MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE THI HUONG USING STORYTELLING TO DEVELOP ORAL SKIILS FOR THE 8TH GRADERS IN SPEAKING LESSONS MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE THI HUONG USING STORYTELLING TO DEVELOP ORAL SKIILS FOR THE 8TH GRADERS IN SPEAKING LESSONS FIELD: CODE: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING 60.14.10 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI KIM ANH, MA Nghe An, 2013 ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS During the process of conducting this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive supports and assistance from a variety of people First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, MA Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, who allows me to draw fully on her wisdom and experience in implementing this study Her guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback have been most generous I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of the Post graduate course 19 whose fundamental knowledge about language teaching and learning is of great importance to the achievement of my academic study I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepnest thanks to all the teachers and colleagues, especially Ms Vu Kim Ngan at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school for their help in completing the survey questionnaires, for their constructive suggestions to this research, and for their willingness to share their relevant problems with me I am most thankful to the students of classes 8A and 8C whose cooperation is great significance to the completion of the study Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my husband, my children whose loving support has been encouraging me to fulfill this thesis successfully ABSTRACT It is the fact that speaking is an important language skill However, in the reality, the teaching and learning English speaking are still far from satisfactory The study focuses on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill as well as the analysis of the present teaching and learning to speak English Once, problems have been identified, suggestions for teachers to improve the situation of teaching and learning speaking English by using storytelling to the 8th graders would be made CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study English, which has long proved its significant role as the international language, becomes more and more important in the context of globalization Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to students’ needs for effective communication However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking skills in particular have not come up to the expectations despite teachers’ efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, teaching and learning speaking effectively is quite a problem to both teachers and students at many schools in Vietnam At Hoa Hieu lower secondary school, the situation is the same For most students, they find speaking especially important yet most challenging one It has been proved that some students get into a habit of learning “mute English”, which is obviously harmful to a language learner It also seems to the writer that the techniques exploited during a speaking activity such as: role plays, simulations, discussions, etc are not always really effective Therefore, it is necessary to find a supplementary technique used in teaching speaking In language teaching, storytelling has proved itself not merely as “relaxing activity” but as an important factor which can create more chances and interest to motivate students to speak Nevertheless, storytelling has not successfully been applied to speaking classes at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school All the above-mentione is hot topic today, so I will talk about it in my presentation today d reasons and factors have inspired the writer to conduct a research entitled “using storytelling to develop oral skills for the 8th graders in speaking lessons” 1.2 Aims of the study The study is aimed at: • Investigating the situation of teaching and learning speaking to the th graders at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school • Investigating the effectiveness of using storytelling in teaching speaking to the 8th graders at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school • Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of speaking teaching at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school by using storytelling in addition to other techniques 1.3 Scope of the study The study focuses specifically on using storytelling in improving oral skills to the 8th graders at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school Therefore, the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking only, and the subjects of the study are six teachers and seventy students from two classes studying “English 8” textbook at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school 1.4 Significance of the study • Theoretical significance of the study: The study supplies the English language teachers with the understanding of speaking skill and storytelling in terms of types, advantages when employing them The study also suggests some ways to exploit storytelling successfully during all stages in teaching speaking • Practical significance of the study: The research provides the language teachers and learners a variety of stories used in all stages in speaking classes based on new “Tieng Anh 8” textbook 1.5 Methods of the study This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaire, informal interview and classroom observation Firstly, for its versality and straightforward data processing, the survey questionnaire was employed to quickly collect data from a large number of participants The survey questionnaire used to collect data for this study consists of pre-task survey questionnaire (for teachers and students) and post task survey questionnaire (for only students) Secondly, informal interview was carried out among teachers and students to get more reliable data and intensive understanding about the matter raised in research questions Lastly, classroom observation was used as the indispensable method since it offered a double-checking scheme of participants’ responses, helping the researcher to investigate the issue in practice with an objective view 1.6 Organization of the study This paper is divided into five main chapters: Chapter is the Introduction In this part, the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance and the methods of the study, and also its organization are presented Chapter is the Literature Review In this part, theoretical background related to the study: speaking skills and storytelling are discussed Chapter is the Methodology This part investigates the situation of teaching and learning speaking and the feasibility of using storytelling in teaching speaking to the 8th graders at Hoa Hieu lower secondary school through the analysis of collected data Chapter are Findings and Suggestions This chapter is by far the most dominant one in which some suggestions on using storytelling are made and some sample lessons are provided Chapter is the Conclusion which includes the summary of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of oral skill or speaking skill The terms “oral skill” and “speaking skill” are basically similar Oral skills are skills or abilities in oral speech In other words, oral skills are abilities of speech, fluency in speaking And speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words Whereas, the single most important reason for teaching speaking skills is to develop oral fluency, the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without undue hesitation so speaking skill is also called “oral skill” Therefore, in this part, the author only mentioned speaking skill instead of oral skills 2.1.1 Definitions of speaking skill Speaking is crucially important for the whole learning process “speaking makes you a more fluent language user, speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say, it is a chance to test hypotheses about language.” The term “speaking” catches much attention of linguistics Therefore, many definitions have been offered to this term so far According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2004, p.414), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones’ thoughts and feelings in spoken languages.” Chaney (1998, p.13), however, considered speaking as “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 practise 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, Bygate (1987, p.3) investigated the distinction between knowledge and skill in speaking lessons, which he considered to be 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 He also discussed further at great length the two sub-skills of interaction skills that the speakers use when they speak: the routine skills and negotiation skills Routines are the conventional ways of presenting information such as descriptions, comparisons, story telling They can be either expository, concerning presenting factual information, or evaluative where the speakers explain, reason, justify, predict and draw conclusions They can also be interaction routines that can be found in interactions in different specific situations like interviews or discussions, etc In brief, there are different concepts of speaking, 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 2.1.2 Elements of speaking skill 2.1.2.1 Accuracy 10 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: PRE-TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “Using storytelling to develop oral skills for the th graders in speaking lessons” The findings will make great contribution to my study Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated This is for study purpose only You can be confident that you will not be identified in any data analysis Thank you very much! Before answering the questions, please fill in some information: * Gender : * Your age : Male Female * How long have you been teaching English? A 0-3 years B 4-5 years C 6-8 years D more than 10 years Now please put a tick (√ ) where you think your choice is Note: You may have more than one choice How important you think speaking skill is to your students? A Very important B As important as other language skills C Not so important as other language skills D Not important at all - 71 - What is your purpose of teaching speaking to your students ? A To develop oral skills and other languge skills for my students B To help my students to practise vocabulary as well as structures C To help them know more about the culture of English speaking countries D To improve their ability of thinking in English E Others (please specify): How you find speaking topics and speaking activities introduced in “Tieng Anh 8” textbook? Speaking topics & speaking activities A difficult B interesting C boring Note: 1: not difficult 2: difficult 3: very difficult Do the same for interesting and boring How often you use supplementary materials in teaching speaking? A always B often C sometimes D never What is your difficulty in teaching speaking skills to your students? A Students’ limited vocabulary B Students’ grammar problems C Uneven students’ background knowledge in English D Finding other materials used in teaching speaking E Time limitation F Others (please specify): What you to encourage your students to speak and get them more involved in speaking activities? A Use games - 72 - B Use visual aids (pictures, charts, etc.) C Use storytelling D Use group work and pair work E Develop speaking materials F Classify students’ level of English G Others (please specify)…………………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation! APPENDIX 2: - 73 - PRE_TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “using storytelling to develop oral skills for the th graders in speaking lessons” The findings will make great contribution to my study Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated This is for study purpose only You can be confident that you will not be identified in any data analysis Thank you very much! Before answering the questions, please fill in some information: * Gender : * Your age : Male Female * How long have you been learning English? A 0-3 years B 4-5 years C 6-8 years D more than 10 years Now please put a tick (√ ) where you think your choice is Note: You may have more than one choice How necessary is English in the school courses? A Very necessary B Necessary C Normal D Unnecessary How you like learning English? A Very much B Much C Not much D Not at all Among the four language skills, which one is the most difficult to you? - 74 - A Listening B Speaking C Reading D Writing How is speaking skill important to you? A Very important B Important C Normal D Not important at all How you find speaking topics and speaking activities introduced in “Tieng Anh 8” textbook? 5.1 5.2 A Very interesting B Interesting C Normal D Boring A Very difficult B Difficult C Normal D Easy Are you willing to speak in speaking classes? A Yes, I like speaking very much B Yes, sometimes C No, I am never willing to speak What is your difficulty in learning speaking skills? A Vocabulary limitation B Grammar problems C Lack of background knowledge in English D Finding other materials used in learning speaking E Time limitation F Others (please specify): - 75 - In order to encourage students to speak and get them more involved in speaking activities, you think the teachers should: (You can choose more than one) A Use visual aids (pictures, charts, etc…….) B Use storytelling C Use language games D Use group work and pair work E Others (please specify)…………………………………………… What you think of using storytelling in speaking classes for? A for relaxing only B for teaching only C for both relaxing and teaching D time covering 10 If your teacher of English exploits storytelling in speaking lessons, are you willing to join? A Yes B No Thank you very much for your cooperation! APPENDIX 3: - 76 - POST_TASK SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “Using storytelling to develop oral skills for the th graders in speaking lessons” The findings will make great contribution to my study Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated This is for study purpose only You can be confident that you will not be identified in any data analysis Thank you very much! Now please put a tick (√ ) where you think your choice is Note: You may have more than one choice Do you like stories given by your teacher during speaking lessons? A I like them very much B Yes, they are OK C I don’t like them at all D I have no idea What you while your teacher exploit storytelling? A Actively take part in the activity B Join the activity only when being asked by the teacher C Join the activity only when feeling interested D Do not take part in storytelling How you feel after taking part in storytelling? A relaxed and motivated B normal C uncomfortable Are you willing to speak during speaking lessons? A Yes, I feel more motivated to speak B It depends on the speaking activities and stories given C No, I feel unmotivated and reluctant to speak - 77 - In your opinion, is the use of storytelling to motivate students to speak effective? A Yes B No If you choose yes, please answer question and keep answering question to question 10 If you choose yes, please answer question and keep answering question to question 10 What are the benefits of storytelling to your speaking skill? (You can choose more than one option) A Storytelling makes speaking lessons more enjoyable and more fun B Storytelling makes speaking lessons less challenging and difficult C Storytelling lowers my anxiety and shyness, and then develop my confidence in speaking D Storytelling creates more chances for students to speak If the use of storytelling in speaking classes is ineffective, what you think are reasons? (Please specify) ………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… To make the use of storytelling in speaking classes more effective, what you think the teacher should do? (You can choose more than one option) A Teacher should exploit storytelling that suit students’ level B Teacher should explain students what to in a clear and an easy- tounderstand language C Teacher should exploit a variety of stories in different speaking classes D Teacher should demonstrate what to to students E Others (please specify)…………………………………………… - 78 - What stage(s) you think the teacher should exploit storytelling? A Warm-ups B Pre-speaking stage C While-speaking stage D Post-speaking stage E At any stage of the lesson 10 How often you want to take part in storytelling? A Often B Occasionally C Rarely D Never Thank you very much for taking time to complete this questionnaire! - 79 - APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN In order to illustrate what have been presented in the study, the following lesson plan is designed based on the application of some of the suggested techniques This is only one of the ways to exploit storytelling but it is expected that this will be helpful for readers in that it serves as a reference material The speaking topic chosen as a sample for application is the story about “ A little red hen” in Unit 9- A first-aid course in the textbook “Tieng Anh 8” The topic of this speaking lesson is making and responding to requests, offers and promises Pre-speaking - Let students (Ss) listen to some sound effects of four animals - Ask them guess what animal it is - Tell the students about the story’s title, characters, setting and content - Pre-teach some vocabulary such as, muffin, lift While-speaking - Tell the story with enthusiasm and spontanity - Ask participants to comprehend about story given - Elicit structures to make and respond to requests, offers and promises by asking “Do you see any phrase that is repeated?” - Ask Ss to practice structures by playing roles in the story Post-speaking - Ask participants to retell the story based on their own work - Check Ss' comprehension of the values of the story by asking questions to clarify the basics such as who liked doing what and where - 80 - - Have students play roles to tell the story with another characters - Draw a moral conclusion from the story and give a final comment on it - 81 - APPENDIX : THE SAMPLE STORY A little red hen Once upon a time there was a little red hen She lived with a pig, a duck and a cat They all lived in a pretty little house which the little red hen liked to keep clean and tidy The little red hen worked hard at her jobs all day The others never helped Although they said they meant to, they were all far too lazy The pig liked to grunt in the mud outside, the duck used to swim in the pond all day, and the cat enjoyed lying in the sun, purring One day the little red hen was working in the garden when she found a grain of corn "Who will plant this grain of corn?" she asked "Not I," grunted the pig from his muddy patch in the garden "Not I," quacked the duck from her pond "Not I," purred the cat from his place in the sun So the little red hen went to look for a nice bit of earth, scratched it with her feet and planted the grain of corn During the summer the grain of corn grew First it grew into a tall green stalk, then it ripened in the sun until it had turned a lovely golden colour The little red hen saw that the corn was ready for cutting - 82 - "Who will help me cut the corn?" asked the little red hen "Not I," grunted the pig from his muddy patch in the garden "Not I," quacked the duck from her pond "Not I," purred the cat from his place in the sun "Very well then, I will cut it myself," said the little red hen Carefully she cut the stalk and took out all the grains of corn from the husks "Who will take the corn to the mill, so that it can be ground into flour?" asked the little red hen "Not I," grunted the pig from his muddy patch in the garden "Not I," quacked the duck from her pond "Not I," purred the cat from his place in the sun So the little red hen took the corn to the mill herself, and asked the miller if he would be so kind as to grind it into flour In time the miller sent a little bag of flour down to the house where the little red hen lived with the pig and the duck and the cat "Who will help me to make the flour into bread?" asked the little red hen "Not I," grunted the pig from his muddy patch in the garden "Not I," quacked the duck from her pond "Not I," purred the cat from his place in the sun - 83 - "Very well," said the little red hen "I shall make the bread myself." She went into her neat little kitchen She mixed the flour into dough She kneaded the dough and put it into the oven to bake Soon there was a lovely smell of hot fresh bread It filled all the corners of the house and wafted out into the garden The pig came into the kitchen from his muddy patch in the garden, the duck came in from the pond and the cat left his place in the sun When the little red hen opened the oven door the dough had risen up and had turned into the nicest, most delicious looking loaf of bread any of them had seen "Who is going to eat this bread?" asked the little red hen "I will," grunted the pig "I will," quacked the duck "I will," purred the cat "Oh no, you won't," said the little red hen "I planted the seed, I cut the corn, I took it to the mill to be made into flour, and I made the bread, all by myself I shall now eat the loaf all by myself." - 84 - The pig, the duck and the cat all stood and watched as the little red hen ate the loaf all by herself It was delicious and she enjoyed it, right to the very last crumb - 85 - [...]... teachers’ attitudes toward speaking skill, speaking topics and speaking activities introduces in the textbook “Tieng Anh 8”, their difficulties in teaching speaking skills and their suggestions for the improvement of the quality in teaching speaking 3.5.1.1 What are the attitudes of teachers toward speaking skill? 28 In order to find out the attitudes of the teachers toward speaking skill, two questions... concerning the purpose of teaching speaking, all of the informants put vocabulary as well as structures to their 29 foremost priority This suggests that in speaking lessons, the teachers usually spent most of the time presenting vocabulary and structures related to the speaking topic 83% of the teachers answered that they taught speaking to the students in order to develop their oral skills and the other... important to success in this world, students must be encouraged to practice these skills Teachers must have the same determination and the same performance expectations they would have if they were teaching math” 2.2.4 Benefits of using storytelling in developing oral skills or speaking skills for students Storytelling has many key values for both the individual telling the story and the people listening to. .. distributed to these seventy students to find out the effectiveness of the use of storytelling in speaking classes Both survey questionnaires were administered during the class time Before the questionnaires were given to the informants, the researcher spent time explaining the purpose of the questionnaires, the requirements from the informants The informants were also encouraged to raise any questions if there... that the speaking topics and speaking activities were not difficult None of the teachers supposed them to be difficult Half of the teachers found the speaking topics and speaking activities not interesting No teachers agreed that the speaking topics and speaking activities were very interesting Similarly, none of the surveyed teachers said that speaking topics and speaking activities were too boring... teaching speaking skills appropriate? 3.5.1.2 What are the attitudes of teachers toward speaking topics and speaking activities introduces in the textbook “Tieng Anh 8”? In order to find out the attitudes of the teachers toward speaking topics and speaking activities introduces in the textbook “Tieng Anh 8”, firstly, question 3 was designed Question 3: How do you find speaking topics and speaking activities... important as the other language skills None of them thought that speaking was not important Thus, the teachers’ good attitudes towards English speaking classes will be very beneficial to the teaching and learning process The figure also indicates that the majority of the informants were aware of the importance of speaking skills to their students’ higher studying in the future Responding to the second... classroom to build speaking, writing, reading and listening skills Besides, storytelling is one of the most basic ways of sharing 22 knowledge, of making sense of experiences, and of seeing oneself in relation to others In the classroom, storytelling is an important activity with strong links to literacy As professional storyteller Helen Forest (2000) pointed out, storytelling can encourage students to explore... being asked what should be done to make speaking lessons more interesting, most of the informants suggested using games, using group and pair work as well as classifying students’ level of English They also thought that developing the present speaking material would improve speaking ability 67% of the teachers ticked this choice Only 50% and 33% of the surveyed teachers chose using visual aids and storytelling. .. purposes of teaching and learning speaking Besides, English teachers should make full use of them, not just to interest the students In short, all the figures above are statistically significant for understanding the teachers’ attitudes toward speaking topics and speaking materials Nevertheless, to know more about the difficulties in teaching speaking skills to students, questions 5 was designed The below ... you think of using storytelling in speaking classes for? When being asked “What are the purposes of using storytelling in teaching speaking? ”, most of the respondents (94.3 %) thought that storytelling. .. exploits storytelling in speaking lessons, are you willing to join? Question 10 was designed lastly to aim at investigating students’ willingness towards using storytelling in speaking classes...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE THI HUONG USING STORYTELLING TO DEVELOP ORAL SKIILS FOR THE 8TH GRADERS IN SPEAKING LESSONS FIELD: CODE: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY