NGHIÊN cứu VIỆC sử DỤNG HÌNH THỨC DIỄN đàn để TĂNG CƯỜNG kỹ NĂNG nói CHO SINH VIÊN CLC năm 2 tại KHOA sư PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN

Recently, due to the development of globalization, there has been increasing a demand for good communication. It is hence, speaking has been paid lots of attention. Being one of the leading institutions in Vietnam in Foreign language educating and training, University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) has been making an attempt to enhance Speaking skills by including Forum as a compulsory activity in speaking lesson for second year Fast track students. With a lot of advantages, Forum is considered as an effective activity helping promote students’ speaking skills. Firstly, background of the study, consisting of definitions and descriptions of key concepts and related studies was given. Afterward, in order to achieve its purpose, quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. In the first place, survey questionnaires were exploited to study 75 students in the Fast track group. After that, 8 participants were interviewed with the purpose of elaborating on students’ responses in the questionnaires and probing for more details from the students. Correspondingly, 2 teachers from Fast track group, who were in charge of teaching Speaking skills for secondyear Fast track students this academic year, were selected as participants for both survey and interview. The description of the methodology employed in this study was followed by the findings and discussions presented in the fourth chapter. Finally, it is teachers’ pedagogical suggestions to minimize the difficulties, together with the researcher’s pedagogical implications. The most remarkable finding of this research is that the aspects of Interacting with others and Sociolinguistic knowledge are most developed through Forum. Moreover, based on these findings, implications were made for teachers and classroom teaching. It is suggested that teachers should comment on both preparation and complementation stages of Forum.

Recently, due to the development of globalization, there has been increasing ademand for good communication It is hence, speaking has been paid lots of attention.Being one of the leading institutions in Vietnam in Foreign language educating andtraining, University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) has been making

an attempt to enhance Speaking skills by including Forum as a compulsory activity inspeaking lesson for second year Fast track students With a lot of advantages, Forum isconsidered as an effective activity helping promote students’ speaking skills

Firstly, background of the study, consisting of definitions and descriptions ofkey concepts and related studies was given Afterward, in order to achieve its purpose,quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study In the first place,survey questionnaires were exploited to study 75 students in the Fast track group.After that, 8 participants were interviewed with the purpose of elaborating on students’responses in the questionnaires and probing for more details from the students.Correspondingly, 2 teachers from Fast track group, who were in charge of teachingSpeaking skills for second-year Fast track students this academic year, were selected

as participants for both survey and interview The description of the methodologyemployed in this study was followed by the findings and discussions presented in thefourth chapter Finally, it is teachers’ pedagogical suggestions to minimize thedifficulties, together with the researcher’s pedagogical implications

The most remarkable finding of this research is that the aspects of Interactingwith others and Sociolinguistic knowledge are most developed through Forum.Moreover, based on these findings, implications were made for teachers and classroomteaching It is suggested that teachers should comment on both preparation andcomplementation stages of Forum

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS University of Language and International Studies

LIST OF FIGURES& DIAGRAMS

FIGURE 2 Students’ attitude towards the effectiveness of

Forum activity in developing speaking skills 26

FIGURE2 Aspects of speaking proficiency Students had

gained (as perceived by themselves) 28

FIGURE3 Facilitators’ difficulties in the facilitation stage 37FIGURE4 Participants’ difficulties in the facilitation stage 40

DIAGRAM 1 Schematic Representation of Communicative

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS i

LIST OF FIGURES & DIAGRAMS i

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the Problem and Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

3 Significance of the study 1

4 Scope of the study 1

5 An over view of the rest of the paper 1

PART II DEVELOPMENT 1

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method 1

1.1.1 An overview of CLT 1

1.1.2 Concept of CLT 1

1.1.3 Communicative competence 1

1.2 Speaking skills in L2 teaching and learning 1

1.2.1 An overview of speaking skills 1

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills in L2 teaching and learning context 1

1.2.3 The communicative approach to teach and learn speaking skills 1

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1.3 Forum 1

1.3.1 Definition of forum 1

1.3.2 The use of forum in teaching 1

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 1

2.1 Setting and participants 18

2.1.1 Students 1

2.1.2 Teachers 1

2.1.2 Forum activity in Fast-track group 1

2.2 Data collection instruments 1

2.2.1 Questionnaire 20

2.2.1.1 Questionnaire for students 20

2.2.1.2 Questionnaire for teachers 22

2.2.2 Interview 1

2.3.2 Interview procedure 1

2.4 Data analysis method 1

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 27

3.1 Background information about students’ attitudes towards speaking skills and Forum activity 1

3.2 Research question 1: Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can 2nd -year Fast track students gain through Forum activity as perceived by students themselves 1

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3.3 Research question 2: Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can 2 nd -year Fast track students gain through Forum

activity as perceived by teachers? 1

3.4 Research question 3: What are the difficulties faced by 2 nd -year Fast track students in the facilitation stage in Forum as perceived by themselves? 1

3.4.1 For Facilitators 1

3.4.2 For Participants 1

PART III.CONCLUSION 1

1 Summary of the findings 1

2 Contribution of the research and pedagogical implications 1

3 Limitations of the study 1

4 Suggestions for further studies 1

REFERENCES 1

APPENDICES 50

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE (For students) 1

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (For teachers) 1

APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW 1 – INTERVIEWEE A 1

APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW 2 – INTERVIEWEE B 1

APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW 3 – INTERVIEWEE C 1

APPENDIX 6: INTERVIEW 4 – INTERVIEWEE D 1

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APPENDIX 7: INTERIVIEW 5 – INTERVIEWEE E 1

APPENDIX 8: INTERVIEW 6 – INTERVIEWEE F 1

APPENDIX 9: INTERVIEW 7 – INTERVIEWEE G 1

APPENDIX 10: INTERVIEW 8 – INTERVIEWEE H 1

APPENDIX 11: INTERVIEW 9 – TEACHER X 1

APPENDIX 12: INTERVIEW 10 – TEACHER Y 1

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PART I INTRODUCTION

This first chapter states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, the objectives, the scope and the significance of the whole paper Above all, the research questions are identified to function as the goals of the whole research.

1 Statement of the Problem and Rationale of the study

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are known as the four major skills inteaching and learning any languages and English is not an exception Nevertheless,because of the growing need for good communication skills in English, speaking isconsidered as the most essential skill to be mastered Bygate (1987) even emphasizesthat in order to deliver most of ideas or thoughts, learners need to be able to speak orcommunicate confidently For this reason, speaking and the teaching of speaking areworth paying attention to With the hope of serving the need for better communication,Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been applied to English languageteaching since the late 1960s CLT is an approach to the teaching of second andforeign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal

of learning a language It is also referred to “communicative approach to the teaching

of foreign languages” or simply the “communicative approach” Hence, this method’sgoal is teaching “communicative competence” including not only grammaticalcompetence but also sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence (Canale &Swan 1980) In the light of this approach, English is looked on as an internationalmeans of communicating

Globally, in terms of L2 teaching and learning context, especially in CLT,various activities which can promote speaking are provided in communicative methodlike role play, forum, simulations, information gap, storytelling, interviews, storycompletion, reporting and playing cards, etc (Hadi 2011) Among them, yet, forum is

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infrequently used It is commonly known that Forum is used as method helping aidteaching and learning by providing a virtual space to share ideas, opinions related tothe subjects in class In the West, according to Garrison (1993), Gilbert (1995) andGangel (2010), Forum is an ideal teaching method which enhances and extends thebenefits of other information—transmitting approaches to learning On the contrary,this method has not been paid too much attention in the Asia; there have been hardlyany studies found on this topic.

In Vietnam, it appears to have no difference from the Asian picture Being one

of the leading institutions in Vietnam in language education, the University ofLanguages and International Studies has been well aware of this issue Forum activityhas been included in speaking lesson for students in Fast track group right in thesecond year as a compulsory assignment Moreover, this activity is designed with theaim of developing students’ speaking proficiency Though Forum has beenimplemented for 10 years in Fast track group and it is claimed to be an effectiveactivity helping develop speaking skills, there has been no research studying on thisissue It is, thus, completely needed an investigation on whether or not Forum activitybenefits second year students in terms of improving their speaking ability

All of these factors encourage the researcher to conduct this study entitled “The use of Forum to develop Speaking skills for 2nd-year Fast track Students at FELTE, ULIS, VNU” The study is an effort to investigate the application of Forum

activity in Fast track group, FELTE, ULIS, VNU

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The primary purpose of the present research is to explore the use of Forum todevelop speaking skills for 2nd-year fast track students This research also aims atgiving suggestions made by the teachers to have a better use of forum activity.Specifically, the research seeks for answers to the following question

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i Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can2 nd -year Fast track students at FELTE, ULIS, VNU gain through Forum activity as perceived by students themselves?

ii Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can 2 nd -year Fast track students at FELTE, ULIS, VNU gain through Forum activity as perceived by teachers?

iii What are the difficulties faced by 2 nd -year Fast track students in the facilitation stage in Forum as perceived by themselves?

3 Significance of the study

Once completed, the research would be beneficial to teachers, 2nd-year Fasttrack students and other scientists who share the same interest in this topic

In the first place, it is hoped to serve as an investigation into the use as well asthe effects of using Forum for 2nd-year Fast track students in speaking lessons To bemore specific, this research would be a useful source for lecturers of the Fast trackgroup to consult about students’ attitudes towards Forum activity as it would providethem with a closer look at the conduct of the activity by their students Hence, theresearcher hopes that this study can draw teachers’ and the policy-makers’ attention tostudents’ difficulties in conducting Forum activity As a result, Forum activity could

be implemented not only within Fast track community but also in mainstream classes

at FELTE, ULIS

Secondly, students would be benefit more from Forum activity as well asspeaking lessons while studying accordingly

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Thirdly, this is the first research studying on the use of Forum as a method toenhance Speaking skill for students at Fast rack group, FELTE, ULIS, VNU, it ishoped to help enrich the literature on this topic.

Last but not least, as for researchers who are also interested in the same topiccan refer to this paper as a source of updated and reliable information

4 Scope of the study

To the researcher’s knowledge and perception, Forum is one of the mosteffective activities in speaking classroom However, due to the limitation of time andhuman resources, this paper only attempts to research on a small group ofparticipation, namely 2nd-year Fast track students at FELTE, ULIS, VNU as in theSpeaking syllabus there is a compulsory and official activity called Forum besidesInformative and Persuasive Presentations This activity is designed for 2nd-year Fasttrack students with the guidelines Additionally, the researcher does not expect tostudy on the application of Forum in different fields in general such as InformationTechnology, Economics, Politics, etc but in English Language teaching and learningspecifically Last but not least, this paper does not try to cover all the four skills inteaching and learning a second language but focuses merely on speaking skills

5 An over view of the rest of the paper

Part II – Development is comprised of three chapters:

Chapter 1– Literature review - gives the background of the study, consisting of

definitions and descriptions of key concepts

Chapter 2 – Methodology – gives descriptions of the participants and the settings for

the study as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research

Chapter 3 – Results and Discussions – presents the findings together with in-depth

analysis and discussion of the findings – gives answers to the two research questionsproposed at the introduction chapter

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Part III - Conclusion - summarizes the main issues discussed in the study, the

limitations of the research and proposes some recommendations and suggestions forfurther studies

Following this chapter are the References and Appendices

Conclusive remark

In this chapter, the researcher has elaborated on the following points

(1) Statement and rationale of the study

(2) Aims and objectives of the study

(3) Scope of the study

(4) Significance of the study

(5) An overview of the rest of the paper

Generally, these elaborations have not only justified the major contents and structure

of the study but also worked as the guidelines for the rest of the paper

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PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter, as its name suggested, provides a brief review of the literature related, specifically the background and a number of studies related to the research topic Initially, key terms such as Communicative Language Teaching method (CLT) and communicative competence or speaking skills and forum will be defined together with their sub-related issues.

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method

1.1.1 An overview of CLT

It is believed that communicative approach started developing in Great Britainwhen British applied linguists began to question the assumptions underscoringAudiolingualism and Situational Language Teaching (Basta 2011) The origins of CLTwere found in the changes in the British language teaching from the late 1960s(Richards and Rogders 2001, p 153) At that time, there was a reaction towardstraditional language teaching approaches beginning and soon spreading around theworld as those older methods However, the old methods somehow fell out of fashion

as the focus of grammar in language teaching and learning was questioned Showingthis trend’s point of view, Richards and Rodgers (2001) state that though grammaticalcompetence plays an important role in learning a languages and it is can be mastered

by learners, it is the fact that it does not cover all dimensions of a language It can beeasily seen a learner, who can master language grammar, is still incapable of using thelanguage for a meaningful communication The authors further claim that moreattention has been paid to other aspects of language appropriately for different

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communicative purposes such as making requests, giving advice, making suggestions,describing wishes and need, etc besides grammatical competence What was needed

in order to use language communicatively was communicative competence (Richards

& Rodgers 2001, p3)

The two authors further provide aspects of language related to CLT:

 Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions

 Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants (e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication)

 Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts (e.g., narratives, reports, interviews, conversations)

 Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge (e.g., through using different kinds of communication strategies)

Brumfit and Johnson (cited in Richards & Rodgers 2001) agree thatcommunication does not imply just composing correct sentences but using them “tomake statements of different kinds, to describe, to record, to classify and so on, or toask questions, make requests, give orders”

Peipho (cited in Richards & Rodgers 2001) shows his point of view in terms ofCLT’s purposes as

 an integrative and content level

 a linguistics and instrumental level

 an affective level of interpersonal relationship and conduct

 a level of individual learning needs

 a general educational level of extra-linguistics goals

Through these points of view, it is clearly seen that, CLT is viewed as ateaching method where the ability to use the language to produce a meaningfulcommunication in a context accounts for a large scale

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In this view of CLT, the roles of learner and teacher in class differ from theirs

in traditional classroom According to Richard and Rodgers (2001), learners in CLTclassroom need to be more active and cooperative as they are required to participate inmore pair works and group works and then, communicate with others to complete thetask, which cannot be done individually In comparison with the traditional classroom,learners just passively listen to teachers’ lecture As a result, teachers, in CLT class,need to assume themselves as a facilitator and monitor rather than being a model forcorrecting speech and writing

1.1.3 Communicative competence

The term “communicative competence” has been in circulation for about fortyyears and has been used extensively in justifications and explications ofcommunicative language teaching (Celce-Murcia There have been a lot of definitionsfor Communicative competence in the light of communicative approach

This term is coined by the anthropological linguist Dell Hymes (1967, 1972);

he put forward this notion in response to the theories of the formal linguist NoamChomsky, who focuses on linguistic competence and claims that any consideration of

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social factors was outside the domain of linguistics Chomsky (1965) claims that anideal speaker-hearer in a wholly homogeneous speech community is the main concern

of linguistic theory It can be understood that an ideal conversation only takes placewhen listener or speaker can successfully deliver their speech without any difficulties

coming from “grammatical irrelevant conditions as memory limitation, distractions, shifts of attention and interest and errors in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance” Chomsky further claims that language structure and its

acquisition are context-free, which means an innate language mechanism is sufficient

to account for first language acquisition It can be seen that Chomsky’s linguistic viewfocuses too much on the “correctness” but does not pay adequate attention to thesocio-culture of language In response to Chomsky’s concept, Hymes (1972) arguesthat in addition to linguistic competence, one also needed notions of sociolinguisticcompetence to account for language acquisition and language use He is thus, arguedthat language structure and its acquisition were not context-free It is seen that,Hyme’s theory proposed a much more comprehensive view than Chomsky’s

Canale and Swain (1980) add strategic competence to the linguistic competenceand sociolinguistic competence that Hymes (1972) had proposed; however, theyreferred to “linguistic competence” as “grammatical competence” A few years later,Canale (1983) adds discourse competence Later on, in the mid nineties, Celce-Murcia

et al (1995) propose that actional competence should also be considered as a part ofcommunicative competence This component is defined as the ability to match actionalintent with linguistic form based on the knowledge of language functions andknowledge of speech acts sets It is thus, according to him and his colleague,Communicative Competence includes five components The researcher is particularly

in favor of Celce-Murcia’s classification Therefore, on the following, the maincomponents of each of the five competences in Celce-Murcia’s model would beoutlined in order to make it clearer:

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(1) Discourse Competence is to do with the selection, sequencing, and

arrangement of words, structures, utterances/sentences, to achieve a unifiedspoken/ written test

(2) Linguistic competence consists of knowledge such as linguistic systems as a

syntactic, morphological, lexical, phonological, and orthographic systemsneeded to realize communication in speech or writing

(3) Actional competence is defined as the ability to match actional intent with

linguistic form based on the knowledge of language functions andknowledge of speech act sets

(4) Socio-cultural competence refers to speaker’s knowledge of how to express

message appropriately within the overall social and cultural context ofcommunication

(5) Strategic competence is defined as knowledge of communication strategies

and how to use them for negotiating and resolving communicative problems

as well as for compensating communicative deficiencies of the other fourcompetences

(To et al 2012, p30-31)

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Diagram 2 Schematic Representation of Communicative Competence

(Celce-Murcia et al 1995 cited in To et al 2012)

As for the sake of clarity and consistency, this paper will refer to Celce-Murcia

et al’s classification whenever the term “communicative competence” is mentioned

1.2 Speaking skills in L2 teaching and learning

1.2.1 An overview of speaking skills

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, is morecomplicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words

Brown (1994) defines speaking as an interactive process of constructingmeaning involving producing, receiving and processing information It is understoodthat speaking only takes place where there have been the attendance and cooperation

of both speakers and listeners Sharing their agreement with Brown, Mead & Nancy(1985) view communication as a process in which each individual alternatively takesthe role of speakers and listeners in order to maintain the conversation Thus, it is seenthat speakers and listeners need to interact with each other well in order to have asuccessful communication Mead & Nancy further state that communication is used to

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achieve a specific purposes such as to inform, to persuade and to solve problems This

is somehow similar to Mackey (1965)’s definition about oral communication InMackey’s summary of oral expression (cited in Bygate 1987), he claims that oralexpression is more than the use of right sounds or pattern of rhythm or intonation It isalso about which words are used and how they are arranged orally in order to make ameaningful idea or opinions Thus, this helps the speakers convey the right meaningverbally

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills in L2 teaching and learning context

It is indisputable that speaking is one of the basic skills that must be mastered

by students They need to practice it especially in learning teaching in order to befluent Without an ability to speak, it would be impossible to have a naturalcommunication among people

In Oxford Advanced Dictionary, speaking is said to help us “express orcommunicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves theactivities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological and physicalstages” (p129)

As a result, it is undoubtedly that one of the objectives in teaching language is

to help learners be able to use the language effectively Learners must be aware thatspeech maintains a higher position than other skills Bygate (1987) puts an emphasis

on the importance of speaking by stating that speaking “is a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning”.

This can be understood that speaking is an effective way of communication helpinglearners acquire the language they are learning efficiently

Flohr & Paesler (2006), sharing the same idea with Bygate, assert that speakingskills are the most important ones to be learnt in a foreign language The two authorseven add that the objective of learning a foreign language is helping learners become

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fluent speakers Thus, communication activities and expressive abilities are the mainfocus in language teaching and learning (Flohr & Paesler 2006, p.6).

From these two points of view, it is seen that the goal of helping learnerscommunicate effectively in L2 is the core reason making speaking skills worth beingpaid much attention

In sum, speaking skill, which plays a vital part in the teaching and learning ofEnglish, require the endeavor of both teachers and students to gain the mastery of it

1.2.3 The communicative approach to teach and learn speaking skills

Richards & Rogers (2001, p.161) offer four characteristics of teaching undercommunicative view of language:

 language is a system for the expression of meaning;

 primary function of language is for interaction and communication;

 the structure of language reflects its functional and communicative areas;and

 the primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structuralfeatures, but categories of functional and communicative meaning asexemplified in discourse

The researcher particularly favors the aspects of speaking proficiency provided

by To et al (2012) basing on the framework of communicative competence under CLTapproach in ESL/EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices as follow:

 Lexis and grammar: it is the use of a number of common lexical, especially to

perform certain language functions such as agreeing, disagreeing, expressingsurprise, approval, etc

 Connected speech: i.e common phenomenon in spoken interactions in which

sounds are modified (assimilation), omitted (elision), added (linking r) orweakened (through contractions and stress pattering) Effective speaker thus

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need to be able not only produce individual phonemes (as I would have) butalso to use connected speech (I’d gone).

 Expressive devices: native speakers of English change pitch and stress of

particular parts of utterances, or vary volume and speed to convey meaningsbeyond their word, especially in face-to-face communication Students need torecognize and deploy some of such features and devices in the same way if theyare to be effective communications

 Compensating language: effective speaking benefits from the language of

negotiation that we use to seek clarification and to show the structure of what

we are saying Speakers also need to know when and how to take the floor, how

to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation, and how toclear up communication breakdown as well as comprehension problems

 Language processing: effective speakers need to be able to process language in

their own heads and put it into coherent order so that it comes out informs thatare not only comprehensible but also convey the meanings that are intended.One of the main reasons for including speaking activities in language lessons is

to help students develop habits of rapid processing in English

 Interacting with others: most speaking involves interaction with one or more

participants This means that effective speaking involves a good deal oflistening and understanding of how the other participants are feeling and aknowledge of how linguistically to take turns or allow others to do so

 Real time information processing: the ability to process the information others

tell us the moment we get it The longer it takes, the less efficient we are

 Sociolinguistic knowledge: knowledge of language alone does not adequately

prepare learners for effective and appropriate use of target language Learnersmust have competence which involves knowing what is expected socially and

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culturally by users of target language Understanding the sociolinguistic side oflanguage helps learners know what comments are appropriately, know how toask questions during interaction, and know how to respond nonverballyaccording to the purpose of the talk.

(To et al 2012, p.41)

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All things considered, in this study, the researcher adopts this framework of To

Sharing this definition, Renner (1983) identifies forum as a two-waycommunication which can be applied for various group size for teaching purpose Hethen broadened the definition by explaining forum is a lecture followed by opendiscussion There is limited amount of group interaction, but mainly speaker-listenerexchanges Hence, mainly independent learning takes place

On the other hand, Lakshmana (2011) defines forum as a teaching method,which is a Question – answer period that may follow any one of the above methods ofpresentation It consists of question period in which members of the audience may askquestions or make brief statements Lakshmana defines Forum a “question-answerpanel” in which the presentation is actually a series of questions by the leader (orchairman) and answers by the members

1.3.2 The use of forum in teaching

Recently, Forum has been used as a method helping support teaching andlearning Forum, in the first place, is commonly known as a virtual place for sharingopinions, ideas …

Garrison (1993) states that discussion forum online helps provide a platformthat fosters the sharing of ideas He further explains that it also gives a medium wherelearners can critically evaluate each other’s ideas and blend elements to create new

ideas Stephen, in his study, claims that Forum discussion could help support learners’collaboration.

Sharing the same idea with Garrion, Gilbert (cited in Akers 1997) argue thatForum is an ideal opportunity for students share ideas, experiences, solutions among

themselves as well as with their instructors in a “time-of-convenience and convenience” Akers, in his study, implies that through Forum students could have

place-of-better communication skills, enhance the ability to interact effectively and especially

critical thinking It is because, in Forum students need to interact by “interpreting, evaluating, and critiquing peers' comments and by sharing information.”

Gangel (2010), in his study, approaches Forum as a supplementary methodhelping enhance and extend the benefits of other information—transmittingapproaches to learning It is so, Forum offers the additional dimension of allowing theaudience to ask questions about points which are not clear during the previouspresentation He then continues strengthening the values of forum by stating that itdoes provide an opportunity for the correcting of misimpressions given by thespeakers Moreover, the forum is also a form of review in which the audience canagain think through the issues, thereby providing additional order and design to thelearning experience

In short, Forum, as reviewed in this chapter, is considered as an ancillarymethod helping support learning and teaching in a virtual community Nevertheless,this is considerably different from Forum used in Fast track ULIS context Forum, asused in the context of Fast track Program, FELTE, ULIS, VNU, is a compulsoryassignment in which students conduct a forum and share opinions about one issueface-to-face Such a gap encourages the researcher to discover how the Forum modelused in Fast track group benefit students

In conclusion, it can be seen that Forum has been used as a method supportinglearning and teaching Commonly, this is known as a shared space on the web, where

facilitators and participants interact virtually Nevertheless, putting the Fast trackdivision context, Forum is used as a compulsory activity of speaking lesson, not asupplementary one Furthermore, this is also an initial study investigating on Forumactivity used in Fast track Such a gap strongly encourages the researcher to examinethe used of Forum in which facilitators and participants communicate face-to-face

Summary: This chapter has laid the theoretical background for the whole study through defining key terms and reviewing related studies Particularly important is the framework of aspects of speaking skills that were reviewed and will serve as an instrument for data collection method.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a detailed picture of the methodology of this study by describing and explaining the selection of subjects, the data collection instruments (including questionnaire, interview and document observation), the procedures of data collection as well as data analysis.

2.1 Setting and Participants

2.1.1 Students

Since there are 75 second-year Fast track students in total, the researcher wouldlike to have these 75 students as the first sample of this study Those students hadconducted Forum activity as their group assignment for speaking skill Theseparticipants were hoped to provide valuable data for the research The researchers didnot employ students who had already done Forum activity, 3rd-year and 4th year-students for example, as there is a possibility that they do not fully remembereverything they did when conducting a Forum Hence, the validity of the result is notguaranteed

For this sample, the researcher decides to choose one of Probability Samples’types, which are: Simple Random Sampling The reason for choosing this type wasfirst because of the number of 2nd - year students from Fast track Group Since thereare 75 students, the researcher wanted each member of the population to have an equaland independent chance of being selected Last but not least, as this was the very firsttime the researcher conducts a research by herself, this type of sampling strategyseems most suitable for us because of its simplicity in term of process

chances to observe their own students’ improvement as well as performance in eachForum Therefore, they can provide valuable information for this research.

2.1.3 Forum activity in Fast-track group

In the second academic year, students of Fast track group are required toconduct Forum as a group assignment The guideline for Forum in the syllabus ofsecond-year Fast track students as well as its definition and assessment criteria areprovided by the teachers of the Fast track group, FELTE, ULIS

Regarding the definition, Forum is the task in which one group will be thefacilitating group who would be in charge of preparing for the Forum as well ascontgroling all the activities in the Forum session The other groups will beparticipation group accordingly Each of other groups would choose for themselves arole which is suitable with the topic of the Forum

In terms of conducting the session, there are phases:

Phase 1: Preparation

Organize and prepare for the forum

(negotiating and assigning roles/sides to

the participating groups, assigning

feedback roles; drafting the agenda,

setting up the facilities, arranging seats

etc.)

Read the materials at home carefully toprepare ideas for the role/side in the forum

Phase 2: Facilitation

Facilitate the forum (giving a brief

introduction/ presentation of the issue,

Participate effectively in the forum (i.e.convey persuasive & informative contents;

rotating speaking turns partially,

managing time etc.)

work according to the agenda and under themanagement of the facilitating group in aconstructive manner)

Time allowance is 30 – 40 minutes

Phase 3: Reflection

Wrap up the forum with a concise

minutes (properly summarizes feedback

given by the teacher and classmates on

the performance of all groups)

Give critical feedback on the performance

of other groups (including the facilitatinggroup)

In the scope of this study, the researcher will focus on the facilitation phase andthe reflection phase

2.2 Data collection instruments

2.2.1 Questionnaire

2.2.1.1 Questionnaire for Students

According to Brown (cited in Mackey and Gass 2005), questionnaire was

defined as “any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions

or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting them among existing ones” This instrument was employed in this research

due to its economical feature The number of participants is rather large since therewere75 students Mackey & Gass (2005) define questionnaire as one of the mostcommon methods of collecting data on attitudes and opinions from a large group of

participants Thus, this instrument would be suitable for the number of participants ofthis research

The questionnaire aims at finding the answer for the three research questions:

i Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can

2 nd -year Fast track students gain through Forum activity as perceived by students themselves?

ii Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the communicative approach can

2 nd -year Fast track students gain through Forum activity as perceived by teachers?

iii What are the difficulties faced by 2 nd -year Fast track students in the facilitation stage in Forum as perceived by themselves?

The questionnaire was adapted from Khuc (2010) The first five questions in thequestionnaire were not used to find out the answers for the three research questions,however, searching for students’ evaluations of the importance of speaking skills aswell as Forum activity The result of these questions would help reinforce the rationalefor researcher to conduct this study Most of the questions were close-ended questionssince the researcher aimed at getting quantitative data, a suitable list of responses wasprovided for the participants

To be more specific, the first question, which was a type of a likert scale, askedfor students’ attitude towards the importance of speaking skills Then the secondquestion asked about the number of Forums that students participated in Meanwhile,question 3 asked the role(s) that students played in the Forum as it had the possibilitythat by the time of this research, some students played only one role while the othersplayed different roles Their judgment would differ from each other accordingly Thenext two questions would ask for students’ attitude towards Forum activity Its purposewas to identify whether or not students feel interesting and feel that Forum isbeneficial

The 6th question asked about the aspects of speaking proficiency The answerfor this question was the answer for research question one, which was “Which aspects

of speaking proficiency under communicative approach can 2nd-year students gainthrough Forum as perceived by students themselves?” This question, according toKhuc (2010), was designed following the multiple choice question, which was alsoone kind of close-ended question In this question, each aspect of speaking proficiencywas an option In this case, as stated in the question, participants could choose morethan one option

The 7th question served as a link to the next one, namely question 8 askingabout the difficulty in implementing a Forum This was also another close-endedquestion with Yes/No answer In this situation, if the students did not have anydifficulty in implementing a Forum, they would not have to answer any morequestions By contrast, those who did encounter difficulties while implementing aForum, especially in performing stage, would move to the next question

Question 8, which was also the last question, helped answer the third research

question, which was “What are the difficulties faced by 2 nd -yearstudents in the facilitation stage in Forum as perceived by themselves? This question was a multiple

choice question which was divided into 2 categories, namely for FACILITATORS andfor PARTICIPANTS Besides, the researcher added two more clarification questions,namely “Other (please specify)” With the two open-ended questions, participants arefree to answer their questions in their own words They were hoped to draw out moreopinions from the participants

2.2.1.2 Questionnaire for teachers

This questionnaire was also adapted from the one of Khuc (2010) Thequestionnaire for teachers had a small difference from students’ The first twoquestions were as same as the 2nd and the 3rd questions from students’, which meanthey asked for teachers’ perceptions about Forum activity

The third questions was used to find out teachers’ judgments and confirmation

on which aspects of speaking proficiency students could achieve through Forumactivity

The last question asked for teachers’ opinions about students’ difficulties whilecomplementing Forum

2.2.2 Interview

According to Mackey & Gass (2005), there would be at least two independentsdata collection sources to support the study as well as its conclusion Moreover, thefact is some participants were not willing to answer questions carefully, the validity ofthe data was not guaranteed Those are the reasons why interview was also employed

in this research In research field, an interview is defined as a conversation between aresearcher (someone who wishes to gain information about a subject) and an informant(someone who presumably has information of interest on the subject) On one hand,interview is rightfully seen as one of the most widely used and most fundamentalresearch techniques for some following good reasons Interviews, as Mackey and Gass(2005) emphasize, are normally have a connection with survey-based research, as well

as being a technique used by many qualitative researchers Furthermore, becauseinterviews are interactive researchers can elicit additional data if initial answers arevague, incomplete, off-topic, or not specific enough (p.173)

In this paper, semi-structured interview was applied Firstly, according Mackeyand Gass (2005), semi-structured interviews, which is more flexible than structuredinterview, allows the researcher to have a freedom to “digress or probe” for moreinformation as just a written list of questions is used as a guide Hence, it is likely thatmore valuable information will be provided helping enhance the validity of data

For those advantages, two sets interviews were used in this study to exploitfurther information from teachers and students after they have completed the

questionnaires The entire interview was recorded and the most important pieces ofinformation were noted down

The interview session took place after participants finished the questionnaires.The researcher randomly chose 9 students among 75 participants after thequestionnaire were all completed It is because of the time and human resourcelimitation; only 9 students were chosen to take part in the interview session However,there were 8 students accepted to be interviewed They were asked for moreexplanations as well as clarifications for their answers with those are not clear enough

Regarding teacher’s interview question, three main questions were used in theinterview guidelines for teachers, for example “Which aspects of speaking proficiency

do you think your students can gain through Forum activity?”; “What are yourrecommendations to help students overcome the difficulties in performing stage ofForum?” It is worth noting that both students and teachers were allowed to look attheir questionnaire when being interviewed

2.3 Data collection procedures

2.3.1 Questionnaire procedure

2.3.1.1 Piloting questionnaire

Questionnaire before being delivered was sent to 2 students from Fast trackgroup and these 2 students were asked to give comments on the content of thequestionnaire By this way, the researcher knew which words were unclear or hard tounderstand Thus, adjustments were added in time

2.3.1.2 Main procedure

Step 1: Contacting the participants

In this stage, the researcher contacted the participants and arranged suitable time forthem to do the survey

Step 2: Ice-breaking

Normally, the basic tasks when letting the participants do the survey were introducingthe researchers, the survey and explaining the purpose of the research

Step 3: Doing the survey

The questionnaire was completed by the participants

Step 4: Collecting data

After receiving the data, the researcher said thanks to the participants; evaluated thedata to ensure the degree of accuracy and completeness

2.3.2 Interview procedure

After the data were obtained from the questionnaire, nine students wererandomly selected for the interview Then, the researcher contacted the students viaemail to ask for their favor in participating in the interview Finally, the researcherreceived acceptances from eight out of nine chosen students

Data collection duration

1 Preparing

Designing questionnaires and interview guiding questions 2 weeks Piloting the questionnaires and interview

guiding questions with 1 teachers and 2 students

1 week

2 Implementing

Delivering and collect questionnaires from

Delivering and collect questionnaires from

Interview the teachers and the first-year

3 Grouping data Encoding questionnaires 1 week

Transcribing interview records 1 week

2.4 Data analysis method

In the set of Questionnaire, most of the questions were closed-ended questionwhose responses follow the same form designed by the researcher, thus can be easilygrouped and digitized to analyze However, after doing the Interview, the researchermight receive free-responses which were difficult to quantify as each person hashis/her own way to express the ideas about one question That was the reason whyQualitative Analytical Strategies was chosen to analyze data from interviewingresponses

Data analysis started with synthesizing the data obtained from the questionnaireand classifying them to answer the research questions Responses from close-endedquestions were calculated, transferred into numerical form and summarized intographs Descriptive statistics were employed to display the findings from the survey

On the other hand, those from open-ended questions were transcribed and categorized

by key words of the statements and used to support answers for 3 research questions

Finally, qualitative data collected during the interviews were transcribed andsummarized to be referred to when data analysis was illustrated

Summary: So far, this chapter has justified the methodology applied in this

paper by elaborating the setting and two groups of participants involved the process

of data collection Furthermore, the combination of two data collection instruments was also clarified These justifications of the methodology would help make the way for the findings and discussion in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, all the data collected from the questionnaire and interview will

be revealed and discussed in detail This chapter will present and discuss results and implications More specifically, data collected from two different methods will be integrated to support and complement each other all in the forms of answers to the four research questions It is noteworthy that the connection between these findings and other related studies in the literature will also be discovered to underline the similarities as well as the new findings on the research topic.

3.1 Background of students’ attitudes towards speaking skills and Forum activity

Though the answers of the first five questions in the questionnaire do notdirectly answer the research questions, they help support the rationale of the study

Figure 1.Students' attitude towards the importance of speaking skills compared to

the other 3 English skills

Answering the first question, 53% of the number of participants rated speaking

as the most important English skill which should be mastered

Explaining this, interviewee C said that:

[…] because I think speaking is has a great influence on the other skills, especially listening Only when you have master speaking can you have a good job in listening Besides, all the vocabulary as well as grammar are derived from speaking And the last reason is that when learning a foreign language, people often try their best in learning how to communicate with other people, and speaking is the most targeted skill […] (Interviewee C, March 23, 2013)

Meanwhile, according to interviewee B, speaking is the most important skills as

it helps express themselves in the fastest way She then took an example of thecommunication between foreigners and natives By communicating, they could easilyshow their knowledge, characteristics…, which are hardly expressed through writing

or reading or listening

Interviewee F even emphasizes the importance of speaking skills by stating that

“speaking can foster the development of other three skills; when you speak English well, we can listen, read and write better.”

It can be seen that students were well aware of the importance of speakingskills, especially under CLT context The other 47% number of participants agreed thatspeaking was as important as the other three skills After the interview session, therewas one reason for this issue was that each of the four English skills supports each

other Thus, “we should develop speaking as well as the other 3 equally skills to have full comprehension of any foreign language.” (Interviewee E, 2013).

By the time the research was conducted, all of the participants had alreadyparticipated in 4 to 6 Forums and moreover, all of them had chance to be bothfacilitators (moderators) and participants This statistic considerably support thevalidity of the research as those participants would provide the data in all sides

After conducting Forum activities for at least 4 times, four fifths of theparticipants agreed that Forum activity was interesting, which accounts for a largescale

Talking about in which way participants found Forum was an interestingactivity, 7 out of eight interviewees claimed that the first reason was compellingtopics, which are not only close to their daily life but also hot issues such as Facebook,homosexuality, cosmetic surgery, etc Moreover, since in each Forum, each group ofstudents had their own role, they had chance to debate the hot issue in differentperspective of their assigned roles, not from their own ones (Interviewee D, 2013)

There are still 16.4 percent of the participants who found Forum not interesting.Interviewee C agreed that though Forum still has good side as the topics are stimulus,questions raised in some Forums were too general and a few facilitators seemed tohighly control participants when they were supposed to encourage the participants tospeak.

The chart below shows students’ attitude towards the effectiveness of Forum indeveloping speaking skills

Figure 2 Students’ attitude towards the effectiveness of Forum activity in

developing speaking skills

It can be seen from the chart, more than 80% of the students answered that thisactivity is effective

According to 8 interviewees, Forum was effective in developing speaking skills

as it offered chances to broaden background knowledge about hot issues, enlargevocabulary in many aspects in life It is because, in each Forum students would pick

up a topic related to any aspect of social life, from environment to political Moreover,

as everyone in Forum are supposed to raise their voices, especially participants, theinterviewee said that they had to think quickly and critically in order to find

convincing ideas to speak In this case, interviewee H even emphasized that “During this process, your mind works continuously and you would totally speak out without

thinking twice because you’re in a hurry, an urge to say.” Lastly, the interviewees

claimed that Forum could increase their confidence while speaking as they had tospeak in front of lots of people for several times

3.2 Research question 1: Which aspect of speaking proficiency under the

communicative approach can 2nd -year Fast track students gain through Forum activity as perceived by students themselves

What the students have gained through Forum activity will be continuouslyrevealed in question 6 The following charts clearly show what aspects of speakingproficiency the 2nd-year students at Fast track group had gained

Figure 3 Aspects of speaking proficiency Students had gained (as perceived by

themselves)

It can be seen from the table charts that 2nd-year students taking part in thesurvey could gain all 8 aspects of speaking proficiency Nevertheless, the proportion ofeach aspect differs from each other.

From the chart, 80% of the students claimed that they had improved the ability

of interacting with others through Forum activity This number ranks the first and

accounts for a large proportion In the interview session, interviewee D shared that

during the Forum “it was important to know the right time to support or interrupt others.” According to her and the other interviewee, no one should dominant the

Forum Each person should listen to others first as well as know where to stop in order

to give others the chance to speak This sharing somehow strengthened the theoryabout the aspect of Interacting with others provided by To et al (2012) According tothe authors, Interacting with others refer more to speakers’ cooperation whilespeaking, specifically the ability of yielding speaking turns as well as provide othersthe chance to interrupt This is also similar to Brown (1994), Mead & Nancy (1985)’sspeaking definition: an interactive process where each individual alternatively take therole of speakers and listeners It is, thus, interacting with others can be considered acore factor to have a successful communication Interestingly, students seemed to bewell aware of this and they have gained this speaking aspect the most through Forum

Interviewee B and F, on the other hand, inserted another sign of interaction skillwhich is “good understanding of how the other people are feeling” (To et al 2012),especially when the students took a role of facilitators (moderators) This sign refers to

the capability of noticing others whether they have the sign or expression of wanting

to raise voices or not Hence, the act of inviting them to speak will be put in time

Interviewee F said that “…I found that my ability to interact with others was improved a lot I knew how to ask them to express their ideas as well as sometimes stop their ideas due to misunderstanding the questions.”

Moreover, interviewee B explained that “As moderators, we need to have a

good interaction with the audience to catch their ideas and then have a suitable solution for a particular situation Ohm, I think… it is the way to show your flexibility with everyone.”

It can be inferred that students, when being the moderators, students had learnthow to interact with participants flexibly not only how to ask questions but also how toencourage people to speak This feature is crucial as in a Forum every students need tospeak, even the silent ones will be called upon Moreover, it is also similar to Gilbertargument about Forum, which is in Forum, students interact with each other byinterpreting, evaluating, and critiquing peers' comments and by sharing information It

is thus, Interacting with others is unquestionably the crucial and most performed

aspect in Forum

Following the above aspect is the aspect of Socio-linguistic knowledge

accounting for nearly 60% of total Socio-linguistic knowledge, as mentioned inLiterature review chapter, is the speaking aspect by when speakers know whatcomments are appropriate, how to ask questions during interaction and how to respond

nonverbally Explaining this point, interviewee simply said that “…By my experience and the structures teacher gave, I know how to interrupt others politely and effectively when they’re speaking…”

Interviewee H added

[…]I want to say that different roles having different ideas is a common circumstance in a forum, hence, if you listen to others thoroughly, look at them with sharp eyes and ask them back with selective words and valuable information, victory is almost in your hand […] (Interviewee H, March 26, 2013)

Meanwhile, interviewee C emphasized that:

[…] In my opinion, the way giving – evaluating comments, raising questions or responding to the requirements will also reflect how