Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS the implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill ( a classroom action research at grade nine of oxford center)

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

English is considered a compulsory subject in almost schools in Vietnam from primary schools to universities and has gained its significance among various foreign languages in the world One of the main goals when teaching a foreign language (FL) now is to promote students’ communicative competence especially in the context of industrialization and modernization

The communicative competence is carried in both oral and written form; however, in many aspects of life, “speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbol in a variety of context”

(Chancy, 1998:13) A good oral communicative competence may be paid more attention to than written ability It is obvious that being able to speak English brings more opportunities for students in their study as well as in the future career prospect At Oxford Center, the students are taught four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking skill The problem is that, due to the demand of examinations, students’ focus is on grammar and when being transferred to the high school, students may lack speaking skill which is one of the most important areas in learning English Students also may have some difficulties in communicating using English such as fears of public speaking or being passive in speaking lessons and so on It is really important for the teacher to find out the effective techniques to help students improve speaking skill

There are several techniques to be used to teach speaking skills One of the techniques in teaching speaking skill is debate technique It is seen as an active learning process because students will learn more through a process of constructing and creating, working in a group and also sharing knowledge

Based on the explanation above, the researcher decides to conduct a research on “The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill.”

Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at applying debate technique to improve the students’ speaking skill To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to:

- To measure the improvement of students’ speaking skill after the implementation of debate technique

- To find out the effective ways of using debate technique to teach speaking skill for Oxford Center’s students.

Research questions

In order to reach the above aims and objectives, the study is going to seek answers for the following research questions:

 How far does the use of debate technique improve the students’ speaking skill at the grade nine of Oxford Center?

 How should the debate technique be implemented to improve the students’ speaking skill?

Scope of the study

The theory of English teaching speaking is complex comprising a number of components However, the research focuses on the implementation debate technique to improve the students’ speaking It was conducted among nine-grade students at Oxford Center.

Significance of the study

In terms of theory, the author expected to contribute the effective ways to teach English speaking skill The study is hoped to raise teachers’ awareness of the implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill In terms of practice, the findings of this study can be used as a reference for teachers of English in general and teachers at Oxford Center in particular to improve their teaching.

Methods of the study

The data serving the research analysis and discussion will be collected by means of:

- Pre-test and post-test for both experimental and control groups;

- A survey questionnaire for experimental group;

- A survey questionnaire for teachers of English at Oxford Center.

Design of the study

The study will be divided into three parts:

Part 1: Introduction shows rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, significance, methods and design of the study

Part 2: Development includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review deals with some theoretical background of teaching and learning speaking, knowledge of debate and previous studies

Chapter 2: Research methodology focuses on the research method-action research, action research procedure for this study, the current situation of teaching and learning at Oxford Center, participants of the study, data collection instruments and data collection and analysis procedure

This chapter provides an analysis of the collected data in the action stage: tests ( pre-test and post-test), questionnaires for students and questionnaire for teachers

Part 3: Recommendations and conclusion summaries the results of the study Recommendations and limitations of the study are also pointed out Finally, some suggestions for further studies are presented.

DEVELOPMENT

1.1 Concept of speaking 1.1.1 Definition of speaking

Some people may think that speaking competence is the product of language learning; however, speaking becomes an essential factor of the language learning process besides listening, reading and writing According to Florez (1999:98), speaking is an interactive process which students produce and receive information to create the meaning Bailey (2003:7) also defined speaking is the productive aural/oral skill which contains the systematic verbal utterances production in order to convey the meaning It can be understood in a simple way that speaking is the capable of speech using language to express or exchange thoughts among people (Mart, 2012:12)

Speaking is not a simple skill; it requires the experience and practice with the other language skills According to Thornbury (2005:78), second language speaking is different from first language speaking due to the lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge of learners; the process of arranging grammar and words which is not automatic in producing second language Speaking is defined as a complex process of exchanging thoughts not only by using verbal expressions but also non-verbal symbols such as gestures, body language and facial expressions From the communicative point of view, Harmer (2001:23) stated that speaking has various aspects including two major categories, namely accuracy and fluency Accuracy is the correspondence between students’ speech and what they actually say when using the target language (Bailey, 2003); and the correct use of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation practiced through guided activities (Harmer, 2001)

Fluency is the ability to maintain speaking confidently with few hesitations or unnatural pause, false starts, word searches and so on (Bailey, 2003).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Concept of speaking

Fluency is the ability to maintain speaking confidently with few hesitations or unnatural pause, false starts, word searches and so on (Bailey, 2003)

In short, speaking competence happens when the speakers have ability to communicate by exchanging the information accurately and fluently with suitable selection and use of vocabulary and structures Generally, speaking is the ability to express something in spoken language by arranging ideas into words so that people understand the message conveyed (Al-Tamimi & Attamimi, 2014) In this study, the term speaking is one of the four skills related to language learning and teaching

Florez (1999:108) provided a general outline of a speaking lesson following five patterns of preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and extension In the first step of preparation, teachers have to create a speaking context and emphasize the awareness of speaking skills which is focused; for example, asking for clarification, stressing key words or word form reduction In presentation step, teachers can model a speech which will be the target for the lesson and make learners become more attentive when observing the use of language produced by the teachers Practice stage requires all students to participate in controlled and guided activities using the target structures Students may be asked to monitor and assess their own work in terms of skills being examined in evaluation step And finally, extension involves activities requiring students to combine the new skill or strategy with what they have acquired, or using the target skills in a different context or real communicative situation

As mentioned above, speaking is not only one of four important skills in language learning process but also becomes an advantage for learners in social life when applying for a job, for instance To master a second language, students should become a good speaker who meets the demand of two criteria- accuracy and fluency; thus, they should be taught speaking activities which are organized appropriately to help them achieve the aim Therefore, characteristics of a speaking lesson have been studied so that teachers can follow and limit the shortcomings affecting students’ speaking competence According to Ur (2000:87), five features of a good speaking lesson are following:

 Students talk a lot Study showed that teacher-dominated classroom talk is considered one type of unequal power discourse (Bailey, 2003:67) However, classroom activities must be designed in such ways that most of the time assigned is captured by learners with not too much teachers’ talk or pause Teacher talks too much, which becomes the argumentative issue among teachers when teaching the second language They also suggested finding the root of the problem and starting from there; for example, due to the different cultures or the lack of motivation to speak in class One further interesting point given by Bailey (2003:68) is that students can play different roles of a teacher when the teacher is eliminated from the conversation Thus, teachers should give students their own power in some situations such as deciding the topics, asking questions or even giving feedback

 All students get equal opportunity to speak Some teachers may have a bad habit of calling talkative students to make a speech while ignoring the other passive ones Students who have fears of public speaking may depend on the dominant students in class, especially in group work activities; so they have fewer chances to talk However, a good speaking lesson means that participation is even, which the minority of active students should not dominate classroom discussion and contributions must be reasonably distributed

The role of motivation is mentioned in the definition section that it becomes an essential factor in course design Macnamara (1971:112) confirmed that “the essential difference between a classroom and the street as a place to learn a language is motivation” (Rubin, 1975:43) A speaking class should be the place where students are motivated to talk as much as possible After finishing a lesson, students have willingness to communicate, which makes the lesson become successful Hence, motivation turns to a characteristic of a speaking lesson and has an intimate relation with speaking activities

 Language used is comprehensible Speaking is not only transferring messages to other people but also is communication To make it as communication, language should be used explicitly together with fluency and accuracy so that the information can be conveyed effectively Bailey (2003:98) pointed out that learners at the beginning and intermediate levels must be given opportunities to improve their fluency and accuracy

 Students talk in the target language Cole (1998:145) showed that there are very few reasons for using mother tongue during language speaking activities It is suggested that first language should not be used when teachers give the instructions of the exercises or games which are not too complicated In addition, teachers should not use the first language in pronunciation except for explaining abstract words The ability to define words and describe things using target language is considered a useful tool that language learners should master Therefore, teachers need to try hard and encourage students to speak in foreign language during speaking lessons

From my point of view, one speaking lesson should have five patterns of preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation and extension These steps should be included in a speaking lesson so that the teachers can follow and limit the shortcomings affecting students’ competence.

Concept of debate

A debate has been described as a form of argument that “has strict rules of conduct and quite sophisticated arguing techniques” (ACT Debating Union Inc

1996) It must have a topic that has scope of argument, i.e there must be at least two sides of the topic

According to Mabrur (2002:5), debate is technique which involves two or more speakers, discussing certain topics; giving their opinions, thoughts and facts; then giving respond to relevant questions of comments from others in the class

Havorsen (2005:8) said that debate forces students to think about the multiple sides of an issue and it also forces them to interact not just the details of a given topic, but also with one another Debate can be implemented as the alternative way to teach speaking Debate is different from other techniques In debate, the students are given some topics to be discussed One or among students of them present their opinions and facts concerning the topics The next step, he gives responses to the questions and comments from his friends in the class

In my opinion, debate or debating is a formal method of interactive and representational argument This technique involves at least two speakers who discuss about certain topics and give their ideas about certain ones

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using debate technique in speaking

There are a lot of researches discussing about the advantages and disadvantages of using debate technique in speaking lessons It cannot be denied that debate brings certain benefits for students and teachers Debating is a teaching strategy that provides a framework for students to explore and develop a range of views over an issue According to Halvorsen (2005: 98) debate encourages students to:

 Improve the quality of their responses as they are provided with thinking time and they can build upon their own ideas

 Stay on task as they have to present their ideas and listen to their peer

 Present their views to an authentic audience

 Develop co-operative learning skills

Krieger (2005:76) acknowledged the usefulness of debate in language learning because it “engages students in variety of cognitive and linguistic ways” Teachers often use the debate to effectively increase students’ involvement and participation during sessions

However, debate technique also has some disadvantages in speaking lessons

According to Halvorsen (2005: 98), the weaknesses of debate implementation are:

 Debate is only used for certain subjects especially in speaking subject

 The implementation of debate needs long time

 Debate can make the students emotional in defending their argument Sometimes, they are very emotional in expressing their argument; moreover, if they must defend their stand or opinion which is in contradiction with theirs

 Teachers get difficulties in controlling the debate complementation

It is my belief that debate technique has several significant advantages It can help the students develop their co-operative skills, research skills and build their own ideas However, debate technique also has some shortcomings such as difficulty to apply in certain topics, long time to implement, etc In summary, the teachers need to make use of the advantages and limit the disadvantages of debate.

Previous study

There have been a lot of studies working on various activities to improve learners’ speaking skill in the world and in Viet Nam However, there are not many of them on debate technique as well as the effects of using debate technique in speaking lessons

There are a lot of famous studies about debate technique in the world One of the first authors is Krieger (2005), who acknowledges the usefulness of debate in language learning because it “engages students in variety of cognitive and linguistic ways” Teachers often use debate to effectively increase students’ involvement and participation during sessions Also, Chen and Wang (2013) who advocated debate activities showed many significant advantages in speaking class, for example, giving students more opportunities to speak in class, developing students’ confidence and motivation by creating a positive classroom atmosphere, as well as establishing the social relationship with other people and improving problem solving skills Thus, debate activities help students a lot in learning speaking skill, which is one of the prior skills in modern language

In the context of Viet Nam, there are also many studies about improving speaking skill in the classroom However, there are not many studies about implementation of debate technique in speaking lesson Tran Thi Mai (2008) carried out a research on implementing task-based teaching to improve students’ speaking skill for 10 graders at Ngo Quyen upper secondary school An action research was planned and implemented with such data collection instruments as questionnaire, classroom observation, and document analysis The results showed that to improve students’ involvement in speaking lessons, teachers should modify the activities from textbook to make them suitable for their students Moreover, organizing debate groups in large classes is considered an important factor to help modify pre- speaking activities more successful

Hoàng Đức Đoàn (2009) conducted a study on motivation in learning English speaking of the second-year tourism major students at Tourism and Foreign language department in Sao Do College of industry In the study, she presented the potential values of using group work, role-play and debate activities From the results, it can be concluded that language teachers should apply more debate technique to their speaking lessons

Bùi Thị Ánh Tuyết (2009) conducted a study on using classroom activities to stimulate students’ presentation in English speaking lessons at Marie Curie School in Hai Phong The research found out that it was necessary and beneficial for teachers to use debate technique in teaching speaking skill In addition, students also felt motivated and interested in their teachers’ use of debate technique in class

Given the teaching and learning situation, the researcher is aware of importance of debate activities mentioned in the previous studies The fact is that there has been little research into implementing debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill Therefore, the researcher decided to make an action research to explore the effects of debate technique on improving the grade – nine students at Oxford Center.

METHODOLOGY

Research method

The term action research can be understood as the combination between implementing a plan and developing the understanding of the effectiveness of this implementation Action research can revitalize the whole learning community, as well as help teachers in changing or reflecting on their classroom practices (Calhoun, 1993:12) After that, Cunningham (1993:98) defined action research as a term for describing a spectrum of activities that focus on research, planning, theorizing, learning and development “It describes a continuous process of research and learning in the researcher’s long-term relationship with a problem”

The aim of action research defined by Todd (2010:2) is to “develop the teaching situation and the teacher-researcher rather than generate new knowledge”

The research does not face the problems of reliability and generalization because action research “generates findings which are useful within a specific context rather than findings applicable across many different situations” (Todd, 2010:5) With such merits, action research was selected for this study, which is small-scale and practical in nature

Also, McTaggart (1994:5) believed that action research is a form of self- reflective investigation conducted by participants to solve the problems in society, which consists of four steps planning, action, observation, and reflection: a Planning: a problem is identified and a plan of action is developed b Action: the plan is put into action c Observation: the effects of the action are observed d Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated and become the basis for further planning

In short, the aim of action research is to identify problematic situations or issues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertake practical interventions in order to bring informed changes in practice Action research is chosen as the research method in this study as it is suitable for the real situation and helps to develop the participants’ understanding in order to improve educational practices

2.1.2 Rationale for the use of an action research

Mills (2003: 4) defined that action research is “any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn.” The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in general, and improving student outcomes

Whenever English teachers find out a problem, they need to make a further look into the problem and give a suitable solution Therefore, they often carry out action research for most of the time.

Description of the context of the research

Oxford center was founded in 2005 It is situated in Van Quan urban town, Ha Dong, Ha Noi Nowadays, it has four branches with modern equipment Each branch is a big building with 6 floors Each branch consists of about 10 classrooms with 35 chairs and tables in each class The tables and chairs are designed to be small and beautiful, which is suitable with students In the class, there are 1 TV or 1 projector, 1 board, 35 tables and chairs with many beautiful pictures on the wall

This center has more than 100 classes with various levels

Teachers in this center include both Vietnamese and native teachers

Vietnamese teachers are people who already have experience and graduated from university with the major of English education In addition, native teachers are people who have certificate in teaching and come from England or America

Besides, Oxford center has many staffs that master English and are willing to answer any questions from students’ parents

First of all, the current common English teaching method is teachers’ explanation for students In general, the students are quite passive in learning; they just listen and get knowledge in four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, especially in speaking skill As a result, this teaching method does not encourage students to practice speaking because the teachers act most of time in the class

Secondly, almost all students at Oxford center wish to improve their speaking skill They want to learn this skill in such a creative and active way like: working in pairs, working in groups, debating activities This reason makes teacher think about the suitable methods for their students

The final problem is the students’ different level in speaking English Some of them are good, but some of them are not really good at English even though they have chances to learn with foreign teacher two hours a week

Having found those problems, I would like to do the research called: “The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill

2.2.2 The teaching program and material

The course book called “Solutions – Intermediate Student’s book” written by Tim Paul A Davies, 2006, Oxford University Press

- Ten topic- based units, each covers seven lessons

- Five Language Review/ Skill Round – up sections, providing a language test of the previous two units and a cumulative skill-based review

- Five Get Ready for your Exam sections providing typical exam tasks and preparation

- Ten Vocabulary Builders with practice and extension

- Ten Grammar Builder Reference sections containing grammar reference and further exercises

As for the syllabus, each unit is taught in two weeks, each period lasts fifty minutes The course lasts 24 weeks of studying The main aim of the course focuses on students’ speaking skills.

Description of the research

Students targeted in this study belong to the grade – nine students of Oxford Center In this study, 70 students are chosen from two classes to take tests: pre-test and post-test After that, 35 students in class A and 15 teachers are chosen to answer for questionnaire The majority of students will be within the 14 – 15 age range The research was conducted at Oxford Center in Hanoi The reason for choosing is that the students at that level are almost not good at speaking English They are afraid of talking in English, lack vocabulary and confidence This study is expected to help them to improve their speaking skills by applying debate technique

Both questionnaires and tests were employed in this research so as to get the accurate data These instruments help the researcher get more in-depth data for analysis

The aims of tests were to answer the first research question that how far debate technique can help students make progress in their speaking skill The time allowance for each student in the test is 6-8 minutes The test consists of pre-test and post test with the equivalent difficulty level The pre-test was carried out at the first week of the course The post-test was carried out at week 12 in the course

The questionnaire is one of the most popular instruments in gathering data in each research It is easy to prepare and can be given to large groups of subjects at the same time It also helps the researcher get a large amount of information with a short period of time In this research, the researcher exploited two kinds of questionnaire: one for students and one for teachers

The questionnaire for students aims at finding out their opinions and attitudes towards the implementation of debate technique in speaking lessons It was delivered to students in class A after being taught with debate technique It consists of six questions which focus on six main aspects that the researcher would like to investigate as follows: question 1 aimed at finding the students’ attitude towards debate technique in general; question 2 worked out the degrees in which debate technique could help the students improve their speaking skill; question 3 found out steps that the students follow during debate time; question 4 clarified what debate style that the students would like to join in speaking lessons; question 5 clarified students’ benefits when they use debate technique; question 6 worked out the drawback of using debate technique

When delivering the questionnaire, the author translated it from English to Viet Namese to make sure students understood the question completely Especially, students were allowed to write in Vietnamese about the drawbacks of using debate technique so that they could express their feeling directly

The questionnaire for teachers consists of five questions which aim at finding out the ways and what kind of debate styles the teachers used to teach speaking: question 1 aimed at finding out the frequency the teachers use debate technique in speaking lessons; question 2 worked out the degrees in which debate technique can help students improve their speaking skill; question 3 found out debate style which the teachers choose to teach; question 4 aimed at finding out how the debate technique should be conducted in speaking lessons; and question 5 clarified difficulties the teachers encountered while designing the lessons.

Data collection procedures

The researcher carried out this study during the process of teaching There were 35 students in each class Debate technique is a method that the author applied to just class A Class B was taught without using debate technique

The use of instruments in the data collection was primarily illustrated in the following timeline

Pre intervention While intervention Post intervention

Pre-test Lessons Post-test

The purpose of the pre intervention stage is finding out the students’ level in speaking skill It is also the data to compare with post-test to explore how far debate technique can help students in speaking skill Therefore, a pre-test of speaking skill was used for both classes A and B

In this phase, the experimental class (A) was taught with implementation of debate technique in 12 weeks The control class (B) was taught without applying debate technique

In class A, the researcher gave one idea which is linked to the topic and could be debated among the student groups in each lesson In debate time, teacher followed the certain steps: introduce the topic, assign the affirmative and the negative, give time for research, keep track of time, and make a judgment In addition, the students were directed to follow these following steps: brainstorm ideas, organize ideas, structure the speeches, and prepare the speeches

A post-test was used to find out the results if students got any progress in their speaking skill after using debate technique in speaking lessons Also, the survey questionnaire for students was delivered to the experimental class to find out what they thought, students’ steps in debate, what their preferred debate style, the advantages of debate and how much they enjoyed the effectiveness of using debate technique in speaking lessons In addition, a survey questionnaire was also delivered to teachers of English at Oxford Center to find out how they used debate technique in the class

Consequently, for each research question, participants’ scores or responses were calculated and transferred into numerical form The data was then tabulated and charted for clearer presentation and easier comparison.

Data analysis method

The researcher first made a pre-test for 70 students from two classes To avoid inconsistency or possible biases, the data was generated and analyzed by the researcher alone, and then displayed in forms of charts and tables The information from the pre-test was known as reflective data Given that the data was valid, it could be stated that there were no possible influences of the researchers during collection, interpretation, evaluation of the data (Seliger & Shohamy, 1986)

The research was carried out by both quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitative method employed the multiple choice questions to evaluate how far debate technique could help students improve their speaking skill The researcher took advantage of the software Microsoft Excel to calculate the percentage of marks, mean, median and standard deviation This software was in fact cheap, convenient and effective

Besides, the qualitative method was based on open-ended questions The researcher translated questionnaire for students from English to Vietnamese The researcher then analyzed key words, phrases or main ideas from certain questions to give some suggestions to make a good debate activity for both students and teachers

In short, the methodology of the study has been displayed as the guidelines for the researcher to follow during the implementation of the study.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter provides an analysis of the collected data in the action stage: tests ( pre-test and post-test), questionnaires for students and questionnaire for teachers

Part 3: Recommendations and conclusion summaries the results of the study Recommendations and limitations of the study are also pointed out Finally, some suggestions for further studies are presented

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW