AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL LAB APPLICATION TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS MÔN TI�NG ANH skkn S� GIÁO D�C VÀ �ÀO T�O NGH� AN TR��NG THPT QU� PHONG AN INVESTIGATION[.]
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL-LAB APPLICATION TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS MÔN: TI NG ANH skkn S GIÁO D C VÀ ÀO T O NGH AN TR NG THPT QU PHONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL-LAB APPLICATION TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS MÔN: TI NG ANH Tên tác gi : V n Thái Hoàng T : V n – Anh N m th c hi n S tài: 2021 i n tho i liên h : 0888 618 497 skkn TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research methods 1.4 Scope of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Literature review 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Listening skill 2.2.2 Communicative skills 2.2.3 Esl-lab application CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11 3.1 Participants 11 3.2 Questionnaires 11 3.3 Interview 12 3.4 Data collection 12 3.5 Implementation of esl lab 12 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 13 4.1 The first cycle of using Esl-lab 13 4.2 The procedure of input acquisition and practice 14 4.3 The procedure of output practice 16 4.4 The third cycle of oral performance 18 4.5 What are students’ attitudes toward the Esl-lab? 22 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 23 5.1 Recapitulation 23 5.2 Implication 24 REFERENCES 25 skkn CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In the globalization era, cooperation among countries has promoted the development of the economy, culture, and society The largest language which has been spreading around the globe is English It helps people connect, have better understandings of the world, its challenges through information booming that satisfies advantageous access to travel, education, and cultures In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum from grade to grade 12 It helps students improve English communication and contribute to developing other skills for work and study more effectively Besides, this subject provides students with an essential international communication tool to update new knowledge about cutting-edge science and technology, cultural discovery Learning English raises their insights into people of other countries and makes them aware of global citizens The English subject's primary focus aims to develop the fluency and proficiency of language skills for students in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and linguistic knowledge Although more and more students excel in learning English, the number of students having difficulties in listening and speaking skills has increased steadily This evidence can be observed at most high schools in Vietnam that they cannot perform enough verbal communication in English in the classroom and outside the classroom This problem is caused by many factors, including the geographical location, environment for practicing English, learning styles, acquisition abilities, and others The study "An investigation into the efficiency of ESL-lab application to enhance communicative skills for ethnic students" is selected to solve the challenges in listening and speaking students face The application of Esl-lab intends to get students involved in essential listening, vocabulary, and grammar tasks because these play a vital role in attracting students' attention to the voice of native speakers, encouraging them to identify the vocabulary in context, and practicing post-listening task verbally Another interesting point of Esl-lab is that learners can interact with the system whenever they aspire to have their devices, such as mobile phones, computers connected to the internet Finally, the learning process combined with technology integration meets the needs of the fourth industrial revolution facilitating students with the skills to explore the online system, practice free English listening exercises in bulk, discover global cultures, accumulating more vocabulary, and communicating better skkn 1.2 Aims of the study The purposes of the study are aimed at: - investigating students’ attitudes toward listening and speaking skills when using Esl-lab - exploring how effectively Esl-lab helps students enhance their communicative skills - devising learning and teaching methods to support students with the improvement of communication 1.3 Research methods This paper employs action research with three cycles to investigate the effectiveness of applying Esl-lab The first cycle deals with introducing Esl-lab to students regarding the content website and entering listening practice In this process, they open the system and the listening exercises Turning to the second cycle, the survey will be given to students with the aims of eliciting the problems they face while using Esl-lab, navigating their attitudes toward listening and speaking tasks they have done All the collected data will focus on orientating appropriate methods for students to improve the following listening results The methods relate to listening tactics and different strategies provided for students to apply Besides, the students' results are saved after each task in detail to satisfy the assessment's needs After that, the author checks the students' understanding by a set of questions relating to the listening content Students are asked to produce communicative performances in the third cycle through different activities, including interviews and presentations The author also provides feedback and recommendations for students to improve their performance Furthermore, students are encouraged to share their voices regarding what they learned, how they learned, and what they wish to further English skills via the interviews The recorded speech will be evidence for the efforts and expectations they make Finally, the research covers the efficiency of Esl-lab to promote students' progress in learning English 1.4 Scope of the study In this study, there are 90 participants who are the 11th graders at Que Phong high school Que Phong is a mountainous district located in the west of Nghe An province It is 173 kilometers away from Vinh city and shares a border with Laos Que Phong has many people from the Thai, Mong, and Kho Mu ethnic groups Most students at this school come from remote communes of Que Phong districts and had disadvantaged backgrounds skkn Due to the influence of impoverished life and other factors, they have many difficulties in learning English Besides learning English at school, they have very little guidance to improve their English listening and speaking skills for themselves Despite having internet connections, very few students explore English materials online for their study According to the new general education program requirements, the integration of information technology is the focus of quality enhancement of teaching and learning In the English subject, listening and speaking are essential skills that require learners to practice frequently Recognizing the students' challenges, the Esl-lab is used to help students practice language skills better without paying any fees for it The selected listening and productive tasks of the Esl-lab are at the elementary level, which meets fulfilment’s learning progress This website is a motivation for them to improve their English and have autonomy in self-study skkn CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Literature review There have been a number of considerable papers regarding the enhancement of oral skill in various ways The paper on communication among undergraduates conducted by a group of scholars in Malaysia (2011) showed that verbal communication, written communication, and social communication encourage students to develop discussion and presentations in class and engage in real-world career success Omer and Aslihan (2009) focused on factors affecting students’ performance on listening skill The author employed different research methods investigating students’ progress, including questionnaire, in-class listening tasks, out-of-class context and their voices on listening The research results revealed that their learning achievement was strongly supported by their father’s education and computer time increase The next effect related to the number of books they read in a month The assisting tools, such as radio, newspaper, and players, significantly contributed to motivating students’ performance tasks in class Dilek (2019) researched an effective method to develop watching/listening comprehension skills in Turkish teaching to enhance word and sentence in a discourse This approach activates students’ thinking on language elements, semantics, sociocultural knowledge and the utterance conveyed by the speaker The final results stated that students were able to use language and strategies constructively and effectively Neri and Santi (2019) put forward research on improving listening skill by using some listening applications After performing the three stages, including pre-test, treatments, and post-test, the students’ ability to listen improved Furthermore, their interest in learning was motivated by modern media, especially smartphones Erwin (2014) did a study on improving speaking skill through communicative activities According to Shumin in Richards and Renandya (2002), speaking effectiveness consists of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence The applied activities were discussion, role play, simulation, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interview, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing, finding the difference to increase students’ speaking skill The contents of those are related to human real-life and connected with four components of communicative competence skkn 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Listening skill Listening is one of four Basic English skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening (Spratt et al., 2005:30) Like reading, Listening is a creative skill (Rivers, 1981:160), as it involves responding to language rather than producing it Listening involves making sense of the meaningful (having meaning) sounds of language We this through context and our knowledge of the language and the world Anyone who uses language well has a number of different abilities He may read a book, write letters, speak on the telephone, listen to the radio In the most general way, we can identify four primary skills: listening and understanding, speaking, reading and understanding and writing (Harmer 1983:16) Speaking and writing are skills and involve some kinds of productive skills that the language users apply Listening and reading are receptive skills in that the language learner is receiving written or spoken language Adrian Doff (1998:199) mentioned some types of listening Active Listening, Empathic Listening, Critical Listening, Casual Listening, Focused Listening Active listening is a communication technique that requires listeners to respond to what the speaker had said in his own words This model includes listening with comprehension and with a purpose Empathic listening is also called active or reflective Listening It is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and trust It is an essential skill for third parties, and disputants enable the listener to receive an accurate response The response is an integral part of the listening process and can be critical to the success of a negotiation/meditation Critical listening reflects the ability to listen critically is essential in a democracy There is practically no place he can go where critical Listening is unimportant, whether on the job, in the community, at service clubs, in the place of worship or the family Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual require us to place a premium on critical Listening and the thinking that accompanies it Casual listening is many times we listen to someone or something without any particular purpose At such times, we often not listen to them with much concentration unless we hear something which interests us This type of Listening is often found in a social context when we interact with others Focused listening or ‘Intensive Listening’ for information or for transacting business The listener is attentive and concentrates on what the speaker is saying skkn The listener as Critic is an evaluation that shows the speaker’s authentic image and compares it with the ideas he might attain The precautions while listening to the verbal messages 1) Avoid making fast assumptions 2) Paying particular attention to the intended meanings when the speaker uses words describing strong feelings 3) Be alert to the ways by language manipulation 4) Hear with the speaker’s ear interact with you 5) Be alert to the impact of non-verbal messages Howett and Dakin (1974) considered that listening is the ability to explore and recognize the content others are saying This involves detecting speakers’ accents or pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and grasping the messages Wolgin and Coakley (1982) regarded listening as a process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli Pearson (1983) stated, “Listening involves the simultaneous organization and combination of skills in phonology, semantics, and knowledge of the test structure, all of which seem to be controlled by the cognitive process Hirsh (1986) gave another definition that listening is an aspect of skills, including neurological response and interpretation of sounds to understand and produce meaning by reacting, selecting ideas, remembering, attending, analysing, and including previous experience Bentley and Bacon (1996) stated that listening is an integral part of the second language learning process during which the listener constructs meaning from oral input According to Brown (2001), listening is not solely a process of unidirectional receiving audible symbols He supposed that listening comprehension is the psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain Listening comprehension is one of the most challenging skills to learn in a foreign language (Longman, 1987:156) Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, and television), a message, and a receiver (the listener) Listeners often must process messages as they come, if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead Besides, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of skkn vocabulary, structure, and delivery rate The listening process's complexity is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language 2.2.2 Communicative skills Speaking is the natural state of language, as all human beings are born to speak their native languages This verbal communication involves not only producing meaningful utterances but also receiving others' oral productions Speaking is thus regarded as a critical skill in learning a second or foreign language by most language learners, and their success in learning a language is measured in terms of their accomplishment in oral communication (Nunan, 1998; Nunan, 2001) Even though acquiring oral skills is considered to be necessary, speaking did not have primacy in language learning and teaching in the past Historically, learning a structural language, rote memorization of sentence patterns and vocabulary and using literary language were considered superior to practising the spoken language These pedagogical activities were supported by the Grammar Translation Method (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) However, in the mid-nineteenth century, the importance of teaching grammar for grammar's sake decreased due to the existence of opportunities for achieving conversational skills in learning a foreign language Europeans were travelling more and sought to build business and personal connections through learning and to use the languages of Europe Some language specialists, especially Frenchman F Gouin (1831-1896), developed new language teaching methods, which impacted language pedagogy Gouin supported the idea that language learning requires using spoken language related to a sequence of natural physical actions: walking across a room, opening a door, and so on (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) Other innovations in language teaching encouraged ways of language learning using a speech-based approach to language instruction These innovations supported by a Direct Method of language teaching dominated language teaching in the 20th century Speaking plays a vital role in communication Ur (1996), Bailey and Savage (1994: vii) claim that "for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill because of the desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real-time" In Ur's opinion, speaking is intuitively considered as the most crucial skill of the four ones According to Haws and Thomas (1994), it is all too easy to make the mistaken assumption that just any kind of speaking activities can develop students" competence in an ESL spoken English course If the course's focus is on conversational skills, this will not ensure that learners will develop the ability to use language for informative purposes, which is the aspect of spoken English that students most often have difficulty skkn mentioned above, the author decided to use questionnaires in this paper to investigate students‟ attitudes and motivations towards communication acquisition 3.3 Interview The researcher observed the speaking lesson done by students through different tasks of communication After the class observation, the author interviewed some students to reaffirm the collected results from students’ practice 3.4 Data collection Data analysis is a process of inspecting, transforming, and modelling data to highlight useful information, suggesting conclusions, and support decision-making One of the aims of giving an evaluation was to know how far the students mastered English speaking skills by applying the Esl-lab The questionnaire was designed through a google form, which makes participants available to provide feedback Finally, the google system automatically synthesizes the answer and launches the data through graphs 3.5 Implementation of esl lab First and foremost, the website esl-lab.com was provided for students with the introduction of the whole page and some steps to access communication interaction The technical guidance was essential for them to get familiar with the tasks Then, they were assigned a listening task on the system to complete There was a sequence of exercises for checking listening comprehension and speaking Next, the teacher investigated the final score they got on listening The marks on the correct answers they accomplished encourages their curiosity to discover new topics This is the very first time they have had access to the forum in which English language is used, so the guidance needs to foster their learning motivation In addition, the listening part is crucial to the development of post listening skill Turning to the speaking, students have the opportunity to make some utterances on the topic’s content The main focus is they demonstrate the answers to the questions set by the system and some requirements made by the teacher The procedure assessing the speaking performance bases on the rubric and the input they had 12 skkn CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The first cycle of using Esl-lab THE CHART SHOWS THE RESULTS OF FIRST TEST ON ESL-LAB Correct answers Number of students 100% 80% 60% 10 22 18 24 13 2 40% 20% 0% Correct answers Number of students 10 22 18 24 13 Percentage (%) 11.1 24 20 26.7 14 3.3 Figure 1: The results on the first test The bar chart illustrates the proportion of students’ outcomes on the first listening test of Esl-lab In general, 11 percent of students achieved the highest correct answers with five questions The second-ranking of correct answers belonged to 24 percent of students The third place for three correct answers reflected 20 percent of students The rate increased considerably to more than 6.7 percent in the number of students getting two right answers The lowest scores were one correct answer, and zero had 14 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively The levels of English among students are different because they lack input sources Firstly, they lack lexical resources, making them impossible to listen to a speech or a conversation Secondly, they are weak at pronunciation Despite recognizing some words’ letters, they have difficulty identifying the word meaning, intonation, and speaking speech The next barrier is the shortage of sentence structure to explore meaning in the listening task Furthermore, the teacher instructed students to use the Esl-lab system by guiding them to open the listening tasks, choosing their favourite topic and completing the task Students were asked to learn vocabulary and explore meaning before entering task completion 13 skkn 4.2 The procedure of input acquisition and practice The author chooses some topics concerning the ones they have learned in the textbook There are six topics selected: college life, family activities, happy new year, happy birthday, reading books, and social media websites These topics provide knowledge of cultures, activities, and celebrations in a foreign context, so students have to identify the details of listening tasks and talk about the related topics by referring to a real-life context Before entering the main task, students’ knowledge is activated by listing some details relating to the big topics The teacher focuses on highlighting special idioms appearing in the listening task Each idiom has a demonstrated example College life - “a walking encyclopedia” = someone who seems to know everything “My roommate would well on a trivia game show He’s a walking encyclopedia.” - “have the right stuff” = have the needed skills to succeed “Susan has the right stuff to get into any school she chooses.” Family activities - “keep an eye on” = watch carefully - “Be sure to keep an eye on the kids so they don’t get to close to river.” - “homesick” = sad at being away from home or things that are familiar “My roommate is really homesick and can’t think about anything else but his mom’s cooking.” Happy New year - “turn over a new leaf” = change personal habits “I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf; I’m going to exercise three times a week and not play so many video games.” - “ring in the new year” = celebrate the new year “We’re going to ring in the new year at my sister’s house next week.” Happy Birthday - “turn” = become a year older “Our youngest daughter is going to turn 16 this week, and we’re all excited to celebrate her special day.” 14 skkn - “mooch off of someone” = expect someone to pay your expenses “Hey, now that you’ve turned 25, don’t you think it’s time to stop mooching off of mom and dad?” Reading book - “bookworm” = someone who loves to read “My daughter is a bookworm, and she reads at least two hours a day.” - “be an open book” = be a person who hides nothing about your life “Please ask me anything I’m an open book.” Social media websites - “keep in touch” = stay in contact or communications with someone “Using popular social media Web sites is one way to keep in touch with family and friends.” - “reach someone” = be able to contact or talk with someone “If you want to talk, you can reach me by phone, by email, through FaceBook.” After teaching some vocabulary, the teacher instructs some strategies for students to complete multiple-choice questions: - Read through the questions - Underline the keywords - Listen for keywords and identify information - Give the correct answers Most of the listening exercises are in the form of multiple-choice questions, so students find it easy to complete However, the proper answers need exact information as located in the recording The students are forced to listen more than twice because they have to keep listening on track and identify the content Furthermore, the transcription is designed in the form of gap-filling for them to complete 15 skkn While practicing the listening tasks, students’ results on listening are different from the post-test results THE RESULTS OF INPUT PRACTICE 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 16.70% 26.7% 28.9% 22.2% 5.5% 15 24 26 20 5 2 correct answers correct answers Number of students Percentage Number of students 15 24 26 20 16.70% 26.7% 28.9% 22.2% 5.5% Figure 2: Results of practice The bar chart shows the students’ input results on listening conducted on the Esllab website This time students made better progress in the performance with a surge of up to 16.7 percent The second-ranking score accounted for 26.7 percent The third proportion was at 28.9 percent The rate of students getting the lowest score for two correct answers plummeted to 22.2 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively Under the teacher's guidance, students get better results because they pay more attention to vocabulary acquisition, listen for specific details, and study the transcription carefully Weak students are encouraged to learn more with the repetition of knowledge and language They not only listen to the recording, but they also have some insight into the content To check their understanding, the teacher set a list of questions relating to the listening content Notably, the higher results than the previous ones reinforce the learning pace and awareness to accumulate new knowledge 4.3 The procedure of output practice It is inevitable that listening need the integration of communication for the whole listening content The focus is based on the post-listening tasks and the context of 16 skkn listening content The students are required to perform oral speaking by making dialogues and giving a brief presentation College life Interview another student about the topics below and report your findings to the class: What university you want to enter? What undergraduate program you plan to study? What are the requirements of the entrance exam? How is the classroom environment? Will you stay in the dormitory or rent a hostel? Will you part-time employment What club activities will you join? Family activities Talk about your family with a partner using some of clues: How many people are in your family? What your parents do? What kinds of activities does your family together? What is one thing you like or dislike about your family? Happy new year Happy New Year Make a short talk about new year celebration What things did you with family and friends to ring in the new year? What special foods did you eat? Do people in your country have any special traditions they on that day? Happy Birthday Share a story about one of your favourite birthdays How did you celebrate the day, and what made it special? Did you eat any special foods? What presents did you receive? Are there any unique birthday traditions and customs in your family or culture? 17 skkn Reading Make a presentation about reading What are the benefits of reading? What types of material are best for learners of different ages to understand the content they are reading? How can students learn to read without the help of a dictionary? Social networking site Make a dialogue on social network Which social networking sites you visit and use? How often you use them? Who you contact or talk with on these sites? What are both the positive and negative points with such sites? 4.4 The third cycle of oral performance The information to such a question is explored on the internet and via discussion among students The teacher supplies them with some websites and instructions to discover knowledge When they perform the speaking, a rubric is applied to score their performance Evaluation and assessment processes are conducted before, during, and after learning Heaton (1990), Underhill (2000), and Weir (1993) suggest that teachers assess and evaluate a learner’s communication ability via re-telling stories, interviewing, asking questions, giving a point, and doing a role play Other techniques include using pictures for description, comparison, sequencing, and pictures with speech bubbles and maps Wongsothorn (1995) presents three speaking types: reporting, description, restorytelling, giving an opinion, analysing, and interviewing with discussion or debate Commonly, educators assess students’ speaking abilities depending on the techniques used by the teacher 18 skkn ... NGH AN TR NG THPT QU PHONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFICIENCY OF ESL- LAB APPLICATION TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATIVE SKILL FOR ETHNIC STUDENTS MÔN: TI NG ANH Tên tác gi : V n Thái Hoàng T : V n – Anh... including the geographical location, environment for practicing English, learning styles, acquisition abilities, and others The study "An investigation into the efficiency of ESL- lab application to enhance. .. application to enhance communicative skills for ethnic students" is selected to solve the challenges in listening and speaking students face The application of Esl- lab intends to get students involved