INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the study
Nowadays, English is becoming a global language It is estimated that there are about 1.5 billion people speaking English in the world, and about another billion people are in the process of learning this language As the trend of international communication and integration is becoming increasingly urgent, the demand for learning foreign languages is increasing The notion that teaching foreign languages is merely teaching learners a vocabulary or a grammar sufficient to express their thoughts is no longer appropriate The current goal of foreign language teaching is to practice comprehensive communication skills To meet that need, Communication Language Teaching (CLT) is applied as a mainstream method In CLT, the learner's role is emphasized over other traditional methods According to Rao (2002), “these activities are built by interacting between learners in a proactive way, without being overly dependent and controlled by the teacher; teachers rely on content to respond to learners' performance” Therefore, students are able to participate more actively and they are able to direct and develop classroom activities by interacting with each other while the teacher is a facilitator of the learning process In addition, it is believed that like other cognitive development, language proficiency can be achieved through interaction, including peer interaction Peer interactions can provide various learning opportunities Not only are more proficient learners supporting their peers, but there is also mutual support among learners with similar qualifications Therefore, peer interaction can promote quality language learning
Besides, speaking is considered an essential part of second language learning But over the years, teaching speaking has been underestimated, andEnglish teachers have continued to teach speaking just as an exercise or memorization of conversations However, today's world requires the goal of teaching speaking to improve students' communication skills Because when and only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to conform to social and cultural norms that are appropriate in each communication situation.
Statistically, there are more and more researchers, such as Ochoa, Cabrera, Quiủúnez, Castillo, & Gonzỏlez (2016), Asmari (2015), Huff (2012), Oradee (2012) and Rao (2002), have investigated the use of communication methods as well as the application of interactive acticities in teaching English in general and teaching English speaking skills in particular to different subjects. However, the study on the application of interactive activities to teaching speaking skills to students of grade 10 has not been conducted in Dong Son 1 High School Derived from the above fact, the research " Using Peer Interaction
Activities to enhance English Speaking skill for grade -10 students at DongSon 1 high school " is carried out.
The aims of the study
The study is conducted to achieve three main aims Firstly, it will find out the views and perceptions of teachers about “peer interaction activities” and their roles The other aim is to investigate the practical application of “peer interaction activities” in teaching English speaking skills to grade 10 students at Dong Son 1High School: the advantages that teachers and students have as well as the difficulties that they face Finally, the study also will provide some suggested peer interaction activities that are applied in the 10th grade English textbook speaking lesson.
Research questions
To achieve the aims of the study, the following questions need to be answered:
1 How do teachers perceive the use of peer interaction activities in teaching English speaking skills to grade 10 students?
2 What is the actual application of peer interaction activities in teaching English speaking skills to tenth form class?
3 How can peer interaction activities be used in teaching English speaking skills to 10th graders?
Scope of the study
The study was conducted at Dong Son 1 high school It tried to investigate the problems that arose from the 10th graders in the speaking class From there, through communicative language learning can be applied in improving speaking skills for 10th grade students at Dong Son 1 High School and how to best improve students' speaking skills through peer interaction activities This will be learned by students to come up with specific methods.
Methods of the study
This study has been conducted with qualitative and quantitative methods.
It uses qualitative method to gain the in-depth knowledge which refer to peer interaction in English teaching and learning Furthermore, it also uses quantitative method to analyze the data collected in the survey Although this quantitative research is mainly based on student survey as a primary source data, it still maintains various particularly reliable points of quantitative research such as quality, credibility, trust and set neutral.
Firstly, the study searches and reviews reference documents relating to the topic Next, it conducts a survey which involves in the tenth form students and teachers at Dong Son 1 High School to investigate for their attitude towards speaking skill and their thought about peer interaction in English speaking lessons The survey is done in English, survey questionnaire, including 20 questions that are divided into 3 parts:
Part 1 includes 8 questions to find out general information about time students have learned English, favorite skills, and ability to communicate;
Part 2 includes 4 questions to survey the reality of teaching and learning English speaking skills at Dong Son 1 High School;
Part 3 includes 8 questions to learn about the use of peer interaction activities in teaching and learning English speaking skills by grade 10 students.
Finally, the study suggests some peer interaction activities applied within speaking lesson of the English textbook of the tenth form.
In addition, the study also uses experimental methods to conduct experimental teaching using peer interaction activities to teach students speaking skills.
Significance of the study
This research is seriously completed to determine the effectiveness of
Dong Son 1 High School and how to best improve their speaking skills through this method Based on these findings, we make recommendations to help English teachers in high school and 10th graders determine the right approach to improve teaching and learning to speak English Last but not least, it would be a primitive for other's further studies and mine in other students with other skills of English.
The organization of the study
The study consists of 3 main parts:
Part 1: Introduction: In this part, the study presents the rationale, the study aims, the scope of the study, research questions, methods of the study and design of the study It expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study.
Part 2: The development part comprises 3 chapters Chapter 1 presents a review of the literature and general theoretical of speaking and teaching speaking skill; the definition, the roles and some types of interaction in language learning are provided Moreover, in this chapter, the author focuses on the peer interaction with its roles in English class and some types of peer interaction activities Chapter 2 presents general information about Dong Son 1 high school, overview of the survey, aims of the survey, informants and settings, data analysis. Chapter 3 presents the major findings from the students' pretest and posttest, teachers' pre-interview and post-interview, the researchers' class and the author gives some suggested peer interaction activities applied within the English textbook of the tenth form
Part 3: Conclusion summarizes main points of the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further studies.
The study ends up with "References" providing a list of sources of materials which are used during the process of writing the study and "Appendix with the survey questionnaires for teachers and students.
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW
Speaking is an act of making vocal sounds We can say that speaking means to converse, or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken language.
To speak often implies conveying information It may be from an informal remark to a scholarly presentation to a formal address Tarigan (1990, p.3-4) defines that
“Speaking is a language skill that is developed in child life, which is produced by listening skill, and at that period speaking skill is learned” According to Chaney
(1998, p.13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” If there is no speaking process happening, it means that we are in difficulty in conveying our message Therefore, speaking is a basic skill that language learnerS should gain well with other language skills As it is stated by Richard ( 2008, p.19) states that
“In speaking we tend to be getting something done, exploring ideas, working out some aspects of the world, or simply being together” If the students can speak English fluently that can help them to easy communicate and also explore their idea Speaking English well also helps students to access up-to-date information in fields including science, technology and health and so on
Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words There are three kinds of speaking situations in which we find ourselves:
Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner
Some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a specch to a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is being understood
Few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such as when recording a speech for radio broadcast.
In all the above explaned conditions speaking is always a headache a lot of the people Although the fear of speaking is common, studies show that ability to speaking can be enhanced by improving speaking skills.
Wallace (1978, p.98) stated that “Oral practice (speaking) becomes meaningful to students when they have to pay attention what they are saying”. Thus, the students can learn better on how to require the ability to converse or to express their ideas fluently with precise vocabularies and good or acceptable pronunciation.
Speaking ability is the students’ ability in expressing their ideas orally which is represented by the scores of speaking Speaking is only an oral trail of abilities that it got from structure and vocabulary, Freeman (in Risnadedi, 2001, p.56-57) stated that “Speaking ability more complex and difficult than people assume, and speaking study like study other cases in study of language, naturalize many case to language teachers”.
1.1.2 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning
In the age of integration and globalization, English is considered the most commonly used language in the world with 60 countries using English as the official language and nearly 100 countries using English as the second language Therefore,this foreign language plays a very important role English is one of the effective tools,playing a great role in helping friends from all over the world understand the voice ofVietnam in the period of international integration With such significance, learners need to be able to use English to communicate fluently And “Speaking” is one of the four important communication skills in teaching and learning English (the other three skills are listening, reading and writing) Linguist Khamkhien (2010) said that exception” According to Bygate (1987): "Speaking skill is one of the reflexive skills, helping learners to use language to express opinions, thoughts and feelings to listeners" Obviously, it is the ability to speak that helps learners demonstrate their own communication ability
Spoken is used in different areas of communication - the area of everyday communication (communication in everyday life) and the area of non-daily communication (education, science, social institutions, law… ), in which the daily communication area plays an important role because this area of communication helps people live and exist in the community When we talk to others, we get to know ourselves better, as Robert Frost once said: “I am a writer of books in retrospect, I talk in order to understand, I teach in order to learn Undoubtedly, the clarity in speech reflects clear thinking” Teaching - learning in general and teaching - learning spoken languages, going from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, but in language, it is easy to say and specific because children go to school already with a certain language (speech) The first step in preparing children's linguistic baggage is spoken language.
On the other hand, teaching speaking has a great effect on children's language learning psychologically, is a natural way to go, suitable with children's innocent feelings for the language they are used to before going to school; especially, it reduces psychological pressure for ethnic students when learning in a second language “The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and effectively contributes to the success of the learners in school and success in every phrases of life” (Kayi, 2006) In terms of linguistics, the structure of spoken language is simpler than that of written language, so memorizing sentence structures presented in situations has rich linguistic potential, helping students to switch to written language easily.
In teaching and learning languages, speaking skills are more important because of the following reasons: Firstly, spoken language helps language learners quickly access knowledge to use language - purpose of the language learning process.
As Nunan (1999) once said: “If the right speaking activities are taught in the classroom, speaking can raise general learners” motivation and make the English classroom be a fun and dynamic place” Second, the current language learning programs are more focused on skills than on knowledge and start with speaking rather than writing, because in theory, speaking must precede writing Rivers (1968) also said: “speaking is developed from the first context with language” That is, when teaching speaking, the teacher must make the students understand what they are learning Therefore, students' speaking ability is necessary in the teaching and learning process In the current second language teaching methods, including foreign language teaching, (communication practice methods, audio-visual methods, listening-speaking methods ) the issue of teaching speaking has received considerable attention Third, if the emphasis is on spoken language, it will create confidence for students Because as we all know , before going to school , children more or less have certain vocabulary , sentence patterns and are used to communicate with their loved ones This language has natural and emotional characteristics It is true that their spoken language has not yet reached mature maturity From pronunciation to legal capital, from communication in the family to communication in the larger community, there are many skills and abilities that children need to learn and practice Fourthly, when emphasizing speaking skills, it will help students easily practice pronunciation skills, the ability to use words, make prepositions in a longer spoken language (use insert, repeat ), easier and less demanding; requirements are usually short sentences, simple structure while words in written form require accuracy, choice and use of rhetoric, more complex sentence structure, strict and complete logic Moreover, to many EFL/SL learners" mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a foreign or second language, and success is measured by the ability to carry out a conversation in that language (Nunan, 1991, p.39) We can easily see that recently, many language learners place more importance on speaking skills in their learning process; because if they master or develop this skill they will be considered to have mastered all other language skills.
Thus, in language teaching and learning, the oral form with its advantages is the basis for building written language Teaching and learning languages with emphasis on speaking has created favorable conditions for teaching writing - as one of the focus of the program language teaching at schools and a means of acquiring civilized culture.
Throughout the history of teaching languages a number of different teaching approaches and methodologies have been tried and tested with some being more popular and effective than others We can see that approaches to teaching speaking skills have reflected the existing theories of and approaches to language and language learning that have not always considered speaking a primary goal Basing on supporters and antagonists of both theories of language learning during the process of learning and acquiring the language, the approaches to teaching and learning speaking skills are given as direct/controlled and indirect/transfer respectively (Burns, 1998 in Goh and Burns, 2012, p.134; Thornbury and Slade, 2006; Brown, 2007; Richards, 2008; Straková, 2014):
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 General information about Dong Son 1 High School
Up to now, Dong Son I High School has undergone 57 years of construction and development For many consecutive years, Dong Son 1 High School has been the flagship of the Thanh Hoa Education Sector The school was recognized as a National Standard School in November 2015 In terms of organizational structure, school currently has 03 branches, the School Union, the Red Cross, the Study Promotion Association, the Parent's Association, 6 Professional groups, and 01 Office team The total number of staff, teachers and employees are 71 Regarding the quality of staff, teachers: 100% of staff meet and exceed standards Including 23 Masters (37.04%), 32 excellent teachers at the school level, 19 excellent teachers at the provincial levels, 32 teachers have students at the provincial and national levels Regarding the quality of education at the school: Annual academic ranking: 30-35% good; Fair from 60-70%; good annual rate reach from 99% to 100% Students achieve the title of
"Comprehensively Excellent Student" every year with a rate of over 30%; there are 30 to 40 awards for students at the provincial and national levels through competitions for students in the culture, sport, Security – Defense subjects, solving math problems by pocket calculators and via the Internet.
The subject of the survey was 100 students who are learning in classes 10A1 and 10A6 at Dong Son 1 High School They surveyed about the use of interactive activities process of learning English This step illustrates the time and the ways to apply peer interaction activities in the teaching and learning process The results are based on a questionnaire issued on April 4, 2022.
Most students have been exposed to English before Most of them have been learning English for ten years (students began studying English in primary school). Some of them have a chance to attend the extra courses of English at Foreign Language Centers In general, all the students have a good command of English; they want to enrich their knowledge of English and develop their communicative ability.
The data for this study was collected through surveys conducted by10th-grade students at Dong Son 1 High School Through the survey, the students reported the status and ways of applying peer interaction activities in the process of learning English The instrumentation used in this study was a survey with 20 questions The survey was prepared by the researcher The questionnaires consist of three main parts including the general information, the reality of teaching English speaking skills, and the use of peer interaction activities in developing English Speaking skills.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English Speaking Skills and using peer interaction activities in teaching English at Dong Son 1 High School.
To find out the reality of teaching and learning English Speaking Skills for
10 th - grade students at Dong Son 1 High School, the author conducted a survey of 100 students The results are collected and processed as follows:
3.1.1.1 Students’ awareness in learning English and English skills
The information about students' evaluation of learning English Skills is collected as follows:
Chart 3.1 indicates that the percentage of students (31%) responded that they "like" English Reading Skills The number of students who rated "like" the remaining skills respectively: Listening Skill (25%), Speaking Skill (24%), and Writing Skill (20%) Meanwhile, 36% of students do not like to learn Writing Skills, 34% of students do not like to learn Listening Skills, 19% of students do not like to learn Speaking Skills, and 11% of students do not like Reading Skills From the results of the survey, we can see that the total number of students interested in Speaking Skills accounted for nearly one-quarter of the total number of students participating in the survey It has shown that grade 10 students at Dong Son 1 High School tend to learn all skills in English equally and this can lead to better research.
The importance of learning English Speaking Skills is collected as follows:
Very important Important Normal Less important Not important
Chart 3.3 The importance of Speaking Skills
Results from Chart 3.3 pointed out that most students think that learningEnglish Speaking Skills is "very Important" and “Important”; in which, 38% of students rate as “very important” and 40% of students rate as “important”, there are9% of students think that learning English Speaking Skills is “normal” Besides, there are 4% of students think that learning English speaking skills is "less important" and the number of students who think it is "not important" accounts for about 2% It shows that there are some students who are not aware of the importance of learning English speaking skills Therefore, it is necessary to practice research to let students understand what the purpose of learning English is and how important it is to everyone.
When asked to rate students' interest in learning English Speaking Skills, the results in Chart 3.4 are as follows:
Very Like Like Normal Dislike
Chart 3.4 Students' interest in learning English Speaking Skills
Regarding the level of interest in learning English Speaking Skills: About 11% feel “very like” it, and 39% feel “like” it In addition, 35% of students felt it was
“normal” to learn Speaking Skills However, still about 9% of students do not like to learn Speaking Skills.
3.1.1.2 Form and time of learning English Speaking Skills
To learn about different types of English Speaking Skills, students are asked to choose the types of Speaking Skills that they use most Student responses vary according to the type of study From Table 3.1, it can be seen that the majority of students (54%) will learn English Speaking Skills by “watching videos” or “following the teacher's classroom instructions” (51%); “practising speaking with friends in class” and “speaking with foreigners” accounted for 10% and 11% respectively 5% of the students “joined the English club” and 6% of the students chose other activities, the answer that the students indicated was watching movies with Vietnamese subtitles.
Table 3.1 Methods of learning English Speaking skills of students at Dong Son High
Method of learning English Speaking
Skills of students Number of students Percent (%)
Watching videos online about English 54 54
Practising with friends in class 10 10
When asked about how much time students spend practicing speaking English outside of school hours, 39% of students choose to spend “30 minutes a day” to practice speaking, 16% of students spend “1 hour a day”, 8% of students chose another option, the choice they gave was “2 to 4 hours a week”, or “15 to 20 minutes a day”, or go to the communication center Besides, there are still 37% of students who do not have the habit of practicing speaking skills outside of class time.
No practising Speaking Skills Others
Chart 3.5 Out-of-hours English speaking practice time
3.1.1.3 Difficulty learning English Speaking Skills
In the process of learning English speaking skills, students have different difficulties in practicing speaking English.
Poor vocabulary Weak pronunciation Don't know how to express
Chart 3.6 Difficulty in learning English Speaking Skills
In this question, students can choose from many different options, specifically: there were 67 students who chose "poor vocabulary" which greatly influenced their learning of speaking skills and 60 students who chose weak pronunciation Besides, not knowing how to express themselves and having no ideas were also chosen by many students (37 and 27 students) There are 5 students who choose “other options”, the reason given is that they are not confident to speak in English and the time they spend practicing is short, so they do not speak well.
3.1.1.4 The current situation of teaching English Speaking Skills at Dong Son 1 High School.
When asked if teachers regularly teach English Speaking Skills in class, 90% of students choose "yes", which shows that teaching Speaking Skills is always done in the process of teaching English to students at school And the time for activities in the teaching process is allotted reasonably The student dynamics section rated the teacher allocating time for speaking activities as "much" However, the time allocation for
"Having students prepare their speeches" still has some limitations.
Table 3.2 Time allotted for speaking activities
Allocating time for speaking activities Much Little Very little No time
Introducing about the topic, the vocabulary and the structure 74 16 1 7
Guidelines for developing ideas for speaking 52 33 10 6
Having students prepare their speeches 36 56 7 3
Providing feedback and self-study guidance 36 36 19 9
In addition, students were also asked the question “Does your teacher often teach Speaking Skills in the class?” From the choices of learners, it is shown that teachers mainly practice speaking for students through speaking activities in “pairs or groups” (76 students), “work individual” and “practicing through movies or songs” is not a regular activity, 8 students also pointed out that teachers mainly rely on the content in textbooks to teach speaking, sometimes they will practice speaking directly with the teacher and test speaking by topic.
Work in pairs Work individual Practicing speaking through movies or songs
Chart 3.7 Methods of using to teach Speaking Skills
3.1.1.5 The current situation of using peer interaction activities in teaching
English at Dong Son 1 High School.
When asked “Do you know what “Peer Interaction” is?”, up to 78 students out of 100 knew it From the selection, it can be seen that most students know about this teaching method This is also more obvious, when asked "Does the teacher often use peer interaction activities in teaching English Speaking Skills?", 70 students answered
"Yes" And to learn about the forms used when teaching through peer interaction activities, students are asked to choose the forms associated with this method. Students' responses vary according to the type of learning as follows:
Table 3.3 Activities of teaching English through peer interaction
Activities of teaching English through peer interaction Number of students Percent (%)
From Table 3.3 shows, the majority of students (54%) will learn through
"presentation"; “role-playing” activities in lessons using peer interaction activities accounted for 29% The number of students choosing "make a poster" and "make a video" was equal at 8% and only 6% of students chose another activity, the answer students indicated was "playing games".
When asked to rate students' interest in learning English Speaking Skills through peer interaction activities, the results in Chart 3.8 are as follows:
Very like Like Normal Dislike
Chart 3.8 Students' interest in learning English Speaking Skills through peer interaction activities
29% of students choose "Very Like" and 38% of students choose "Like" to learn by this method Furthermore, 26% of students find learning by using interactive activities "Normal" And also about 7% of students gave the opinion that they do not like to learn them Besides, when asked about "Would you like to practice many peer interaction activities in teaching and learning English Speaking Skills?" , most students (91%) answered "Yes" This proves the popularity of this method is very high.
When asked about “How much time does it take to use peer interaction activities to teach English Speaking Skills in high school?”, 27% of students choose to spend “More than 2 period a week” to teach by this method, 10% of students choose to spend “1 to 2 periods”, 42% of them choose to spend “30 minites to 1 period” and no one chooses another option
Chart 3.9 Time to use peer interaction activities to teach English Speaking Skills
From the reality of using interactive activities in foreign language teaching in the world, in Vietnam and at Dong Son 1 High School, it shows that the use of this method in foreign language teaching is necessary This helps students improve their sense of responsibility in teamwork, and also helps students learn from each other and progress together The teaching of English has partly focused on the use of communication activities in foreign language teaching From this situation, it will become easier to carry out research.
3.1.2 Procedures in Organizing a Peer Interaction Activity
3.1.2.1 Pre – Activity Stage a Developing goals to be achieved according to each lesson topic
Based on the current program distribution, in the 10th grade English textbooks, there are a total of 16 lessons that are specifically given topics for speaking skills with the aim of improve the effectiveness of using peer interaction activities in teaching speaking skills.
Table 3.4 Topics and objectives for learning Speaking Skills by each topic in the program (extracted from 10th grade English textbooks)
Unit 1 A Day in The Life of
• Students will be able to ask for and give information from a timetable.
• Students will be able to talk about daily activities.
Unit 2 School Talks • Students will be able to make questions and give responses in small talks.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions about people's background.
• Students will be able to make an interview:
• Students will be able to make an interview and report on results.
• Students will be able to ask for and give information about the uses of modem inventions.
• Students will be able to talk about the uses of modem technology.
• Students will be able to express agreements and disagreements
• Students will be able to give opinions about an excursion.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions about uses of media.
• Students will be able to talk about different types of media.
Unit 8 The story of my village • Students will be able to talk about plans and their possible results (in the village).
• Students will be able to talk about causes and consequences
• Students will be able to offer solutions.
• Students will be able to report on discussion results.
• Students will be able to talk about the new kind of zoos.
• Students will be able to report on discussion results.
• Students will be able to make plans.
• Students will be able to express regrets.
• Students will be able to talk about an excursion.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions about music.
• Students will be able to talk about favourite kinds of music.
• Students will be able to express preferences.
• Students will be able to talk about a film.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions about the World Cups.
• Students will be able to talk about the World Cup winners.
Unit 15 Cities • Students will be able to compare two cities.
• Students will be able to state preferences and giving reasons.
• Students will be able to ask and answer questions about a historical place.
• Students will be able to talk about historical places from given information. b Some of activities that can be applied to each lesson and time to apply them
From the table above, we can see that in the 10th graders' Speaking curriculum, each lesson topic focuses on different topics and purposes From the actual classroom, there are 6 peer interaction activities that have been applied to 6 units of the 2nd semester as follows:
Table 3.5 Some of activities that can be applied to each lesson
& Theme Purpose Content No of student Time
Board Race (marine animals and plants)
Review the vocabulary and grammar and cultivate each student's ability to interact.
- Divide the class into four groups (each group sends five members to participate in the activity).
- Then assign each group an area on the blackboard and one chalk.
In the middle of the lesson line up in 4 vertical rows in front of their divided blackboard area and the starting line.
- The groups will have to compete to see which group can correctly write the most words in the form of a relay.
- For each correct word, the group gets an extra point.
- Any illegible or misspelled words won't be counted.
Consolidate vocabulary and tenses in English, and practice speaking skills.
- The teacher will prepare English action words and hide the word sheets in the bag Then divide the
After learning the vocabulary class into two groups.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the study
This study tries to understand the application of peer interaction activities to enhance English Speaking skills for grade 10 students at Dong Son 1 High School. Based on the results of data analysis, 6 peer interaction activities has been introduced to apply to 6 units in the 10th grade English program, Semester II including: Board Race, Mime, Interview, Discussion, Role – play, Call My Bluff Most of the activities are aimed at reviewing vocabulary, and grammar, practicing English speaking skills, and cultivating each student's ability to interact Each activity brings out all the skills of students when learning English, especially speaking skills For example, in the
"Board Race" activity, students were divided into groups and participated in activities together This not only helps students improve their ability to interact but also enhances teamwork when working in a group of many people And in this activity,students need to use memory to memorize words, which helps students improve their vocabulary and can practice better speaking And students also get more interaction with friends after participating in activities and feel more interested in learning English from those activities It also proves one thing that the research has had success after conducting the experiment.
Limitations of the study
Like many other research theses, this study has some limitations Firstly, the number of students involved in the survey is still limited, so the findings may, to some extent, not be generalized to all students Secondly, the procedures of data collection and data analysis have been carried out on a scientific and suitable research methodology Therefore, the conclusion and ideas in the study are all guaranteed in term of science.
Suggestions for further study
Because of limited time and knowledge, my research study cannot be complete and inclusive Many other issues have not been mentioned and need to be further studied In future research, it can be suggested that peer interaction activities need to be applied more to teaching and learning English to improve speaking skills for grade 10 students at Dong Son 1 High School in particular and students at all levels in general Moreover, the application of interaction activities also contributes to motivating students to speak English more often,attracting students' attention and concentration, helping students to make more progress in building communication competence, and also making teachers' speaking lessons more engaging and effective From the above research, it is shown that teachers should provide learners with maximum exposure to the target language in order to improve their learning ability and develop their ability to communicate in English Interactive activities are useful tools to help teachers improve the quality of foreign language learning and teaching In this way, teachers help learners feel interested in the topic presented, learners will research and learn about the topic that the teacher teaches (through pre - interaction activities) and then they are assigned tasks related to that topic(through interaction activities) And in fact, through interviews, instructors said they often rely on specific classes to use interaction activities to teach speaking skills formally or just to support teaching
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Thanh Hoa, June 2022 Supervisor Student
Do Thi Loan Nguyen Thi Mai Anh
APPENDIX Appendix 1: The survey questionnaires Information about the investigator:
2 Address: Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hong Duc University, Thanh Hoa
Purpose: The main objective of this study is using peer interaction activities to enhance English Speaking skill for grade -10 students at Dong Son 1 high school.
Questionnaires: The study is designed in 3 main parts as follows:
Please answer the questions below by ticking (X) in the box ( ) to give your opinion on applying peer interaction activities to enhance English Speaking skills.
1 How long have you been learning English? ……….……….
2 Which skill do you like/ dislike the most when learning English?
Like: Listening Speaking Reading Writing
Dislike: Listening Speaking Reading Writing
3 In your opinion, the importance of Speaking Skills compared to other subjects is: Very important Important Normal Less important Not important
4 How long did you learn English Speaking Skills in high school?
More than 2 hours/ week 1 - 2 periods
5 How interested are you in learning English Speaking Skills?
Very like Like Normal Dislike
6 How much time do you spend practicing speaking English outside of class time?
7 How did you learn English Speaking Skills?
Watching videos online about English
Practising with friends in class
8 What difficulties did you face when learning English Speaking Skills?
Don't know how to express
II The reality of teaching English in general and English Speaking Skills in particular at Dong Son 1 High School
9 Does your teacher often teach Speaking Skills in the class?
10 What do you think about the current teaching of English Speaking Skills at Dong Son 1 High School?
Very good Good Normal Poor Very poor
11 During English Speaking class, how does the teacher allocate time to the following teaching activities:
1 No time 2 Very little 3 Little 4 Much
Teacher's classroom activities Time allotment
Introducing about the topic, the vocabulary and the structure
Guidelines for developing ideas for speaking
Having students prepare their speeches
Providing feedback and self-study guidance
12 Which of the following methods do teachers use to teach English Speaking Skills? Work in pairs
Practicing speaking through movies or songs
III The use of Peer Interaction Activities in the development of English Speaking Skills
13 Do you know what “Peer Interaction” is? Yes No
14 Does the teacher often use peer interaction activities in teaching English Speaking Skills? Yes No
(If the answer is no, skip questions 15, 16, 17, 18)
15 If yes, what activities are commonly used?
16 How much time does it take to use peer interaction activities to teach English Speaking Skills in high school?
More than 2 periods/week 1-2 periods
17 What themes are commonly used?
18 How interested are you in learning English Speaking Skills through peer
Very like Like Normal Dislike
19 Would you like to practice many peer interaction activities in teaching and learning English Speaking Skills? Yes No
20 What topics do you want to apply peer interaction activities in teaching?
This is the end of the survey Thank you for completing all the questions!
Appendix 2: The post-experiment survey sheet Purpose: Investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of using peer interaction activities to improve English speaking skills for grade 10 students at Dong Son 1 High School.
Please answer the questions below by ticking (X) in the box ( ) to give your opinion on applying peer interaction activities to teaching English Speaking skills.
Very effectively Effectively Normal Ineffectively Very ineffectively
How do you rate the use of peer interaction activities in the process of teaching and learning
How do you evaluate the topics applied in the process of teaching and learning
English through peer interaction activities?
How do you rate the methods applied during the experiment?
4 How do you rate the activities