USING STORY TELLING TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCES FOR 10 GRADERS STUDENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦN ĐÌNH THANH USING STORY-TELLING TO ENHANCE SPEAKING PERFORMANCES FOR 10 GRADERS STUDENTS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Ngơ Đình Phương, Assoc Prof., Dr Nghệ An, 2017 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I, Tran Dinh Thanh, certify my authority of the Study Project Report entitled “USING STORY-TELLINGTO ENHANCE SPRAKING PERFORMANCES FOR 10th GRADERS STUDENTS” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Tran Dinh Thanh Nghe An, 2017 ABSTRACTS Mastering students’ oral communication is one of the ultimate goals of foreign language teaching in recent years However, in the reality, the teachers and students from Le Loi high school have problems in teaching and learning English speaking This research was carried out to examine how the speaking skill of 10 th graders at Le Loi high school can be improved through using story-telling activities, and investigating the students’ attitudes toward using story-telling activities in teaching and learning English and the use of story-telling by teachers in teaching speaking skill as well The findings of study showed that story-telling is an effective teaching technique which should be widely exploited in teaching and learning English speaking to enhance 10th graders’ speaking performance In short, it is hoped that this thesis will help to improve the teaching and studying of speaking skill at Le Loi high school ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS During the process of conducting this research thesis, I have been blessed to receive supports and assistance from numerous individuals And the research thesis would not have been completed without the support of my supervisor, my lecturers, my colleagues, my students and my family members First of and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ngơ Đình Phương, whose expert guidance, vast knowledge of educational research and teaching experience greatly supported me during the time I carried out the thesis I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, Vinh University Their sincere support and considerations have enabled me to pursue and finish the course I would also like to thank all the teachers at Le Loi high school who kindly helped me to answer the survey questionnaire and give practical solutions Appreciation is also extended to 90 10 th graders students at Le Loi high school for their patience and prompt responses to the questionnaires Last but not least, I would like to thank, with all my heart, my family for encouraging me to fulfill this thesis successfully TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF CHARTS LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study These days, people increasingly demand to have more than one language Language as a magic tool for communication plays an essential role in our daily activities Without communication, we will be left behind And it is its significant role as the international language that makes English becomes more and more crucial in the context of globalization Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to meet students' needs for effective communication Communication in foreign language is considered as a bridge to get information, knowledge, and culture 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 in spite of teachers’ efforts to supply students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, teaching and learning speaking effectively is quite a problem to both teachers and students at various schools in Vietnam At Le Loi High school, the situation is the same Up to now, most of the students at Le Loi high school still have difficulties in learning English in general and in speaking in particular They always think speaking is hard work and not enjoyable Hence, when the teachers ask them to practice speaking, they are not brave enough to speak up, especially in front of the class Sometimes, they also feel anxious and less confident about their speaking, pronunciation, or grammar For most students, they find speaking especially important yet most challenging one It also seems to the writer that the techniques exploited during a speaking activity such as: storytelling, simulations, discussions, etc are not always really effective Therefore, it is useful to implement story-telling technique in improving students’ speaking competence By implementing story-telling, there are many benefits for teachers and students, such as improving students’ vocabulary, improving students’ self-confidence, promoting students’ ability to pick appropriate words, etc Hopefully, through this writing, teachers who are concerned with students’ weakness in their speaking can recognize the effective way to improving students’ speaking competence It is the reasons mentioned above that urge me to discuss it in my presentation today The reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a research entitled "Using story-telling to enhance speaking performances for 10 th graders students." 1.2 Aims of the study The study is conducted with the aim of investigating the use of story-telling activities in speaking lessons at Le Loi high school In details, the aims of the study are: - Exploring the attitudes of students at Le Loi high school towards applying storytelling to speaking lessons - Investigating the use of story-telling activities by teachers at Le Loi high school in teaching speaking to 10th graders - Drawing several implications from the research 1.3 Scope of the study Among numerous techniques of teaching speaking, the study focuses specifically on using story-telling in enhancing speaking performances for t h graders students at L e L o i H i g h school Therefore, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 90 students from classes of grade 10 in the context of Le Loi high school 1.4 Significance of the study The research is a great attempt to investigate the effectiveness of storytelling activities in enhancing speaking performances for 10 th graders students at Le Loi high school Once completed, it will be a useful source for those who are teachers of English at high schools Moreover, this study provides teachers at Le Loi high school with suggestions to apply story-telling activities successfully Thus, the results of the research will make a great contribution to the improvement of teaching speaking skill for students at high schools The result of this study is expected to enable students to improve their English speaking competence At the same time, the study supplies the English language teachers with further understanding of speaking skill and storytelling in terms of types, advantages when employing them 1.5 Methods of the study With the aim of addressing the research questions, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaire and classroom observation Firstly, for its versatility and straightforward data processing, the survey questionnaire was employed to quickly collect data from a large number of participants Secondly, 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 of the study, the aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, methods of the study, and organization of the study are presented Chapter is the Literature Review In this part, theoretical background related to the study: speaking skills and story-telling are discussed Chapter is the Methodology This part presents the research question, study setting, participants, materials and procedures of data collection Chapter is Findings and Discussions This chapter is by far the most dominant one which provides an analysis of the data as well as the interpretation of the results Chapter is the Conclusion which summarizes the findings, and pedagogical implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are provided in this part References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study 10 integrating story-telling activities in speaking lessons will make a great contribution to the success of a speaking lesson as well as students’ speaking competence 4.2.3 Data analysis from class observation (Please refer to Appendix 5: Checklist for classroom observation) Based on four class observations of the researcher, it was clearly seen that there was a considerable improvement of the students’ motivation and speaking performance More and more students were willing to participate in speaking English without any forces from the teachers Also, students became more and more active and confident in doing story-telling activities and they had more strong motivation of speaking English in class The number of students who were passive in speaking lessons and afraid of speaking English in front of the class decreased considerably In addition, through story-telling activities, students used more the target language (English) than the mother tongue Using the mother tongue only existed in the small number of students Also, using story-telling activities individually, in pairs or groups increased students’ interaction ability with other students In terms of students’ speaking performance, it can be seen that though some of the students still made some mistakes including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency, the number of those who did had reduced To sum up, story-telling activities are a useful technique in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performances 4.2.4 Discussion from Phase The findings of the second phase clearly showed that the use of story-telling activities in speaking classes had significantly contributed to both the improvement of the students’ motivation and their speaking performance Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that the students’ speaking skills had improved considerably after implementing story-telling activities in speaking lessons Thus, it is clear that story-telling activities should be applied in teaching speaking skills for 10 th graders at Le Loi high school 51 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Conclusion This study focused on using story-telling activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders at Le Loi high school Basing on the result of the analysis of the data, it is proven that there is much improvement of students’ motivation as well as performance in speaking lessons using story-telling activities From the findings of the study, research questions were respectively dealt with Regarding to research question “What are the attitudes of students at Le Loi high school towards using story-telling activities in a speaking lesson?” the findings from the students’ survey questionnaire showed that most of the students had positive attitudes toward using story-telling activities in speaking lessons The students enjoyed doing story-telling activities in front of the class They became more confident and actively involved in speaking lessons Story-telling activities help students lower anxiety and develop confidence They felt relaxed and enjoyable during their speaking performance Surprisingly, the use of mother tongue decreased considerably Understanding the effectiveness of story-telling activities, the majority of students expected that story-telling should be integrated in speaking lessons With regard to research question “How teachers of English at Le Loi high school teach speaking to 10th graders students with story-telling activities?”, the findings showed that the majority of the teachers were aware of the importance of story-telling as an effective technique to enhance students’ motivation and speaking performance Despite the fact that there are numerous ways to motivate students to take part in story-telling activities, teachers should consider appropriate ways for different 52 students at different levels All of the teachers suggested that giving students useful suggestions related to the topic and clear instructions before story-telling were effective ways to motivate students to take part in story-telling activities In the context of high school, they seldom let students choose topics themselves to discuss and the partners to work with To prepare for story-telling activities, teachers suggested that they should provide students with background information on the topic and pre-teach necessary vocabulary and structures In addition, the best time to implement story-telling activities in speaking lessons was while- speaking stage and post-speaking stage Besides, individual work, pair work or group work are ways used by teachers to organize story-telling activities in speaking lesson Teachers should use peer correction and teacher correction in giving feedback on students’ doing story-telling activities Self-correction was also a kind of technique used in giving feedback on students’ performance It can be concluded that self-correction, peer correction, and teacher correction can be used; however, the frequency in using each type of correction technique should be varied As for research question “In what ways story-telling activities enhance speaking performance of 10th graders students at Le Loi high school?”, from the findings of the study, it can be concluded that not only the students’ speaking performance but also their motivation had improved significantly from the first phase to the second one All students and teachers agreed that story-telling activities should be integrated in speaking lessons In conclusion, story-telling activities are really an effective teaching technique which should be widely recognized and exploited in teaching and learning English speaking to 10th graders students’ speaking skills 5.2 Pedagogical implications The success in teaching does not depend on the lesson program only, but more important is how the teacher presents the lesson and uses various techniques to manage 53 the class livelier and enjoyable Regarding to the teaching speaking by using storytelling, the writer gives some suggestions for the teacher and students as follows: For the teacher: The teacher should choose the materials that are appropriate and not too difficult for the students A well-planned lesson is always necessary to contribute to the effectiveness of story-telling activities Teachers should consider the main points in their lesson plans when deciding to choose any story-telling activities: the purpose of the activity, the length of the lesson and students’ ability Before assigning the story-telling to the students, the teacher should give the instructions simply to make sure that the students have fully understood and have the information they need In addition, instructions should not be too long and easy to understand Before doing story-telling, teachers should provide students with linguistic preparation such as vocabulary, structures or patterns that students need to carry out the task and also some useful strategies for expressing ideas or opinions When students are working in pairs and groups, the teacher should keep control the students’ activities The teacher should present the language in an enjoyable, relaxed and understandable way Teachers should give corrective feedback on students’ performance at the end of the task to avoid distracting students The role of the teacher Some of the possible teacher roles are: - Facilitator: Students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage 54 - Spectator: The teacher watches the story-telling and offers comments and advice at the end - Participant: It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the storytelling yourself For the students: The students are hoped not to be shy in presenting their stories The students are hoped to be active and creative in enriching their vocabularies The students are hoped to use English when they practice story-telling activities although it is hard for them The students should take part much in doing story-telling The students should ask the teacher if there is something that they don’t understand regarding to the story-telling activities 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies Despite the researcher’s great efforts to find out the use of story-telling in teaching speaking skill to 10th graders at Le Loi high school, due to the limitation of time and experience, mistakes and limits are unavoidable in this study The first limitation is about the population of the study The subjects of the study were only 90 10th graders students at Le Loi high school So, further studies should also investigate into the larger subjects Secondly, due to the limitation of time the researcher could not recheck the effectiveness of story-telling activities in this paper Therefore, to get a more reliable and complete result further studies may combine different tools for data collection like pre-test, post-test and proficiency tests as research instruments which help to accurately assess the students’ speaking ability before and using story-telling activities respectively Finally, the researcher carried out the study with the hope to find out the use of story-telling to develop speaking skill Further studies should have a deeper insight into 55 the exploitation of others communicative activities to develop speaking skill REFERENCES Aiex, N K (1998), Story-telling: Its wide-Ranging Impact in the Classroom, [ED: 299 574] Alvey, R.G (1974), The Historical Development of Organized Story-telling to Children in the United States, PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania Andrews, Dee, Hull, Donahue (September 2009), Story-telling as an Instructional Method: Descriptions and Research Question, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=ijpbl, 26/10/2009 Bachman, L., & Palmer, A S (1996) Language Testing in Practice Oxford: Oxford University Press Baker.R and Greene.M(1985), Storytelling: Art and Technique, Longman London Bill Wren (2010), Story-telling, classifications and definitions Bloch, J (2010), Digital story-telling: The second language writing classroom, In Office of the chief information officer (paragraph 10), Retrieved 23-03-2011 Brice, R.G (2004) Connecting oral and written language through applied writing strategies Intervention in School and Clinic 40(1): 38–47 Byrne, D (1986) Teaching Oral English: England: Longman Bygate, M (1997), Speaking, Oxford University Press Bygate, M (1987), Language teaching: A scheme for teacher education, speaking, Oxford University Press Chaney, A L., and T L Burk 1998 Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 56 Boston: Allyn & Bacon Coconi,A 2013 [Online] Available http://www.ehow.com/info_8771474_typesstorytelling.html [ June 11 2014] Cooper, P (1989), Using story-telling to teach oral communication competencies, K12 Paper presents in the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association (75#, San Francisco, CA), [ED: 314 798] Cooter, R B (1991) Storytelling in the language arts classroom Reading Research and Instruction, 30(2), 71–76 Doff, A (1998) Teach English: A training Course for Teacher Cambridge University Press Ellis, R & Barkhuizen, G (2005) Analyzing Learner Language Oxford: Oxford: Oxford University Press Handayani, Heny (2010) Story Telling Can Improve Speaking Ability for Beginner Unpublished Thesis Bogor: University of IBN Khaldun Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching (Third Edition ed.) London: Pearson Education Limited Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and learning in the language classroom New York: Oxford University Press Helen Forest (2000) Story-telling in the Classroom, retrieved from http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/index.html, 15/ 2/ 2013 Helen McKay, Berice Dudley (1996), About Story-telling, Published by Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, Australia Koki, Stan (1998), Story-telling: the heart and soul of education, [ED: 426 398] Krashen, S D (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition New York: Pergamon Press McDonough, J and McDonough, S (1997) Research Methods for English Language Teachers London: Arnold National Story-telling Network, What 57 is Story-telling? retrieved from http://www.storynet.org/resources/whatisstory-telling.html Nation, I S P., & Newton, J (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series Routledge Taylor & Francis Group Plourde, Lynn 1985 CLAS: Classroom Listening and Speaking: K-2 Tucson, Arizona: Communication Skill Builders Retrieved from [ED 275 099; not available from EDRS] Thornbury, Scott (2005), How to teach speaking, Harlow, England: Longman 2005 Wright, A (1995), Story-telling with children, Oxford University Press Zobairi, N & Gulley, B (1989), The told tale: Oral story-telling and the young children, [ED: 319 517] 58 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR STUDENTS This survey is designed to collect information about the real condition of the classroom problems in the English teaching and learning process at Le Loi high school I am grateful for your cooperation in completing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option What you think about the importance of learning speaking skill at high school? A Very important B Important C Not very important How much are you interested in learning speaking skills? A Very much B Not very much C Not at all Which language you often use in speaking lessons? A Using English only B Using more English than Vietnamese C Using more Vietnamese than English D Using Vietnamese only What is your opinion about your speaking competence? A Poor B Average D Very good E Excellent C Good How can you evaluate speaking activities in the textbook English 10? A Difficult B Difficult but interesting C Interesting D Easy To what extent you know about the term “story-telling”? 59 A It is an activity in which students are put in the real situations B It is an activity that provide students with the chances to practice speaking in a creative way C Both of them D No idea Thank you for your co-operation! APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR TEACHERS This survey is designed to collect information about the real condition of the classroom problems in the English teaching and learning process at Le Loi high school I am grateful for your cooperation in completing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option What you think about the importance of teaching speaking skill at high school? A Very important B Important C Not very important What is your opinion about your students’ speaking competence? A Poor B Average C Good D Very good E Excellent How can you evaluate speaking activities in the textbook English 10? A Difficult B Difficult but interesting C Interesting D Easy How often are story-telling activities organized in your speaking lessons? A Always B Usually 60 C Sometimes D Seldom E Never Thank you for your co-operation! APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed and conducted to find out students’ attitudes towards applying or using story-telling activities in speaking lessons to developing speaking skills for the students I am grateful for your co-operation in finishing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussions of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option Do you like doing story-telling activities in your speaking lessons? A Yes B No How you feel while you are doing story-telling activities? A Very excited B Excited C Bored C Nothing Which language you use in story-telling activities? A Using English only B Using more English than Vietnamese C Using more Vietnamese than English D Using Vietnamese only Do you think using story-telling activities in English speaking classes can help 61 improve your speaking skills? A Yes B No How can story-telling activities help motivate you in the speaking lesson? A Story-telling activities lower anxiety and develop confidence B Story-telling activities give me chances to practice actual situations in real life C Story-telling allows me to interact with other members in class D Story-telling makes them feel relaxed and enjoyable How can you evaluate your improvement in speaking competence after using storytelling activities in speaking lesson? A Very much B A little C Not at all Should story-telling activities be integrated in speaking lessons? A Yes B No Thank you for your co-operation! 62 APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed and conducted to investigate the use of storytelling by teachers to teach speaking skill and teachers’ evaluation towards applying or using story-telling activities in speaking lessons to enhancing speaking competence for the students I am grateful for your co-operation in finishing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussions of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option In your opinion, how important are story-telling activities in motivating speaking competence for students? A Very important B Important C Not important at all How can you motivate your students to take part in story-telling activities in speaking lessons? A Let students choose topics themselves to discuss B Be a role model to your students C Give students some useful suggestions related to the topic D Give students clear instructions before story-telling E Others How you prepare for story-telling activities for your students? A Design suitable story-telling activities for students 63 B Provide students with background information on the topic C Pre-teach necessary vocabulary and structures D Prepare authentic materials and teaching aids When is the best time for teachers to story-telling activities in speaking lessons? A Warm up B Pre- speaking C While- speaking D Post- speaking How you organize your class for doing story-telling activities? A Divide the class into pairs or individuals B Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students C Either Which kind of correction techniques you often use in giving feedback on your students’ doing story-telling activities? A Self-correction B Peer correction C Teacher correction D All of them How can you evaluate your students’ improvement in speaking competence after using story-telling activities in speaking lesson? A Very much B A little C Not at all Should story-telling activities be integrated in speaking lessons? A Yes B No Thank you for your co-operation! 64 APPENDIX 5: CHECKLIST FOR CLASSROOM OBSERVATION Class: …………………………………………………… Date: ……………………………………………………… Unit: ……………………………………………………… Lesson: …………………………………………………… Teacher in charge: ……………………………………… No Teaching & Learning Behavior Yes The students’ motivation and speaking competence improve considerably Most students have confidence to learn the speaking skill in the classroom During speaking classroom students use their mother tongue more Most of the students show their interest to learn the speaking skill Most of the teachers agreed that the best time to implement story-telling activities in speaking lessons was while- speaking stage Teachers use appropriate to solve students’ lack of motivation in the classroom Most students participate in the speaking lesson Most of the teachers consider providing students with useful suggestions related to the topic and clear instructions before story-telling Although some of the students still made some mistakes including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency, the number of those who did had reduced 10 The majority of students admitted that using story-telling activities in English speaking classes can help improve their speaking skills 65 No ... story- telling 2.2.4 Advantages of using story- telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students Opening a lesson with a story may put the students at ease and allow them to. .. it in my presentation today The reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a research entitled "Using story- telling to enhance speaking performances for 10 th graders students. " 1.2 Aims of... story- telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students 26 The first advantage that can be cited is story- telling gains the students? ?? attention It enables the students to be exposed to