28 Sy Thi Thom USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE CADETS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT COMMANDO COLLEGE OF TRAINING OFFICERS SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG TRỐNG THÔNG TIN Đ[.]
28 Sy Thi Thom USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE CADETS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT COMMANDO COLLEGE OF TRAINING OFFICERS SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG TRỐNG THÔNG TIN ĐỂ THÚC ĐẨY ĐỘNG CƠ VÀ SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC VIÊN TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯỜNG SĨ QUAN ĐẶC CÔNG Sy Thi Thom Commando College of Training officers; Thom_sqdc@yahoo.com.vn Abstract - It is undeniable that English has been an essential means of communication both in the military and other fields in society In particular, recently Special Forces has taken some new international missions, so speaking English well is significant important for all cadets of Commando College of Training Oficers (CCTO) However, cadets here are not able to speak English well when they not often participate in the speaking activities and even keep silent in speaking lessons As a result, the action research was carried out through six steps to find out a solution to this problem IGAs were applied in six speaking lessons in class K36A including 25 cadets with the intervention phase during weeks The data was collected from two instruments manely classroom observation from video recordings and questionnaire for cadets The result of the study indicated that implementing IGAs in teaching speaking can help cadets to be more active and motivated in speaking lessons It is reported from the study that most of the cadets enjoyed IGAs in speaking lessons This proved that thanks to IGAs, the cadets’ motivation and participation have improved significantly Tóm tắt - Hiện tiếng Anh phương tiện giao tiếp cần thiết kể ngồi qn đội Gần lực lượng Đặc cơng đảm nhiệm nhiệm vụ quốc tế việc nói tiếng Anh cần thiết học viên Trường Sĩ quan Đặc công Tuy nhiên học viên cịn hạn chế việc nói tiếng Anh Do đó, tác giả tiến hành nghiên cứu hành động sử dụng hoạt động trống thông tin để khắc phục tình trạng Nghiên cứu áp dụng hoạt động tuần vào lớp K36A gồm 25 học viên Số liệu nghiên cứu thu thập từ cơng cụ: quan sát băng hình lớp học bảng điều tra Kết nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hoạt động trống thông tin giúp học viên chủ động tích cực tham gia nói Đồng thời, đa số học viên thích thú với kiểu hoạt động Vậy điều chứng minh qua hoạt động trống thông tin, động tham gia học viên học nói cải thiện đáng kể Key words - information gap activities; motivation; participation; interaction; action research; intervention step Từ khóa - hoạt động trống thơng tin; động cơ; tham gia; tương tác; nghiên cứu hành động; bước can thiệp Introduction 1.1 Rationale for the study Nowadays, with other military forces in Vietnam, Special Forces have taken over significant foreign missions in which participating in the UN Peacekeeping Force is one typical task Hence, speaking English becomes more necessary for military officers as well as commando officers than ever Having been teaching English at Commando College of Training Officers (CCTO) for over ten years, I have realized that cadets' learning process in general and cadets' English learning process in particular is completely different from that of students in other Universities It can be seen from my teaching process that most cadets are not motivated to participate in English speaking activities They tend to sit and listen passively and things they are required instead of actively joining in speaking tasks This problematic phenomenon is due to the lack of speaking test in final exams and the available assigned tasks after graduation Usually, cadets will a written English test at the end of each semester rather than talk about real situations and they not need to find a job after graduation because they will be assigned a suitable position in the military Because of these reasons, cadets are passive and less motivated to participate in English speaking activities scholars in both foreign countries and Vietnam studying the exploitation of Information Gap Activities (IGAs) in language teaching In foreign countries, this topic has been investigated in different aspects by various researchers For example, Sari [15] described the implementation of IGA, Defrioka [1] tested to what extent applying IGA could improve students’ interaction in speaking class, Jondeya [7] focuses on finding out the effectiveness of using information gap on developing speaking skills for the eight graders in Gaza Governorate Schools In Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang [11] conducted a thesis with the topic “Using IGAs to enhance speaking skills for the first year students in ED-ULIS-VNU” or Lai Thi Dua [8] studied this issue at Phuong DongUniversity “Using information gap activities to motivate students in speaking lessons for the first-year non-English major students” I have tried to study these scholars’ and researchers' work above to find out solutions to this phenomenon and IGAs seem to be a practical technique to apply in my current teaching situation because in my college no teachers have used this kind of activity to improve cadets’ speaking skill So I have decided to carry out the paper with title "Using information gap activities to promote cadets' motivation and participation in English speaking lessons at commando college of training officers" 1.2 Aim of the study The study was conducted to find out the effectiveness of IGAs on CCTO cadets’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons In fact, there have been a great number of researchers and ISSN 1859-1531 - TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG, SỐ 8(93).2015 1.3 Research question To what extent can IGAs promote the CCTO cadets’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons? 1.4 Scope of the study Due to the limit of the article and time, the study cannot cover all the speaking activities, but focus on using IGA to promote cadets’ motivation and participation in English speaking CCTO Furthermore, Basic English is taught for first-year cadets only, the last year cadets study Specialized English – Military English so the study is conducted on the first-year cadets when they are learning Basic English with the material: New Headway Elementary by Liz and John Soars published by Oxford University Press 29 interest/ enjoyment, perceived competence, effort, value/ usefulness, felt pressure and tension, and perceived choice while performing a given activity, thus yielding subscale scores d Behavior of a highly-motivated student This study uses the framework [13] of assessment of students’ motivation It includes items as follows: No Items How involved in the activities the students are The students are enjoying the activities The students are paying persistent attention to the activities 1.5 Literature review and theoretical background The levels of students’ concentration on the activities 1.5.1 Information gap activities The students’ activity level (effort/ intensity of application) The speaking activities are challenging for the students The speaking activities are appropriate to the students’ level The students find the materials for speaking activities interesting a Definition of information gap activities It can be claimed that there have existed various definitions of the concept of IGAs, different scholars and researchers tend to approach it in different points of view In this study, the definition to be used is by Doff [3, p.211] because it is succinct and easy to understand when he states that in IGA, "one person has information which another does not have" b Types of information gap activities Doff [3] divides information gap activities into three main types: guessing games, information gap exercises for pair work, and activities in which students exchange personal information Three types of IGAs are simple and effectively communicative activities; therefore, the Doff’ classification is exploited in the study 1.5.2 Motivationin foreign language learning a Definition of motivation This research will follow the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner [4, pp.132- 147] that motivation is perceived to be composed of three elements These include effort, desire and affect Effort refers to the time spent studying the language and the drive of the learner Desire indicates how much the learner wants to become proficient in the language, and affect illustrates the learner’s emotional reactions with regard to language study b Types of motivation - Integrative vs Instrumental Motivation - Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation c Assessment of students’ motivation In the scope of this small-scale research, the author would like to assess the students’ motivation related to the use of IGA in speaking class Thus, this paper focuses on intrinsic motivation, which is concerned with the internal incentive to things for one’s satisfaction [2] The scale used for reference is the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory It is a multidimensional measurement device intended to assess participant’s subjective experience related to the target activity in laboratory experiments It has been used in several experiments related to intrinsic motivation and self-regulation [14] The instrument assesses participants’ 1.5.3 Participation in language learning a Definition of participation Green [5] approaches student’s participation as the act of being involved in the class, including an active intervention and an interest to classroom’s activity The deffinition is thought to be clear and suitable in the study b Types of participation According to Luu Trong Tuan and Nguyen Thi Kim Nhu [9], classroom interaction includes two types: nonverbal and verbal In details, the researcher notices the oral interaction relating to verbal interaction In the small scope of the study the term cadets’ participation is used to refer to cadets’oral interaction c Assessment of students’ participation Research has focused on verbal and non-verbal aspects of students’ participation in classroom discussions Methodology 2.1 Rationale for the use of action research For the past few years, one form of classroom-centered research which is called Action Research has been focused on specially by lots of researchers as well as teachers.Action research is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems [16] Moreover, LoCastro [9] adds more ideas by defining action research as a small scale investigation by teachers on specific classroom problem for the purpose of curriculum renewal and/ or professional development Therefore, on considering a proper methodology for this thesis, the author thinks that action research is the most appropriate method to promote cadets’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons 2.2 Data collection instruments 30 Sy Thi Thom Two instruments used were classroom observation from video recording and questionnaire to collect data for this action research Classroom observation was used to assess cadets’ participation and motivation in the class before and while applying IGA in speaking lessons The observation scheme adapted from Peacock [13] is employed to examine the overall class motivation, even each cadet’s because of the small number of participants (25 cadets) here The observation sheet was used to assess overall class motivation generated by the IGA in use, as manifested by levels of learners’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class Each item was scored on a scale of one (low) to five (high) The maximum possible mark by Observation sheet was 40 The questionnaire was designed and carried out in order to investigate the level of cadets' motivation in speaking lessons with the teacher’s exploitation of IGA One which was adapted from Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa & Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh [6], is composed of five main parts: interest/ enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/ important, pressure/ tension, value/ usefulness The questionnaire consists of 17 items Each item is rated on a five-point Likert scale from (strongly disagree) to (strongly agree) After the intervention step with lessons, the questionnaires were delivered to 25 cadets in class K36A 2.3 The action research process In this study, Nunan’s action research model [12] was applied as it is easy to carry out in the teachers’ own classroom in limited time and the steps are clear cut to follow This model includes seven small steps: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up presented in details as follows: Step Initiation The teacher notices a problem in class Step Preliminary investigation The teacher spends time observing the class and taking notes of cadets’ behaviors Step Hypothesis After observation, the teacher forms a question or hypothesis Step Intervention The teacher tries several solutions to solve the problem Step Evaluation After some weeks, the teacher consciously observes or measures the class again to see if there has been any improvement Step Dissemination The teacher shares his findings with others Step Follow-up The teacher explores alternative solutions to the problem Data analysis and discussion 3.1 Findings from observation sheet and discussion 3.1.1 Findings from the observation sheet - overall class motivation The data can be seen in the chart below Figure Overall class motivation in lessons The Figure presents the information of the overall classroom motivation for the cadets from observation sheet As can be seen from the chart, basically, overall class motivation increased because the total sums of score of each lesson was higher than the standard (24) except for those of L1 while the total ones of L0 and L00 (16 and 15) were much lower than the standard Although the sum of score in L1 was 21, it indicates that although the class was a little motivated compared with the whole of the intervention process, it was still higher than those in previous lessons with normal tasks 3.1.2 Discussion a General trend In the two first lessons, cadets have improved their motivation and participation in speaking activities If in L1, the total of score is 21, the number becomes 25 in L2 It means that cadets speak more in L1 than in L2 Then, the cadets were more and more motivated, which was indicated by the increasing scores in the next lessons The score of motivation reached the peak of 32 in L4 After that, the cadets were less motivated, which was shown by the slight reduction in the scores from 32 in lesson to 29 in L6 On the whole, overall class motivation gradually increased in the first lessons and it gains the highest in L4 Then, it decreased slightly in the last two lessons although the tasks were quite appropriate Cadets found the tasks less interesting, which may be explained by the use of the activities in a long period b Specific cases The data from the observation sheets (used to observe each cadet in every lesson) shows that most of the cadets have improved their motivation in these lessons However, based on these data, it shows that not all of cadets had the same process of the improvement for motivation in these lessons The Cadets 3, 11, 20 and 22 are special cases While Cadet and Cadet 20 improved gradually, Cadet 11 decreased his motivation in the last lessons Unlike the above cases, the motivation of Cadet 22 was not steady during the lessons It can be seen the table below: Lessons Cadets C3 C20 C11 C22 L1 12 12 34 35 L2 17 18 35 34 Score L3 L4 20 26 21 28 24 21 16 17 L5 34 25 16 35 L6 37 38 13 14 ISSN 1859-1531 - TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CƠNG NGHỆ ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG, SỐ 8(93).2015 To sum up, although most of the cadets in class made progress for motivation and participation in speaking class, a few of them had different degrees of progress with different trends in different lessons 3.2 Findings from the questionnaire and discussion 3.2.1 Findings from the questionnaire To investigate the extent IGAs can promote the cadets’ motivation in speaking lessons, the researcher decided to use the self-questionnaire adapted from Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa and Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh [6] The data was analyzed from the questionnaires regarding five categories: Interest/ enjoyment, perceived competence, Effort/ importance, Pressure/ tension and Value/ usefulness The data of the questionnaire is shown in the following table: Category Statement 11 12 I preferred working with other cadets 3 10 I find it easier to speak with others thanks to given information 2 IGA were very interesting I am excited about participating Interest/ in IGAs in speaking enjoyment lessons I could speak more fluently thanks to IGAs 3 Thanks to IGAs, I was more confident in speaking English 4 10 I put a lot of effort into these activities 3 14 I prepared a lot for these activities 6 10 I felt comfortable while working on these activities 2 11 11 I was always active to take part in IGAs instead of being asked by the teacher 8 12 These activities created the real Value/ usefulness need for me to communicate 1 11 13 These activities 12 Effort/ importance Pressure/ tension Statement helped me to develop my speaking ability 14 These activities helped me to react towards speaking situations more quickly 2 15 These activities offered me a chance to talk in English for a long time 10 16 These activities helped me to practice what I have learnt in real conversations 11 17 These activities offered me an equal chance to contribute to the discussion 3.2.2 Discussion Perceived competence I’m satisfied with my performance in these activities Category 31 From the data analysis, it can be claimed that the cadets have had their higher English speaking motivation with a variety of its types: intrinsic, extrinsic and instrumental motivations in which cadets’ intrinsic one is the most improvement The cadets gain their high English speaking motivation Consequently, their participation in speaking English is better It can be seen in the statement of Item 4, 13 cadets (accounting for 52%) claimed “it is easier to speak with others thanks to given information”.Moreover, in Item 15, 64% of cadets said IGAs offered them a chance to talk in English for a long time In short, cadets can speak longer and more enthusiastically as well as express their ideas more fluently and clearly thanks to IGAs Conclusion and suggestions 4.1 Major findings Firstly, in the context of the study, IGA has positive effect on cadets’ motivation in the class when the data from the observation showed that all the scores of lessons were higher than the standard (24), even it reached 32 in lesson In the class with IGAs, their intrinsic motivation in speaking has improved much It is proved by a large nunber of cadets (over 50%) who agreed or strongly agreed with the statements in the Categories Enjoyment and Pressure from the questionnaire.Besides, some other types of the motivation in speaking such as extrinsic, instrumental ones also become better The cadets seem to feel more interested in the lesson and engaged actively in the class They are aware of the benefits that IGAs can bring forthem Cadets feel that IGAs can help them to improve their speaking skill and create a relaxing environment for them to practice speaking in the class Secondly, the participation of cadets in class with the 32 Sy Thi Thom use of IGAs increases considerably From the questionnaire, it is shown that more than half of cadets claimed IGAs helped them to react towards speaking situations more quickly Futhermore, over 60% of cadets said that they were able to speak English longer thanks to IGAs Hence, it can be concluded that cadets have more opportunities to speak during the English lessons and they are able to express their ideas longer 4.2 Suggestions for teachers The teachers should learn and be creative to find the suitable ways to teach speaking effectively In order to promote cadet’s motivation and participation in speaking lessons, the teachers should be aware of the advantages of using IGAs in teaching speaking They can use various IGAs in speaking lessons and implement them effectively When using IGAs in teaching speaking, the teachers had better prepare their lesson plans carefully The activities need to be very carefully structured, especially at lower levels so that the cadets can the activities smoothly The handouts need to be available with photocopies The teachers have to make sure that cadets in each pair get different parts of the exercise and stop cadets looking at each other’s information The teachers have to find suitable ways of adapting the activities for use in a large class Moreover, to motivate cadets to speak English while using IGAs, the teacher should take care of some other factors such as: (1) Creating a friendly classroom atmosphere; (2) Promoting cooperative learning; (3) Responding to cadets’ work and (4) Giving clear explanations 4.3 Suggestions for cadets The most important thing to deal with cadets is that they should be made aware of the benefits of communicative activities in general and IGAs in particular Once they consider studying languages for communication, they will have intrinsic motivation to use the target language instead of mother tongue In addition, cadets should realize that they themselves should be responsible for their English learning Instead of being passive in the class, they are expected to join all the activities conducted by teachers voluntarily and actively REFERENCES [1] Defrioka A (2009), “Improving Students’ Interaction in Speaking class through Information Gap Activities”, Leksika journal, 3, pp 33-45 [2] Deci, E L And R M Ryan (1985), Intrinsic Motivation and selfDetermination in Human Behavior, New York: Plenum [3] Doff, A (1988), Teach English, CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge [4] Gardner, R.C (1982), Language Attitudes and Language Learning, EdwardArnold [5] Green, D (2008), Class participation in teacher training colles: What is it and What factors influences it? ELTED Vol 11 [6] Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa & Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh (2006), Research Methodology, VietnamNationalUniversity, University of Languages and International Studies [7] Jondeya, R.S (2011), The Effectiveness of Using Information Gap on Developing Speaking Skills for the Eighth Graders in Gaza Governorate Schools, retrieved from http://ntdc.alazhar.ed.ps/upload/e_thesis/RaniaSameerJondeya.pdf [8] Lai Thi Dua (2011), Using Information Gap to Motivate Students in Speaking Lessons for the First Year non English Major students at PhuongDongUniversity, VNU-ULIS [9] LoCastro, V (1994), Learning strategies and learning environments, TESOL Quarterly [10] Luu Trong Tuan & Nguyen Thi Kim Nhu (2010), Theoretical on Oral Interactions in EFL Classroom, Studies in literature and language, pp 29-48 [11] Nguyen Thi Thu Trang (2009), Using IGA to enhance speaking skills for the first year students in ED-ULIS-VNU, VNU-ULIS [12] Nunan, D (1992a), Research methods in language learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [13] Peacock, M (1997), The Effect of Authentic Materials on the Motivation on EFL learners, EFL Journal, 51(2) [14] Ryan, R M (1982), Control and information in the intrepersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive eveluation theory, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, pp 450-461 [15] Sari, M.V (2008) Improving Students’ speaking Mastery Using information Gap at the Second Year of SMP N3Kebakramat Karangany Retrieved on Nov 21, 2012 from http://viewer.eprints.ums.ac.id/eprints/theory [16] Wallace, M.J (2001), Action Research for Language Teachers, United Kingdom: CambridgeUniversity Press (The Board of Editors received the paper on 05/23/2015, its review was completed on 07/13/2015) ... Doff’ classification is exploited in the study 1. 5.2 Motivationin foreign language learning a Definition of motivation This research will follow the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner [4,... learning a Definition of participation Green [5] approaches student’s participation as the act of being involved in the class, including an active intervention and an interest to classroom’s activity... that in IGA, "one person has information which another does not have" b Types of information gap activities Doff [3] divides information gap activities into three main types: guessing games, information