Investigating task types employed in 11th grade speaking classes at le quy don gifted high school in nha trang

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DOAN TON BAO PHUC INVESTIGATING TASK TYPES EMPLOYED IN 11TH GRADE SPEAKING CLASSES AT LE QUY DON GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL IN NHA TRANG MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DOAN TON BAO PHUC INVESTIGATING TASK TYPES EMPLOYED IN 11TH GRADE SPEAKING CLASSES AT LE QUY DON GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL IN NHA TRANG MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: Ph.D NGUYEN THI BAO TRANG HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ĐOÀN TƠN BẢO PHÚC KHẢO SÁT CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NĨI ĐƯỢC SỬ DỤNG TRONG CÁC LỚP KHỐI 11 TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN LÊ QUÝ ĐÔN Ở NHA TRANG LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS NGUYỄN THỊ BẢO TRANG HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: …./ …./ 20… Signature i ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to investigate types of speaking tasks used in grade 11 classes at Le Quy Don Gifted High School The data of research were collected by means of classroom observations, questionnaires and interviews The teachers’ use of tasks was documented through classroom observations and their perceptions of tasks were explored through questionnaires and interviews Specifically, the researcher observed three teachers in their 12 speaking periods, four each, in three of their respective grade 11 classes majoring in Chemistry, Physics and Literature All these three classes use the textbook Tieng Anh 11 Three teachers and 14 students participated in the interviews and the interviews for both teachers and students lasted roughly 40 minutes The interviewees were audio recorded Questionnaires were distributed to 104 students grade 11 and 12 English teachers from this high school The findings show that English teachers in Le Quy Don Gifted High School in Nha Trang tended to stick to tasks in the textbook and occasionally adapted textbook tasks or created their own tasks to better engage students The commonly used tasks as observed and obtained from the questionnaire are ‘ask and answer questions’, ‘work in pairs to make a dialogue’, ‘talk about personal experiences’, and ‘arrange information’ In addition, a majority of teachers perceived it is important that tasks have a primary focus on meaning, a clear objective and represent real-world situations Students perceived fear of mispronunciation, insufficient vocabulary and ideas are important factors that hinder their task participation The fact that high stake examinations not include a speaking component, was identified by both teachers and students as a demotivating factor The research has valuable implications for language teaching through speaking tasks, for curriculum designers, policy makers, and teacher educators Key words: tasks, speaking skills ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Along my MA journey, I have received a great deal of support, encouragement, incentives, help and suggestions from my supervisor, Vietnamese teachers at Le Quy Don High School, family and friends, sister-in-law who have all played primary roles in my present achievement I would like to express my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks to my respectful and professional supervisor Ph.D Nguyen Thi Bao Trang for her dedicated supervision, valuable guidance, support and practical suggestions throughout my journey She has provided me with her knowledge of tasks, quantitative and qualitative data analysis and interpretation and tremendous support for additional documents My sincere thanks are sent to the teaching staff of Le Quy Don Gifted High School for their considerable support and approval for my data collection in their school Also, my thanks go to the 104 students for their voluntary participation in my research I would like to express my special thanks to my close friend, Luong Thi Xuan Hong for her substantial encouragement and assistance during my journey Last but not least, I wish to express my profound gratitude to my family including my parents, Doan Van Xuan and Ton Nu Thanh Thuy, and my sister-in-law for their love, encouragement and support Without all these people, my thesis would have never been successfully completed iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Rationales 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Scope of the study 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Task-based language teaching (TBLT) 2.2 Task definitions 2.2.1 Strong and weak versions of TBLT 2.3 Task types 10 2.3.1 Oral tasks 13 2.4 Teaching speaking 15 2.4.1 Difficulties in teaching speaking 16 2.4.2 Difficulties in learning speaking 17 2.5 Review of related studies 17 2.5.1 Classroom use of tasks 17 2.5.2 Student task preferences 21 2.5.3 Perceived difficulties in task implementation/ participation 22 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Introduction 26 3.2 Context of the study 26 3.2.1 Research location 26 3.2.2 Participants 27 3.3 Research methodology 27 3.4 Data collection methods 27 3.4.1 Classroom observation 27 3.4.2 Questionnaires 28 3.4.3 Interviews 29 3.5 Data collection procedures 30 3.5.1 Ethics 30 3.5.2 Piloting 30 3.6 Data analysis 31 3.6.1 Analysis of the observation data 31 3.6.2 Analysis of the questionnaire data 32 3.6.3 Analysis of the interview data 32 3.7 Summary of the data collection methods 32 3.8 Summary of the chapter 33 CHAPTER – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 Introduction 34 4.2 Findings 34 4.2.1 Teachers’ use of textbook tasks 34 4.3 Teachers’ perceived importance of different aspects of speaking tasks 44 4.4 Students’ opinions about various types of speaking task 53 4.5 Students’ perceptions of learning English speaking through tasks 57 4.5.1 Students’ perceived level of interest in English speaking 57 4.6 Difficulties in implementing speaking tasks in classrooms 60 4.7 Suggestions for effective speaking teaching 67 4.8 Summary of the findings 71 CHAPTER – IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 73 5.1 Pedagogical implications 73 5.1.1 Task design 73 5.1.2 Student engagement 74 5.1.3 Teacher professional development 75 5.1.4 For further research 76 5.2 Limitations of the study and future research directions 77 5.3 Conclusion 78 REFERENCES 79 APPENDICES 94 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Task definitions by other authors Table 2.2 Task-types from various researchers 10 Table 2.3 Oral tasks proposed by various researchers 14 Table 3.1: Summary for data collection methods 32 Table 4.1: Definition of three categories 35 Table 4.2 The teachers’ responses to the textbook tasks 35 Table 4.3: Textbook tasks vs teacher tasks 36 Table 4.4: Teacher’s perceived importance of difference aspects of speaking tasks 44 Table 4.5: Real practice of using tasks to teach speaking 49 Table 4.6: The most frequently used tasks 51 Table 4.7: Less common speaking tasks 54 Table 4.8: Students’ perceived preferences for various types of speaking tasks 58 Table 4.9: Students’ perceived benefits of speaking tasks 60 Table 4.10: Students’ perceived difficulties in learning speaking through tasks 64 Table 4.11: Teachers’ suggestions on effective task implementation in teaching speaking 67 Table 4.12: Students’ suggestions on how to improve speaking 69 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS  This questionnaire aims to collect data for the research entitled “Investigate Investigating Task Types Employed In 11th grade Speaking Classes At Le Quy Don Gifted High School in Nha Trang” All the survey results will be merely used for the purpose of the research, not for any other purposes Your contribution is one of the great success for my research paper The researcher makes sure that your responses will be confidential and your real name will not be used in his research Please put a tick () on the answer you choose (more than one answer is acceptable in some questions) Part – STUDENTS’ PREFERENCE FOR SPEAKING TASKS Rate your interest level of various speaking tasks by putting a tick () in the appropriate box below SPEAKING TASKS Totally Quite like like a Perform a role-play based on a given script b Solve a problem c Create a dialogue d Tell a story 110 Unknow Dislike Totally dislike e Conduct an interview and report in front of class f Talk about yourself g Work in groups to have discussions about a particular topic in extracurricular activities h Other task …………………………… i Other task …………………………… Part – ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES IN SPEAKING SKILLS Do you like learning speaking in English?  Totally like  Like  Unsure  Dislike  Totally dislike Do you have any difficulties in speaking lessons?  Yes  No If “No”, you can skip this question If “Yes”, choose your difficulties (one more answer is acceptable)  Inadequate vocabulary to speak  Low confidence to speak in front of class 111  Insufficient ideas to convey  Afraid of wrong pronunciation  Do not know how to control ideas to have a fluent speech  National exams not focus on speaking Other difficulties: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Choose the appropriate benefits of speaking tasks by putting a tick () in the boxes below:  Increase vocabulary  Absorb interesting structures  Improve pronunciation  Improve communication skills Other benefits: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Part – SUGGESTIONS FOR SPEAKING TASKS Choose appropriate suggestions below of speaking tasks to make speaking lessons become more interesting in the future (one more response is acceptable)  Have more tasks outside the textbook  Have more practical communicative tasks  Restrict the use of mother tongue in group work  Teacher should provide language corpus when studying a new topic to help students speak easily  Teacher should let students prepare speaking tasks at home  Teachers should provide rewards to motivate students 112  Organize extracurricular activities for speaking skills Other suggestions: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Part – PERSONAL INFORMATION Age: ……… Sex: Male/ Female Years in learning English:  – years  – years  over years Thank you for your cooperation! 113 APPENDIX PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRONG GIỜ NÓI  Xin chào em, anh tên Đồn Tơn Bảo Phúc, học viên lớp Thạc sĩ “Lý luận phương pháp giảng dạy tiếng Anh” trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Huế Nay anh thiết kế bảng câu hỏi nhằm mục đích khảo sát ý kiến em hoạt động nói lớp Mọi thông tin trả lời em sử dụng cho nghiên cứu khơng ngồi mục đích khác Rất mong em dành khoảng 15 phút để giúp em hoàn thành câu hỏi có liên quan Cám ơn hợp tác em Phần – Ý KIẾN VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI Các em đánh dấu tick () vào mức độ yêu thích em hoạt động nói đây: CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NĨI Rất Khá Khơng Khơng Hồn tồn thích thích biết thích khơng thích a Diễn kịch dựa vào tình cho sẵn b Giải tình c Tạo đoạn hội thoại d Kể chuyện 114 e Phỏng vấn báo cáo lại f Nói thân (sở thích, kinh nghiệm cá nhân, …) g Tranh luận vấn đề nhằm thi đua nhóm hoạt động ngoại khóa h Hoạt động nói khác ……………………………… i Hoạt động nói khác ……………………………… Phần – CÁC LỢI ÍCH VÀ KHĨ KHĂN KHI HỌC NĨI TIẾNG ANH Các em có thích học nói Tiếng Anh khơng?  Rất thích  Thích  Khơng biết  Khơng thích  Hồn tồn khơng thích Các em có gặp khó khăn tham gia hoạt động nói lớp khơng?  Có  Khơng Nếu “Khơng”, em bỏ qua câu hỏi Nếu “Có” khó khăn em thường gặp phải (có thể chọn khó khăn)  Khơng có đủ lượng từ vựng để trình bày  Khơng tự tin nói trước lớp 115  Khơng có ý tưởng để trình bày  Sợ phát âm sai  Nhiều ý tưởng đầu khơng biết xếp để nói cho mạch lạc  Kì thi tiếng Anh quốc gia khơng tập trung vào kĩ nói Nếu em có khó khăn khác bổ sung thêm đây: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Các em chọn lợi ích hoạt động nói  Tăng vốn từ vựng  Học cấu trúc câu hay  Cải thiện phát âm  Tăng kĩ giao tiếp  Tăng chiến thuật giao tiếp Phần – ĐỀ XUẤT CỦA HỌC SINH CHO CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NĨI Các em có đề xuất hoạt động để làm nói trở nên thú vị hấp dẫn hơn?  Thêm hoạt động sách giáo khoa  Thêm hoạt động giao tiếp mang tính thực tế gần gũi  Yêu cầu hạn chế sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ thảo luận nhóm  Nên có thêm giáo viên nước ngồi để giúp học sinh mạnh dạn nói  Khi học chủ đề giáo viên nên cung cấp thêm ngữ liệu ngôn ngữ giúp học sinh dễ diễn đạt  Giáo viên nên để học sinh tự chuẩn bị hoạt động nói sách giáo khoa nhà để em có nhiều hội luyện nói lớp  Có phần thưởng để em tham gia sôi 116 Nếu em có đề xuất khác bổ sung thêm đây: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Phần – THƠNG TIN CÁ NHÂN Tuổi: Giới tính: Nam / Nữ Số năm học tiếng Anh:  – năm  – năm  năm 117 APPENDIX QUESTIONS TO GUIDE THE TEACHER INTERVIEWS (Post speaking lessons)  Ms Huyen 1) (Unit 11) From my class observation, you changed the speaking task from the textbook into an interview task Can you share your thoughts about this? 2) (Unit 12) The role-play activity you conducted was relatively intriguing, and you altered the speaking task into this So, why did you that?  Mr Thanh 3) (Unit 12) You adapted the speaking task from the textbook into a role-play task Can you give me some reasons for your decision? 4) (Unit 13) I saw you changing speaking task in the textbook to an interview task Why did you that?  Ms Thuy 5) (Unit 11) You slightly changed the speaking task from the textbook into the adapted task So, how useful was it and why did you that? Thank you for your help! 118 APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN GIÁO VIÊN (Sau học nói)  Cơ Huyền 1) (Unit 11) Theo quan sát em thay đổi hoạt động nói sách thành hoạt động vấn Vậy chia sẻ lí lại thực thay đổi không ạ? 2) (Unit 12) Hoạt động đóng kịch học nói vừa qua thú vị, thay đổi hoạt động nói sách thành hoạt động Vậy chia sẻ lí cô lại thực thay đổi không ạ?  Thầy Thành 3) (Unit 12) Thầy thay đổi hoạt động nói sách thành hoạt động đóng kịch Vậy thầy chia sẻ lí lại thực thay đổi không ạ? 4) (Unit 13) Theo em dự thầy thay đổi hoạt động nói sách thành hoạt động vấn Vậy thầy chia sẻ lí cô lại thực thay đổi không ạ?  Cơ Thủy 5) (Unit 11) Em có thấy thay đổi tí hoạt động nói sách Vậy chia sẻ lí cô lại thực thay đổi không ạ? Cám ơn giúp đỡ thầy (cô)! 119 APPENDIX QUESTIONS TO GUIDE THE TEACHER INTERVIEWS 1) In your opinion, what characteristics should speaking tasks focus on? _ 2) What task types you use most often in your speaking lessons? Why? _ 3) Do you have any difficulties in the implementation of tasks? If yes, what are they? 4) Do you have any suggestions for effective task implementation in teaching speaking? If yes, what are they? _ Thank you for your help! 120 APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN GIÁO VIÊN 1) Theo thầy (cô) hoạt động nói nên tập trung vào yếu tố nào? 2) Các hoạt động nói mà thầy thường sử dụng? Tại sao? _ 3) Thầy (cơ) có gặp khó khăn tiến hành hoạt động nói khơng? Nếu có, khó khăn gì? 4) Thầy (cơ) có đề xuất để tiến hành hoạt động nói hiệu khơng? Nếu có, đề xuất gì? Xin cám ơn hợp tác thầy (cô) ! 121 APPENDIX 10 QUESTIONS TO GUIDE THE STUDENT INTERVIEWS 1) Do you like speaking tasks in the classroom? Why or why not? 2) What you think the benefits of speaking tasks? 3) Do you have any difficulties in learning speaking? If yes, what are they? _ 4) Do you have any suggestionsons to improve speaking in speaking lessons? If yes, what are they? Thank you for your help! 122 APPENDIX 11 CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN HỌC SINH 1) Em có thích hoạt động nói khơng? Tại khơng? 2) Theo em ưu điểm hoạt động nói gì? 3) Em có gặp khó khăn học nói khơng? Nếu có khó khăn gì? 4) Em có đề xuất để cải thiện kĩ nói tiết học nói khơng? Nếu có đề xuất gì? Xin cám ơn hợp tác em ! 123 APPENDIX 12 APPROVAL APPLICATION BY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL 124