MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: HUE, 2015 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ NGHIÊN CỨU SỬ DỤNG CÁC TÌNH HUỐNG HÀI KỊCH GIẢNG DẠY MÔN NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VINH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: HUE, 2015 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: 3/ / 2015 Signature ABSTRACT This study was set out to describe the implementation of using sitcom situation in speaking class and explore how it influences on student’s motivation, language proficiency The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in methodology A questionnaire was sent to 35 students who were at different level of English Interview data was also collected with students; in addition, observation was conducted in some classes Results highlight the complexity of How does using sitcoms make an impact on student’s motivation? And what are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills? The researcher shows that sitcoms indeed are great and useful tool for English learners and for teachers of English as well Moreover, persuasive figures in this study demonstrated the great improvement of student’s English listening and speaking proficiency after learning with sitcoms Both teacher and students found that sitcoms brought them completely new English learning experiences and they seem satisfied with the sitcoms used classes Based on the findings of the study, the research gave some discussions, conclusions and some suggestions for the future research ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been fortunate to receive invaluable help from many people during my assignment First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to DR , my teacher, for his immense encouragement, whole hearted and detailed guidance, without which the assignment could not have been completed My sincere gratitude goes to my teachers of the foreign language, Vinh University for their practical knowledge through useful guidance which helps me a lot in completing this study Without their superior knowledge and experience, the study would like in quality of outcomes, and thus their support has been essential I want to particularly express my deepest appreciation to Mr Alex Porter for his valuable suggestions and useful help I would like to show my special thanks to my students who help me a lot in giving their invaluable comments and suggestions while the work of this assignment was in progress Last but not least, I also owe my indebtedness to my family and colleagues for their kind co-operation and encouragement which help us in completion of this study Vinh, July 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ABSTRACT ACKOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Pages LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS S W : Stressed words B S I C : Stands for Before stress instruction class A S I C : After stress instruction class o : A symbol for unstressed word : A symbol for stressed word LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS 10 Sentence S.W B.S.I.C A.S.I.C 25 If the present tense of the verb to be is I am… oo00ooo 00o00 oo00ooo 00o00 oo00ooo 00o00 Table 4-23 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences Sentence S.W B.S.I.C A.S.I.C 26 Then the subjunctive tense is, If I… oo 00o00 oo 00o00 oo 00o00 Table 4-24 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences Sentence S.W B.S.I.C A.S.I.C 27 If I was oo oo oo 28 I am sorry, that’s not correct oo oo oo o oo oo oo Table 4-25 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences Sentence S.W B.S.I.C A.S.I.C 29 If I were oo oo oo 30 Very good, Boris o 0 oo o 0 Table 4-26 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences Sentence S.W B.S.I.C A.S.I.C 31 Joey are stupid o o o 0 o 32 Joey is stupid, Renata 0o0 ooo0 0o0 With the great help from Mr Alex Porter, the former lecturer of the center for continuing and adult education – American University at Cairo in the analyzing 54 process comparing the differences between students’ sentence stress before and after class, the researcher had a remarkable result and brought to a conclusion This following table summarized the results of analyzing and comparing process Table 4-27 The results of t he progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences Correct sentence stress ratio Complete correct sentence stress Before class Percentage After class Percentage 52 / 95 54,7 % 89 / 95 93,6 % 12 / 32 37,5 % 27 / 32 84,4 % The table gives information on the right correct sentence stress ratio and complete correct sentence stress before and after sitcom using class Before watching the sitcom’s scene, the researcher had students reading script and got recorded They had only 52 right stressed words out of 95 stressed words in total, on the other hand , the right stressed words in the second records was 89 The percentage of right stressed words dramatically went up with almost 39 % higher, 54.7% compared to 93.6 % The significant growth of correct sentence stress ratio caused the great changing in complete correct sentence stress as well Before class, students had only 37.5 % of the complete correct sentence stress; however, the percentage after class was much higher with 84.4 % These persuasive figures showed the great students’ sentence stress improvement In conclusion, after the results from analyzing class observation, questionnaire, discourse analysis, using sitcom in teaching speaking class had highly motivated students and highly improved student’s oral skill CHAPTER DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 55 5.1 Motivation enhancement Motivation plays a crucial role in using sitcom in speaking class; in this study the researcher identified mains factor that made a great impact on student’s motivation in class They were “active classroom interactions”, “new activities in class”, “entertaining teaching material” and “teacher’s characteristics” The researcher soon realized that the important role of creating an active and comfortable atmosphere in class, but the fact is students didn’t really enjoy doing group works, and were afraid of making presentation, because the difference of student’s levels leading to the dominant of the excellent students, and unintentionally put more boredom , shyness and pressure on lower level ones As the results, just only few good students got involved in all activities In order to change this fact, the teacher used more activities that force students to have more interaction to each other and gave students more chances to move around instead of sitting all time in class And he was succeed in changing student’s attitude toward to group work, highly motivating and creating more active, comfortable and relaxed learning environment Furthermore, students suggested that teacher’s questions based on the comedy situation were far more interesting comparing to the “dry” questions in traditional textbooks Several new activities were used in class in order to create new learning and teaching experiences, all students seemed to be more excited with the new ones in class, they were so enthusiastic and eager to join all the activities However, not all new activities were warmly welcomed by all students, teachers needed to ask student’s feedback to reuse their favorite activities, and change or adapt those not interesting enough for students ones Student would find excited dealing with the activity that provides equal duties or roles in group work, everyone has to get his job done and contribute for the whole team All students have opportunity to speak, to express, to perform; no matter how good their English is Entertaining teaching material is another factor having huge contribution in motivating student’s progress, all of them agreed that they had fun and felt 56 comfortable learning with sitcoms Although, in the context of student’s anxiety to pass FCE or IELTS to graduate from university or for abroad studying goals, sitcoms seemed not able to satisfy their academic purposes , sitcom Friends indeed offer both students and teacher great benefit such as rich contexts, relevant contents , real situations , daily languages and autonomous awareness-raising Teacher’s characteristics included teacher’s teaching style and teacher’s feedback were another decisive factors having strong influence on student’s motivation All of students confirmed that teacher’s friendly teaching style and encouraged feedbacks helped them overcome the barrier psychology to feel free to speak in class, moreover, they feel more confident and equal working with other higher level of English proficiency students in class 5.2 Teacher’s mediation Comparing to the traditional teaching method and using traditional text book, the role of the teacher in sitcoms used class is totally different He is a mediator and facilitator Teacher provides student material and guides them to get the learning, instead of “feeding” students with a certain amount of knowledge Using the different activities based on sitcoms helped students improve not only their speaking in English inside class but also develop their oral skill outside class , in other word using sitcoms in class, teacher can help student become or autonomous and take control their learning In addition, students can figure out themselves the misunderstanding of language usages and learn how to use the language in the right context, right situation Sitcoms indeed are great tool and useful strategies for students to enhance their English 5.3 Language comprehension According to Krashen (1988), “Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill 57 Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers is concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear These methods not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.” In this study, the student’s improvement in English listening and speaking proficiency was a result of the enhancing language comprehension By Using sitcoms in class, the teacher created a friendly and comfortable learning environment to reduce student’s anxieties so that they can feel more motivated and comfortable to speak in class Moreover, learning with sitcoms means, students are provided many opportunities to listening in speaking class, by watching sitcoms , students can correct their pronunciation mistakes or their misunderstanding usages themselves or by means of teacher’s mediation and explanation In order to get more information or knowledge to join the activities based on sitcoms, students need to understand the scene by doing a lot of listening in speaking class and then produce their language freely In chapter 4, the researcher provided the very persuasive figures that proved the improvement of student’s sentence stress leading the better intonation and melody in their speaking performances Furthermore, non-verbal communication was seriously considered by students, some students claimed that sitcoms taught them effectively how to use body language and facial expression in the right contexts and situations Using sitcoms in class helped students get better with the native speakers’ natural speech and keep with the faster daily life conversations 58 Although oral training is the top priority in speaking class, listening and speaking should be integrated to enhance student’s English listening and speaking proficiency 5.4 Suggestion for future research One of the limitations of this study is the researcher didn’t distinguish more proficient students from less proficient ones, as the result when he came to the conclusion he was not able to show the improvement of low proficiency students Based on this limitation, the researcher suggests that placement tests will be necessary for the future research Moreover, in this study, the researcher only showed the enhancement of student’s sentence stress and he just only had group to the recording, the results may not give the comprehensive view of student’s improvement In the future, the researcher should more discourse analysis in term of pronunciation and provide more samples In addition, the researcher mentioned one of the biggest benefits that using sitcoms in class was developing student’s autonomy, but he did not go deeper Autonomy would be a potential factor for the future researcher to deepen Last but not least, sitcoms indeed is a great tool for English learners, using sitcoms in grammar class, 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Yes / No and Why? _ _ Do you think you have a strong dialect accent? Yes / No Do you want to sound like a native speaker? Yes / No How often you speak in speaking class? Never seldom sometimes always How you practice speaking outside of class? _ _ How many hours you spend speaking in English outside of class per week? (Circle one) Never 1-2 hours 3-4 hours 5-6 hours 7+ hours Do you like watching English Movies? Yes/ No and Why? _ _ How often you watch English movies with English subtitles? Never seldom sometimes every day Do you think English movies can help you learn English better? Yes / No 10 What can you learn from movies? _ _11 Do you know what sitcom is? Yes / No 12 Have you ever used sitcoms as tool of learning English? Yes / Not yet 65 APPENDIX B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS How you think about the use of sitcoms in spoken English class? Do you think those activities based on sitcoms used in class help you interact and communicate more with your friends? Do you have suggestions or recommendations about the activity or content of the lesson? Will you be interested in watching sitcoms or another TV shows in English after these classes? 66 APPENDIX C Demographic information After course Questionnaire How you think about the use of sitcoms in a spoken class? what are the advantages and disadvantages of using sitcoms in teaching spoken English comparing to using traditional textbooks? Among those activities that you have got involved in, which one is the most interesting and which one is the most difficult? Why? What did you learn from those sitcoms activities? How did those ones help you improve your oral skills? 67 How did the teacher’s teaching style and feedbacks affect on your motivation in class? Do you have any suggestions or recommendations about the activity or content of the lessons? 68 [...]... of English with real daily life conversations, sitcoms are one of the most effective tools help students to learn pragmatics in a context According to Markéta Hlozková “pragmatics deals with the ways of people’s communication and interpretation of intensions It also focuses on ways of appropriate use of the language in various situations depending on relationship between the participants, the setting... as follows 1 Preactional stage First, motivation needs to be generated – the motivational dimension related to this initial phase can be referred to as choice motivation, because the generated motivation leads to the selection of the goal or task that the individual will pursue 2 Actional stage Second, the generated motivation needs to be actively maintained and protected while the particular action... reading for pleasure because they are likely to contain topics of interest to learners, especially if students are given the chance to have a say about the topics of kinds of authentic materials to be used in class 2.2 Motivation Peacock said that “for this study ‘motivation’ is defined… [as] interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class; persistence with the learning task, as indicated... Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications ) FIGURE 2.2 A Process Model of L2 Learning Motivation There are 3 stages in a process model of L2 Learning Motivation, preactional stage, actional stage and postactional stage They are viewed in two dimensions: Actions sequence and Motivational Influences The action sequence was elaborated by Dornyei and Otto (1998)... levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment” Needless to say, the motivation factor is one of the key justifications for the use of authentic texts for language learning 2.2.1 Gardner's motivation theory Traditionally, motivation is distinguished as stemming from as desire either to integrate with the target language community (integrative motivation)... data analysis in qualitative research involves the researcher in an inductive process of organizing data in categories and identifying patterns” The data in this study were analyzed as follows: Firstly, the researcher read through all the observational field notes, interview transcripts, and questionnaires and then grouped in to several broader categories Finally, the researcher offered explanation,... lessons were taught, after 3 weeks, the researcher soon had remarkable results 4.1 Learner Motivation After analyzing class observation, interviews and questionnaires, the researcher identified 4 factors which have great impact on the student’s motivation in these sitcoms - speaking class They are “Active classroom interactions” “New activities in class and evaluation”, “Entertaining Teaching Material”,... body language, postures, gestures, facial expression and eye contact will be introduced simultaneously with the language by the face to face conversation scenes in sitcoms Thanks to it, students can learn how to produce the conversations and use non-verbal communication as native speakers Markéta Hlozková states that “thanks to watching sitcoms, learners of English also realize that a casual dialogue... quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things, qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things Bawden (1990) defines qualitative data as studying the behavior of individuals in all the complexity of their real-life situations In contrast to quantitative data, qualitative data does not simply count things,... utilize the latest technology to facilitate language learning, can teach direct observation of paralinguistic features found in association with the target language, can be used to help when training students in ESP related scenarios and language, can offer a visual reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the skill of listening” At the workshop “ Short and sweet: using ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY... down Students are supposed to dub voices of the characters in a convincing way Their tasks are to play with their voices, intonation and articulation” Besides voices, intonation and articulation,... with the ways of people’s communication and interpretation of intensions It also focuses on ways of appropriate use of the language in various situations depending on relationship between the participants,