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Khóa luận tốt nghiệp tiếng anh: A study on using Role Play to motivate the 10th form students in speaking lessons at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school, Lao Cai province –An experiment

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A study on using Role Play to motivate the 10th form students in speaking lessons at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school, Lao Cai province –An experiment

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Do Thanh Tra, M.A for her valuable guidance, encouragement, correction, helpful suggestions, careful and detailed comments from the preparation to the completion of this study

I am also grateful to all teachers of English and students at Lao Cai boarding upper- secondary school, who supplied useful data for the study

In addition, I wish to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of

my teachers in the Foreign Language Department at Tay Bac University

Last but not least, my thanks are given to my family members, my friends who have always supported me to carry out this thesis

Son La, May, 2013

Tran Phuong An

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using role play to motivate students in speaking lesson The research was carried out at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school over 70 tenth grade students divided into two groups The experimental group was taught in the lessons using role play The control group was taught in the lessons used traditional method without using role play

Data for the research was collected from observation sheets, questionnaires, and interviews Finding from these instruments reveals that using role play can increase students ‘motivation in speaking lesson It is recommended that teachers should use role play to motivate students in learning

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure A: Result from fifteen minutes test 17

Figure B: Result from forty five minutes test 17

Table 1: Timetable of two groups 18

Table 2: Pearson Correlation of observation sheet 1 21

Table 3: Pearson Correlation of observation sheet 2 22

Figure 2: On-task in role play periods 26

Figure 3: On-task behavior during the experiment 26

Figure 4: Overall class motivation in non- role play periods 27

Figure 5: overall class motivation in role-play periods 28

Figure 6: Overall class motivation druing the experiment 28

Table 4: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire 30

Figure 7: Perspectives of four language skills 31

Figure 8: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill 31

Figure 9: Perspectives of the speaking topics and speaking activities introduced in the textbook 32

Figure 10: Students’ paticipation in speaking lessons 32

Figure 11: Students' preferences of teacher's techniquesexploited in speaking classes 33

Table 5: Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire 35

Figure 12: The students’ attitudes towards role play 36

Figure 13: Students’ participation in role play 36

Figure 14: Students’ participation in speaking lessons 37

Figure 15: Benefits of using role play in speaking classes 38

Figure 16: Students’ preference for teachers’ activities 39

Figure 17: The frequency of exploiting role play 40

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TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Hypothesis 2

1.3 Research question 2

1.4 Objectives of the study 2

1.5 Research method 2

1.6 Scope of the study 3

1.7 Overview of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking 4

2.1.1 Definition of speaking 4

2.1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 5

2.1.3 Definition of teaching speaking 5

2.1.4 Classroom Speaking Activities 6

2.1.4.1 Definition of role play 6

2.1.4.2 Types and Procedures in Using Role Play 7

2.1.4.2.1 Scripted Role Play 8

2.1.4.2.2 Unscripted Role Play 9

2.1.4.3 Significance of Role Play in Teaching Speaking 10

2.2 Theoretical background of motivation 11

2.2.1 Definitions of motivation 11

2.2.2 Types of motivation 12

2.2.2.1 Extrinsic motivation 12

2.2.2.2 Intrinsic motivation 12

2.2.3 The importance of motivation in foreign languages learning 13

2.2.4 Factors affecting learner’s motivation in language learning 13

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2.3 Summary 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 The setting of the study 16

3.2 Participants 16

3.3 Variable 18

3.4 The materials and learning program 19

3.5 Data collection instrument 20

3.5.1 Observation 20

3.5.2 Questionnaire 22

3.5.2.1 Pre-task survey questionnaire 23

3.5.2.2 Post-task survey questionnaire 23

3.5.3 Interview 23

3.6 Data collection procedure 23

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Results from observation sheet 1 25

4.1.1 Results from control group 25

4.1.2 Result from experimental group 26

4.1.3 Comparison of student’ on-task behavior between two groups 26

4.2 Results from observation sheet 2 27

4.2.1 Results from control group 27

4.2.2 Results from experimental group 28

4.2.3 Comparison of overall class motivation between two groups 28

4.3 Results from questionnaires 29

4.3.1 Pre – task questionnaire 29

4.3.2 Post – task questionnaire 35

4.4 Results from interview 41

4.5 Major finding 41

4.6 Suggestion 42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43 REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

It cannot be denied that nowadays English has become an international language that takes an important role in the social life of the world It is considered

as a tool of communication has been playing an important part in acquiring cultural, scientific and technical knowledge, for collecting worldwide information and carrying out international exchange and cooperation Because of its importance, recent years, English has been taught in almost schools in Vietnam

In respond to an appeal from social to improve the quality of education toward regional and international standards, language institutions are marking great efforts to further promote the foreign language process Since 2006 new English textbooks for students at grade 10, 11, 12 have been officially used in Vietnam Speaking skill is one of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) which the new English textbooks require students to master

Learning English is often related to learning how to speak the language

As Ur states of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as “speaker” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds

of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak (Ur, 1996)

In practice, however, many learners feel frustrated as they find that speaking in a foreign language is a complex matter It is because speaking involves many factors The ability to speak fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language “on the spot” (Harmer, 2001) In learning speaking skill, the students often find some problems The common problem is that their native language causes them difficult to use the foreign language Other reason is because of motivation lack to practice the second language in daily conversation They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation Many factors can cause the problem of the students’ speaking skills namely the students’ interest, the

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material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English Many techniques including role play can be applied because many research findings say that this technique is effective to use in teaching speaking Role play is very important in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles In addition, it also allows students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while

The idea of applying role play techniques in order to motivate students to speak English is not a recent practice; however, in Vietnam this technique has not been fully exploited by teachers in English classes due to some limitations in English Teaching All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired

the writer to conduct a research titled “A study on using Role Play to motivate the 10 th form students in speaking lessons at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school, Lao Cai province –An experiment.”

1.4 Objectives of the study

The main objectives of this study are:

- To study theoretical background knowledge related to speaking skill, role play in teaching English, students’ motivation when learning speaking with and without using role play

- To compare how students are interested in learning speaking with and without using role play to find out whether using role play can increase students’ motivation in learning speaking

1.5 Research method

In order to answer the research question, the author has used experimental method in this study The experiment was carried out with some data collection

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instruments including:

- Classroom observation

- Survey questionnaire

- Post – class interview

1.6 Scope of the study

This study mainly focuses on the effects of using role play to increase the

10th form students’ motivation in speaking lessons

1.7 Overview of the study

This study comprises five chapters

Chapter 1(Introduction) states the rationale, the research question, the

method, the scope and the design of the study

Chapter 2 (Literature review) presents the literature review of the study

including theoretical background of speaking, role play and motivation

Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the research method in this study,

consists information of the setting, the participant, data collection instrument and procedure

Chapter 4 (Results and discussion) illustrates and discusses the results

taken from the experiment and implication

Chapter 5 (Conclusion) includes the summary, limitations of the study

and suggestions for further studies

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the literature review of the study It will be devoted

to focus on the basic issues of speaking and role play Besides, the concepts of motivation will be discussed in the light of different approaches

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking

2.1.1 Definition of speaking

Speaking is crucially important for the whole learning process Lerris (2003) stated that speaking makes you a more fluent language user, speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say, it

is a chance to test hypotheses about language The terms “speaking” catches much attention of linguistics Therefore, many definitions have been offered to this term so far

In Oxford Advanced Dictionary (1995), the definition of speaking is to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc., by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages

According to Brown (1994), Burns and Joyce (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Chaney (1998:119) defined speaking “is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”

Based on Byrne (2001), speaking can be understood as the ability to express oneself opinions Hedge (2000) said that speaking is oral expression, the use of the sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation While another expert, Huebner (1960:5) believed “Language is essentially speech, and speech is basically communication by sounds” And according to him, speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages

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From the above definitions, it can be inferred that speaking is expressing ideas, opinions, or feelings to others by using words or sounds of articulation in order to inform, to persuade, and to entertain that can be learnt by using some teaching and learning methodologies

2.1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

There are many characteristics of a successful speaking activity which are introduced by Ur (1996:120) as follows:

• Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses

• Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

• Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

• Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the criteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned-above criteria

2.1.3 Definition of teaching speaking

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express

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themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in

each communicative circumstance

According to Hornby (1995: 37) teaching means giving the instruction to (a person); give a person (knowledge skill, etc.) While speaking means to make use of words in an ordinary voice So, teaching speaking is giving instruction to

a person in order to communicate

Nunan (2003) believed that teaching speaking is to teach English language learners to:

“- Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

- Use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

- Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

- Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

- Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

- Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency.”

2.1.4 Classroom Speaking Activities

There are many types of classroom speaking activities Harmer (2001:348-352) states six classroom speaking activities They are acting from script, communication games, discussion, prepared talks, questionnaires, simulation, and role play In this study, the researcher focused on discussing about role play

2.1.4.1 Definition of role play

In Cambridge International Dictionary of English, role defined as the person whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role play is a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses language learning and psychotherapy

Killen (2008) stated that role play technique is a technique which provides

an opportunity for students to become more deeply involved in thinking about how they would react in real world situation Moreover, Harmer (2007) claim

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that role play can be used to encourage general oral fluency or to train students for specific situations, especially where they are studying for specific purposes For example, how the students in vocational school are drilled to practice about how to book a hotel’s room, leave a message and book an airplane’s ticket, etc

Budden (2004:5) said that role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else's shoes, own shoes but put yourself into

an imaginary or when you stay in your situation What is meant by imaginary people is that students can become anyone they like for a short time The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star, the choice is endless Students can also take on the opinions of someone else 'For and against' debates can be used and the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favor and those who are against the theme

From those explanations above, it can be inferred that role play is a technique which involves fantasy or imagination to be someone else or to be ourselves in a specific situation for a while, improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario It can help students to encourage thinking and creativity, lets students develop and practice new language and behavioral skills in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for learning to occur

2.1.4.2 Types and Procedures in Using Role Play

In view of the persons taking an actor, Ladousse (1995) explained that there are several types of role The first is the roles which correspond to a real need in the students’ lives In this category, it involves such roles as doctors dealing with patients, or salesman traveling abroad The second type of role is the students play themselves in a variety of situations which may or may not have direct experience The example which include in this category is a customer complaining or a passenger asking for information The third type is the type that few students will ever experience directly themselves, but it is easy

to play because the teachers have such vast indirect experience of them The television journalist is a good example of this type and it is very useful kind of

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role taken from real life The last type is fantasy roles, which are fictitious, imaginary, and possible even absurd

In case of role play activities, according to Byrne (2001), role play can be grouped into two forms, scripted and unscripted role play In details, those types

of role play activities described as follows:

2.1.4.2.1 Scripted Role Play

This type involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or reading text

in the form of speech The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of language items in a memorably way

For more details, Doff (1988) gave an example of scripted role play dialogue and reading text and how the process is:

Angela : Good morning I want to send a letter to Singapore

Clerk : Yes, do you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail?

Angela : I think I’ll send it air mail I want it to get there quickly How much does it cost?

Clerk : To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, pleas

Angela : (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are

Clerk : Here’s your stamp, and here’s 20 pence change

Angela : Thank you Where is the post box?

Clerk : You want the air mail box It’s over there, by the door

(Adapted from living English book 2: A.G Abdalla et al)

To demonstrate a role play activity based on the dialogue, the procedures given by Doff (1988) is as follows:

1) First, the teacher guides the role play by writing these prompts:

(Where /air mail / how much / post box? / thanks) Talk as you write to show what the prompts mean

2) If necessary, go through the prompts one by one, and get students to give sentences or questions for each one

3) Call two students to the front: one play the role as Angela and the other one

is the post office clerk They should improvise the conversation using the

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prompts to help them Point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in the textbook, but not exactly the same; the conversation can be shorter than the presentation dialogue It should just cover the main points indicated by the prompts

4) Call out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other conversation based on the prompts

Based on these procedures, the researcher supposed that the ways of organizing this dialogue can be carried out into pairs of students who would improvise a conversation in front of class, in turns The teacher can also ask the students to practice the conversation privately with their partners before they act

it out in front of the class

2.1.4.2.2 Unscripted Role Play

In contrast to scripted role play, the situations of unscripted role play do not depend on textbooks It is known as a free role play or improvisation The students themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should develop In order to do this activity, good preparation from teacher and students is really necessary The example and procedures of unscripted role play which is adapted from Doff’ s book are as follows:

One student has lost a bag He/she is at the police station The other student is the police officer, and asks for details

To brings out this ideas:

1) The teacher could prepare the whole class, by:

a) Discussing what the speakers might say (e.g the police officer would asks the students how he or she lost the bag)

b) Writing prompt on the board to guide the role play, and any key vocabulary 2) The teacher could divide the class into pairs, and:

a) Let them discuss together what they may say

b) Let them all try out the role play privately, before calling on one or two pairs

to act out in front of the class

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The above procedures do not mean an exact to be used It is flexible; teacher can create or develop procedures which is appropriate and suitable with his/her own class

2.1.4.3 Significance of Role Play in Teaching Speaking

It has been mentioned before in the above discussion that role play is one

of the activities to promote speaking Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words or sounds of articulation

Freeman (1986) explained that role plays are important in the communicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and different social roles A role play is a highly flexible learning activity which has a wide scope for variation and imagination According to Ladousse (1995), role play uses different communicative techniques and develops fluency in the language, promotes interaction in the classroom and increases motivation Here peer learning is encouraged and sharing of responsibility between teacher and the learner in the learning process takes place

Role play can improve learners’ speaking skills in any situation, and helps learners to interact As for the shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask, where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated In addition, it is fun and most learners will agree that enjoyment leads to better learning

Several reasons for using role play in teaching speaking quoted from Ladousse (1995) as follows:

“a A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom and we can train our students in speaking skill in any situations through role play

b Role play puts students in situation in which they are required to use and develop those phatic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses

c Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom

d Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask

e Perhaps the most important reason for using role play is that it is fun.”

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In conclusion, role play is a technique which can develops students’ fluency in target language, promotes students to speak or interact with others in the classroom, increases motivation and makes the teaching and learning process more enjoyable

2.2 Theoretical background of motivation

2.2.1 Definitions of motivation

Motivation has been widely accepted by both teachers and researchers as one of the key factors that influence the rate and success of language learning However, over the decades of research various definitions of motivation have been proposed

Gardner (1985:10) proposed motivation to learning a second language is

“a term which is often used with respect to second language learning as a simple explanation of achievement” Additionally, it comprised four aspects: “a goal, effortful behavior, a desire to attain the goal and favorable attitudes toward the activity in question”

Convington (1998:1) states, “Motivation, like the concept of gravity, is easier to describe – in terms of its outward, observable effects – than it is to define Of course, this has not stopped people from trying it.”

Motivation is also defined as “a desire or want that energizes and directs goal – oriented behavior” (Kleiginna, 1981) Sharing the same point of view, Brown (2000) affirmed that motivation is some kinds of internal drive, which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something In addition, Woolfolk (2001) indicated that motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs and maintain behavior

For this study, “motivation” is defined in the terms put forward by Crookes and Schmidt (1991:489-502): “interest in and enthusiasm for the activities with the teacher’s management given to the class; persistence with the learning task as indicated by the levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment” The researcher chose this definition because she strongly agreed with them on that learners’ enthusiasm,

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attention, action and enjoyment are referents for motivation, as the long hours learners spend in classroom perhaps make this motivation an important factor in language learning success

Brown (1984:155) defined “Extrinsically motivated behaviors are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond the self Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades, and even certain types of positive feedback Behaviors initiated solely to avoid punishment are also extrinsically motivated.” He claimed that one of the most effective ways to help both children and adults to think and learn is to free them from the control of rewards and punishments It is clear from this that one of the principal weaknesses of extrinsically driven behavior

is its addictive nature Students of this type of motivation make efforts to do learning tasks in order to earn a grade, a reward or to please some authority figure not because of their interest in the activity for its own sake

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how to do things), autonomy (being able to perform an activity by yourself without external help) and relatedness (connection with your social environment like helping others)

In conclusion, motivation can be intrinsic, that is, we do something because the act of doing it is enjoyable in itself Alternatively, it can be extrinsic, that is, we engage in an activity to achieve others ends It is possible not true to say that both of them are essential to students in foreign language learning

2.2.3 The importance of motivation in foreign languages learning

As mention above, motivation is essential to success in most fields of learning The importance of motivation in second language learning has been drawing attention of many researchers and educators According to Downs (1985), a student’s level of motivation is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not that student will be successful in acquiring a second language Lack of motivation does not bring results or brings little results, whereas motivation brings faster, better and bigger results Compare a student who lacks motivation and who hardly studies, with a student who is highly motivated and devotes many hours for studying, they will get different grades

Moreover, many studies have proved that motivation is very strongly related achievement in language learning Van Lier (1996:98) indicated that motivation is “a very important, if not the most important factor in language learning” Lightbown (1999) also affirmed that the most important factor in second language acquisition success is motivation

To sum up, motivation affects the extent of active, personal involvement

in second language learning It is one of the main determining factors in success

in foreign language

2.2.4 Factors affecting learner’s motivation in language learning

There are many factors that affect students’ motivation such as the teacher – related factors, student – related factors, materials, test and so on Oxford and Shearin (1994:78) identify six factors that impact learning motivation: attitudes, beliefs about self, goals, involvement, personal attributes, and environmental

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support (teacher and peer support) For the scope of the study, teacher – related factors affecting learner motivation are taken into the consideration in this section

Looking at the role of the teacher as motivator, Byrne (2001:139) confirmed “Whatever you are doing in the classroom, your ability to motivate students, to arouse their interest and involve them in what they are doing, will be crucial” It can be inferred that among factors relating teacher, which can have effect on learner motivations, teacher’ personality and manner; teachers’ knowledge as well as teacher’ teaching method are the key factors

With regard to teacher’s personality, Gower, Philips, and Walters (1983) believed that teachers’ personality can have effect on students’ motivation According to these authors a teacher can make his student want to learn more by

“smiling or showing a friendly attitude to the students, responding to what students say, finding out about the students, getting to know them, showing an interest in both the learning and the personal interest of the students, trying to enjoy their company as a group and by showing that he is enjoying teaching them” These authors also stated that students might feel a co–operative atmosphere in class, and therefore, might be more interested in learning if the teacher uses the students’ names

Mentioning teacher’s knowledge, Harmer (1998) indicated that a teacher with a large knowledge can be a good motivator because such a teacher can make students confident that they are working with the person from whom they can learn not only the knowledge of subject but also things about the life He also stated that “students like a teacher who has lots of knowledge, not only of his subject so that he/she can bring lives into the classroom.”

In terms of teacher’s method, Byrne (2001) pointed out that the teacher’s teaching method plays a great role in motivating students in learning He defined that the teacher’s teaching method as “the teacher’ own performance: his mastery of teaching skills; his selection and presentation of topic and activities” Confirming the importance of the selection and presentation of activities, Davies (2005) stated that even the most carefully activities will normally motivate

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learners only if they are related to their interest, needs and aspiration……., it is a good idea to consult with the learners about topic and activities, and get them to bring class materials they are interested in

In conclusion, from about discussion it can be learnt that among the factors affecting student’s motivation, teacher’ teaching method, especially the

activities used in their teaching, should be put into consideration

2.3 Summary

The chapter has presented the relevant literature, which was helped to form the theoretical framework for the study Different aspects related to speaking and teaching speaking has been mentioned Role play technique as well as concepts and ideas about motivation have been discussed

Through what have been pointed out in this chapter, it is important to reconfirm that in teaching process, teacher should use role play technique to raise their students’ motivation toward speaking skill In the next chapter, an attempt will be made to bring about an overall picture of the setting as well as the methodology of the study

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter outlines the research method of the study It starts with the setting, the subject of the study and the learning program The second part of the chapter focuses on the methodology used for doing this research It describes the speaking lesson in which the data are collected and the data collection instruments, which consist of observation, questionnaires and interview

3.1 The setting of the study

The study was carried out at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school, this school located in a mountainous province with 100 percent of students is ethnic minority, therefore, teachers and students there have to cope with many difficulties in teaching and learning there are 5 teachers of English in this school These teachers are between 30 to 45 years old All of them were enthusiastic with their teaching and had at least 7 years experienced in teaching English

3.2 Participants

The subject involved in this study were 70 tenth grade students at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school belonging to 2 classes: 10A(control group) and 10B (experimental group) Each class consists of 35 students from 16 to 18 The number of males and females are not equal in both classes All of them have been learning English for 5 years This is an important factor make up equal in proficiency in their level

Before doing the experiment, the researcher collected data from 2 written tests (45 minutes and 15 minutes test) to define the level of students The results are illustrated in the chart below

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Figure A: Result from fifteen minutes test

Figure B: Result from forty five minutes test

As can be seen from the charts, both classes had nearly equal number of students got each type of mark ranked from 3 to 9 From this result, the two classes were found to be at almost the same level of English

Moreover, Mrs Nguyen Lan Huong who has been teaching English the two classes affirmed that all of them are not different much in level, learning style and interest in learning English

All in all, two groups selected for the research share the following characteristics:

- These two groups are almost equal in terms of number

- In term of age, they appear to be mostly in the same group from 16-18

- They have been using the same English textbook

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- They have almost the same level and interest in learning English

- They have been taught by the same teacher

In addition, the English periods was arranged in different time of the day, therefore, the researcher chose experimental periods carefully after searching the timetable The two classes share almost the same timetable for the subjects as shown in the table below

Table 1: Timetable of two groups

Class 10A ( control group) Class 10B (experiment group)

Basing on the above information, the researcher has chosen class 10A to

be control group (C group – the group under normal condition), class 10B to be experimental group (E group – the group under experimental condition)

Another participant in this study was one English teacher at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school Mrs Nguyen Lan Huong taught in both groups and the researcher was observer In order to increase the correlation of the observation Mrs Huong was also a co-observer in six speaking lessons she taught

3.3 Variable

In this study, experimental lesson plans including role play and lesson plans following textbook are independent variable and motivation is dependent variable Dependent variable is shown in items such as levels of interest, enthusiasm, effort, persistence with the learning task, concentration and enjoyment during the lessons

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3.4 The materials and learning program

Tenth grade students at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school have been using the new English textbook of Ministry of Education and training published in 2006 This book follows theme-based approach including 16 units and 6 tests for consolidation Each unit is designed follows:

A Reading

There are some paragraphs in each reading lesson consisting 180 to 220 words The passage aims at getting student familiar with the topic of the unit providing information, new words, new structure and developing students’ comprehension reading skills

B Speaking

Speaking lesson is the second one in each unit introduced just after reading lesson These speaking lessons are under the tendency theme-based and task-based approaches In general, the textbook provides students with a variety

of topics and speaking activities with the aim of helping students improve their speaking skill To be more specific, some of the topics are of the students’ interest such as talking about one’s daily activities (unit 1) or talking about an excursion (unit 11), etc However there are some speaking topics that are unfamiliar and far from the students’ background knowledge such as talking about different types of media and their uses (unit 7), talking about the new kinds of zoos (unit 10) Consequently, the students will lose their interest during the lesson Therefore, an effective technique should be exploited to motivate students in these speaking lessons

C Listening

This part consists of monologue conversation and dialogue relating to topic of each unit They all aim to help students practice listening comprehension skill, consolidate, and correct mistake and pronunciation

D Writing

There are many types of tanks including writing letter (formal, informal, invitation… ), describing information from the chart, etc

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E Language focus

This part provides many exercises and grammar term for students to practice

3.5 Data collection instrument

In order to answer the research question concerning the effect of using role play in speaking lessons on the motivation of tenth grade students, the researcher use experimental method The control group was taught non- role play activities and the experimental group was taught role play activities The experimental was carried out in seven weeks when the researcher did teaching practice at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school It was done in six speaking lesson of three unit in two classes (see appendix 1) The three units are Unit 12: Music, Unit 13: Films and cinema, Unit 14: The World cup

Data was collect by the means of observation, questionnaires, and interviews After that the data was computed, analyzed and the conclusion then could be drawn Each instrument would be described as follow:

3.5.1 Observation

The reason for using observation is the advantage of its directness that enables the researcher to study behaviors as it occurs in such a natural setting in class, and to collect data firsthand Besides, it is easy for the investigator to observe enthusiasm or boredom and linguistic behavior like verbal communication or interaction among subjects (Nachmias, 1996)

Observations were made in six speaking lessons In this study the teacher collaborated with one teacher of English at Lao Cai boarding upper secondary school Data was collected and recorded in observation sheet 1 and observation sheet 2 while the students were working with and without role play activities

Observation sheet 1

Observation sheet 1 (see Appendix 2A) was taken from Hopkins (1985) focuses on the students’ on –task behavior generated by the activities used in each speaking lesson The sheet consists of eight columns (eight observation times per student) and 35 rows (35 students) In each of the six lessons, each student was observed 8 times, each of which lasted 5 seconds The students,

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identified by number (1-35), were observed one by one, consecutively, clockwise around the class The observation started when the students had been working with or without role play activity for two minutes since the beginning

of the first activity in each lesson Students were watched carefully and noticed fluctuations in their interest level which can be shown by their gaze, slumping or erect body posture, alert or apathetic facial expression, physical activity directed

at the task in hand The observed student was rated “1” if he/she was engaged in

or show interested in or concentration on the learning activity (task) of speaking lesson, namely “on- task”, and “0” if he/she did not participate in the task or displayed unpleasant behavior showing no or low attention, namely “ off –task” Every 5 seconds the category that best described the observed student’s behavior at the moment was written down, then passing on to the next student until all of them had been observed 8 times in the lesson A class “on task percentage” of each lesson then could be calculated Observation sheet 1 was used in both groups

As stated above, there are two observers in this study, the researcher and one teacher at Lao cai boarding upper secondary school Two people observed two speaking lessons in two groups together before carrying out this study Then the data collected by the two was computed to assess the Pearson correlation in order to evaluate the validity of observation method used in this study Pilot data was shown in appendix 2B This data was computed by SPSS software, the result shows that r= 0.970

Table 2: Pearson Correlation of observation sheet 1

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Having a look at table 2, there is not different in the data recorded by two observers Therefore, the validity of this method is rather high

Observation sheet 2

Observation sheet 2 (see appendix 3A) was taken from Nunan (1989) used to assess overall class motivation aroused by role play activity in each lesson It included eight items such as interest, enthusiasm, effort, concentration, enjoyment… Each item was scored on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high) with 3 as an average mark for each Observation sheet 2 was used at the end of each lesson in two classes

Observing the class as a whole began after the completion of on-task behavior observation in each lesson and the observation sheet was completed when the lesson was drawing to a close The observer also added other important comments on the way the teacher organized and conducted the activities such as grouping, timing, using worksheets or giving feedback, etc

As mention above, the data from observation sheet 2 collected by two observers was computed by SPSS software to test the correlation between two observers As shown in table 3, the result is r =0.967 Therefore, this instrument can be used in this study (Pilot data, see appendix 3B)

Table 3: Pearson Correlation of observation sheet 2

of the respondents may make them feel free to respond Thirdly, the analysis of the answers to closed questions is relatively straightforward (Gillham, 2000)

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The survey questionnaires include pre-task survey questionnaire and task questionnaire with close and open-ended questions used for seventy 10th form students

3.5.2.1 Pre-task survey questionnaire

The pre-task survey (see appendix 4A) consists of ten questions varying

in three main categories

The first category is to collect information about the students’ attitudes towards English learning (question 1, 2), their attitudes and perspectives towards speaking lessons (question 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), students’ preferences and expectations

of the teachers’ methodology in English speaking lessons (question 8, 9, 10)

3.5.2.2 Post-task survey questionnaire

The post-task questionnaire (see appendix 5A) consists of ten questions varying in three main categories

The first category dealt with the students’ feelings and attitudes towards role play activity exploited by the teacher (question1, 2, 3).The second investigated the students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of role play used in speaking lessons in “Tieng Anh 10” textbook (question 4, 5, 6, 7) The last category aimed to find out the students’ preferences as well as expectations of using role play in speaking classes (question 8, 9, 10)

This survey questionnaire is only used for E group

3.5.3 Interview

The interviews with teacher after each lesson aimed to gather further information and increase the reliability for the research Each interview lasted from five to ten minutes The teacher who taught observed lesson was asked to answer three questions (see appendix 6)

3.6 Data collection procedure

Data collection process was divided into three stages

In stage 1, a lot of effort has been spent on designing lesson plan that applied role play activity in speaking lesson When doing teaching practice from

18th February 2013 to 6th April 2013, the researcher carried out the experiment

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The experiment was conducted for seven weeks at Lao cai boarding upper secondary school Before having been taught, these lesson plans were tested by teacher at this school Throughout the experiment, the researcher collaborated with the supervisor – a teacher of English at this school to work with both groups in six speaking lessons The researcher studied information about the tenth grade students at this school to find out suitable subject for this study After all she decided to choose class 10A(C group) and 10B (E group) to be the subject of the experiment

In stage 2, the researcher and collaborator work with the normal and experimental speaking lesson The researcher was observer and the collaborator was asked to be teacher and co-observer to fill in observation sheet 1 and 2 After each lesson, the students in E group were asked to complete post - task questionnaire

In stage 3, after completing 6 speaking lessons, the researcher continued

to work on the collected data to give major finding of the study

To sum up, the study was conducted over 6 speaking lessons in two classes, during which a total of 6 periods of class were observed and 12 observation sheets (6 sheets 1 and sheets 2) with 70 learner questionnaires were collected The response rate was 100 percent as none of the students were absent and all the questionnaires were properly filled out The six interviews with the teacher were taken note The next chapter presents the result of the study

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Results from observation sheet 1

Observation sheet 1 was used to quantify the students’ on task behavior generated by role play activity in speaking lesson

Students’ on- task behavior in six speaking periods was recorded in this observation sheet: three periods from control group (do not use role play activity), and three periods from experiment group (use role play activity)

4.1.1 Results from control group

Figure 1: on-task in non role play periods

Figure1 shows the on-task results generate by control group, the group do not use role play activity

As illustrated in figure 1, the property of student’ on-task in period 1 is rather high (65.7%) It increases slightly in period 2 (71.4%) However, student’ on-task behavior drops suddenly to 51.5% in the last period Mean scores of student’ on-task behavior in control group is 62.8%

The change in figure 1 reveals that the student’ on-task behavior decrease gradually if teacher use traditional technique without any role play activities in the continuous lesson

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4.1.2 Result from experimental group

Figure 2: On-task in role play periods

Figure 2 indicates the on-task result of the experimental group For this group, the researcher used role play activity in three speaking lesson

Having a look at figure 2, the rate of student’ on-task behavior in experimental period increases significantly It is 74.3% in period 1, 82.9% in period 2, and this rate reaches to 91.4% in period 3

As can be seen from the figure, students show their attention and interest in role play periods They seem to concentrate and take part in the lesson enthusiastically Their interest in learning task increases gradually in each period with role play activity In third period almost students take part in the lesson (91.4%)

4.1.3 Comparison of student’ on-task behavior between two groups

on-group w ork' s on-tas k

Figure 3: On-task behavior during the experiment

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As shown in the figure 3, there was a significant different in mean scores

of student’ on-task behavior between two groups In non-role play periods, mean score is 62.8% whereas it reaches to 82.9% in role play periods In addition, this data was computed by SPSS software using pair-sample T-test (compare the means of two variables) the result is t= 1.876 (n=3, df =2) (See appendix 2C) This result shows that there is a significant difference between means of the two groups In other word, this result affirms that using role play activity can increase students’ on-task behavior in the lesson It means that role play can motivate students

4.2 Results from observation sheet 2

As stated above, observation used at the end of each lesson to evaluate overall class motivation aroused by types of speaking activities in use ( role play and non - role play)

4.2.1 Results from control group

Figure 4: Overall class motivation in non- role play periods

Figure 4 describes overall class motivation in non – role play periods From period 1 to period 2, overall class motivation goes up a little (23 to 26) However, it goes down significantly in period 3 with only 20 points

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In all, the figure shows that overall class motivation in non -role play periods is not high It decreases gradually in each period As shown in figure

1, the rate of students’ on – task behavior in non - role play periods drops rapidly Consequently, overall class motivation goes down in the periods without role play activities

4.2.2 Results from experimental group

Figure 5: overall class motivation in role-play periods

In general, overall class motivation increases significantly in three experimental periods It goes up from 26 in period 1 to 31 in period 2 and reaches to highest point in the third period with 37 points

It is clear that in role play periods, students show much enthusiasm in the learning task They pay much attention to the activities in use

4.2.3 Comparison of overall class motivation between two groups

Figure 6: Overall class motivation druing the experiment

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As clearly indicated in figure 6, mean scores of overall class motivation

in non- role play periods is 23 and it is 31.3 in role play periods When analyzing by pair sample T-test in the SPSS to compare two means and the result is T =1.906 (n=3, df=2) It means that using role play can increase student’s motivation in speaking lesson (See appendix 3E)

4.3 Results from questionnaires

4.3.1 Pre – task questionnaire

With the aim of finding out the real situation of learning speaking skill as well as students’ preferences and expectations in speaking lessons, seventy copies of the survey questionnaires were distributed to students from two classes: 10A and 10B The data of the pre task survey questionnaire will be analyzed based on this target population

 Students’ attitudes towards English learning

As can be seen clearly from the table 2 most of the surveyed students find it important to learn English More specifically, 51.4 % admit that it is very important to learn English meanwhile 42.9 % appreciate the importance of English in study courses However, it is unexpected that only 54.3 % like learning English

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Table 4: Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

3 Perceptions of four language skills 40 57.1 27 38.6 0 0 3 4.3

4 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill 35 50 27 38.6 6 8.6 2 2.8

6 Students’ participation in speaking lessons 8 11.4 35 50 27 38.6

7 Reasons for unwillingness to speak

8 Different techniques exploited by teacher 37 52.9 70 100 48 68.6 12 17.1 5 7.1

9 Purposes of using role play in teaching

10 Willingness towards using role play 70 100 0 0

(Question 7 is an open-ended question Question 8 is a multiple choice one so the total percentages are more than 100%)

Variables Scales Question focus

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 Students’ attitudes and perspectives towards speaking lessons

Figure 7: Perspectives of four language skills

The descriptive static in figure 7 indicates that the majority of the participants (57.1%) find listening most troublesome language skill There exist 38.6 % students who have difficulties in speaking Only 3 informants reveal that writing is the most challenging language skill and unsurprisingly, none of the students claim reading as the most problematic

D Not important at all

Figure 8: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill

As mentioned above, speaking skill is the second difficult and challenging language skill to students However, the importance of speaking skill cannot be denied Most of the students raise their great awareness of the importance of this skill, which accounts for 88.6 % Only 2 students voice that it is unimportant to master this language skill Thus, the students’ good attitudes towards English speaking classes will be very beneficial to the teaching and learning process

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Figure 9.2 How difficult ?

Figure 9: Perspectives of the speaking topics and speaking activities

introduced in the textbook

Looking at figure 9.1 and 9.2, it is clear that students have different perspectives of the speaking topics and speaking activities introduced in their textbook More than half of the surveyed students (55.7%) find those topics and activities neither interesting nor boring while 15.8% complain that they are really boring Only 28.5% think that these activities are interesting enough to motivate them to get involved in speaking lessons

In addition, the majority of the informants (about 55%) perceive speaking classes as uneasy experience because they find the speaking topics difficult and unfamiliar to them They reveal that sometimes they want to take part in speaking yet they find no way to express their ideas in English

Figure 10: Students’ paticipation in speaking lessons

A Very interesting C Normal

B Interesting D Boring

A Very difficult C Normal

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The students’ level of participation is measured with question 6 The number of the participants, who are willing to join speaking classes, only accounts for 11.4 % Meanwhile half of students voice that sometimes they find

it interesting and motivating to participate in these speaking classes 27 respondents (38.6 %) say that they are unmotivated and reluctant to speak

When being asked “So what are your reasons for unwillingness to speak?” those who chose B or C in question 6 raised their voices Being affected by their learning experiences at secondary school, many participants answered that they are not accustomed to speaking in front of the crowd During the speaking classes, they just keep silent and listen to others speaking as they are too shy to express their ideas A number of informants confess that they are afraid of being laughed at by their classmates because they may pronounce words incorrectly or they may not speak fluently Some of the students complain that the speaking activities are either boring or difficult In addition, the teaching way is not interesting enough These factors discourage them to be reluctant to join the speaking classes despite their awareness of its great importance

 Students’ preferences and expectations towards teacher’s teaching

techniques in speaking classes

visual aids songs others

Figure 11: Students' preferences of teacher's techniques

exploited in speaking classes

All of the students who were involved in the survey admitted that they would like the teacher to use role play in speaking lessons This is very

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beneficial to the study as the researcher intend to apply this technique to motivate students to speak Songs and visual aids are the next choices, taking up 68.6% and 52.9% respectively

When being asked “What are the purposes of using role play in teaching speaking?”, most of the respondents (94.3 %) think that role play are used for both teaching and relaxing meanwhile a small number of students (5.7 %) suppose that language games are suitable for relaxing only

Question 10 is designed lastly to investigate students’ willingness towards using role play in speaking classes It really comes up to the expectations when all of the informants show their willingness to join in role play activity This is very advantageous to apply this technique to speaking classes due to the students’ interest

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4.3.2 Post – task questionnaire

Table 5: Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire

Variable

A B C D E

1 Students’ attitudes towards language games 22 62.8 10 28.6 2 5.7 1 2.9

2 Students’ participation in language games 16 45.7 9 25.7 9 25.7 2 2.9

3 Students’ feelings after playing games 21 60 11 31.4 3 8.6

4 Students’ participation in speaking lessons 18 51.4 11 31.4 6 17.2

5 Students’ evaluation of the use of language games 27 77.1 8 22.9

6 The effectiveness of the use of language games 27 100 13 48.1 18 66.7 24 88.9

7 Reasons for ineffectiveness

8 Students’ preferences to make the use of

language games more effective 33 95.7 26 74.3 27 77.1 31 88.6

9 Stage(s) at which language games are used 15 42.9 13 37.1 16 45.7 10 28.6 13 37.1

10 The frequency of exploiting language games 21 60 10 28.6 4 11.4 0 0

(Question 7 is an open-ended question Question 6, 8, 9 are multiple choice ones so the total percentages are more than 100%

The target population in question 6 is 55)

Scales Question focus

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