(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) using information gap activities to promote students motivation and participation in speaking lessons for second year students in USSH, VNU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGÔ THỊ KHÁNH NGỌC USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS IN USSH, VNU (Sử dụng hoạt động khoảng trống thông tin để thúc đẩy động lực học tham gia sinh viên học nói sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội Nhân văn) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGÔ THỊ KHÁNH NGỌC USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS IN USSH, VNU (Sử dụng hoạt động khoảng trống thông tin để thúc đẩy động lực học tham gia sinh viên học nói sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội Nhân văn) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A HANOI, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents Page Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content iv Lists of tables, charts and abbreviations vii PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale for the study II Aims and research questions 2.1 Aims 2.2 Research question III Scope of the study IV Method V Significance of the study VI Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical background and Literature review I Theoretical background Part 1: Information gap activities 1.1 Definition 1.2 Types of Information gap activities 1.2.1 Littlewood (1981)‟s classification iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1.2.2 Ellis (1999)‟s classification 1.2.3 Doff‟s classification 1.3 Benefits of information gap activities 10 1.3.1 Increase students‟ talking time in class 10 1.3.2 Promote students‟ motivation 10 1.3.3 Promote students‟ equal participation 11 1.3.4 Build students‟ confidence 11 1.3.5 Develop student‟s fluency and accuracy 11 Part 2: Motivation 12 2.1 Definition 12 2.2 Types of motivation 13 2.3 Assess students‟ motivation 13 2.4 Behaviour of a highly-motivated student 14 Part 3: Participation 16 3.1 Definition 16 3.2 Types of participation 16 3.3 Assess students‟ participation 17 II Literature review 17 Chapter II:Methodology 20 2.1 The context of the study 20 2.1.1.The teaching and learning conditions 20 2.1.2.The syllabus 20 2.1.3.The description of the material used 21 2.1.4 The learners 21 2.1.5 The teachers 22 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2.2 Research approach 23 2.3 Participants 23 2.3.1 The teachers 24 2.3.2 The students 24 2.4 Data collection methods 25 2.5 Data collection procedure 27 2.5.1 Pre-intervention 27 2.5.2 While-intervention 28 2.5.3 Post-intervention 28 2.6 Data analysis 29 31 Chapter III: Results and discussion 3.1 Data collected from the pre-intervention stage 31 3.2 Data collected from the while-intervention stage 32 3.2.1 Students‟ motivation in speaking tasks in two groups 32 3.2.1.1 Data from the self-report questionaire 32 3.2.1.2 Data from the observation sheet 35 3.2.2 Students‟ participation in speaking tasks in two groups 38 3.2.2.1 Data collected from observation sheet 38 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 I Major findings of the study 41 II Limitations of the study 41 III Suggestions for further studies 42 IV Contributions of the studies 42 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LISTS OF TABLES, CHARTS AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables: Table 3.1.1 Motivation in two groups in pre-intervention stage Table 3.1.2 Students‟ times on task in two groups in pre-intervention stage Table Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the control group Table Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the experimental group Table The data on the overall class motivation in the control group Table The data on the overall class motivation in the experimental group Table The data on the students‟ on-task/off-task behavior in the control group Table The data on the students‟ on-task/off-task behavior in the experimental group List of charts: Chart Students‟ motivation in the control group Chart Students‟ motivation in the experimental group Chart Students‟ motivation in two groups Chart Overall class motivation in the control group Chart Overall class motivation in the experimental group Chart The level of overall motivation in two groups Chart Students‟ times on-task/off-task behaviour in the control group Chart Students‟ times on-task/off-task behaviour in the experimental group Chart Students‟ times on-task in two groups List of abbreviations: IGA: Information gap activities USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities VNU: Vietnam National University ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale for the study It is obvious that nowadays English is becoming an international language, which is used worldwide for the purpose of communication It is English that helps us keep up with updated information about the surroundings and establish relations with foreign countries all over the world English is needed in various fields such as tourism, education, trade, science, economy and so on In Vietnam, English is taught as one of the compulsory subjects at senior secondary schools and universities Among four main skills, speaking skill plays an important role in English teaching in the context of Vietnam Nunan (1991) emphasized that success in learning a language is measured based on the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language For many students, speaking is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language in general and in English in particular However, many EFL students find this skill most difficult to obtain Most Vietnamese learners find it hard to use English to communicate in real life One of the reasons may be the lack of environment for communicating In most classes, students just come to class to listen to teacher‟s lecture without any real communication in English The teacher may use some available speaking tasks in textbook, but most of them can‟t create the real demand for communicating of students During my process of teaching, I realized some problems Firstly, speaking is one of the weakest skills of Vietnamese students This is partly due to their poor grammar and pronunciation, their lack of vocabulary, and partly because of their low motivation in speaking lessons Secondly, students‟ unwillingness to speak in speaking lesson can be the result of their lack ideas or the uninteresting nature of the speaking TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Due to these above reasons, there is a requirement of some interactive techniques to improve students‟ speaking skills and motivate them in learning Information-gap activities may be a good solution According to Doff (1988), IGA are activities where learners are missing some information and they need to complete a task and talk to each other to find it Information-gap activities give students reasons to speak If the activities are well- designed to reflect the real-life situations, they can not only motivate students to speak but also prepare students for real communication outside the classroom All of the above-mentioned reasons have urged the researcher to conduct the research with the title “Using Information Gap Activities to promote students’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons for second-year students at USSH, VNU” Hopefully, this research will make a minor contribution to the implementation of Information Gap Activities in improving speaking skills for students at USSH II Aims and research questions 2.1 Aims The study is specially targeted at finding out the effect of IGA on the students‟ motivation and participation in speaking lesson 2.2 Research question Regarding the goals of the study, the following research questions are put forward: Can IGA help increase students‟ motivation in the speaking lessons?If yes, to what extent? Can IGA help increase students‟ participation in the speaking lessons? If yes, to what extent? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com III Scope of the study IGA has benefited students in many aspects such as enhance students‟ speaking skill, promote students‟ motivation, increase students‟ talking time, build students‟ confidence, etc Due to the limited time, this study only focuses on the effect of IGA on students‟ motivation and participation in the speaking class Besides, the subject of this study is 60 students from two English classes in University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) IV Method In order to achieve these aims, this quasi-experimental research employed both survey questionaires and classroom observation in order to collect data Participantswere divided into two groups: the control group and experimental group.In the experimental group, teacher used information gap activities in speaking lesson.The control group was taught in the traditional way with the use of speaking tasks in textbook The researcher observed two groups and delivered questionaires to collect data Then a comparison was made between two groups to find out the answer to the questions V Significance of the study The study was carried out with the hope to provide teachers of English at USSH with a deeper understanding about benefits of using IGA in teaching speaking skill In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great use in helping teachers find an effective way to increase their students‟ participation as well as motivate them to use English in speaking lessons TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VI Organization of the study The thesis covers three main parts as follows: Part A is the Introductionprovides readers with overall information about the research including the rationale for the study, aims and research questions, significance, method, scope as well as the organization of the study Part B is the Development which comprises three chapters: Chapter I: Theoretical background and literature review deals with three major concepts, namely information gap activities, students‟ motivation and participation in speaking activities with a hope to provide theoretical background for the following chapters.Besides, a review of related studies is also presented Chapter II: Methodologypresents the methodsused to find out the necessary data for the study, including the background information of the context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Besides, a detailed description of data analysis is presented Chapter III: Results and Discussion presents the findings of the study basing on the data analysis and synthesis Furthermore, some pedagogical implications are provided Part C is the Conclusion which summarizes the major findings of the paper, indicates limitations of the research and offers suggestions for further studies The References and Appendices include a list of references that the researcher used for research, samples of questionaires, observation sheet and model lesson plans TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 4: TEACHING SCHEDULE THE CONTROL GROUP Lesson Content Speaking activities File 3A Modern manners Group discussion File 3B Judging by appearances Describe a person File 3C If at first you don‟t succeed, Discusion File 4A Back to school, aged 35 Giving opinion File 4B In an ideal world Describe your house File 4C Still friends? Compare opinions File 5A Slow down, you move too fast Giving opinion File 5B Same planet, different worlds Discussion THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP Lesson Content Speaking activities Exchange File 3A Modern manners personal information File 3B Judging by appearances VI Spot the differences TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com File 3C If at first you don‟t succeed, Store inventory File 4A Back to school, aged 35 Completing the grid File 4B In an ideal world Guessing games File 4C Still friends? Exchange personal information File 5A Slow down, you move too fast Guessing games File 5B Same planet, different worlds Spot the differences VII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Group: The control group Teaching point: Speaking skill Content: File 3B Judging by appearances Objectives: After the lesson, Ss will be able to - learn vocabulary of describing people - describe people Students’ level: intermediate Class size: 30 Materials: Textbook, handouts, pictures, projector Students background knowledge: Ss have been taught the simple present tense Time: 50 minutes Anticipated problems: 10 Procedure: VIII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Teacher’s activities Stages Warm-up ( 10 minutes ) Students’ activities - Prepares some pictures of famous people - Shows the picture to all -Look at the picture class -Listen to T‟s instruction - Asks Ss to describe some special feature of the people -Describe some special features of these famous people Pre - speaking ( 15 minutes ) - Teaches some vocabulary -Listen to teacher related to people description (clothes, hair, height and build ) While-speaking (15 minutes) Gives the picture of a famous -Look at their pictures singer “Britney Spear” - Ask Ss to describe the pictures in pairs -Work in pairs and exchange ideas - Calls some students to present their answer to the -Two Ss stand up and make conversation class - Makes comments and -Listen to T and take notes IX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com suggests for improvement Post–speaking ( 10 minutes ) - Asks Ss to look at the - Listen to T‟s instruction listening part 3.5 in the textbook - Asks Ss to describe four men ( hair, beard, -Describe four men in the picture moustache) - Gives the instruction: “Look at the picture of four - Listen to T‟s instruction men and listen Take notes some key information to find out who is the bank robber?” - Plays the disk times - Asks students to give their answer -Listen to the disk -Answer the teacher‟s questions X TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 6: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Group: The experimental group 2.Teaching point: Speaking skill Content: File 3B Judging by appearances Objectives: After the lesson, Ss will be able to - learn vocabulary of describing people - describe people Students’ level: Intermediate Class size: 30 Materials: Textbook, handouts, pictures Students background knowledge: Ss have been taught the simple present tense Time: 50 minutes 10 Procedure Stages Warm - up ( 10 minutes ) Teacher’s activities Students’ activities - Prepares some pictures of famous people XI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - Divides the class into two -Work in each team teams - Explains the rules of the - Listen to T‟s instruction game - Gives each team pictures -Look at the pictures of three famous people - Asks a representative of each team to come in front of the class -A representative of each team comes in front of the - Gives this student a picture class of famous people arranged in a definite order - These student look at the picture -Ask Ss to describe the pictures to the other - Ss describes the pictures to members of the team the other members of the - Asks another member of team the team to come to the board and stick the pictures - The other member has to guess and stick the pictures in the correct order on the blackboard in the right - Check the order of the pictures and praise order the -Listen to teacher winning team XII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Pre - speaking ( 15 minutes ) - Teach some vocabulary - Listen to teacher related to people description -Take notes in their notebook (clothes, hair, height and build ) While-speaking (15 minutes) - Asks Ss to work in pair -Work in pairs - Gives out the sheets (make -Look at their sheets sure students can‟t see each other sheet) - Explains the rule of the task: “Both of you have the -Listen to T‟s explanation same picture but they have been changed So they have ten differences You have to describe your picture and ask questions to find out ten differences.” - Asks Ss to work in pair and exchange their ideas -Calls two Ss to stand up and make conversation -Work in pairs and exchange -Corrects the mistakes and ideas point out ten differences in -Two Ss stand up and make two pictures XIII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com conversation -Listen to T and take notes Post – speaking ( 10 minutes ) - Ask Ss to look at the - Listen to T‟s instruction listening part 3.5 in the textbook - Ask Ss to describe four men.(hair, beard,moustache) -Describe four men in the picture - Gives the instruction: “Look at the picture of four - Listen to T‟s instruction men and listen Listen and take notes some key information to find out who is the bank robber?” - Plays the disk times - Asks students to give their answer -Listen to the disk -Answer the teacher‟s questions XIV TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 7: DATA FROM SELF-REPORT QUESTIONAIRE Table 1: Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the control group Statement Mean I enjoyed doing these activities very much 14 11 1.8 I am satisfied with my performance at these activities 10 13 3 2.1 I put a lot of effort into these activities 15 1.9 I felt comfortable while working on these activities 2 12 2.9 These activities created the real need for me to communicate 11 3 2.3 These activities helped me to develop my speaking ability 10 2.4 These activities offered me a chance to talk in English for a long time 11 12 2.1 These activities helped me to practise what I have learnt in real conversation 2.5 These activities offered me a chance to contribute fairly even to the discussion 13 3 2.2 XV TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 8: DATA FROM THE SELF-REPORT QUESTIONAIRE Table 2: Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the experimental group Statement Mean I enjoyed doing these activities very much 15 4.0 I am satisfied with my performance at these activities 14 3.7 I put a lot of effort into these activities 2 16 3.9 I felt comfortable while working on these activities 1 17 4.3 These activities created the real need for me to communicate 2 12 13 4.1 These activities helped me to develop my speaking ability 15 4.2 These activities offered me a chance to talk in English for a long time 3 10 13 3.9 These activities helped me to practise what I have learnt in real conversation 3 13 3.7 These activities offered me a chance to contribute fairly even to the discussion 12 11 3.9 XVI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 9: DATA FROM OBSERVATION SHEET Data interpretation keys: Level of students‟ motivation generated by speaking activities was observed in terms of items is average mark for any item For example: in Lesson 4, mark is given to students‟ involvement in the speaking activities This means that the students were not very involved in the speaking activities Table 3: The data on the overall class motivation in the control group Observed items L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 Students‟ involvement speaking activities in the 3 2 Students‟ concentration speaking activities on the 3 3 Students‟ activities of the 2 2 2 Students‟ persistent attention to the activities Students‟ activity level 3 2 3 3 Students‟ degree of interest in the activities Degree of challenge of the activities 2 2 1 2 2 1 Degree of appropriateness of the activities 3 1 Total mark ( 40 is the highest) 13 18 17 20 18 15 13 12 enjoyment XVII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 10: DATA FROM OBSERVATION SHEET Data interpretation keys: Level of students‟ motivation generated by speaking activities was observed in terms of items is average mark for any item For example: in Lesson 4, mark is given to students‟ involvement in the speaking activities This means that the students were not very involved in the speaking activities Table 4: The data on the overall class motivationin the experimental group Observed items L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 the 2 5 4 Students‟ concentration on the speaking activities 3 4 4 Students‟ activities the 3 3 5 4 Students‟ persistent attention to the activities 3 4 4 5 Students‟ activity level 3 5 Students‟ degree of interest in the activities 4 4 Degree of activities the 3 5 Degree of appropriateness of the activities 2 5 4 22 23 26 31 32 36 35 34 Students‟ involvement speaking activities enjoyment challenge in of of Total mark ( 40 is the highest ) XVIII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 11: DATA FROM OBSERVATION SHEET Data interpretation keys: Each student was scanned 12 times The more engaged on the speaking activities, the higher the number of times scanned to be on-task one could gain For example: in Lesson 4, students had times scanned to be on-task out of 12 times scanned This means that those students were engaged on the speaking activities during one fourth of the time given for the activities Table 5: The data on the students’ on-task/off-task behavior in the control group Lesson No of students Total times scanned Times on-task Percentage Times off-task Percentage 30 360 174 48% 186 52% 30 360 162 45% 198 55% 30 360 168 47% 192 53% 30 360 143 40% 217 60% 30 360 153 43% 207 57% 30 360 113 31% 247 69% 30 360 94 26% 266 74% 30 360 87 24% 273 76% XIX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com APPENDIX 12: DATA FROM OBSERVATION SHEET Data interpretation keys: Each student was scanned 12 times The more engaged on the speaking activities, the higher the number of times scanned to be on-task one could gain For example: in Lesson 4, students had times scanned to be on-task out of 12 times scanned This means that those students were engaged on the speaking activities during one fourth of the time given for the activities Table 6: The data on the students’ on-task/off-task behavior in the experimental group Lesson No of students Total times scanned Times on-task Percentage Times off-task Percentage 30 360 235 65% 125 35% 30 360 245 68% 115 32% 30 360 256 71% 104 29% 30 360 263 73% 97 27% 30 360 285 79% 75 21% 30 360 298 83% 62 17% 30 360 278 77% 82 23% 30 360 267 74% 93 26% XX TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... researcher to conduct the research with the title ? ?Using Information Gap Activities to promote students? ?? motivation and participation in speaking lessons for second- year students at USSH, VNU? ?? Hopefully,... According to Doff (1988), there are three main kinds of information gap activities: guessing games, information gap exercises for pair work, and activities in which students exchange personal information. .. LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGÔ THỊ KHÁNH NGỌC USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS? ?? MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS