KHÓ KHĂN của GIÁO VIÊN TRONG VIỆC sử DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG TRAO đổi THÔNG TIN để dạy kĩ NĂNG nói CHO SINH VIÊN năm NHẤT KHOA ANH đại học NGOẠI NGỮ

It is undeniable that English is a means of international communication in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on. In Vietnam, English has taken on a special significance when people are taking the modernization and industrialization. In addition, of four English skills, speaking is considered as the most vital part for communication. Nunan (1989, p.39) has affirmed that “mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of leaning a second foreign language”. However, from observation, the researcher has identified the problems in speaking ability of the first year students at FELTE ULIS VNU. It is the fact that the first year students at FELTE, after five to six years learning English in high school, still hesitate about practicing speaking English. For the last decades, Vietnamese students usually have been taught English by the traditional method like Grammar Translation. This method considerably cannot foster the speaking ability of students. According to Prator and CelceMurcia in Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language (1979, p. 3), the key features of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows: 1) Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language. 2) Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words. 3) Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given. 4) Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words. 5) Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early. 6) Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis. 7) Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue. 8) Little or no attention is given to pronunciation. In the light of communicative approach, exploiting information gap activities has turned to be the useful method. Stated by Johnson and Morrow (1981, p. 62), information gap activity is “one of the most fundamental in the whole area of communicative teaching”. According to the knowledge about information gap activities provided by To Thi Thu Huong and Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa (2011), by making use of information gap activities, the teacher will raise the student’s motivation to speak English. Additionally, students can have more opportunities to experience the real life situation. They are also more active and more involved in the learning process. In brief, information gap activities give students chances to manipulate English appropriately not only inside but also outside the classroom. From the researcher’s observation, however, using IGA has faced up with a lot of difficulties. Firstly, as one of the first year students at FELTE, the researcher witnessed the fact that students were not familiar with the use of this technique in the class. Hence, using this technique can take a lot of time, which reduced the effectiveness of information gap activities. As a result, teachers have to prepare a lot before starting an IGA. Secondly, the teachers have to use up a lot of time selecting and creating the suitable information gap for teaching speaking skill. As a result, it

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

It is undeniable that English is a means of international communication in thefields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on In Vietnam,English has taken on a special significance when people are taking the modernizationand industrialization In addition, of four English skills, speaking is considered as the

most vital part for communication Nunan (1989, p.39) has affirmed that “mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of leaning a second foreign language” However, from observation, the researcher has identified the problems in

speaking ability of the first year students at FELTE- ULIS- VNU It is the fact that thefirst year students at FELTE, after five to six years learning English in high school,still hesitate about practicing speaking English

For the last decades, Vietnamese students usually have been taught English bythe traditional method like Grammar- Translation This method considerably cannotfoster the speaking ability of students According to Prator and Celce-Murcia in

Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language (1979, p 3), the key features of the

Grammar Translation Method are as follows:

1) Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language

2) Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

3) Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

4) Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words

5) Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

6) Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

7) Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

8) Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

In the light of communicative approach, exploiting information- gap activitieshas turned to be the useful method Stated by Johnson and Morrow (1981, p 62),

information gap activity is “one of the most fundamental in the whole area of communicative teaching” According to the knowledge about information- gap activities provided by To Thi Thu Huong and Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa (2011), by making

use of information gap activities, the teacher will raise the student’s motivation tospeak English Additionally, students can have more opportunities to experience thereal life situation They are also more active and more involved in the learning process

In brief, information- gap activities give students chances to manipulate Englishappropriately not only inside but also outside the classroom

From the researcher’s observation, however, using IGA has faced up with a lot

of difficulties Firstly, as one of the first year students at FELTE, the researcherwitnessed the fact that students were not familiar with the use of this technique in theclass Hence, using this technique can take a lot of time, which reduced theeffectiveness of information- gap activities As a result, teachers have to prepare a lotbefore starting an IGA Secondly, the teachers have to use up a lot of time selectingand creating the suitable information- gap for teaching speaking skill As a result, it

can lead to more inconvenience for teachers when making lesson plan To be morespecific, some teachers admit that they do not often use IGA in class

Being aware of this difficulty as well as the obvious benefits of usinginformation gap activities, the author of this research paper was encouraged to carry

out a study on “Teachers’ difficulties in using of information-gap activities to teach speaking skill for the first year students at FELTE- ULIS- VNU” The author has

desire to find out the factors which lecturers consider when they select types ofinformation gap activities Besides, reducing difficulties in conducting information-gap activities in teaching speaking skill for the first year students at ED-ULIS-VNUwas also one of the main expectations of this paper It was also estimated that basing

on exploring the difficulties of teachers when using information-gap activities, somerecommendations for solutions to select and conduct IGA can arise from

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

Firstly, the author aimed at finding out the factors affecting the selection to IGA

in teaching speaking skill for the first year students and difficulties in conductinginformation-gap activities in teaching Next, this study was performed to recommendsome solutions for teachers to choose appropriate IGA To achieve these aims of theresearch paper, the following research questions need to be addressed:

1 What are the factors affecting the choices of information-gap activities to teach speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for the first year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?

2 What are the difficulties in selecting and conducting information- gap activities to teach speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for the first year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?

3 What are the solutions to the problems of the teachers in conducting IGA to teach speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for the first year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?

1.3 Significance of the study

The first and foremost significance of this study is that would provide lecturers

of the FELTE with a closer look at the conduct of the information gap activities fromthe aspect of difficulties Hence, they can equip by themselves with the problems inuse of IGA Moreover, the findings of the research will supply some hefpful solutionsfor teachers to reach better use of IGA to teach speaking skill In terms of otherresearchers who share the same topics, the study can perform as reliable sources fortheir further studies in the future

1.4 Scope of the study

Due to limited time and experience, this study focused mainly on the teacher’sdifficulties in selecting and adapting information-gap activities in teaching speakingskill Particularly, this research paper was only made on the aspect of teachers atFLETE- ULIS- VNU In fact, this would be more convenient and manageable for theauthor who is the last year student at this university Finally, this graduation paper didnot focus on teaching all four skills but only speaking skill for the first year students

1.5 Organization

The paper consists of five main parts as follows:

Chapter 1-Introduction states the rationale for the study, aims and research questions,scope, significance and organization of the study

Chapter 2- Literature review aims to supply theoretical background about speakingskill and information-gap activities when teaching speaking skill in the light ofcommunicative approach

Chapter 3- Methodology- expresses the methods which are applied to find out thenecessary for the study In specific, it consists of selection of subjects, researchapproach and procedures of data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4- Results and analysis is the chapter of data analysis In this chapter, theresults will be analyzed in detailed to find out the answers for the above researchquestions

Chapter 5- Conclusions mention the major findings and contributions of the researchstudy Besides, it also refers to the limitations of the paper Finally, in terms of furtherstudies, this chaper supplies some suggestions for other research in the future

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview of speaking skill

2.1.1 The nature of speaking

It is a common knowledge that speaking is the easiest and most effective means

of communication to help people understand each other According to differentlinguists, speaking is presented with different definitions

Introduced by Celce- Murica, Dornyei and Thurrell (1995, p 10- 24), speakingrefers to 5 types of competence including: grammatical competence, strategiccompetence, strategic competence, socio- cultural competence and discoursecompetence In other words, learning to speak a foreign language requires more thanknowing language features, its grammatical and semantic rules Learners need to equipthe knowledge of how native speakers use the language in socially constructedinteractions or what is expected socially and culturally by users of target language

Based on the opinion of Byrne (1998, p.8), speaking is considered as “a two way process between speaker and listener, involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding” Hence, in the process of speaking, both

speaker and listener play a positive function: the speaker has to encode the message to

be understood in an appropriate language, and the listener has to decode the message.This view is also shared by Nunan (2003, p.48) who agrees with Byrne at the pointthat speaking is a productive oral skill and it consists of producing systematic verbalutterances to convey meaning

Scott (1981) believed that in speaking activity, both participants have to playthe role of speaker and listener alternatively when they react to the information theyget and make contribution to it This definition helps to clarify the role of participantswhen taking part in speaking activity Speaking activity can not be informed whenthere is only one person to hear and the other say to the whole of activity

Finally, the researcher finds the definition of Chaney (1998, p.13) quite easy

to understand and follow This definition is also closest to the researcher’s perception

of speaking skill He affirms that speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.”

In other words, speaking skill is one of methods people use to communicate to eachother

2.1.2 Teaching speaking skill in Communicative Language Teaching

2.1.2.1 Communicative Language Teaching

The concept of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is introduced first

by Hymes in 1972 as “communicative competences”

Different from the traditional methods, CLT aims to promote the ability oflearner for effective communication According to Ellis (1993, p 91), communicative

language teaching is designed to “provide learners opportunities for communicating in the second language.” In regard to CLT, Revell (1991, p 5) claims that “ theories of communicative competence imply that teachers must do more than just supply learners with a number of language structures to manipulate.” In other words, teachers have to

do more to motivate students involved in communicating This opinion, evaluated bythe researcher, reflected adequately the differences between CLT and the traditionalmethods Based on the opinion of Pattison (1989, p.19), teachers must do to develop

“the learner’s communicative competence and performance” As Brown (1994, p.226) describes, communicative approach focuses on “speaking and listening skill, on writing for specific communicative purposes, and on authentic reading texts.”

2.1.2.2 Teaching speaking skill in CLT

Speaking skill should be taught in language classroom However, as written by

To Thi Thu Huong (2006), speaking as well as listening skill is ignored withtraditional methods which focus mainly on reading and writing Meanwhile, people

speak everyday much more than they write Byrne (1980, p.9) believed that “the main goal in teaching the productive skill will be oral fluency which can be defied as the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without too much hesitation” With CLT, according to Scott (1981, p.7), “the communicative approach

makes sure that the interactions which take place in classroom are replication of, or necessary prerequisites for a communication operation” In addition, Abu Sharbain (2009, p.23) added that “the communicative approach calls for increasing the students’ talking time and decreasing the teacher’s talking time This comes as a result of providing the learners with opportunities to speak through cooperative independent activities” Hence, from above explanations, the researchers make a

conclusion that teaching speaking skill in CLT will lead to create an active andcommunicative activities for students

2.1.3 The roles of teachers in CLT

In traditional method, teacher often takes the central model and dominates all thetime in the class Meanwhile, teachers in communicative classrooms will findthemselves talking less and listening more- becoming more active facilitators of theirstudents; learning (Larsen- Freeman, 1986) Additionally, claimed by Johnson and

Morrow (1981, p.71), teacher , “instead of being the person who provides prompt that trigger utterance of a certain structure from the students”, “now sets up the conditions for communication to take place” In other words, teacher now does not

take only single role of model but more than that Breen and Candlin (1980)summarized three main roles of teachers in communicative classroom as “facilitator”,

“participant” and “observer and learner” Also giving support for this idea, Byrne(1980, p.1) emphasized that “the first task of a teacher is to create the best conditionsfor learning.”

2.1.4 Principles of teaching speaking skill

In regard to this content, Nunan (2003) and Kayi (2006) suggest someprinciples that helps teacher to create activity for teaching speaking skill There aresome prominent principles used here for basic background as following:

1 The teachers should differentiate between second language and foreignlanguage

2 Fluency and Accuracy should be given to students to practice

3 The teachers should provide opportunity for students to talk by using work and pair- work and limit teachers’ talk.

group-4 Speaking tasks should be planned to involve negotiation of meaning

5 The teachers should design activities involving guidance and practice intransactional and interactional speaking

6 Questions delivered by teachers should motivate students to talk more

7 Teachers should not correct mistakes in pronunciation so often while they arespeaking

8 The teachers should reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasingstudent speaking time Step back and observe students

In brief, teachers should well prepare for mixed classes with a variety of levels.Teachers should create a communication environment for students to practice speakingskill

2 1 5 Problems in teaching speaking skill

However, problems in teaching speaking skill are unavoidable There are some

practical problems as presented by Ur, P (1996, p.21):

- “Inhibition”: Speaking requires speaker’s exposure to an audience, at least Learners can be afraid to speak in front of whole class They will be worried to losetheir face when making mistakes before their friends

- “Nothing to say”: Some students complain that they have nothing to say Thereason is that they have no idea about the target topic or vocabulary of thattopic

- “Low or uneven participation”: This happens when students work in groups.When working with many people, the speaking time of each one will bedecreased Leaders may dominate discussion Meanwhile, others say very little

or even not at all

- “Mother tongue use”: All the students share the same mother tongue Asconsequences, they may use mother tongue to express their ideas because it is

easier and more natural Some students can fell less “exposed” when they usemother tongue

2.1.6 Suggested solutions to problems in teaching speaking skill

To solve the problem of teaching speaking skill, Ur (1996, p.22) suggested somesolutions as follows:

- “Use group work”: This solution will be suitable for problems of inhibition ofstudents They can work in small group in stead of standing in front of wholeclass

- “Base the activity on easy language”: The level for a discussion should be lower

so that it should be easily recalled and produced by participants Hence,teachers should review vocabulary before the activity starts

- “Make a careful choice of topic and task to stimulate interest”: Activity withinteresting topic will motivate students to talk more

- “Give some instructions or training in discussion skills”: Teacher shouldinclude instruction when introducing the task which is based on discussion

- “Keep students speaking the target language”: There are some ways for teachers

to keep students speaking the target language Teachers can stay there besidesstudents as much as possible keeping them from substitute for nagging

2.2 An overview of information gap activities

2.2.1 The nature of IGA

Cited in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic

by Richards, Platt and Weber (1979, p.179), “information gap (in communication between two or more people) is a situation where information is known by only some

of those present.” In the same opinion, Richard (2005, p.17) believed that an

important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap Theexistence of information gap refers to the situation that people communicate to getinformation that they do not possess

According to Harmer (1989, p.88), information gap is “where two speakers have different parts of information making up a whole Because they have different information, there is a gap between them”.

Johnson and Morrow (1981, p.62) proposed that an information gap means “one student must be in a position to tell another something that the second student does not already know”.

Information gap, based on the definition given by Harmer (1991, p.48), is “a gap between the two persons in the information they possess, and the conversation helps to close that gap so that now both speakers have the same situation”.

From the previous explanation, the researcher concludes that information gapmeans that there is a gap of information between speakers and listener Also, that gap

is also one of the main reasons they need to communicate to close it Activities

designed based on information gap, As Scrivener (1994, p.62) explained, is to “get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanges of information”

2.2.2 Types of IGA

In fact, the concept of information gap is quite broad As a consequence, each

linguist provides different categorization of information gap activities They are asfollowing:

Norman and Levihn (1986, p.100) categorized information into two types as

“puzzle form” and “personal questionnaire”

Doff (1989) agreed at certain extend when he claimed that information gapactivity includes “guessing games, IGA for pair work and exchange personal IGA” Littelewood (1981) divided IGA into two kinds that are “sharing informationwith restricted cooperation” and “sharing information with unrestricted cooperation”

According to Long (1990), IGA can be two kinds: “supplied to the learner” and “supplied by the learner”.

Based on the fact that one or both learners have information to share, Ellis (1999) divided IGA into “one-way activities” and “two-way activities.”

However, the researcher finds the categorization of Doff easiest to follow.This research paper will be based on Doff’s way to divide the IGA For betterunderstanding of this theory, the researcher tabled types of IGA as following:

Table 1: Types of information gap activities

2.2.2.1 Guessing game

According to Ur (1981), “a guessing game is the process of discovery by one individual or group of an item of information known to another, with some on its transmission” In guessing game, students are forced to ask question to find the

information about the things There are existence of “knower” and “guesser” in thistype of IGA In the light of Doff’s view, guessing games consist of the followingpopular types:

a Guessing the picture

In this type, teacher prepares a set of flashcards with simple pictures The teacher

will call one student to choose one card, but does not show to class Class has to askquestions to the student to know what the picture is

For examples:

T: Guess how I went to A

Ss: Did you go by car?

Information gap activities

Guessing games Information gap

excises

Exchanging personal information

Did you go by bus?

Did you walk?

b Guess the sentence

The teacher writes a sentence on a piece of card The sentence is hidden, but thebasic structure is written on the board to provide context for the guessing Forexample:

I went to do Then students ask questions to guess the right

sentence

Ss: Did you go to the park?

Did you go to school?

Did you go to stadium?

c Guess famous people

One student pretends to be a famous person The other students make questions toguess who that famous person is For example:

Are you Vietnamese or English?

Are you a singer?

Are you a actress?

d Mime

The teacher calls one student to the board and gives her a sentence Student willsee and describe by simple activity The other will try to guess the situation by askingquestions

e What’s my line?

One student chooses a job, and mimes a typical activity related to the job The

other students can ask questions about the activity or the job, For example: Were you reading something?

Were you digging?

f What and where

Two students are sent out of the room while other students hide an object Twostudents come back and give questions to guess what the object is The questions can

be like “Is it made of wood?” or “Is it a pen?” or “Is it high or low?”

2.2.2.2 Information gap exercises

Different from guessing game, information gap exercises aimed at real communicativepractice

Presented by Doff (1989), these exercises are usually designed form pair work and can

be done in various ways as followings:

- One student has some information; the others have to find out by askingquestions

- The two students in each pair are given different information, and they have tocommunicate to find out

- One student has information, and tells it to other students

The researcher presented Doff’s opinion in the form of table for better comprehension:Table 2: Types of information gap exercises

Completing

the grid

Detecting differences

Jigsaw activities Shopping list

Students may

work in pair or in

student has an

empty grid and

other has the text

Each student has one

or a few pieces of the

“puzzle”, and theymust cooperate to fitall the pieces into awhole picture The

“puzzle” can exist inmany forms It can

be sentences form astory or photos to tell

a story

Students work inpair in which one iscustomer whileother student is ashop assistant with

a list of items in theshop and their

communicate to buyand sell things

2.2.2.3 Exchanging personal information activities

In Doff’s opinion, this kind of information gap is considered as one of the easiestand most interesting form Taking part in this type, students are motivated to talk about

their interests, their own lives, and experiences A typical model is your favorite is or Find some one who Students walk around and ask their friends if they like or dislike

something given in the questionnaire

2.2.3 Benefits of using IGA in teaching speaking skill.

According to Ur (1996, p.120), a successful speaking activity happens when+ Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period of time spent for the activity isoccupied by learner talk

+ Participation is even: Not only the talkative participants of classroom take part inspeaking activity All students can get a chance to speak “Even” explains that allcontributions are reasonably evenly spread

+ Motivation is high: Students want to join in speaking activity because they havesomething new to share or they want to have a say in completing a task

+ Language is of an acceptable level: The language of students is comprehensible,relevant and easy to understand

Related to the benefits to motivate students to talk a lot, Adrian Doff (1988) has the

same opinion when he says that an information gap activity “provides intensive and interesting language practice Although the exercises are quite controlled and use simple language, the students are really exchanging information and using language communicatively”.

David Norman, Ulf Levihn and Jan Ander Hedenquist (1986, p.100), discussing

about students’ participation in IGA, affirms that “IGA ensure the classroom activities involve some exchange of information to more complex exchanges which involve not only information but ideas and attitudes They are important because they are a step away from formal practice towards an activity which more closely mirrors the use of language outside the classroom”.

According to Nunan, D (1989, p.122), “information gap can, in fact, act as a nucleus around which a range if other tasks and exercise types can be constructed”.

2.2.4 Factors affecting the choice of IGA

In order to choose suitable IGA, teachers should consider some factors Based

on the graduation paper completed by Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from 051E10, there arefour factors affecting the choice of IGA The factors are listed as the students’language level, the time allowance, the language focus and the necessary teaching aids Firstly, students’ language level is the most significant factor If the activity isabove their level, student will find too difficult to complete Then, it will waste of timewith no effectiveness

Secondly, the chosen information gap activities have to be suitable to objectives of thelesson Hence, the objectives of the lesson have to be clarified right from the start ofthe lesson

Thirdly, time allowance should be considered, too For in stance, aninformation gap activity set for warming activity should be less than ten minutes.Meanwhile, fifteen to twenty can be spent for an information gap activity in order topractice newly presented language items

Lastly, teaching aids also need paying attention to If it is difficult to find thematerials for an information activity, IGA should be omitted or replaced Hence,during the preparation, the teacher should assure that the aids are available, visible andattractively presented so that students can be motivated

2.2.5 Typical procedure to conduct an IGA.

Levihn and Hendenquist (1986, p.101) provide 5 steps to conduct an IGA

- Step 1: Class are divided in to pairs

- Step 2: Each student in each pair is given the half of IGA The informationgiven to students should include the instruction Giving instruction that they arenot allowed to look at their partner’s information

- Step 3: It is time for preparation silently

- Step 4: Students do the activity.

- Step 5: There is more than one pair “performs” before the class After each

“performance”, the pair with the same content is invited to give comment Bothteacher and students make comments on how the language can be improved

2.2.6 The teacher’s role in teaching IGA activities

In IGA activities, teachers have to take many different roles The following pointsclarify the roles of teacher in teaching IGA activities

The first role of teacher is known as “designer or organizer” According to Brown

(2001, p 167), teacher has to “keep the learning process flowing smoothly and efficiently” In addition, Byrne (1991, p.13) considers teachers as an actor when supposing that the teacher “will have to play different roles at their learners” In other

words, teacher has to be flexible to require different demand of students However,

“the most effective activities can be made almost useless if the teacher does not organize them properly” (Harmer, 1991, p.235)

Secondly, teacher is also known as participant and prompter Liao (2008 p.17)

believed that “there is no reason why the teacher should not participate as an equal in the activity” Teacher can offer his information at the same time introduce and present

new language Harmer (2001) points out that the teacher also needs to let studentsovercome a difficult situation

Finally, teacher can take the role of investigator and assessor According toHarmer (1991), as an investigator, the teacher has a desire to develop their skills andlanguage learning In addition, as an assessor, teacher will give commence onstudents’ performance in the activities, then evaluate and adjust teaching target to thereal situations

In brief, this point of view about the roles of teachers stands at the same ground

as the mentioned literature review The researcher has concluded that the teachers lessdominate the time in the class compared to traditional methods However, it does notmean that their roles become less important than in traditional activities

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, the researcher presented an overview about theliterature review setting theoretical foundation for the study In this chapter, themethodology utilized to answer the research questions would be revealed The

participants, the instruments to collect data and the procedure to collect and analyzedata would be also indicated

3.1 Research design

To find the answers for three questions raised in the introduction, the researcheradopted a combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach By adoptingquantitative method, the researcher can improve the level of reliabilility when

performing mass survey according to Baseley (1970, as well as “arrives at more objective conclusions”, and “eliminates or minimizes subjectivity of judgment”

(Kealey & Protheroe, 1996, 141- 165) However, it has restricted the power ofexplanation Combined with qualitative method, including teacher interviews, the datawill be improved The qualitative approach, according to Burnes (1999, p.22) cited in

the study implemented by Ms Tran Thi Hieu Thuy, is “to draw conclusions from the data collected to make sense of how human behaviors, situations and experiences construct realities” These instruments were made use of to reveal what the teachers

really thought about information gap and the difficulties they faced up with in reality

In addition, the scale of this study was quite small Hence, it would be better if aninsightful investigation can be conducted A qualitative approach can promise an in-depth understanding Via combining qualitative and quantitative methods, theresearcher can reach the objectives Consequently, the researcher can get the deepunderstanding about the factors as well as the realities in conducting IGA to teachspeaking skill with the objective values and variable control It is expected that therelationship between teachers’ self-report and their actual behavior in adapting IGA inclasses will be examined

3 2 Participants

3.2.1 Population

Since the study involving in teachers’ difficulties with information gapactivities, the role of teachers is undeniable Meanwhile, the research paper

investigates the problems when lecturers teach speaking skill for the first yearstudents As a result, the participants are expected to be the teachers who are teachingthe first year students at Faculty of English language teacher education They have hadexperience in teaching speaking skill for the first year students at FELTE- ULIS-VNU It means that they have faced up with many problems during their time ofteaching speaking skill Additionally, most of teachers acquire the MA degree inTESOL and others are pursuing an MA course in TESOL at CFL- VNU

3.2.2 Sampling method

In the light of simple random sampling, introduced by Gary (1990, p 27),

which is “All members of the study population are either physically presented or listed, and the members are selected at random until a previously specified number of members or unit has been selected”, the researcher was capable of achieving

understanding into the topic investigated The informants included 20 teachers who areteaching the first year students They were picked up randomly from the list of allteachers at English I Division, FELTE- ULIS- VNU

3.3 Data collection instruments

3.3.1 Questionnaires

To obtain reliable and valid result, the survey questionnaire was adopted as the

main source of data According to Brown (2001, p.6) “questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers” In theory, questionnaires are both time saving and labour saving for the

researcher According to Robinson (1991), the procedures for data collection are

“manageable, cost effective in terms of time and money, and appropriate for the situation” In other words, with a relatively short period of time, the researcher can

deliver the survey to a larger number of participants than other methods In addition, asPeterson (2001) confirms, the obtained data, especially from closed questions, is

relatively easy to analyze Those advantages of questionnaires led the researchers tomake use of it as one important instrument for the research

The questionnaire delivered to the teachers consists of 20 items (mostly ended) organized into 4 sections Section 1 with 5 questions, aims to collect generalinformation and categorize the respondents such as age, gender, experience inteaching speaking skill for the first year students at FELTE- ULIS-VNU Sections 2includes 5 questions about information on teachers’ understanding IGA Section 3 with

close-9 questions continues to explore experiences of lecturers in choosing and practicinginformation gap activities to teach speaking skill Section 4 with 1 question aims torecommend the solutions for the problems incited in above sections Details on teacherquestionnaires can be found in Appendix 1

3.3.2 Interviews

Besides questionnaires, the researcher used semi- structured interviews as a data

collection instrument for obtaining further information on the issues of the study “As interview are interactive, the researcher can elicit additional data if initial answers are vague, incomplete, off-topic or not specific enough” (Mackey and M Grass,

2005) This interview was prepared in advance to get in- depth information about thedifficulties and motivate the participants to provide suggestions for solving theproblems Dowsett (1986, p.53) confirms that a semi- structured interview gives theinterviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview; it alsogives the interviewer a greater deal of flexibility Together with note- taking, theresearcher would get information from interview by recording for checking andrevising later Surveyed teachers were invited to participate in the interview whichlasted within 15 minutes each

3.3.3 Observation

Because the research paper is on a practical issue, classroom observation isregarded as an effective tool to verify the results obtained through questionnaires and

interviews According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000, p.51) “observational data are attractive as they afford the researcher the opportunity to gather ‘live’ data from ‘live’ situations” With the use of “over time and repeated observation, the researcher can gain a deeper and more multilayered understanding of the participants and their content” (Mackey and Gass, 2005, p 176) The researcher completed

collected data by filling up the observation checklist during observation Theobservation checklist aimed to clarify the procedure of an IGA and students’involvement in one IGA

3.4 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure includes two main stages:

3.4.1 Collecting data

Step 1: In this stage, the researcher prepared the questionnaire and the interviewschedule Firstly, these questionnaires were analyzed, revised to avoid the case that thequestions would not be comprehensible and the answers would be too difficult to beanalyzed After that, they would be piloted to one participant so that the researchercould identify additional problems listed as ambiguous or difficult, repetitive or notclear enough items Afterwards, the research could add or omit to give the suitablequestionnaires and interview questions These questionnaires and interview questionswere then completed before delivered to the target population

Step 2: The questionnaires were sent to 20 teachers at English I Division, ULIS- VNU Before distributing the questionnaires, the researcher had to acquirepermission of teachers at FELTE In email, the researcher gave the instructions toparticipants clearly and informatively so that valid data was collected Should there befurther inquires, informants were encouraged to contact the research via email ormobiphone