Trang 1 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI THUIMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 6 AT A LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGH ENGLISH EXTRACURRIC
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI THU IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 6 AT A LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGH ENGLISH EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2022 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI THU IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS OF GRADE 6 AT A LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGH ENGLISH EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Nguyen Thu Hanh, PhD THAI NGUYEN – 2022 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THỊ THU CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 6 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG THCS THÔNG QUA CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NGOẠI KHÓA TIẾNG ANH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ (Định hướng ứng dụng) Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Cán bộ hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Thu Hạnh THÁI NGUYÊN – 2022 DECLARATION I certify my authority of the thesis submitted entitled “Improving English speaking skills for students of grade 6 at a Lower Secondary School through English extracurricular activities” in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MA in linguistics Approved by SUPERVISOR Author’s signature Nguyen Thu Hanh, PhD Nguyen Thi Thu Thai Nguyen, 2022 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has helped me with my research First and foremost, I would want to express my heartfelt thanks to PhD Nguyen Thu Hanh, my esteemed supervisor, for her essential guidance, contributions, and meticulous attention to my study I would like to take this occasion to thank the lecturers of the School of Foreign languages for providing me with excellent conditions in which to complete this thesis and complete this M.A course In addition, I am grateful to my colleagues and students who are the subjects of my thesis for agreeing to participate in my presentations, questionnaires, and interviews My sincere gratitude also goes out to my pals for their unwavering support and concern during the project Finally, I want to express my gratitude to my family for their unwavering support throughout the study process Thai Nguyen, 2022 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES .i LIST OF BREVIATIONS ii ABSTRACT iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Aims of the study 2 1.3 Research questions 2 1.4 Scope of the study 3 1.5 Significance of the study 3 1.6 Methods of the study 3 1.7 Structure of the thesis .4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Overview of speaking skill .5 2.1.1 Definition of speaking skills 5 2.1.2 Relationship between speaking and three other skills .7 2.1.3 The purpose of speaking skills 8 2.2 Overview of English extracurricular activities .10 2.2.1 Concepts of English extracurricular activities .10 2.2.2 The importance of English extracurricular activities 11 2.2.3 Types of extracurricular activities 12 2.2.4 Benefits of English extracurricular activities in teaching and learning speaking skills 15 iii 2.3 Previous studies on improving English speaking skills for students through English extracurricular activities 16 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19 3.1 Research methods 19 3 2 Research setting 20 3.2.1 An overview of Doc Lap Lower Secondary School 20 3.2.2 The situation of English teaching and learning English in Doc Lap Lower Secondary School 20 3.3 Description of the participants .21 3.4 Research procedure 22 3.5 Data collection instruments 23 3.6 Data collection and analysis procedures 26 3.6.1 Data collection procedures 26 3.6.2 Data analysis procedures 26 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .28 4.1 Findings and discussion from the test 28 4.1.1 The results from pretest 28 4.1.2 Finding from the pre-elimination investigation .29 4.2 Research findings and discussion from action implementation .29 4.2.1 Improvement in the students’ speaking 29 4.2.2 The students’ attitudes towards extracurricular activity 32 4.4 Discussion .38 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 40 5.1 Recapitulation .40 5.2 Implication of the study 41 5.3 Limitations of the study 42 5.4 Suggestions for further study 43 REFERENCES 44 iv APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 - QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2 - INTERVIEW II APPENDIX 3 – RESULTS OF THE PRETEST AND POSTTEST III APPENDIX 4 VI SAMPLE OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY .VI APPENDIX 5 XI APPENDIX 6 XII v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Action research model by Kimmis and McTaggart (1998) 19 Figure 4.1 Differences between the pretest and posttest ranges of scores 31 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Number of students with passing scores of the pretest 28 Table 4.2 Results of the pretest and posttest mean scores 30 Table 4.3 Distribution of the pretest and posttest scores 30 Table 4.4 Results from questionnaire .33 i