INTRODUCTION
Statement of the problem and rationale of the study
In the era of global integration, when the ability to use English as means of communication has become so important, a really big concern of scholars, researchers, educators and learners all over the world is how to improve the quality of English teaching and learning In this context, Vietnam – Poland high school (Viet Ba high school) is putting the focus on enhancing the effectiveness of speaking lessons The reason is many students have voiced their worries about the slow improvements in their speaking ability
Although they really like English, speaking skill is one of their most difficult ones to learn
They face with so many obstacles (lack of motivation, vocabulary, activeness, enjoyment, etc.,) when making presentation or expressing their ideas Therefore, “What should they do to speak English accurately and fluently?” is the question that all students would like to answer
Besides, most of teachers have been frustrated at their failure in helping the students communicate better in English As a teacher of Vietnam – Poland high school, from my observation and my own teaching experience, the researcher realizes that during speaking lesson classroom interaction is restricted Only some students get involve in the activities conducted by the teacher while others keep silence or do other things Thus, one of the challenges to the teacher is to find out the answer to the question “Why don’t many students of English get involved actively in speaking lesson?”
There is a saying: “You can bring a horse to water, but you can not make him drink” refers to the reality that the effectiveness of a lesson depends at least as much as on the learners as on the teachers This is confirmed by the statement: “In language teaching, teachers can provide all the necessary circumstances and input, but learning can only happens if learners are willing to contribute” (Scharle, A and Szabo, A, 2000: 7) Hence, motivation is considered to be one of the key factors to success on the way of mastering the foreign language Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long – term goals, and there are no appropriate curriculum and good teaching to ensure student achievements
All these conditions, henceforth, offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study on “Improving 11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school by using communicative activities”
This study was an attempt to investigate the 11 th grade students’ motivation levels in speaking lesson at Vietnam- Poland high school to find out the causes of students’ low motivation and passiveness when speaking English In addition, through discovering the reasons why existing students’ laziness in speaking period, this paper also aimed at seeking better orientation for students at Vietnam- Poland high school to learn speaking skill more effectively We do hope that this study will help the teachers of speaking in some ways to find appropriate methods to motivate students more and more in oral periods.
Aims and objectives of the study
This research was aimed to increase 11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school by using communicative activities To be more specific, the research was carried out to find out 11 th grade students’ level of motivation at Vietnam – Poland high school in the English speaking lessons The factors de-motivating 11 th grade students in English speaking activities were also taken into investigation Then the study was expected to work out motivational techniques to increase students’ motivation level and test the effectiveness of the communicative activities in the form of an action research In brief, these objectives could be summarized into three research questions as follow:
1 How motivated are the 11 th grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school?
2 What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?
3 How effective are communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?
Significance of the study
Once having been completed, the research would serve as one of the initial studies on students’ motivation at Viet – Ba high school in speaking skill It is expected to have several contributions to not only research but also teaching and learning in speaking English as a foreign language Firstly, the research gives 11 th grade students’ level of motivation in English speaking lesson at Vietnam – Poland high school As a result, the study enables students to raise students’ awareness in improving their speaking skill
Secondly, it also proves the students’ difficulties and teachers’ drawbacks in teaching spoken periods In other words, the research pointed out students’ de - motivating factors in speaking class Then the research provides teachers with some techniques for raising the students’ motivation level in speaking lesson.
Scope of the study
First, as could be seen from the title of the study, this paper placed strong emphasis on the 11 th grade students’ motivation at Vietnam – Poland high school and the techniques to improve students’ motivation in speaking class
In addition, it is noteworthy that students’ motivation is easily affected by the content of lesson, textbooks, materials, teachers and teaching method In this study, the researcher focused on teaching method influence on motivation
Finally, speaking skill is another matter of the researcher’s concern but not reading, writing and listening.
Method of the study
As mentioned above, this research adopts an action research in an attempt to improve the current situation of teaching speaking in the teacher – researcher’s own class
In so doing, the method including questionnaires and class observation sheets were employed during the process of data collection.
Design of the study
Part I: Introduction provides a general introduction, introducing the background for the research topic and its aims, significance, research questions and the design of the thesis namely Literature Review, Methodology and Results and discussion
Chapter 1: Literature Review mentions to critically examine the theoretical background for the thesis with the focus on the main points: different psychological views on motivation in language learning; Types of motivation in foreign language learning; The importance of motivation in foreign language learning; Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning; Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking lessons; Motivation and English speaking learning; Previous studies of motivation in foreign language learning and speaking skill and communicative activities
Chapter 2: Methodology presents the methodology performed in the study, including the background information of the subjects of the study; the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Along with this, the teaching and learning English at Vietnam – Poland high school is described Also, the study – its setting and methodology are displayed in this chapter
Chapter 3: Results and discussion presents analyses and discusses the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the three research questions The chapter also reflects a detailed description of data analysis which is shown based on the survey questionaires and class observation Some explanations, interpretations and discussion of the findings of the study are explored in this In addition, action research procedure was presented in the chapter
Part III: Conclusion is the conclusion of the study, summarizing the findings; providing some implications, the limitation of the research, recommendations how to motivate students in English speaking lessons Some suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter.
DEVELOPMENT
This chapter reviews the theories related to motivation in speaking lessons It also reviews current researches on motivations in foreign language in general and in speaking skill in particular that have been conducted so far All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into students’ motivation in English speaking lessons and solutions for their troubles
1.1 What is meant by motivation?
Motivation in Gardner’s point of view (1985) is a key factor in determining the preparation of learners to communicate Motivation refers to the combination of effort and desire to achieve the goal, the connection of learning the language and favorable attitudes toward learning foreign language That is, motivation to learn a foreign language is considered in the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity
Rod Ellis defines motivation as referring to "the efforts which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn" (1994:715) He proved that learners’ performance resulted from their own need or desire when studying the language
The challenge of the activities or tasks conducted by the teachers is emphasized in Malone’s (1981) definition of motivation He viewed that challenge depends on activities must be suitable for students’ levels The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficult will decrease students’ motivation In contrast, if students are provided with the activities challenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) based on learners' interest in and enjoyment with the materials and activities used in class, their active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and interest Learning process can only makes sense if students enjoy activities and work hard
While the term motivation is often assumed to be a rather abstract concept, it could
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical background of motivation
1.1 What is meant by motivation?
Motivation in Gardner’s point of view (1985) is a key factor in determining the preparation of learners to communicate Motivation refers to the combination of effort and desire to achieve the goal, the connection of learning the language and favorable attitudes toward learning foreign language That is, motivation to learn a foreign language is considered in the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity
Rod Ellis defines motivation as referring to "the efforts which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn" (1994:715) He proved that learners’ performance resulted from their own need or desire when studying the language
The challenge of the activities or tasks conducted by the teachers is emphasized in Malone’s (1981) definition of motivation He viewed that challenge depends on activities must be suitable for students’ levels The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficult will decrease students’ motivation In contrast, if students are provided with the activities challenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) based on learners' interest in and enjoyment with the materials and activities used in class, their active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and interest Learning process can only makes sense if students enjoy activities and work hard
While the term motivation is often assumed to be a rather abstract concept, it could be basically defined as “the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the effort you will devote to that pursuit” (Brown, 2001:72)
It could be inferred from the definitions above that motivation is the effort, enjoyment, enthusiasm and constancy that learners devote to the learning tasks as well as the challenging activities conducted by the teachers to reach the setting – goals in foreign language learning Thus, when attempting to enhance learners’ motivation in learning a foreign language, different aspects or stages of motivation and factors affecting it should be concerned
1.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning
There are so many kinds of motivation in foreign language learning studied by the researchers but this research only mention to the main ones
In the literature on motivation, the concept has been classified in different ways
The most well-known classification of motivation has been made in cognitive terms as whether it is internal or external to the learner In this respect, intrinsic motivation is to do with “behaviour performed for its own sake in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction” (Dửrnyei, 2001, p.27) while extrinsic motivation is about “performing a behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward or to avoid punishment” (Dửrnyei, 2001, p.27) A learner can be seen as intrinsically motivated when he or she is boosted from within: Intrinsically motivated learner dynamically engage themselves in learning out of curiosity, interest or enjoyment or so as to reach their own intellectual and personal goals To the learner who can be regarded as extrinsically motivated when he or she keens on learning “purely for the sake of attaining a reward or for avoiding some punishment” (Dev, 1997) In other words, intrinsically motivated people accomplish a task for an internal interest whereas extrinsically motivated people perform an activity because of an interest external to the activity
1.3 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning
Success or failure in language learning largely depends on the learners’ motivation to learn the target language Up to now, many researchers have studied the role of motivation in the learning process and most of the findings share the view that positive attitude has close relationship with motivation in mastering foreign language Gardner
(1985) emphasized that on motivation constructed the primary factor to influence students on English learning He believed that motivation for language learning cannot only include goal orientation but the combination of effort, desire to achieve the goal of learning the language and the favourable attitudes toward learning the language
Motivation for learning a second or foreign language is defined as the learner’s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language (Crookes & Schmidt,
Finegan (1999: 568) sees the vital role of integrative motivation in L2 learning
“Integrative motivation typically underlines successful acquisition of a wide range of register and a native – like pronunciation”
Nunan (1991) shared his point of view in supposing one of the most decisive factors of learners’ preparation in communication is motivation relating to the connection of effort, wish to get achievement, supportive behaviours towards learning the language In other words, motivation is considered to be the limit, scale that learners try their best to learn the language resulted from their dreams and happiness in this process
Promotion in choosing strategies to learn a second or foreign language among learners is another role of motivation As Oxford (1994) proves “more motivated students tend to use more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to be more successful” It can be understood that if learners know how to apply learning strategies and techniques effectively when learning a second or a foreign language, they will be more successful
Motivation not only plays an important role in learning but it helps the teaching as well, Lite (2002) confirms “Motivation is the black-bone of any classroom When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/ her job the best”
In conclusion, the researcher would like to stress that people are moved to take action by a need to achieve or to be successful Hence, motivation is the key factor leading learners to achievements or failures It stimulates and enables students to keep their interest and excitement in the L2 learning class, which promotes teachers to make excellent performance in their teaching periods
1.4 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning
According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), learners’ motivation can be influenced by the following factors The first one is intelligence, it related to students’ performance on memorize new sounds, to understand the function of particular words in sentences, to figure out grammatical rules from language samples The third one is personality which covers a number of personally characteristics such as extroversion, inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness Learners' preferences are another thing that affects learners’ motivation when describing the learning style It can be seen that learners have their own preferences in acquiring new knowledge What learners believe in the way to learn the language can have influence on learners’ motivation Age of acquisition is also influencing motivational element Children are believed to be better than adults in acquiring a foreign language and in speaking the new language
With motivation being as important as a factor in learning success as argued above, teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness
Teacher’s role in shaping pupils’ motivation is just as complex as that of the parents This is because teachers also act as key figures or authorities, who affect the motivational quality of the learning process by providing mentoring, guidance, nurturance, support and limit setting
1.4.3 The teaching and learning conditions
Overview of speaking
Speaking plays an important role among the four language skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language
Pattison (1992) points out that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language
There are a variety of definitions for the term “speaking” However, in this study, the researcher chose the one given by Bygate In a social context, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how to speak, but not by those who do not have this skill There is no doubt that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention than written skill In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence Therefore, Bygate (1987) is reasonable when he argues that "speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second language" Our learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions It is the skill by which they are most frequently judged, and through which they may make or lose friends
It is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business It is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and is particularly conducive for learning Therefore, it is useful for learners to possess a good speaking skill in foreign language
In brief, Bygate’s definition seems to be the most suitable for the researcher’s view point on speaking
2.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech are important components of a language course However, it is difficult to design and administer such activities In order to be successful in organizing speaking activities it is essential to identify the characteristics of a good speaking activity
Ur (1996: 120) suggests four characteristics which help to define an effective speaking activity:
1 Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time alloted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses
2 Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed
3 Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective
4 Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy
In Friederike Klippel’s point of view, an effective speaking lesson is characterized by the following features The first one is message oriented communication which indicates the moments in foreign language when target language is used as a vehicle of communication The second one is learner – centered activities in which students’ feelings, purposes and ideas are the focus The third is active learning, cooperation and empathy which emphasize the students’ active participation in the speaking process
Both Ur and Klippel share some points in common From their ideas, we can see that the most prominent features of a successful speaking activity are the maximization of learners’ speaking time and equal chance for everybody to speak Motivation is one of the crucial factors that is able to make the speaking lesson meaningful Teachers should bear these features in mind when designing speaking tasks for their students
So far many linguists have identified stages in teaching spoken language Byrne (1976: 22) in “Teaching Oral English” divides the process of teaching spoken language into four stages They are the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage Harmer (1983: 50) in “The practice of English Language Teaching” mentions three stages during this process: introducing new language, practice and communicative activities Matthews et.al (1985:17) in “At the Chalkface” argues that the process of teaching spoken language include three stages They are the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage
From these authors’ ideas, it is seen that teaching spoken language should be divided into three stages They are: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage Each stage has its own purpose and relevant activities An overview on these stages is introduced below:
The presentation stage aims to give students the opportunity to realize the usefulness and relevance of a new language item In this stage, students have to concentrate not only on the meaning but also on the pronunciation, stress, intonation and spelling of the new language item Besides, grammar is paid attention to Students are passively receivers, they are only asked to practice (role – play) and dramatize a dialogue or to talk about what they have to learn from a prose based on the previous answers at the end of this phase The teacher’s role in this stage is to introduce to students the new knowledge, such as new words, new grammatical structures In other words, he plays the role of an informant
The purpose of the practice stage is to give students “the opportunity to use the newly presented language in a controlled framework so as to allow them to memorize its form and assimilate its meaning more fully” (Matthews et.al 1991:
8) In addition, it aims at making students more confident in using new language In learners should do and which kind of language they are expected to produce In the guided practice, the teacher is only the one who suggests situations, and sometimes corrects the learners’ mistakes The learners here are freer to work, discuss with their partners and to produce utterances prompted by visual or written cues At the end of the phase, Ur (1996) supposed what the teacher reaches is to better students’ fluency
The production stage aims to provide the opportunity for learners to use new language in freer, more creative ways Its purpose is also to help learners integrate newly – learnt language with previous – learnt one in unpredictable situations In this stage, the teacher is no longer an instructor Instead, he acts as the monitor, advisor, mistake – hearer, and consultant who gives advice is necessary Generally, the teacher does not interfere much in the production stage Students seem to be more confident and motivated to take part in freer activities by working individually, in pairs or in groups
In the speaking lesson, learners’ speaking ability can be improved if teachers follow three stages orderly However, teachers should consider the time limitation, the levels of learners, the students’ motivation and material in use when they design the speaking activities.
Motivation and English speaking learning
Many students suppose being able to speak a language means knowing the language and then they view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de- motivated and lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place
Motivation, in the view of Ur (1996: 120), is one of affecting factors to make sure the speaking lesson effective or not Learners have high motivation when they are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective
General speaking, motivation can be seen as one of keys that decides learners’ success or failure in speaking process.
Communicative activities
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 purpose: to find out information, to break down barriers, talk about self and learn about culture
A variety of communicative activities can be used to develop speaking skills
Below are some of the common ones
Role-play is an activity that the class is usually divided into pairs or groups These pairs or groups are given situations and roles to act out and explore This acting is done for the sake of the language and imaginative activity, not for exhibition The various groups, therefore, are activated simultaneously Role-plays are simple to plan and easy to play and, along with games and other communicative activities, are recommended to be used in the English speaking classes
IGA is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the speaking class In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class into pairs or groups In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, let them discuss for a few minutes and they change the role
IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has to find it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the other student; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other
After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things
On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized
After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity Students sit in a circle
For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on
Games are activities through which the learners can practise the language learnt in the classroom Games can enhance motivation When playing games, learners pay attention to the passage, not to the language They acquire language unconsciously, with their whole attention engaged by the activity, in much the same way as they acquire their mother tongue Games can be played at the opening stages of the lessons or at the production phase or whenever learners feel tired after long time of learning, they will draw more attention to the lesson with lower stress
Communicative activities allow students to practice using all of the language they know in situations that resemble real settings In these activities, students must work together to develop a plan, resolve a problem, or complete a task
In general, through well-prepared communicative output activities, we can encourage students to experiment and innovate with the language, and create a supportive atmosphere that allows them to make mistakes without fear of embarrassment This will contribute to their self-confidence as speakers and to their motivation to learn more.
Previous studies in motivation in foreign language learning and speaking skill
The impact of motivation in foreign language learning has been recognized significantly by many educational researchers
Gardner (1985), Dornyei (2001), Brown (1994) etc., have generated the concept of motivation, its effects in foreign language learning and applicable strategies for improving learners’ motivation in class In the light of their researches, teachers are able to answer the question how to motivate learners for success and their findings encourage or support educational researchers to do more research in different aspects of language teaching
Everybody needs to have motivation and a reason for the action Second and foreign language learners should be offered the opportunity to be motivated and fulfill their learning orientations Thus, Sulaiman Hasan H Qashoa (2006) carried out a research
“Motivation among learners of English in the secondary Schools in the Eastern Coast of the 99UAE” One hundred students participated in completing a questionnaire reflecting their orientations for learning English and what affects negatively their English learning motivation The data revealed that the UAE students have a higher degree of instrumentality than integrativeness The finding also shows that difficulties with English such as vocabulary, structures and spelling were de-motivating factors
Peacock (1997) conducted a study in the area of motivational techniques “The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners” Two beginner–level EFL classes participated including 31 South Korean students, and both used authentic and artificial materials alternately Most of students stated that they needed English for future work or study requirements The research used on – task behaviour, overall class motivation observation sheets and interview questions The finding in this study was that learners reported authentic materials to be significantly less interesting than artificial materials This confirmed the positive effect of the authentic material on the motivation of EFL learners Moreover, the result also indicated that at least for the learners who participated, interest in the materials in use is quite separate as a component of motivation from levels of attention or action and persistence with the learning task
Relating to students’ motivation to study English, Wen – chi Vivian Wu and Pin – hsiang Natalie Wu (2008) Chien – kuo Technology University, Taiwan did research on
“Creating an Authentic EFL Learning Environment to enhance student motivation to study English ”.They use quantitative methodology, explored the perceptions of students at a Taiwanese technical university concerning its EFL learning environment in three aspects: the physical environment, instructional arrangements and social interaction The study also examined the relationship between the learning context and student motivation The data revealed that the EFL environment in the three aspects was considered by students to be an obstacle to their learning, and that student motivation positively correlated with the learning environment
In terms of action research on students’ motivation in speaking, He Lina in China carried out “How can I help my students’ motivation in speaking?” He Lina is in charge of 28 students - English majors but she found them only able to read and memorize a lot instead of speaking much So her question arouse as to how to improve their motivation in speaking She applied three techniques to improve her students’ motivation: offering equal and enough chance for students to speak, varying speaking activities and encouraging them to “show off” Based on three methods mentioned above, she has achieved her goal of motivating speaking in some of her students and in the class Firstly, her students participated actively almost in class They formed an active learning atmosphere
Secondly, those who had never volunteered made progress and began to participate in speaking class In her study, she didn’t use any study instrument to collect the data, her study seems to be less believable She got findings and summary only through her own observation of students’ performance
In Vietnam, Phan Van Hoa and Le Viet Ha (2009) studied upper secondary school students’ English learning motivation in Quangnam province They used a modified 8 – item survey adapted from Gardener and a 15 – possible de-motivating factor survey are administered to 100 upper secondary EFL students in four upper secondary schools in Quangnam The researchers use a questionnaire of two parts and interview as the data collection The study revealed that the students have positive attitudes towards learning English and are highly motivated to study it, and that they are more instrumentally motivated Moreover, the students’ motivation is more de-motivated by some subject – related factors rather than by teacher – related ones
Another study conducted by Hoang Duc Doan (2009) to investigate motivation in learning English speaking of the second year tourism major students at tourism and foreign language department at Sao Do College of Industry The study employed questionnaire, interview and class observation as main data instruments The subjects were 67 students selected at random to take part in the research and 6 teachers who have taught there at least one year The findings from the study revealed teaching speaking skills have made great effort to motivate students in English speaking classes Furthermore, aptitude and lack of vocabulary of the students are main de-motivating factors
Overall, there have been number of studies in motivation in foreign language learning and English speaking lesson However, there has been little research into motivation of students in English speaking lessons at high school This is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge By doing research through questionnaires and class observations, this study hopes to add further evidence to the small but growing body of research on this topic.
METHODOLOGY
Research methodology
A form of research which is becoming increasingly significant in language education is action research This research has been defined in a number of different ways
Action research is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Michael J Wallace, 1998, p.1 and Coles & Quirke, 2001, p.14) Cohen and Manion (1985) affirmed that action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context They emphasized that 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 When other people read about their work, notice it, or make use of it, that is simply icing on the cake Action researchers undertake a study because they want to know whether they can do in a better way
Action research can help a researcher fill the gap from theory to practice (MacNiff, Lomax & Whithead, 1996, p.13 and Zuber – Skerritt, 1992, p.16) Therefore, in this study, action research was used to help the researcher improve her professional knowledge and skill, teaching and researching Moreover, doing action research helped her to become a systematic and critical thinker and to reflect on expected and unexpected situations that happened in and outside the class In addition, this method is beneficial for learners as Dr
Moira Laidlaw defined “Action research is a program of self-directed learning about one’s own teaching It is a way of improving actions and reactions in the classroom and outside, for the benefit of the learners.”
1.2 Key elements of an action research
Action research should be used not only by the researcher but also by students The more students were familiar with action research, the more they could further develop into autonomous learners Warrican (2006, p.2) argued that the core goal of action research was to create sustainable learning capacities and give participants the option of increasing control over their own situation
Nunan (1992, p.19), Nunan (1993, pp.41 - 42) and Bailey, Curtis & Nunam (2001, p.137) described the process of action research as a series of steps
Figure 1: Steps in the action research cycle
Step 1: Problem identification The researcher identified the problems that had occurred in the classroom from previous experience
Step 2: Preliminary Investigation The researcher further investigated students’ feelings towards their problems and consulted other classes about their problems
Step 3: Hypothesis The researcher formed the hypothesis that most students had low motivation in speaking skill because they had developed negative attitudes towards speaking skill learning in previous classes and teacher’s normal teaching method
Step 4: Intervention After observing the class and forming the hypothesis, the researcher planned the lessons and identified techniques which may solve the problem defined by the hypothesis
Step 5: Evaluation In this step, the researcher’s observer colleagues and her worked through the stages of: act, observe, reflect and revise to evaluate the outcomes in
Step 6: Dissemination Reporting the results was the focus of this step
Step 7: Follow – up The researcher investigates the alternative methods of motivating students
Although there are seven steps in an action research cycle, because of the limited time of study, the researcher conducted her research within 6 steps: Problem Identification,
Preliminary Investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation and Dissemination
Figure 2: Steps in the action research cycle in the current research
Subjects of the study
The study was conducted with the participants of 45 students in class 11A1 at Viet
Ba high school (where the researcher has been teaching) and 2 teachers acting as observers The 45 students were doing their second semester of 11 th grade at Viet Ba high school They were at the same age of 17, 22 of them are boys and 23 are girls They have different proficiency in English They live in different areas like Linh Dam, Van Dien, Thanh Tri, Ngoc Hoi; most of them are living in Hoang Mai district They don’t have much opportunity to communicate with foreigners All of them have learnt English for 8 years (from grade 6 to grade 12) The observers have been teachers of English at Viet Ba high school for 10 years.
Data collection instruments
This research adopts an action research Questionnaires and class observation sheets were employed during the process of data collection Specifically, questionnaires were distributed to 45 students in one class 11 th grade at Vietnam – Poland high school
Questionnaire 1: It was designed with two main parts and 15 questions The first part aimed at investigating the students’ level of motivation The second one is for gathering the students’ de - motivating factors in speaking lessons
Questionnaire 2: It contained 8 questions in 4 parts in order to find out students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method after 6 weeks of implementation, the effectiveness of communicative activities in increasing their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill
To make sure that the students understood the questions, the researcher spent about
30 minutes guiding them to answer and explaining difficult terms when she delivered the questionnaires to the students
Class observation is another method to collect data for the study It was a non – participation observation in which the researcher watched, followed and recorded activities as they were performed in the real classroom settings The observation was carried out in the second semester of the school year 2009 – 2010, the class performance was observed in class 11A1
This process is done with one class in speaking lesson Basing on the students’ activeness, students’ behaviour and teacher’s methods, class observation is implemented within one class in 11 th grade during three periods of speaking The researcher’s two colleagues who have been teaching there for 10 years observed the students and teaching method
Observation sheet 1: In order to check the overall level of class motivation including learners’ interest, concentration, enjoyment, enthusiasm and persistence with the learning task The researcher used the observation sheet which was adapted from Matthew Peacock (1997) Each item in this sheet was scored on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high)
Observation sheet 2: It was adapted from Matthew Peacock (1997) On – task behaviour of students is the focus of the observation sheet There are twelve columns and 45 rows (corresponding to 45 students in class 11A1) Two observers placed themselves in an unobtrusive position in the classroom and started observing when students had been working for two minutes The students were observed one by one, consecutively, clockwise around the class Each of them was observed in five seconds The assessment was “1” if the observed student was on –task and “0” if the observed student was off – task Then the observers passed on the next students They continued until all students had been observed and assessed 12 times.
Data collection procedures
At the beginning, the collected data was classified according to the questions in the questionnaires The most important information from the questionnaires was presented in the discussion of the data
Three observations of the author’s colleagues at three periods of speaking in the researcher’s class to investigate how the students’ motivation and what the causes are The purpose of the class observation was to access teacher’s preparation, presentations, method, teacher and students’ interaction in the classroom The class was observed 6 times during 6 weeks (3 times at the preliminary stage and 3 times at the intervention stage)
Unit 9: The Post Office and Unit 10: Nature in Danger in Tieng Anh 11 textbook were taught as usual; three 3 experimental lessons were taught with the use of communicative activities.
Brief description of the three lessons
During the three lessons, the communicative activities were applied for students of 11A1 in order to raise their motivation in speaking periods because the focus was on the students’ interest
Prior to the three lessons, the researcher explained to the students that they were not yet active in learning speaking and this would negatively affect their learning outcomes
She also put the stress that effective spoken lesson depended on students’ motivation and contribution Her lesson composes of five stages: homework checking, pre – speaking, while – speaking, post – speaking and homework
The first stage was there to make sure that my students were responsible enough for the lesson by doing the exercises given and preparing for the new lesson (vocabulary, background knowledge, etc.)
Pre – speaking stage was used to stimulate the students’ interests in the speaking activities Besides, the pre – activities also served as preparation stage for the students before entering speaking activities as teacher provided useful language such as vocabulary, structures, etc
In while - speaking stage , students participated in the speaking tasks
(Individually, in pairs or in groups), the researcher would act as the facilitator (went around, took notes, provided help if necessary, encouraged too shy students) In case of group work, there was always a leader in each group, who coordinated the group activity and assigned one member to work as a secretary to take notes for the report of group work to the teacher (if required) later To some extent, group leader could perform his/her group work or appointed other group members
Post speaking stage (or production) happened when the representatives of some
(or all if the time was available) groups reported to teacher how the activity went in their groups or made performance to me and the class Then, the researcher would give my comments on her students’ performance or give mark Because the activity aimed at helping the students become more motivated I also praised dynamic students, encouraged passive group members so that they would join in the lessons more actively next time
Besides, as the experimental lessons were speaking lessons, fluency and accuracy were also mentioned as part of my feedback, with the emphasis on fluency
As for homework , all the students had to write about the topic they had learnt in class because I intended to improve students’ writing skill Moreover, students had to prepare to talk at home about their assessments, feelings and remarks about the activities they had done in the classroom Their hand writings and their views were checked and given mark in the next lesson.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Level of students’ motivation
Research question 1: How motivated are the 11 th grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school?
Survey questionnaire 1 and class observations were used to investigate the level of students’ motivation in English speaking class The following charts indicates the results of questions 1,2,4 in the survey questionnaire 1
The above chart reveals that students did not highly appreciate the speaking skill
Only 2.22% students agreed that the speaking skill is extremely important and 5 out of 45 (11.11%) students thought that speaking was very important 9 students (20%) accepted the importance of speaking skill in English The highest percentage of the students 66.67% belonged to not important option Clearly, the reason for this was that students did not pay attention to learning English speaking skill
It is apparent from the chart 1 that 62.22% of the respondents had no interest in learning speaking lessons, 22.22% felt interested, 13.33% like speaking very much and only one student (2.22%) realize that the speaking skill was extremely interesting It can be understood that they donot like speaking skill much
As can be seen from the chart 1, 22 (48.89%) and 13 (28.89%) of 45 students were asked to answer perceived that they often and sometimes felt reluctant to speak English in class There were 3 students being ready to speak in class when they felt interested enough
This is mainly because they weren't interested in speaking lessons, so they were lazy to take part in the lessons
Regarding the frequency of speaking with classmates, 4.44% of students refused to use English frequently in class They never spoke English with their class mates in English lessons 60% of learners revealed that they rarely used English in class meanwhile 24.44% of students agreed that they sometimes had discussion with their friends in class in spoken lessons Most of students (68.89%) claimed that they answered only easy questions 10 (22.22%) of 45 students know the answer but they were too shy to join in the lessons The lowest percentage of the students (8.89%) was found never say anything in the oral period and no one volunteered to share their ideas
According to the table below, 32 out of 45 subjects (71.11%) accepted that they speak English when teacher asked them and 11 out of 45 students (24.44%) used English when talking with their classmates The percentage of learners’ communication in English when they thought it was useful and they found speaking activities interesting were the same (2.22%)
Table 1: Students’ time of speaking
A You talk with your friends 24.44
D You are interested in speaking activities 2.22
Together with questionnaire 1, class observations were also used to evaluate students’ motivation The class observation was conducted with the two teachers who joined in the study They observed the class atmosphere in Unit 9: The Post Office and Unit 10: Nature in Danger by using Class Observation sheet 1- Overall class motivation and Class Observation sheet 2 – Students’ on-task behaviour (Appendix 2) The observers were non-participants in the speaking lessons Teacher used all the tasks in the textbook
She did not change anything or design extra activities (communicative activities) The comments showed that the teacher prepared the lesson very carefully The lessons went smoothly and logically because the teacher was keen on the subject she taught However, most of students were passive and seemed uninterested in the speaking activities It was proved by number 1 and 2 in the Class Observation sheet 1 In other words, they did not pay non – stop attention as the observers used number 1, 2 and 3 Some students could not understand the requirement of the tasks in the textbook (the observer circled number 1) even though teacher had explained Whenever the students were asked to speak, they became quiet or did some other things instead of getting involved in the activities
In Class Observation sheet 2 – Students’ on-task behaviour, 55.74% and 63.52% of students were on-task in class It meant that nearly a half of students took part in speaking activities in class and students didn’t find speaking lessons interesting
In short, we can come to conclusion that the students’ level of motivation in speaking class is very low Most of the respondents did not value the importance of speaking skill In other words, they found it uninteresting The majority felt reluctant to speak English in class Students were passive in class, they speak English only when be asked by the teachers but not participate freely Thus, the question raised here is what teachers should do to improve students’ motivation.
Causes of students’ lack of motivation in English speaking lessons
Research question 2: What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?
The answer to this question was found out in survey questions 9, 10, 11 The following charts revealed the factors de-motivating students’ speaking learning
A lot of students (71.74%) were reluctant to speak because they were not accustomed to speaking in class It means they were lazy in class, so when asked to exchange ideas in English they were afraid of talking Boring teaching techniques accounted for 23.91% Being afraid of losing face and learning goal is not to communicate were the same percentage (2.17 %)
Most of students’ low motivation in speaking lessons caused by their lack of vocabulary (93.33%) Students had to cope up with obstacles namely being unable to find ideas and not self - confident enough (44.44% and 48.89% respectively) Not enough time for preparation was also a disadvantage with 17.78% of students Others (unable to reorder their ideas in English, dislike speaking, etc.,) were given by 4 students only
As being asked about the affecting factors of students’ motivation, more than a half of students (55.56%) claimed that the available games and activities had the greatest effect on students’ motivation in speaking class The second and the third one was the attitude of teacher and the classroom atmosphere (17.78 % and 15.56%) The lowest percentage of students belonged to the level of difficulty of tasks (11.11%)
To sum up, de-motivating students’ speaking learning are many factors in which the main factors are not accustomed to speaking, lack of vocabulary, boring teaching techniques (no communicative activities), being unable to find ideas and not self – confident enough, not enough time for preparation It can be understood that teacher should improve her teaching method to increase students’ motivation and help students get over obstacles If teacher uses interesting and exciting teaching techniques more often, students will enthusiastically participate in the lessons then enrich their vocabulary, ideas and be more self-confident in speaking class.
Action Research procedure
In the study, the researcher used Nunan’s action research model (1992) as it is suitable for her own class in the limited time and the steps are clear to follow
This action research was conducted during 6 weeks starting from week 1 of the second semester of the school year 2009– 2010 The subjects of study were 45 11 th grade students from the class 11A1 who study at Vietnam – Poland high school The action research is carried out as follow
Step 1: Problem identification (the first semester)
Observing the first semester, the researcher realized that her students didn’t seem interested or motivated in speaking lessons Therefore, she decided to identify the levels of students’ motivation and factors affecting student’s learning motivation in speaking lessons and the first and the second research questions formed were: “ How motivated are the 11 th grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school? What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?”
The levels of students’ motivation and affecting factors of students’ motivation in English speaking skill were collected in week 3 order to confirm the problem stated in step
1 and find out the main causes of students’ lack of motivation (the researcher uses questionnaire 1, Appendix 1)
In two speaking lessons of Unit 9: The Post Office, Unit 10: Nature in Danger were taught in an usual way, without any treatment and were observed by using Observation sheet 1 and Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 2), after lessons to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, enjoyment and excitement with learning tasks or speaking activities In other words, the researcher can assess students’ motivation exactly
The analysis and discussion of the initial data above proved that most of students had low motivation in speaking skill and boring teaching techniques was one of the main causes of students’ lack of interest As a result, the researcher had to think of solution for the problems Then, the results led to the following hypothesis:
Communicative activities (Discussions, Role Play, Information Gap, Storytelling, Interviews, Brainstorming etc.,) would effectively improve students’ motivation in English speaking lessons
As for many techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking skill, the researcher only wants to focus on “make the curriculum relevant for the learners, use visual aids in learning, vary teaching methods, have students take part in the lesson” when designing activities to improve students’ motivation
Basing on the data analysis from the questionnaire, observation and on the literature review relating to motivation and speaking activities (as discussed in Chapter 2), lesson plans were designed including communicative activities to motivate students in speaking lessons
Plan implementation: The researcher designed the speaking lesson plans of three units: Unit 11: Sources of Energy; Unit12: The Asian Games and Unit13: Hobbies
(Appendix 3).In these speaking lessons, communicative activities were used to motivate the students to speak The newly designed lesson plans were applied with the same group of students During the 3 weeks of the intervention, the speaking lessons were handled in a different way, using communicative activities The lessons were observed using Observation sheet 1 and Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 2) right after every lesson to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with learning tasks After the plan information about students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill
In this step, the third research question formed was: “ How effective are communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?”
3.3 Discussion of the lessons’ effectiveness
As information had been collected, the researcher carried out analyzing the data from the two observation sheets of the last three lessons and compared with the data of two observation sheets of the first two lessons in order to evaluate the suggested solutions in the action plan The comparison was then used as evidence to show how useful the changes used by the teacher were
Questionnaire 2 was also analyzed to gather information about students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method after 6 weeks of implementation, the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill Through students’ responses, the researcher could evaluate the effectiveness of the changes more exactly
3.3.1 Presentation and discussion of survey questionnaire 2 data
Research question 3: How effective are communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?
As can be seen from the chart 4, students’ level of motivation increased after the intervention The chart indicated that 66.67% of students approved they found speaking skill extremely interested The second percentage (26.67%) of students’ opinion belonged to the option very interested The third percentage (6.67%) was of the choice interested
None of students had the option uninterested
As teacher designed extra activities such as game, role – play, interview, discussion etc., more than a half of students (59.09%) felt extremely excited to participate in communicative activities The number of students felt very excited ranked the second with 27.27% Also, 11.36% of students are excited in speaking English lessons and only one student (2.27%) felt uninterested To sum up, students became more active, interested and excited to get involve in English speaking class
After enjoying speaking lessons with communicative activities, 31.11% of student perceived it was easy while 40% of students admitted that they found it easy when they felt interested enough 11.11% of students approved that speaking skill was still difficult if they did not have idea or lack vocabulary 8.89% of students coped with difficulty when learning speaking skill As for students’ self - confidence, 75.56 % of students felt self – confident to share their point of views in class There’s existing 24.44% of students are afraid of saying English in speaking class
It is apparent from chart 4 and chart 5 that students’ level in speaking skill has been improved since teacher applied communicative activities in teaching Most of the activities were more interesting than these in the textbook Therefore, the learners took part in the speaking lessons more eagerly than before speaking, recent speaking lessons were rated very good by 57.78% of students, good by 31.11% and all right by 8.89% Thus, the number of students who were satisfied with the recent speaking lessons is 97.78% The teacher’s techniques saw the number of students who had extremely interesting opinion of 55%, very interesting option of 38% and interesting choice of 7% Obviously, 100% students thought teacher’s techniques had become more and more meaningful
As for the evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving students’ motivation, an interesting fact can be seen from the chart 6 is that 11 out of 45 students (24.44%) had the level of effectiveness 3 – fair; 14 out of 45 (31.11%) students appreciated the usefulness of communicative activities at level 4 - good and 16 (35.56%) students chose level 5 - excellent In short, 91.11% of students agreed that communicative activities effectively improve students’ motivation in speaking lessons Only 8.89% of students did not think communicative activities make sense in increasing students’ motivation
Although there are a variety of communicative activities, the researcher applied seven main ones in teaching namely games, role-play, brainstorming, story-telling, information gap, discussion and interview
Table 2: Students’ comment on teachers’ communicative activities
Number of students Strongly like Like All right Dislike Strongly dislike
Obviously, all of students like games used during the class, because the games help students become more motivative and more interested in the lesson Also, 100% of students are interested in interview as it enables them to have opportunity to communicate with their classmates in English Furthermore, 93% of learners enjoy information gap activity because of asking – answering skill improvement Story-telling is another activity that can draw students’ attention (100%) Besides, the other activities attracted students’ attention Those activities such as role-play, brainstorming and discussion were the activities motivating students in English speaking class
CONCLUSION
Major findings
The research has discovered the following things:
Firstly, the students’ level of motivation were improved after the researcher had applied communicative activities in speaking class.100% of students had level of interest in speaking English lessons
Secondly, there are many de-motivating factors affecting students in their speaking
The main factors are not accustomed to speaking, lack of vocabulary, boring teaching techniques (no communicative activities), being unable to find ideas and not self – confident enough, not enough time for preparation
Thirdly, the effectiveness of communicative activities was at expected level 91% of students agreed that communicative activities effectively improve students’ motivation in
To sum up, the results from the action research showed that the application of the communicative activities has had positive impacts on the learners, making them more active and interest.
Implications
The findings of the study implicate that in learning the speaking subject, the students seemed to have low motivation which was very important in speaking class This caused by the lack of vocabulary, boring teaching (no extra activities), shyness etc., To improve students’ motivation in English speaking learning, two important things should be done Firstly, teacher should apply motivational techniques to motivate students in speaking learning Secondly, it is necessary to improve textbook to attract more students in learning speaking.
Limitations of the study
Hard as the researcher has attempted, her research existed some inevitable shortcomings The limitations of this study lie in the short time for the experimental lessons The time was not long enough to persuasively justify the effectiveness of the new approach Also, the generalizability of the results is limited by the small scale of the study (the researcher’s class) and the learners’ knowledge Then, as the time for this study is limited, mistakes and shortcomings are inevitable The researcher would like to receive constructive comments and remarks so that the research work could be further improved.
Suggestions for further researches
An action research requires the researcher to reflect on the results and to make appropriate change so as to enhance the effectiveness of the techniques applied This coincides with the need for the researcher’s problems identification Therefore, in practice, the researcher would critically observe the communicative activities she had applied and got ready for necessary modifications This action research serves as the researcher’s starting point in improving the effectiveness of her lessons It is also her hope that it could be a suggestion for those who want to try new ideas in their teaching Furthermore, it is expected that there will be researches of improving students’ motivation in grade 10, grade
12 and in other skills such as reading, writing and listening at Vietnam – Poland High School In short, other researchers who develop interest in the same topic may find the
Recommendations and suggestions
In the light of these findings, here are some recommendations and suggestions to the teachers of Vietnam – Poland high school
To make speaking learning lessons become motivating, besides the classroom activities, the teacher need to make great effort to develop programmes which attract students’ participation Similarly, teacher should know how to meet students’ demand, sometimes satisfy them by giving extra activities
To reduce the factors de-motivating students in speaking, it is necessary to design lessons more interesting Communicative activities should be used more often in spoken lessons
The teacher should help students to be self – confident by pointing out students’ speaking ability, give immediate praise and encouragement so that they will have no fear or reluctance but enough bravery to speak
The course book could be improved with more interesting and easier topics To be more specific, teacher sometimes should spend time adapting the tasks by using games, picture, story, article, and so on
The teacher should play the active role as a facilitator to encourage students in learning process to sustain long term motivation
The teacher’s attitudes are of great importance in increasing students’ motivation The teachers’ sense of humor and friendliness as well as the attention will attract students during the whole lesson
Hopefully, the above results and implications of this study will encourage more researches on motivation Further studies should have an insight look into other aspects which have effect on motivation
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2 Balkir, N B & Topkaya, E Z Exploring the effects of learner training on motivation Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Retrieved July 28, 2010, from the World Wide Web http://www.asian-efl-journal.com
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7 Cohen, A D (1998) Strategies in learning and using a second language England:
8 Cook, V (1993), Linguistics and second language acquisition London: Macmillan
9 Dawson, C (1985) Teaching English as a foreign language – A practice guide
10 Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and researching motivation Longman
11 Ellis, R & Tomlinson, B (1992) Teaching secondary English Great Britain:
12 Ellis, R (1994) The study of second language acquisition Oxford: Oxford
13 Harmer, J (1995) The practice of English language teaching Great Britain:
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An Action Research of improving 11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam - Poland High School by using communicative activities
My name is Dinh Thuy Linh I am currently doing my MA thesis on “Improving
11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam - Poland high school by using communicative activities” This survey is conducted to assess the 11 th grade pupils’ motivation and to improve the quality of future teaching and learning
I would be grateful if you could spend some time completing this questionnaire survey You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data
Put a tick ( √ ) in the column of the answer you have chosen or write the answer in the blanks
I STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING
1 How important is the speaking skill to you?
2 How much do you feel interested in learning speaking English?
3 How difficult is speaking skill to you?
A It’s the most difficult B It’s rather difficult
C It’s normal D It isnot difficult
4 Do you feel reluctant to speak English in class?
C No, I speak whenever I am asked to
D No, I speak whenever I am motivated
5 How often do you speak English with your classmates in English lessons?
6 When you are in English speaking period, you………
C volunteer to answer as much as possible
D know the answers but too shy to volunteer
E participate in the speaking class very enthusiastically
A You talk with your friends
D You are interested in speaking activities
8 What do you think about English speaking class?
A Very exciting and interesting B Exciting and interesting
C Rather exciting and interesting D Unexciting and uninteresting
II FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING
9 (If the answer to question 4 is yes), what makes you reluctant to speak English in class?
A Being afraid of losing face
B Being not accustomed to speaking
C Learning goal is not to communicate
D Boring teaching (no extra speaking activities)
10 What other reasons do you think often prevent you from speaking?
C Not enough time for preparation
D Too much teacher's talking time
E Not self – confident enough Others ……….…
(You can choose more than one options)
11 According to you, which factors has the most influence on students’ interest in class?
A The attitude of teachers B The abundance of games and activities
C The classroom atmosphere D The level of difficulty of tasks
12 What do you think about speaking activities given by your teacher?
13 How often does your teacher apply communicative activities (role – play, discussion, storytelling, information gap etc.,) in teaching?
14 In your opinion, should teacher design extra speaking activities besides activities in the text – book?
15 Do you have any suggestion to make the classroom speaking activities more interesting and effective?
CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT 1 Nghiên cứu về cải thiện động cơ học trong giờ nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11 Trường PTTH Việt Nam – Ba Lan thông qua việc sử dụng các hoạt động giao tiếp
Các em học sinh thân mến,
Tôi là Đinh Thùy Linh Hiện nay tôi đang làm luận văn thạc sỹ với đề tài “Cải thiện động cơ học trong giờ nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11 - Trường PTTH Việt Nam – Ba Lan thông qua việc sử dụng các hoạt động giao tiếp” Khảo sát này được tiến hành nhằm tìm hiểu động lực học nói của học sinh lớp 11 và nâng cao chất lượng dạy và học trong tương lai
Mong các em hoàn thành phiếu điều tra này và hãy tin tưởng rằng thông tin cá nhân của các em sẽ được bảo mật trong quá trình phân tích số liệu
Cám ơn sự hợp tác của các em Đánh dấu tích ( √ ) vào câu trả lời em chọn hoặc viết câu trả lời vào chỗ trống cho sẵn
I ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH
1 Kỹ năng nói quan trọng thế nào với em?
A Vô cùng quan trọng B Rất quan trọng
C Quan trọng lắm D Không hề quan trọng
2 Em thích học nói Tiếng Anh như thế nào?
A Vô cùng thích B Rất thích
3 Đối với em, học kỹ năng nói có khó không?
A Đây là kỹ năng khó nhất B Khá khó
C Cũng bình thường D Không phải kỹ năng khó
4 Em có cảm thấy miễn cưỡng khi nói Tiếng Anh trong lớp không?
A Có, khá thường xuyên B Có, thỉnh thoảng
C Không, em nói bất cứ khi nào được hỏi
D Không, em nói bất cứ khi nào thấy có động lực
5 Em nói Tiếng Anh với bạn cùng lớp trong giờ học Tiếng Anh có thường xuyên không?
C Hiếm khi D Không bao giờ
6 Trong tiết học nói Tiếng Anh, em
B chỉ trả lời những câu hỏi dễ
C xung phong trả lời càng nhiều càng tốt
D biết câu trả lời nhưng ngại không xung phong
E tham gia vào tiết học rất hăng hái
7 Em nói Tiếng Anh trong lớp khi
A Em nói với bạn B Giáo viên hỏi em
C Chỉ khi thấy có ích D Em thích các hoạt động
8 Em thấy giờ học nói Tiếng Anh ở lớp mình thế nào?
A Rất hào hứng và thú vị B Hào hứng và thú vị
C Hơi hào hứng và thú vị D Không hào hứng và không thú vị
II NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG TƠÍ ĐỘNG CƠ HỌC NÓI
9 (Nếu câu trả lời ở câu 4 là Có), lý do gì khiến em thấy miễn cưỡng khi nói Tiếng Anh trong lớp? (Em có thể chọn nhiều hơn một đáp án)
A Sợ bị mất thể diện
C Mục đích học của em không cần phải giao tiếp
D Phương pháp dạy tẻ nhạt (không có hoạt động thêm ngoài sách giáo khoa)
10 Những lý do nào ngăn cản em nói Tiếng Anh? (Em có thể chọn nhiều đáp án)
B Không có ý tưởng để nói
C Không có đủ thời gian để chuẩn bị
D Thời gian giáo viên nói quá nhiều
E Không đủ tự tin Các lý do khác là:
11 Theo em, yếu tố nào sau đây tác động nhiều nhất đến sự hứng thú của học sinh?
A Thái độ của giáo viên B Nhiều trò chơi và hoạt động
C Không khí của lớp học D Độ khó của các nhiệm vụ
12 Em nghĩ gì về những chủ đề và hoạt động nói mà giáo viên đưa ra?
A Rất thú vị B Thú vị
C Cũng được, nhưng không thú vị lắm D Tẻ nhạt
13 Giáo viên của em có thường xuyên áp dụng các hoạt động dạy nói theo đường hướng giao tiếp không? ( thảo luận, kể chuyện, trao đổi thông tin còn thiếu, v.v )
C Hiếm khi D Không bao giờ
14 Theo em, giáo viên có nên thiết kế thêm các hoạt động nói khác, ngoài những hoạt động trong sách giáo khoa?
A Có, nên luôn luôn B Có, nên thường xuyên
C Có, thỉnh thoảng D Không cần thiết
15 Em có đề xuất gì để làm cho các hoạt động nói trong lớp thú vị và hiệu quả hơn không?
CÁM ƠN SỰ HỢP TÁC CỦA EM!
An Action Research of improving 11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam - Poland High School by using communicative activities
My name is Dinh Thuy Linh I am currently doing my MA thesis on “Improving
11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam - Poland high school by using communicative activities” This survey is conducted to assess the 11 th grade pupils’ motivation and to improve the quality of future teaching and learning
I would be grateful if you could spend some time completing this questionnaire survey You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data
Put a tick ( √ ) in the column of the answer you have chosen or write the answer in the blanks
I STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS SPEAKING SKILL
1 Your level of interest in learning speaking skill
2 How do you feel when taking part in classroom speaking activities?
3 Do you think speaking is an easy or difficult skill?
A Easy B Easy if I feel interested enough
C Difficult D Difficult if I have no idea or lack vocabulary
4 Do you feel self – confident when speaking English?
II STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS & ASSESSMENTS OF THE CHANGES
5 How do you rate recent speaking lessons?
6 What do you think about your teacher’s techniques?
III EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION
7 To what extent do you think that communicative activities improved your motivation in speaking skill? Please evaluate the effectiveness of communicative activities in speaking lessons by using one number in the following scale
Poor Quite bad Fair Good Excellent
IV STUDENTS’ DESIRE OF TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THEIR MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS
8 Which of the below communicative activities do you like most in the speaking class ?
Number of students Strongly like Like All right Dislike Strongly dislike
CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT 2 Nghiên cứu về cải thiện động cơ học trong giờ nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11Trường PTTH Việt Nam – Ba Lan thông qua việc sử dụng các hoạt động giao tiếp
Các em học sinh thân mến,