Difficulties students have to face when joining speaking lessons applied Communicative Activities+Chart 2.1: Student’s opinion about the 4 English skillsChart 2.2: Students’ interest in
Rationale of the study
English has evolved into a global language of communication in our contemporary world, and it is now a crucial requirement for both education and employment The number of individuals learning English is rising swiftly, and it is being learned in a wide variety of ways from a variety of sources.
It is widely agreed that speaking a foreign language, namely English, is one of today's prerequisites Speaking is recognized as one of the most important criteria when applying for a job or keeping a certain job position under the condition of improving the language level, in addition to other talents and knowledge As a result, it is more crucial than ever to find answers to the topic of how to teach English successfully The purpose of English instruction and learning is to concentrate students so they can utilize the language for communication and as a tool to advance their academic careers Many Vietnamese students are so preoccupied with their writing or grammar that they are unable to speak effectively and organically Because of this, students are unconfident and shy around native English speakers.
To overcome various challenges that students have to face when engaging learning speaking skills, Communicative Activities are so crucial and were widely taken advantages in many English center Such activities could increase students’ speaking abilities, inspire pupils and create a conductive environment for language learning, Rock3T company where the writer intern also applies Communicative Activities on improving speaking skills of students which lead to a study being carried out But there are still some issues in application process that need to be solved The study, " The application of Communicative Activities on improving speaking skills of students aged 9–10 at Rock3T Tung Tran Company Limited," was conducted for the purpose of elucidating the situation of applyingCommunicative Activities of Rock3T company in speaking classes of students aged9–10 at in order to apply in other teaching environments.
Aim of the study
The purpose of the study is to investigate situation of applying CommunicationActivities at Rock3T Tung Tran in terms of teaching and learning English Besides,the study finds out difficulties that come with students when CommunicativeActivities are implemented in speaking lessons and gives recommendations for company, teachers and students to improve the proficiency of applyingCommunicative Activities.
Scope of the study
Due to time constraints, the researcher at Rock3T Company solely focuses on the pleasurable and engaging aspects of educating students aged 9-10 utilizing communicative language From January to May 2023, a four-month period, the study was carried out at Rock3T Tung Tran Company Limited
Methodology
The writer used both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to carry out this investigation to analyze data collected from the participants of this survey The author use statistics that collected from case-study to assess the situation and difficulties in terms of learning speaking skills The participants of the survey include teachers and students studying at Rock3T company The author took the reference mainly from the training documents and learning materials that the company provided and the own experiences as an intern of the company.
Organization of the study
Beside the introduction conclusion, references and appendix, the thesis also includes 3 mains chapters:
This chapter presents overview of speaking skills, characteristics of students aged 9-
10, factors affecting speaking skills, some methods of teaching speaking skills,
Communicative Activities and some previous studies related to application of Communicative Activities on developing English speaking skills
This part investigates the studying’s situation when applying Communicative Activities to develop English speaking skills of students aged 9-10 at this company. Besides, achievements, drawbacks and reasons are pointed out.
This chapter proposes recommendations for both students, teachers and Rock3T company.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of speaking skills
In Webster’s New World Dictionary, speaking is to say words orally, to communicate by talking, to make a request, and to make a speech.
According to Hornby (1995), speaking is about something to talk, say something about something, to mention something, to have a conversation with somebody, to address somebody in words, to say something, or express oneself in a particular language.
According to Ladouse (1991) speaking is described as the activity as the ability to express oneself in the situation, or the activity to report acts, or situation in precise words or the ability to converse or to express a sequence of ideas fluently.
Wallace (1978) 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.
One of the most useful skills is speaking It could not be separated from listening. When we speak, we produce the text and it should be meaningful In the nature of communication, we can find the speaker, the listener the message and the feedback. Speaking could not be separated from pronunciation as it encourages learners to learn the English sounds.
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 (2001) stated that speaking ability more complex and difficult than people assume, and speaking study like study other cases in study of language, naturalize many cases to language teachers.
Speaking skills has many different aspects including two major categories – accuracy, involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practiced through controlled and guided activities; and, fluency considered to be
“the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously” (Harmer, 2001).
In summary, each person may have a different definition of speaking, and we cannot determine which is superior because each of them focuses on one crucial aspect of reading Nonetheless, we see that reading and comprehension are closely related To effectively teach reading to our pupils, language teachers must have a thorough understanding of reading's nature.
1.1.2 The importance of speaking skills
According to Gerald (2013), the most effective way to communicate is through speech Thus, speaking skills are a vitally important method of communication The ability to speak skillfully provides the speaker with several distinct advantages The capacity to put words together in a meaningful way to reflect thoughts, opinions, and feelings provides the speaker with these important advantages:
1.1.2.1 Ability to inform, persuade, and direct
Business managers, educators, military leaders, lawyers, and politicians, among others, seek to develop their speaking skills to such a level that they are transformed into master communicators Speaking clearly and confidently can gain the attention of an audience, providing the golden opportunity for the speaker to make the message known Wise is the speaker who gains and then holds the attention of an audience, with well-chosen words in a well-delivered presentation,forming a message that is effective, informative, and understood.
1.1.2.2 Ability to stand out from the rest
When one thinks of speaking skills, one tends to think of it as a common skill. Think again The ability to stand before others and speak effectively is not an ordinary ability Many people are deathly afraid of public speaking; others have little ability to form thoughts into sentences and then deliver those words in a believable way The bad news is that at any given moment the world has precious few with the speaking talents of, say, Winston Churchill or John F Kennedy The good news is that a speaker whose skills are honed and developed with constant application and hard work can stand out.
Well-developed verbal skills can increase one’s negotiation skills Self-confidence is improved A growing sense of comfort comes from speaking in front of larger and larger audiences A reputation for excellence in speaking can accrue over time, thereby imparting a certain credibility to the speaker.
Employers have always valued the ability to speak well It is, and always will be, an important skill, and well worth the effort in fully developing.
Speaking skills are important for career success, but certainly not limited to one’s professional aspirations Speaking skills can enhance one’s personal life, thereby bringing about the well-rounded growth we should all seek.
1.1.3 The four components of speaking skills
Among the four skills, speaking skill is a difficult one to assess with precision, because speaking is a complex skill to acquire Lado (1977) says that four or five components are generally recognized in analysis of speech process as the follows:
Fluency can be defined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately Fluency includes a reasonably fast speed of speaking and only a small number of pauses and
“ums” or “errs” These signs indicate that speakers do not have spent a lot of time searching or the language items needed to express the message.
One cannot conduct communication effectively or express their ideas both oral and written form if they do not have sufficient vocabulary So, vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in communication
It is needed for students to arrange a correct sentence in conversation It is in line with explanation suggested by Heaton (1978) that student’s ability to manipulate structure and to distinguish appropriate grammatical from in appropriate ones The unity of grammar also learns the correct way to gain expertise in a language in oral in oral and written form
Pronunciation is the way for students to produce clearer language when they speak.
It deals with the phonological process that refers to the component of a grammar made up of the elements and principles that determine how sounds vary and pattern in a language.
Characteristics of students aged 9-10
When learning a foreign language, students frequently acquire a lot of knowledge (grammar rules, lists of vocabulary words), but later discover that they are unable to utilize the language when they need to Scrivener (2005) claims that there seems to be some difficulty in moving language from passive knowledge into active usage Without experience in using the language, learners may tend to be nervous about trying to say things Partly they may fear seeming foolish in front of others,they may worry about getting things wrong they may want to avoid teacher’s comments or corrections and so on It takes quite a long time for some students to express themselves, which leads to long embarrassing pauses while learners are trying to find out how to say what they really want to say.
(Harmer, 2007b) The characteristics of young learners are classified as follows: (1)They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words; (2) They often learn indirectly rather than directly; (3) Their understanding comes not just from explanation, but also from what they see and hear, and crucially, have a chance to touch and interact with; (4) They find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to grasp; (5) They generally display an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about the world around them; (6) They have a need for individual attention and approval from the teacher; (7) They are keen to talk about themselves and respond well to learning that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the classroom; and (8) They have a limited attention span unless activities are extremely engaging, they can get easily bored Based on those classifications,various teaching approach in teaching young learners are significantly developed.
Factors affecting speaking skills
The two main kinds of factors that affect students’ ability of learning speaking skills are psychological factors and linguistic factors (Mahripah, 2014)
Not only is it an inevitable consequence of not listening and pronouncing English correctly, the lack of confidence is also due to the lack of an appropriate English practice environment This can be seen very clearly in rural students They often have a hesitant mentality, afraid that what they say is not correct, incorrect, no one can understand what they say While confident attitude is the decisive factor for more than half of successful integration with a foreign language.
1.3.1.2 Difficulty in persisting in learning English
English, like any other language, requires real perseverance to bring good results. Maintaining this persistence is difficult for adults, and even harder for children. Because of the age characteristics that are still fun to play, maintaining interest in learning a foreign language is a difficult problem that many parents have to face and solve with their children.
Students’ speaking skill is affected by some linguistic components of language like topical vocabulary, mispronunciation
Use of mother tongue: Bhattacharya (2017)’s study revealed that the majority of the participant tended to use their mother tongue in English classes The researcher claimed that this might be because the learners often think everything in their mother tongue first, then translate into English Consequently, when they find it hard to speak in English, they use their native language to express their ideas
Topical vocabulary: Heriansyah (2012) claimed that the topical vocabulary plays a very important role in the success of oral communication Even when the learners are confidents and aware of using only English in the classroom, it will be challenging for them if they do not have enough words to say about the specific topics.
Mispronunciation: Along the speaking problems, pronunciation is paid a lot of attention to by the learners As found in Bhattacharya (2017)’s research, a large number of the students are worried about their English pronunciation As we know,English is not a phonetic language That is, the pronunciation of English words are not similar to their spellings Words with similar spellings are sometimes pronounced differently because of their surrounding contexts like tenses and phonemes that come after them This can cause a lot of problems for non -native speakers of English and they sometimes get confused in producing the English words.
Methods of teaching speaking skills
Method (ALM) can be applied in teaching speaking to young learners, since it holds an assumption that one can learn language by developing habits based on pattern of language (CelceMurcia 2001, in Linse 2005) and by emphasizing repetition and habit formation (Saville-Troike, 2006) The two important features of ALM are drill with choral response and dialogues In drilling with corral response, the students will drill certain language feature, and then there will be a sentence substitution named choral response.
Moreover, the dialogue provides the learners with grammatically controlled scripts.
It can be applied in a child-friendly role-play Besides, the teacher can also use puppets to introduce dialogue It will be very beneficial for reluctant or shy students who tend to feel comfortable to speak with puppets, rather than with adults (Slattery and Willis 2003, in Linse 2005).
1.4.2 Self-Directed-Learning (SDL) Method
Malcom Knowles made popular the idea that student choice should be the center of learning, especially in older learners In his words, self-directed learning describes a process in which individuals take control of their own learning, with or without the help of others They initiate the diagnoses of their own learning needs, formulating their own learning goals, identifying necessary resources for learning, choosing appropriate learning strategies, and then evaluating their own learning objectives (Knowles, 1975).
While not a new concept, today self-directed learning is gaining a new momentum as teachers discover the importance of this strategy both in the traditional and virtual learning models It is the most natural means of acquiring new information, as both very young toddlers and older adults will attest The idea is that if you are interested in something, you will naturally want to learn more about it.
1.4.3 Communicative Language Teaching Method( CLT)
CLT was developed by teachers and applied linguists as a response to the shortcomings of the audiolingual and grammar translation methods one of the distinctive points of communicative language teaching is the focus on communicative activities that promote language learning These activities use real life situations to trigger communication They encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners Communicative activities have real purposes such as finding and exchanging information, breaking down barriers, talking about oneself, and learning about culture.
Communicative Activities
Communicative activities refers to the classroom activities that provide a genuine information gap and make it possible for language learners to communicate with target language in CLT (Liao, 2000) In other words, communicative activities are activities that give students both a desire to communicate and a purpose which involve them in a varied use of language They have real purposes: to find information, to break down barriers, to talk about oneself, and to learn about the culture Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson.
Communicative activities are fluency-based activities (Tait, 2001) While such activities may involve students to practice a particular grammatical form, they are likely to do more than this The key element is that the activity is based on a realistic situation This could be anything from an encounter in a department store, to a group of friends discussing holiday plans, etc Within this kind of context,students should be required to negotiate for meaning This is likely to require multiple turn taking.
Savignon (2001) claims that “the problem at present is that some of the activities being introduced as communicative activities are not communicative at all but structure drills in disguise” Thus, many teachers may think that the activities they design and use in class are communicative, but actually they are not Therefore, the features that make a real communicative activity should be focused on.
Based on related views about communicative activities, Sun & Cheng (2000) summarizes three common features as follows:
Communicative activities are task-based Task-based English teaching concentrates on communicative tasks that learners need to engage in outside the classroom.
Communicative activities are learner-centered The emphasis of teaching activity is on students‟ initiation and interaction Students are expected to participate in the activities as real people and take responsibility for their learning.
Communicative activities emphasize the use of authentic language input and the teacher’s native or near native language competence in order to produce communication in the classroom Activities that are truly communicative also have three features in common; they are information gap, choice and feedback (Morrow, 1981).
From these features, it may be easier to distinguish between communicative activities and non-communicative activities We can represent the distinguishing features between the two types of activities in the following ways:
Communicative activities Non – communicative activities
A communicative purpose No communicative purpose
A desire to communicate No desire to communicate
Content not form Form not content
Variety of language One language item
No teacher intervention Teacher intervention
No materials control Materials control
There are a range of Communicative Activities used in speaking class The author will name some activities bellow (Kayi, 2006)
Discussion: After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups.
Role Play: Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel.
Information Gap: In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information
Interviews: Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people.
It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow.
1.5.4 Factors that affect the effectiveness of Communicative Activities
There are many factors affecting the effectiveness of Communicative Activities but the most commonly accepted ones in literature are:
Teachers play a very important role in motivating students in speaking English In fact, some teachers’ factors and appropriate teachers’ behaviors will enhance students’ motivation in learning English in general and English speaking skills in particular
According to Dửrnyei (1994), teacher-specific components, which are at the learning situation level, are divided into three smaller categories They are affiliation (i.e learner’s desire to please teachers); authority type (the ways teachers instruct and support learners during studying process, i.e controlling or autonomy support) and the teaching styles and strategies used of teachers including modeling, task – presentation and feedback.
Self-efficacy refers to people’s judgment of their capabilities to carry out certain specific tasks, and accordingly, their sense of efficacy will determine their choice of the activities attempted, as well as the level of their aspirations, the amount of effort exerted, and the persistence displayed (Dửrnyei, 1998).
People with low sense of self-esteem in a given field perceive difficult tasks as personal threats and they dwell on their own personal weaknesses and the obstacles they encounter Those people easily lose faith in their capabilities and are on the verge of giving up.
In terms of activities and materials, motivation was defined by Crookes and Schmidt (1991) as “interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class: persistence with the learning task, as indicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment” In order to draw students’ interest and foster a willingness in students to put forth effort and become engaged in learning, activities need to involve some characteristics: “variety and diversity, focusing on helping students improving and gaining new skills, emphasizing personal relevance and meaningful contents, offering personal challenge and giving a sense of control” (Ames, 1992)
Besides activities, the important role of materials cannot be denied Various types of materials should be implemented so as to develop students’ interest as well as encourage their curiosity, thus maintain their motivation Some popular materials include color illustrations, photographs, videos, poster, etc
THE STUDY
Research questions
It should be remembered that before English teachers can begin employing Communicative Activities for instruction, they must be persuaded of the advantages offered by these activities and how effective they are in comparison to other resources in terms of language teaching as well as obstacles Thus, the aim of this study is to identify challenges faced by English teachers who employ communicative activities in their classrooms The investigation would also determine the root reasons of these challenges Last but not least, it aims to deepen instructors' understanding of the factors that determine whether communicative activities are appropriate to use while teaching English to pupils.
As a result, these intentions have given rise to the following three questions:
Question 1: What is the situation of applying Communication Activities at Rock3T Tung Tran in terms of teaching and learning English?
Question 2: What are difficulties coming with students when Communicative Activities are implemented in speaking lessons
Question 3: What are the recommendations to improve the effectiveness of applyingCommunicative Activities?
Current situation of teaching and studying at Rock3T Tung Tran Company Limited
There are nearly 185 students coming from 16 classes at Rock3T Tung Tran, their ages ranges from 6 to 18 years old; and they are both male and female Most of them have not had much exposure to English They have just been exposed to a certain amount of vocabulary and grammar
The children' exam results were quite strong towards the end of the month. Additionally, there were much fewer children who scored below average than during the same time period previous year It is the outcome of the efforts of both students and teachers Students at Rock3T Tung Tran generally met the training requirements of the academy in 2022 The majority of students work hard to achieve academic and athletic excellence in order to develop and enhance their personalities Rock3T Tung Tran.
At Rock3T Tung Tran, highly experienced teachers are always available to support, look out for students, and offer valuable guidance throughout the learning process. teachers have extensive experience teaching English and they have been teaching English for a long time They are also a dependable source of guidance and assistance during the course The majority of the center's teachers, in particular, are people who are enthusiastic, dynamic, love students, and are passionate about teaching In addition, teachers will attend weekly meetings to be trained so as to improve teaching effectiveness The total numbers of teachers who are teaching English at Rock3T Tung Tran are 15 and their age ranges from 23 to 45 There are
12 Vietnamese teachers who graduated from Hanoi University, Hanoi National University and 3 foreign teachers who are from England and South America They have a lot of experience in teaching English for kids They also enrolled in courses on child psychology, which has helped them better grasp what kids desire and how to keep them from being distracted Teachers frequently add communication activities, such as games, songs, movies, etc into English courses to engage students and simplify the lesson since they are aware of the advantages of doing so
2.2.3 Description of the course books and materials
The center follows its own curriculum and uses its own materials for its curriculum and instruction All of the course materials were assembled or collected by qualified teachers at the center and then revised for the center's students
Students will learn grammar and practice speaking at the same time, according to the curriculum that has been compiled according to their grade For all students, they will learn grammar books and the speaking files prepared by the center themselves.
In addition to books for primary students, the center also provides textbooks to students to use as they get ready for the Cambridge, Toefl, Toeic, and IELTS exams.
Participants
In this study, 50 students including 31 students in three 9-year-old classes that are class 4A, 4B and 4C (class 4A has 12 students, class B has 10 students, class C has
9 students) and 19 students in two 10-year-old classes that are class 5A, 5B (class5A has 10 students, class 5B has 9 students) All the 50 students are participants;and they are both male and female It was the number of students participating in questionnaires and observation Students are assigned to class according to their age The authors note that the majority of them pay attention during lessons and obey the teacher The English levels of students are different in a class, thanks to them, the writer can elicit opinions of different level students, not just some particular ones The number of students is sufficient enough to help the researcher get the reliable data for the study
Five female teachers aged from 25 to 28 at Rock3T Tung Tran participated in the study They all have a minimum of two years of experience instructing students in speaking English No teachers' names were given in this study One of them has
MA degree in English language teaching, graduated from Hanoi NationalUniversity The rest are BA, three of them graduated from Hanoi NationalUniversity and the other was from Hanoi University Although they are different in terms of teaching experiences, they are qualified teachers and all implementCommunicative Activities in teaching speaking skills.
Data collection instruments
In order to collect data for the study, the survey method will be used to obtain information from students and teachers The author conducts class observation of 5 classes grade 4-5 and questionnaires for both students and teachers
( Lightbown and Spada, 2006), classroom observation is an effective tool to observe and describe teachers’ and learners’ behavior as well as actual activities happening in the class The observation in this study focuses on teachers’ problems in implementing Communicative Activities, students’ difficulties when involving in such activities organized by teachers and physical conditions to see if the problems can come from these sources Appendix I contains possible problems that students and teachers can meet in speaking lessons applied Communicative Activities ( See Appendix 1)
Questionnaires are also be used to collect data because it’s an effective tool that enables the author of collecting information from a large number of respondents at the same time
Questionnaire for students (Appendix 2a) comprising of 9 questions was distributed to the students and questionnaire for teachers (Appendix 3) consisting of 6 questions was delivered to the teachers Both open-ended questions and closed- ended questions were exploited To make sure all students catch the main ideas of questionnaires, the Vietnamese versions ( Appendix 2b) were delivered with similar structures and contents We paid careful attention to the clarification of each question to ensure validity The questionnaires were developed specifically for Vietnamese students to best capture participants' views on issues Technical terms have been simplified so that the questions can be understood correctly Furthermore, all questions are arranged in a logical sequence that can lead respondents to the topic of the study The questionnaire was designed and developed based on the author's knowledge, observations and experience.
In this questionnaire, question 1 is to show students’ perception about the 4 English skills Questions 2, 3 aim at getting information about Student’s attitude towards the speaking skills Questions 4, 5 aim to find factors affecting the students’ spirit of participating in speaking class Question 6 looks for the frequency of application of activities Question 7 is to find out student's favorite activities Questions 8 aims at finding the benefits of Communicative Activities for students’ speaking and the last question is to look for difficulties students have to face when joining speaking lessons applied Communicative Activities ( See Appendix 2)
In this questionnaire, questions 1 aims at getting information about teachers’ opinion about speaking Questions 2 finds out aims teachers’ perception about the use of Communicative Activities in teaching speaking skills Question 3 looks for teachers’ sources of Communicative Activities used in speaking lessons Question 4 is to find out teachers’ perception towards the aims of Communicative Activities.Questions 5 aims at finding out difficulties the teachers encounter when conducting communicative activities in teaching speaking skills and the last question is to look for suggestions from teachers to apply Communicative Activities effectively ( SeeAppendix 3)
Data collection procedure
The data collection procedure lasted for over a period of three months from February to May in 2023 The data collection started after receiving all the permission formalities of the Rock3T Tung Tran and teachers taking responsibility for teaching students aged 9-10 This study was conducted as follows.
Data will be collected from the use of questionnaires as well as class observations. Class observation was the first method to be carried out in this study The class observation was conducted in 5 classes for 10 lessons (2 lessons per class) Before making an observation, the researcher asked teachers having the main responsibility for attending the classes The author would look at both learners and teachers in the lesson All their attitudes, enthusiasm and level of participation are observed and noted in observation notes All these changes were recorded carefully by the writer in observation notes.
These works would be observed throughout the research to see the students’ progress and evaluate whether there was an improvement in their performance. Then, statistic calculations will be performed on the clarified data.
After observation, questionnaires for students and teachers were also created at the same time This sample provided additional important data about the current situation of learning speaking skills at Rock3T Tung Tran and it also pointed out students’ thoughts, attitudes toward current methods, difficulties and benefits of learning speaking skills with application of Communicative Activities as well For visualization purposes, the aforementioned data will then be presented in tables and figures And finally, a generalization, comments and evaluations will be given.
In this section, the author will analyze data collected based on observation sheet, students’ and teachers’ questionnaire.
After observing the English speaking class, the author found results bellow:
Class’ arrangement: Most things work well and are enough to use except the screen of two class (one is at grade 4, the other is at grade 5) are blurred which makes it difficult for students to see and follow the lessons The center's area has not been expanded to meet the number of classrooms for students, so there is still a situation where some students' classes are noisy or interrupted because the center rents more rooms near residential areas.
Teachers’ organization: According to author’ observation, All five teachers had prepare some teaching equipment and the lessons at home However, two teachers had not prepare the lesson carefully so during the speaking lessons, some problems such as some activities are still messy, the steps to implement the lesson are not clear, making it difficult for students to understand and practice During the class, there were combination of hard materials and virtual tool to help students imagine clearly Three teacher gave detailed instructions on the topic as well as the implementation steps, but the remaining 2 teachers were not attentive in guiding and explaining The majority of classes had activities with a lot of contents but it seems that three classes had meaningful contents that are vivid and easy to understand. Three teachers seem not encourage students much and two teachers often they often have the problem of lack of time to teach.
Students’ participations: The major problems of students are their deficiency of
English knowledge Each class has from 2 to 4 students who are confused to raise hands and they hardly understand the topic as well as teacher’s instruction As a result, the fair of making mistake raised and they feel shy when talking to teachers and classmates
The results from students’ questionnaire will be shown and the author based on that to analyze students’ attitudes as well as problems in learning process.
2.6.2.1 Student’s attitude towards the speaking skills
Four skills in English like reading, writing, listening, speaking are both important for students to learn Let’s see students aged 9-10 rank the importance level of these skills below. listening speaking reading writing
Students' opinion about the 4 English skills
Students' opinion about the 4 English skills
Chart 2.1: Student’s opinion about the 4 English skills
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result)
The result of question 1 that shown in the above chart indicates that almost every student ranked speaking skills as the most important skill they have to learn in English Speaking skills have taken the lead with the choices of 40 students (80%). Writing is the second place with the choices of 5 students (10%) The third position is reading skill And there are only 2 students (4%) placed their choices on listening skill The reasons the students gave for their perception of the importance of speaking were various, but they seemed to see the association of speaking to other language skills or to the acquisition of other formal elements of the language
When being asked about the level of interest in learning speaking, students gave their answers as below:
Chart 2.2: Students’ interest in speaking
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result)
Question 2 is posed to find out if students enjoy learning speaking skills From the data, it’s easy to see that 35 students (corresponds to 70%) confirmed that they are interested in learning speaking skills Besides, there are 10 students who do not pay close attention to speaking skills Meanwhile, the 5 students found no interest in this skill It shows that a certain number of students who consider speaking the most important skill still did not highly appreciate and enjoy it And the reasons for this were pointed out by most students that studying speaking skills was one of the hardest skills in English There were a few students sharing that speaking was not as difficult as people were used to thinking.
When students join speaking lessons, they may have their own different feelings about these lessons
Chart 2.3: Student’s feelings when joining speaking lessons
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result )
For question 3, the findings reveals 35 students (70%) confessed that they felt excited and confident when joining the speaking activities Nevertheless, 5 students (10%) said they were uncomfortable and unconfident with these activities whereas 6 students (12%) were bored with these activities Lastly, there are 4 students (8%) chose other factors
2.6.2.2 Factors affecting the students’ spirit of participating in speaking class
When joining speaking lessons, there are some factors that can excite students Here are the typical elements that promote students’ motivation.
Motivating factors Number of students
Teacher’s attitude and methods of teaching
The interest of Communicative Activities applied
More opportunity to develop speaking skills
The demand of communicating by English 30 students (60%)
Table 2.1 Motivating factors in speaking lessons at Rock3T Tung Tran
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result)
According to the results, the most motivating factor to students at Rock3T Tung Tran is that speaking lessons offer them more opportunities to develop their speaking skills with 80% of participants agreeing The factor ranking the second position with 70% choices is that Communicative Activities in those lessons are interesting to practice English speaking Meanwhile, 60% of the students state that they feel motivated in speaking lessons because they find those lessons have offered them more opportunities to develop their speaking skills have met their demand of using English to communicate As for the teacher’s methods of teaching, 48% of students asked believe that this is one of the factors motivating them in speaking lessons Finally, 24% of participants are motivated simply because they love English and 12% are motived by other factors
However, some elements can demotivate them as bellow:
Demotivating factors Percentage of students
Lack of interest in learning English speaking
Large amount of hard-to-remember new vocabularies and structures
The abstract and unclear impartation of teacher
Table 2.2 Demotivating factors in speaking lessons at Rock3T Tung Tran
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result )
From the data shown above, 20 of 50 students asked agree that personal characteristics such as shyness are the most considerable devoting factors for students in speaking lessons Meanwhile, teacher’s tense attitude and poor teaching methods are considered as the second- rank factors with 36%; 32% of participants think that their motivation is lowered by overabundance of vocabularies and structures that are challenging to remember 30 % is not motivated in speaking lessons because they don’t like speaking enough Lastly, 28% of students don’t feel interested in learning speaking because they found that the way teachers imparts knowledge is abstract and unclear and 22% because of poor teaching methods
Accordingly, it can be inferred from the survey's findings that both subjective and objective factors affected students' motivation to learn how to speak English.
2.6.2.3 The frequency of application of Communicative Activities
There are a range of activities that involve Communicative Activities and teachers choose to use activities that they find appropriate and effective
Activity Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never
Table 2.3.The frequency of application of Communicative Activities
( Source: Questionnaire for students’ result)
As the information shown above, there are various kinds of Communicative Activities that are applied in speaking class like role-play, interview, discussion, information-gap activities, and games However, the most popular types were chosen in order to achieve the goals of the study.
The findings show that games were the teachers' preferred activity (56%), while discussion came in second place (48%) In contrast, teachers hardly ever used surveys (52%) or guessing games (34%) Particularly, 20% of students thought that their teacher never used interviews or surveys (24%) to teach speaking skills.
Discussion
On the basis of the data gathered, discussions based on the study's research topics will be made For some learning and teaching English speaking, the researcher used the discussion technique Both benefits and drawbacks were present in this method.
Students aged 9-10 face a lot of difficulties speaking skills, hence, the activities that are appropriate for them have to ensure that easy to understand, to act and motivate them at the same time
The application of Communication Activities in teaching has brought the most benefits to the majority of students at the Rock3T Tung Tran:
Help students to practice speaking more naturally and confidently: A lot of practice, discussion, and playing a variety of characters will help students practice speaking continuously and sharpen their acumen These activities will help them become more and more confident and speak fluently
Make students more interested in learning speaking: Communicative Activities are fun and motivating So that they help students to reduce learning anxiety, encourage creativity and construct a cooperative learning environment to foster participatory attitudes of the students.
Improve their capacity for imagination and creativity: During the speaking process, many pictures are given for students to judge and describe In addition, they also have to brainstorm to handle the situations posed in the lesson so students' imagination and creativity will be improved
Make it easier for students to communicate in real-world social situations in English: Activities such as role-play, interview, etc build diverse situations and topics that are close to daily life The continuous approach and practice of talking about such situations will help students practice their reflexes naturally and be able to communicate easily in real life situations.
In addition to the benefits, the application of communication activities still has disadvantages.
In each lesson, students will have to participate in activities and they will have to actively speak and express, so they will be tired after each lesson In addition, preparing and learning about communication activities to understand and practice them also makes students overload
A considerable number of teachers have trouble with the time limitation of each period This requires teachers to be careful in adapting appropriate and effective communicative activities for their classes With most speaking activities, time limitation should be given Normally, ten minutes is the maximum for most activities Students can also start with a very small activity and then others that involve more of a dialogue and interaction based on authentic topics.
The main reason was that they had to hire some other houses which were not equipped with enough projectors or boards for a speaking class Furthermore, visual aids are useful for proving, explaining, or holding interest Visual aids enable students to develop their imagination Pictures are not the only visual aids available. There are many other kinds such as models, maps, mock-ups, and objects among the many kinds of visual aids available In order to make their speaking lesson more vivid and attract their students some handmade aids can be used If not fully equipped with equipment and learning tools, the application of communication activities will be difficult to achieve effectively.
In the learning process, if not carefully guided by the teacher, the shy, untrained students will feel less confident and discouraged.
Reasons
Almost all of the instructors struggled to keep students stable They gave the pupils an opportunity to speak when they divided the class into discussion groups Because of this, it was exceedingly challenging for teachers to maintain order and manage the class without taking a long time In addition, the teacher still has not allocated the time reasonably, leading to the case that there are still students who have not developed the lesson but the time has expired.
Teachers expressed their impatience to students’ personal characteristics in speaking lessons such as shyness, anxiety Nevertheless, this is a natural reaction of students in acquisition Young learners sometimes have the challenge of speaking before large groups
Some students do not focus on lessons during speaking class, they don't pay attention to the teacher's instructions and lectures
Students' English knowledge ( vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, ) is deficient and they misunderstand the task and instructions
Students cannot study and practice continuously because the number of periods in the week is fragmented which means there are only two periods per week As a result, students maybe lazy and forget the knowledge
The lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids can sometimes limits the learning efficiency of students because they can’t completely understand teachers’ transmission.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations for students
3.1.1 Solving problem of using mother tongue
Shadow and a doubt: Have the students rehearse a communicative activity (shadow) in mother tongue before attempting it in English and then afterwards compare This can be a very effective way of challenging advanced learners, as it helps to raise specific awareness of the difference between their ability to express themselves in English and in the mother tongue (doubt).
Reverse translations: Group A are given a short text in mother tongue to translate into English Group B are given a similar length of text in English to translate into the mother tongue Groups then give their translations to each other to be translated back into the original Finally, groups compare the originals with the translated version.
Interpreters: This can be adapted to any oral pair work situation The students work in groups of three (minimum) One person is the interviewer, and speaks only inEnglish The interviewee speaks only in L1 The interpreter works as a go-between,translating the interviewer’s questions into L1 and the interviewee’s answers back into English Variation: Arrange a press conference, with several interviewers The interviewee plays the role of a famous film star, politician etc Teenagers especially like this activity and recognize the scenario from TV interviews with pop stars and sports personalities.
Translating pop songs: The students translate the lyrics (or small sections of the lyrics) of their favorite songs into the mother tongue Teenage magazines sometimes include songs with mother tongue translations so you can use these to do it the other way round as well.
Restaurant role play: Use a mother tongue menu so that natives have to explain the dishes to English speaking guests.
The teacher asks the students to search for information and learn new vocabularies as much as possible about a specific topic of their favorites Then during a class contact, the teacher would start by sharing with the whole class some information that she had collected before asking her students for further supplementation
Alternatively, teachers should subdivide a theme into several subtopics and assign each of them to different groups in the class Subsequently, each group of students should practice speaking at home via internet-based platforms to discuss or exchange the information with other groups in the following lesson.
Students can also improve their English by these following methods:
Watch television, cartoons and films in English: There are a lot of interesting TV shows and films in English in various areas so you can learn English while watching them If you cannot understand the language at any level (from beginner to upper intermediate) then it is worth putting the English subtitles on so that you can read along and listen at the same time.
Read English books or newspapers: Reading is a great way of practicing your
English in your own time If you are studying at a beginner level, you should pick up a children’s book where the language will be easier than an adult book
Newspapers are also worth reading Not only can you improve your English but you will learn about local and national goings on, which can be handy when communicating with native speakers Free newspapers and magazines which use more basic language, are perhaps better for low level students.
Make notes of new vocabulary: Whenever you learn a new word, whether in the classroom or when you are out and about, make sure you make a note of it. Whenever you have some free time, you can practice what you have learned You could even do this on your phone so you do not need to carry around a notebook with you.
Listen to British and American music: In addition to watching films and TV, listening to music is another great and fun way of improving your grasp of a language There is an almost endless amount of music out there to choose from, with most tracks having lyrics easily available online You could listen to a song a day and read the lyrics along to it If you are at a low level then perhaps go for some slower folk, country or acoustic music, which often has lyrics that are slower and easier to understand.
Practice English whenever you can: It is incredibly important that you do not leave your English learning inside the classroom Make an effort to go to the library and study your notes, read and write in English, and speak to English nationals and other English speakers.
When you are in bed at night, look over your English notes from the day and try to memorize some vocabulary as you are falling asleep The first thing you do in the morning while you are eating could be to learn a couple of new words.
Record yourself and your lesson: One of the most effective ways to practice pronunciation is recording on your smart phone and listen to find out your own mistakes This is a good way of learning pronunciation because you might know it when you first hear it then forget it later.
Although your teacher might not like you to do this, and you should always get their permission, it can be useful to record lessons As you travel home or fall asleep you can listen to it It is a great way to revise the information and practice listening, as well as nail down some pronunciation.
Write every day: Writing is a great way of using new vocabulary and getting your head around grammar so you should fall into habit of writing something every day using new words and grammar that you have learned Even if it is only a few sentences, it is very important to get into the habit of doing this To make sure that your writing is correct, you can ask for help from your teachers or better students.
Tell you teacher what you want to learn: If you are learning English in a language center or school, you might not always be learning what you want.
Recommendations for teachers
3.2.1 Being more flexible with Students’ poor abilities of English
Reduce TTT (Teacher Talking Time) in the classroom by giving simple and clear instructions or by asking one or two students to show (by means of speaking) that they understood the task instructions, and also by asking other students to answer a student's question By having other students respond to a student's question or by displaying images associated with the class's topic without speaking a word, teachers can boost student talking time.
Teachers should also steer clear of yes/no questions and instead favor those that require pupils to talk in order to clarify their own thoughts.
Teachers must also give students advice on how to choose what is important depending on their interests if they are to aid pupils in developing their skills For instance, making note of helpful phrases or sentences, and considering what situation or chance they may utilize those phrases to practice in (among friends, with a teacher, at work, at the club, etc.) It's important to think about speaking themes The teacher might choose appropriate themes, like they had done, and give students vocabulary linked to the topics to enable students speak more English for issues with which they were unfamiliar and may lack the vocabulary to converse.
3.2.2 Encouraging students more to surmount their passiveness and shyness
Teachers shouldn't call reserved students first Call on a different student first, for instance, when teachers are conducting a group brainstorm Hopefully one of the more gregarious ones will join in right away then invite the hesitant student The teacher should pay attention, accept his response as part of the brainstorm, and then immediately move on to another student The shy kid will become accustomed to brief periods of time in the spotlight and won't be as anxious the next time it's his or her turn to speak It is obvious that professors ought to start by asking a hesitant pupil for a simple response Ask a classmate to provide the response if the student declines to respond.
To handle the time in class, teachers, first have to consider how much time they have for each class They may have plenty of ideas for amazing, engaging activities, but they must make sure that they have enough time to carry them out or limited time.
Next, considering the goal the lesson, teachers should determine what they hope their students will achieve by the end of the class, then plan suitable activities within time allowance Also, teachers might want to consider giving their class a time limit, for example, “you have 10 minutes for this discussion” But it is also important to be flexible If their class is having a very productive discussion, they might want to give them a few more minutes to wrap it up instead of ending it abruptly.
Recommendations for Rock3T Tung Tran
Describe the picture: According to educator Dana Jandhyala, using pictures always brings excitement to learners, so even a simple picture can become an attractive talking topic and encourage learners to produce target language and target language. extremely effective Teachers can ask learners to describe activities taking place in pictures with the present continuous, retell a story based on several pictures using the simple past tense, or compare two pictures to Find out the differences…
Organize group activities: This helps to increase the opportunity and length of time for learners to practice speaking English In addition, some learners may be afraid to speak in front of a class but feel comfortable speaking in a small group.
Use simple language: In general, the requirement for difficulty in using spoken language should be lower than the requirement for difficulty in using reading and writing language If learners can easily use vocabulary and grammatical structures, they will be confident and able to express ideas fluently.
Give specific instructions in discussion activities: It is important to ensure that all group members are aware of their responsibilities and contribute to the discussion.
Control learners' use of the target language: Teachers need to closely monitor learners' speaking activities and give appropriate punishments to limit the situation that learners use their mother tongue without using English.
Summary of the study
In summary, speaking skills instruction benefits greatly from communicative exercises To explore the use of communicative activities in teaching English language speaking skills to students aged 9-10 at Rock3T Tung Tran, various research questions were posed as part of the research's justification Readers were also given a general overview of communicative language education in the literature review, along with Communicative Activities that might be employed in speaking sessions.
At Rock3T Tung Tran, a survey was carried out with the participation of 5 teachers and 50 students to find out whether teachers and students were aware of the use of communicative activities in teaching speaking skills, how frequently these activities were used in speaking lessons, and what challenges teachers encountered when instructing this skill Following a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the outcomes, these conclusions were reached There are some main factors that should be taken into consideration for students aged 9-10: Students‟ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge, students‟ low motivation, students‟ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures, students' passivity and shyness and so on. Teachers at Rock3T Tung Tran are also facing some difficulties such as class time constraints, class size and so on These factors have an effect on how well Communicative Activities are implemented.
Finally, it is stressed that communicative activities may be successfully used at Rock3T Tung Tran in teaching and learning speaking to 9-10 aged pupils The students' need for English-language communication and the teachers' perception of the problem and subsequent actions to address it serve as evidence.
Finally, it is underlined that there is a probability of using communicative activities successfully to teach speaking to pupils aged 9-10 at the Rock3T Tung Tran if these recommendations above are considered and applied The demand for English communication among students, as well as teachers' judgments and adjustments to the situation, provide as proof.
Limitation of the study
Despite the fact that the research produced some helpful findings, it also exposed certain flaws that could not have been avoided because of the researcher's inexperience and ignorance.
The study's initial goal was to look into how the Bright Smile Academy currently teaches speaking skills to primary pupils by employing communicative activities, however the survey's sample size was small As a result, the results could not accurately represent the scenario of speaking skill development and instruction.
Second, the questionnaires might not include all of the teaching methods that involve communication, which would lead to less trustworthy findings.
Finally, the researcher was unable to undertake the examination into the connection with other skills, reducing the research's accuracy due to time limits and other objective circumstances.
Suggested further research
The research's limitations prevent it from being broadly duplicated with additional students and instructors at other English language schools or centers The following extra studies may also be recommended based on the results: Strategies for enhancing communication in public speaking classes.
1 Gerald, G ( 2013) The important of speaking skill, Retrived from https://www.geraldgillis.com/importance-speaking-skills/
2 Freeman, (2001), “Developing Students’ Speaking Ability” Journal of SMP Negeri 17.
Harmer, J (2001), The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman.
Harmer, J (2007b), The practice of English language teaching (4th Ed.) New York: Longman.
Hornby (1995) Definition of Speaking skill New York: publisher, Retrived from https://tenrycolle.com/skills/speaking/what-is-a-speaking-skill-definition-and- competencies/
Nguyen Giang Tam( 2009), Factors that affect the motivation of second year mainstream students in speaking lessons at faculty of english language teacher education, Ulis- Vnu
Savingnon, S J (2001), Communicative Language Teaching Theory into Practice.Wallace, D’Arcy-Adrian,( 1978), Junior Comprehension 1 England Longman.
1 Prepare materials carefully for lessons
2 Combine hard materials and virtual tools for lesson
4 Explain, instruct the activities clearly for students
5 Encourage students to be confident to speak
6 Use various and diverse activities with meaningful contents
7 Give feedback to encourage students
1 Students focus on teacher’s instruction
2 Students can complete the lesson
- Understand the topic and know how to practice
- Deploy their ideas according to teacher’s help
3 Students are excited about the lessons -Raise hand to talk
APPENDIX 2A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (ENGLISH
This questionnaire is given to find out how effective Communication Activities carried out in the speaking lesson are Your information and answers will be kept confidential by the author.
- Class: - Time of learning English:
Please answer the following questions by circle appropriate letter You may circle more than one letter if necessary Write your own answers in the space given if you are not satisfied with any of the given choices for the questions without available choices
1 For you, what is the most important English skill? a Listening b Speaking c Writing d Reading
2 Are you interested in learning English speaking? a Yes b Not much c No
3 How do you feel when participating in speaking lessons? a Excited and confident b Bored c Uncomfortable and unconfident d Others
4 What are factors that excite you to join the speaking lesson?( can be more than 1 choice) a Teacher’s attitude and methods of teaching b The interest of Communicative Activities applied c Love of English d The demand of communicating by English e More opportunities to develop speaking skills f Other factors
5 What are the reasons demotivating you when you participate in speaking lessons? a Teacher’s tense attitude b Lack of interest in learning speaking c Poor teaching methods d Large amount of hard-to-remember new vocabularies and structures e The abstract and unclear impartation of teacher f Personal characteristics (shyness, unconfident) g Other factors
6 Which of the following activities applied to speaking lessons and how often does your teacher use each type of activity ?
Activities Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never
7 What kinds of activities do you prefer?
Activities Tick(✔) if you prefer
8 What are the benefits of communication activities for you? a Help you practice Speaking more naturally and confidently b Make you more interested in learning speaking c Improve your capacity for imagination and creativity d Help you be more active and practice speaking in the appropriate context e Make it easier for you to communicate in real-world social situations in English
9 What are difficulties you have to face when joining speaking lessons applied Communicative Activities ? a Your knowledge of English is deficient to understand the procedure b You’re afraid of making mistakes when practicing these activities c The teacher's encouragement is not enough d Lack of confidence when talking to teachers and classmates e Lack of time to practice f Others
APPENDIX 2B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS ( VIETNAMESE VERSION)
Bảng câu hỏi này được đưa ra để tìm hiểu mức độ hiệu quả của các hoạt động giao tiếp được thực hiện trong các tiết học nói tiếng Anh Thông tin và câu trả lời của bạn sẽ được tác giả giữ bí mật.
- Lớp: - Thời gian học tiếng Anh:
Hãy trả lời các câu hỏi sau bằng cách khoanh tròn chữ cái thích hợp Đối với một số câu hỏi, bạn có thể chọn nhiều hơn một đáp án Viết câu trả lời của riêng bạn vào khoảng trống cho sẵn nếu bạn không hài lòng với bất kỳ lựa chọn nào đã cho.
1 Theo bạn, kĩ năng tiếng Anh nào quan trong nhất trong 4 kĩ năng dưới đây? a Nghe b Nói c Viết d Đọc
2 Bạn có cảm thấy hứng thú với việc học tiếng Anh không? a Có b Không hứng thú lắm c Không
3 Bạn cảm thấy thế nào khi tham gia những giờ học nói tiếng Anh? a Hào hứng và tự tin b Nhàm chán c Không thoải mái và thiếu tự tin d Khác
4 Yếu tố nào khiến bạn cảm thấy hứng thú trong các tiết học nói tiếng Anh? a Thái độ của giáo viên và phương pháp giảng dạy b Sự thú vị cảu các hoạt động giao tiếp được áp dụng c Niềm yêu thích tiếng Anh d Nhu cầu giao tiếp bằng tiếng Anh e Có nhiều cơ hội để phát triển kĩ năng nói hơn f Các yếu tố khác
5 Những lí do khiến bạn mất động lực tham gia vào các giờ học nói là gì? a Thái độ căng thẳng của giáo viên b Sự thiếu hứng thú với việc học nói c Phương pháp giảng dạy chưa hay d Lượng lớn từ vựng và cấu trúc mới khó nhớ e Sự truyền đạt của giáo viên trừu tượng và không rõ ràng f Đặc điểm cá nhân (nhút nhát, thiếu tự tin) g Các yếu tố khác
6 Những hoạt động nào sau được đây áp dụng trong giờ học nói và giáo viên của bạn sử dụng từng loại hoạt động với tần suất như thế nào?
Thỉnh thoảng Ít khi Không bao giờ Đóng vai
Thảo luận nhóm Điền thông tin
7 Bạn thích tham gia các hoạt động giao tiếp nào?
Hoạt động Tick(✔) nếu bạn thích Đóng vai
Thảo luận nhóm Điền thông tin
8 Các hoạt động giao tiếp được áp dụng vào giờ học nói mang lại lợi ích gì cho bạn? a Giúp bạn luyện nói tự nhiên và tự tin hơn b Giúp bạn hứng thú hơn với việc học nói c Nâng cao khả năng tưởng tượng và sáng tạo của bạn d Giúp bạn năng động hơn và luyện nói theo ngữ cảnh phù hợp e Giúp bạn giao tiếp dễ dàng hơn trong các tình huống xã hội trong thực tiễn bằng tiếng Anh
9 Bạn gặp những khó khăn gì khi tham gia các giờ học nói áp dụng hoạt động giao tiếp? a Trình độ tiếng Anh của bạn còn hạn chế để hiểu được các điều cần thực hiện b Bạn sợ mắc lỗi khi thực hành các hoạt động này c Giáo viên chưa động viên nhiệt tình học sinh của mình d Sự thiếu tự tin khi luyện nói với cô và các bạn e Thiếu thời gian để luyện tập f Khó khăn khác
This questionnaire is intended to gather information about teachers' experiences in applying communicative activities to teach speaking skills to children aged 9-10 at Rock3T Tung Tran
- In charge of class: - Time of teaching English:
Please answer the following questions by circle appropriate letter You may circle more than one letter if necessary Write your own answers in the space given if you are not satisfied with any of the given choices for the questions without available choices
1 Is it difficult for you to teach speaking skills a Yes b No
2 How important is the application of Communicative Activities on teaching speaking skills? a Very important b Important c Not important
3 What types of resources do you typically draw from when creating communicative exercises for students' speaking lessons? a The activities in speaking English courses in Bright Smile Academy b The activities you design yourself c The activities on the Internet d The activities in the reference books f Combining the above sources
4 Why do you think it’s necessary to apply Communicative Activities on teaching speaking? a To encourage students to speak English b To improve the students’ motivation c To help the students to get out of shyness and be more confident d To meet the demand of students‟ communicative purposes e All the above-mentioned reasons f Others reasons