A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 10 GRADE STUDENTS AT DOAN THUONG UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, HAI DUONG PROVINCE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ QUYÊN A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ QUYÊN

A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 10 GRADE STUDENTS AT DOAN THUONG UPPER-SECONDARY

SCHOOL, HAI DUONG PROVINCE

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHIỆM VỤ BỔ TRỢ XÁC THỰC ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐOÀN THƯỢNG, HẢI DƯƠNG

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

HANOI, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ QUYÊN

A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 10 GRADE STUDENTS AT DOAN THUONG UPPER-SECONDARY

SCHOOL, HAI DUONG PROVINCE NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHIỆM VỤ BỔ TRỢ XÁC THỰC ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐOÀN THƯỢNG, HẢI DƯƠNG

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ BÁ QUÝ, M.Ed

HANOI, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii

List of abbreviations vi List of tables, charts and figures vii

1.6 Summary of the chapter 16

2.1.1 Overview of Doan Thuong Upper-secondary School 17 2.1.2 The context of teaching and learning English speaking skill in DTUS 17

3.1 Research question 1: What are the teachers’ perceptions of attitudes towards using AST in teaching speaking to 10 grade students?

Appendix 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers I Appendix 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Students V Appendix 3 : Classroom Observation Checklists VII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

- AST : Authentic Supplementary Tasks

- CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

- DTUS : Doan Thuong Upper-secondary School

- TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES

Page

List of tables

Table 1 : Task components‟ classifications

Table 2 : Task components according to Nunan (2004)

Table 3 : Basic profiles of six teacher informants

Table 4 : Basic profiles of student informants

Table 5: Teacher‟s attitudes towards teaching speaking and using

authentic tasks in teaching speaking in general

Table 6: The stage of the lesson that teachers preferred to use

List of charts and figures

Chart 1: Teachers‟ perceptions of the importance of authentic tasks in

TEFL

24

Chart 2: Teachers‟ identifying of authentic and pedagogical tasks 25 Chart 3: Teachers‟ attitudes towards authentic tasks‟ advantages 28 Chart 4: Teachers‟ attitudes towards authentic tasks‟ disadvantages 29 Chart 5: Teacher‟s frequency of using authentic tasks 29 Chart 6: Students‟ responses as perceived by the teachers 31

Chart 7: Teachers‟ difficulties in exploiting AST

Chart 8: Students‟ attitudes towards AST‟s effects

Chart 9: Students‟ opinions towards teachers‟ applied AST

31

32

34 Figure 1: A frame work for Task-based Language Teaching 8 Figure 2: The relation among four language skills

Figure 3: Comparison between Brown and Menasche‟s levels of

authentic tasks and Nunan‟s classification of tasks

10

13

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, English has increasingly become one of the most popular languages with more than one billion speakers all over the world English is playing

a key role in today‟s modern world because it is used as an international language in many areas such as: science and technology, business and commerce, international

relations and diplomacy, etc Therefore, “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the national education system for the period 2008 - 2020” project was launched and carried out Its goals are by 2020 : “making the majority of Vietnamese youth ( ) have enough foreign language capability to use independently, be self-confident in communication and learning, work in an environment of integration, multi-language and multi-culture; making foreign languages (mainly English) become the strength of Vietnamese people and contributing to the industrialization and modernization of the country” The long–

term plan set up an urgent requirement for foreign language teachers, in general, and English teachers, in particular to innovate and “learn the newest and best methods of teaching” (Hiệp, 2005, p 3) Another aims are to teach learners a working command of English to satisfy various communicative needs in their life and to build a friendly school with students‟ active learning (Hiệp, 2005)

Fortunately, according to Hiệp (2005), since the early 1990s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has widely spread out for the fact that, in comparison with traditional pedagogy -which is based on language study (grammar, literature) and written exercises (translation) rather than real life communication and speech, it meets the requirements of English learning in an era of integration and globalization However, in the context of Vietnam education, it is lack of motivation from learning environment or even from the textbook that actuates Vietnamese learners to communicate successfully in English Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to not only adapt the textbook but also apply authentic materials These, with appropriate selection and implementation, can be

reliable sources for designing tasks in which formulaic language learning can be avoided, and can provide a bridge between the linguistic skills of learners and their ability to take part in native-like real world activity (Valeriu, 2000)

Recognizing the gap, many researchers, both worldwide and in Vietnam, have analyzed the term “authenticity” in teaching Reading, Writing and Listening However, the number of researched Speaking Authenticity ones is still limited while, thirty-five percent of our daily communication time is spent on speaking (Burely-Allen, 1995) Therefore, the exploitation of authentic speaking tasks should receive worthy attention

Within the context of DTUS, Hai Duong province – a rural area school, students have few chances to use English in their daily life The teachers pay much attention to grammar while student‟s proficiency is even not enough to master some particular tasks in the textbook From my point of view, among four skills, speaking is the least preferred by students due to students‟ low level and the disparity between the textbook and students‟ needs Therefore, it requires some supplementation for the textbook to gradually upgrade the students‟ level as well as to motivate them to actively participate

in English lessons, especially speaking ones

From the reasons mentioned above, the researcher finds her duty in

conducting the study on “A Study of Using Authentic Supplementary Tasks in Teaching Speaking to 10 Grade Students at Doan Thuong Upper-Secondary School, Hai Duong Province”

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at searching Doan Thuong Upper-Secondary School tenth grade teachers and students‟ attitudes toward exploiting authentic supplementary tasks in speaking lessons To teachers, the researcher closely focuses on their perception of authentic tasks, using authentic supplementary tasks in speaking skill

as well as the difficulties they encounter when carrying out the tasks To learners, concentration is put in another aspect: their perception of the effects of the authentic

supplementary tasks on their speaking lessons To realize these aims, the answers to the following questions are sought:

1 What are the teachers‟ perceptions of and attitudes towards using authentic speaking supplementary tasks in teaching speaking to 10 grade students?

2 What are the students‟ attitudes towards the effects of the authentic supplementary tasks on their speaking lessons?

3 Scope of the study

Initially, the study only covers the tenth form teachers and students at DTUS With a large number of participants as well as the variety of students‟ level, these samples can be considered an appropriate reflection of DTUS‟ teachers and students‟ language competence

Secondly, “the authentic speaking tasks” term of the study belongs to the supplementary term which does not contain the designed tasks in the textbook Therefore, the evaluation of the textbook in terms of authenticity is not included in the study Only the teachers and students‟ beliefs and attitudes towards the term are presented

Finally, the “speaking tasks” mentioned in the thesis only means the activities that teachers and students carry out in the speaking periods (according to the course distribution) Any further tasks, for examples, in reading or listening lessons, are beyond the scope of this study

4 Methods of the study

To reach the aims of the study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are made used of Data are collected from questionnaires and classroom observation The quantitative data collected from survey questionnaire were then analyzed statistically, while qualitative data were obtained from classroom observation Hopefully, with the combination of these methods, the study would yield reliable and valid findings

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale,

aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study

The Development is the backbone of the thesis which includes three

chapters Chapter one supplies readers with the explanation of key conceptual terms, the definitions, the contrasting views and debates as well as the critical analysis of each key concept Chapter two outlines the research methods used and demonstrates that recognized procedures have been followed in the study Participants, data collection instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis methods and procedures would be included Chapter three presents the results collected from two instruments above in an objective way according to two research questions Then, the discussion or the interpretation from the resulted would be presented

The Conclusions contains the summary of the main findings of the thesis, its

limitation, suggestions for further studies and some pedagogical implications for teachers

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter acts as the theoretical foundation for the whole study in which key concepts find out their references In addition, an overview of related studies at the same level, which supports the researcher to carry out the study, is also included

1.1 An overview of Task-based Language Teaching

1.1.1 Definition of a task

It can be emphatically asserted that a full and acute awareness of the term

“task” appears almost essential to get a close and deep look at the theory of

“authentic task” Since CLT approach became an innovative approach in language teaching, task-based language teaching consolidates its central position; therefore, it raises an urgent question for researches to find out what does “task” means As a consequence, a variety of “task” definitions were established, among them is

Willis‟s (1996, p.23) one: “Tasks are activities where the target language is used

by learners for communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome”

which, as commented by Nunan (2004), emphasizes the exchange of meaning, in a communicative way, as the means of mastering target language Another worth-

mentioning one is defined by Long (1985, p.89): “A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward In other words, by

“task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play and in between.”

Compared with Willis‟s definition, Long‟s one is distinctly different It, in short, is “non-technical and non-linguistic” (Nunan, 2004, p.2), in which language uses can be omitted (helping someone across without talking) Thus, it requires drawing a distinction between the “uses of language in the world beyond the classroom” and “those that occur in the classroom”, which is named “real-world tasks/ target tasks” and “pedagogical tasks” (Nunan, 2004, p.1) For the fact that the transformation from a target task to a pedagogical one happens naturally and

simultaneously with its movement from real world into the classroom, pedagogical tasks appears to be the only focus of this study

It, then, comes the definition of Nunan which, from my limited personal viewpoint, can deal with almost ambiguity in defining “task”, shorten other above-mentioned definitions‟ shortcomings, set up the criteria of a pedagogical task, particularize learners‟ duties in exploiting the target language and appreciate the role of meaning in language learning Therefore, whenever the term “task” is mentioned in this paper, it refers to Nunan‟s definition

“A task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form “

(Nunan, 2004, p.4)

1.1.2 Task components

Besides seeking the appropriate answer for the question of what a task means,

it is also important to put a certain concentration on task components Actually, many researchers pay rapt attention to give out logical task structures, some of which are succinctly summarized in the table below:

 A specified working procedure

 Appropriate materials (if necessary)

 A concrete language learning purpose

 A concrete learning outcome

Wright (1987, p.47)

2 components

 Input data

 Initiating question

Table 1: Task components’ classifications

From the above table, although different ways were given to sub-divide tasks, they share something in common To some extents, the author‟s way of division overlaps, covers or concretizes others‟ theories Nevertheless, within the scope of this study, I follow the task structure of Nunan, which is closely related to other key concepts of my study as well as probably further the working of the study It is, consequently, important to bring out the definition of each component

GOALS

The vague general intentions behind any given learning task in which teacher might find the answer for the

question: “Why did you get learners to engage in Task X?”

INPUT The data that form the point of departure for the task

ACTIVITIES What learners will actually do with the input

TEACHER ROLE The part that learners and teachers are expected to play

in carrying out learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal relationship between the participants

LEARNER ROLE

SETTING Classroom arrangements specified or implied in the task

Table 2: Task components according to Nunan (2004)

1.1.3 Types of tasks

There exists a variety of ways to classify task basing on different categories Nunan‟s classification in which task is divided into two main types “Real

world/target task” and “Pedagogical task” is the most suitable to represent the types

of task used in this study Moreover, the frame work that Nunan presented in based Language Teaching” also reinforces the knowledge for the research

“Task-Figure 1: A frame work for Task- based language teaching

(Nunan, 2004, p 25)

 Real-world or target task: A communicative act we achieve through

language in the world outside the classroom

 Pedagogical tasks: A piece of classroom work which involves learners in

comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than forms They have a non-linguistic outcome, and can be divided into rehearsal tasks or activation tasks

 Rehearsal task: A piece of classroom work in which learners rehearse, in

class, a communicative act they will carry out outside the class

 Activation task: A piece of classroom work involving communicative

interaction, but NOT one in which learners will be rehearsing for some out-of-class communication Rather they are designed to activate the acquisition process

 Enabling skills: Mastery of language systems grammar, pronunciation,

vocabulary, etc which ENABLE learners to take part in communicative tasks

 Language exercise: A piece of classroom work focusing learners on, and

involving learners in manipulating some aspect of the linguistic system

Communicative activities

Language exercises

Enabling skills

 Communication activity: A piece of classroom work involving a focus on a

particular linguistic feature but ALSO involving the genuine exchange of meaning

1.2 An overview of supplementation

As it can be obviously seen from the literal meanings of the two words

“Supplementary” and “Materials”, which, according to Oxford Advanced Learners

Dictionary 7th Editor, respectively mean “provided in addition to something else in order to improve or complete it” and “things that are needed in order to do a

particular activity”, Supplementary materials can be understood as “Materials

designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a course or the course book

by the teachers” (Hương & Minh (2008, p28) Naturally, supplementary materials

are not the replacement of the coursebook

Supplementary materials are not merely meant “adding something new”, but definitely to “bridge the gap between a coursebook and the demands of a public examination, or the coursebook and students‟ needs” (McGrath, 2005, p.80)

McGrath (2005) suggested two ways to supplement a course book:

1 by utilizing items, such as exercises, texts or activities from another published sources

2 by devising our own materials; this may include the exploitation of authentic, visual or textual items

When using published materials, teachers often photocopy the necessary

tasks or exercises which tend to be expensive and sometimes frustrating (when there

is something wrong with the machine or students lose the pieces of paper or forget

to bring them to class) However, all reference books are cautiously edited by a group of qualified people According to McGrath (2005), 50 per cent of teachers claimed not to use commercially-produced materials at all Instead, they choose to prepare their own supplementary materials which can satisfy them when “the course book does not fully meet the specific needs of the learner group” or “no suitable published materials are available (or these cannot be copied or bought)”

1 3 Speaking skill

When talking about language and language teaching, people cannot help mentioning the four skills: Reading, Listening (Understanding), Speaking and Writing as well as the relation among them Speaking skill, along with writing skill,

is considered as productive skills The other two are receptive skills

Figure 2: The relation among four language skills

According to Byrne (1976, p.8), speaking is “a two-way process between speaker and listener, involving the productive skill of speaking and receptive skill of understanding” Both listener and speaker have a positive function to perform: the

speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message

Hương & Minh (2008) also explain speaking as the act “to utter words with the ordinary voice/talk, to express or communicate ideas, options by talking” As a

result, there are numbers of abilities underlying speaking proficiency: lexical and grammar, compensating language, connected speech, language processing, expressive devices and social linguistic knowledge Hương & Minh (2008, p.170)

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

perform certain language functions such as greeting, disagreeing, approval, etc

 Connected speech: common phenomenon in spoken interaction in which sounds

are modified, omitted, added or weakened Effective speakers thus need to be able

to not only produce individual phonemes but also use connected speech

 Expressive language: native speaker of English change pitch and stress of

particular parts of utterances, vary volume and speech can convey meanings beyond their words, especially in face-to-face communication Students need to recognize

Receptive

Skills

Productive Skills

Written language Spoken language

and develop some of such features and devices in the same way if they are able to

be effective communicators

 Compensating language: effective speaking benefits from the language of

negotiation that we use to seek clarification and 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 to clear 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 in forms that are not only comprehensive but also convey the meaning that are intended

 Sociolinguistic knowledge: knowledge of language Learners must have

competence which involves knowing what is expected socially and culturally by users of the target language in order to know how to respond nonverbally according

to the purpose of talk

1.4 Authentic tasks in speaking

1.4.1 Definition of authentic tasks

Normally the notion of authenticity has largely been restricted to discussions about texts; there have been few systematic attempts to address the question of task authenticity However, “Control over linguistic knowledge is achieved by means of performing under real operating conditions in meaning

－focused language activities” (Ellis, 1990, p 195) Therefore, it might be posited

that authenticity “lies not only in the “genuineness” of text, but has much to do with the notion of task” (Guariento & Morley, 2001) According to Hương & Minh (2008, p.28), Authentic Task is defined as “A task which involves learners in using language in a way that replicates its use in the real world outside the language classroom” Hence, examples of authentic tasks would be answering a

letter addressed to the learner, arguing a particular point of view and comparing various holiday brochures in order to decide where to go, not filling in the blanks

or changing verbs from the present simple to the past simple

Nunan (1988, p.4) provided a generally accepted definition of authentic

tasks which takes real-world behavior and learners into account: “tasks which replicate or rehearse the communicative behaviours which will be required of them in the real world.” In other words, he also defined “authentic tasks” as

“tasks that closely mirror communication in the world outside the classroom” (Nunan, 2004, p 212) Nevertheless, within this limited study, the term “authentic tasks” bears a strong resemblance to Nunan‟s first definition

1.4.2 Levels of authentic task

Theorists have tended to speak of task authenticity as an either/or proposition, and while many of the tasks that are done in the classroom are seen as inauthentic, it has also been observed that classrooms have their own authenticity (Taylor (1994) Thus, although even the most realistic role play does not accomplish a real world task (train tickets do not get bought in classrooms), the task

is an appropriate learning activity

In offering the following typology of task authenticity, the researcher admits there is probably no such thing as real task authenticity, that classrooms are by their nature artificial The only genuine task authenticity for language learning may well

be total immersion in the target language environment without an instructor

Nevertheless, task authenticity is defined into three types: genuine, simulated and pedagogical

1 Genuine task authenticity exists when learners engage in tasks in ways and for

reasons they would in the real world

2 In simulated task authenticity, there is some attempt to copy the real within the

context of the classroom, but the focus is on language learning

3 Pedagogical task authenticity occurs when there is no attempt to copy the real,

but the task is useful within the context of the classroom

(Brown and Menasche, 2005)

Consider the example of reading a newspaper editorial The genuinely authentic task would be to read the article silently and move on to reading

something else without imposed discussion or language exercises This would be considered inappropriate in a classroom, unless it was time assigned for sustained silent reading, and even then, if the learner would rather have read a magazine than the newspaper, the purpose is language learning and the task is not genuinely

authentic Simulated task authenticity would apply, for example, to an activity in

which learners are paired and must imagine themselves to be roommates discussing the editorial In this, there is some attempt to copy the real world Another common task with simulated authenticity would be one in which the instructor requires the learner to write a letter to an editor to comment on an actual editorial

Pedagogically authentic tasks include answering comprehension questions about

the editorial, comparing two editorials on one subject and listing the similarities and differences, and writing a composition on the topic of the editorial

Compared with the way that Nunan (2004) classified types of task (as mentioned in 2.1.4), the levels of authenticity according to Brown & Menasche (2005) shared something in common, as shown in the diagram below:

On the preparation of authentic tasks, Rogers and Medley (1988) also proposed three levels of appropriateness including appropriateness of text,

appropriateness of task and appropriateness of sequence

1.4.3 The means of achieving authenticity

Pedagogical task authenticity

Simulated task authenticity Genuine task

authenticity

According to Guariento and Morley (2001), there are four broad schools of thought regarding task authenticity:

 Through genuine purpose:

Willis (1996) pointed out that emphasis should primarily be on meaning and communication and this is something which replicates the process of communication in the real world Therefore, students have the chance to interact naturally, in “real time” to achieve a communicative goal, which will be “far more likely to lead to increased fluency and natural acquisition” than exercises that

“encourage them to get it right from the beginning”

 Through real world targets:

The target tasks are identified following a need analysis of the task which the learners are preparing to undertake A task might be said to be authentic if it has a clear relation with the real world needs (Long and Crookes, 1992)

 Through classroom interaction:

Rather than focusing on real world situation outside the classroom, Breen (1985) argued that the most authentic activities exploit the potential authenticity of the learning situation Putting students in pairs or groups to discuss evaluate and report on the usefulness and appropriateness of teacher feedback and different kinds of home assignment And it is this very process of negotiation of meaning that is authentic

 Through engagement:

Authenticity of task might be said to depend on whether or not a student is engaged by the task Tasks, which are considered to be authentic by teachers, can be inauthentic to certain learners (Widdowson, 1980) Therefore, it is suggested that a task could be “authenticated” via careful explanation of its rationale and the involvement of students in task selection

1.5 Overview of related studies

It is undeniable that there are numbers of studies worldwide which not only lay the foundation for task authenticity but also go deeper into the analysis of the term

Nunan with “Task-based Language Teaching” (2004) and “Designing tasks for the

Communicative Classroom” (1989) provide readers with reliable explanations of key

terms in Communicative Language Teaching, elucidate them and supply teachers with

effective and practical methods and techniques to make use of the materials “Text and Task Authenticity in EFL Classroom” (2001) by Guariento & Morley creates a

revolution in the meaning of authenticity when paying certain concentration to the authentic task and summarizing four broad schools of thought to achieve task

authenticity Taylor‟s “Inauthentic Authenticity or Authentic Inauthenticity?” (1994)

also brings out the meaning of “nature”, “real” and involves the perception of teachers and learners as important factors

Vietnamese researchers also find their interests in exploiting the topic

“authenticity” As a result, many studies whose foci are authentic materials and authentic tasks were conducted Hương (2008), Hương (2009), Hạnh (2010), Nga (2010) and Hào (2010) investigated into using authentic materials with a variety of learners from major students (Hương (2008), Hương (2009), Hạnh (2010)) to high school ones The findings indicated the effectiveness of authentic materials in reading, listening and speaking skill

In terms of authentic tasks, Phương (2007) and Hoa (2011) are among the most noticeable ones Phương (2007) studied the techniques to create authentic tasks

in the material development of Secretarial English at Bac Ninh Teachers Training College In detail, the study went deeper into the analysis of the attitudes of teachers and graduates of English towards the use of pair/group work, role-play and simulation and six types of task-based learning in teaching and learning English as well as students‟ preferences for techniques used to make learning tasks more authentic in classroom settings Many techniques and activities are also suggested by the author

With an investigation into the reality of exploiting authentic tasks in speaking classes at Hanoi University of Industry, Hoa (2011) placed the attention at the teachers‟ perceptions of authentic tasks, the extent to which tasks are exploited in the actual speaking classes and difficulties as perceived by teachers when they exploit authentic tasks in English classes Some significant findings of the study were revealed Firstly,

many teachers had favourable perceptions of tasks, TBLT as well as the exploitation of authentic tasks Secondly, almost no authentic tasks were exploited by the teachers Lastly, most of the teachers followed basically the three phases (pre-task, task-cycle and language focus) when assigning tasks to students However, collecting information solely from teachers is listed as not only one of the limitations of the study but also a suggestion for further study

Hence, there seems to have a gap which needs to be filled in terms of using authentic tasks for high school students to improve speaking skills due to its population and nature in communication

1.6 Summary of the chapter

In summary, the chapter has briefly reviewed the necessary theoretical literatures related to the subjects, from the logical and credible explanation of key terms (Task-based Language Teaching, Supplementation, Speaking and Authentic Tasks in Speaking) to the comprehensive overview of related studies The research methodology

employed in the present study will be presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, participants, data collection instruments and procedures of data collection would be clearly expounded, along with the researcher‟s analysis and reasons for choosing them

2.1 Participants

2.1.1 Overview of Doan Thuong Upper-secondary School

Located in Gia Loc District, DTUS is known as a school of more than 30 years existing and developing In 2012, the school has more than 1,000 students divided into 21 classes of three grades (Grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12) and 53 teachers of all subjects Most of the students come from ordinary families whose fathers or mothers or both are farmers At school, the students have chance to be taught by experienced teachers and have good conditions to nurture their talents totally in both natural sciences and social sciences including English They can also compete with others and approach new teaching methods However, their difficulties in attending the class due to long distances, their limited knowledge of outside world as well as their large class size (from 45-50 students per class) bring about obstacles for teachers, especially teachers of English, to apply new teaching methods effectively

2.1.2 The context of teaching and learning English speaking skill in DTUS

Since 2007, with the new English textbook, teachers and learners at DTUS have familiarized with the new teaching and learning methods: learner-centered and four skills are taught separately Students gradually make acquaintance with a speaking period in which they are encouraged to practise speaking in the target language comfortably and naturally

However, it does not mean that learners always actively participate in the speaking lessons Affected by the psychology that they are not good learners, students are afraid of making mistakes The anxiety of making mistakes, even minor ones, prevents them from talking confidently, thus, they choose to reduce their

English talking times Seeking for perfection in every words or sentences they produce, students lose the pace and the nature in communication

Moreover, it is said that teachers, whose traditional teaching methods, for instance Grammar translation method, are habitual, find it hard to change and apply new ones Some of them think that new teaching and learning methods or techniques as well as information technology are really difficult to master

Another factor that affects the teaching and learning English‟s speaking skill

of DTUS teachers and learners is the testing and assessment Normally, students are given six official marks per semester; four of them are taken from written tests Therefore, they will pay much attention to learn grammar, reading and writing skill because of its possible existence in the tests

2.1.3 The teacher informants

The title of the study claims the important role of English teachers in the result of the study There are six English teachers in DTUS and the study includes the participation of all these six teachers Their ages, years of teaching experiences and their graduating place vary in a wide range Their brief profile, taken from questionnaires, could be summarized in the below table:

Teacher Age Gender Years of teaching Degree

Table 3: Basic profiles of six teacher informants

2.1.4 The student informants

Along with the teachers in the learning process, the students are the mirrors reflecting the effect of the teachers‟ teaching methods adequately and accurately As

a result, their participation can strongly affect the study‟s outcomes

The tenth form students at DTUS are at the age of 16 to 18 years old, their time

of learning English are between 9 and 11 years When attending the school, they are arranged into seven classes, three of which are specialized in natural sciences (10A, 10B and 10C), one of which are specialized in social sciences (10D) and the others are normal classes Every week, they have four English periods, three of which are regular lessons with knowledge from the textbook One period is follow-up one in which teachers are free to decide what to supplement the students Therefore, although 122 students taking part in the data collection process are chosen randomly, their classes are chosen on purpose Due to the fact that the purpose of students‟ questionnaire is to figure out their perceptions of the effects of AST, the participants‟ classes are chosen based on the result of teachers‟ questionnaire In detail, three among four classes whose teachers confirm that they have experiences in using AST in their speaking lessons are 10A, 10D and 10E (10A and 10B are both specialized in natural sciences so the researcher decides to choose one in two) Below is the table that summarizes the background of the selected participants

Not good 80 students (65%)

Table 4: Basic profiles of student informants

2.2 Data collection instruments

Seeking for the reliability and validity of a primary study, the researcher chose to use two kinds of data collection instruments: survey questionnaires, and classroom observation to find the answers for the research questions

The survey questionnaire for the teachers covers four pages At the first page, the researcher spent a few lines asking for some personal information: their

name, their age, gender, years of teaching experience and their qualifications The

following pages are spent for a series of questions which were divided into two main groups: Questions on teachers‟ perceptions of authentic tasks (item 1 to 3) and

questions on using AST in speaking skill The questions also vary in forms,

closed-ended questions with likert scale items, multiple choice attitude items, ranking order items and open-ended questions As a consequence, the data collected from these questions were thought to accurately reflect the respondents‟ attitudes, thus, reasonably answer the first research question

The two-page students‟ questionnaire is written in Vietnamese so that they can have an exact understanding about the terms as well as the information that the researcher asked for, hence, guarantee the accuracy of the answers The researcher

also supplied students with a brief explanation of the key term: authentic supplementary task The students were required to provide their name, their age,

years of learning English as well as their own evaluation of their speaking skill

Four main questions include multiple choice, ranking, likert scale and open-ended questions, focusing on students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of using AST in speaking lessons The students‟ questionnaire, therefore, was the main source for the researcher to answer the second research question

have also been found to lead to improved understanding and better models for improving teaching Therefore, the researcher attempted to conduct three classroom observations in three different classes (10A, 10D and 10E) The contexts, as well as the process of teaching and learning were also recorded by two video cameras at a time, which can help to record almost every action of teachers and learners Besides, the researcher also took notes during the lesson The information collected from note-taking would complement the data from the cameras, then, help to build

up a complete observation checklist

The observation checklist contains of five parts, titled “Task profile”, “Class profile”, “The process of introducing and carrying out the task”, “Students‟ interaction with the task” and “Evaluating the authenticity of the task” In the second part, the process of introducing and carrying out the task, the researcher paid more attention to note down teachers and learners‟ main activities in four stages:

introducing the task, giving the instruction, carrying out the task and presenting the result Similarly, the next part, students‟ interaction with the task, was made clearer

by being categorized in to number of students, language use, idea improvement, work arrangement and task involvement with groups, and language use, idea improvement, work arrangement and task involvement with pairs Of course, with

the limited number of groups in class (normally eight groups), observations of half

of the groups were be recorded and analyzed In contrast, the researcher chose randomly four pairs of students to observe due to the vast number of pairs in class (normally from 22 to 27 pairs per class) After all the above main points, the researcher asked the official English teacher of that class and herself to give comment on the effect of the task

In short, with the combination of these methods, it was expected that the researcher would have deeper understanding and broader perspective of the information so as to get more reliable results

2.3 Data collection procedure

The process of collecting the data was carried out at the beginning of the second semester when the teachers and students have certain experiences in teaching and learning speaking skill There are two main stages to collect the data in this research

Stage 1: Survey Questionnaire

At the beginning of the second semester, both teachers and students were officially informed about the questionnaires The researcher also asked for their permission before delivering any data collection instruments During the time the participants answered the questionnaires, the researcher was willing and available to help To students, before answering the questionnaires, the researcher spent a little time

to explain the key term again and answer any possible questions or clarify any possible ambiguity Giving straightforward instructions for answering was also paid attention She always stood at the position of a normal student, not a teacher, which could avoid the pressure on students‟ answers She also emphasized that there were no right or wrong answers, students could expressed their truly attitudes Besides, teachers and students were allowed to take the questionnaires home to answers and gave them back

to the researcher the following day, if they wanted

Stage 2: Classroom observation

Classroom observation was carried out in three different speaking lessons in the three selected classes at the beginning of the second semester The researcher

acted as a non-participant observer and took notes of the classroom procedures Through the analysis of classroom observation checklists, the real exploitation of AST in speaking lessons are, hopefully, revealed The collected data would, then, contribute to the answer of the two research questions

2.4 Data analysis methods and procedure

Through the two research instruments, the collected data were expected to possibly answer the two research questions Therefore, data were analyzed based on the research questions Besides analyzing the answers of closed-ended questions by tables, charts, the transcripts of the most outstanding answers for the open-ended question was also included which could add more real information for the analysis result

The first research question was answered via the teacher‟s questionnaire The results were taken from two parts of the questionnaire: teachers‟ perceptions of authentic tasks and using authentic supplementary tasks in speaking lessons

With the second research question, the data were taken from the students‟ questionnaire and classroom observation For the questionnaire, data was processed

by means of descriptive statistical analysis The collected data were firstly calculated, analyzed in percentage term and grouped in different categories With a purpose to present the data in a clear and straightforward way, useful tools, namely charts and tables were then employed to compare and contrast figures For the classroom observation, the analysis of the observation checklists would help to confirm on the answer for the research question

Important Not very

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results collected from all the instruments would be presented with the illustration of figures and charts Furthermore, all the interpretations from the results would be shown in order to answer each research question

3.1 Research question 1: What are the teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards using AST in teaching speaking to 10 grade students?

The answer for the above question took results from the teachers‟ survey questionnaire and classroom observation Through completing the questionnaire, the teachers showed their perceptions of authentic tasks and using AST in speaking

 Teachers’ perceptions of authentic tasks

Due to the fact that teacher‟s perceptions of authentic tasks have certain influence on their perceptions of using AST in speaking lessons, the researcher placed some questionnaire items on their familiarity with the term and their possibility in distinguishing between authentic tasks and pedagogical ones

In the first place, it is obvious that most of the teachers showed their acquaintance with the term “Authentic tasks” 83,3 % (five among six) agreed that they were familiar with the term Only one confirmed her unawareness

In respond to the second item, a clear majority of teacher (16,6% for very important and 50% for important) reported that authentic tasks played an important role in TEFL These understandings, to some extents, lead to their consideration in

using authentic tasks in their lessons One among six found that the tasks were not very important and one agreed that it was not important at all (see Chart 1)

Concerning the teachers‟ perceptions of authentic tasks, 83,3% of the participants believed that role-playing in job-interviews were authentic tasks, meanwhile the rest thought that they were pedagogical ones As can be seen from the chart below, 33,3% of the teachers agreed that finding the differences in two pictures was one kind of authentic tasks However, there were still a large number

of teachers, accounting for 66,7% decided to choose “Pedagogical option” For the next given task, it is noted that two third (66,7%) affirmed that it belonged to authentic tasks “Pedagogical” option is the choice of very few teachers

Role-play: Job interviewFinding the differences Problem solving task

Chart 2: Teachers' identifying of authentic and pedagogical tasks

Authentic Pedagogical

In short, the findings from these questions showed that the majority of teachers had rather high level of understanding of authentic tasks despite a minority showed their lack of perceptions of the matter Furthermore, it was revealed that although most of the teachers could identify the authentic tasks and pedagogical ones through examples, they still had certain confusion between these two types of tasks However, it is understandable because of its complexity

 Teachers’ perceptions of using AST in speaking lessons

Question number 4 consisted of two main parts The first part was from Sentence A to E and the second was from F to M The data were generated from Likert attitude scales in which 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stand for, respectively, strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree

The first five sentences were to investigate teachers‟ attitude towards teaching speaking, supplementation and using authentic tasks in speaking in general As can be seen from the table, the vast majority of the teachers (50% + 33,3%= 83,3%) thought that speaking skill was very important No one thought that

it was not important at all All of the teachers considered teaching speaking skill for students was necessary No one ignored on its important role

In the next statement, teachers expressed their views on supplementation Most of them were in favour of supplementation (50% + 16,6% = 66,6%) However, there were still a number of teachers approving that there was no need to supplement, just carry out what are in the textbook

Statements 1 2 3 4 5

A Speaking skill is important 50 33,3 16,6 0 0

B Teaching speaking skill for students is necessary 16,6 50 33,3 0 0

C There is no need to supplement, just carry out what

are in the textbook

Table 5: Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching speaking and using authentic tasks

in teaching speaking in general

The data collected from the first three statements revealed that most of the teachers highly appreciated the importance of speaking skill and textbook supplementation in English teaching and learning