Rationale of the Study
Nowadays, with the development of technology and information together with the spread of globalization, English becomes a global language because it is broadly used in various fields of our life such as in technology, business, commerce, communication and so on As a result, learning English for communication skills has created a huge demand for teaching and learning English around the world The fact shows that communicative approach of teaching English is preferred in learning English Teaching English is not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability Therefore, in order to develop the learners‟ communicative ability, teachers need to create a good classroom environment which motivates their speaking activities
In recent years in Vietnam, English has been playing a very important role in the development of the country firstly because it is an international language and secondly it is also seen as a mean to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries Consequently, more and more people desire to know and focus on English to keep pace with the update development in technology in the world Therefore, English is not only widely taught at schools, universities, but it also is taught at many foreign language centers as part-time classes and others
In Ha Noi, there are more and more English centers established everywhere with a lot of learners Most of them are students, engineers, or workers, who come to the centers with the hope to have a good command of English to use it effectively in all four skills
Regarding speaking skills, the majority of learners agree that this macro skill is always at the top of their demand for many aims such as passing oral examinations at universities, having good communications, getting good jobs, etc However, most of second language learners experience varying degrees of anxiety when asked to express their views in front of other people This is true even when their language abilities are rather good In fact, there is an excessive amount of anxiety negatively influencing many language learners‟ behaviors and educational outcomes Campbell and Ortiz (1991: 159) show that language anxiety among university students to be „alarming‟ and estimate that up to one half of all language students experience debilitating levels of language anxiety
As a teacher of English in Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center for nearly two years, I have found that learners would like to speak English a lot but they lack confidence in speaking and they are usually passive and find it challenging while communicating with English-speaking people In speaking lessons, there are hardly many communicative activities for teaching speaking English used by teachers Consequently, learners are too shy or even keep silence and do nothing in speaking lessons Moreover, they think that speaking English is very difficult for them and they become fed up with learning this skill
In fact, the attempt to create a negotiating and students-centered learning atmosphere in English by teachers is usually unsuccessful The achievement of effective communicative teaching becomes a daily headache to all English teachers here Inevitably, the lack of learners‟ participation in speaking activities leads to the teacher-centered learning in English lessons and learners‟ anxiety in learning a second language, especially in speaking English These reasons actually drive the researcher to the study “ A comparative analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce Pre- intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center” with the aim of suggesting some communicative activities to reduce these learners‟ anxiety in speaking English.
Aims of the study
This study aims at suggesting some communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and compare which activities are the most effective for them
In order to achieve these aims, the following objectives are established:
- Firstly, to review the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center
- Secondly, to investigate the current activities used in teaching speaking English at this center
- Thirdly, to suggest some communicative activities to reduce pre-intermediate level learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at this center
- Fourthly, to make a comparison about which activities have effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English.
Scope of the study
To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, teachers can make use of various activities and a number of techniques should be done However, within the framework of this M.A Minor Thesis, it is too ambitious to list all communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Therefore, this research only focuses on three communicative activities (that is, role-play, discussion, and information gap) and then compares their effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking classes
Moreover, due to the limit of time, only a foreign language center in Hanoi is chosen for the research All of 20 learners chosen are studying in a Pre-intermediate level class.
Methods of the study
In order to complete this research, qualitative method will be used The participants of the study are the learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center More specifically, the researcher planned classroom observations and did questionnaires consisting of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire to gather in-depth information about the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and which communicative activities used in their speaking lessons It is believed this method will bring about a complete look into this research.
Research questions
The study is to apply some communicative activities and compare them with the aim of finding out the most effective one to reduce learners‟ speaking anxiety at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center To achieve this aim, answers to the following questions are sought:
+ Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center?
+ Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, role- play, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English?
Design of the study
This minor thesis consists of three main parts:
Part One, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, design of the study, and definitions of terms
Part Two, DEVELOPMENT, is composed of four chapters as follows:
- Chapter One, Literature review, is concerned with a brief review of knowledge about overview of communicative language teaching, foreign language anxiety, communicative activities and benefits of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English
- Chapter Two, Methodology, is about the research method, research design, data analysis and the rationale for using five activities
- Chapter Three, Data Presentation and Analysis, is the part relating to pre- action research survey, action plan implementation, observation results, post-action research survey, and a comparative analysis of communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English
Part Three, CONCLUSION, consists of four sub-parts: Summary of the study, Limitations of the study, and Suggestions for further studies.
Definitions of Terms
- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): CLT is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages”
- Foreign language anxiety: This is considered as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process”
- Communicative activities (CA): include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the community These communicative activities contain a communicative purpose in any situations and a concentration on language content not language form and communication without teachers‟ interference
- Action research (AR): is the first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out
- Comparative analysis: This term refers to comparing two or more things to get some certain results.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of Communicative Language Teaching
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is interested by the researchers such as Chomsky, Richards & Rodgers (1986), Al-Mutawa and Kailani (1989), Hedge (2000) and so on This is an approach to the teaching of second oreign languages that focuses on interaction as both the means and the fundamental aim of learning a language Moreover, it is considered as a “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simple the “communicative approach” According to Hymes (1972), he considers the goal of learning a language is to develop “communicative competence” “Communicative competence” here not only refers to knowledge of the grammatical rules of a language and how to form grammatical sentences but also to know when, where and to whom to use these sentences in a speech community Similarly, Nunan (2004) states that “language can be thought as a tool for communication rather than as sets of phonological, grammatical and lexical items to be memorized lead to the notion of developing different learning programs to reflect the different communication needs of disparate grasps of learner” (p.7)
CLT is an approach rather than a method of English language teaching focusing on students‟ needs and individual affective factor, advocating several language- learning principles or kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning Richards and Rodgers (1986:71) confirm some characteristics of CLT as follow:
“Language is a system of the expression of meaning; the primary function of language is for interaction and communication; the structure of language is reflects its functional and communicative use; the primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.”
Larsen- Freeman (1986) shares the same idea about meaningful tasks and communicative functions, that is, “almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent.” More specifically, there are a lot of communicative activities such as games, role plays, simulations, and problem solving tasks, which give students an opportunity to practice communicating meaningful in different contexts and in different roles
Although CLT has many advantages in developing learners‟ communicative competence, it has some barriers such as high English language proficiency from teachers, large class sizes to handle, lack of teacher training in effective CLT strategies, lack of practice among teachers in using effective CLT strategies, much time on the part of the teacher needed for preparing effective CLT activities, and much time required in the classroom for implementing effective CLT activities (Rowe, nd.)
In conclusion, CLT is a new way of teaching and learning a foreign language, especially English It is mainly focus on the approach of teaching a language with the aim of developing learners‟ interaction along with their communication Although it has some limitations above, its benefits of using CLT in teaching and learning English to develop learners „communicative ability are not unacceptable Providing for real communicative activities in a language course by using CLT is thus considered to be one of the most important recent development in the curriculum.
Foreign Language Anxiety
Learning a foreign language is not simple for learners because there are various factors affecting their learning such as intelligence, motivation, attitude, age, gender, personality, anxiety, and so on (Skehan, 1989, cited in Wu, 2010: 174) Learning acquisition should be achieved naturally, but learning a foreign language in the classroom, for most students, is full of challenges One of the know challenges comes from learners‟ affective factor, that is, foreign language anxiety Its definition, sources as well as some effects in language learning will be discussed in the following parts
1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety
Foreign language anxiety in this study is conducted as a variable that can influence learner‟s decisions to speak English Therefore, it is very important for the researcher to consider the different research addressed the area of language anxiety
Horwitz et all (1986) state foreign language anxiety as “a distinct complex of self- perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (p.128) According to Speilberge (1983), anxiety is defined as the “subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (p.15) In describing language anxiety, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) write:
“The anxious student may be characterized as an individual who perceives the L2 as an uncomfortable experience, who withdraws from voluntary participation, who feels social pressures not to make mistakes and who is less willing to try uncertain or novel linguistic forms” (p.112)
Therefore, it can be concluded that foreign language anxiety is the distinguished factor accompanied with learners‟ anxious feelings and stress along with their behaviors during their learning process It is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon When learners face with classroom anxiety – provoking situations, they often feel less oriented, less assertive than in the others Therefore, teachers of English or instructors should know that most of learners‟ anxiety relate to their mental feelings and behaviors and find out the effective ways to reduce this
1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety
It is obvious that language anxiety has a great influence on learner‟s language learning Therefore, there have been a lot of the earlier studies of its causes According to Young (1991: 427), there are six potential causes of language anxiety including personal and interpersonal anxieties, learner beliefs about language learning, instructor beliefs about language teaching, instructor-learner interactions, classroom procedures and language testing From this list we can see that the author classifies the causes into three main aspects, that is, the aspects of learners, teachers and instructional practice to which Bailey‟ findings also followed (cited in Na, Z 2007)
However, the most influential findings are from three authors Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) They divide the causes of language anxiety into three types, that is, communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation
Communication apprehension is defined as “apprehension about others‟ evaluation, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectations that others would evaluate oneself negatively.” (Horwitz et al., 1986, p.128) Moreover, in learning a foreign language, the authors (1986) state that communication apprehension as manifested into difficulty in speaking in dyads or groups (oral communication anxiety), or in public (“stage fright”), or in listening to or learning a spoken message (receiver anxiety).Next, the concept of test anxiety is defined as “a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure Test- anxious students often put unrealistic demands on themselves and feel that anything less than a perfect test performance is a failure” (Horwitz et al., 1986: 127-128) Last is fear of negative evaluation which may stem from learners‟ classroom and require continual evaluation In a similar manner, Young (1991) maintains that this fear, irrespective of whether it is real or imagined, must be an important situation that contributes to foreign language anxiety This is broader in scope than test anxiety because it is not limited to test- taking situations In contrast, it can happen in any social, evaluative situation (Horwitz et al., 1986)
In fact, the reasons why learners often cope with foreign language anxiety result from personal and interpersonal anxieties as well as learner- instructor beliefs and interactions In other word, it dates from anxiety of being low or negatively evaluation and difficulties in oral communication Test anxiety is one of the above main factors of foreign language anxiety, yet this study will not focus on it because of my above learners‟ aspects
Most of them are from the different universities or companies with the aims of learning English as a communication or for their future job, so the study only discusses about two main sources of foreign language anxiety, that is, communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation
1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning
It can be said that language anxiety is regarded as a simple transfer of other general kinds of anxiety such as trait anxiety to language learning It is a phenomenal issue caused by the unique stress imposed on students in language classes This has a great influence on second language acquisition
Some researchers confirm that a certain amount of anxiety in language learning can enhance the learning process such as Alpert & Haber (1960) In Bailey‟s (1983) study of competitiveness and anxiety, it was found that facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success, and closely related to competitiveness Horwitz et al (1986) affirm that language learners who are anxious about learning a language separate from cognitive processing limitations He emphasizes that language anxiety itself can inhibit language learning
In contrast, studies reveal that anxiety may result in adverse effects on language learning, it is also believed that anxiety could motivate language learning Krashen (1985) acknowledges the influences of the affective filter in second language anxiety in relation to input The higher the affective filter the less input someone is able to process According to the author, this affective filter consists of emotive reactions such as language anxiety (cited in Zgutowicz, 2009, p 20) More specifically, Crookall and Oxford (1991) assert that serious language anxiety may adversely affect students: self-esteem, self-confidence, and ultimately hamper proficiency in language acquisition Similarly, Turula (2004), and Von Worde (2003 state that anxiety has a negative effect in language learning Fears, nervousness, insecurity and lack of self-confidence are related to language anxiety
MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) found that speaking is by far the main agent of anxiety- arousal, and that students with high anxiety perform worse than those with low anxiety
Supporting this view, Liu (2007) describes that:
“ all the correlations involving language anxiety were found to be negative As language anxiety scores increased, the ratings of ideas expressed, output quality, and self-rated competence declined .It was also found that anxious students tended to underestimate their ability and more relaxed students tended to be overestimate their ability.” (p.120)
From these previous researches, the researcher finds that language anxiety plays an important role in learning a foreign language Although it can enhance learners‟ ability at some extents, it mostly prevents learners from their language acquisition Besides, foreign language anxiety has a great influence on speaking, writing, reading and listening ability among learners Especially about the anxiety in speaking skill, the researcher totally agrees with the opinion of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) that students are very self- conscious when they are required to engage in speaking activities that expose their inadequacies, and these feelings often lead to “fear, or even panic” (p.128).
Communication Activities
It can not deny that anxiety greatly influences in learning English in general as well as in speaking English in particular As Young (1991: 429) states that “anxieties associated with classroom procedures center primarily on having to speak in the target language in front of a group” Therefore, it can be concluded that speaking activities in the classroom create the most foreign language anxiety As a result, reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking activities is of great importance in teaching and learning English This leads to many researchers focusing on some techniques to reduce learners‟ anxiety in learning a language, especially English However, the researcher in this study only emphasizes on some communicative activities with the aims of reducing learners‟ foreign language anxiety Definitions and benefits of communicative activities are also discussed in the following parts
Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners When defining communicative activities, Harmer (1991: 50) states that:
“Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristics at the communicative end of the continuum Students are somehow involved in activities that give them both the desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of the language
Such activities are vital in the classroom since here the students can do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of language autonomy.”
Sam (1990) considers communicative activities as “the techniques which are employed in the communicative method in language teaching The language-using activities for communication are not restricted to conversation and may involve listening, speaking, reading, writing or an integration of two or more skills.” Furthermore, the author states some characteristics of communicative activities such as being purposeful, being interactive and conducted with others and often involving some form of discussion, authentic materials are used together with realistic situations and authentic models, and communicative are based on the information gap principle
Referring to some principles of using communicative activities for language teaching and learning techniques, Morrow (1981) gives out some: First, „Know what you are doing‟ means that each part of the lesson focuses on some operation which student would want to perform in the target language Second, „the whole is more than the sum of its parts‟ refers to the fact that it is necessary to work in the context of the whole in communication
Communication cannot easily be analyses into its various components without its nature being destroyed in the process Third, „the processes are as important as the forms‟ are the processes of communication such as information gap, choice and feedback should be as far as possible replicated in trying to develop the ability of the student to communicate in the target language Forth, „to learn it, do it‟ means that practicing communicative activities helps students learn to communicate In this situation, teachers no longer dominate the learning situation, but she provides all the help the students needs to play an active role in their own learning Last, „mistakes are not always mistakes‟ is that there is the need for flexibility in deciding to treat different things as „mistakes‟ at different stages of the learning process towards communicative competence (Cited in Sam, 1990)
The researcher finds the definition made by Sam (1990) meaningful and profound It supplies with a full insight of communicative activities, that is, they help them interact with each other as well as encourage learners‟ communicative ability in learning a language
1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English
It is clear that communicative activities play a very important role in developing learners‟ communicative competence in general, as well as their speaking English ability in particular Littlewood (1981:17) argues that there are some contributions that communicative activities can make to language teaching such as “whole-task practice‟, improving motivation, allowing natural learning, and creating a context that supports learning
First, communicative activities can provide “whole-task practice” In foreign language learning, learners practice various kinds of communicative activity with the whole- task practice designed to suit learner‟s level of ability
Second, communicative activities improve motivation The author goes on saying that the learners‟ ultimate objective is to participate in communication with others Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to achieve it with increasing success
Thirds, communicative activities allow natural learning The author shows that learners‟ language learning only happens in natural processes of using the language for communication Therefore, communicative activity is an important role of the total learning process
Forth, communicative activities create a context that supports learning According to the author, communicative activities supply many chances for learners to practice their speaking skill, especially positive personal relationship among learners and between learners and teacher Such relationship can help to “humanize the classroom and creates an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn
To sum up, offering communicative activities can help turn English classrooms into an active and enjoyable place where learners can learn what they need and want to learn
Some above contributions of communicative activities such as enhancing motivation, creating a good learning environment and supporting a natural learning make the researcher interested and apply them for the aims of the study
1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities
Littlewood (1981: 20) divides communicative activities into two types: functional communication activities and social interaction activities The first type is “the ability to find language which will convey an intended meaning effectively in a specific situation”
Some activities of this type includes comparing sets of pictures; noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or a picture, reconstructing story –sequences The second one is
“the ability to take account of the social meaning as well as the functional meaning of different language forms” Activities of this consist of conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role-play, simulations, skits, improvisations and debates Although there are a lot of communicative activities in teaching English, but in this study the researcher only gives out some below with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at an English center
METHODOLOGY
Research methods
In this section, three categories are addressed They are some information about action research with the rationale for action research, questionnaire survey, and observational method
An action research (AR) is not only about research, but about action too In other word, it means “learning by doing”, which helps identify a problem, find the ways to solve it, as well as bring about social changes or practical actions (O‟Brien, 1998) Therefore, the
AR should be done by all teachers at any time All of these lead the researcher to choose the AR as the most useful method to carry out this study
Action research is becoming increasingly significant in language education It is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998, p.1) Kemmis and MacTaggart (1988, cited in Nunan, D 1992: 17) state that AR is planned by „practitioners‟-classroom teachers- rather than outside researchers Moreover, they go on saying that AR is
“collaborative‟, and it is aimed at changing things Its distinctive feature is that it seems
“likely to lead to improvement, and for evaluating the results of strategies tried out in practice Action research is a group activity” Similarly, Ferrance (2000: 6) shows that an
AR is a reflective process allowing for inquiry and discussion, as well as a collaborative activity among colleagues “searching for solutions to everyday, real problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement.”
Nunan (1992: 18) also accepts that collaboration is highly desirable, but he argues that it is not the leading characteristics of AR According to the author, any teacher interested in exploring processes of teaching and learning in their own context can carry out an AR He also disputes that AR is not necessarily concerned with change He adds that a „descriptive case study of a particular classroom, groups of learners, or even a single learner‟ if initiated by a question, supported by data and interpretation, and carried out by a
„practitioner investigating aspects of his or her own context and situation‟ is considered as a really AR
Moreover, AR can help a researcher fill the gap from the theory to practice (MacNiff, Lomax &Whihead, 1996: 13 and Zuber-Skerrit, 1992: 16, cited in Songsiri, 2007: 47) According to Warrican (2006), the author states that AR is widely used in language teaching but also as an approach for external innovators who seed to effect educational change (cited in Songsiri, 2007) Therefore, this study is an action research project of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English though some communicative activities with the aim of bringing about some changes for the current teaching and learning situation at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center
In conclusion, this brief consideration of the previous researches of action research convinced me that this was the appropriate method to use to investigate how to reduce learners‟ anxiety and improve their speaking skills as well as find out communicative activities which are the most effective
Questionnaires are very cost effective and useful for studies involving large sample sizes Additionally, they are familiar to most people because nearly everyone has had some experience completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people apprehensive Therefore, to investigate the aspect of teaching and learning speaking English, I use one of the research methods, that is, questionnaire survey, for my study
Questionnaires, as one of the most common forms of data collection tools, can easily be assessed in terms of reliability which refers to the ability of questionnaire to produce the same results in different implementations, leading to a consistency and dependability of the results Richards and Lockhart (1994: 10) confirm that questionnaires are a useful way of
“gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly.”
Questionnaire surveys play a very important part in my study because they help me investigate learners‟ actual learning situations in speaking lessons From this, I am able to design a suitable action plan to experiment in my own class Most of the questions are close-ended so that they are easy for the respondents to complete In addition, questionnaires reduce bias There is uniform question presentation and no middle-man bias Therefore, the researcher‟s opinions will not influence the respondents to answer all the questions in a certain manner Questionnaires are easy for the researcher to analyze to collect data for this study
To sum up, the researcher chooses to use questionnaire surveys because they require less time and less expense Furthermore, they help me collect considerable data and different ideas in a relatively short time Thanks to these positive features, I still continue using this method to enhance the success of the study after having implemented the action plan together and planned the observation results
Class observation is also the useful methodology for this study In fact, I cannot collect data to monitor the desired change only by making questionnaire survey
Additionally, none-verbal gestures and facial expressions used by learners which communicate without the use of words cannot be recorded As for Good and Brophy
(1974, cited in Estacion, A., MacMahon, T., Quint, J., Melamud, B., Stephens, L., 2004:
9), they show clearly that teachers are unaware of some of their behavior They add that learners‟ surveys may capture learners‟ attitudes toward what teachers do but are unlikely to provide a complete and accurate picture of teachers‟ actual behavior
Richards (1994:12) suggests observation is a way of gathering information about teaching, rather than a way of evaluating teaching; although generally observation is associated with evaluation He goes on saying that “the observation of classroom teachers is serious business; it should not be approached casually” (p.22) According to him, there are two kinds of observations in the classroom: observations by teachers of a cooperating teacher-class; and peer observation, in which one teacher observes a colleague‟s class
In this study, the researcher uses the first kind of observations given out by Richards
(1994) for several reasons First, I want to collect information not only about my learners‟ real ability but also their reaction to a particular speaking activity given out by myself
Second, my AR is conducted in an evening class at a foreign language center while teachers are very busy for their own work, so it is very difficult for me to ask any teachers to come to observe my lesson Third, I am afraid that the presence of anyone else in the classroom will make the learners either alter their behavior or too conscious of being observed that they might do the tasks differently As a result, I will collect some worse information or not be the truth
In order to do my own observations, I designed and printed an observation checklist (see appendix 1) with the aim of collecting the data and information with ease
Furthermore, learners‟ speaking can be affected by many non-linguistic factors such as facial expressions, body language and the change of their voice tones, speaking speeds, louder or softer ability according to the situation and the importance of the message they want to convey (Harmer, 1998) Therefore, I decide to measure the learners‟ speaking competence by calculating the number of utterances they produce, the number of times they use their mother tongue and assess their attitude towards the communicative activities.
Research Design
This section focuses on some procedures of AR used in this study as well as gives out some details of subjects of the study
Referring to the procedures of an action research, the author of this study follows the steps based on the figure below by Somekh in McBride & Schostak, J (1989) She gives out an elaborate listing with distinguished steps in a research process
Figure 1: Detailed Action Research Procedures (adapted from Somekh, B in McBride & Schostak, J 1989)
From the figure above, this study will be planned in turn with the following seven steps:
Step 1: Identifying or defining a problem, that is, selecting an aspect in the teaching process to examine in more details In this step, I talked to students and discussed with my colleagues at the center As a result, I found that one of the major learners‟ biggest problems might be their anxiety in speaking English Therefore, I decided to take action to help them to reduce it
Step 2: Collecting data The first survey aimed at searching for the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English as well as which communicative activities used in speaking lessons To collect the pre-action research data, I planned class observations and the pre-questionnaire
Step 3: Analyzing the data and generating hypothesis After collecting the data and analyzing it, I found that there are few communicative activities in their speaking lessons, which make them not confident or even difficult for them to speak in class
Therefore, I decided to study whether applying communicative activities for speaking English has good effects on reducing their anxiety or not
Step 4: Planning action: developing an action plan to help bring about desired changes In the action plan, I intend to carry out three communicative activities (role-pay, discussion, and information gap) in two-hour sessions of a speaking class (see appendix 3 for the whole action plan)
Step 5: Taking the action: The action plan lasts nearly three months with the participation of the researcher and the twenty learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center
Step 6: Collecting post- action research data to check if the desired change has made, using the observation checklist (see appendix 4) and the second questionnaire survey (see appendix 2)
Step 7: In this step, I analyze the data collected and evaluate the results of findings
In this scale of the study, the author is going to present the steps mentioned above a bit differently:
- The first step is described in the Introduction
- The second and the third are discussed under the title “the pre-action research survey”
- The fourth and the fifth are combined into one heading “The action research”
- The sixth and the seventh are intervened in “the post action research survey”
The study will be conducted in a course of nearly three months at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center, where the data will be collected, analyzed and improvement strategies will be tried out All participants in this study include twenty learners, 9 male and 11 female students Most of them are students from universities in Ha Noi whereas only three are workers from offices or companies Their ages are between 19 and 29 In addition, most of them have been learning English for at least 6 years from their secondary and high schools except three learners who have not learned English for a long time Their levels of English are pre-intermediate, and they have three classes per week with integrated skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) in a lesson
Although they took a test before joining the class, their level of English proficiency is a mixture, ranging from elementary to pre-intermediate Even though they are learning English at their universities, they still come to this center because they said they were not good at some basic grammar points More importantly, they were lack of communicative ability and they did not know how to express their ideas in front of the others For seven learners who are workers or staff, their jobs force them to the center because they sometimes work with their foreign partners in English Therefore, all my learners enroll these courses with the aims of improving their speaking proficiency
That is to say, all participants were interested in the study, appreciated that anything I try to do is to help them be fluent speakers of the English language In short, being aware of the huge difficulties, the author of this study has come to a conclusion that both teachers and learners must take action to “save ourselves” – that is, reducing learners‟ anxiety along with improving their speaking skill As a result, an action plan must be made and put into action immediately.
Summary
To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and compare the effects of using communicative activities in speaking lessons, action research procedures (identifying a problem, collecting data, analyzing the data, planning action, taking the action, collecting post-action research data, and evaluating the results of findings) were one of the main factors to be used in this study It can be said that this study is widely used in language learning and teaching for promoting both learners and the teachers‟ development
To reach the purpose of the study, the author processed to interview twenty learners at a foreign language center in Ha Noi and recognized their problem in speaking English
Finally, the author decided to apply three of many other communicative activities, that is, role-play, discussion, and information gap for their speaking lessons with the aim of reducing their anxiety and comparing their effects on learners Therefore, learners, the teacher worked and learned together through action research procedures, they all reached much progress in both learning and teaching English at their own pace In short, I totally agree with the following extract from Nunan (cited in Elydirim & Ashton, 2006:4) that classroom action research happens when teachers reflect critically about the teaching situation, recognizing learning or instructional problems and plan methods to cope with them.
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Pre-action research survey
Learning English is to learn how to use and communicate with the others in English successfully It will be of great success if learners combine all skills, especially promote their speaking skill, during their learning periods For the twenty learners at this center, they did not spend much time practising speaking English in their lessons Even some are now aware that one of their main purposes in learning English is to be able to speak English fluently, but they still do not talk readily in class at ease They are shy, not confident or even anxious about speaking English As a result, this brings about some limits during their lessons In order to help learners overcome such difficulties as well as to solve the problem, teachers must find out the causes of their awkward situation, only basing on which we can seek for appropriate solutions
After studying the theoretical backgrounds of communicative activities, I have a very strong impression that applying role-play, information gap and discussion activities will help reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Before designing a detailed action plan, however, I will do a class survey to find out whether my learners‟ attitude to speaking and different types of speaking activities are good enough for what we intend to do in the action plan to be carried out successfully
With the aim of recognizing the learners‟ problem in speaking English, I observed two of their fifteen-minute speaking activities integrated in a reading comprehension task
All learners were supposed to discuss the questions relating to the topic of the reading texts
“Tales of two cities” (John& Liz, S 2007 p.18) and “Brat camp” (John& Liz, S 2007 p.42)
I concentrated my observation on learners‟ participation in speaking English in class by counting the number of times the whole class spoke English It was really a disheartening shock The results are synthesized in table 1 below
The legends: B = Number of learners attending the class; C= Number of learners participated in speaking; D = Number of learners speaking English; E = Number of learners speaking in L1
From the above table, we find out that the learners were not at all interested in speaking English in class They were either reluctant to speak or unwillingly answered the teacher‟s eliciting questions when asked Therefore, over half of the learners took part in the activities given out by the teacher In the first activity, 11 out of 20 learners (55%) joined speaking activity, among which the number of learners spoke English is 35% and 10% of them used their mother tongue in their speaking activity In the second activity, the number of learners participated in speaking English was fewer than the first, that is only 50% As a result, learners used English in their speaking and Vietnamese were fewer
These numbers were up to 30% using English and 20% of them using Vietnamese for their speaking activity
It is clear, on the one hand, that the causes of these were their limited time for each activity and opportunity to practice and develop their communication skills On the other hand, they might be speaking activities which did not provide them with good chances to speak English or might not make learners attracted by In addition, they were only the questions discussing about the content of reading texts, which are based on a certain rule
Therefore, their speaking activities became boring and discouraging for learners in my class
In conclusion, the reason why the learners in my class at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center did not have chances or opportunities to practise speaking was the teacher‟s little use of communicative activities Speaking activities are often boring or uninteresting, unfamiliar, or inappropriate to learners‟ level of English Therefore, they did not encourage them to participate in speaking lessons
The data collected through the first survey questionnaire below will be the supplementary information to the above causes of the learners‟ limited communication skills, basing on which an action plan will be designed to carry out in this study
The pre - questionnaire was conducted at the beginning of the course to find out the real problems, the causes of the situation, and solutions to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center The data collected is analyzed in details, basing on which an action plan is developed and implemented with the objective to encourage their speaking ability
This pre - questionnaire (see Appendix 1) includes eight questions The first question aims to find out how many years learners have learned English The second is to identify the evaluation of learners on speaking English The third is to find out the extreme of the learners‟ speaking English in class Question five and six ask for the opinions of learners on anxiety in speaking lessons and the causes of such a problem The last question investigates which communicative activities are often used in speaking lessons
In order to get information for the study, twenty questionnaires were delivered to the learners in my class, and the same number was collected one week later The results I received gave out the clear evidence that speaking English is of a great importance on learners Most of the learners (65%) confessed that they completely admitted the importance of speaking English, and 35% of the rest agreed with this Although all of them confirmed the important role of speaking English in class, half of them (50%) did not often speak English in their class
How often do you take part in speaking activities in class?
Chart 1: The extreme of learners’ taking part in speaking activities
Half of the learners gave out the idea that they sometimes joined speaking activities in class 35% of them answered that they often did so It is regrettable that only two of twenty learners (10%) claimed that they always took part in speaking activities in their class More surprisingly, one of the learners confessed that she never participated in speaking activities (5%) She added that she was too shy to speak in front of the class
Moreover, the activities for speaking English in class were not various and not attracting to her All of these normally made her keep silence in speaking lessons
The learners‟ answers to question three (summarized in Chart 1 below) show clearly whether learners are anxious in their speaking English or not Half of learners share the same opinion that they are anxious in speaking English Even four of twenty participants (20%) answered that they total agree that they are really anxious when speaking English in class Only a few of them did not give out their opinions (3 = 15%)
Chart 2: I feel anxious when speaking English in class
I feel anxious when I speak in a foreign language class
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree
One surprising thing is that three of the participants expressed that they disagreed or totally disagreed with the idea that speaking English in class is of the anxiety for them
These numbers are 20 % (disagree) and 15 % (strongly disagree) To sum up, the number of the learners feeling anxious in speaking English is quite high up to 50 %, and 15% of them was not sure to make their decisions This number is much higher than the one of the learners who did not feel anxious in speaking English This states the fact that most of the participants are not confident or anxious in their speaking English
The reasons why the learners did not speak English much in class were various as table 1
Table 1: The causes of the learners’ anxiety in speaking English
The legends: a = I am worried about making mistakes when speaking English, b = do not have enough vocabulary, c = feel nervous, d = other learners will laugh at me, e = not many interesting activities encouraging me to speak English
Action plan implementation
This study is carried out on twenty pre-intermediate learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center, based on the principles and procedures of an action research presented in figure 1 (see 2.2) The research planned at the beginning of the course March the 2 nd and ended on May the thirteenth I intended to implement the communicative activities selected below in six fourteen-minute speaking sessions (The whole action plan is in appendix 3)
I have selected the following three types of communicative activities (role-play, discussion, and information gap) shown in the Literature Review based on consideration the results through the pre-action research survey All I want now is to prove that communicative activities might reduce the learners‟ anxiety and effectively improve their oral communication skills
Below are sample activities selected for my study and the procedures for each kind
With each kind of them, the author of the study will present the samples, the procedure, the learners‟ action done by my observation, the preliminary results and what teachers must notice when using the same communicative activities
From the advantages of role-plays given out in the Literature Review, role-play is one the first communicative activities used in this study The samples, the procedure, the reflection, and the findings will be planned in the following parts of the study
Sample 1: The learners work in groups of three
Situation: At a party, two people meet and make friends with a strange person One is a worker in a factory, one is a boss, and the last is a teacher They are talking about their jobs
Sample 2: The learners work in pairs
Situation: A man is at the supermarket He is talking to his wife on his mobile phone He is asking his wife about things to buy
Sample 3: The learners work in pairs
Situation: A man bought a computer two days ago, but he could not turn it on He is complaining with the manager of the shop One learner acts as a manager, and the other is a customer
Sample 4: The learners work in groups Situation: The teacher gave out some situations and asked the learners to make conversations The situations for making conversations included the topics of “being sympathetic to a friend who‟s just failed an exam, leaving a friend‟ house where you‟ve just had dinner; saying goodbye to teachers or classmates when you leave school” (See the role card in appendix 5)
3.2.1.2 Procedure of a role-play activity
Cherif & Somervill (1998, cited in Jarvis, L., Odell, K & Troiano, M., 2002, pp 3-4) divided role-playing activities into four stages as below:
- Preparation and explanation of the activity by the teacher
- Student preparation of the activity
- The discussion or debriefing after the role-play activity
In this study, the author follows the procedure of a role-play activity consisting of some stages below
- Preparing and explaining of the activity by the teacher: The teacher sets the context, divide the learners into groups or pairs, stating the aim(s) of the activity, and considering necessary and appropriate vocabulary/ or grammar structures for the task
- Familiarizing the learners with roles: Each learner is given a role card which let them know what their roles are and what they have to do
- Role playing: This part is very important The learners are given enough time to complete the task The teacher must be flexible to help the learners in their difficulty and control the class
- Providing general feedback: The teacher would get some pairs/ groups to act the role-play out in front of the class When the learners carry out their role play, the teacher will take notes and gives feedback later
- Follow up the activity: This is always set as homework so that the learners spend more time at home thinking more carefully about and recalling what they have done in class They can base on what they talked about in class as well as the teacher‟s feedback, so they certainly memorize the main things about the topic discussed
3.2.1.3 Reflection on implementing the activity
Role-play activities were done four times in the action plan, on March 9 th , March
23 rd , April 20 th , and May 4 th proved to be very good speaking activities for the learners as they could utilize a lot of their previous language knowledge Especially, the teacher gave out some prompts or help for the weak learners if necessary
The first time the learners work in groups of three (see sample role-play in appendix
5) In these groups, I divided each of them a specific role such as a worker, a boss, and a teacher Three of these people were discussing about their different life at a party I introduced the rules and aims of the activity and checked whether they understood what they had to do While my learners were discussing with their partner, I walked around and supported ideas or necessary vocabulary or structures The fact showed that the learners worked much more actively and they could find many ideas for their speaking Generally, most learners were interested in the role play, and joined speaking activity excitedly
The second time, the teacher delivered the learners role cards about shopping (see appendix 4) One was a husband and the other was a wife The teacher also explained the rule of the activity More specifically, the husband was at the supermarket and shopping there He did not know what to buy, so he phoned his wife to ask about the things After their learners‟ role play, the teacher recognized that the learners are very active and excited Even, Doan who hardly speaks English in class took part in the activity The class atmosphere became more interesting and noisier
The third time, all the learners worked in pairs to complain about a new computer with a manager From my observations, I found that some pairs practised speaking a lot
They were interested in giving out their own problems and solutions However, two pairs were reluctant to speak because they came late, so they could not listen to my instructions
Observation Results
My direct observation during my teaching gives me a real picture of what I want to find out the fact of the learners‟ speaking skill in class In the speaking activities, I, on the one hand, found that most of the learners took part in the activities They spoke a lot and fluently On the other hand, three of them (Phuong, Doan, and Minh) were not really willing to join the speaking activities All the observation results are illustrated in the tables with two headings: learners‟ attitude toward the speaking activities, the times of learners‟ speaking in class (see sample Observation checklist in Appendix 4A)
Using observation checklists helps me assess the learners‟ behavior more easily
With each activity, I concentrated my observation on six learners between 3 and 5 minutes only Moreover, I made a clear plan to observe the same learners for the second time in order to get some clear evidence of their progress The results of my observation are synthesized briefly in the “observation results” table (see appendix 4B), based on the observation checklists
As the information in the table, it clearly shows the learners‟ attitude (1) towards the speaking activity observed while doing the activities in pairs or groups and the times of speaking English in class “W” means that the learner was willing to take part in the activity when speaking English in class “R” refers to the learners‟ reluctance in speaking English “A” reveals that the learner actively participated in the activity More particularly, the learner grasped all the opportunities to practise speaking as well as gave his/her opinions when a question was given out In general, the learners were interested in doing the activity, listening to the others‟ ideas, working cooperatively in pairs or groups in order that they finished the activities the most effectively
To mark the learners‟ participation in speaking activities, I based on the Techniques that Encourage and Measure Oral Communication (TEMOC) suggested by Hadley (2002)
In his study, the author gives out that TEMOC brings about some educational value when being used in Japanese colleges or universities Therefore, TEMOC seems to be the only valid measure of FL learners‟ oral proficiency that I can use in this study During my classroom observation, I gave my learners points each time they start speaking English
One point was given to the learners each time they made questions in English for a task or spoke English in simple words/ sentences conveying the topics Two points were given to the learners each time when they produced long or complex sentences, or answered questions that call for greater use of the target language Learners earned three points when volunteering to be a spokesperson of a groups-basked task, or attempting to answer questions which were considered challenging For example, when the learners participated in an information gap activity to ask and answer questions about Mario and Chantal, the learners‟ participation results were marked as below:
Linh (St13): “How old is Chantal?” 1 point
Phuong (St14): “35 years old.” 1 point
Linh (St13): “Oh, she isn‟t young anymore Where is she from?” 2 points Phuong (St14): “She‟s from Marseilles in France.” 1 point Linh (St13): “Well, It‟s very beautiful How many people are there in her family?”3points
Phuong (St14): “Four people in her family.” 1 point
Linh (St13): “She is a teacher, isn‟t she?” 2 points
Linh (St13): “What does she often do in her free time, Phuong?” 1 point Phuong (ST14): “She goes to the gym and she goes to holiday home in Biarritz.” 2 points Linh (St13): “Thanks a lot, Phuong Good bye.” 1 point
In conclusion, the teacher‟s notes in the observation sheets helped reflect on my own teaching English as well as got equivalently certain information about my learners‟ speaking ability Therefore, I was able to assess and adjust what to do and the ways to help the learners reduce their anxiety in speaking skills with the best results.
Post action research survey
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research, the post questionnaire survey is conducted after the implementation of the action plan This second survey includes five questions The first question aims to find out the learners‟ feelings about using communicative activities in speaking lessons The second one is to investigate how often the learners take part in communicative activities with the four extreme such as always, often, sometimes, or never Question three examines the effects of using three communicative activities with the aim of reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Question four asks which communicative activities the learners like in their speaking lessons And the last one in the questionnaire allows the learners to give out their personal judgment on using communicative activities to reduce their anxiety in speaking English
The post questionnaire survey was delivered to twenty learners after the teacher had applied three communicative activities (role play, gap information, and discussion) in speaking lessons The learners were asked to complete it honestly in one week
Additionally, I also explained it to them very clearly that anything they said would be helpful to me, as good points will be expanded and bad ones will be eliminated or got rid of completely in the future step by step
In order to collect the desirable information, the author synthesized he data in the tables below This data, to some extent, illustrates three communicative activities help reduce the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and improve their oral skills
The learners‟ answers to question one show the way they feel about communicative activities (CA) in their speaking lessons
Table 3: The learners’ feeling about CA used in speaking lessons
Question 1 Very interesting Interesting No idea Boring Very boring
From the table above, we can see that the number of the learners found communicative activities interesting is very high 65 % of them said they were very interesting and 35% stated that communicative activities were interesting Surprisingly, none of the learners answered that CAs were boring or very boring It can be concluded that communicative activities bring about good effects on encouraging the learners‟ speaking ability in my class
Chart 2: The learners’ participation extreme in communicative activities used in speaking lessons
When investigating on the extreme the learners took part in communicative activities in speaking lessons, most of the learners (70%) answered that they often joined in the activities 25% of them confessed that they were always involved in communicative activities Only 5% admitted that they sometimes did More interestingly, none of them gave out the answer that they never participated in CAs
Question three asks the learners about their feelings on three communicative activities used in class as the chart below
Role-play Information gap Discussion
N u m b er o f th e le ar n er s
Chart 3: The learners’ interest in communicative activities
For this question, the learners had to answer which communicative activities they liked in their class More specially, they could choose more than one option Results collected from the questionnaire show that discussion is the learners‟ favorite activity, which was chosen by 17 of twenty learners The second rank is role-play because 14 of twenty learners agreed that they liked it in their speaking lessons 9 of the learners accepted that they were interested in information gap activities All this data proves that discussion activity is the most favorite one in my class
Table 4 below summarizes the learners‟ answers to question five about their feelings after taking part in communicative activities in speaking lessons
Table 4: The learners’ feelings after participating in communicative activities in speaking lessons Less anxious More anxious More confident Others
A big percentage of the learners (90%) said that after participating in communicative activities in their class, they were less anxious than before Surprisingly, two of twenty learners (10%) answered that they were more confident in their speaking English None of them expressed that they were still anxious or more To sum up, most of the learners in my class agreed that communicative activities had great effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English They became more confident in their speaking activities They could practise English with their friends or even with the teacher anytime or at any task.
A Comparative Analysis of Some Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English
In this part, the author of the study creates a comparative table about three communicative activities to find out which one is the most effective to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English To make a specific comparison about three communicative activities used in speaking lessons to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in my class, I design the table below in details
Table 5: Effectiveness of reducing the learners’ anxiety in speaking English through communicative activities
Communicative Activities N M SD Very effective
A little effective Undecided Not effective
Not effective at all Role-Play 20 4 3.52 9 = 45% 6 = 30% 5 = 25% 0 = 0% 0 = 0%
N = Numbers of the learners; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation
From the table above, we can see that the questionnaires were delivered to the same number of the learners with all three communicative activities The Mean for three activities are the same (4) However, when referring to Standard Deviation (SD), the difference is shown more clearly
Most of them agreed that discussion were of a great effect in reducing their speaking skill (60%) 35% of the learners stated that discussion were a little effective Only 5% expressed that they did not decide, and no one showed that it were not effective to reduce their speaking English The SD of this activity is quite high (4.77) This proves that the number of the learners agree that discussion greatly influence in reducing their anxiety in speaking English
About the role-play activity, 45% of them confessed that role-play activity were a little effective on reducing their anxiety 30% of the learners expressed that this activity had a little effective on reducing their speaking skill However, the number of the learners confessed that they did not express whether the role play activity had good effects on reducing their anxiety in speaking English or not was 25%, which is quite high The SD 3
52 expresses that the dispersion of the difference from the learners‟ answers is extremely big Nevertheless, this rate is lower than that of discussion Therefore, role-play activity is less effective than discussion in reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English
For the information gap, only 35% said that information gap one was very effective
20% of them said that it were a little effective More surprisingly, 15% of the learners agreed that the information gap activity did not have effects on reducing their anxiety in speaking The number 2.45 is the information gap‟s SD This figure reveals that the difference of the learners‟ answers is low; even it is the lowest among three communicative activities Most of the learners confessed that information gap hardly helps them reduce their anxiety in speaking English
It can be concluded that most of the learners agree the discussion activity has the best effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English The answers for this activity have a quite big difference with the SD of 4.77 The role-play activity ranks the second as 45% of the learners confirmed that it is very effective in reducing their anxiety The information gap one is in the last position since 15% of the learners said that it is not effective in reducing their anxiety in speaking English.
Summary
Chapter three describes and discusses in detail what I actually did in my study The findings of the study can be drawn out as follows:
The learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center are often anxious in their speaking lessons The learners‟ opinions were revealed in the pre-questionnaire They were lack of vocabulary and structures and not confident enough to speak English in class Moreover, the speaking activities used in their class were often pairs/ groups, role –plays and interviews Meanwhile, pairs and groups are used the most often in their class
After implementing the action research, the information collected through observation and post questionnaires gives clear evidence that the learners are more confident and active in the communicative activities given out in their class Their favorite activity is discussion in speaking lessons Moreover, they confirm that discussion really brings about great effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English It also proves that the author has been going in the correct direction to improve the learners‟ speaking skill at this center
After doing class observations, delivering pre-questionnaire as well as implementing an action research, the researcher leads to the final part of the study, which is devoted to summary of the study, limitations, and suggestions for further study
English becomes an international language and is broadly used in various fields of our life Therefore, learning English for communication is very necessary for all learners and teachers in many countries, in general, and in Vietnam in particular Speaking skill is of a great importance in teaching English In fact, most of the learners in Vietnam, especially at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center, feel anxious in speaking English This has great effects on their communicative competence
The study is aimed at investigating which communicative activities used in teaching speaking English at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center as well as implementing three communicative activities to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English The two questionnaires were raised to reach the aims of the study With the use of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire for twenty learners along with the observation sheets, the author of the study has collected the data to the two research questions
For the first research question, “Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center?”, I have found that pairs/ groups, role-plays and interviews were often used in speaking lessons Moreover, the learners were not interested, but anxious in speaking English They often kept silence during their speaking period or even passive in speaking skill
After implementing three communicative activities in speaking lessons in my class at this center, I have collected some valuable information through post-questionnaires and class observations The learners become more confident in speaking English in class with three communicative activities given out in the study Most of them are active to join in speaking activities In other words, their speaking skills are much improved
In order to answer the second research question, “Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, role-play, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English?”, the author also makes a comparative table and gets a valuable result That is, discussion activity has the most effect on reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English among three communicative activities implemented in the study
This study inevitably has limitations due to the reliability of the findings First, the choice of subjects for this study was conducted at one class with only twenty participants in a center That is, this may focus on some samples at the center As a result, it may limit the generalization of certain conclusions drawn from the findings
Second, using the questionnaires in this study may bring about some limitations The learners are asked to choose from a number of pre-prepared options instead of being asked to give their own ideas freely To a certain degree, this format might have affected and limited these learners‟ expressions of ideas concerning why they felt anxious when speaking English and which communicative activities are used in their class
Third, learners‟ perceptions about English anxiety may have individual meaning developed from personal context, experience, and knowledge Therefore, the findings of the study may not be able to provide a representative picture of the entire population of learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center Consequently, we need to be cautious when generalizing the research findings
Last, only three communicative activities are implemented in the action research, which may not lead to general results for the learners at the center Therefore, the findings of the study may be applied for only this class in the center
Though the research is still a long way from perfection and there remain limitations, it is believed that this study will positively contribute to the using of some communicative activities in teaching speaking for learners not only at Ha Noi Foreign Language Centers but also at other centers with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English
Since no single research design is complete, this study cannot cover everything in the field of reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Many untouched issues can be interesting topics for further research such as:
- Using communicative games to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English
- Using many communicative activities in large multilevel classes
- Drawbacks of communicative activities and their solutions
In conclusion, I believe that this study provides some meaningful insights for foreign language teachers and researchers with respects to learners‟ interests in foreign language learning Most importantly, I believe that the findings of the study can increase mutual understanding between teachers and learners, help teachers generate better strategies to alleviate learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, and therefore push their speaking skill better and better
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