Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS designing oral communicative activities for an english club at xuan huy high school to improve students speaking competence

Rationale

Speaking is a very important part in studying English and in order to communicate one to each other, make good communication, people need to speak

Having good English speaking competence is very essential especially for the students because it becomes the bridge for them to know the world However, the problems that teachers and students of English in Vietnam, especially in mountainous areas cope with are having few opportunities to use English in authentic contexts outside the classroom for learners, the students‟ characteristics are being quiet and shy, the teachers' difficulties in controlling oral communication activities in large classes, or the lack of oral communicative activities in the textbooks As a consequence, learners have many problems, especially in oral communication When they try to express themselves orally, they only pronounce isolated words and disconnected sentences making their production poor and meaningless Moreover, since speaking is required in academic and professional performances, the lack of oral production skills becomes a serious disadvantage There may be two main reasons for this The first reason, which is a basic one for every high school students, is low motivation in studying It is undeniable that passing examinations is one of the most important motivations in studying However, according to the policy from MOET, the semester and final examinations only focus on reading skills through the multiple-choice format The lack of background knowledge is the second basic reason for students having poor speaking competence

Against the problems above, in recent years, one of the key tasks of the school year in which the Department of Education and Training has given to all local high schools, including Xuan Huy high school, is organizing English speaking activities in English club so that students have opportunities to enhance their language skills and create “language environment”

This actual requirement sets a challenging task for teachers of English in Xuan Huy high school, which is to design communicative activities which can provide students with “real” contexts for negotiating meaning so that they can develop communicative competence This is also the reason why this study in designing oral communicative language activities for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students‟ competence was conducted with the hope of enhancing the ability to speak for students Helping students to have better English speaking competence also means helping them in choosing their field of study and looking for opportunities in the future.

Objective of the study

For the above-given reasons, the main purposes of the thesis are as the following:

(1) Discussing the needs for improving speaking competence of students from Xuan Huy High school

(2) Investigating the effectiveness of designed oral communicative language activities for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence.

Research questions

The study intends to find out the answers to the following questions:

What are the students‟ needs about activities to improve their speaking competence?

What are the teachers‟ needs about activities to improve their students‟ speaking competence?

Which oral communicative language activities should be designed for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence?

What is students‟ perception of the designed activities?

Scope of the study

At present, speaking a foreign language represents one of the essential requirements of today's society Besides other skills and knowledge, it is considered one of the most influencing factors while applying for a job or sustaining in a particular work position under the condition of advancing the language level Speaking is a broad and complex area that takes much time to study by linguists Moreover, the establishment and maintenance of Xuan Huy English club has contributed to the improvement of students‟ speaking ability Therefore, this study mostly focused on designing some oral communicative language activities for English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence Because of the limited time and within an M.A minor thesis, the researcher intends to make a brief view of the current situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill in Xuan Huy high school, identifies teachers and students‟ preferences and demands about English speaking activities in English Club, then applies some designed oral communicative activities and examines the effectiveness of these activities in improving students‟ speaking competence.

Methodology

In order to accomplish this study, quantitative method was mainly used The data collected for the study comes from two sources: All members in English club and all teachers of English at Xuan Huy high school

Survey questionnaires, two for students (pre- and post- designing questionnaire), were used to gather information and evidence for the study

In addition, to make the data collected more reliable and authentic, qualitative data were also collected with two instruments: a follow up interview and an informal observation.

Design of the study

The thesis organized around three parts with three chapters:

Part A: Introduction consists of reasons for the study, objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods and design of the study

Part B: Development is divided into three chapters:

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background relating to Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT) in teaching speaking, characteristic of Communicative Language Teaching, teaching speaking according to CLT, English speaking club in CLT

Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the study including the background information of the context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Furthermore, a detailed description of data analysis is presented; and some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are given in this chapter

Chapter 3 Designing oral communicative activities Chapter 4 Provides finding and discussion of the study

Part C: Conclusion Gives recapitulation summarizes the main points which have been explored in the study, and made some recommendations on how designing oral communicative language activities should be used to improve students‟ speaking competence It also discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research

LITERATURE REVIEW

Communicative Language Teaching

1.1.1 The concept of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (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 a “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply as the “Communicative Approach” (CLT, 2003)

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life Unlike the audio-lingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses The real-life simulations change from day to day Students‟ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics Berns (1984) explains that “language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak)” (Berns,1984)

1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching

The fundamental principle of CLT is to enable learners to understand and use the target language for communication Two basic assumptions underlying this approach to language learning are that the core of language learning is the development of communicative competence and that the starting point for language learning is not grammatical rules but context, function, meaning and the appropriate use of the language

Richards and Rogers identify the distinct characteristics of communicative language teaching as (1986):

"Language is a system for the expression of meaning The primary function of language is for interaction and communication function of language The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse"

This approach calls for radically different ideas of language teaching One major shift is that language learning has become student-centre Lessons are planned in such a way that all the students can engage in interactive activities

Moreover, authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities Group work and pair work are employed to promote communication and getting the meaning across Authentic materials, such as newspaper articles, radio programmes, video-tapes, train-timetables etc., are used to bring the real world elements into the classroom Situations are simulated but interaction and task complete within real-time are genuine Role-plays centre on communicative functions

In addition, fluency is an important dimension of communication The objective of language learning is to communicate; attempts to communicate are encouraged at the very beginning Errors are unavoidable but accuracy is judged in context rather in structures and forms Learning is a process of creative construction and involves errors.

Teaching speaking according to Communicative Language Teaching

As noted in Bygate‟s opinion (1987), speaking is considered as a skill, not just knowledge because the speakers not only know how to make utterances and adapt them to each circumstance but also have a skill of making fluent conversations Moreover, he distinguished the term of “skill” into two basic ways: “motor - perceptive skills” and

“interaction skill” He clarifies that the former involves perceiving, recalling, and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of the language and the later is the skill of using both knowledge and motor - perceptive skills to achieve communication

Furthermore, interaction skills can involve the management of interaction which illustrates the way to make communication smooth and the negotiation of meaning which considers about how utterances are understood explicitly

Another distinction when considering the development of speaking skills is between monologue and dialogue According to Richard (2008), who expanded Brown and Yule‟s framework (after Jones (1996) and Burns (1998), the functions of speaking, can be classified as interaction, transaction and performance In his research, each of these speech activities is quite distinct in terms of form and function and requires different teaching approaches Understanding these aspects of oral language helps the interlocutor be confident speakers of a foreign language They may be helpful for organizing our classrooms, evaluating our learners‟ evaluating our learners‟ performance, especially for developing oral activities in the classroom and real - life communication

1.2.2 The nature of speaking in oral communication

To discuss the nature of speaking in oral communication, Byrne (1986) is of the opinion that, “speaking is a two-way process between a speaker and a listener (or listeners), involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or listening with understanding)” He means that there is a close relationship between the speaking skills and listening skills in normal, authentic oral communication Byrne (1986) also says that both speakers and listeners have a positive function to perform: The speaker has to decode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language, while the listener is supported by “prosodic features” such as stress and intonation, which are a part of the utterance‟s meaning as well as by facial and bodily movement such as gestures

From the aforementioned nature of spoken language, it is clear that the major purpose of teaching and learning speaking is to train learners for oral fluency, the ability to express themselves reasonably and accurately in every oral communication

Therefore, understanding the nature of the spoken language helps learners feel more confident in communicating with others, thus they can participate successfully in communication For language teachers, taking the nature of spoken language into account will help them find out the suitable methods and techniques to motivate and improve their students‟ language competence for authentic communicative purposes

According to Oxford Advance Dictionary by Hornby, competence is (of person) having ability, power, authority, skill, knowledge, etc, (to do what is needed) While according to Chomsky (1998) the meaning of ability or competence is “the speaker- hearer‟s knowledge and ability thus includes concepts of appropriateness and acceptability The study of competence will inevitably entail consideration of such variables as attitude, motivation, and a number of socio cultural factors”

Nolasco (1997) notes that speaking ability is not fluent speaking but conversation, speaking competence means conversation ability or conversation skill It performs mutual interdependent, interactive nature of conversation It is an awareness activity as well as feedback activity so that a series of tasks is developed to sharpen the students‟ awareness on the activity and assess their own progress performance When those awareness and feedback activities done gradually, automatic conversation becomes accustomed; speaking ability, in this case, conversation skill, needs gradual practice-controlled, awareness, and finally fluency conversation

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the most influential language teaching methodology in the world CLT views language as a vehicle for communication, and communicative competence as its aim of teaching

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community Communicative activities have real purposes: to find information, break down barriers, talk about self, and learn about the culture Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson

Furthermore, many researchers in CLT define that language learning should not only focus on the grammatical structure of the language but also on language use in real-life situations In addition, in the classroom setting, CLT requires more than just attention to strategies for presenting the structure and the functions of language

Savignon (2001) suggests that CLT “requires the involvement of learners in a dynamic and interactive process of communication” (p.237) Richard and Rodgers (2001) state that, "the Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication" (p.159) Communicative Language Teaching thus encourages learners to communicate in a meaningful way using the target language from the very initial stage While using the language, accuracy is important but communication precedes it So, it is advocated in CLT that if messages are understood, accuracy may be achieved later Learners are considered as active participants in the language learning process

In general, CLT suggests that foreign language learners should base on the use of target language and practical communication, especially, through the communicative activities

1.2.5 Oral communication in CLT approach

According to Byrne (1986), “Oral communication is a two-way process between speaker and listeners or listeners, and it involves the ability of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding” As Brown (1994), also asserts that the integration of listening and speaking skills is termed as oral communication skills because listening can be developed indirectly by integrating it to speaking The literature states that communication is an exchange of ideas between people either orally or in writing It is also an exchange of meaning and understanding Meaning is central to communication

Oral communication is transfer of information from sender to receiver by means of verbal and visual aid Oral communication which is a quick and direct method brings many benefits in communicative activities It helps to convey the message immediately to the receiver It enables in obtaining immediate feedback and hence is a form in which two-way communication can be enabled The other main advantage of this communication method is that it helps in conveying the message with the desired pitch and tone that is needed for the message It also saves on time in a huge way and saves enormously on effort that is spent (http://www.learn.geekinterview.com).

Overall, communication is the exchange of ideas, information between two or more persons When communication takes place, speakers feel the need to speak, want something to happen such as expressing pleasure, charming listeners, etc and select the language they think is appropriate for their purpose In order for communication to be successful, there should be a desire for the communication to be effective both from the point of view of speakers and listeners In most of the processes of communication, the roles of speakers and listeners are interchanged; information gaps between them are created, and then closed with the effort from both sides

1.2.6 Types and design of oral communicative activities

A great number of oral communicative activities are mentioned in teaching methodology books, and their classification is distinguished according to each author's point of view

Littlewood (1981) suggests the two sets of activities The first type is

English Speaking Clubs in CLT

According to Macmillan Dictionary, Club is an organization for people who have a common interest in a particular activity or subject Club in Oxford dictionary is defined as an association or organization dedicated to a particular interest or activity

A club is also defined in http://www.yourdictionary.com that is a heavy stick, generally used as a weapon, or a group of people who common together for a common interest, or a place where people dance and drink at night

1.3.2 The roles of English speaking club in CLT

An English club is a place for ESL language learners to use English beyond the ESL classroom and in real life situations Eckard and Keamy (1981) stated that „the major goal of EFL education is to teach students how to speak English well enough to converse spontaneously and naturally‟ (p.2) This is especially important in the context of an English Club

There are many reasons for maintain and development of an English club

Students who lack interaction, motivation in the classroom, either because they are introvert, shy or they have a low language level, the English club might be a good solution to involve them with their friends in doing various activities and to make weak student active The good thing of an English club is giving students chance to study English with fun and it is also a place for students to improve their English In addition, an English club also can help students enhance communication and collaboration, foster creativity and innovation, encourage autonomous learning, create an atmosphere of ease and relaxation, cultivate good hobbies and habits, and make new friends.

Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam about designing communicative

Communicative Language Teaching has been widely explored and studied by many researchers in the field of English language teaching There have been a lot of researches and theories in the last twenty years which involve interaction between learners in the world and in Vietnam

The thesis by Wang Cheng-jun, 2006 was “Designing Communicative Tasks for College English Courses” In the thesis, the author gave a brief account of communicative tasks design, points out the key issue in designing communicative tasks for college English language teaching

The second thesis was “Designing some extra speaking activities based on business English for pre-intermediate second year students of faculty of economics-Vietnam National University, Hanoi” which was written by Nguyen Thi Hong Van,

2006 In the thesis, the author gave her students questionnaire to have an overview of real conditions directly influencing on the effectiveness of the activities, and then she presented several mostly common and effective activities as the representatives due to the limit of Minor Thesis framework

The thesis by Le Thi Huong (2007) was “Designing extra speaking activities based on “English for Tourism” for third year students at Tourism Faculty, CSSH – VNU” With the hope of motivating students to speak more in class, the author analyzed the situational needs and students‟ needs The results of this analysis were the basis for designing some extra speaking activities The author made a great contribution to the teaching and learning ESP at Tourism Faculty, CSSH – VNU

However, this is the first study that specifically deals with oral communicative language activities in Xuan Huy high school context Hence, this study was carried out to design some oral communicative language activities for the English Club to improve speaking competence in the Xuan Huy high school context

Summary: Chapter 1 has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to the topic of the study It has discussed some concepts and ideas concerning to the issue of speaking in general and oral communicative activities in particular

The following chapter will display the detailed description of the methodology, the procedures and the results of the study under the light of the above discussed theories.

METHODOLOGY

The contexts of the study

2.1.1 An overview of the English Club of Xuan Huy high school

Following distributed programs, Director‟s decision No.1764/QD-GD 24/12/2009 and No.79/KH-SGDĐT 28/8/2013 of the Department of Education and Training - implementation plan for the regular educational mission of the school year 2013- 2014, English teachers at Xuan Huy high school established and maintain the English Club with the aim of creating a playground for all students who want to improve English abilities, especially in communication and in the specialized fields such as learning, hobbies, films and cinema, friendship, etc For those purposes, the administers of the club, with many helps, have planned and organized many meetings of English Club in school year with the criteria: Creating a fun and relax atmosphere for all club‟s members; Supplementing English skills naturally through games, conversations and other activities such as celebrating the St Valentine‟s Day, Christmas‟s Day, Teacher‟s Day, The Language Day, Everyone in the English Club does all the activities, no one says „no‟ to anything, everyone has a lot of fun and they are all friendly with each other

2.1.2 Students at Xuan Huy high school

The majority to students in the study Xuan Huy high school come from communes in Yen Son district where there are difficult situations for living and learning Most of their parents are farmers Some of them do not spend much time for their children Most of students received their primary and secondary education at Chan Son, Thang Quan, Tu Quan, so the learning conditions are very poor and they deprived of chances to speaking English Most students are good at grammar, but bad at listening and speaking skills so that using English to communicate is a big challenge for most of them The foundation of English clubs has created an environment for students to learn more effective Joining English club all the students always attend with serious attitude Moreover, they really want to improve their speaking competence

2.1.3 Teachers at Xuan Huy high school

The staff of English teachers, the school has 7 English teachers consisting of 1 male and 6 females, who are aged from 32 to 54 They have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching, and do not have good teaching facilities and materials to help their work For example, because of limited facilities condition, teachers have to teach in large-sized classes There are at least 40 students for each class Therefore, teachers will face with some problems in monitoring work, giving feedback, setting up communicative tasks as well as paying attention to all students during class time

Despite all these advantages, they are very active, hard-working, kind-hearted and enthusiastic in working

2.1.4 Facilities at Xuan Huy high school

At Xuan Huy high school, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are designed for lecture lesson It means that the seats are arranged orderly in front of the teacher in rows, and classroom equipment is just a chalkboard There are two general purpose classrooms with computers; however, these computers were not in synchronization with internet connections Moreover, these rooms are not large enough to organize the different activities perfectly so some activities in English club are sometimes organized on the ground However, this is not a big problem to all members in Xuan Huy English club.

Participants and setting of the study

The total number of the students in the survey was 62 of which 35 were females and 27 were males All of them came from the countryside, among them 78% were living in villages and only 22% were living in town When participating in this study, they were in the second term of the school year 2013-2014 All the students who joined in English club with serious attitude were good at grammar, but very bad at speaking because they have limited vocabulary and they often use mother tongue Hence, most of them are not confident to use English in speaking Seven teachers of the school were selected to obtain qualitative data via interviews Those teachers are different in terms of experience (ranging from 9 years to 30 years)

All the student participants took part in the survey by responding to the two kinds of questionnaires The teachers were interviewed

The study was conducted at an English Club at Xuan Huy high school, a suburb school of Tuyen Quang city, Tuyen Quang province Like other high schools in Vietnam, English was taught here as a compulsory subject However, the teaching of English, especially teaching English speaking has met some difficulties The first difficulty is that English is not paid much attention by most of students in school The second is that teachers have to teach in the large size classes Therefore, teaching English speaking is very difficult for teachers The third problem is that most of the students are lack of background knowledge from lower secondary schools The last is the lack of materials and facilities

When Xuan Huy English Club was founded, some of the students with the passion of English had a place for exchanging and learning outside of class time It is advisable for the teachers to employ various oral communicative language activities to arouse students‟ interest in learning English speaking They, then, may improve their speaking competence and other language skills.

Data collection

In order to carry out this research, the researcher used different types of research instruments such as questionnaires and interviews Added to that, English Club meeting observations were also employed to supplement for the above instruments

The instruments used in this study consisted of two questionnaires: A need based questionnaire and a perception one Survey questionnaires are considered as one of the most effective instruments for collecting data According to Gillham (2004), using questionnaires has some advantages: They are low cost in time and money; the inflow of data is quick and from many people; data analysis is relatively simple and question can be coded quickly; there is lack of interviewer bias

Although the questionnaire is the main instrument, this study encompasses the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods The qualitative data are gained from the interviews with teachers of English when developing and revising the questionnaire After this step, quantitative data are obtained from the self-report questionnaire with the students In order to make sure that the participants can understand correctly the content of the questionnaire, the questionnaire items are presented in Vietnamese as well This helps to ensure that the questionnaires are fully filled in and answered without any misunderstanding If the respondents were unclear about the meaning of a question, they could ask for clarification At first, the purpose of enquiry was explained and the things that respondents are wondering were immediately clarified This helps diminish the percentage of unfilled questions

Investigating the students' needs about oral communicative activities can help teachers understand and design useful and interesting activities in enhancing students' speaking competence Therefore, using questionnaires is suitable for the present study

The Pre-treatment survey questionnaire was designed with two main parts with 13 questions (See Appendix 1) Each question has one function for the aim of the research

Part I was about the students‟ personal information which included students‟ gender, place of domicile and the number of years they have learnt English Part II was designed to elicit the students‟ needs about English speaking activities The first and the second questions are provided to ask students about how oral communicating activities in English can help them and the way they prefer to work The third question suggests some oral communicative activities that they may prefer The fourth and the fifth questions aims at finding the factors that can encourage them to communicate and the good ways that their teachers should give to create good relationship The sixth and the seventh questions are given to investigate the suitable duration for an oral communicative activity The eighth question is designed to find out students' preference about the content of the activities The last question investigates the most suitable way that teachers should give feedback with wrong answers The content of this questionnaire was designed based on the literature review of good oral communicative activities (Section 1.2.6 chapter 2)

Post-treatment questionnaire encompassed 11 questions which were divided into two parts (See Appendix 4) The content of this questionnaire was designed based on the literature review of good oral communicative activities (Section 1.2.7 chapter 2) Part

I was the same as part I in pre- treatment questionnaire Part II included 8 questions which would gather information about students‟ perception about designed oral communicative activities The first and second questions aim to find out students' assessment about effectiveness and students enjoyment about these activities The third question investigate pattern which brought the most effective to improve students' speaking competence The fourth question is used to define what students thought about oral communicative activities that they participated in The fifth question is designed with the purpose of investigating the students' view about the way that their teachers create good relationship with them The three last questions are provided to help writer define students' assessment about the duration, the content and the effectiveness of oral communicative activities which were applied in English Club

The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic at convenience To be more detailed, in this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to allow new and open ideas to be brought up during the interview Data collected from the interview were also analyzed with the same means made in analysis in questions for easy comparison between the students' thoughts, comments, and teachers' ones

The interview protocol includes ten questions Each question has one function for the aim of the research The first question helps to find out how long participants have been teaching English The second question aims to define teachers' point of view about the effectiveness that oral communicative activities could bring their students

With question 3, teachers are asked to talk about the pattern which they consider to be the most favorite for their students Question 4 asks about which oral communicative activities will bring effectiveness in improving their students‟ speaking competence (Games, information gap, discussion, role play, story telling, interviews, and problem - solving) Questions 5 and 6 are provided to ask teachers about factors that may encourage their students to communicate in English oral activities, and the way that they use to create good relation with their students Questions 7 and 8 investigate how long oral communicative activities are applied (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour or over

1 hour) as well as how often these activities are held The aim of question 9 is asking teachers about what contents of activities should be related The last question asks teachers to give their point of view about the most suitable way to give feedback with students‟ wrong answers These contents of the questionnaire were developed based on the literature review of good oral communicative activities (Section 1.2.6 chapter 2)

According to Wisker (2001), observation can be a rich source of information for researcher It enables him or her to capture what people actually do rather than what they say they do The researcher can observe them in context and relate to their research questions while they observe

After the researcher designed oral communicative language activities and applied them in Xuan Huy English Club, English Club meeting observations were employed to clarify and test the validity of information about the effectiveness of designed activities The writer designed a checklist for what she wanted to observe

(See appendix 3) The checklist contents were similar to the questionnaire contents, based on the theoretical backgrounds of good oral activities (Section 1.2.6 chapter 2)

Students‟ reactions towards the teacher‟s activities, techniques and behaviors, their participation in the activities and their feedback after the activities were all taken notes on the spot

After the questions in the questionnaire were revised basing on instructor‟s comments, the questionnaires were delivered to 62 students at Xuan Huy high school's English Club The time of the distribution was at the end of the school year at Xuan Huy high school When delivering, the respondents were helped to understand the purpose of the questionnaire and given overall guide to complete the questionnaire

Basic guidelines to focus on were also provided to help them understand what they had to do The respondents had about 30 minutes to fill in the form under the researcher‟s observation The respondents were also encouraged to asked questions and give suggestions The researchers were always ready to help and collect students‟ suggestions as well Finally, the completed questionnaires were collected and counted

These answers were used for data analysis

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Students‟ need analysis and teachers' interview

As previously mentioned, the survey pre-treatment questionnaire for students consists of 2 parts with 13 close-ended questions Part one is constituted by 3 questions conveying students' personal information Part two asks about students‟ need about English oral communicative activities, which includes 10 questions

10 questions for teachers‟ interview are used to definite how long they have been teaching English and their attitude toward the students‟ need for oral communicative activities

Students‟ pre-questionnaire and teachers‟ interview were gathered to analyze their need about English oral communicative activities

In question 1, sixty two students were asked about how oral communicating activities in English can help them

Table 1: How oral communicative activities can help students

The reason for choosing Students Percentages

To change behavior about some field 19 30%

To build understanding each other in communication 39 63%

To prevent misunderstandings in communication 36 58%

To present a point of view 40 65%

To lower barriers between groups and individuals 8 13%

As can be seen from the table above, most of student (95%) stated that English oral communicative activities can help them to be more confident In addition, a very large number of the students (84%) asserted that oral communicative activities can make their English speaking competence improve The figures also show that the amount of students agreeing that English oral communicative activities can help them to change behavior about some field and to build understanding each other in communication (63%) and (65%) is nearly equal There are also many students (58%) who indicated that they can prevent misunderstandings in communication if they take part in oral communicative activities more often Meanwhile, only nineteen students (30%) pointed out that oral communicative activities can help them change behavior in some field and the smallest percentage of the respondents (13%) stated that lowering the barriers between groups and individuals is the influence that oral communicative activities can have on them

Similar results were also found in the teachers‟ interview When 7 teachers were asked about how oral communicative activities can help their students, most of them answered that their students can be more confident because when they participate in oral communicative activities regularly, their English speaking competence will be also better and better Many teachers expressed their point of view that oral communicative activities can help their students in presenting a point of view and building understanding each other in communication In addition, oral communicative activities also can partly help their students in preventing misunderstandings in communication and changing their attitude about some field However, only one in seven teachers defined that oral activities can lower barriers between groups and individuals in their students

Question 2 seeks the patterns of English oral communicative activities which students prefer to take part in

Table 2: Patterns of speaking activities teachers often use to teach speaking skills in classroom

The figures shown in table 1 indicate that pair work (40%) and group work (47%) are used more than the whole class work (5%) and individual work (8%) in English oral communicative activities

Clearly, very few students want to take part in oral communicative activities in individually and with the whole class It seems that pair work and group work have many advantages in giving students far more chances to practice English communication orally It can be certain that putting students to work in pairs or groups will increase the students‟ participation in English oral communicative activities

Question 3 helps the researcher to investigate students‟ and teachers‟ preference for the types of oral communicative activities in speaking lessons:

Table 3: Students‟ preference for the types of oral communicative activities

Oral communicative activities Students Percentage

As can be seen from table 3, students like most types of oral communicative activities, especially games (95%) and role play (82%) They also preferred participate in dialogues, interview, information gap and storytelling at 77%, 73%, 68% and 64% respectively The number of students who prefer to take part in discussion, problem- solving and stimulation is little than other oral communicative activities

Similarly, teachers who were interviewed to give their point of view about which oral communicative activities will bring effectiveness in improving their students‟ speaking competence have the similar ideas The types of English oral communicative activities as information gap, interviews, games, role play, discussions and problem solving are the ones which can improve students‟ speaking competence

Knowing students‟ preferences will help teachers design the most appropriate oral communicative activities In addition, if the teachers require students to participate in oral communicative activities by only one way, it will lead to boredom among students It can be said that a successful oral communicative activity was defined when all students participated in; students could give their ideas to discuss with classmates, ask and answer their own questions with help from the teacher and better students

In a nutshell, this result is a good sign that the teachers are trying their best to adopt new CLT methods and techniques in teaching speaking to their students to enhance their oral skills

The figures which were collected from students when they answered the question

4 helped to define factors may encourage students to communicate in oral communicative activities

Table 4: factors may encourage students to communicate in oral communicative activities

The findings indicated that these factors seemed be equally important in encouraging students to communicate in English oral activities Most of the students (97%) confirmed that teacher‟s organizational activities methods is one of the foremost important factors that can encourage students to communicate in oral communicative activities Other factors such as teacher‟s personal qualities and characteristics (95%), pleasant atmosphere (90%), various speaking activities (87%) and improving in speaking competence (77%) also can encourage students to communicate in English oral activities The information obtained from teachers‟ interview about factors which may encourage their students to communicate in English oral activities shows that there are many factors that can encourage students in oral communication However, they also mainly concentrate in teacher‟s organizational activities methods, teachers‟ qualities and characteristics, various speaking activities, pleasant atmosphere and speaking competence that their students can be achieved

Question 5 deals with what students prefer their teachers do to create good relationship and to help them speak fluently when they participate in oral communicative activities

Table 5: What teachers should do to create good relationship and to help students in oral communication

Remaining in the teacher‟s seat 12 19%

Giving help if students need 56 90%

Standing near students who speak much 0 0%

Always being tolerant, enthusiastic and helpful 62 100%

The figures shown in table 5 indicated that only standing near students who speak much is not a good way to create relationship to help them in oral communicative activities (100%), and not many students (19%) answered that remaining in the teacher‟s seat will make them excite about oral communication activities According to students‟ ideas, in contrast, letting students talk freely (73%), giving help if students need (90%) and talking in friendly ways (97%) are all good ways to create good relationship to help them participate in oral communicative activities effectively Besides, when interviewed with the similar question content, all of the teachers expressed that they always behaved students in friendly, enthusiastic and tolerant way For them, letting students have a close relation with teachers would

Teacher's personal qualities and characteristics 59 95% motivated them in learning in general and in oral communicative activities in particular They asserted that walking round the class and gave students help is very necessary In short, to create the good relationship with the students to make students participate in oral communicative activities, different ways were exploited by most teachers

Question 6 shows suitable duration for an oral communicative activity

Chart 1: suitable duration for an oral communicative activity

As can be seen from the above chart, more than a half of the students (56%) agreed that the suitable duration for an oral communicative activity is 15 minutes

The reason for this choice can be understood through teachers‟ expression in their interview Most of them stated that because of the restriction in speaking competence, their students are often too shy to speak in front of the class In addition, lexical limitation also makes them confusing in oral communicative activities

However, there are also a number of students (39%) who want oral communicative activities lasted for about 30 minutes 5% of students defined that they want to participate in oral communicative activities in one hour

Question 7 illustrates students‟ preference about the frequency in organizing oral communicative activities in English club

Table 6: Frequency in organizing oral communicative activities

Most of students (90%) agreed that oral communicative activities should be organized in every English club meeting Besides, there are only few students (7%) wanted to participate in oral communicative activities once per two English club meeting and once per three English club meetings (3%)

In every English club meeting 56 90%

Once per two English club meetings 4 7%

Once per three English club meetings 2 3%

More than three English club meetings 0 0%

The result from teachers‟ interview is similar to this figure They said that taking part in and practising oral communicative activities regularly will help students improve speaking competence

Question 8 helped writer to identify the content of oral communicative activities

Table 7: The content of oral communicative activities

The close life around you: your friends, family, school, films, weather, environment, your plan in the future 55 89%

Social: politics, culture in Vietnam or in the world 12 19%

As can be seen from the table below, many students agreed that the content of oral communicative activities should be related to topic in the textbooks (74%) and the close life around them such as their friends, family, school, films, weather, environment, and their plan in the future (89%) However, the number of students who prefers topic about society, politics, culture only occupies 19 %

Students‟ perceptions about English oral communicative activities

Question 1 was designed to investigate what students think about the oral communicative activities applied in your English Club

Table 9: Students‟ assessment about oral communicative activities

As can be seen from table 9, the oral communicative activities which were applied in English club were preferred by most students 42% of the students have appreciated the oral communicative activities They said that all oral communicative activities applied were very interesting More than half of students (53%) agreed that the oral communicative activities which they were participated in were interesting

There are only 5% of the students felt them normal

Question 2 was constructed to search for students‟ opinion about how their friends were enjoyable with all oral communicative activities used in English Club

Table 10: Students‟ assessment about their friends' enjoyment with all oral communicative activities

Many students (90%) stated that they very enjoyed and enjoy with all oral communicative activities There are not many students (8%) said that they enjoyed these activities normally, and only 2% of students complained about applied activities

This means that these oral communicative activities were very useful in encouraging students participate in and motivating them oral communicate freely

Question 3 investigated about the pattern which brought the most effective to improve students' speaking competence

Table 11: The most effective pattern to improve students' speaking competence

As can be seen from the table 11, group work was utilized the most effective (58%) 34% of students agreed that pair work helped them improve speaking competence In contrast, only few students said that individual work helped them participate in oral communicative activities effectively Actually, individual work often leads to boredom or even tiredness among the students The interaction in the class, then, was often separated Lastly, there were 3% of students said that whole class work is effective way in improving speaking competence

Overall, It is possible said that pair and group work brought very high effectiveness to students in oral communicative activities They can exchange, discuss and broad their knowledge easily

To discuss assessment about oral communicative activities, question 4 is constructed

Table 12: Assessment about oral communicative activities students participated in

Very inefficient Inefficient Normal Efficient Very efficient

It is clear from the table, most of students who took part in oral communicative activities answered that these activities are efficient and very efficient For example,

58 students who participated in games said that they satisfied with the games (47%) and 38% of them stated that oral communicative games were very efficient In 32 students took part in role-play, 91% of students said that through activities of role- play their speaking competence can be improved There were only 2 students (6%) answered that this oral communicative activity was not really efficient, and 1 student (3%) complained about this activity Most students stated that information gap, discussion, story-telling, dialogue activities would provide them with good opportunities to practise and express their own opinions

Question 5 aims to find out the way that facilitators or teachers do to create good relationship and to help students in oral communicative activities

Table 13: What teachers did to create good relationship and to help students in oral communication

Most of the students (97%) expressed that their teachers and facilitators always behaved students in friendly, enthusiastic and tolerant way For them, having a close relation with their teachers would motivate them in learning in general and in speaking in particular 90% said that they often walked round the class and gave help to the

Remaining in the teacher‟s seat 0 0%

Giving help if students need 56 90%

Standing near students who speak much 0 0%

Always being tolerant, enthusiastic and helpful 60 97% students when necessary When working in pairs or groups, for examples, student‟s ideas might be not accepted by group members or a partner, teacher‟s appropriate suggestion would enhance their motivation Besides, it was not very surprising when no students complained that their teacher remained in their seat, only stood near students who speak much By this way, the teacher encouraged and allowed the students to talk about themselves to promote conversation and confidence when talking about a content that was interesting and entertaining for them in front of the class or small groups Moreover, to create the good relationship with the students to make students interested in speaking, different ways were exploited by most teachers

However, the frequency of using these ways depended much on each teacher, especially teacher‟s characteristics

In short, Teachers‟ characteristics are decisive factors to help increase motivation

It is teacher‟s helpfulness, friendliness and enthusiasm that make students are fond of learning Besides, teacher‟s tolerance also makes students feel warm in their heart, which helps reduce their stress and lets their threatening feeling go away

Question 6 is provided to ask students to give their assessment about the time spent on applied oral communicative language activities

Table 14: Assessment about the time spent on applied oral communicative language activities

Most of students assessed that their teachers spent suitable (53%) and very suitable (42%) time for oral communicative activities which were applied in their English club Not many students (3%) gave their ideas that the duration for these activities was suitable There is only 1 student complained about this matter

Question 7 investigates assessment about the content of oral communicative activities

Table 15: Assessment about the content of oral communicative activities

Suitable with the topics in our lessons 51 82%

Easy to talk because they related to close life around us 59 95%

Very difficult because they required broad knowledge 3 5%

Most of the students agreed that the content of oral communicative activities were easy to talk because they related to close life around them (95%), suitable with their age (94%), suitable with the topics in their lessons (82%) and suitable with their preferences (76%) while the rest (5%) complained they were very difficult because they required broad knowledge This sometimes confused students The oral communicative activities were designed in the light of CLT and required students to expert in speaking competence

From question the question 8, the author asked students to give their own ideas about the opinion that students‟ speaking competence are remarkably improved thank to taking part oral communicative activities in English club

Table 16: The effectiveness of oral communicative activities

As can be recognized from the table 16, most of students (88%) agreed that their speaking competence are remarkably improved thank to taking part oral communicative activities in English club Besides, 7% of students strongly agreed

However, there are still 2% of students who disagreed with this idea As the matter of fact, all students agreed that oral communicative activities could bring them with enjoyment and pleasure and help them broaden knowledge of the world.

Findings from English observation

During the time conducting this study, the author observed 8 English club meetings where designed oral communicative activities were applied As a result, the author found that there were many advantages that could bring to help develop speaking ability for students; however, some problems remained as the obstacles to prevent the goals of improving oral communicative competence for those students

The findings are described below

At first, there were still some students whose communicative ability stood at or even below the acceptable level, they were not confident enough to speak in front of the class due to their fear of making mistakes This kind of characteristic prevented the learners from speaking and inhibited them in learning English In addition, it seems that learners were not strongly motivated in English club However, when several oral

Ideas Strongly agree Agree Partly disagree Disagree Strongly disagree

Percentage 7% 88% 3% 2% 0% communicative were applied, students gradually took part in oral communicative activities with high motivation and interest This is considered a very good condition to put into practice so many kinds of oral communicative activities as it contributed to help improve speaking competence for students

When observing oral communicative activities applied in English club, the writer found that the teachers integrated speaking with other skills during their teaching process to improve the speaking competence for members of English club

When teachers or facilitators applied a variety of useful oral communicative activities, they drew the attention and raised participation of the majority of students Teachers also created many changes for students to work in pair or groups This was derived from the fact that teachers often faced with some challenges in speaking classroom such as students‟ anxiety, reluctance to speak, different proficiency levels and large size class Setting up group work in speaking class, therefore, was necessary Firstly, in the large size class, letting students work in groups could help teachers manage the class and provide students with many more opportunities to talk and self- check

Secondly, in multi- level classes, group work helped teachers make use of students‟ strengths Besides, using pair work also brought effectiveness in some case.This means that students can have more opportunities to take part in language environment

Brumfit declared that pair work and group work are the most effective techniques of classroom organization which combine aspects of communication learning and natural interaction in a stress free environment (Brumfit, 1984:78), oral communicative activities were designed with the purposes of building up students' independence and confidence for further conversations In oral communicative activities, teacher had more time to work with weaker students and encourage them to communicate

In summary, this chapter has presented some major findings based on the data analysis from questionnaires of teachers and students, teachers‟ interview and English club meeting observation Some recommendations were provided for designing oral communicative activities to improve students‟ speaking competence The researcher hopes that some recommendations that she has offered will be of benefits for English teachers in general and high school English teachers in particular.

DESIGNING ORAL COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

Face to face games (group work)

This game was applied in many schools or club with the purpose of checking students' knowledge However, there are only few schools applying version in English

Aims: develop fluency by giving students chances in working situational speaking environment It is also useful to practice speaking and listening skills

Club time: The game finishes only when find out the winner Preparation time: variable

Resources: 3 concentric circles with bigger and bigger size are numbered ordinals The smallest circle is numbered 1 and 2 The second circle is numbered from number 1 to

6 The biggest circle is numbered from number 1 to 10 The serial numbers on the circles are even

- Find 10 voluntary students who ready to participate in the game Let them draw their places 10 participants will step in their order places on the largest circle

- Introduce students the rules of the game: The game will be decided into 3 rounds:

Round 1: 10 participants have to answer 1 or more questions until 4 members were out of the game

Round 2: 6 remaining members will continue to complete the requirement in this round and only 2 last members to continue in final round

Round 3: 2 last participants will compete together to define the winner of the game

- Give students requirements in rounds 1, 2, and 3

What activities do Vietnamese people usually do in Tet holiday?

(Suggested answer: Making banh chung, eating special Tet foods, going to the pagoda, receiving “lucky money”, decorating the house, going to the flower market, watching fireworks, visiting relatives and friends )

What are necessary qualities for a friendship?

(Suggested answer: unselfishness, constancy, loyalty, trust, sympathy ) What do you need to organize a birthday party?

(Suggested answer: birthday cake, candles, cakes, sweets, fruits, flowers, music ) + Round 2: Call names of different parts of a computer system

+ Round 3: Two last participants will be seen a picture They have 2 minutes to prepare and 3 minutes to talk about the content of the picture and their emotion about it

- Then have chosen group act out the game Have the audience try to understand what is happening by interpreting the language of the improvisations

- Notify and give presents for the winner(s)

This activity will encourage students to use lexical items variously The game like context usually attracts students‟ attention and disguises the fact that this is really a revision and consolidation of lexical items

Aims: develop fluency by giving students chances in working situational speaking environment It is also useful to practice speaking and listening skills

Club time: 30 minutes Preparation time: variable Resources: pictures, some simple objects (glasses, a pen, a clock, a telephone ) Procedure:

- Find 5 pairs of voluntary students who ready to participate in the game Have other students take part in the game as a board of arbitration

- Nominate the rule of game: The game is divided into 2 rounds

In the first round, one of them will be seen the numbers from 1 to 6 on the screen 2 members in each pair have to stand back to back together There are different pictures about a place or an object behind these numbers He/she has to choose a number to find out his/ her picture and has one minute to prepare Each pair will have

3 minutes to describe and call name of the place or the object in the picture correctly

In describing process, they are not permitted to use body language and key word in the picture All the winners in the first round will be continually take part in the second round

In the second round, each pair also appoints a member who has to touch the objects in the box without seeing them Similar to the first round, each pair only have 3 minutes to describe and call name one of the objects in the box correctly, and they also are not permitted to use body language and key word in the name of the object

- Then have chosen pairs act out the game Have the audience try to understand what is happening by interpreting the language of the improvisations

- Notify and give presents for the winner(s)

A likely and relaxed atmosphere helps students learn a language This activity encourages the students to exchange opinion in a no threatening situation The activity also centers around topics that are familiar and of interest to the students Students are free to express their views, and they are also required to clarify or support their opinions

Aims: Practising giving and responding to opinions Time: 20 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes Resources: cards with different topic Procedure:

- Explain the task to the students The students will work in groups of five, sit in circles and take turns giving opinions about each other and responding to each other's opinion in fifteen minutes

- Show the different expressions that students can use in expressing and responding to an opinion This list may include I think I feel, as I see it, in expressing an opinion; and that's right, correct, exactly, in agreeing and I'm afraid not, nor really, not quite in disagreeing

- Give groups different topics and ask students to take turns giving their opinion about them Encourage students to give at least two opinions and use a different expression each time The respond has to be given immediately after each opinion

- Ask each group appoints a leader to present the results of their group's discussions

Language Camp game is one of the popular games appeared for a long time

Many language clubs was successful in organizing Language Camp However, they usually organize with a very large scale For example, Family Retreat Center organized a week-long overnight camp at offers swimming, cooking, canoeing, crafts, soccer, volleyball, archery, wall climbing, and team building Hearing the language spoken throughout each day and being challenged to speak the language during activities, large and small group learning sessions, and mealtimes make this the best way to learn a language Because students in Xuan Huy English club are allowed to active once a week, language camp was also organized in a small scale with only three areas

The Language Camp Game provides a creative game It is divided into three areas: selling area, English corner, and music corner in which students can explore the language of persuasion, negotiation, interviewing in a series of motivating, open- ended, ongoing oral interactions They also improve their listening skill

Aims: Develop interaction oral fluency; Focus on persuasion, negotiation functions, expressing personal views and interview (clearing up queries relating English language learning)

Time: Two English meetings Preparation time: variable Resources: Some CDs for learning English, pens, pencils, packet of envelopes, sea shells, notebooks, textbooks, pictures, hats, post cards, small souvenirs, key chains, and all things that the members donated to their English clubs; Some lyrics which are required filling the missing words, three computers with internet connection, a passport for each member of English club (See appendix 7)

- Have students fill all their personal information before entering the language camp, keep them carefully to the end of the game and ask teachers or facilitators in each area to tick the appropriate box in assessment about their speaking competence

- Nominate about the Language Camp Game and assign duties to members

Language Camp is divided into 3 areas: selling area, English corner, and music corner Each area will be charged by different people In selling area, there are 5 voluntary students and a teacher who ready to play as shop assistants (See appendix

5) In English corner, 3 English teachers and 3 strongest students will help to solve all problems related to English subject, introduce and guide the way to use some useful websites in learning English, for example, http://www.globaledu.com.vn/, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ http://www.learnenglish.de/ http://thptxuanhuy.ftu.edu

Circle conversation (group work)