Using project based learning method to improve grade 10 students’ english speaking skill a classroom action research at luong dac bang high school

HONG DUC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS USING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING METHOD TO IMPROVE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL: A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH A

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

It is unquestionable that English is considered a global language It is the official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the official language of the EU, and the third most widely used language in the world (only after Chinese and Spanish due to the advantage of the population number of these countries) In Vietnam, since starting the open-door process to the world in many aspects such as getting involved in globalization, international economic integration, and trade liberalization, English, has achieved dominance Indeed, it is manifested by the Ministry of Education and Training to choose it to be the first foreign language taught at schools in Vietnam Therefore, there has been the higher demand for learning English in our country than ever as English positively facilitates job promotions, foreign cooperation, etc

Today, along with educational improvements in teaching and learning methods, the learners gradually become the centered subject while the role of the teacher should be just the instructor instead of the controller The purpose of the study is to find out the effectiveness of using project-based learning methods

Among four skills, however, speaking is considered as the result of studying English or it is the main goal of language learning since, it represents all the other aspects of language skills which means that having a good speaking most likely has a good knowledge because through speaking, people can share their ideas, get and produce information and the speaker should be able to choose the lexicon, structures and discourse such as the grammatical points, the choice of words and topics so that the utterances which are said by the speaker can be understood by the listener

On the other hand, the critical problem that is faced by many students is how to be able to speak English well There are still many students that cannot speak English even they have studied English for more than 10 years since they were in kindergarten till to senior high school Students study English for several years still face some difficulties in increasing their English skills especially speaking (Haryudin, 2017)

Actually this is a big problem because the goal of teaching English at senior high school are to reach grammar and vocabulary In functional level, students are not able to apply the target language in their daily life such as to communicate with foreigner and give a lecture in front of a crowd or class Through basic research, besides many students who speak English confidently, a majority of students in class 10A6 at the Luong Dac Bang high school have difficulty in learning speaking skill They are often fed up with learn speaking skills through given structure and conversations according to the traditional method that teachers often teach Moreover, after the speaking skills classes, they cannot apply it in real life, or even after 12 years of study, they still cannot communicate with foreigners with basic communication sentences In addition, according to some teachers, many teachers who have been teaching English for 25-30 years use old-fashioned methods to help their students remember As a result, many students are not enthusiastic or interested in speaking skills

Due to the before mentioned reasons, I conducted the research “Using

Project- Based Learning method to improve 10 th grade students’ speaking skill:

A classroom action research at Luong Dac Bang high school’ In my thesis, I would like to help students be more confident and improve their speaking skill.

Aim of study

The study has been done with following aims:

- To identify whether PBL can improve the students’ speaking skill in English classroom at Luong Dac Bang high school

- To identify teachers and students’ opinion towards PBL used in speaking class

From the purposes mentioned above, the researcher is conducted to find out the answers for the following questions:

1 How can Project Based Learning help improve students’ speaking skill?

2 What are the students’ and teachers’ opinions towards PBL used in speaking class?

Scope of the study

This research is carried out with 30 tenth grade students in class 10A6 at Luong Dac Bang high school

There are plenty of methods that are likely to apply to teach speaking skill

It is immensely difficult to cover all methods in English speaking skill In addition, this study mainly focuses on the influence of PBL on speaking skill of students in class 10A6 and some typical skills used in PBL which could help improve the students’ speaking ability and help them feel confident in communication within the context of teaching and learning in class 10A6 at Luong Dac Bang high school.

Method of study

Quantitative method: Questionnaires and tests

Survey questionnaires were made for 30 respondents who are students in class 10A6 The main objective of this questionnaire is to find out students’ views on English-speaking teaching and learning at grade 10 at Luong Dac Bang high school In addition, researcher conducted a pre-test to assess students’ speaking skills in English class before using PBL and post-test to see how students’ learning results are improved after the implementation of PBL

Action research was conducted for 30 students in class 10A6 and undertook practical interventions to bring about informed changes in practice.

Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part 1- Introduction : The first chapter presents about the rationale, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, method of the study and design of the study

Part 2 – Development : This part is divided three chapters:

DEVELOPMENT

speaking which consist of: definitions of speaking, principle for speaking, the components of speaking skill, a successful speaking activity in classroom, project – based learning, the previous studies on improving speaking ability

This chapter aims to introduce how the research is conducted, describing the methodological approach, participants in this study, data collections and procedures then summary

This part shows the results and the analysis to answer the research questions as well as to make discussion on the research findings They are result of interview, result of questionnaire, result of pre and post test

Based on the research findings, this section aims to give: summaries and conclusion, this chapter also shows the limitations of the study and gives suggestions for further study to help the next researchers gain the better results.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking skill

Speaking is a type of communication and human interaction, in which information is generated, received and processed continuously so that participants can talk and express their thoughts and feelings The form and meaning of information depends on the context in which it occurs, including the physical environment, the purpose of the conversation, and the collective experiences of the participants (Burns & Joyce 1997) According to Byrne

(1984), in this speaking activity, the speaker and the listener have an active function that determines the success or failure of this communication process The speaker is responsible for creating a clear message for the listener to understand and respond to The speaker must be able to predict and then generate expected patterns for a particular speech situation For example, when a salesperson asks "How can I help you?" The expected sequence of speeches includes a statement of need, an offer of appreciation, and a farewell exchange

In order to give the correct answer, learners must understand the context in which the speech act occurs, choose the right vocabulary to describe the object sought, rephrase or underline words to clarify the description if the employee does not understand Therefore, as Brown (1994) states, in order to communicate successfully, a speaker must develop both linguistic competence and sociolinguistic competence This means that speaking requires learners not only to know how to make specific arguments such as grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary, but also understanding when, why and how to create language Based on the above definitions, it can be concluded that learning to speak involves “the development of a number of complex skills and different types of knowledge about when and how to communicate” Brown (1994) Therefore, during speaking lessons, teachers need to monitor students' pronunciation to determine what skills and knowledge they already have and which areas need to be developed

1.1.2 The components of speaking skill

Speaking is not easy to express something orally In addition, learners must use different speech components to improve speaking skills Brown (2001) a Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a way to make language clearer when they speak and means that learners can communicate successfully when they pronounce and with good intonation although they have limited grammar and vocabulary Pronunciation refers to the usual or traditional way of saying words (Kline, 2001) Pronunciation does not make isolation master the number word or a list of sounds Instead, he specifically learns and practices English and makes easy-to-follow speakers (Gilbert, 2008) Moreover, the pronunciation is all inclusive aspects of speech such as rhythm, expression, intonation, more peripheral articulation gestures, eye contact and body language (Fraser, 2001) b Grammar

It is necessary to organize good sentences in conversation both in spoken and written form grammar Grammar can be described as a principle or set of rules that can be used to produce well-formed grammatical sentences in that language Purpura (2004)

Furthermore, grammar can be defined as a set of rules that allow us to combine words in small languages in large units Greenbaum and Nelson

(2002) According to Harmer (2001) how can language grammar change their words in their form and it can be arranged in a few sentences in this language Therefore, it can be shown that the correct arrangement of the meanings of certain sentences rot in the context Also, it can be used to avoid any errors communication it is included grammar functions In addition, grammar is a provisions necessary for learners to merge correct sentences in conversation at a time in spoken and written form Nelson (2001) say that grammar is a l way words combine to form sentences Structure and basic principles of language refers to grammar, including the construction of correct sentences, proper form of certain words and clear words Batko (2004) c Vocabulary

Vocabulary is necessary for successful second language use because without a common vocabulary, we would not be able to apply the structures and functions that we learned to communicate easily It can be shown that one of the key to successful communication is the power of words Vocabulary is the most important the main thing in the language especially in speaking and using the appropriate dictionary Moreover, if we know more words, it will be easier for us to express our ideas, thoughts and feelings in written or spoken form, vocabulary becomes familiar when we use it verbally everyday language Turk (2003) This means that in spoken or spoken language, vocabulary must be very familiar if it is used every day in conversation to speech recognition Vocabulary is the basic structure of language learns Learners need to know words, their meanings, how they pronunciation and how they are spelled So, when we teach vocabulary, the teacher not only explains the meaning but also the spelling and pronunciation Vocabulary is essential for students to master because vocabulary can help them when communicating with each other Vocabulary to expression will create meaning that listeners can understand (Kreidler, 2004) If we want to communicate with each other, we must have a good range of many vocabularies and turn them into a sentence that can be understood by the listener If we have poor vocabulary, we will find it difficult to communicate because we do not know what we will tell our listeners They say that one of the keys to learning a language is vocabulary by many researchers and there is a good relationship between vocabulary and other words students' ability to make sense d Mobility

Fluency is described as the ability to speak in a communicative, precise manner and fluent Fluency generally refers to the transmission of spoken language freely without discontinuity In the process of teaching and learning, if teachers want to determine students' fluency, the teacher allows students to communicate freely without discontinuity This will help students speak easily and fluently The teacher does not go to fix immediately while the idea is that multiple fixes interfere conversation layer (Pollard, 2008) As suggested by Harris and Hodges (1995) Fluency is the ability to speak automatically and quickly This means that the speaker must speak automatically and quickly e Comprehension

Comprehension is the ability to process and recognize fragments of speech, and make a formula to prove the meaning of the sentence Understanding of second language is not easy to learn because it is not directly observable and must be understood from nonverbal and overt verbal reactions, through the intuition of researchers or teachers or by artificial means Understanding indicates the truth that members are fully aware of the nature of the research task, even if processes are complex and involve risks (Cohen, 2005)

Accordingly, it can be said that understanding indicates the speaker's understanding about what they say to the listeners turn aside misinterpret information in addition, its purpose is to create for listeners easily receive information from the speaker

So from some explanation above, it can be said that if we want to talk obviously we have to master the skill component, if we have less than one of them to spoken language, it is difficult for the listener to understand By practicing every day we will be able to master all the ingredients of the know-how

An enjoyable activity for students can be achieved by teaching speech Sometimes people can get bored if the teacher doesn't use an interesting strategy when explaining device Bale (2005) states that teachers must know the principle of speaking if they are teaching a foreign language There are some principles of teaching abroad language: (1) Create opportunities for students to practice English fluency and give encourage that it is natural to make mistakes when speaking (2) Give students a chance talk and limit the teacher's conversation (3) Do the types of speaking tasks possible related to student understanding (4) Distinguish foreign languages and second languages As for foreign languages, he doesn't use the target language in everyday life

According to (Ur, 1981), there are two main principles that should be applied in speaking class The first principle is to ensure that the teaching process takes place in a planned way The key is to create a high level of motivation That's the key considered in determining the student's readiness to conduct the conversation

Motivation is a combination of effort and desire to achieve a learning goal and positive attitude towards foreign language learning To make students feel willing and satisfied to participate in the lesson, the teacher should do the following things:

First, teachers use their experience or instincts Teachers based on qualification to decide on an interesting topic to capture students' attention and make inspiration Outside of meaningful contexts, it is not possible to develop useful skills In addition, Green (1995) states that unreal contexts cannot help learners engage in actual behavior in school and work environments Second, teachers can stimulate interesting topics by talking about the topic and communicating enthusiastically Teachers can ask everyone about the topic and tell them about issues related to the topic then lead into the lesson In this way, students have the opportunity to share their opinions and teachers can develop their knowledge to integrate them into the subject Teachers can also guide students guess what will be discussed and arouse students' curiosity to find truth In this way, learners have reasons to speak for themselves and care about students in class participating in the lesson In addition, teachers can ask guiding questions before starting the operation and to provide important information to create motivation (Harmer, 2002)

Project- Based Learning method

According to Klein, et al (2009), Project-Based Learning is the instructional strategy of empowering learners to pursue content knowledge on their own and demonstrate their new understanding through a variety of presentation modes It is the learning model used a problem as the first step in collecting and integrating knowledge based on real activity In line with Klein

(2009) as cited in Rahayu & Hartono (2016), said that PBL is instruction using authentic, real-world project, based on a highly motivating and engaging question, task, or problem to teach students academic content in the context of working cooperatively to solve the problem Based on both definitions above, it can be concluded that PBL is an instructional using authentic, real-world project, based on a highly motivating and engaging question, task, or problem to teach students academic content in the context of working cooperatively to solve the problem by providing 31 strategies of empowering learners to pursue content knowledge on their own and demonstrate their new understanding through a variety of presentation modes PBL is the instructional strategy of empowering students to pursue content knowledge on their own and demonstrate their new understanding through a variety of presentation modes (Klein, 2009) The use of PBL activities in teaching English is said to foster students' autonomy and encourage active and student-centered language practice (Florez, 1999) Learning and achieving a deeper level of understanding can be encouraged effectively by learning from examples and learning by doing The collaborative nature of PBL promotes a greater appreciation for social responsibility Scott

(1994) The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) defined Project-Based Learning as a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully-designed products and tasks Markham 2003 Students are responsible for their own learning They work to solve problems that are authentic, curriculum-based, and interdisciplinary cooperatively It can be concluded that Project-Based Learning aimed at problem-solving in a collaborative environment over a period of time It is a hands-on experience that starts with driving questions or problems which make activities and leads to meaningful products at the end Project-Based Learning can be assumed as an

“instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products 32 to develop” Moss & Duzer, (1998) PBL is different from traditional instruction in which it emphasizes learning through student-centered, interdisciplinary, and integrated activities in real world situations Solomon(2003); Willie, 2001 as quoted by (Poonpon, 2011) It is student-centered and driven by the need to make an end-product Fried-Booth

(2002) Project-Based Learning is caused by the intrinsic needs of students who develop their own tasks individually or in small groups It links language in the real world with language in textbooks Hutchinson (1993) suggested Project- Based Learning as a powerful and motivating teaching method to develop students' second and/or foreign languages through learning by doing Students often see the target language as something outside their world since they have no chance to use the language learned in the classroom or to use it outside the classroom Project-Based Learning allows them to work in an authentic and meaningful context and they can work either alone or in groups They are challenged and responsible to solve authentic problems Students can develop their language skills and communicative competence when they see that language can be used in their lives and beneficial to their tasks and needs It will also gain confidence, cooperation, imagination, independence, and self- discipline Therefore, they can communicate about their life, culture, and world in the target language Guo (2006) said that it is an activity that enhances language and content learning in English as a foreign language

1.2.2 Advantages of Project- Based Learning

The benefits of PBL are many and well documented

According to Gallacher (2004), PBL has the following advantages:

 Increased motivation – learners participate on their own project

 Independent learning is encouraged when learners take responsibility for their own learning

 There are learning results - learners have the final product

 The validation task is given to the learner

 Interpersonal relationships develop by working in groups

 Content and method can be decided between learners and teachers and within the group itself to be more learner-centered

 Students can also get help from their parents when working on projects parents are more involved in their children's learning

 Break out of routine and chance to do something different A context is established to balance the need for mobility and accuracy Fried-Booth (1997), adopting a more pragmatic view of PBL, emphasized project work that bridges the gap between the use of English in the classroom and the use of English in real-life situations outside of the classroom From a learner-centered perspective, Thomas et al (1999) argue that PBL can effectively meet the demand learners with different skill levels and learning styles

Sarah North (1990) classified projects into four categories according to primary data source: a Community projects where students get their information largely from the local community, using methods such as observation, questionnaires, interviews and letter writing b Case exercises, students receive specific materials (real or imagined) relating to a particular problem to be solved c Real-life projects in which students are asked to do actual work to achieve their goals, for example, doing a design, the construction of a model or a real object, the performance of an experiment or form equipment and materials d Library project, in which the main resource base is the library.Usually, students should take a particular topic, read about it, and produce some kind of written work

1.2.4 Main principles of the project method

According to Kemendikbud (2013), there are six (6) phases for the Project- Based method in teaching and learning progress The buffer step explanation is developed as follows: a Start with the essential question

Question will launched Project-Based Learning lessons must be one that will engage students That is an open question It means so that students can explain and find different information to answer the question b Design a plan for the project

When designing a project, it is essential to choose the content standards to be addressed After choosing a topic, students and teachers determine the final result of the projects (e.g bulletin boards, written reports, debates, brochures, letters, manuals, presentations, presentations, videos) c Designing a fixed schedule

Once the project topic and final outcome have been determined,

Students and teachers work out the project details to guide students

From the opening to the actualization of the project d Monitor student projects

At this stage, students and teachers have different roles Student is ready the to complete their project Working in groups, students organize information and then discuss the value of the data they have collected, keeping some and discarding others The goal is to identify the information needed to carry out their projects While students are working on their projects, teachers monitor student activity and the progress of their projects

Teachers remind students that every part of the process is theirs and requires their full participation Clear assessment can be made if the teacher assesses the process by creating group and project evaluation criteria e Assessing student outcome

During this stage teacher also provides students with the feedback on their language and content learning Teacher gives students feedback on how well they understand the information and what they need improve on f Evaluating students experience

Teacher allows students to do individual reflection, such as journaling, as well as group reflection and discussion Teacher guides students to share their feelings and experiences, and discuss what worked well and what they can see around life

1.3 Applying techniques and activities of Project-Based Learning

PBL benefits are optimized by following the ten-step process for project implementation as outlined in Stoller's research (2009) The steps are summarized below:

Step 1: Students and teachers agree on a theme for the project

During this phase, students and teachers come to an agreement on a project theme Projects range from structured, semi-structured to unstructured in terms of the extent to which the teacher defines the project; so teachers have to work ways in which students can develop a sense of belonging project

Step 2: Students and teachers determine the final outcome of the project

Significance of Project – Based Learning in teaching speaking

English has been taught as a foreign language in Vietnam for a long time However, the application of PBL in education is very limited

In fact, PBL has some advantages in the context of second and foreign languages Fried-Booth (2002) states that the process leading to the final product of project work provides the opportunity for students to develop self-confidence and self-control Student demonstrate increased self-esteem and a positive attitude toward learning Skehan (1998) argues that this process can help build student autonomy, especially when they are actively involved in project planning Self-study is motivated as students become more responsible for their own learning Authentications operations can provide opportunity for students to look at the task from different angles, improving collaborate and reflect, and enable competitive solutions and diversity of result As Stoller (2006) discussed PBL provides opportunities for integration of the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

The other benefit discussed in (Lee's, 2002) study is that students have improved motivation, commitment and joy as the work of the project progressed according to tailored to the particular circumstances and interests of the student From a motivational perspective, projects are authentic tasks more meaningful to students, increase interest, motivated to participate and can promote learning PBL is supposed to promote students because they are fully engaged in the learning task Joy and motivation also come from the fact that the language of the class is not predefined, but depends on about the nature of the project In addition, PBL can develop many useful skills for students

Applying PBL projects in the classroom also helps strengthen social relationships among group members PBL improves collaboration between learners, between learners and teachers, as well as between learners and teachers as well as other members of the community As such, PBL provides learners with the opportunity learn collaborative skills, such as building on the work of colleagues and providing thoughtful peer feedback Besides, it also ask students to do specific tasks in pairs and popular group foreign language training; this practice cooperation and knowledge exchange among students and encourage individual students talk more

Allen (2004) discusses the advantages of PBL for the development of high- level problem-solving skills and critical thinking These skills are very important, as these are lifelong skills that can be transferred to external environments class This means that BPL is an innovative approach that uses different evaluation method Using PBL method, learners self-assess continuous Evaluation is considered an ongoing, varied and regular process involving teacher assessment, peer assessment, self-assessment, and reflection

In short, the PBL is very beneficial for students in general and students English in particular The question here is what teachers and students do to maximize the benefits of PBL.

Previous studies

Many studies have been conducted to test the effectiveness of Project- based learning in the application to teaching speaking skills and helping students are more motivated to learn English Researchers are not only foreigners but also Vietnamese From the source of raw materials for this field, some of them can be used as references to help the researcher lead research in the right direction This saves researchers time and find the best results for the study With a study done abroad, Hilton-Jones in United Kingdom in 1988, with a group of West German teenagers The author conducted research on the application of PBL in English courses include: listening, speaking, writing and reading skills After school, students improve their speaking and they feel more confident in communicate

In another study, which is a systematic one, Beckett (1999) found that the establishment of a project-based pedagogy on teaching communication skills in a high school classroom in Canada and test how students approach the effectiveness of PBL in teaching and learning progress The results show that although teachers have a positive response to projects act as providing context for their students to create language functionally

Yogyakarta State University under the title "Improving Students' Speaking Skills Through Project-Based Learning at Grade “the previous study was descriptive qualitative data in nature and supported by quantitative data The actions implemented in this research were carried out Project-Based Learning, using English classroom during the teaching-learning process, using interesting media, such as videos, recordings, and pictures, giving feedback on the students' work, asking the students to bring dictionaries, and giving reward to the most active students

A study was done by Nguyen in 2009 in Vietnam This study is an experimental study focusing on the application of PBL in teaching language In this study, the objective is to apply PBL in teaching verbal expression in university courses The results of this study are positive Both teacher and students appreciated PBL in teaching and learning verbal expression Real PBL benefits for teachers and learners Another study mentioned in this section is the study entitled “Towards promoting project-based learning for group work activities to improve English speaking skills of 10th graders in High School in Nhu Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province by Researcher Nguyen Thi Lien (2018) The researcher studied the difficulties of students when learning speaking skills and identified factors that motivate students to be more interested in speaking lessons Research results show that at students' attitude when applying PBL method is very positive and PBL's activities have created a good atmosphere for students to be confident to practice English speaking After learning about previous studies, the researcher has basic theoretical foundations of project-based learning Most of the past studies, the researcher has shown the effectiveness of using project-based learning in teaching English speaking skills It is found that the application of project-based learning method in the speaking lessons of grade 10 students to help them improve their speaking skills and confidently present in English is necessary and meaningful Moreover, once again, the study wants to test the effectiveness of positive PBL in self-constructing projects, learning and real-life experiences to document group project formation and presentation At the high schools in this district, there has not been any research on this field If the results of this study are positive, the research can be proposed to the Department of Education to include in the curriculum with improved methods of further research on a large scale to find the best results

Afterward with positive results, PBL will be applied in all high schools in the district and conducted in school classrooms in the speaking class in both the old and new curriculum in English textbooks From there the method help them confidently communicate, study and integrate with the trend of "global English communication"

This chapter mentions the theory of speaking language and the problems concerned To be good at speaking English, learners are required gain certain skills in English All skills supporting speaking English are mentioned The methods in teaching and learning also play an important role in having good speaking skills So the theory and technique of PBL are clearly displayed because PBL is known as one of the most effective teaching speaking method

To check the effectiveness of this method, many previous studies are discussed and considered as references Finally, the research carries out the study

METHODOLOGY

Settings

This study was conducted in class 10A6 with 17 females and 13 males at Luong Dac Bang High School The survey shows that class 10A6 is a class in field of social studies with three focused subjects including: Math, Literature, and English On the quality of education in Hoang Hoa District, Thanh Hoa Province, Luong Dac Bang High School is not only the leading school in Hoang Hoa District with a long tradition of hard work, but also the quality of education is the highest in the province with nearly 100 excellent teachers with high professional qualifications ranked second

Most of the school's teachers have university degrees and some English teachers have master's degrees All of these are divided into specialized groups for specific subjects with specialist groups at the forefront There is an executive leader who coordinates and develops specific topics In particular, the English team has 20 teachers, most of who are young, dynamic and enthusiastic, have solid educational expertise and are constantly developing new teaching methods to keep up with new standards Teachers are generally well trained The team also has two teachers with master's degrees and two who underwent intensive training in Australia The leader of the foreign language group is Ms Ho Thi Minh Thai, a foreign language group leader and master of English from Singapore who has achieved many achievements in teaching and innovative methods.

Participants

The teachers participating in this study are the English teachers of class 10A6, Ms Han Minh Xuan She is the participant in this project As a young teacher, she is enthusiastic in teaching, learning and applying new methods in teaching English

Thirty 10th grade students (17 females and 13 males) who were selected to participate in the research Most of them are 16 years old and have been learning English for a long time According to the English teacher in this class, most of the students studied English hard However, speaking skills are difficult to acquire as, some learners do not know what to say Some people passively follow the given sentences and then memorize them, and most students are unsure communicate in front of a large group of people That is reason in the past, when they were in secondary education, they only focused on grammar and reading comprehension to get grades and pass exams They don't have much time to speak Most do not have the opportunity to learn English in English speaking centers and environments In addition, they are not aware of the importance of speaking English in modern society, especially for later work Therefore, it makes sense to invite them to participate in my research related to improving English fluency and confidence Most of the students who were selected to study the "project-based learning" method were very interested and enthusiastic and voluntarily cooperated with the researcher in carrying out the research

The set of English books for grade 10 students at Luong Dac Bang High School is a global success grade 10 English textbook, edited by the general editor, Hoang Van Van and colleagues, Vietnam Education Publishing House organized the compilation according to "new program of general education: English subject program" (2018)

This is an instruction-oriented book that helps students develop communication skills in 4 forms: listening, speaking, reading, and writing through the use of materials (warm language, vocabulary, grammar) At the same time, it is compiled with learners as the center, so teachers create, design, organize and create conditions for students to develop communication skills So, four skills are developed around close topics: our lives, our society, our environment and our future Topics are concretized into units of lessons for example Unit 1: Family life, Unit 2 Humans and the environment, After each lesson is a review to develop learned language skills

Students develop speaking skills mostly in lessons, but near the end of each Unit there is a Project section Project is the main activity of students, taking students as the center The purpose of this activity is to develop skills in projecting, planning, teamwork, presenting entirely in English based on issues related to Therefore, learners have more opportunities to solve problems and talk more Projects that require students to develop critical thinking and solutions to life problems are also known as soft skills development In each project, students are required to invest in their own project under the guidance of the teacher, and then give a presentation for about 5-10 minutes in the Project lesson

Table 1: Distributing the program by lesson

CLIL Looking back & Project Getting started

Looking back & Project Getting started

MID- TERM TEST UNIT 9 UNIT 9

Week 34 UNIT 10 Getting started Page 110 – 111

CLIL Looking back & Project Language

According to Mills (2000), action research is a “systematic procedure done by teachers (or other individuals in an educational setting) to gather information about and subsequently improve, the ways their particular educational setting operates, their teaching, and their students learning” Action research is “a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action; this type of research uses “a spiral step”, each of which is “composed of a circle of planning, action and fact- finding about the result of the action” (Lewin, 1946) Also discussing action research, Stephen Kemmis, McTaggart, and Nixon (2013) pay much attention to the purposes of action research when they define it as a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationale and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices and the situations in which the practices are carried out

Nunan (1992) states that action research is “problem focused”, mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation, and try to find solutions to the problem in focus It not only encourages teachers to compare methods and ideas with critical eye and to adopt these ideas into their teaching environment but also engages them in their teaching in a deeper way

In conclusion, no matter how many definitions there are to describe an action research, its aim is to identify problematic situation or issues that participants consider worth investigating and undertake practical interventions in order to bring about informed changes in practice

Different researchers suggested different steps in the action research process Mac Isaac (1995) developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process (Figure 1) There are two cycles and each cycle has four steps: plan, action, observe and reflect

Figure1: Simple Action Research Model from Mac Isaac (1995) a Phase 1: Planning

The research process shows us the steps of each step, helping us to learn goals when applying action research in the classroom In this study, the the cycle action research process includes the following stages: How the teacher solved the problems in implementing Project-Based Learning method in teaching English speaking in class 10A6 of Luong Dac Bang high school Each of them was described as follows: planning plays a very important role in an experimental class Planning should be clearly planned Orientation and blueprint are critical to the success of the research Having good planning, we can move to the next step easily In project-based learning activities, student is the center of the classroom Except activities in the classroom, students need to learn many activities outside the classroom activity to complete the task The speaker must be well prepared essentials before asking students to do the steps in their project Here's what to prepare: First of all, designing survey questionnaires to assess students' attitudes to speaking lessons before and after applying learning in class Second, each of topic they have to design lesson plans for the project Third, design class observation sheets to take notes teaching situation is also crucial when the strategy of the learning process is conducted The next, preparing pre-test and post-test interviews, semi-structured to test students' speaking ability researcher ask improved after applying PBL in oral lessons In addition, students to form groups to work on the project and clear instructions on how to complete, how to evaluate contribution to the project by each member of each group Finally, teacher provides students with the basics of project-based learning and what students need to do in this project b Phase 2: Action

In the second phase of the study, we went step-by-step to find answers to two research questions In the action part, we have to do a lot of things

First, we need to design survey questions that help the researcher find the answer to the first question in the research questionnaire of the study The researcher should ensure that the questions focus on identifying students' attitudes towards Project-Based learning Then, survey questionnaires were distributed to 30 students in class 10A6 The survey is written in English so that students can easily answer the survey, then the researcher translates the survey questions in Vietnamese, instructions and explanations for some points when students are not clear And the purpose of this survey questionnaire is also told to the students This way we can get accurate data from their answers

To find the answer to the research questions, the researcher must take other steps, including pre-test, lesson-test, and post-test Pre-test design is very important The researcher must design a way to accurately assess the speaking ability of 30 students in class 10A6 before teaching trial In the previous test, the students were asked to take the test in pairs The judge is an English teacher at Luong Dac Bang High School After the test is completed, the researcher conducts experimental teaching using project-based learning techniques English teachers will provide certain topics for each group of students to choose from, and then give clear instructions for students to work on their projects

Regarding the topic of presentation in front of the class, the research teacher suggested some basic topics based on the theme of the global success manual English 10 For example, Unit 1: Family life, Unit 2: Humans and environment, about family life, ask students design a project about family traditions Then, each group chooses at least two topics After choosing a topic, each group proceeds to implement the project followed teacher’s instrument The leader of each group divides the task into smaller chunks Each team member will play a role The moderator gathers all the information from each member, then the whole group discusses and prepares the presentation According to the plan, 30 students were divided into 5 groups Every weeks, each group will present its project Each group will present to the class for about

15 minutes (including questions and answers) One or two groups will present their projects each week After each presentation, the teacher will comment on their presentation and guide them on how to improve their speaking and presentation skills if needed for the following sections c Phase 3: Observation

Intervention program

Research and apply Project- Based Learning methods for 3 months (13 weeks) from February to April 2023 The first week is for interviewing and observing teachers' classroom activities during technical practice Project Based Learning lesson to develop speaking skills and for students to fill out a survey to find out the learning situation of class 10A6, then schedule each group with the corresponding topic from week 2 to week 13 This is design questions and provide discussion topics as follows:

Table 2: Program for each week

Week 1: Whole class Pre-test Format test CEFR

Guide to attend PBL, group and topic

Topic 6: Discuss why the job such as: nurse, shop assistants kindergarten,… are

Group 2 quality traditionally done by men or women Give your explanations

Topic 7: Research on an international organization in your local (name, form, members, aim, benefit)

Unit 8: New way to learn

Topic 8: Survey to find out how students in your class use electronic devices to learn, give at least 5 devices to support your study

Topic 9: Find information about a local or an international environmental organization( name, set up, aim, activities

Topic 10: Design an eco- tour to a tourist attraction in your local area.( where, famous for activities, eco-friendly activities,…)

Week 13 Whole class Post- test Format test CEFR

Week 1 the researcher conducted a speaking survey test for students in grade 10A6 The test focuses on pronunciation, vocabulary, the idea of a speech and is assessed based on the B1 CEFR competency framework test

Weeks 2 and 3 respectively for the task of group 2 and group 3 in charge of

Unit 6, students of 2 groups were asked to conduct a survey in class to find out the favorite occupations of Men and Women Students made plan for a project with the theme: career in the future

The requirement of each group is to present in power point and defend their opinions

Unit 7, with the theme of Vietnam and international organizations, the requirements of groups 3 and 4 in the next 2 weeks is to work in groups and research on local world organizations, then present the project your project in front of the class and the teacher

Unit 8: New way to learn First, students name the ways they are applying learning then the task of groups 5 and 6 in weeks 5 and 6 is to come up with devices for classroom learning and possibly expand in the future devices that can be invented

Unit 9: Students will give some videos related to an international organization about environmental protection today This is the task in the 2nd round of the 1-2-3 group Each group designs a project on environmental protection organization Then, the students work in groups of three to four and brainstorm solutions to the problems The teacher calls the groups to present their work

Unit 10: Ecotourism The request of the last 3 groups 4-5-6 is to learn the design of the project to attract local tourists Each group design a project with the style of each group, it is strictly forbidden to copy the same article

Data collection instruments

The questionnaire is easy to understand, written in simple language and consists of two main parts as follows:

The first part deals with personal information Specifically, before conducting the survey, respondents filled in personal information including full name, class, gender, name of English teacher

The second part consisted of 9 questions, in which respondents were asked to tick all the boxes of the questionnaire Therefore, not a single respondent requested clarity in any part of the questionnaire The questionnaire was designed and written in Vietnamese for Vietnamese respondents, asking questions in Vietnamese to ensure full understanding of the question's requirements

For this study, the author has built a questionnaire to survey students before starting to use the PBL method for speaking activities in class with some closed questions to collect their opinions on learning speaking skills For example, when learning English, what skills are the most important to develop; How often do you participate in class activities; If you are afraid of speaking skills, because; Do you think to learn English you need to learn speaking skills? In addition, the process taking place in the English - speaking practice period will also be observed The survey also asked if students were allowed to work in groups or debate during English speaking practice

After the study, to collect data on students' attitudes, another questionnaire was asked in turn when applying the project-based speaking learning method For example, the survey investigates students' attitudes toward project-based learning and effectiveness in teamwork In addition, there are questions to know if students actively participate or do to deal with teachers; What’s opinion on effectiveness of using project based learning to improve speaking skill; whether students’ opinion toward the benefit of the applied PBL on their confidence or not? The four items in part three help get students' opinions on the benefits of the project-based learning method designed in each lesson The questionnaire was distributed to 30 students in grades 10A6 after they had studied the author's

Observation is a way to collect “live” data According to Mackey & Gass

(2005), it is a useful means of obtaining information about second language classroom phenomena, such as language types, activities, interactions, and instruction Marshall and Rossman (1989) argue that observation allows researchers to gather reliable information because they use their own eyes to observe and analyze Besides, it helps to improve the accuracy of research results and reduce respondent’s dependency problems For the research observation process, the researcher acts as an observer to record what happens during the teaching process The researcher observed teacher activities and student engagement during the first three speaking lessons in which the researcher performed PBL The researcher relies on the criteria and designed checklists, which list the different characteristics of a lesson, to observe, analyze and evaluate The teacher can then see how the PBL activities have been performed and what needs to be improved to make the next talks better The observation checklist is designed and presented in Appendix 3.

Tests

The data collection tool for the study includes pretest and posttest to measure whether students have changed over time thanks to PBL The tests were carefully prepared by the researcher In the tests, there are many types of questions that test the teacher's ability to speak and answer questions The pre- test and post-test are designed according to the same model Each test has 3 parts with different functions and language situations including greeting, information exchange and discussion and persuasion Tests are expected to meet requirements for accuracy in pronunciation, fluency, and grammatical accuracy

Test the hypothesis that students in the same class have equal English reflexes and English skills, all of which are average In other words, most of the children have not learned listening, speaking, reading and writing skills at any center, they are students who only focus on learning grammar, with a general mentality of fear of speaking English The researcher designed a set of interview questions based on CEFR B1 assessment and scoring, combining appropriate scoring criteria for the Presentation The assessment focuses on behavior, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and ideas The Pre and Post – test was judged by Ms Han Minh Xuan From there, the researcher builds the research results and conducts the research on the application of the project teaching method

To determine whether the test group is confident in speaking basic communication sentences and if they have actually improved their speaking ability In other words, compare the effectiveness of applying the PBL method in teaching speaking skills of the experimental group with the traditional speaking teaching method implemented by the organization Two months after the previous trial, the researcher conducted a second trial on the control and experimental group to collect data The speaking test below consists of 3 parts with 6 topics, will be tested in pairs, each pair draws a topic and prepares for 60 minutes At the end of the preparation time, the project will be presented theirs before the jury The format is Appendix 2.

Data Analysis

This section discusses the data collected and methods to analysis for search results In this section, figures, tables, graphs, and pie charts are used to display the results of each section All data types were analyzed to meet the requirements of this study Qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this action research approach The results of using these methods are more accurate and reliable

The questionnaire was used to determine the students' attitude towards the project-based teaching method applied in the expressive reading class Each student's answer will be collected and counted to complete the statistics table From this data, we can calculate the percentage of each option selected by the student to illustrate with a picture, or table, or chart or pie chart In the next step, the researcher compares student choice rates to discover students' attitudes towards PBL: positive or negative

When giving points before and after, the examiner will base on the score of the speaking part After receiving the score report from the examiner, the researcher calculates and converts it to the average score of the total number of students participating After going through the steps of the data analysis process, the researcher finds the average score and then uses this result - the average score to evaluate the difference between the previous test and the posttest to test the effectiveness of the application of project-based teaching in improving students' speaking ability.

Summary

In this chapter, research methods are discussed Action research method was selected to carry out this project Qualitative and quantitative methods are combined to know the research results This chapter introduces all the data collection tools used to collect data It also shows the stages of action research

In addition, the subject of the study is also mentioned They are all students in class 10A6 of Luong Dac High School with English majors, their English input results are almost the same Finally, a description of the data collection tools and processes, data analysis procedures, and data interpretation are clarified The next chapter will present the research results.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Results of the pre-test and post-test

As mentioned in sections 2.7.1 and 2.7.2, pre-test and post-test were used before and after the intervention to test the impact of PBL on students' speaking performance The data from the test before and after the test is calculated, analyzed and reported in the following subsections

3.1.1 Results of the pre-test

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of the pre-test

Table 4: Frequency of the pre-test scores

Figure 3.1: Results of the pre-test scores

The figure illustrates students’ speaking marks before the intervention It can be seen clearly from the table that the number of participants who had poor scores took the biggest proportion with 52% of the total while only 2 students accounting for 7 % of the total got good speaking marks Specially, about one third of the participants, accounting for 24% got the average mark Additionally, 17% who had very poor mark and no one got excellent mark In general, the data of the pretest results reports that the students’ speaking competence was below the average level

3.1.2 Results of the post-test

Table 5: Descriptive statistics of the post-test

Table 6: Frequency of the post-test scores

Figure 3.2: Results of the post-test scores

The bar chart describes the post-test scores of the students’ speaking competence after the teacher applied PBL In general, the students whose speaking marks ranging from 5.5 to 6.5 (average scores) account for nearly half

% of the students (47%) whereas no one who got very poor scores fell to 0 % Moreover, the number of participants who got excellent marks of the tests increased significantly, accounting for 7% compare with pre-test Moreover, the number of students got marks from 4.0-5.0 go up significantly (37%) In addition, it is also good pointing with three students were classified as good speakers, with 10% in scores The result of the posttest shows that in the post test the students outperformed themselves with higher mean scores The average score of the pretest was only 4.85 while the average score of the posttest was 5.45 It reveals that the positive improvement of the students’ speaking competence would be reflected clearly through the scores they got In other words, the use of Project-Based Learning (PBL) seems to be effective in the sense that it helped the students learn speaking better

3.1.3 Comparison of the pre-test and post-test

Figure 3.3: Comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores

The bar chart compares information about the scores the students got in the pretest and post-test As can be seen from the chart above, before the treatment the students’ English-speaking skill was at low levels as most of them got poor scores, with 52%; however, after the treatment, this number sharply decreased to 37% Moreover, the collected data shows that the number of students at good and average levels went up in the post-test In comparison with the results in the pre-test, there was a rather big difference in the students’

Very poor Poor Average Good Excelent

Pre-testPost-test speaking skill at good levels in the post-test Three times as many students got good marks in the post test compared to pre test

Table 6: Descriptive statistics of the pre-test and post-test scores

As can be seen from table 6, the pre-test scores ranged from 3.5 to 7.4 with the mean of 4.85 It means that students’ speaking competence before applying PBL was at poor levels whereas the scores of the post-test which applied projetc-based activities ranged from 4.5 to 7.9 with the mean of 5.45 This proved that there was a significant difference between mean scores of the two tests The students’ speaking performance has been improved considerably This significant improvement can be attributed to the effectiveness of the project - based learning applied in the study.

Results of pre questionnaires

In this section, we will analyze the data we obtained from data collection from the answer to the two questions to the answer to the first question research question: “Using Project –Based teaching method to improve

10 th grade student to English speaking skill A classroom action research in

10A6 at Luong Dac Bang high school’’

The first questionnaire (see Appendix 1) consists of 9 questions designed to find out the attitudes of 30 students in grade 10A6 at Luong Dac Bang High School with speaking skills, especially when being asked to learn to speak through projects They were asked to answer 9 questions of the questionnaire in English prepared by the researcher In case, students do not understand the question in English, the researcher can help them by translating the question into Vietnamese By this way, the answers are more reliable This is very important to have accurate data for analysis

3.4.1 The importance of English Skill

Figure 3.1: The importance of English Skill

The figure above shows which skill is important when learning English Overall, what stands out from the pie chart is that there is a massive approval that learning speaking is immensely important The highest-level students agree that learning “Speaking” is the most crucial with 21 students, accounting for 81.4% While there are only 2 students said that “reading” is the least important with 2.3% Followed by “listening” there are 4 (11.6%) respondents for this option The next one is “writing’’ having 3 students with 4,7% From the data collected, it can be concluded that speaking plays an essential role and the majority of the student taking part in the survey are aware of the necessity of learning speaking

3.4.2 Students’ difficulties of speaking English in class time

The bar chart illustrated student’s difficulties when speaking English

As can see clearly there are 15 students, accounting for 50%) chose answer B: "Afraid of mispronunciation" 8 students (27%) chose answer C:

"unconfident" 5 students (17%) chose answer A "Afraid of making grammatical mistakes" when speaking English and only 2 students accounting for 6% chose answer D "afraid of negative feedback from teachers" Through this question, we can guess the barriers of students when speaking English When he speaks, he is insecure and afraid of making pronunciation mistakes due to not practicing From there, it is possible to assess attitudes towards speaking skills and speaking frequency Through this result, research should focus on students' English practice time and help them improve their oral pronunciation

Figure 3.5: Students’ difficulties of speaking English in class time

3.4.3 Students’ frequency of speaking English

The bar chart illustrated student’s difficulties the students faced when speaking English

Overall, most of people (19 students or 63%) choose answer C: "When practicing with a partner" 8 students (27%) chose answer B: “When the lesson is interesting”, and only 3 (10%) students choose answer A: "When the lesson is requested by the teacher" Through this question, we can guess the difficulties of

Unconfident Afraid negative comment students when speaking English From there, it is possible to assess attitudes towards speaking skills and speaking frequency They consider it as a duty to speak in class which must be completed to receive a grade or to evaluate the lecture Only a few students were interested in giving a speech It's a good start to learn to speak well Based on this finding, the research should focus on students' English speaking practice time and encourage them to speak as much as possible Also, oral activities are more fun to see how often students speak in class

Figure 3.6: Students’ frequency of speaking English

3.4.4 Students’ opinion about speaking skill

The figures illustrate students’ opinion about speaking skill Overall, the majority of students (26 students – 90%) chose “Yes” and only 4 students (10%) chose “No” With this result, we see that learning a foreign language requires mastering how to use it However, when they study in class, most of them only focus on learning grammar and structure, so even though they have studied for 6-8 years, they still cannot communicate fluently or speak English

10% Practicing with a partner Interested lesson The teacher asked

Figure 3.7: Students’ opinion about speaking skill 3.4.5 Students’ frequency of practicing speaking English in class

It can be seen clearly that there are 10 students (33%) choosing the answer A: “frequently”, 14 students (47%) choosing answer B: "Sometimes" and 4 students going for the chose answer C: "seldom" However, there are still 2 students, accounting for 7%, who chose D: “never” speak in English in front of the class With the collected data, it can be said that but students do not have many opportunities to practice speaking in front of class for a number of reasons such as: lack of vocabulary, lack of confidence in pronunciation To encourage them talk more in class, we should do more interesting speaking activities and to motivate them and give them high marks when they speak well

Figure 3.8: Students’ frequency of practicing speaking English in class

3.4.6 The activeness of students in teamwork in English speaking lessons

This bar chart gives the number of students’ activities activeness in English speaking

It can see clearly the majority of students (22 students or 73%) chose

“Yes”, 8 students (27%) chose “No” Thereby, we see that with traditional teaching methods, students only focus on grammar, reading comprehension and writing These things cause make students passive in teamwork skills They do not have many opportunities for teamwork in speaking sessions See Figure 3.6

Figure 3.9: The activeness of students in teamwork in English speaking lessons 3.4.7 Students’ opinion about speaking activities in classroom

The figures show the students’sopinion speaking activities in classroom As can be seen from data in Figure 3.7 below There are 15 students (50%) choosing answer A: "Very interesting",8 students (27%) chose answer B: "Interesting", 5 students (17%) chose option C: “Not very interesting”, and 2 students (6%) chose answer D: "Not at all " that's a bit interesting ằ Through the numbers, it is clear to see the interest of students in speaking activities during speaking class There were a lot of student who were not interested in speaking activities They are bored of studying Fortunately, many students think that the speaking activities attractive Based on the above data, to help

NoYes students be interested in speaking activities, we should design speaking lessons with lots of interesting things types of speaking activities to make students more motivated in learning to speak

Figure 3.7: Students’s opinion about speaking activities in classroom 3.4.8 Teacher’s methods is using teaching speaking Elisgh

Figure 3.8:Teacher’methods is using teaching speaking English

The given chart illustrates the methods the teacher apply to teach speaking in classroom the most often among the four proposed methods: story time; free speaking and using Project- Based learning From the figure above, it is obvious that the method which is the most prevalent one to teach spaking is free

Very interesting Interesting Not interesting not at all

Free speakingStory timeProject-Based Learning speaking, its acount for 83 % While noone is learnt Project –based learning in speaking classroom Beside, there are 5 people who said that teachers use method to teach speaking skills,accounting for 17%

3.4.9: The number of students who learnt through project based learning method

Figure 3.10: The number of students who learnt through project based learning method

The given chart illustrates the level of students who learnt with Project- Based learning method

Overview, what stands out from the pie chart is that there is a majority of students who have not learned through Project – Based learning method yet In detail, 80% of them have never learned the method before It is also synonymous with the fact that they may not know or heard about this technique

By contrast, 20% of people revealed that they have ever been learnt this method.

Result of post questionnaires

After the results of the survey questionnaire in APPENDIX 1.The researchers applied project-based learning to test the effectiveness of this approach And the results show that the students' speaking skills are significantly improved thanks to the results of the following test In addition to the positive results of the scores obtained by the researcher, the researcher also wanted to assess the students' attitudes towards the PBL applied in the optional courses

Thus, 20 students received a questionnaire after the test with 5 evaluation questions Post – trying out questionnaire is illustrated by below chart

3.5.1 Students’ opinions of using Project-based learning in optional lessons

Firgure 3.11: Students’ opinions of using Project-based learning in optional lessons

Based on student responses and the table above, most students (15 students

- 48%) chose Option B: "difficult but interesting" and 5 student (16%) chose answer C: "Normal", 7 student (23%) chooses option D:"too easy" That is a positive signal This shows that students are really interested in PBL This can keep students motivated and interested learn to speak Although this teaching method is quite new to students, students acquire in a short time Therefore, we can consider PBL as an effective method of teaching oral expression in the early stages attitude of students at PBL are active This is a strong motivation for researchers to do it next steps However, a few students (4 students -16%) chose option A: "Too difficult" It's easy to see why they chose this option They accustomed to learning with traditional teaching methods They need time to get used to it Through this, the researcher also has to do more research how to effectively apply PBL to facilitate students' understanding Good attitude has a great influence on learning outcomes Thus, the study found that PBL can make students have a good attitude and feel confident speaking English This will help them improve their speaking skills

Too easy Normal Too difficult Challenging but interesting

3.5.2 Students' opinions on the effectiveness of using project-based learning to improve speaking skills

With this question, the majority of students (21 students - 70%) chose

"Yes" They noticed an improvement in their speaking skills when using PBL And a few students (only 9 students – 30%) choose 'No' With this result, we can consider PBL as the success of action research The chart below shows us clear about it

Figure 3.12: Students' opinions on the effectiveness of using project-based learning to improve speaking skills

3.5.3 Students’ improvement for criteria after applying Projectbased learning in improving speaking skills

The selection for this question is that 100% of students choose more than one criterion 17 students (85%) decided that: they have improved their fluency, vocabulary and interactive communication, 8 students (27%) mentioned: fluency, pronunciation and interactive communication and 5 student (17%) agreed with: fluency and interactive communication to be an outcome that exceeded the researchers's expectations This result shows us the effectiveness of project-based teaching in improving students' speaking ability During the learning process, students have many opportunities to work and discuss in groups In addition, they should also look for information, self-study, learn vocabulary, pronunciation, practice listening to lectures in front of the mirror and more to prepare for the presentation These things that help students raise

YesNo the criteria needed to speak: fluency,vocabulary, correct grammar, pronunciation and interactivity communicate And this result has been verified by post-test results.This is convincing proof of their improvements

Figure 3.13: Students’ improvement for criteria after applying Projectbased learning in improving speaking skills

3.5.4 Students’opinion toward the benefit of the PBL in five speaking lessons Table7: Students’ opinions towards the benefits of PBL on their interest

The table illustrates the participants’ opinions towards using PBL to improve their speaking skill As can be seen from the table, 43 percent of the students felt interested in the tasks However, it seemed that the minority of 2 students which accounted for 7 percent did not find TBL interesting because

Fluency and interactive communication they did not pay attention to the teacher’s lecture, so they did not find PBL method as effective as other students in their class The results indicated that the tasks aroused the learners’ interest

3.5.5 Students’ opinions towards the benefits of the applied PBL on their confidence

Table 8: Students’ opinions towards the benefits of the applied PBL on their confidence

The table shows students’ opinions towards the effectiveness of Project based learning on their confidence In can be clearly seen from table that most of the learners, with 50 percent, stated that project- based learning made them confident in speaking lessons However, there were only 2 students which accounted for 7 percent disagreeing with this and 3 students, accounting for 10 percent were uncertain about their choice One possible for this limitation was probably of their low ability in English which affected their confidence in using language to communicate In general, most of the students spoke English in a confident way during the lessons applied PBL

In conclusion, the findings from the pre and post questionnaires gave the answer to the first question that PBL could improve students' speaking skill It can be concluded from these questionnaires that PBL was applied appropriately and effectively in five project lessons According to the result, tasks support

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree people 0 2 3 15 10

7% 10% language learning and encourage students to speak English Moreover, project based learning help students be more confident and more interested in speaking English because the activities were interesting, related to real life, provided students with opportunities to work in pairs or in groups and plan project to solve the language problem

The results from the post questionnaires answered to the second research question that students had a positive attitude towards the PBL Most students preferred the application of PBL for the reason that it could give them more opportunities to speak and thus improve their confidence as well communication skill through pair and group discussion Learning through project based helped students have a purpose for speaking, so they had motivation As a result, their speaking skill has been improved significant after learning the lessons applied PBL.

Observing the classroom druring the application PBL

The classroom observation was also applied during the teaching process with PBL This method refers to the process of studying and analyzing classroom activities to scrutinize teaching strategies adopted by the teachers and students’ participation with active responsiveness in classroom activities In specific, the observation took place in a class by the teacher who directly teaches in the class Students’ work was observed to know whether the students are involved and interested in the speaking lessons with PBL Accordingly, classroom observation was conducted with the students in class 10A6 The author acted as an observer who took charge of taking observation notes about students’ participants into the tasks from the observation checklist ( table 2) as follows: The lesson is well-prepared, the teaching method helps students easily grasp the knowledge as well as specific instructions so that students can understand the process of making a project It is observed that students are very excited about this learning method because they can both work in groups with their friends and freely express their opinions in the lesson without being constrained or boring The presentation in the first few days did not fully show the content because of trembling and shyness, but it was clearly improved in the

5th session when applying this learning method However, there are still limitations such as teachers not having good time control, besides not letting students take the initiative in class, often controlling students' creativity due to the traditional way of learning so far However, all disadvantages will be gradually overcome and positive results from the post test will be received

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

In this work, researchers presented various definitions of PBL its advantages The author also describes the steps to implement a PBL project; I suggested some English learning projects for students These projects and procedures for conducting PBL projects can help English teachers motivate students to make full use of her PBL not only in the classroom but also outside the classroom Students are prepared for the future both in English and social situations PBL should be widely applied in Luong Dac Bang High School and in any other school where students need to improve the genuine knowledge they need and skills for future research

The above findings prove the effective action of PBL about English lessons PBL offers learners the opportunity to speak English creatively in a fearless classroom Additionally, students found PBL fun and motivating It provides an opportunity for shy and quiet students to express themselves more clearly effectively

New strategies must be made available to make schools more learner- friendly students with learning opportunities PBL provides a safe zone for all students exchange ideas and experiences Students are not passive, shy, or fearful to make mistakes PBL integrates play and work as the basis of learning It offers a natural and rich environment that gives learners the opportunity to explore their surroundings nurture deeper and more meaningful learning PBL are low-emotional filter by creating a learner-friendly and low- anxiety environment flat.

Limitations of the study

This study still has some limitations Firstly, the small sample size limits the accuracy of the results because the small sample size is not representative of all 10th grade students at Luong Dac Bang High School The survey used in this study was conducted with only 10 students in grade A6 instead of all levels of this school Secondly, the randomly selected sample size increases the likelihood of certain biased and subjective results In addition, the study still has some limitations in data collection and analysis It is a fact that the time to carry out this research is quite short and my budget is limited.

Suggestions and implication

The study raises many issues that need further research Due to the above limitations, in other projects, researchers will recommend increase the sample size to improve the reliability of the study Similarly, the number of survey participants can also be expanded to the data collected includes many different ideas In other words, the research should be conducted within a broader framework to collect more primary data Furthermore, it also suggests that further research should investigate thoroughly study using different research methods Thus, researchers can compare data and analyze it more easily

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1 Phạm Thị Thu Hà (2014) Developing students’ speaking skill through project-based learning Unpublished MA Thesis An Lao High School

2 Lê Thị Thanh Hương (2015) Towards the exploitation of project-based learning for group work activities to enhance the English speaking skill of the third - year English major students at Hong Duc University Unpublished MA Thesis Hong Duc University

3 Nguyễn Đức Danh (2009) Study of the Implementation of a Problembased Learning Approach in University Classes in Vietnam Unpublished doctoral dissertation, RMIT University

Full name: Le Thi Ha Class: K22A -FFL-HDU

Students ID: 1967010012 Major: English Teaching

This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “Using Project – Based Learning method to improve English speaking skill for students in grade 10A6 at Luong Dac Bang high school” Your assistance in completing the survey questionnaires highly appreciated All the information provided by you will be solely used for research purposes and your personal information will be kept confidential

Thank you for your cooperation!

II What is your opinion when learning speaking skill?

1 What skill do you think is the most important when learning English?

2 What prevents you from speaking English in front of class?"

☐Afraid of making grammatical mistakes

☐Afraid of negative feedback from teachers

3 When should students speak English in speaking class?

☐When the lesson is requested by the teacher

☐When the lesson is interesting

4 Do you agree that to learn a foreign language you need to be able to speak it?"

5 Do you often practice English in in front of class?

6 Do you actively work in groups during English class?

7 What is your opinion when you say class activities in English?

8 What methods do teachers use to teach speaking skills?

9 Have you ever learned Project-based learning in a speaking environment?

Thanks for your response to these questions!

Part1: Greetings ( Greeting to know each other)

- Each student introduces about himself or herself ( name, age, occupation, hobbies, family,…)

-Giving information about yourself and expressing your opinion about various topics

Part 2: Exchanging information Each pair of students then examiner will give any topic You have to make a conversation about on of the three following topics:

-Talking on your own about something: comparing, describing, expressing opinions, speculating

Part 3: Discussing and Presentation Conversation with the other candidate

The examiner gives you some material of topic and a task to do You have to talk with the other candidate and make a decision

“Family day” in Vietnam are not popular Discuss and give your opinion Discussion 2: Your friend wants to plan to protect the environment by planting trees, but you want to do a project to propagate environmental protection by recycling waste Give your point to convince your friend

Discussion 3: There are many genres of

- Exchanging ideas, expressing and justifying opinions, agreeing and/or disagreeing, suggesting, speculating, evaluating, reaching a decision through negotiation, etc popular music in Vietnam such as rock, pop, classical ,etc Discussing with your partner and give a kind of music that is a big fan of the young

Part 4: Further discussion with the other candidate, guided by questions from the examiner, about the topics or issues raised in the task in

Topic 1: Do research on Family Day in

Viet Nam or other countries in the world ( making a project to celebrate Family day for your family: where, when, what will you do, who will be invited, what for meaning)

Topic 2: Make a plan for a Go Green Weekend event Think of activities that you can organize during the weekend

You should also provide the reasons and expected results of each activity you suggest (activity, time, place ,expected result)

Topic 3: Do research on a form of traditional music in Viet Nam that you know about (when and where it started; instrument(s); artists or performers; costumes.)

Part: Greetings ( Greeting to know each other)

- Each student introduces about himself or herself (name, age, occupation, hobbies, family,…)

-Giving information about yourself and expressing your opinion about various topics

Part 2: Exchanging information Each pair of students then examiner will give any topic You have to make a conversation about on of the three following topics:

Make a conversation about UNICEF program (name, purpose, focus on, activities)

2.New way to learn: Make a conversation about the way you learn

( name, schedule, form of learning, benefits)

3.Protecting the environment : make a conversation about a environment problem ( name, affect, consequence, solution)

-Talking on your own about something: comparing, describing, expressing opinions, speculating

Part 3: Discussing and Presentation Conversation with the other candidate

The examiner gives you some material of topic and a task to do You have to talk with the other candidate and make a decision

Discussion 1: Discuss and decide which program or project UNICEF or UNDT will bring more benefits to people in your local area

Discussion 2: Discuss your opinions about online learning Give advantage and disadvantage about it Discussion 3: many people believe that environmental protection is the responsibility of the government Give your opinion and give a thing you have done to help protect local environment

- Exchanging ideas, expressing and justifying opinions, agreeing and/or disagreeing, suggesting, speculating, evaluating, reaching a decision through negotiation, etc

Part 4: Further discussion with the other candidate, guided by questions from the examiner, about the topics or issues raised in the task in Suggestion:

Topic 1: Research on an international organization in your local.( name, form, members, aim ,benefit)

Topic 2: Survey to find out how students in your class use electronic devices to learn, give at least 5 devices to support your study

Topic 3: Find information about a local or an international environmental organization( name, set up, aim, activities)

1 Teacher prepares the lesson well

2 Teacher can manage classroom conditions well

4 The method used by the teacher is interesting

5 Teacher is friendly to the students

6 Teacher is able to use the technique well

7 Teacher anticipates the students’ difficulties

8 Students pay attention to the teacher’s explain

9 Students understand the teacher’s explain

10 Students become active in the classroom

11 Students are able to present their project confidently

12 Students feel happy during the lesson

13 Students bored during the lesson process

APPENDIX 4: SCORING RUBRIC FOR SPEAKING TEST

Category Scoring Criteria Level/Score

1 Being able to understand and speak during communication process with the basic level

2 Having good interaction with the partner, make the good conversation

3 Using eye contact, body gesture, having good interaction with the partner, Feeling confident when speaking and answering the questions, making the atmosphere professional and friendly

4 Having positive attitude and try to complete the test as well as possible

5 The speed of speaking is slow, lots of pronunciation mistakes

6 Pronunciation, speech and fluency are pretty good

7 There is almost no mistake about pronunciation, speak smoothly Speed of speech is good

Grammar 8 Using simple pattern sentences

Having few mistakes about the grammar Having and use the basic tenses

9 The knowledge of grammar is good 9/1.5

Almost no mistakes about the grammar

Using the right tense to say about the activities happened from the past to the future

10 Master the grammar Using difficult grammar structures professionally

Feeling very confident in using grammar No mistake in grammar

Vocabulary 11 The vocabulary used is simple The ideas supporting are in basic level

12 The vocabulary and ideas used in speech are good They are used to express the speaker want to say exactly

13 Verities of vocabulary is used

Using academic words in speech exactly The ideas are excellent

The researcher would like to have your cooperation in providing useful information for the thesis, I feel secure that your information will be kept strictly confidential Thank you for your cooperation

1 What do you think about using Project Based Learning in the optional lessons?

2 Do you think using Project Based Learning in the lessons has helped develop your English speaking skill?

3 Which criteria of speaking skill have you improved? You can choose more than one answer

1 What is students’ opinion towards the benefits of PBL on their interest?