Phát triển kỹ năng nói của học sinh THPT qua chương trình giảng dạy dựa theo thuyết đa trí tuệ nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường THPT ở hà nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY NGÂN IMPROVING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES-BASED SYLLABUS: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI (Phát triển kỹ nói học sinh THPT qua chương trình giảng dạy dựa theo thuyết đa trí tuệ: Nghiên cứu hành động trường THPT Hà Nội) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY NGÂN IMPROVING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES-BASED SYLLABUS: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI (Phát triển kỹ nói học sinh THPT qua chương trình giảng dạy dựa theo thuyết đa trí tuệ: Nghiên cứu hành động trường THPT Hà Nội) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 8140231.01 SUPERVISOR: HUỲNH ANH TUẤN, PhD Hanoi, 2021 DECLARATION I, Nguyễn Thị Thùy Ngân, declare that the thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Where other sources of information have been used, they have been identified and acknowledged Hanoi, March 2021 Nguyễn Thị Thùy Ngân i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, for his valuable guidance, encouragements, comments and continuous support during my thesis writing I am also grateful to him for reading my manuscript and helping me make necessary changes I would also like to thank forty-two students of grade 11 at a high school in Hanoi Without their passionate participation and input, the research could not have been successfully conducted Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my parents, my husband, my colleagues and my friends for their continuous support and encouragement throughout my study time Hanoi, March 2021 Nguyễn Thị Thùy Ngân ii ABSTRACT According to Zafar (2012), individual learner differences in terms of age, sex, aptitude and motivation, play a crucial role in the acquisition of the second language Based on Gardner‟s “Theory of multiple intelligences”, an action research was conducted among forty-two students at a high school in Hanoi through means of questionnaires, tests, observation and interview The study aimed at investigating the extent to which the students‟ speaking skills could be enhanced through mutilple intelligences (MI) activities, students‟ attitudes towards these activities and challenges that the teacher and students encountered in the MI-based lessons The findings showed that MI activities were beneficial to help students improve their speaking competence Besides, students' interest and motivation were increased significantly during the action phase of the study Students admitted that MI activities in speaking lessons could help them retain the pronunciation faster and longer, help them enhance their vocabulary and consolidate their grammar structures Although there were some challenges such as limitation of class time, the big difference among students in terms of preferential intelligence type, both the teachers and the students renovated the activities and got beneficial results after the study Based on the findings, some recommendations would be listed for the future studies so that most of the students could benefit from the MI-based lessons Keywords: intelligence, multiple intelligences, speaking skills iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL : English as a Second Language M : Mean MI : Multiple intelligence(s) SD : Standard Deviation SPSS : Statistical Package for Social Science iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Reliability Statistics of Multiple Intelligences Questionnaire 27 Figure Mean scores and Standard deviation of MI frequencies 33 Figure Mean scores of MI preferences 34 Figure Paired samples Statistics of the whole class 35 Figure Paired samples Statistics of students whose MI were employed 36 Figure A score comparison between pre-test and post-test 36 Figure Students‟ improvement in aspects of speaking skills 38 Figure Students‟ level of interest in learning speaking lessons with MI activities 39 Figure 10 Students‟ feeling when participating in MI activities 39 Figure 11 Students‟ preferences for MI activities 40 Figure 12 Overall class motivation score for all students 42 v LIST OF TABLES Table MI groups classified by the most dominant intelligences 32 Table Results of students‟ speaking performance .37 Table Students‟ comments on MI activities 41 Table Students‟ challenges when joining MI activities 44 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions .2 1.4 Significance of the study 1.4.1 Practical significance of the study 1.4.2 Theoretical significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Methods of the study 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skills .6 2.1.1 Definition of speaking skills .6 2.1.2 Components of speaking skills 2.1.3 Principles for teaching speaking .8 2.2 The theory of multiple intelligences 11 2.3 MI-based syllabus in teaching speaking skills 15 2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of MI-based syllabus 16 2.4.1 Advantages of MI-based syllabus 16 2.4.2 Disadvantages of MI-based syllabus .18 2.5 Related studies in improving students‟ speaking skills through MI activities 18 vii CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 The setting of the study 21 3.1.1 A description of the students and their learning program .21 3.1.2 The teaching program and material 21 3.2 Participants of the study .21 3.3 An overview of action research 22 3.3.1 What is action research? 22 3.3.2 Types of action research 23 3.3.3 Models of action research .24 3.4 Data collection instruments and procedure 26 3.4.1 Data collection instruments .26 3.4.2 The action procedures 30 3.5 Statistics Analysis 30 3.6 MI-based syllabus 31 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32 4.1 Data analysis and findings 32 4.1.1 The enhancement of students‟ speaking skills after the MI-based syllabus 32 4.1.2 The students‟ attitudes towards MI activities in speaking lessons 38 4.1.3 Students‟ and teacher‟s challenges in MI-based speaking lessons 43 4.2 Discussion 47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .50 5.1 Recapitulation 50 5.2 Reflection 51 5.2.1 Reflection on the action process .51 5.2.2 Reflection on the consequences of the change .53 5.3 Recommendation for further researches 53 REFERENCES 55 APPENDICES I viii APPENDIX - OBSERVATION SHEET (Adapted from Peacock, 1997) Date: ……… Topic: ……………………………………… No of students: …… Observation focus: levels of students’ motivation generated by the task Three (3) is the average mark for any one item Objectives: - This sheet is for observing the class as a whole, not individual student - The sheet is completed when the lesson is drawing to close - Final comments (if any) are added after each point of the sheet The level of students’ involvement in the activities Not very involved Very involved Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… The levels of students’ concentration on the activities Low High Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… The students’ persistent attention to the activities Not really Very much Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Students’ activity level (effort/ intensity of application) Low High Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… XV The students’ feeling about the speaking activities Not interesting Very interesting Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… The challenging level of speaking activities towards students Not really Very much Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… The appropriateness of speaking activities towards the students Not really Very much Comments: …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… XVI APPENDIX - POST-ACTION QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is designed to find out students’ attitudes towards applying or using multiple intelligence activities in speaking lessons to improve speaking skills for the students and challenges that students faced in these lessons 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 With question – 3, please put a tick () to choose your answer Your level of interest in learning speaking lessons? Highly interested Interested Very interested Uninterested How you feel when taking part in multiple intelligence activities? Highly interested Interested Very interested Uninterested Among the activities which focus on developing interpersonal intelligence and bodily intelligence, which one you prefer? Interpersonal intelligence activities Bodily intelligence activities How you agree/ disagree with the following statements? Put a tick () under the number – which shows your opinion (1: highly agree, 2: agree, 3: neutral, 4: disagree, 5: strongly disagree) Statements A MI activities make me feel relaxed and enjoyable B MI activities help me become more confidence when speaking C MI activities help me remember more vocabulary and structures in the lessons D MI activities help me remember the words‟ pronunciation faster and in a longer time XVII E MI activities help me a lot in improving my speaking motivation Give your opinion towards the following statements about the challenges you encountered when learning English speaking skills through MI activities Put a tick () under the number – which shows your opinion (1: highly agree, 2: agree, 3: neutral, 4: disagree, 5: strongly disagree) Challenges A I was not able to find ideas B I don't have enough vocabulary and grammar to express my ideas C My teacher didn't give clear instructions D The class time for English speaking is limited E Your own idea: ………………………………………………………… ………………………….… …………………………… ~~~ Thank you for your co-operation! ~~~ XVIII APPENDIX 10 - CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT (Bản tiếng Việt) Các em học sinh thân mến, Bản khảo sát nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu thái độ học sinh việc ứng dụng hoạt động đa trí tuệ tiết học nói để nâng cao kỹ nói cho học sinh thách thức mà em gặp phải tiết học Mong em dành chút thời gian hoàn thành phiếu khảo sát Xin cảm ơn em! Hãy đánh dấu () vào câu trả lời em chọn Mức độ thích thú em học nói với hoạt động đa trí tuệ? Vơ thích Thích Rất thích Khơng thích Em cảm thấy tham gia vào hoạt động đa trí tuệ? Vơ thích 11 Thích 10 Rất thích 12 Khơng thích Trong hoạt động đa trí tuệ thiên tương tác cá nhân thể/động học, em thích hoạt động hơn? Tương tác cá nhân Cơ thể, động học Em đồng ý hay không đồng ý với nhận xét sau đây? Hãy đánh dấu () bên số từ đến để đưa ý kiến em (1: đồng ý, 2: đồng ý, 3: bình thường, 4: khơng đồng ý, 5: không đồng ý) Nhận xét A Các hoạt động đa trí tuệ giúp em cảm thấy thư giãn thích thú B Các hoạt động đa trí tuệ giúp em tự tin nói C Các hoạt động đa trí tuệ giúp em nhớ nhiều từ vựng cấu trúc D Các hoạt động đa trí tuệ giúp em nhớ cách phát âm XIX từ nhanh lâu E Các hoạt động đa trí tuệ giúp em cải thiện động lực học nói nhiều Em cho biết quan điểm em nhận định sau khó khăn em gặp phải học kỹ nói tiếng Anh thơng qua hoạt động đa trí tuệ Hãy đánh dấu () bên số từ đến để đưa ý kiến em (1: đồng ý, 2: đồng ý, 3: bình thường, 4: khơng đồng ý, 5: khơng đồng ý) Khó khăn A Em khơng tìm ý để phát triển chủ đề nói B Em chưa có đủ từ vựng cấu trúc ngữ pháp để diễn đạt ý kiến C Giáo viên khơng dẫn rõ ràng D Thời lượng cho hoạt động luyện nói tiếng Anh lớp cịn E Ý kiến khác: ……………………………………………… ………………………….… …………………………… …… ~~~ Cảm ơn em chúc em đạt kết tốt học tập! ~~~ XX APPENDIX 11 – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS According to you, whether MI activities could help students learn speaking skills more effectively Among the MI activities that you applied in speaking lesson, which were the most effective ones? Which type of intelligences did the activities help motivate What challenges that you, as the teacher, faced up with when applying MI activities in teaching English speaking skills? Do you think of any solution to overcome these challenges? XXI APPENDIX 12 - INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS Interviewer: Hello Can I ask you some questions? Interviewee: Yes, sure Interviewer: I would like to inform you that this conversation will be recorded Interviewee: Yeah, I understand Interviewer: You know We’ve just finished 12 weeks of application of MI theories into teaching speaking skills for grade 11 students at the school Do you feel that MI activities could help students learn speaking skills more effectively? Interviewee: My answer is “Yes” As you can see, students‟ participation in class has positively increased after each lesson When MI activities were applied to the lessons, more team works were assigned with varied tasks Students had more chance to get involve in the activities, more chance to act and to speak out their ideas Therefore, students‟ involvement in the lesson increased day by day, activity by activity Furthermore, the improvement of students‟ test scores also helped prove this The results of the post-test were quite higher than their pre-test‟s mark This leaded to my conclusion that MI activities could help improve students‟ speaking skills for some extents Interviewer: Among the MI activities that you applied in speaking lesson, which were the most effective ones and which type of intelligences did the activities help motivate? Interviewee: I feel like some activities such as making poster, story composing and acting, group debate was more effective than other tasks Those activities could attract the engagement of all students in the class I saw that students really keen on those kinds of activities because they could express their ideas creatively on the posters, they could develop their imaginativeness to act as an important character, and they really concentrated on making the debate with their partners Sorry, what about another half of the quesion? Could you repeat it? Interviewer: Yeah, it’s quite long so you may not remember Can you tell me which type of intelligences did those activities help motivate? XXII Interviewee: Ah OK In my opinion, the group debate was an activity for Interpersonal Intelligence, making poster and story acting after composing were to develop both Kinesthetic Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence Interviewer: During the 12 weeks applying MI activities, what challenges that you, as the teacher, faced up with when applying MI activities in teaching English speaking skills? Interviewee: Well, I think the biggest challenge is the uneven distribution of students based on preferential intelligence type For this class, there were forty-two students in the class and each student had their own identities After doing the preaction survey, I found out that 12 students had Interpersonal Intelligence but only student had Verbal Intelligence as the most dominant intelligent type I couldn‟t cover all multiple intelligences of the students, so I had to decide which types of intelligence could be chosen to take action Therefore, there were a proportion of the students taking part in activities which were not their most dominant intelligence type Besides, it is quite tough for me to decide to choose appropriate activities for varied types of intelligence Among many suggested activities for each intelligence type, I had to consider which were practical and suitable for my students For example, I felt that students may like designing and creating costumes for roleplaying However, it might take too much time from them so I decided not to apply these activities Otherwise, I chose some more simple tasks such as making poster on A3, A4 paper using different color pens and some crafts; composing short play to act at class, etc The final but very big obstacle also is the shortage of time because forty-five minutes for each lesson passed really fast, and MI activities almost took much time to apply For this study, I decided to focus on two intelligence types only but I still had to consider thoroughly on which activities to apply, which not to, because of time limitation If I would like to apply MI activities effectively for all individuals in class, it would really take time and efforts of both the teacher and the students XXIII Interviewer: Do you think of any solution to overcome these challenges? Interviewee: Well, I think the obstacle might be decreased if the scope and scale of the study is larger with more numbers of students Or we can choose students at the same grade from the whole school to have some groups with an equal number of students who shared the dominant intelligence By that way, we could assign tasks fairly to the group and can access their results more effectively Interviewer: Thank you so much for your time and effort Wish you success in your career Interviewee: My pleasure Thank you / XXIV APPENDIX 13 – MI-BASED SYLLABUS FOR SPEAKING LESSONS W Unit Topic E E k Global Warming Vocabulary Pronunciation Words and Intonation on phrases yes-no related to questions and global echo questions warming Grammar Perfect Recycle things from your gerunds and rubbish -> Presentation perfect participles MI employed Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial, Verbal, Logical, Natural Recycle things from your Kinesthetic, rubbish -> Presentation Interpersonal, Spatial, Verbal, Logical, Natural Activities Further Education Choose a cartoon and discuss on the messages of the picture => Presentation Words and Intonation on The present - Watch a video and note phrases wh-questions perfect and the down differences related to present perfect between high school and further continuous college life education - Act and guess the name of subjects at higher education Play composing and acting “Describe your XXV Interpersonal, Verbal, Logical Interpersonal, Spatial, Verbal Kinesthetic, Logical Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, 8 Our World Words and Heritage phrases Sites related to the World Heritage Sites in Viet Nam 10 11 12 Cities of Words and the Future phrases related to city life in the future first day after graduating high school” Play composing and acting “Describe your first day after graduating high school” Intonation on Participle and - Board racing choice questions to-infinitive - Where in the world? clauses (Game played in group) - Role-playing Making poster about the favorite world heritage site => Presentation Story composing and acting: “Be a tourist guide” Intonation on Question tags, Making poster about the questions tags Conditional most worth living city in sentences type the future => Presentation Making poster about the most worth living city in the future => Presentation Group debate on the world‟s most/leas livable cities XXVI Verbal, Logical, Spatial Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Verbal, Logical, Spatial, Musical Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Verbal, Logical Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Natural, Spatial Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Natural, Spatial Interpersonal, Verbal, Logical APPENDIX 14 - SAMPLE OF A MI-BASED LESSON PLAN Unit 6: Global warming (Week 1+2) Duration: 90 minutes Objectives: * Knowledge: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - Know ideas and vocabularies about the environment - Understand about causes and effects of global warming and express their ideas in their own words - Raise awareness about environmental issues which has gained lots of concern recently * MI objectives: Kinesthetic Intelligence: Students recycle ready-used things to make useful products Interpersonal Intelligence: Students discuss and present about their recycled products Procedures: Week 1: 45 minutes Time Teachers’ activities (mins) Step 1: 10 - Let students play a warmReview up game to review the vocabulary vocabulary and grammar in and grammar Unit - Divide students into groups of five or six 12 students with Kinesthetic Step 2: Intelligence are divided into Grouping groups 10 students with students Interpersonal Intelligence are divided into groups The rest (20 students) are divided into groups of Step XXVII Students’ activities - Play a warm-up game to review the vocabulary and grammar in Unit - Make groups of five or six; name their groups - Set the objectives: + Use vocabulary and grammar in unit + Know more vocabulary about topic global warming + Pronounce correctly all five Step 3: Instruction about the activity Step 4: Making craft 25 Summary words in the presentation + Make as few mistakes as possible - Ask students to take out - Take out the used cans, the used cans, bottles… (At bottles… the previous lesson, teacher reminded students to bring those things for this lesson) - Give each group a set of - Receive stuff from the crayons, A3 papers, color teachers papers, scissors, staplers… - Tell students that they will - Listen to teacher‟s think of a recycled product instruction that they can make from ready-used things - Have students to use the - Discuss with group stuff to have creative members to decide which products product they will make (Interpersonal Intelligence) - Make the recycled products from the readyused bottle, cans, etc (Kinesthetic Intelligence) - Give overall comments - Listen to the teacher about the lesson - Remind students that they will present about their products in the following week XXVIII Week 2: 45 minutes Step Time Teachers’ activities Students’ activities (mins) Step 1: Introduction - Have students - Participate in a warm-up participate in a warm-up activity activity 10 - Have students finish - Finish their recycled their recycled products products and discuss for Step 2: and Discussion discuss for the the presentation presentation (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal Intelligence) - Have students to present - groups take turn to about their products present about their products - Each group has minutes Step 3: Presentation to 25 present about their products and minute to listen to comment teacher‟s (Interpersonal Intelligence) Step 4: Video watching and discussion Summary - Have students to watch a video of “Reduce, reuse and recycle” - Have students to discuss about benefits of recycling - Give overall comments - Watch the video about the lesson draw the lesson for their - Discuss about benefits of recycling (Interpersonal Intelligence) - Listen to the teacher and presentation XXIX ... RESEARCH STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI (Phát triển kỹ nói học sinh THPT qua chương trình giảng dạy dựa theo thuyết đa trí tuệ: Nghiên cứu hành động trường THPT Hà Nội) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD... Pilot English Curriculum for Vietnamese Upper Secondary Schools (Chương trình giáo dục phổ thơng mơn tiếng Anh thí điểm cấp trung học phổ thơng) This curriculum was promulgated in accordance with... 1.4 Significance of the study 1.4.1 Practical significance of the study 1.4.2 Theoretical significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Methods of