TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 1 Rationale of the study 1 1 2 Aims of the study 1 1 3 Scope of the study 2 1 4 Significance of the study 2 1 5 Methods of the study 2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE[.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale of the study .1 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Methods of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of speaking skill 2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill 2.1.2 Elements of speaking skill 2.1.3 Teaching speaking skill 2.2 Overview of story-telling 2.2.1 Definition of story-telling 2.2.2 Types of stories 2.2.3 Procedure of Story-telling .5 2.2.4 Advantages of using story-telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students 2.2.5 Using story-telling in the English language classroom 2.2.6 Story-telling Strategies 2.2.7 Story-telling activities in the ESL Classroom CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions 3.2 Study setting 3.2.1 Theoretical setting 3.2.2 Practical setting .8 3.3 Participants 3.4 Materials 3.4.1 The curriculum and the textbook Tieng Anh 10 .9 3.4.2 Research instruments .9 3.5 Procedure skkn 3.5.1 Procedures of data collection 3.5.2 Procedures of data analysis 10 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 10 4.1 Data analysis and discussion from Phase 10 4.1.1 Data analysis from Phase 10 4.1.2 Discussion from Phase 13 4.2 Data analysis and discussion from Phase 14 4.2.1 Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaires .14 4.2.2 Data analysis from teachers’ questionnaires 15 4.2.3 Data analysis from class observation 17 4.2.4 Discussion from Phase 18 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 18 5.1 Conclusion 18 5.2 Pedagogical implications .19 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies .20 skkn CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study These days, people increasingly demand to have more than one language Language as a magic tool for communication plays an essential role in our daily activities Without communication, we will be left behind And it is its significant role as the international language that makes English becomes more and more crucial in the context of globalization Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to meet students' needs for effective communication Communication in foreign language is considered as a bridge to get information, knowledge, and culture However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking skills in particular have not come up to the expectations in spite of teachers’ efforts to supply students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, teaching and learning speaking effectively is quite a problem to both teachers and students at various schools in Vietnam At Trieu Son High school, the situation is the same Up to now, most of the students at Trieu Son high school still have difficulties in learning English in general and in speaking in particular They always think speaking is hard work and not enjoyable Hence, when the teachers ask them to practice speaking, they are not brave enough to speak up, especially in front of the class Sometimes, they also feel anxious and less confident about their speaking, pronunciation, or grammar For most students, they find speaking especially important yet most challenging one It also seems to the writer that the techniques exploited during a speaking activity such as: story-telling, simulations, discussions, etc are not always really effective Therefore, it is useful to implement story-telling technique in improving students’ speaking competence By implementing story-telling, there are many benefits for teachers and students, such as improving students’ vocabulary, improving students’ self-confidence, promoting students’ ability to pick appropriate words, etc Hopefully, through this writing, teachers who are concerned with students’ weakness in their speaking can recognize the effective way to improving students’ speaking competence It is the reasons mentioned above that urge me to discuss it in my presentation today The reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a research entitled "Using story-telling to enhance speaking performances for 10 graders students." 1.2 Aims of the study The study is conducted with the aim of investigating the use of story-telling activities in speaking lessons at Trieu Son high school In details, the aims of the study are: skkn - Exploring the attitudes of students at Trieu Son high school towards applying story-telling to speaking lessons - Investigating the use of story-telling activities by teachers at Trieu Son high school in teaching speaking to 10th graders - Investigating the effectiveness of story-telling activities in enhancing speaking performance of 10th graders students at Trieu Son high school 1.3 Scope of the study Among numerous techniques of teaching speaking, the study focuses specifically on using story-telling in enhancing speaking performances for graders students at Trieu Son H i g h school Therefore, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 88 students from classes of grade 10 and teachers in the context of Trieu Son high school 1.4 Significance of the study The research is a great attempt to investigate the effectiveness of storytelling activities in enhancing speaking performances for 10th graders students at Trieu Son high school Once completed, it will be a useful source for those who are teachers of English at high schools Moreover, this study provides teachers at Trieu Son high school with suggestions to apply story-telling activities successfully Thus, the results of the research will make a great contribution to the improvement of teaching speaking skill for students at high schools The result of this study is expected to enable students to improve their English speaking competence At the same time, the study supplies the English language teachers with further understanding of speaking skill and story-telling in terms of types, advantages when employing them 1.5 Methods of the study With the aim of addressing the research questions, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaire and classroom observation Firstly, for its versatility and straightforward data processing, the survey questionnaire was employed to quickly collect data from a large number of participants Secondly, classroom observation was used as the indispensable method since it offered a double-checking scheme of participants' responses, helping the researcher to investigate the issue in practice with an objective view CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of speaking skill 2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill Speaking can be seen as the key to human communication It is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching There are a variety of definitions of speaking Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of context” (Chaney, [12, p.13]) Another definition is proposed by Nunan [48] which states that speaking skkn is the ability in using oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other people as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer 2.1.2 Elements of speaking skill 2.1.2.1 Accuracy Skehan refers to accuracy as “how well the target language is produced in relation to the rule system of the target language” (1996, cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p 139) To achieve accuracy, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation should be considered - Grammar - Vocabulary - Pronunciation 2.1.2.2 Fluency The ultimate aim of EFL learners is to be able to speak fluently According to Hasselgren (1998 cited in Luoma, 2004, p 89) fluency is the ability to contribute to what a listener, proficient in the language, would normally perceive as coherent speech, which can be understood without undue strain, and is carried out at a comfortable pace, not being disjointed or disrupted by excessive hesitation 2.1.3 Teaching speaking skill 2.1.3.1 Factors affecting speaking performance In order to help students to overcome problems in learning speaking, it is necessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance Students’ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come from performance conditions (time pressure, planning, standard of performance and amount of support), affective factors (such as motivation, confidence and anxiety), listening ability and feedback during speaking activities - Performance conditions - Affective factors - Listening ability - Topical knowledge - Feedback during speaking activities 2.1.3.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking For Ur (1996), there are some speaking problems that teachers can come across in getting students to talk in the classroom These are: inhibition, lack of topical knowledge, low or uneven participation and mother-tongue use The first problem that the students often encounter is inhibition Secondly, learners often complain that they cannot think of anything to say and they have no motivation to express themselves Another problem in speaking class is that participation is low or uneven Finally, when all or a number of learners share the same mother-tongue, they tend to use it because it is easier for them skkn 2.1.3.3 Principles for teaching EFL speaking The first principle is that, to make sure the teaching takes place in an intended way, it is critical to create a high level of motivation (Ur, 1981, p.4) That is the key consideration in the determining the preparedness of learners to communicate Motivation is the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language So effort alone does not signify motivation but it is the desire and the satisfaction in the activity that count (Nunan, 1999: 233) In order to make students feel satisfied and have the desire to get involved in the lesson, teachers should the following things First, teachers use the instinct or experience, depending on the teacher’s qualification, to choose interesting topics in order to draw students’ attention and make inspiration Second, teachers can create interest in the topic by talking about the topic and by communicating enthusiasm Third, motivation is raised in a lesson also by the fact that teachers help to create a relaxed, no anxious atmosphere which helps even weak and reluctant students Fourth, teachers should give appropriate level of difficulty, not too difficult nor too easy for students may feel bored And finally, teachers had better employ meaningful learning with meaningful activities relevant to the real life to get students to talk about themselves The second principle is, when students are motivated enough to get involved in the lesson, teachers should give them the maximum number of opportunities possible to practice the target language in meaningful contexts and situations which helps to facilities acquisition for all learners rather than grammatical explanation or linguistics analysis (Nunan, 1999: 241) 2.1.3.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity To support the teaching learning process of speaking skill, the teachers must know about the characteristics of students and also the characteristics of successful speaking activity If the teacher knows about the characteristics of each student, the teacher can easily give the material to students According to Underhil (1987; 120), there are some characteristics of successful speaking activity: - Students talk a lot - Participation is even - Motivation is high - Language is of an acceptable level 2.1.3.5 Different speaking activities - Free discussions - Information - gap games - Story-telling - Oral presentations 2.2 Overview of story-telling 2.2.1 Definition of story-telling skkn According to Handayani (2013, p.1), story-telling can encourage students to explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner Barnes (1997, p.1) argued that story-telling is the art of telling a story that includes telling a story with the use of the written word, with the use of song, acting, mime, dance and other mediums Plourde (1985) suggested activities that emphasize on story-telling, generating character, helping students find an appropriate voice, and developing the ability to make logical conclusions He reveals a variety of techniques suitable for children in kindergarten through grade One of which is storytelling 2.2.2 Types of stories Classifying stories into categories can be very difficult because categories often overlap Therefore, different linguists use different ways to classify stories According to Helen McKay and Berice Dudley (1996), "there are many different types of stories The most important consideration when choosing a tale to tell is whether you like it enough to tell it with enthusiasm Stories should communicate to you a need to be told" They classify stories into many more categories as follows: • Fable • Fairytale • Personal story • Traditional tale • Folk tale • Legend • Religious story • Myth • Parable • Tall tale 2.2.3 Procedure of Story-telling According to Jianing (2007), there are six steps in conducting story-telling, as follows: - Warming Up - Divide the students into groups and each group prepares a story - Ask each student to prepare a story (about two minutes long) in advance - Divide the students into four to five groups and each group is given an opening of a story and asked to finish the story in about 20 minutes - Ask each group to hand in an incomplete story and redistribute them among the groups - The teacher gives the first sentence to the class and then each student adds one more sentence to make a whole story impromptu 2.2.4 Advantages of using story-telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students Opening a lesson with a story may put the students at ease and allow them to understand something concrete before going on to the related abstract concept As we can see, there are a number of advantages of using story-telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students The first advantage that can be cited is story-telling gains the students’ attention It enables the students to be exposed to a moral dilemma or a problem5 skkn solving exercise Students can use story-telling to share stories of success and develop a sense of community They also can use it to explore personal roles and make sense of their lives This enhances the use of imagination and concentrates the mind It may be the use of imagination enables stories to be remembered It has also been suggested that story-telling enhances critical thinking The subject for which this strategy appears to be most appropriate is that of developing language Story-telling is appropriate allowing for creative expression and an intuitive application of knowledge Yet it is not just an understanding of words that is enhanced, story-telling also develops verbal skills One final aspect of story-telling is the interaction that it generates Fry and colleagues have proposed that teaching is about facilitation and that exchanging stories allow the teacher to hear the student’s perspective Similarly, it has been claimed that the process of listening shows respect to others That is develops relationships and that the teacher can assess the students at the same time According to Tsukanto in Jamari’s research, story-telling motivates participants to listen and speak The activities can be done better by integrating story-telling The students can work together to train themselves repeatedly both in the classroom and outside The story-telling provides participants with opportunities to listen to language in context rather than in bits and pieces" According to Amanto, "stories have traditionally been used to teach and entertain" Based on explanations above, story-telling is a technique which gives many opportunities for participants to listen and speak Besides that, it can also give entertainment for the participants 2.2.5 Using story-telling in the English language classroom As we all know, stories have always played a significant role in children's growth Stories not only help in stimulating children's imagination and understanding of the world, but also in developing children's language ability and appreciating literature (Aiex, 1988; Cooper, 1989; Koki, 1998; Zobairi & Gulley, 1989) It is just as Wright wrote, "Stories which rely so much on words, offer a major and constant source of language experience for children" (Wright, 1995) The primary reason to recommend story-telling in the EFL speaking classroom is that stories are motivating and immensely interesting, can best attract listeners and promote communication "The excitement and drama of story-telling provide a context that holds students' attention." (Cooter, 1991; Bla, 1998) Secondly, stories are an enormous language treasure For hundreds of years, thousands of stories have been created and passed down 2.2.6 Story-telling Strategies Story-telling strategies utilizes the vocabulary and structures which need to be taught in the early stages of language learning This can be achieved by incorporating them into stories which the students listen to, watch, retell, read, and write After hearing a story, various students act it out together or assume different roles while their peers watch Students are not required to memorize the stories; on the contrary, they are encouraged to construct their own variations as skkn they retell, using props such as illustrations and labels Story-telling then is not only use to stimulate the students‟ imagination, but also to develop their language abilities (Koki, 1998) 2.2.7 Story-telling activities in the ESL Classroom - Group Discussion and Interaction - Story-telling - Retelling Story - Story Completion - Story-telling or Drama CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions In order to meet the aim of the study, the following research questions were generated: What are the attitudes of students at Trieu Son high school towards using story-telling activities in a speaking lesson? How teachers of English at Trieu Son high school teach speaking to 10 graders students with story-telling activities? In what ways story-telling activities enhance speaking performances of 10 graders students at Trieu Son high school? 3.2 Study setting 3.2.1 Theoretical setting Despite realizing English speaking is very important, Vietnamese students still cannot acquire it The main reason is that the traditional teaching laid the emphasis on grammar has led to this problem In the teaching situations, the students usually keep quiet in speaking lessons; they mind speaking In real-life situations, students find it hard to communicate with English speaking people; it is difficult for them to response spontaneously and naturally Unfortunately, this is happening at almost high schools in Vietnam, except for foreign language specializing schools The teaching contents are organized according to themes so as to provide contexts for language skills, language elements and socio-cultural knowledge to be taught and developed in an integrated manner These themes are all drawn from the contexts of students’ daily life such as home and school, health, recreation, community and the world The total number of class hours for English education is also clearly specified In high school, the time allocation is 315 for standard textbooks Each class hour is 45 minutes in length Tiếng Anh 10 is the official textbook for 10th grade students, includes topics: daily life, school talks, people’s background, special education, technology, excursion, the mass media, story of my village, undersea world, conservation, national parks, music, films and cinema, the world cup, cities, historical places An ideal systematic textbook evaluation would be a longitudinal one, which includes pre-use evaluation, while-use evaluation and post-use evaluation But skkn textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom, despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users Tiếng Anh 10 is accompanied with cassette tapes and students’ workbook The textbook is evaluated with clear structure, an adequate number of review units and covering all four language skills adequately and allowing for an integration of skills at the pre and post stages However, there are several units in these book which are not suitable or unfamiliar and far from the students' background knowledge such as talking about the World Cup (unit 14), talking about historical places (unit 16) Consequently, the students will lose their interest during the lesson., too confused… Teachers usually have to adapt, it may be: omission, addition, reduction, extension, rewriting, modification, replacement, re-ordering, branching… 3.2.2 Practical setting My school is located in a countryside of poor conditions Most of students here were born in working and farming family with medium living standard, so the teaching of English in this school has encountered with several difficulties Even though most students are aware of the importance of English, the majority of the students not pay much attention to English, especially, speaking skill And if some students are said to be good at English, it means they are good at English grammar Most of them find it hard to express themselves orally And, the teachers have to face a lot of difficulties in teaching speaking because students seem to be passive in all speaking activities In the English lessons, teachers have to speak Vietnamese most of the time because they are afraid that their students not understand what they are speaking This may be because of the following reasons: First of all, Trieu Son High School teachers of English, by and large, have positive attitudes towards the communicative approach, but they feel constrained to implement communicative teaching in their classroom Communicative teaching is too challenging: the teacher’s proficiency is low; they rarely have access to the input and resources of the target language Secondly, Trieu Son High School has an average class size of between 40 and 45 students Inside the classroom, students sit in long row with or students in one row, thus becoming very immobile for communicative activities The third obstacle is the teaching schedule; students only meet for only periods a week for English, so the teachers are under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed Last but not least, almost important English exams at schools as well as college entrance exams to universities are still in written form, so most teachers and students have little motivation to teach and learn speaking As a result, students are often shy and unconfident to speak in English 3.3 Participants skkn 12.5% of the students did not like doing story-telling activities It is obvious that story-telling was highly appreciated in speaking lessons by students As shown in the table above, 12.5% of the students felt very excited and 64.8% of the students felt excited when doing story-telling activities in speaking class From the fact above, it can be concluded that story-telling activities increased students’ interest and motivation in speaking lessons Also, the table indicates that more than half of the students used more English than Vietnamese in story-telling activities whereas 34.1% of the students reported that they used their mother tongue more than the target language Very few students speak only English or Vietnamese in story-telling activities According to the table, the majority of students (95.5%) admitted that using story-telling activities in English speaking classes can help improve their speaking skills Only 4.5% of the students thought that their speaking skills did not improve by doing story-telling activities When being asked about the effectiveness of using story-telling activities in speaking classes, 85.2% of the students believed that story-telling activities help them lower anxiety and develop confidence 72.7% of the students thought that story-telling activities give them chances to practice actual situations in real life and 76.1% of the students admitted that story-telling allows them to interact with other members in class Moreover, most of the students (94.3%) thought that story-telling activities in speaking lessons makes them feel relaxed and enjoyable In brief, the majority of the students were somehow aware of the significance of story-telling activities in speaking lessons As can be seen from the table above, when being asked to self-evaluate their improvement in speaking ability after doing story-telling activities in speaking lessons, 81.8% of the student thought that their speaking ability was improved very much 18.2% of the students thought that their own speaking ability was improved a little bit None of the students thought that their speaking ability was not improved Surprisingly, as shown in the table, most of the students (96.4%) thought that story-telling activities should be integrated in English speaking lessons while only 3.4% of the students did not think that 4.2.2 Data analysis from teachers’ questionnaires In this study, the questionnaire was used to find out the teachers’ attitudes toward the use of story-telling activities in improving their speaking skills and techniques used in teaching story-telling activities It consisted of eight closeended questions (Please see Appendix 4) Table 9: Teachers’ opinions towards the importance of story-telling activities in speaking lessons (Please refer to questions in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % Very important 66.7 Important 33.3 15 skkn Not important at all 0 Table indicates teachers’ opinions about the importance of story-telling activities in speaking lessons As can be seen above, most of the teachers found that story-telling activities were important in teaching speaking skill From the data collected above, it can be understood that the majority of the teachers were aware of the importance of story-telling as an effective technique to enhance students’ motivation and speaking performances Table 10: Ways of motivating students to take part in story-telling activities (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Let students choose topics themselves to discuss 50 Be a role model to your students 50 Give students some useful suggestions related to the 100 topic Give students clear instructions before story-telling 100 Others 0 As can be seen from the table above, all of the teachers suggested that giving students useful suggestions related to the topic and clear instructions before story-telling were effective ways to motivate students to take part in story-telling activities Half of the teachers agreed that letting students choose topics themselves to discuss and the partners to work with were ways to increase students’ participation in story-telling activities Table 11: Teachers’ preparation for story-telling activities (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Design suitable story-telling activities for students 66.7 Provide students with background information on the 100 topic Pre-teach necessary vocabulary and structures 100 Prepare authentic materials and teaching aids 83.3 When being asked about preparations for story-telling activities, all of the teachers suggested that they should provide students with background information on the topic and pre-teach necessary vocabulary and structures 83.3% of the teachers thought that preparing authentic materials and teaching aids was necessary More than half of teachers had a view that designing suitable story-telling activities for students was an essential stage of preparation In brief, 16 skkn teachers should make a careful preparation before implementing story-telling to ensure a successful speaking lesson Table 12: Best time for teachers to implement story-telling activities in speaking lessons (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Warm up 33.3 Pre- speaking 0 While- speaking 100 Post- speaking 83.3 According to the table above, all of the teachers agreed that the best time to implement story-telling activities in speaking lessons was while- speaking stage whereas only 33.3% of the teachers thought that warm up was the best time for story-telling activities 83.3% of the teachers suggested that the best time for story-telling activities in speaking lessons was post- speaking stage None of the teachers thought before speaking was the suitable time to implement story-telling activities Table 13: Ways of organizing the class for story-telling activities in speaking lessons (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Divide the class into pairs or individuals 83.3 Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students 83.3 Either 100 When being asked about the class organization as doing story-telling activities, all teachers seemed to reach an agreement that both pair work and group work are used However, depending on each type of story-telling activity, either pair work or group work would be used Table 14: Kinds of correction techniques used in giving feedback on students’ doing story-telling activities (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Self-correction 0 Peer correction 100 Teacher correction 100 As can be seen from the table above, all of the teachers suggested that they should use peer correction and teacher correction in giving feedback on students’ doing story-telling activities It can be concluded that self-correction, peer correction, and teacher correction can be used; however, the frequency in using each type of correction technique should be varied Table 15: Teachers’ evaluation of students’ improvement in speaking competence after using story-telling activities (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) 17 skkn Options N of Ts % of Ts Very much 100 A little 0 Not at all 0 As can be seen from the table above, when being asked to evaluate students’ improvement in speaking ability after doing story-telling activities in speaking lessons, all of the teachers had the same view that students’ speaking competence was improved very much Thus, it is obvious that story-telling had a great impact on students’ speaking performances Table 16: Teachers’ expectation towards integrating story-telling activities in speaking lessons (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Yes 100 No 0 Surprisingly, as shown in the table, all of the teachers expected that storytelling activities should be integrated in English speaking lessons The reason may lie in the inappropriate and difficult activities in the textbook It can be concluded that integrating story-telling activities in speaking lessons will make a great contribution to the success of a speaking lesson as well as students’ speaking competence 4.2.3 Data analysis from class observation (Please refer to Appendix 5: Checklist for classroom observation) Based on four class observations of the researcher, it was clearly seen that there was a considerable improvement of the students’ motivation and speaking performance More and more students were willing to participate in speaking English without any forces from the teachers Also, students became more and more active and confident in doing story-telling activities and they had more strong motivation of speaking English in class The number of students who were passive in speaking lessons and afraid of speaking English in front of the class decreased considerably In addition, through story-telling activities, students used more the target language (English) than the mother tongue Using the mother tongue only existed in the small number of students 4.2.4 Discussion from Phase The findings of the second phase clearly showed that the use of storytelling activities in speaking classes had significantly contributed to both the improvement of the students’ motivation and their speaking performance Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that the students’ speaking skills had improved considerably after implementing story-telling activities in speaking lessons Thus, it is clear that story-telling activities should be applied in teaching speaking skills for 10th graders at Trieu Son high school CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 18 skkn ... sentence to make a whole story impromptu 2.2.4 Advantages of using story- telling to enhance speaking performance for the 10th graders students Opening a lesson with a story may put the students. .. Trieu Son high school teach speaking to 10 graders students with story- telling activities? In what ways story- telling activities enhance speaking performances of 10 graders students at Trieu Son high... it in my presentation today The reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a research entitled "Using story- telling to enhance speaking performances for 10 graders students. " 1.2 Aims of