The effectiveness of picture books 2

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PICTURE BOOKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 11 GRADE STUDENTS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL IN GIA LAI PROVINCE TABLE OF CONTENT 3CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 31 1 Background of the study 6[.]

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PICTURE BOOKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 11 GRADE STUDENTS AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL IN GIA LAI PROVINCE TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions .6 1.4 Scope of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of picture book 2.2 The importance of developing English speaking skills for high school students .9 2.2.1 Teaching speaking skills in High school 2.2.2 The use of Picture Book in teaching English .11 2.3 Benefits of using picture books in teaching speaking skills 13 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY .15 3.1 Research design 15 3.2 Research site .16 3.3 Population and sampling 17 3.4 Data collection instruments .18 3.5 Data analysis procedure 19 3.5.1 Data analysis on the pre and post-test 19 3.5.2 Data analysis on the questionnaire 20 3.5.2.1 Definition of language learning attitudes .20 3.5.2.2 Components of attitudes 21 3.5.3 Scoring rubric 22 Timeline 22 References 23 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study With globalization, English has grown increasingly important worldwide Today, English is seen as an indispensable foreign language, it is a particularly useful means of communication, economic exchange, and cultural etc., all over the world (McKay, 2018) Teaching English in recent years is an inevitable national strategic need English is no longer a subject to be encouraged but has become a compulsory subject in professional schools(Hult, 2017) The Education Department also encourages teachers to use advanced teaching methods to help students be more interested in learning English As it can be seen, English is an important communication tool in integrating with the international and regional community, access to scientific information, technology, socio-cultural as well as political events, and all around the world Since Vietnam's accession to WTO, English is used more and more widely (VuThanh, 2017) Teaching foreign languages always has many fluctuations and changes according to the general evolution of world civilization and culture - That is something that no one can deny (Byram, 2002) Therefore, it is required that the instructors of this subject always have responsibility and enthusiasm to effectively transmit knowledge, meet the requirements of society Through the years of applying innovative methods in teaching English for High School with new textbook program, many teachers have had experiences and initiatives to actively serve the teaching of English subject (Kırkgöz, 2008) However, the author realizes that there are still problems that continue to arise in the reality of teaching at our school that we ourselves, the teachers of teaching this subject, always pondered, thinking and finding solutions One of the issues is: how to effectively teach speaking skills to improve communication skills for students, as well as improve the quality of English teaching at Vietnamese school with the available teaching facilities In terms of theory, the teacher must be the one who teaches them to correctly understand and practice the knowledge in the curriculum through the following skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening, and Writing From there, they take the initiative in communicating and using language for each of their own purposes such as translation, document writing, translator, or easy working in joint venture companies In the process of teaching English, the researcher found that learners always encounter difficulties related to all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing Especially with Speaking skills Speaking is considered a difficult skill to practice among the four language skills (Abugohar, 2019) Training for learners in speaking or communication skills is considered a fundamental goal in the teaching process, in which learners play an active role of participants in information being heard and processed, understand and decode information to finally respond to it, just like a four-step process: feel - understand - evaluate - respond Only when the listener can respond to the information can the communication achieve the desired results Restricted speech skills can damage communication (Shinn-Cunningham, 2017) Therefore, speaking skill is considered as a basic element of the communication process So the problem here is that each teacher must truly renew his or her teaching method to meet the current training needs and must be aware of the communication value of language in life as well as firmly grasp how to practice this type of lesson to improve students for the benefit and best possible outcomes in relation to language skills The current teaching and learning of English at Tran Phu High School, Gia Lai has not made progress, revealed many limitations, has not applied new methods, has not applied teaching methods yet They have not created favorable conditions to help learners have the ability to self-study and self-practice The English proficiency in general and the communication skills of the students of Tran Phu High School, Gia Lai in particular are not high As an educator, the researcher is always trying to improve the student's learning status as well as finding out, promoting and overcoming the strengths and weaknesses in their teaching subjects, at the same time, the most effective way of teaching methods to improve English speaking skills for students, increasing the quality and efficiency of training To equip and prepare students with the language and skills to be used when communicating, teachers need to organize, build and facilitate a language environment to encourage students to participate in the above activities class naturally and effectively 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study This study arms to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching speaking skills when using picture books in teaching speaking skills for 11 grade students From there, the main objectives of this research include: - To investigate the effects of using Picture book on the 11 th grade students’ speaking skills - To ascertain students’ attitudes towards using Picture book to learn speaking skills 1.4 Research questions From the above information on the purpose and background of this study, the key research questions are: What are the effects of using Picture book on the 11 th grade students’ speaking skills? What are the 11th grade students’attitudes towards using Picture book to learn speaking skills at Tran Phu high school? 1.5 Scope of the study From the above theoretical and practical basis, along with the author’s teaching experience, this study focuses on the impact of using picture books in teaching speaking skills for students in grade 11 at Tran Phu high schools in Gia lai Province The researcher also surveys learning attitudes and positivity of learners towards English speaking skills in part of the intermediate basic English subject 1.6 Significance of the study This study is significant because it offers some important insights into English teaching and learning process Firstly, it can be seen that a large number of Vietnamese students are now interested in using Picture book not only for communicating or relaxing but also for learning purposes They like chatting, collaborating, discussing and sharing something with their friends via Picture book Hence, applying Picture book as a supplemental tool in classroom can provide an important opportunity for students to improve writing skill rather than traditional ways Secondly, the findings of this work will generate fresh insight for teachers of English at Ha Nam Pedagogical College and Vietnamese teachers of English into adopting Facebook in teaching English writing effectively Therefore, it is hoped Frost (2002) claims that “action research is a process of This study is significant because it offers some important insights into English teaching and learning process Firstly, it can be seen that a large number of Vietnamese students are now interested in using picture books not only for relaxing but also for learning purposes Hence, applying picture books as a supplemental tool in classroom can provide an important opportunity for students to improve speaking skills rather than traditional ways Secondly, the findings of this work will generate fresh insight for teachers of English at Tran Phu high school and Vietnamese teachers of English into adopting picture books in teaching English speaking effectively Therefore, it is hoped that curriculum designers can consider allowing teachers to apply this tool widely in learning and teaching process In addition, this study can help students be aware of the crucial role of picture books in their learning process to set their goals to learn English better and achieve their targets Finally, the findings of this study may be also generalized and replicated to other teaching context in Vietnam and other countries 1.7 Organization of the study The overall structure of the study takes the form of five chapters The first chapter “Introduction” aims to provide the background of the research, problem statement, aims of the study, two research questions and the significance of the study In chapter 2, the researcher presents two second language teaching and learning theories, some general overview of speaking and picture book, some key features about picture book, learning attitudes and reviews previous studies related to the thesis The following chapter demonstrates the research methodology including: research site and participants, description of the course, research design, research instruments, research procedure, data analysis, validity and reliability In chapter 4, it shows the findings and discussion of the tests and questionnaire and the final chapter summarizes the results of the research questions, reflects the implications, figures outsome limitations of the study and gives recommendations for future research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of picture book One of the most effective ways to learn English for students is through pictures and by the active image to link from objects or specific situation to the application of language This section can help readers understand more about the role of picture book and how students can absorb English through picture book to learn English effectively "Picture Book", also known as picture book, are books with English content and illustrated with accompanying pictures for students or beginners to learn English to make it easy to access, as well as to learn new language and avoid boredom Every year, thousands of picture books for students are published in the UK, appearing in bookstores, students' book corners The book is illustrated by a number of artists working in the UK (Whitehurst, 1998) According to studies, students are often familiar with stories because from a very young age they hear stories from their teachers It is thanks to stories and everyday experiences that have contributed significantly to the impact of students expressing their ideas, hopes and feelings in language as well as on drawing pages and playing fantasy games (Debaryshe, 1993) Therefore, from the first time listening to English from teachers, students will surely enjoy and carefully choose books with vivid illustrations These young students will quickly grasp the content through the pictures in the book Most students, if guided early by their teachers, will know how to use their own experiences to read and understand the content in English pages (Shatzer, 2008) Exposing students to Picture Book is not only exposed to a new language, but also a way for teachers or teachers to help students open the door to the wider world Teachers should encourage students to interact one-on-one with English picture books, this is an opportunity for students to develop comprehensively from within according to their own level As students read more books, their confidence develops This is evident when students approach English or have new experiences Picture book with fixed and useful content is a great support for teachers who lack confidence in English, helping them teach their students at home or change daily communication topics with their students English through gathering phrases from books into conversation (Kuo, 2009) 2.2 The importance of developing English speaking skills for high school students 2.2.1 Teaching speaking skills in High school "Speaking" is one of the four important skills in teaching English to enable students to practice communicating quickly and effectively (Torky, 2006) Vietnamese high school students still weaken all four skills of listening, speaking and reading, or writing Especially, the students are afraid to speak English during class due to many different reasons such as: self-conscious mind, shyness, hesitation that they laugh when they are wrong Due to the large classrooms, the student has little time to practice skills for each student Organizing good speaking practice will help to overcome the above limitations(Hamouda, 2020) Speaking skills help students have more conditions to practice in one class.Fulfill the principle in each language learning hour: Review old - practice new All new knowledge is gradually evoked from the knowledge learned in the previous lesson (Lesson: Reading), making students not afraid of the new lesson (Lesson: Speaking) Students need to be encouraged learning from each other, correct each other's mistakes, and freely speak their own way without being afraid of the teacher (Toro, 2019) Through the practice of telling students to actively acquire knowledge, overcoming the inhibition when only a few good students participate in speaking, thus attracting all students in the class to participate Activities include moderate or weak students Enhance the behavior of students in different situations, causing excitement, and bold confidence, especially, visualization for students when practicing communication in English (Searle, 2020) In this regard, lessons will be fun, exciting and effective.Speaking skill is one of four important skills when learning a language, that learners cannot ignore or take lightly (Zarei, 2020) Therefore, how to make English teachers focus on developing speaking skills for students and at the same time motivating students to invest time and effort in this skill is a huge challenge not only for High Schools School but also with other training facilities Skinner (1958) argues that language teaching is a process that provides students with experience, with creative understandings and uses This definition means that teaching not only helps students understand problems, but the most important thing is to give them opportunities to use them in real life situations and in meaningful contexts Therefore, English teachers not only explain the rules, but also provide students with many diverse topics to practice, such as introducing themselves, friends, family, home; how to talk on the phone, how to invite, how to thank, greet, and so on through activities held in the classroom The survey shows that some activities are regularly held in English classes at High School such as group work, in-pair practice, game games), giving presentations, or practicing making conversations These activities will surely create excitement in learning for students and create opportunities for students to practice speaking skills(Cohan, 2019) 2.2.2 The use of Picture Book in teaching English Teachers will have to take a certain time for students to get used to English through Picture Book Sometimes students will even be quiet when they hear their teachers talk about these books However, being quiet does not mean receptive or not wanting to learn Young students often understand more than they can say with words, so silence is sometimes caused by students concentrating on discovering in their own way (Kochiyama, 2016) One thing all students in the world have in common is that they always love to learn something new, especially when it is also presented in an attractive way through colorful pictures (Paulick, 2020).However, there are a few mistakes that most teachers often make when using these books with their students Firstly, teachers often underestimate when their students not understand much of the book Secondly, teachers sometimes skip a few pages because they don't have much time The above are things that teachers should keep in mind when communicating with students through Picture Book In addition, when using these books, teachers should encourage students to watch them many times This may make the students dislike, but teachers need to explain why Viewing Picture Book many times will help students increase their ability to choose language naturally, because the content in the book is mostly simple stories, simple language, easy to understand and close to life(Spencer, 2019) 10 Learning with Picture Book is not only about increasing the students’ language understanding like other textbooks, but these books also help increase the students’ visual ability Specifically, students tend to look at images from the first time they interact with the book, and reviewing the Picture Book many times will help them discover many interesting details in the illustrations (Sun, 2020) These small findings demonstrate the sharpness and acumen of the students’ eyes Not only that, the Picture Book books also help students develop their creativity, assessment ability and especially the ability to decode images Because this kind of book is the artwork of famous artists, drawn, designed, sculpted on paper to create vivid 3D paintings which leads to more involvement and interests of students (Arizpe, 2018) Finally, picture book also helps students find meaning in their own lives Students can explore emotional situations found in books, help relieve personal frustrations, or encounter exciting and imaginative experiences beyond their own or even their own environment which encourage them to enjoy the language more (Chaparro-Moreno, 2017) Teaching through interaction with picture book aims to create an interactive relationship between students and students, between teachers and students, equality in relationships between members and creating a safe learning environment (Oktarina, 2020) The teacher raises the content of the problem, plays the role of the designer, organizers, guides, provokes and controls the activity, but how to solve the problem is the role of the student, the role itself finds how to solve problems and thereby draw them the knowledge that they need, not passively absorb the knowledge that the teacher imposes (Hashemifardnia, 2018) This is the strength of visualization and activity in respect to the improvement of Englishspeaking skills In that environment each individual is allowed to maximize his or her cognitive abilities and experiences with confidence and comfort by feeling 11 safe Cooperative learning in groups also develops for learners organizational, control and leadership skills Through discussion and debate in groups, each individual's opinion was revealed and shared with the support of visualization of picture book Students not only study together but also learn from each other The knowledge gained by the learner is the contribution of many people At the same time, through collaborative learning, communication skills, persuasion skills, active listening skills, sense of organization, and mutual support spirit have been trained and developed (Qin, 2018) The teacher must be a person who is "in charge of balance", is discreet in conducting and orienting the classroom as well as discussions, and in the forms of testing and evaluation Teachers must not only respond to knowledge but also leadership, organization, and administration methods, etc Through that, the qualities of new skills are formed in students 2.3 Benefits of using picture books in teaching speaking skills The first benefit of learning English words with pictures is that students can memorize them easily In the process of communicating and using English, students’ brains will direct them to pictures related to words that they have learned before This makes the students' communication and reflex skills improve (Chaparro-Moreno, 2017) As for the behavioral approach, attitudes are seen simply from people's reactions to social situations (Fasold, 1984) That means that the individual's attitude lies in the behavior of that individual, and so, to know the attitude, just observe the behavior Thus, attitude is a kind of behavior Studying linguistic attitudes in this direction is simpler in that researchers only need to observe and analyze public behavior Because of these advantages, the behavioral tendency is applied by many researchers The study of linguistic attitudes also builds on this approach where 12 students are perceived to have an easy method to remember They are encouraged more to connect and apply the method to improve their skills in new language that they are learning Learning English through pictures is also a relatively time-saving way to learn Students can increase their English vocabulary with pictures using a variety of “tricks” such as parents being able to stick pictures of words on the wall, study corner, fridge where they can see pictures photos and vocabulary on a regular basis (Whitehurst, 1994) Every time students accidentally look at the pictures, they will gradually go deep into their subconscious and help them memorize vocabulary longer without having to memorize a huge amount of vocabulary With less time consuming for the study to achieve their goals, when students have a sense of success in reading in their native language, they will be excited to try reading in the second language, as well as excitedly experimenting with newly formed literacy skills in the second language Therefore, the picture book method is building and improving the English vocabulary and expression of students which lead to more confident and practical skills in their English speaking (Murphy, 2009) When students use English in simple conversations at school or at home, the pictures subconsciously suggest vocabulary that they have learned in the past Students will use vocabulary in the most natural way (Hashemifardnia, 2018) At the same time, this vocabulary learning method also helps children not have to translate from Vietnamese into English - one of the most common mistakes in English learning process 13 For each book, the story is presented in two languages so that the students can read over and over again in whatever language he or she likes Students will become familiar with words, expressions and sentence structures used in both Vietnamese and English, this will help them foster strong native language skills and acquire secondary language In some cases, bilingual picture books showing topics close to students will help them consolidate vocabulary and sentence patterns used in everyday life At the same time, picture books also help students expand their vocabulary beyond everyday common words, giving children the opportunity to be exposed to words that often appear in books and literature, thereby helping students to get acquainted with the academic words to get them ready when they want to practice their speaking skills(Bersh, 2013) CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design As the author mentioned in chapter 1, the purposes of the research are (1) to explore the benefits of applying picture books on improving students’ speaking skill and (2) to find out students’ attitudes towards using picture books in learning English speaking In order to achieve the first objective, a quasi-experimental design is adopted The reason for choosing this design is that the participants in the research are not randomly selected by the author In the study, the participants will be categorized into two groups: experimental group and control group Both students of the two groups have some common things such as age, level of English proficiency, materials, instruction, and activities At the beginning of the course, both of groups will be given a pre-test before applying the treatment After pretesting, when the experimental group will be taught by using picture books, the control group is given the conventional technique without picture books, namely 14 textbook-based as the teacher usually does After 10 weeks, a post- test will be delivered for the participants in control and experimental group in order to measure the difference in the post-test results of the two groups and to see whether the treatment is effective or not For the second purpose of the study which aims to find out students’ attitude towards the use of picture books on their speaking performance, a survey of questionnaire with 5-level Likert scale of ‘1-Strongly Disagree’ ‘2-Disagree’, ‘3-Neutral’ ‘4-Agree’ and “5-Strongly Agree” will be carried out to collect students’ opinions in experimental group 3.2 Research site The research site is at Tran Phu high school located in Gia Lai mountain area with total number of 11th graders of 160 students Tran Phu – Gia Lai Mountain was established on November 7, 2005 From the early days, although the facilities were in short supply, the school always insisted on "teaching words, teaching people, and vocational training", with the key task of maintaining and improving the emulation movement "teaching good-study well ", taking care of building a contingent of teachers with both good ethical qualities, good professional skills, to meet the increasingly high learning requirements of students The first year, the staff, teachers and staff of the school have more than 30 people, with three classes, 150 students Teachers in the English group of Tran Phu High School have innovated in the process of teaching foreign languages, using practical materials in teaching English With the view that foreign language must be a language, from learning to memorize words, sentence patterns and grammar are very lively and suggestive, inspiring students in each class hour Teachers of Engllish language groups are facilitated to participate in fostering classes to improve foreign language ability 15 and foreign language teaching methods by Pedagogical University British Council (BC) organized, training courses on innovation of teaching methods according to pilot textbooks, exchange activities on teaching method innovation by Vietnamese experts as well as foreign experts 3.3 Population and sampling There are 160 students who participated in this current research; they are students of 11A1, 11A2, 11A3 and 11A4 at Tran Phu high school in Gia Lai mountain area The students are aged from 16 to 18 years old and have learned English for at least nine years The students share the similar background concerning culture, education and living conditions Time of survey: From February 2021 to May 2021 A convenience sample is a non-probability sample in which researchers use subjects that are the closest and willing to participate in the study This technique is also referred to as "non-probability sampling” and is often used in pilot studies before launching a larger research project (Farrokhi, 2012) This is method to take sample from group of population where participants are easy to contact and reach out to conduct studies In this regard, this research is implementing the convenience sampling approach for the sample selection while it is noted with some advantages and disadvantages of this method:  A convenience sample includes study subjects who have been selected for a study because they can be selected easily  One disadvantage of convenience sampling is that subjects in a convenience sample may not be representative of the research population interested in learning  One advantage of convenience sampling is that data can be collected quickly and at a low cost 16  Convenience samples are often used in pilot studies, through which researchers can refine a study before testing a larger and more representative sample 3.4 Data collection instruments Since the study is quasi-experimental, the instruments to collect the data are a pretest and a post-test The collected data are the scores obtained from the pre-test and the post-test of both the control group and the experimental group The scores from the pre-test will be used to see the speaking ability of both classes before the treatment On the other hand, the scores from the post-test will be used to measure whether the implemented method affects the experimental group or not In this research study, the speaking test serves as the research instrument The speaking test is held twice, in the pre-test and the post-test In formulating the test instrument, the points to be considered are the relevance of the test instruments to the purpose of the study, and the relevance of the test instruments to the curriculum The test is intended to measure students’ speaking ability before and after the treatment The speaking tests are going to be made based on the school-based curriculum for the eleventh grade of the senior high school in the second semester The syllabus for the eleventh grade senior high school students in the speaking aspect is taken as the considerations in formulating test instruments In making the test, the researcher is taking some sources from some English books and the internet The experimental group is giving the picture book method in their speaking activities The researcher is making lesson plans and some activities for every meeting based on the school-based curriculum The control group is giving the same materials but without using picture book in their speaking activities The 17 students read from the book and the teacher gave short explanation Then, the students will make a conversation with their peer to present it in front of the class Questionnaire According to Nunan (1992), questionnaire is a powerful evaluation tool that can helps researchers collect information rapidly, easily and effectively All studies are conducted to investigate students’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of picture books in improving students’ speaking skill The participants in experimental group have to complete a survey including items with a 5-level Likert scale of 1-Strongly Disagree’ ‘2-Disagree’, ‘3-Neutral’ ‘4Agree’ and 5-Strongly Agree’ to discover students’ perceptions about the effect of Picture book on their speaking’ improvement There were 24 question items which were divided into main themes: - questions were related to students’ attitudes towards the advantages of using Picture book in speaking class - questions were related to students’ attitudes towards the aspects of speaking that they made improvement via Picture book - questions were related to students’ perceptions towards their motivation and confidence in learning English speaking via Picture book - questions were related to students’ attitudes towards the disadvantages of using Picture book in speaking class The survey is given out to students at the end of the course with practice of picture book in order to collect the opinions overall during the experiment of the teaching method 18 Any data represented by the number of metrics is known as quantitative data This data type can be classified into categories, grouped, measured, calculated or ranked This is the form of collected data from the students’ survey at the end of the experimental course 3.5 Data analysis procedure 3.5.1 Data analysis on the pre and post-test In order to analyze the results and find out the differences of the pre-test and posttest in individual group and between the two groups, the author is implementing independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test The purpose of using independent samples t-test is to compare the mean scores between the two different groups in the same period of time (Gerald, 2018) Also, the objective of employing paired samples t-test is to examine whether there is any statistically significant difference in the mean scores in the same group in two different period of time (Pallant, 2007) In the current study, after gathering data from participants in the two groups, the author will firstly transfer the results of the pre and post-test in the control and experimental group into SPSS version 20 Then the researcher use independent samples t-test to compare the mean scores on pre-test and post-test of the groups before and after the treatment Then, the paired samples t-test is employed to measure whether or not there is any difference in the mean scores between pre-test and post-test in each individual group Finally, the researchers used the paired samples t-test to compare the mean scores of pretest and post-test in the experimental group in terms of four components of speaking skill: fluency, accuracy, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation to examine whether students make improvement on speaking performance via Picture book or not 19 3.5.2 Data analysis on the questionnaire In this study, the questionnaire is carried out to investigate the students’ attitudes towards the effects of using picture books in speaking class in the experimental group There will be question items following the Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree After collecting data from the participants, the researcher will carry out using SPSS version 20 to examine the mean scores, frequency and percentage of the question items Basing on the results of the descriptive analysis, it could help the author to draw precise conclusions of the recent research To have the questionnaires’ content, the researcher uses the definition of language learning attitude 3.5.2.1 Definition of language learning attitudes Language attitude, from the perspective of social psychologists, often focuses on explaining what individuals engaged in communication with language and think about language? Linguistic attitudes are often studied according to two tendencies: mentalism and behaviorism Psychologically, attitude is defined by Williams (1974) as "the inner state is caused by some kind of stimulus and that state can mediate the body's reactions that occur later." According to this point of view, the individual's attitude towards the object will determine the individual's behavior towards that object, that is, the attitude will lead to the act and vice versa, the behavior is the result of the attitude The limitation of the spiritualistic approach is in the experimental method, because if attitudes are seen as an internal state rather than an observable reaction from the outside, then we must rely on the indirect manifestations of those states and these manifestations are not at all easily detectable 20