely communicative Differently, activity 2 is more interesting partly because it creates a reasonable purpose for the students to perform the task In other words, one person has the information that the other does not know, so there is a need to communicate

These definitions all reflect the nature of information gap activities In information gap activities, there is always an information gap among participants which causes a need to communicate This characteristic of information gap activities is similar to the nature of a conversation in real life In fact, the need to communicate is created when one of the participants want to find out something

they don’t know Therefore, Information gap activities can be considered as a bridge to bring features of real life communication into classroom context

2.2.2 Benefits of information gap activities

2.2.2.1 Increase students’ talk time in class

These types of activities are extremely effective in the the second language classroom Neu & Reeser (1997) stated that information gap activities give every student the opportunity to speak in the target language for an extended period of time and students naturally produce more speech than they would otherwise

Doughty and Pica (1986,p25) also shared the same idea that “ learners tend to produce longer sentences and negotiate more often in interactive tasks than they do

in teaching fronted instruction, where the teacher stands at the front of the room and leads the discussion”

Overall, information gap activities creates a chance for students to express their ideas in specific situation Students tend to talk more more to exchange their ideas with their partner to complete the tasks

2.2.2.2 Promote students’ motivation

Information gap creates an information gap between participants, so it gives students a reason for communicating Harmer (1983,p90) asserted that “ information gap is an ingredient in most real life communication” Thus, information gap activities creates a real purpose for the communication to take place Students will be involved more in these activities because they have a real reason for completing the task, not just to practice the new structure or vocabulary Moreover, information gap activities are often designed in form of games Thus, it can stir and maintain students’ interest and motivation more because they like the game The challenge is one of the essential of every game, which can create competition among learners and maintain eagerness in the learning process

Beside, Raptou(2001) also stated that information gap activities give students

a chance to practice what they’ve learned Students have opportunities to put the

theory into real daily conversation Thus, they will understand the lesson more and

be attracted to the task

2.2.2.3 Promote students’ equal participation

Moreover, information gap activities offer equal opportunities of learning for mixed ability classes In information gap activities, students often work in pair or group and each participant has a definite role For example, in the speaking task “ Shopping list “ suggested by Doff (1988), students A is a customer, student B is a shop assistant They have to ask questions to buy and sell things Therefore, the speaking task is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants All students have a chance to speak, and contribute fairly evenly to the discussion

2.2.2.4 Build students’ confidence

Since most information gap activities are designed for pair work or group work, students often face each other during time performing these activities Neu & Reeser (1997) make a comment that speaking with peers is less intimidating than presenting in front of the entire class and being evaluated

Hess( 2001) also stated that information gap activities creates a secure, no threatening atmosphere Students can express their ideas freely using their own language without worrying too much about making mistakes, thus they feel more comfortable and confident in participating in speaking task in class

Raptou (2001) also shared the same idea that information gap results in a more comfortable environment because communication is one way, rather than individual class

Overall, students feel more comfortable and less anxious in completing information gap activities in class They do not have to worry about speaking in

front a class and being assessed by the teacher

2.2.2.5 Develop students’ fluency and accuracy

Raptou (2001) asserted that information gap activities help students to apply the focused grammatical structures in order to exchange information and negotiate

meaning Thus, students involved in the speaking task will keep asking and answering questions Through this kind of practice, their fluency and accuracy can

be improved gradually

Neu and Reeser (1997) also stated that in information gap activities, students are forced to negotiate meaning because they must make what they are saying comprehensible to others in order to accomplish the task So, the students keep talking to maintain the exchange of information They try to avoid the pause in the middle of the conversation In this way, students’ fluency can also improved

2.2.3The teachers’ roles in the information gap activities

In order to get an effective information gap activities during the English teaching and learning process, a teacher should know her/his roles in the activity There are three teacher’s roles in information gap activities (Son, 2009) The first role is as a facilitator In this first role, a teacher can perform as: 1) a material provider, 2) an activity initiator, 3) an organizer of the classroom activities, 4) an error corrector, 5) a standby teacher, and 6) a consultant or adviser

In the beginning of an information gap activities, students may not be able to begin the communicative information gap activities directly and they still lack of knowledge in linguistic forms or skills which create communicative ability so that a teacher should act as a material and activity initiator Meanwhile, as an organizer of the classroom activities, a teacher should tell the students about the topic and the activity that will be learned Moreover, she/he has to divide the class into pairs or groups because information gap is a group work As an error corrector, a teacher should monitor and correct the linguistic error in the pre communicative activity, but at the group work and class work levels in the process of communicative activity, he/she does not correct the errors since the errors do not inhibit communication Meanwhile, as a standby teacher, he/she lets communication take place through independent activities The last, as a consultant or adviser, a teacher just walk to and from the classroom and help the students when necessary or when

The second main role of a teacher in the information gap activity is as a participant In this role, the teacher should participate as an equal part in the activity She/he may offer information, stimulate and present new language at the same time However, when engaging in such activity, she/he should act equally in position to the students Then , in the last role as the observer and learner, the teacher may monitor the strengths and the weaknesses of the teacher can create more controlled pre communicative activities

2.2.4 Speaking activities based on information gap activities

The teacher should design the speaking activity so as to provide an opportunity for learners to produce language that they had recently learnt in order to prepare the learner for later communicative activity by providing them with the necessary linguistic form and the necessary links between forms and meanings The principle underlying communicative activities is that the teacher structures the situation so that the learners have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem According to William Littlewood (p.40,2006) speaking activities based on information gap principle can be divided into some categories, those are:

1 Identifying pictures: learner A has a set of four, five or six pictures which

are very similar in content, but contain a number of distinguishing features Learner

B has a copy of these pictures , learner A must find out which of the pictures learner

B is holding, by asking him questions about it

2 Discovering identical pairs: In this activity the students work in groups, for

instance, one group consists of five students Four pictures are given among four students and the fifth learner in the group holds a duplicate of one of these pictures

He must ask the others to discover which learner has the picture identical to his own

3 Discovering sequences or location: learner A has a set of six patterns These

are arranged into a sequence from one to six Learner B has the same set of patterns, but these are not in sequence Learner B must discover the sequence of A’s pictures and arrange his pictures in the same way

4 Discovering missing information or features: learner A has information

represented in tabular or picture form However, some items of information have been deleted from the table or picture Learner B has an identical table or picture but different items of information have been deleted Each learner can complete his own table or picture by asking his partner for the information that he lacks

5 Communicating patterns and pictures: learner A has an assortment of

shapes which he arranges into a pattern Learner B has the same shapes They must communicate each other so that B can reproduce as exactly as possible the same pattern as A

6 Discovering differences: learner A and B each have a picture or map/patter ,

etc The pictures are identical except for a number of details The learner must discuss the pictures in order to discover what the differences are

7 Following directions: learner A and B have identical maps Only A knows the

exact location of some building or other feature He must direct B to the correct spot

8 Pooling information to sold a problem: learners have to pool information in

order to solve a problem For instance, learner A has a tow plan showing the location of interesting places Learner B has a list of a bus timetable together they must devise a itinerary which would enable them to visit, say five places during one say , spending at least half an hour at each

9 Reconstructing story sequences: a picture script story(without dialogue) is

cut up into its separate pictures One picture is handed to each member of a group Without seeing each one’s pictures, the learners in the group must decide on the original sequence and reconstruct the story

2.2.5 Factors affecting the choice of information gap activities

In order to select the most effective and appropriate information gap activities, teachers must take many factors affecting their choice into consideration Among them, the four following criteria need to be paid most attention to: students’ language level, topics and objectives of each lesson, time allowance, and teaching aids

First and foremost, students’ language level is the most significant factor

affecting the choice of an information gap activity The reason is that the activity is under or above the students’ language level; the students may lose their interest when they find out that the activity is too easy or too difficult to be accomplished The activity then is just a waste of time and effort

Secondly, the information gap activity which is chose must suit the particular

objectives of each lesson The teacher should not let his students perform an

information gap activity which is claimed to develop students’ ability of using common expression in making small talks whereas the topic of the lesson is about technology and the lesson is targeted at developing students’ capacity of talking about the uses of mordent invention in daily life Therefore, in order to pick out suitable information gap activities, the topic and objectives of each lesson need to

be clarified right from the start

Another important factor must be considered carefully is time allowance for the

activity For instance, an information gap activity set for warming up the class should

be spent just below ten minutes while fifteen to twenty minutes can be spent on an information gap activity used in order to practice newly presented language items

Last but not least, teaching aids (cards, pictures, flashcards, etc.) for the

information gap activities should also take a great deal of attention Sketchy or illegible cards or pictures surely depress students’ interest for the activity An information gap activity that is interesting but hard to find the materials to be carried out also should be eliminated That is why, during the preparation, the teacher should assure that the aids are available, visible and attractively presented so

he can motive his students to learn best

2.2.6 Strategies of implementing information gap activities

Information gap activities should be implemented via some strategies, which will provoke learning by “ a large extent to a learner’s own personal “investment of time, effort, attention to the second language in the form of an individualized battery of strategies for comprehending and producing the language” (

Brown,2001,p.60) The following are some techniques used to implement information gap activities

2.2.6.1 Pair work or group work: In order to elicit information and opinions,

the learners need to interact among themselves They should spend most of their time working in pairs or groups, finding out their peers’ points of view, transmitting their own conceptions, exchanging ideas, and questing for clues for solutions Thus, dividing the learners into pairs and groups is an inevitable and important strategy to implement information gap activities This ensures the successful function of the information gap activities in teaching speaking in which group work can help achieve the goals of anxiety reduction and meaningful communication (Sato,2003) However, effective group work in the classroom does not occur automatically and thus the teacher’s careful involvement is required as in the following steps:

Firstly, the teacher should plan and prepare for the group work activities ahead

of the speaking lesson ( Sato,2003) because the good designs of the activities will result in “ more negotiation of meaning, more feedback and faster acquisition” ( Skehan,2007,p.291)

Secondly, the engagement of the teacher in the group work is important (Ellis,2003.p.70)

Thirdly, the teacher should allot roles to each member within group reasonably (Sato,2003) As, Ellis(2003,p.271) suggests that mixed groups including different proficient members can work better than “ homogeneous group” Additionally, Jacobs( 1998, as cited in Ellis,2003) suggests that “ the students ate seated in a way that they can talk together easily, keep eye contact , share materials and talk in a lower voice”

In fact, information gap activities assist students to achieve their goals of meaningful communication Through pair and group work they can get more opportunities to speak and feel more confident about speaking after cooperating to practice Furthermore, they get enjoyment from learning language, which motivates

work in speaking also has its negative effects For instance, students may overuse the first language or “ engage in off task talk”( Ellis,2003,p.168)

2.2.6.2 Personalization and individualization: according to Zhang (2004) as

quoted in Defrioka (2009,p.40) information gap activities collect views not only from others but also from one’s own contributions as well It is both speakers’ conceptions that close the gap between them Personalization activities provide the learners opportunities to express their opinions, suggestions, or taste, to share their real life experiences or ideas, and to apply their issues or concerns to act at their own pace, in their own manner and style, and on the topics or content of their own choice Then they will “ find their own way, taking charge of their learning” and “ make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom” ( Brown,2001,p.209)

2.2.6.3 Interest: interest is particular important for the implementation of

information gap activities To stimulate learners’ involvement, interest requires that the activities be designed with some essential characteristics, such as those in games, role playing, curiosity arousing activities, imagination involving activities, real life touching experiencing activities, visual or auditory attracting activities, in addition to a clear goal and a meaningful problem solving process Making the information gap activities interesting will ensure a high involvement of learners and keeps the motivation on going

2.2.6.4 Variety: a variety of information gap activities and techniques are

always essential in all teaching and learning They will accommodate varieties of learning styles and individuals Constant alteration of activities, techniques and approaches can provoke greater motivation and interest as well as further increased longing to fill in the gaps Variety also means great several contributions from the learners, the desire to learn from the learners could be greatly increased

2.2.6.5 Open ending: this means “ the provision of cues or learning tasks

which do not have single predetermine “right” answers, but a prospectively unlimited number of acceptable responses” ( Ur,1996,p.309) Open ended cues in

information gap activities supply possibilities at various levels and dimensions

Thus activate an increase in number of learners’ responses from elementary to

advanced, from simple to sophisticated, and from textbooks to personal experiences

Open ended strategy allow learners opportunities for choosing appropriate

languages, topics and paces, which promotes a significant rise in the proportion of

learners’ participation

2 2.7 Typical procedure to conduct an information gap activity

Norman, Levihn, and Hendenquist (1986, p.101) offer the following steps to

carry out an information gap activity:

Step 1: Divide the class into pairs

Step 2: Give each student the appropriate “half” of an information gap

activity Explain that they must not look at each other’s information It is a good

idea if the information given to the students the instruction for what they are

required to do It is often helpful for one student’s information to contain the

information You start, while the other student’s includes Your partner will start

Step 3: Students prepare for a new moment silently

Step 4: Students do the activity, without further preparation by the teacher Step 5: One or more pairs “performs” for the class If all pairs are working on

the same activity, after each “performance”, other students are invited to comment,

and both the teacher and students make comments on how the language can be

improved

Summary

Thus, the previous section focuses on speaking skills and information gap

activities as an essential way for interactive survival in a global setting The teacher

is able to improve the students’ speaking ability because information gap activities

increase student talk and promote interaction among students for communicative

purposes rather than the students become comfortable to speak everything Thus,

only gives simple explanation about the activity, reviews the vocabulary needed for the activity, and encourage interactive dialogues and self expression, following these stages of planning lessons and implementing it All may help in developing students’ speaking skills

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology of the study It covers the subject of the research, the research design, the research procedures, the research instrument, the data collection and the data analysis Each of the point will be explained as follow

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of Dien Chau 5 high school

Dien Chau 5 upper secondary school is situated in Dien Chau district, Nghe

An province Founded in 1999, Dien Chau 5 has an enthusiastic and experienced team of teachers, administrators, and support staff For nearly 20 years, the school has developed an excellent reputation in the community, and among the leaders in the provincial Board of Education At present, there are 36 classes with over 1500 students, divided into three different levels: 10th, 11th, and 12th grades

The school’s Board of Directors have always encouraged and supported the teaching and learning of the English Language at our school The classrooms are well-equipped with modern facilities for learning English, such as computers and projectors There are two specialized rooms where English learners can develop their language skills more effectively

However, there are many problems which need to be solved: The books and materials for students in the library are limited Additionally, the students have few opportunities to practice English with native speakers—vital to anyone trying to improve their verbal communication skills

3.1.2 Teachers

In Dien Chau 5 upper secondary school, there are nine teachers of English, aged twenty-nine to forty All of them have University Bachelor Degrees, and they have a variety of experiences teaching English in classroom settings The teacher with the most experience has nearly sixteen years in the classroom, while our least experienced teacher has six years As rural teachers, they have few opportunities to

upgrade their teaching skills, and the school does not have the resources to provide them with modern teaching aids and materials to help their work

However, despite some disadvantages, they have been successful teachers—not only developing their own language skills, but improving their teaching methods There is an atmosphere of collegiality and support among the faculty and administrators, and we often share our teaching experiences in the hope that we can learn from each other There is always room for improvement, and we strive to make ourselves more effective professionals

3.1.3 Students

Most of the students in Dien Chau 5 Upper Secondary School are living in the surrounding rural areas—where their families are employed in the agriculture sector Our students are required to study 13 compulsory subjects, so they spend little time learning English, and their verbal skills are weak Though they have been studying English for many years, their focus has been on learning syntax and grammar so they can pass regular examinations

Moreover, because their parents are farmers who never use English in their daily lives, the students receive little encouragement at home to develop vital communication skills As a result, most of the students do not know what they are studying English for—except to pass their exams Although they know it is important to learn English in the modern life, they become bored with learning it In each class, there are only a few students really learning English—and it is those few who are interested in learning it! The majority of the students usually forget most the things they have learned as soon as their testing period is over Once the students lose their motivation for learning, the quality of their classroom experience rapidly declines

3.1.4 The English Language syllabus

Our school’s 11th

Grade English Language textbook “ Tieng Anh 11” It is a

traditional textbook structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-based learning models The textbook has desirable aims of providing students with a

foundational knowledge of numerous fields, a favorable attitude towards the English Language, and the four skills generally recognized as building proficiency

in language study: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing

In order to achieve these objectives, the content of the book is designed to utilize themes with which all students will be familiar Included are topics related to the student’s social lives, to sports, to work, and to leisure activities—universal experiences For each topic, related vocabulary and word studies are presented communicatively The book contains sixteen units, with each unit presenting five lessons with four different skills and a language focus Reading is the first unit in each lesson, guiding students to key words and phrases of the related topic—which then become “building blocks” that enable them to learn additional skills

Some tasks in the text book are difficult while some others are not really challenging This disparity requires teachers to creatively motivate students by adapting exercises to their interest levels Being effective at this adaptive skill is

what sets teachers apart (average from excellent) worldwide

3.2 Subject of the research

The subjects of the research were the students of class 11A2 at Dien Chau 5 high school in academic year 2015/2016 The total students are 40 that consist of 18 female and 22 male students The researcher chose these students as subject because the researcher believed that most students had not achieved the criteria in speaking skill and they need to improve their speaking skill By interviewing and observation with the English teacher and the students the researcher decided to use 11a2 students as her research subject

3.3 Research design

This research is a Classroom Action Research (CAR) Action research is an action that is done by the teachers to improve the teaching and learning process in their classes This research consisted of 2 cycles and each cycles consisted of 4 elements The researcher used the scheme of action research designed by Kemmis and McTaggart as follow:

Figure 1 Action research cycles by Kemmis and McTaggart

Based on the model above, the first step is planning In this step, the researcher found some problems in classes Then, after planning the actions, the researcher took actions to solve the problems While taking actions, the researcher also observed the teaching learning process to know the effect of the actions This is also the stage where the researcher collected information as much as possible related to the implementation of the actions The last step was reflection where the researcher evaluated and reflected on what she had done In this research , the researcher used information gap activities to improve the speaking skills of grade 11 students in Dien Chau 5 high school