VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ NGA A STUDY ON ADAPTING TASKS IN ENGLISH ON THE BASIS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR STUDENTS AT MINH KHAI SECONDARY SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THEO HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP CHO HỌC SINH TẠI TRƯỜNG THCS MINH KHAI, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ NGA A STUDY ON ADAPTING TASKS IN ENGLISH ON THE BASIS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR STUDENTS AT MINH KHAI SECONDARY SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THEO HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP CHO HỌC SINH TẠI TRƯỜNG THCS MINH KHAI, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Nguyen Xuan Thom, Ph.D Hanoi, 2014 ii DECLARATION I declare that the thesis “Adapting tasks in English on the basis of communicative language teaching for students at Minh Khai Secondary School, Hoai Duc, Ha Noi” represents my own work in the fulfillment for the Degree of Master of Teaching English to Speaker of Other Language at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Ha Noi, and has not been included in any thesis submitted to any other university or institution for a degree, diploma or other qualifications Signature Nguyen Thi Nga i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is never the work of my own, but the contributions of many different people in different ways I would like to express my appreciation, especially to the following: Foremost, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Nguyen Xuan Thom, Ph.D for his continuous suggestions and enormously insightful comments I could not have imagined without his enthusiasm, this thesis would have fulfilled or not My special thanks to all the teachers and students in grade at Minh Khai Secondary School for their assistance and support during the process of data collection Besides, I thank my family for their unconditional help and encouragement, both financially and emotionally during my learning process when I needed Last but not the least, my appreciation goes to two closest friends of mine, Anh Tuan and Thu Huyen, who always provided me helpful tips and advice when I was stuck to write the thesis ii ABSTRACT Textbook is considered as a really necessary tool to guide the teachers how to teach and to tell students how to study However, in the teaching context of Minh Khai Secondary School in Hoai Duc, Ha Noi, the adaptation on the basis of communicative language teaching is very essential Most students here have not known how important English is in the development of the world in general and their career future in specific yet Hardly did students have chances to learn, practice or review English lessons in practical or joyful ways because they did not like English and found the lessons monotonous or worthless, either This research, therefore, was done to help students in grade firstly, get involved the lessons as well as improve their English skills through task adaptation A preliminary survey questionnaires, which was delivered to all 86 students in grade 7, was the main implement to gather their opinions about their difficulties in using textbook and their attitudes when the teacher adapt the tasks Parallel to this instrument, the researcher also interviewed two other English teachers in this school to clarify their sentiments of task adaptation in Tiếng Anh Based on the data, the 16 adapted versions were born and pilot teaching to examine their effectiveness Through this, the unsuitable tasks were then changed to make sure to get better results for further In brief, the purpose of the research was to make a change in teaching and learning styles in this secondary school on the basis of communicative way, and the final results were 16 adapted tasks based on the 16 units in the textbook iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS  Communicative Language Teaching: CLT  Teacher: T  Students: Ss  CUP: Cambridge University Press  OUP: Oxford University Press iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES  Chart 1: The results of the placement test  Table 1: Specific results for the test  Chart 2: Students’ opinions in terms of the textbook appearances  Chart 3: Students’ opinions in terms of topics in the textbook  Chart 4: Students’ opinions in terms of vocabulary and grammar in the textbook  Chart 5: Students’ opinions in terms of tasks in the textbook  Table 2: Students’ attitudes in terms of communicative activities  Chart 6: Students’ opinions in terms of time settings per task and activity  Chart 7: Students’ opinions in terms of time distribution v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of Abbreviations iv List of figures and tables v Table of contents vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review History of the study Communicative language teaching 2.1 Definitions of Communicative language teaching (CLT 2.2 Roles of CLT in foreign language education Task adaptation 3.1 Task definition 3.2 Adaptation definition 3.3 Purposes of adaptation 3.4 Adaptation techniques Chapter 2: Methodology 10 2.1 Current context at Minh Khai Secondary School 10 1.1 Situational analysis 10 1.1.1 Settings of the study 10 vi 1.1.2 The teachers 10 1.1.3 The students 10 1.1.4 Facilities 11 1.2 Textbook analysis 11 Methods of the study 12 2.1 The participants 13 2.1.1 The teachers 13 2.1.2 The students 13 2.2 Research instruments 14 2.2.1 Instrument 1: Aptitude test 14 2.2.2 Instrument 2: Preliminary survey questionnaire 15 2.2.3 Instrument 3: Informal interview 15 2.2.4 Instrument 4: Observation sheet 16 2.3 Data collection procedure 16 2.4 Data analysis 16 2.4.1 The students’ opinions on the textbook 16 2.4.1.1 In terms of textbook appearances 16 2.4.1.2 In terms of topics 17 2.4.1.3 In terms of vocabulary and grammar 18 2.4.1.4 In terms of tasks 18 2.4.2 The students’ opinions on time 20 2.4.2.1 In terms of time settings per task and activity 20 2.4.2.2 In terms of time distribution 20 2.4.3 The teacher’s opinions on using communicative approaches 21 Chapter 3: Study results and discussion 22 What are the bases for adaptation on the basis of research results? 22 What specifically should be adapted in the textbook? 23 2.1 Unit 1: Section A, Task (page 12) 23 vii 2.2 Unit 2: Section B, Task (page 24) 24 2.3 Unit 3: Section A, Task (page 31) 24 2.4 Unit 4: Section B, Task (page 47) 25 2.5 Unit 5: Section A, Task (page 54) 25 2.6 Unit 6: Section A, Task (page 62) 26 2.7 Unit 7: Section A, Task (page 74) 26 2.8 Unit 8: Section B, Task (page 85) 27 2.9 Unit 9: Section A, Task (page 89) 27 2.10 Unit 10: Section B, Task (page 105) 28 2.11 Unit 11: Section B, Task (page 112) 29 2.12 Unit 12: Section A, Task (page 115) 29 2.13 Unit 13: Section B, Task (page 137) 30 2.14 Unit 14: Section A, Task (page 142) 30 2.15 Unit 15: Section A, Task (page 149) 31 2.16 Unit 16: Section B, Task (page 158) 31 Pilot teaching 32 PART III: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion of the whole thesis 38 Limitations 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1: Placement test I Appendix 2: Questionnaires III Appendix 3: Teachers’ interview V Appendix 4: Materials delivered to classes IX Appendix 5: Observation sheet of an English language class XV Appendix 6: Original tasks XVI viii XX Unit XXI Unit XXII Unit XXIII Unit XXIV Unit XXV XXVI 10 Unit 10 XXVII 11 Unit 11 XXVIII 12 Unit 12 XXIX XXX 13 Unit 13 XXXI 14 Unit 14 XXXII 15 Unit 15 XXXIII 16 Unit 16 XXXIV ... study However, in the teaching context of Minh Khai Secondary School in Hoai Duc, Ha Noi, the adaptation on the basis of communicative language teaching is very essential Most students here have... thesis ? ?Adapting tasks in English on the basis of communicative language teaching for students at Minh Khai Secondary School, Hoai Duc, Ha Noi? ?? represents my own work in the fulfillment for the Degree...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ NGA A STUDY ON ADAPTING TASKS IN ENGLISH ON THE BASIS OF COMMUNICATIVE