SKKN SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN THE NEW TEXT BOOK “TIENG ANH 10” TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING LE VIET THUAT HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN THE NEW TEXT BOOK “TIENG ANH 10” TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES Co-authors: Nguyen Thi Hien- Le Viet Thuat High School Le Thi Viet-Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No.2 Specialized Team: Literature- English Phone: 0981275777- 0987515100 Vinh, 2022 NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING LE VIET THUAT HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN THE NEW TEXT BOOK “TIENG ANH 10” TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES Vinh, 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page I PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Justification of the study Aims and Objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study 4.1 Qualitative 4.2 Quantitative Study and experimental time II PART II: INVESTIGATION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Skill definition 1.2 Speaking skill definition 2.1 Characteristics of speaking skill 2.2 Speaking sub skills 2.3 Learning speaking skill 2.4 Teaching speaking skill 2.5 Speaking skill motivation Adapting Textbooks 3.1 Definition 3.2 Principles and techniques for adapting textbooks 3.3 Instructions for adapting textbooks 10 CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL BACKGROUND An overview of the new textbook 10 Real situations of learning and teaching speaking at high school 12 12 Students‟ survey results 12 CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH Methodology 21 1.1 Participants 21 1.2 Instrumentation 21 Findings of the study 21 Finding solutions 22 3.1 Suggested adaptations for some Speaking tasks in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” 22 3.2 Sample teaching plans 31 3.3 Results and Discussion 38 III PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recapitulation and Implications 39 Limitations 39 Recommendations 39 REFERENCES APPENDIX 40 PART I: INTRODUCTION Justification of the study In process of teaching and learning English, it is acknowledge that one of the most important skills in learning English as well as another language is speaking skill Speaking not only helps students improve their communicative competence but also enables them to develop language skills such as: listening, writing, and reading Thus, it is extremely important in teaching language, especially teaching communicative English Besides, in teaching reality, many teachers find it difficult to teach students with speaking skill for the reason that they have chance to practice a lot of interesting topics But students have many mistakes that make incorrect intonation and pronunciation This fact is true at Le Viet Thuat High School in the progress of helping students with accessing to direct communication and improving their communicative competence at the first year stage at High School To some extends, we try to conduct the study entitle: “Suggestions for improving speaking skill in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to encourage students’ participation in speaking activities” We hope that our study will be a useful material that helps teachers improve their students with speaking skill Aims and Objectives of the study - To investigate these factors affecting speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School - To explore some difficulties in speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School - To provide some suggestions and implications in English learning and make a contribution to teaching materials Scope of the study The study deals with the problem that students of the 10th grade at Le Viet Thuat High School usually have when they have speaking lesson in classrooms These problems are caused by some factors Some solutions and implications will be given for students in speaking skill Methods There are two approach methods: qualitative and quantitative The authors use qualitative method to explore attitudes, feeling and experiences of the students through interview and survey in a class This can get an in-depth opinion from participants Action researches help us a lot in communications and agreement between the authors and students Quantitative methods are also used to generate statistics through the use of handout and question list paper Students must fill in the question lists and the authors will get the figure to find out the good result 4.1 Qualitative Using questionnaires is one of the most commonly used by the researchers In this way, teachers or researchers use a questionnaire including a number of questions relating to the information they are looking for It is always a list of questions, teachers deliver it to students, ask them to fulfill the requirements of the questionnaire The biggest advantage of this method is that it can assess the rate of difference factors that influences individuals However, this way of research is more complicated than observation There are two types of questionnaires: choosing and giving detail The answerers can choose one or more answers from the list suggested or give their own ideas about certain circumstances Today more and more researchers apply this method to collect information because it is cheap and convenient It is more trustful when you collect the data 4.2 Quantitative Qualitative is a very useful method to research as it supports the researchers with the necessary information to the research deeply and comprehensively This way is helpful with the researchers who can sit in the class and directly experience the real atmosphere of the class To implement this study, the authors decide to apply these methods for recognizing their advantage and trustworthiness The authors assume that these methods are the most suitable because of their accuracy and popularity Study and experimental time The topic was studied and conducted extensive pedagogical experiments at schools from the 2020-2021 school year The process of completing data and the project is in the school year 2021 – 2022 PART II: INVESTIGATION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Skill definition Skill is common term that is mentioned regularly in people's daily life Many researchers have tried to find out the definition of the term There are a number of definitions for this technical word therefore However the most commonly used one is stated in the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, according to the writer, "a skill is the learned capacity to carry out predetermined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both In other words the abilities that one possesses Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, team work and leadership, self-motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job Skill usually requires certain environment stimulation and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used" 1.2 Speaking skill definition Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other language skills It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use of verbal expressions, but it also involves non-verbal symbols such as gestures and facial expressions Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “skill which people are judged while first impressions are being form” Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbol, in a variety of context (Chaney, 1998, p13) It is said that speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching According to Carol, speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode Like other skills, it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than pronouncing words For this skill, pronunciation is only a component among which make the success of the conversation The essential components ensuring the process of the communication probably are pronunciation, intonation, accent, etc 2.1 Characteristics of speaking skill Bygate is one of the researchers who has paid much attention on the oral skill He investigates the characteristic of spoken language In his point of view, speaking is not completely accepted as a separative area, speech is more commonly unplanned, contextualized, informal and reciprocal than writing It can be clearly seen that speakers usually have a little time to prepare for their conversations Bygate claimed: "Oral language can be identified by certain features which are more prototypical of speech than of writing Among these features, one of the most typical one is that speech is organized by clauses, phrases and spoken utterances while writing is generally organized according to whole sentences In addition, spoken language is less formal in relation to vocabulary and grammar than writing language, characterized by repetition of utterances, close relation to the context in question and features of correcting speech Since speaking skill is the ability to start and to maintain a conversation, it closely relates to the performance of the participants in a conversation In classroom, teacher may explain the items for the students and then the teacher may ask the students to implement some certain tasks to illustrate the items just explain This is a mono-dialogue when the speaker has no interaction with the listeners, for instance the radio speaker speak on the cassette 2.2 Speaking sub skills Speaking skill is a complicated skill that contains a set of micro skill that people should master A lot of subordinate skills need to the speaker's oral skill Firstly, speakers should distinctive sounds clearly in order to make others distinguish them They can be tonal distinctions, pronunciation express the meaning of the sentence So that it is the best way to understand making sound by easy to recognize Secondly, to help the learners speak better, they also should stress and rhythmic patterns, intonation patterns of language that is clearly enough to understand Besides, using the correct form of words is also a good way to improve English speaking skill For instance, you want to say something you did yesterday, you must use past tense In present tense, you must use the correct form of word with singular forms of the noun Additionally, syntax and vocabulary are essential and important to transmit speaker's ideas Remember to put the words in the order to make the utterances grammatically correct Using a wide range of vocabulary shows that you have good word sources making the meaning flexible and expressive However, speakers should use the vocabulary in an appropriate way Before speaking, speakers should determine the style of the conversation: formal or informal to use acceptable words in the circumstance The conversation is like a river, it should have to follow to connect the ideas so that listeners can follow the conversation The connectors in this case are very useful means to make the separated utterances linked and to make the logical conversation and easy to recognize the main contents 2.3 Learning speaking skill Speaking skill is a complicated process that combines many different aspects such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, phonetic, etc… so that not many students are good at this skill The fact of teaching shows that it is very important in daily communication especially with native person According to Jo Mac Donough (1995, p151) "Speaking is often thought of as colloquial , which helps to account for its lower priority in some teaching context" In many countries, students always focus on other skills while using a little time on oral skill or even ignore it Agree with him, Grace Stovall Burkat (1998) claims that it is necessary to supply students with the basic aspects of the skill In his opinion, language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of knowledge: they are Mechanics, Function and Social, and Cultural rules and Norms Mechanics including pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is the basic aspect of speaking skill that gives the basements to develop the skill This aspect helps students use the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation The second aspect requires the recognitions of the functions It includes transaction, interaction and performance This aspect helps students recognize the type of talk with certain criteria and purposes Another aspect that is last but not least than others is the social and cultural rules and norms such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants This is background knowledge that helps them to understand how to take into account who is talking to whom, in what circumstance Teacher should help students use English in real life such as communicate with foreigners to develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences 2.4 Teaching speaking skill Speaking skill is an important skill that many people agree with Many of us consider speaking skill is much more essential than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language According to Hayirie Kaki, "Teaching speaking is a technical term that requires learners set of items to study” As his theory, teaching speaking skill is to teach learners to: - Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns: Pronunciation is a very important part in learning any languages including English - Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and rhythm of the second language - Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter - Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence - Use language as a mean of expressing values and judgments - Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency 2.5 Speaking skill motivation Despite the obstacles, there are some surefire ways to get students to speak English, including: 2.5.1 Eliminate pressure Students need time to practice talking without the anxiety of needing to say everything just right Teachers give students a few minutes of free-speaking time with a partner or small group each lesson The only rule is that they must speak English You can give them a specific topic to discuss, such as current events, what they did over the weekend or what TV show they like In this situation, they can talk about anything They can try new words or phrases, and perhaps most importantly, they can make mistakes These times of practice will get them used to speaking in a foreign language without any barriers This will allow them to problem solve and figure out how to communicate in English 2.5.2 Build up the competition There is nothing good like „old fashioned competition‟ to motivate reluctant speakers Games or reward-based speaking activities are very useful tools that allow students of all ages to practice valuable skills And you don‟t have to teach students to incorporate games into your ESL class, adults love games too! If you really want to up the ante, you can always offer the winner a point of extra credit on the next test There are plenty of games to choose from, such as 20 Questions, Catchphrase or Two Truths and a Lie Look for games that require students to say a lot in order to accomplish the objective, especially games that encourage students to ask questions or describe things in English Plus, having fun is motivation in and of itself 2.5.3 Write first, speak later For students who struggle to speak English, it can be very helpful to write out a script first and then practice speaking it Writing gives students the time to think through what they will say, check their grammar and look up any words or phrases take out the rubbish wash the dishes vacuum the floor feed the dogs hang up the clothes mop the floor sweep the house iron the clothes the laundry cook the meals New lesson Activity 1: Free speaking using guiding map 10 minutes The purpose of this activity is to provide a model conversation about expressing likes or dislikes when doing household chores Work pairs - make a list of choices, give out like and dislike chores and the reason why - provide some useful languages - draw maps then asks students (about 10 students) in turn stand up and talk out loud before class - Let sts draw and fill in the map after getting the answers from classmates I like+Ving I love+Ving I enjoy+Ving LIKE I'm crazy about+ Ving I adore+Ving I'm tired of+Ving I dislike+Ving I can't stand+Ving DISLIKE Activity 2: I don't like+Ving I detest +Ving Matching and practising the 31 in conversation - Ask Sts work in pairs to match Mai‟s answers with Anna‟s questions about household chores - Ask for Sts‟ answers - Elicit feedback from the whole class - Provide final feedback and suggested answers for Sts: 10 minutes 1.c 2.a d b - Call on some pairs of Sts to practice reading the conversation Work pairs in Work group in - Provide corrections on Sts‟ pronunciation if necessary Activity 3: Presentation The purpose of this activity is to raise Sts‟ responsibilities and build up their love in sharing household chores with other family members Students have to prepare a slide show presentation by group of six at home Imagine that they are talking to their friends about household chores - Prepare for presentation in mins - Go around to observe and provide help if necessary 18 minutes - Ask the representatives of some groups to present their tasks in front of the class - Elicit comments and feedback from the whole class - Give final comments on Sts‟ presentations Sample: Everyday, I some chores in my family such as……I love……… …the most because ………… I also enjoy ………… since…… However, I dislike………….because………… Next, I hate………… as………… In short, I love doing housework because I feel happy when I can help my parents 32 Consolidation - Ask Sts to summarize the main points of the lesson minutes - Give feedbacks and marks Homework Ask Sts to prepare for the next lesson Work individually T Sts minute Sample teaching plan for Unit 2: Your Body and You- part B: Speaking Time: 45 minutes I Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students can Knowledge: - Use words and phrases to describe good or bad habits - Suggest ways to get rid of bad habits Skills: - Talk about how to get rid of bad habits Attitude: - Willingly acquire and exercise the tasks - Actively, creatively and cooperatively participate in and fulfill assigned tasks - Positively, confidently take part in presenting, discussing the result of the tasks during lessons - Build up good habits - Be ready to take actions to get rid of bad habits Competences need to develop: - Pair work and group work skill - Communicative competence - Creative competence II Preparations: - Teacher: textbook, laptop, projector 33 - Students: Textbook III Procedures: Time/ stage 1.Warm-Up minutes Activities Interactions The purpose of this activity is to create a Tsts comfortable class atmosphere for sts to study and to introduce the lesson - Ask sts some questions about daily routine + What time you get up? + What you in your freetime? + Do you like eating breakfast? + Do you read book in the evening? + Do you like playing game? + Do you have any habits? what are they? Teacher leads in new lesson by: talking about good and bad habits, ways to get rid of bad habits 2.New lesson 12 minutes Activity 1: Answering the questions Pair work Which of the following habits are good for you? T sts - Let Sts to discuss in groups and find out which habits are good for them and which are bad for them? - Have Sts look at the list of habits in the textbook - Ask Sts to work in pairs to decide which ones are good and which ones are bad and explain their choices to the partner by talking about the effects of these habits on them - Call on some Sts to report their partner‟s choices and explanations - Provide some sample sentences for Sts of lower proficiency to talk =>There are a lot of reasons why some habits are 34 good for us Firstly such habits as doing regular exercise and keeping a routine are good for our health Besides some habits such as reading regularly help us to enrich our knowledge In addition, other habits make us to behave better and live more independently - Provide final comments on Sts‟ ideas, pronunciation, fluency and the use of vocabulary and grammatical structures Activity 2: role-play 26 minutes The purpose of this activity is to choose one bad habit, make a list of Dos and Don‟ts and suggest Group work some other ways to kick it - Prepare a script of a role-play about habits (at home) - Encourage Sts to share their ideas from their own experience if possible - Go around and offer help if necessary - Call on some representatives from the groups to act out the role-play and record their preparations - Replay the video then give comments and marks - Provide final feedback and comments on Ss‟ Performances - Have some compliments for sts‟ performances to motivate them 3.Consolidation - Ask Sts to summarize the main points of the lesson - Ask sts to prepare for the next lesson minutes Homework Individual work Tsts minutes 35 3.3 Results and Discussion Having taught classes with different orientations (with and without changing the activities in the new textbook), we see the differences of the attitudes and results between them Their presentations are assessed through a speaking rubric (given in appendix 2) including a number of criteria, namely organization, explanation of ideas and information, eyes and body language, voice, visual aids, response to audience questions, participation in team presentation On the other hands, with the aim of the study, I also focus on the attitude and effectiveness of adapting some techniques in speaking classes Last but not least, the finding of the study has shown out the results of students in speaking classes Students who has been applied the techniques have better presentation skills than the students who carry out the speaking tasks without any adaptations Most of them feel more motivated in speaking when performing before class The atmosphere of speaking class is more interesting and comfortable when receiving the motivation and compliments from teachers 36 PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recapitulation and Implications As we has mentioned from these first parts, the purpose of the study is to investigate these factors that are affecting speaking skill, explore some difficulties in speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School and provide some suggestions and implications in English learning and make a contribution to teaching materials The study has basically gained its aims through the combination of techniques and modifications in many speaking activities We have conducted an experimental teaching period to get a reliable result for the study By using appendices, we handle the figures by qualitative and quantitative methods The survey has shown that our project has brought out a significant change in learning and teaching speaking skill In our opinion, giving motivation, using techniques and modifications are excellent way to encourage students participate in speaking skill Limitations The research only focuses on the teachers‟ views, attitudes, thinking and knowledge on the benefits of learning in term of creating motivation for students, improving speaking skill, learning autonomy and teamwork skills The research was conducted in the form of mixed research method but there is a limited number of participants because of covid 19 disease circumstance If there are more participants, the results might have been more reliable Recommendations From the finding results, we are hopeful that this study can be the basic for everyone who pays attention to enlarge and deepen on communicative skill We recommend that future studies about the topic relating to oral skill will be carried out and others authors will give more and more pedagogic recommendations to assist their students to communicate better in target language 37 REFERENCES Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and learning in the language classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press Bygate (2006) - Current Trends in the Development and Teaching of the Four Language skill, (1987)- Speaking Oxford: OUP Jo Mac Donough (1995) Spoken Language: What is it and How to Teach it: Cambridge University Publishers Grace Stovall Burkat(1998) - Learning Strategies, London: Routledge and Prentice Hall Publishers Hayirie Kaky - Strategies Competence in Foreign Language Teaching: Aarhus University press McDonough J, & Shaw, C (1993), Materials and Methods in ELT A Teacher‟s Guide, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Carol J Orwig- Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Programe: Chicago: SIL International Victoria University of Wellington- Language Teaching Techniques APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Please fill in the information and circle on the answer you choose Your name: ………………………………………………… Age: … How many years have you been learning English? ……………………… According to you, which skill is the most important in learning English? A Reading C Listening B Speaking D Writing Are you interested in speaking lesson? A Yes B No Give the reasons why 38 How you think about the speaking topics that new textbook give to you? A Interested and motivated B Excited and ready to talk C Boring and uncomfortable D Embarrassed and nervous When having conversation, you understand your partners' idea? A Easily although they sometimes express inappropriately B Sometimes it is difficult to see what they mean or they cannot make it clear C Usually get trouble with understanding What you think about your English speaking skill? Which factors affect your interest in speaking lesson? ………………………………………………………………………………… Do you have your own suggestions to improve English speaking skill? Let’s list out ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Thanks a lot for helping me ! 39 APPENDIX APPENDIX 3: STUDENTS’ PRESENTATION RESULTS Class 10T ( taught without modification) NAME 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Nguyễn Bảo An Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh Trần Nguyên Anh Vũ Duy Anh Đặng Quốc Bảo Nguyễn Phạm Danh Danh Phạm Trí Dũng Võ Trọng Dũng Đào Thị Ánh Dương Hồ Đức Dương Dương Xuân Đạt Nguyễn Đình Đức Phạm Hồng Đức Nguyễn Trung Hồng Gia Thái Dỗn Minh Hiếu Nguyễn Văn Hoàn Phan Khánh Hoàng Trần Xuân Huế Nguyễn An Huy SCORE 8 7 8 6 7 7 40 Nguyễn Duy Khánh Nguyễn Văn Khánh Doãn Văn Trung Kiên Nguyễn Thị Thảo Linh Nguyễn Thành Long Trần Văn Hưng Nhân Nguyễn Trọng Phước Hoàng Nghĩa Quang Phạm Vinh Quang Nguyễn Đức Quân Phạm Minh Quân Lê Viết Sang Trần Huy Sơn Phan Tuệ Tâm Ngô Đức Thắng Ngô Quang Thắng Nguyễn Xuân Thắng Lê Thị Quỳnh Trang Vũ Lê Bảo Trân Dương Văn Viết Trần Quốc Vũ 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 7 8 8 7 7 6 APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ PRESENTATION RESULTS Class 10D6 ( taught with modification) NAME SCORE Bùi Kiều Anh Nguyễn Minh Anh Nguyễn Quỳnh Anh Lê Thị Hồng Ánh Trần Minh Ánh Đinh Thế Bảo Ngô Linh Chi 8 Lê Văn Cường 9 Nguyễn Văn Dũng 10 Dương Xuân Đạt 11 Đặng Thành Đạt 12 Nguyễn Cao Xuân Đạt 13 Nguyễn Thu Giang 14 Trần Thị Phương Hoa 41 15 Hoàng Thị Thu Hoài 16 Mai Thế Huy 17 Hồ Phương Linh 18 Dương Thị Khánh Linh 19 Phan Thị Huyền Linh 20 Vũ Thị Trang Linh 21 Nguyễn Đức Long 22 Lê Nguyễn Cơng Lực 23 Tơ Khánh Ly 24 Hồng Mạnh 25 Phạm Thị Yến Ngọc 26 Trần Thị Hồng Ngọc 27 Nguyễn Lê Nguyên 28 Nguyễn Thị Yến nhi 29 Nguyễn Anh Phong 30 Nguyễn Mai Phương 31 Ngô Sỹ Trung Quân 32 Lê Diễm Quỳnh 33 Phan Thị Diễm Quỳnh 34 Hoàng Nghĩa Sơn 35 Thái Diệu Thùy 36 Nguyễn Anh Thư 37 Phạm Hà Thương 38 Võ Hà Thương 39 Nguyễn Thị Hồng Vân 40 Phan Hà Vi 41 Phan Phương Vi 42 APPENDIX 4: PICTURES OF STUDENTS’ PRESENTATIONS 43 44 45 ... TRAINING LE VIET THUAT HIGH SCHOOL =====  ===== SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN THE NEW TEXT BOOK “TIENG ANH 10” TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES Vinh,... reached To some extends, we would like to give out some suggestions for improving speaking skill in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to encourage students‟ participation in speaking activities and to. .. try to conduct the study entitle: ? ?Suggestions for improving speaking skill in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to encourage students’ participation in speaking activities? ?? We hope that our study