HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT NGUYEN THI THANH HUONG USING SHORT ACTIVITIES AND GAMES IN THE POST- SPEAKING STAGE TO INCREASE GRADE 11A4 STUDENTS’ INTERETS AT CHAN MONG HIGH CHOOL, PHU THO PROVINCE THE GRADUATION PAPER Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Phu Tho, 2015 i HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HƯỜNG USING SHORT ACTIVITIES AND GAMES IN THE POST- SPEAKING STAGE TO INCREASE GRADE 11A4 STUDENTS’ INTERETS AT CHAN MONG HIGH CHOOL, PHU THO PROVINCE (Sử dụng các hoạt động và trò chơi ngắn ở phần cuối bài dạy kỹ năng nói nhằm tăng hứng thú học tập cho sinh lớp 11A4 trường THPT Chân Mộng, tỉnh Phú Thọ) THE GRADUATION PAPER Field: English Language Teaching Methodology SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI VAN YEN, MA Phú Thọ, 2015 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me great help during the completion of my study. Firstly, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to my supervisor: Mrs. Hoang Thi Van Yen whose precious advice and detailed critical comment have been of great assistance to me to do this study. I am great indebted for her enthusiasm and encouragement. Without her help, this study would not have possibly been completed. Secondly, I would like to thank all the lectures, teachers, and staff at Hung Vuong University, especially those in Department of Foreign Languages who have created favorable conditions for me to study and write the graduation paper. Finally, I would like to express my great appreciation to my family, my dear friends for their support and encouragement throughout this study. Viet Tri, April 2014 Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale 1 2. Previous research 2 3. Research purpose 3 4. Research question 3 5. Research methods 3 6. Significance of the study 4 7. Scope of the study 4 8. Structure of the study 4 PART B: MAJOR CONTENT 5 Chapter 1: Literature review 5 1.1. The nature of spoken language 5 1.1.1. The speaker 5 1.1.2. The listener 5 1.1.3. The utterances 5 1.2. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the importance of speaking skill 5 1.3. Stages of teaching speaking 6 1.3.1. Pre- speaking stage 6 1.3.2. While- speaking stage 6 1.3.3. Post- speaking stage 7 1.4. Motivation 7 1.4.1. Definition 7 1.4.2. Motivation in classroom setting 7 1.5. Speaking activities 8 1.5.1. Factors of a successful speaking activity 8 1.5.2. Problem with speaking activities 9 1.5.3. Solutions to the problems with speaking activities 10 1.6. Short activities and games 11 1.6.1. The role of short activities and games in language teaching and learning process 11 1.6.2. Principles of using short activities and games in speaking class 2 1.6.3. Common types of short activities and games used for the post- speaking stage 12 Chapter 2: Methodology 16 2.1. Overview of the survey 16 2.1.1. Aims of the survey 16 2.1.2. Participants and setting 16 2.2. Description of the questionnaire surveys 17 2.2.1. Teacher’s survey 18 2.2.2. Students’ survey 18 iv 2.3. Description of the experimental teaching speaking lessons 19 2.4. Data collection and analysis 21 2.4.1. The results and analysis from teachers’ questionnaire survey 21 2.4.2. The results and analysis from students’ questionnaire survey number 1 25 2.4.3. The results and analysis from students’ questionnaire survey number 2 29 Chapter 3- Recommendations and suggestions for using short activities and games in the post- speaking stage 35 3.1. Some recommendations for using short activities and games in the post- speaking stage 35 3.1.1. The selection of activities and games 35 3.1.2. Time 35 3.1.3. Preparation 35 3.1.4. Physical arrangement 36 3.1.5. Management 36 3.1.6. Short activities and rules of games’ instructions 37 3.1.7. Correction 37 3.2. Some suggested short activities and games to increase students’ interests in the post- speaking stage 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 1. Main findings 41 2. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 42 3. Conclusion 42 REFFERENCES 43 APPENDIXES v LIST OF TABLES List of tables Page Table 2.1: The teachers’ attitude toward speaking skill 21 Table 2.2: The teachers’ attitude toward the post- speaking stage 21 Table 2.3: Teachers’ spending time on the post- speaking stage 23 Table 2.4: Difficulties of teaching the post- speaking stage 23 Table 2.5: The frequency of using short activities or games in the post- speaking stage 23 Table 2.6: Kinds of short activities or games used in the post- speaking stage 24 Table 2.7: The students’ attitude toward speaking skill 25 Table 2.8: Students’ attitude toward speaking lesson 26 Table 2.9: The students’ views toward the post- speaking stage 26 Table 2.10: The reasons which make students less interested in class 27 Table 2.11: The frequency of taking part in the short activities or games in the post- speaking stage 28 Table 2.12: The Level of the Students’ familiarity with each short activity or game 28 Table 2.13: Students’ opinions about the goals of using short activities and games in the post- speaking stage 29 Table 2.14: Students’ interest in the experimental teaching lessons 30 Table 2.15: Students’ attitude toward the short activities and games 30 Table 2.16: The benefits of using short activities and games in the post– speaking stage 31 Table 2.17: Students’ views about the effectiveness of the short activities and games used in the post- speaking stage 32 vi Table 2.18: The degree of students’ interest with each short activity or game 33 Table 2.19: Students’ opinions about whether teacher should use short activities and games in the post- speaking or not. 33 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching ESL English as a Second Language vii ABSTRACT Nowdays, English is considered as international language, which is spoken by millions of people all over the world. The needs to use English to communicate verbally are essential and increase more and more. Speaking skill plays an important role in communication. However, teaching speaking skill in High school in general and in grade 11A4 at Chan Mong High school in particular seem to have some obstacles. This graduation paper studies the real situation of using some short activities and games to increase grade 11A4 students’ interest at Chan Mong High school. The target of this study is to investigate the current situation of the post- peaking stage at Chan Mong High school and to study the effects of using short activities and games and then make some suggestions and implications to intergrade short activities and games into the post- speaking stage of speaking lesson. This study is conducted on 6 English teachers and 36 students in grade 11A4 at Chan Mong High school, all needed data was collected through a series of questionnaire surveys before and after the experimental teaching speaking lessons. It is hoped that this thesis will be useful for teachers and students at Chan Mong High school in learning and teaching the post- speaking stage. 1 PART1 A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English nowadays has become a required subject of all study levels in Vietnam. Among four language skills, speaking is regarded as the most important one for face-to-face communication. However, there is a fact that both the teachers and the students have not paid enough attention to speaking skill. In a speaking lesson, teachers often focus more on the pre- and the while- speaking stages than the post- speaking stage. As a result, the students’ interests are reduced at the end of the lesson. Additionally, motivation is perhaps the key that leads to consecutive success in the learning process, especially in second language achievement. So, maintaining the students’ interest during the lesson is very important. If the students do not have motivation, they cannot get the best result from learning. Usually, the students have more interest at the beginning of the lesson. After doing many exercises and taking part in speaking activities in the pre- speaking and while- speaking stage, the students often feel tired, even bored in the post- speaking stage. Therefore, motivation in the post- speaking stage is very important for speaking lessons. Short activities and games are supposed to increase the students’ interest in the post-speaking stage. But in fact, many teachers still do not highly appreciate the importance of short activities and games in the post- speaking. In addition, they lack effective ways to motivate the language learners. However, this study does not aim at measuring students’ motivation in learning speaking but helps increase their interests in speaking lessons through short activities and games in the post- speaking stage. These above reasons have motivated the author to conduct this study with the hope that this study will provide teachers of English in general and teachers at Chan Mong High School in particular a better understanding of using short activities and games in the post-speaking stage. In addition, the study is carried out with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking at Chan Mong High School. 2 2. Previous studies 2.1 In the world Nunan (1991) conducts the research about the issues in studying speaking skill of today's students and suggests the existing methods to enhance speaking skills of elementary level students. It also discovers the reasons of unwillingness to communicate and the ways to overcome the language barrier. The study by Wright and Buck (1990) shows that learning process does not only happen between students and teachers but also between students and students. In the classroom, the teacher must create the situation that can encourage communication. Games are some of the techniques that can be applied in teaching speaking because they are possible activities that give students feeling of freedom to express themselves. Games are also useful to encourage students to interact with each other orally. Kayi (2006) studies activities to enhance speaking in a second language in University of Nevada. The author recommends a lot of activities that can be used to improve students’ interest in speaking lessons. He suggested that using of different activities in teaching and learning foreign language is the most effective way to motivate students to speak. 2.2. In Viet Nam Luu (2010) investigates factors affecting motivation in speaking English of the grade 10 students. She considers some aspects such as types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students at high school, factors affecting students’ motivation in speaking English, activities and techniques applied by teachers and students, some suggested solutions for teachers to encourage students speaking and to overcome the difficulties they face with in teaching speaking. Pham (2009) investigate the ways to organize activities and create English environment in classroom for the learners. The study also finds out how we can achieve the goal of effectiveness when applying language games in teaching and learning English. In addition, the writer also suggests some activities and games that can be used in teaching speaking English speaking skill effectively. Nguyen (2011) suggests that teachers should be more active in using classroom activities to help students recover lexical language items. Some of the [...]... of the teachers and the students in Chan Mong High school towards speaking skill in general and in the post- speaking stage in particular, the author gains an insight into the real situation of teaching speaking Then, the author makes an effort to integrate short activities and games into speaking lessons at Chan Mong High School with the hope to increase students interests in speaking lesson The. .. school Frequency of using short activities and games the post- speaking stage Teachers’attitude toward the effect of games or short activities in the postspeaking stage Teachers’attitude in using short activities and games in the post speaking stage 2.2.2 Students survey Most students in grade 1 1A4 at Chan Mong High school come from rural areas of Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province so they don’t have... both the teachers and students there Thirdly, the author uses short activities and games to teach speaking lessons at Chan Mong High School to evaluate the effectiveness of short activities and games Finally, the author conducts the second survey to investigate the effects of short activities and games in the post- speaking stage of speaking lesson 6 The significance of the study By investigating the attitudes... stage? Students in grade 1 1A4 also express their opinion of using short activities and game in the post- speaking stage: Table 2.13: Students opinions about the goals of using short activities and game in the post- speaking stage (%) Students opinion about the goals of using short activities and games For studying only For teaching only For both teaching and studying Time covering Data 13.9% 11. 1% 55.6%... above, the thesis has been done with the aims to: •Investigate the real situation of teaching speaking skill at Chan Mong High school •Study the effects of using short activities and games in the post- speaking stage at Chan Mong High school •Make some suggestions and implications to integrate short activities and games into post- speaking stage of speaking lesson 4 Research questions The study aims to. .. on the following areas: Students attitude toward speaking skill, speaking lesson and the postspeaking stage The reasons why students are less interested in the speaking lesson Students frequency of taking part in the short activities or games in the post- speaking stage Degree of students familiarity with the type of short activities and games Students opinions about the goals of using short activities. .. post- speaking stage The effectiveness of using short activities and games in the post- speaking stage Students opinions about the effectiveness of the short activities and games used in the post- speaking stage The degree of students interest with each type of short activities and games Students opinions whether teacher should use short activities and games in the post- speaking stage or not 2.3... therefore, is expected to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skill at Chan Mong High school 7 The Scope of the study The study focuses on using of short activities and games in the postspeaking stage to increase grade 1 1A4 students interest at Chan Mong High school, Phu Tho Province 8 Structure of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: PART A: INTRODUCTION... answer the following questions: • What are the teachers and students attitudes towards the post- speaking stage and speaking skill in Chan Mong High school? • How do short activities and games in the post- speaking stage work in English speaking classes at Chan Mong High school? 5 Methodology 5.1 Research Methods To carry out the study, the following methods have been used: Investigating methods: The. .. that short activities and games should be used to increase students interest in the post- speaking stage They offer many reasons for this opinion Firstly, their students are often only interested at the beginning of the lesson Students interest is often reduced at the end of the lesson Secondly, using short activities and games will help students summarize the main points of the lesson in interesting . NGUYEN THI THANH HUONG USING SHORT ACTIVITIES AND GAMES IN THE POST- SPEAKING STAGE TO INCREASE GRADE 1 1A4 STUDENTS INTERETS AT CHAN MONG HIGH CHOOL, PHU THO PROVINCE THE GRADUATION PAPER Field:. general and in the post- speaking stage in particular, the author gains an insight into the real situation of teaching speaking. Then, the author makes an effort to integrate short activities and games. teaching and learning speaking skill at Chan Mong High school. 7. The Scope of the study The study focuses on using of short activities and games in the post- speaking stage to increase grade 11A4