English speaking skills teaching methods for elementary learner at nam sao language center

i DECLARATION “I am TRIEU THI HUYEN TRANG hereby declare that the work presented in this Graduation Thesis is uniquely prepared by me.” “I also confirm that, the thesis paper is only prepared for my university requirements not for any other purpose It“might not be used with the interest of the opposite party of the corporation.” _ TRIEU THI HUYEN TRANG ID: 97011501064 Course: Class: 15DTA Major in English Language The Saigon International University Date submitted: ………………………………………… Signed : ……………………………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “During the implementation of this thesis, I have received much help from the people who have helped me.”Without them I could not have completed this thesis, so I wanted to express my deep gratitude to those who helped me.” “First, I would like to express our gratitude to the teachers of the Saigon International University who taught me and helped me throughout the course Special thanks to Ms Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy of the University who provided constant guidance and very useful advice for me to complete this thesis.” “Next, I would like to thank to my classmates who share and help me during the study at the Saigon International University I also thank the teachers and students of Nam Sao Foreign Language center who have helped me in the process of surveying and data collection in this thesis.” “Finally, I really thank my family and friends who have shared, encouraged me during the learning process and the implementation of this thesis.” Thank you very much! iii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Students’ awareness of the learning English Chart 4.2: Students’ interest in learning English speaking Chart 4.3: Students’ looking at difficulties of English speaking skill Chart 4.4: The most favorite skill of students in learning English Chart 4.5: Suitable level of English speaking skills teaching method for students Chart 4.6: How students feel about the English current method Chart 4.7: Students’ desire for teaching English Chart 4.8: Student’s think about activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills Chart 4.9: Student’s favorite activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills Chart 4.10 Students’ frequency of participation in speaking learning hours iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF CHARTS iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Significance of the study 1.3 Scope and limitation of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Design of the study CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of terminologies 2.1.1 Speaking skill 2.1.1.1 Concepts of speaking 2.1.1.2 Characteristics of speaking 2.1.2 English teaching methods for elementary learners 2.3 Review of previous works 11 2.3.1 Research works abroad 11 2.3.2 Domestic research projects 12 v CHAPTER III 14 METHODOLOGY 14 3.1 Research method 14 3.2 Sampling 15 3.2.1 Description of the teachers at Nam Sao language center 15 3.2.2 Description of the pupils at Nam Sao language center 15 3.3 Research tools 16 3.4 Data collection 17 3.4.1 Observations 17 3.4.2 Surveys 17 3.4.3 Face-to- face interview for teachers 18 CHAPTER IV 19 FINDINGS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 19 4.1 Results from students’ questionnaire 19 4.1.1 Student’ personal information 19 4.1.1.1 Students’awareness of learning English 19 4.1.1.2 Students attitudes towards English speaking skills 20 4.1.1.3 Students’ opinion about current English speaking skills teaching method 23 4.1.1.4: Student’ feeling activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills 24 4.2 The results from interview for teachers 26 4.2.1 English speaking skills teaching methods applied at the Nam Sao English center: 26 vi 4.1.2.2 The current English speaking skills teaching method with elementary learners 27 4.1.2.3 Advantages and disadvantage of teaching English speaking skills to elementary learners 27 4.1.2.4 Activities your students like best in the process of learning English speaking skills 28 4.1.2.5 The time for studying English skills with elementary learners 29 4.1.6 The current facilities of the center 29 4.2 Discussion 30 4.2.1 The method of teaching speaking skills for elementary learners at the “Nam Sao English language center” 30 4.1.2 The advantages and disadvantages when applying speaking activities to teach English 32 4.1.2.1 Advantages: 34 4.1.2.2 Disadvantage: 34 CHAPTER 36 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 36 5.1 Conclusion 36 5.2 Recommendation 36 5.2.1 Recommendation for manager staffs 36 5.2.2 Recommendation for teachers 38 5.2.3 Recommendation for students 39 “ 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES 47 vii A: SURVEY QUESTION FOR STUDENTS 47 B: INTERVIEW QUESTION FOR TEACHERS 50 APPENDIX C 52 viii ABSTRACT “The current study focuses on English speaking skills teaching methods for Elementary learners and the solution for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao Language center.”Speaking “is one of the English skills which we should use the most suitable teaching methodologies.”In“Ho Chi Minh city, there are lots of English center with various methods to teach speaking skill for different kinds of students.”This research aims to describe the way in teaching speaking at the elementary learners of Nam Sao Language center.”The“subjects of this research are the English teacher and the Elementary learners of Nam Sao Language center.”This“research used observation, interview for teachers, questionnaires as the techniques of collecting the data.”This “paper aims to find ways to teach speaking skills to students at the elementary level and to offer methods and activities that are applied in teaching this speaking skill.”Teachers“should create more activities in the classroom to help students talk to each other in English and provide students with a variety of lessons or a plentiful of essential topics to be more interested in learning.”Students“must encourage and become familiar with everyday English speaking, encouraging students to speak English a hundred percent in class to create an effective English speaking environment.” Keywords: Teaching methods, speaking skill, teaching speaking, problems in speaking ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale “In the 21st century, the countries all over the world are tending to develop basing on international cooperation.”The“English language has become crucial to the way we interact with the different people in the world; not being able to communicate in English imposes what seem to be formidable limitations on us.”With“English we are able to bridge cultural, economic, and even social gaps, in turn we are able to better understand and tolerate each other.” “Therefore, it is not just important but in fact crucial that the English language be learnt by all individuals.”However,“this also raised an issue that foreign language education should be taken seriously in which English is the most popular language in use.”Teaching“and learning English, thus, are very important and necessary because mastering English seem to be one of the best and the shortest ways for us to have a great deal of opportunities to reach the success of life.”English learners,“from elementary pupils to students, from workers to government employers study English with the interest and enthusiasm.”As“for Vietnamese students, especially the elementary learners have many difficulties in learning and practicing English speaking skill.”They“also fall into confusion when speaking English because of their lack of professional knowledge, confidence, and surely good learning methods.” “The goal of teaching speaking, surely, is to improve the oral production of the students.”Vietnam's“economy is growing, requiring human resources to know foreign languages, especially English, students should improve and promote their communication skill so that they can express themselves and learn to follow the social and cultural rules 39 “Teachers should also create a friendly, supportive and motivational classroom environment to motivate students to be more confident and comfortable with leaning English.”However, disciplines must be kept as well.” “Teachers should establish good relationship with students; give constructive feedback to students to encourage students to take part in the class activities.” “The teachers can organize some English clubs to attract students to take part in, for them to have chances to practice English regularly, and it will be funnier and more engaging for them.” “Teachers can follow Harmer’s suggestions (2005) by organizing the following activities in the classroom: A role-play, a discussion activity, an opinion sharing activity, a reasoning gap activity, and prepared talks.” “Littlewood (1981) also shared some activities for teachers to apply in speaking lessons : Identifying a picture from a set, discovering identical pairs; discovering sequence of location, discovering missing information, discovering missing features, discovering secrets, communicating patterns and pictures, communicating models, discovering differences, following directions, reconstructing story sequence, pooling information to solve a problem, problem solving tasks, role playing with role playing controlled through cued dialogue, Roleplaying controlled through cues and information, role-playing controlled through situation and goal, role-playing in form of debate or discussion, large-scale simulation activities and improvisation.” 5.2.3 Recommendation for students “Students should try to find out the ways to learn English effectively for themselves as each student has their own favorite way of learning.”They“also need to find out the motivations for learning English themselves.”They“need to train themselves to be more hard- 40 working in learning English.”To“speak English well, students must try to learn new words, pronounce the words correctly, study new structures and apply them in their speaking usually by taking extra classes, joining some English clubs, try to make friends with foreigners if possible to use English in real conversation.” “There are some recommendation for extra- activities to improve learning English speaking skill:”  “Studying English through songs.” “Poetry and music are elements of each human society.”They“show many aspects of its culture- the relationship to the past and the ancestors, the faith, the fun and the anxieties of the people, the hopes and the views of the future Music and poetry have immanent powers.”For“example, they give people energy that had none before they can change people’s mood.”They“occur in all phrase of one’s life from birth to death So.”They“play an important role in the process of learning and using the mother tongue.”Music“and poetry are also an essential part of foreign language learning for young learner ( Richard 1993:100).” “Songs are English.”The“rhymes authentic in songs and easily povide accessible listeners with example of spoken repetition of similar sounds.”Students“often choose to listen to songs time and again, indirectly exposing them to these sounds.”Words“in song fit the music, helping learners associate the number of syllables, stress in these words with memorable rythms.” “The relaxed atmosphere songs create can expose students to this difficult pronunciation area without their realizing songs contain endless examples of weak syllable, simple sentence structures, helping to convince learners of the way English is pronounced, how to make a sentence Songs can attract students and draw them in 41 English period.” “Songs and rhymes also support for phonetic development- an important element to succeed in speaking skill.“Poems, rhymes, chants and songs could be used to give a feeling for the rhyme of the spoken language Many well-known rhymes make use of the iambic pentameter, the natural rhythm of the English language” ( Straeter – Lietz 1999:9) Practicing English speaking through reciting rhymes and poems is mostly funny and very effective.”  “Using pictures in studying English speaking” “Everyday, we can see picture everywhere, such as on the ways, in the streets, at work, at home…”They“become a very vivid part of life.”Picture“with lot of colours and shapes always capture the attentions of all people.”Sometime,“when looking at picture we can image many interesting things with the real emotions.”This“is very important because pictures bring joys to everyone, especially young people such as students.”They are enjoyable, they set the sence for contexts.” And“of course,they are one of the mist effective and useful kinds of visual aids in studying English speaking skill.”So,“students can self-study by collecting pictures to practise everyday.”Surely,“their English speaking will be widened very effectively.”The“first year Eglish non-major student of VCU are still young, inquiring and active but also lack of confidence, vocalbulary to speak English.”Thus,“the picture’s color must be beautiful bright and impressive.”The“image must be meaningful, easy understand Attentional, using picture game which can develop the imagination of students which can develop the imagination of students It means when students look at the pictures, they can express the picture in their own thought.”Students“will know how to describe the picture and improve the speaking skill very well.”Therefore,“students can speak English better, more fluently and natural.”Importantly,“colors seem to be the decisive factor leading the success of the 42 lecture using pictures.” “For the first year English non- major students in VCU, they are taught some main topics such as: Love and Marriage, Home and House” “As for the topic Season in a year, we can learn speak English by using some following pictures” “From the pictures above, students can have a look at the four season in a year such as: spring; summer, autumn, and winter.”They“realize the difference among the season through looking at all the pictures: colors, image….of each one.”For“example: the spring has many tree and beautiful flower while the autumn is famous for its beauty of falling leaf.” “As for the topic Environment , we can use some following pictures when learning about natural disaster.” “There are some terrible natural disaster which destroyed many houses, villages and killed millions of people all aver the world.” In“some recent years, because of the change of world’s teperature,it leads to many different natural disaster.”So,“looking at these pictures makes us images the destruction of natural disaster.”  “Studying English speaking through the funny games” “Games have been showed to have advantages and effectiveness in learning speaking English in various ways.”First,“games bring in relaxation ad fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words easily, and help them speak more fluently.“Second,“games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested.”These“create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate actively in the learning activities.”Third,“trough the funny, intelligent games, student can apply the situations, the structures from theory to the real life in a flexible, 43 communicative, easier way.”Therefore,“the role of games in teaching and learning speaking English can not be denied.”However,“in order to achieve the most from games, it is essential that suitable games are choosen.whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, learning topic, timing and the classroom setting are factors that should be taken into account.” “Students can learn from the funny questions” “ For example” “ Can Ferbuary March? No, but April May”  “What does the Easter Bunny order at a Chinese retaurant? Hop Suey”  “In what season you use a trampoline? Spring time”  “What you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole? A hot, cross bunny.”  “Why birds fly to the south for winter? Because it is too far to walk.”  “Applicibility of Internet in studying speaking” “Nowadays, internet has a great influence on our life As for the first year English non- major, Internet can help them study English speaking effectively.”Everytime,“students can learn directly through online websites which teach English, especially speaking skill.”It“is very convenient for them to study new word, primunciation, the presentation skill through the interesting topic…”This“is a very 44 interesting techniques.”Through internet,“students can download many documents related to English speaking to improve their speaking skill.”Besides,“Internet includes a huge of English resources.”They“can learn from English songs, English music, even English poems like this It has been found in a website: www.cycnet.com” “In addition, students can learn from the lyric of English songs.”Simply,“they loaded song lyrics to their computer and listen to the song, skim the lyric, then try to repeat by themselves.”Or“they can study with their friend by asking some simple structure sentence, find out the especial structure sentence….” “Sometimes, students can collect some funny English video clips to have hoy to study.”They“will be relaxed and studied very quickly.”These“funny video clips have interesting sounds, images and information.”Therefore,“students not fell boring.”On“contrary, they are fond of paying attention to these and learn English speaking naturally.”Obliviously,“when they study with the interest , their speaking ability will be improve faster and their vocabulary will increase very fast.” “Beasides, students use some English news loaded from internet to have more update information about all events happened recently.”This“will become a good habit of students in order to accumulate knowledge, and new words.”They“have to brainstorm to understand about a certain matter and express their thoughts according to their opinions.” “ 45 REFERENCES Martin Borgan and Mark Vicars (2012) ，The impact of local economy and global policies on foreign language teaching and learning in Vietnam Jeremy Harmer，(2011) - How to Teach English Teresa Cremin，(2009)，Teaching English creatively-Teremin Penny, 01 Dec 1999, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSA, Course in Language Teaching Trainee Book Trainee's Book Susan Halliwell, Published by Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Pearson P T R (1993), Stock Image, Teaching English in the Primary Classroom Nguyen Van Tu ,2009, The objective and role of foreign language teaching and learning Bygate, M (2000), Oxford University Press, Speaking, Su, Le Van, NXB Van hoa thong tin.,English methodology David R (2001) Teaching English as a foreign laguage Barry S ( 1997) How to teach English Oxford University Press Dough C (1991), Heinemann International a division of Heynemann Educational books Ltd English puzzules Bygate, M, Oxford University Press 1987 speaking Chan, W (2006), uper case activity EPH publishing SDN BHD English fun fun with A B CChan, W (2006) EPH publishing SDN BHD, Think and answer the questions Darkin, J, Longman 1991 Songs and Rhymes Gairns R and S Redman (1986), Cambridge Cambridge University Press, Working with words Jones, P.W (1995), Penguin group Grammar Games and Activities for teachers 46 Education Publishing house Viet Nam,2006 Let’s learn English 47 APPENDICES A: SURVEY QUESTION FOR STUDENTS Dear students! “To help us have more research facilities "English in teaching activities at Nam Sao English Language Center ", please help us answer the following contents.”Thank you very much ! A- PERSONAL INFORMATION A,Sex (Mark "X" in the selected frame): 1.Male  Female  b Age: B: Student’s attitudes, opinion towards English speaking skills and teaching method of English speaking skills Question 1:“In your opinion, is English important?” “Very important” “Important” “Not important” Question 2:“Do you like learning English speaking skills?” “Yes” “No” “Normal” Question 3:“In your opinion, speaking skill is difficult for students, isn’t it?” 48 “Yes” “No” “Normal” Question 4:“Which skill you like most in four skills?” “Reading” “Speaking” “Listening” “Writing” “All four skills” Question 5:“How you feel the current teaching method of the English speaking skills?”  “Very suitable”  “Suitable”  “Not suitable” Question 6:“Do you feel excited about the current English speaking skills teaching method?” “Yes” “No” “Normal” Question 7: “Would you like to try the new English speaking skills teaching method?” “Yes” “No” “No mention” Question 8:“What you think about activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills?” “Very interesting” “Like” 49 “Normal” “Do not like” Question 9:“Which activities you like best in the process of learning English speaking skills?”  “Role play”  “Songs”  “Talking with other students”  “Story telling”  “Picture description”  “Question and answer exchanges” Question 10: “How often you participate in English speaking activities?” “Always” “Often” “Sometimes” “Rarely” “Never” 50 B: INTERVIEW QUESTION FOR TEACHERS Name of interviewer: …………………………………………… Working unit: Nam Sao English Center Position: Manager staff / teacher Phone number: ……………………………………………………………… “What are the English speaking skills teaching methods applied at the Nam Sao English center?” “In your opinion, does the current English speaking skills teaching method fit with elementary learners?” “What are the advantages and disadvantage of teaching English speaking skills to elementary learners?” “Which activities your students like best in the process of learning English speaking skills?” “How does age affect teaching English speaking skills?” 51 “ Is the time for studying English skills appropriate for elementary learners?” “How is the current facilities of the center?” 52 APPENDIX C CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST A Lesson profile Aim:…………… Setting: ………… Time allowance:………… Class:……… Unit:…………… Name of teacher: ……………………………………… B Observation Aspects observed Comments “Pupils’ motivation on the speaking lessons” “Pupils’s attitude towards speaking activities” “Pupils’ involvement in the speaking activities” “Pupils’ reactions to teacher’s techniques” “Pupils’ preferences for teacher’s techniques” “Pupils’ interaction with each other while completing the tasks” “How the teacher deals with noise and silence throughout the communicative 53 activities in class” Overall comments: …………………………………………………………………………………………… …… ... focuses on English speaking skills teaching methods for Elementary learners and the solution for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao Language center. ? ?Speaking “is one of the English skills which... the teaching methods in speaking class of teachers who are teaching at Nam Sao Language center with Elementary level Investigating " The solution for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao center? ??’,... at Nam Sao language center “The majority of the teachers at Nam Sao Language center is so young.? ?At ? ?Nam Sao Language center, there are about 20 teachers of English language (about 20% are native