MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ ÁNH HỒNG SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE 10TH GRADERS' SPEAKING SKILL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION NGHE AN, 2014 2 2 2 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ ÁNH HỒNG SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE 10TH GRADERS' SPEAKING SKILL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D. Nghe An, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere. Author Nguyen Thi Anh Hong i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of many individuals in assisting me to accomplish this study. First of all, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor: Dr. Tran Ba Tien for his valuable time, suggestions, guidance, and assistance in this study. He always guides me with valuable suggestions, helpful comments and whole-hearted guidance during my implementation of this study. Without his help, the thesis would not have been possible. I also want to thank the cooperation of my colleagues and my students, especially the students of class 10A1, 10A2, 10A3 at Le Viet Thuat high school in Vinh city who have helped me to collect data for the study. Last but not least, I would especially thank my family; my close friends who have gave in their support and like to constant encouragement to fulfill my study. My thanks go to my husband, his material and spiritual support throughout this study. Vinh 2014. Nguyen Thi Anh Hong ii ABSTRACT This study aims at using of three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities at Le Viet Thuat high school. The study was carried out in 10A1, 10A2, 10A3 class at Le Viet Thuat high school in the second semester of the school year 2013-2014. The writer took 107 students and 9 teachers as the subject of the research. The writer taught speaking English using three stimulating activities: games, video and role play. To find the results, the researcher got the information from the students’ and teachers' answers on survey questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews. The result of the research using three stimulating activities: games, video and role play shows that, the students become active and cooperative in learning speaking. The students’ motivation to speak and to practice speaking is stronger, and their speaking skill is improved. Most of the students said that they like these techniques. They became braver and felt more confident to speak and express their feeling. Based on the findings, the writer also made some recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities in class. As a result, games, video and role play are highly recommended as effective activities in the improvement of students’ speaking. iii TABLE OF CONTENT Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF FIGURES vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale of the study 1 1.2. Scope of the study 2 1.3. The aims of the study 2 1.4. Research questions 3 1.5. Method and procedure of the research 3 1.6. Design of the study 3 Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 2.1. Communicative language teaching 5 2.1.1. What is meant by communication? 5 2.1.2. Communicative language teaching 5 2.1.3. Communicative Competence - The desired goal of CLT 7 2.1.4. The necessity of teaching and learning speaking skill in a Communicative Class 8 2.1.5. Nature of communicative language teaching 9 2.2. Theoretical background of speaking 11 2.2.1. What is “speaking”? 11 2.2.2. The nature of speaking 12 2.2.3. The role of speaking skill in communication approach 13 2.2.4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 14 2.2.5. Principles in teaching speaking in CLT 14 2.2.6. Problems in teaching and learning speaking skill 15 2.2.7. Factors affecting English speaking abilities 16 2.3. Theoretical background of activities 17 2.3.1. Stimulating activities 17 2.3.2. Types of stimulating activities in teaching speaking skills 18 2.3.3. Three most stimulating activities in speaking class 20 Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 25 3.1. Research context 25 iv 3.1.1. An overview of the research site 25 3.1.2. Description of the students at Le Viet Thuat High school 25 3.1.3. Description of the teachers at Le Viet Thuat High School 26 3.1.4. The textbook 26 3.2. Participants 30 3.3. Research instruments 30 3.4. Data analysis 32 3.5. Conclusion 32 Chapter 4 FINDING AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1. Presentation and analysis of data 33 4.1.1. Pre-task questionnaire for students 33 4.1.2. Questionnaire for teachers 40 4.2. Post-task questionnaire for students 43 4.2.1. Analyzing result of post-survey questionnaire 43 4.3. Analyzing results of classroom observations 47 4.3.1. From the experimental teaching observation 47 4.3.2. From the teacher observation 48 4.4. Problem in speaking lessons when use three stimulating activities: games, video and role play 51 4.5. The obstacles during the use of three stimulating activities: games, video and role play in speaking class 51 4.6. Discussion 51 4.6.1. Difficulties from the teachers and students 51 4.6.2. Solutions to improving 10th graders’ speaking skill 56 4.7. Summary 58 Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 59 5.1. Summary of the study 59 5.2. Recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities in class.60 5.2.1. For the teacher 60 5.2.2. For the administrator 63 5.3. Limitation of the study 64 5.4. Suggestions for further research 64 REFERENCES 65 APPENDIX v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS % : Percent CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as Foreign Language MOET : Ministry of education and training No : Number R : Researcher Ss : Students vi [...]... However, my teaching seems to encounter a significant problem: the students do not pay more attention to their speaking skill, they usually keep quiet in speaking lessons or they often use mother tongue instead speaking English Against the problem above, some suggested activities should be used to overcome them I am interested in applying these activities to improve the speaking skill of Le Viet Thuat... English classes based on the syllabus of MOET so that I will conduct the research entitled “ Some suggested activities to improve the 10th graders' speaking skill My objective is to find the most effective ways of helping them to overcome the barrier of low self confidence when studying speaking skill 1.2 Scope of the study This research mainly covers the problems with the speaking skill that teachers... and students have in the process of using the text book for grade 10 These problems were discussed throughly in order to discover the causes and to offer some suggested activities The study only focuses on using three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to improve English speaking skills 10th graders at Le Viet Thuat high school 1.3 The aims of the study To find out the difficulties in... explored in the study and made some recommendations on how stimulating activities should be used to improve the 10th graders It also discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research 4 Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this chapter, theoretical background relative to the topic and surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic... of the exams, etc Another difficulty in teaching and learning speaking skill is mother-tongue use In classes where all learners share the same mother-tongue, they tend to use it because: it is easier, it is 15 unnatural to communicate in a foreign language and they feel less exposed in their mother-tongue If the students work in small groups, it can be quite challenging to get them - especially the. .. learning Therefore, the teaching of speaking merits more thought Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their... learning speaking skill If the aim of the English course is to enable the students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom However, it is true that when teaching speaking skill, the teachers can encounter many problems The most popular ones can be listed as follows: First, the class size is one of the major concerns Teaching the target... 2.3.2.5 Short stories Puji Rahayu (2008) claims that stories can help to stimulate students overall facility of creativity They contribute to multicultural awareness, tolerance and familiarity with each other beliefs Stories are akin to a magnet for students to be drawn to reading We can exploit the stories to get our students to practice the many language skills required for overall proficiency The subsequent... learning English speaking skill that 10th graders and English teachers at Le Viet Thuat high school have encountered 2 To suggest some recommendations how to use three stimulating activities: games, video, role play to enhance students in speaking skill and develop communicative skill 1.4 Research questions 1 What are the difficulties encountered by the English teachers and the 10th graders in teaching... dramatic stories, role play ” In English language classrooms, by using stimulating activities, the teacher is able to improve the students' speaking ability because they are interesting techniques to apply in classroom The students become comfortable to speak everything and get opportunity to develop their communicative competence more freely In other words, these activities can be considered effective tools . conduct the research entitled “ Some suggested activities to improve the 10th graders' speaking skill . My objective is to find the most effective ways of helping them to overcome the barrier. attention to their speaking skill, they usually keep quiet in speaking lessons or they often use mother tongue instead speaking English. Against the problem above, some suggested activities. gives the theoretical background of CLT, speaking skill and stimulating activities. Chapter III: Presents the use of stimulating activities to improve the 10th graders' speaking skill