an exploratory into teaching and learning of speaking English skill to 12th grade students at Quang Xuong I Upper – Secondary school in Thanh Hoa = Nghiên cứu v

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THÚY HẰNG AN EXPLORATORY INTO TEACHI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THÚY HẰNG

AN EXPLORATORY INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SPEAKING ENGLISH SKILL TO 12th GRADE STUDENT AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG I UPPER – SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THANH HÓA

Nghiên cứu về việc dạy và học kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp

12 tại trường Trung Học Phổ Thông Qủang Xương I ở Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THÚY HẰNG

AN EXPLORATORY INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SPEAKING ENGLISH SKILL TO 12th GRADE STUDENT AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG I UPPER – SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THANH HÓA

Nghiên cứu về việc dạy và học kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp

12 tại trường Trung Học Phổ Thông Qủang Xương I ở Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: Dr LÊ VĂN CANH

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I certify that the thesis entitled “An exploratory into teaching and learning of speaking English skill to 12th grade students at Quang Xuong I Upper – Secondary school in Thanh Hoa” and submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of

my work, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other

university or institution

Hanoi, September 2014

Signature

Nguyễn Thúy Hằng

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude

to my supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh, for his enlightening lectures in the Methodology and Materials Development Courses, greatly enthusiastic guidance, encouragement, and constructive comments in-depth along the way with my project Without his support, this thesis would not be able to be completed properly

My sincere thanks go to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, whose instructions have laid foundation for my work I would also like to express my special thanks to all the staff for their constant assistance while my work was in process

My thanks also go to my colleagues and students at Quảng Xương 1 Upper- Secondary School in Thanh Hoa province for their cooperation and help in classroom observation, interviews, and their willingness to share their ideas on teaching and learning English

Finally, I wish to thank all my friends and colleagues for their support during my completion of this study

Hanoi, September 2014

In English classess in non- gifted upper- secondary school the teaching and learning English speaking skill is considered as unimportant as the students‟ aim is to pass the General Certificate Education exam The research, which explored the teaching and learning of speaking skill to grade 12 students at Qủang Xương I Upper – Secondary school, aimed to have better understanding of this reality

The subject of the study was 144 students from three different classes and three teachers teaching in 12 graders at Qủang Xương I Upper – Secondary school in Thanh Hoa Three lessons were observed, four students and three teachers were interviewed The data collected from class observations and the interviews were transcribed and analyzed

The picture of reality of the teaching and learning speaking at the school

included the procedure of the speaking lessons, classroom interaction

patterns the task types and the effectiveness of the teaching speaking at Quảng Xương 1 Upper- Secondary School The results of the study revealed that the teaching and learning of speaking at Quang Xuong 1 school were not satisfactory Two recommendations on how to improve this situation were made to both teachers and students at the school

ABBREVIATIONS

1 WTO World Trade Organization

2 CLT Communicative Language Teaching

3.GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education

4.WWF World Wild Fund

5 WHO Worl Health Organization

6 IRE Initiative Response Evaluation

7 UNICEF United Nation International Children‟s Emergency Fund

8 TEFL Teaching English as second language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Statement and problem 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

3 Research questions 1

4 Methods of the study 2

6 Organization of the thesis 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking in second language teaching and learning 4

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking 4

1.2 Role of speaking in second language acquisition 4

1.2.1.The input and output hypothesis 4

1.2.2 The interaction hypothesis 5

1.3 Approaches to the teaching of speaking skill 5

1.4 Approaches to the learning of speaking skill 9

1.5 Input, feedback, and output in foreign language learning 11

1.6 Speaking tasks 11

1.7 Classroom Interactions 12

1.7.1 Participants in classroom interraction 13

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 17

2.1 Research setting 17

2.1.1 An overview of the researched school 17

2.2 Research approach 18

2.3 Research method 18

2.3.1 Data collection method 18

2.3.2.Classroom observation 18

2.3.3 Post observation Interviews 19

2.4 Data analysis method 19

2.5 Procedure of the study 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1 Procedure of speaking lessons at Quảng Xương 1 Upper-Secondary School 21

3.2 Classroom interaction patterns in the speaking lessons 23

3.3.Common task types used by the teachers in speaking lessons 25

3.4 The effectiveness of the teaching of speaking at Quảng Xương 1 Upper- Secondary School 27

PART C: CONCLUSION 29

1 Summary of major findings 29

2 Concluding remarks 30

3 Reflections 31

3 1 Hesitance or unconfidence of students 31

3.2 Lack of vocabularies, structures 31

3.3 Lack of language environment 32

3.4 Difficulties from the teachers 32

3.5 Other difficulties 32

3.5.1 Classroom size 32

3.5.2 Time constraint 32

3.5.3 Lack of reference materials 33

3.5.4 Lack of facilities 33

3.5.5 Poor background knowledge 33

3.5.6 Bad group work controls 33

3.6 Suggestions for support for teachers 34

3.6.1 Motivate students to participate in the speaking skills lessons 34

3.6.2 Vary the teaching techniques 34

3.6.3.Create a warm class atmosphere 35

3.6.4 Redesign the task for some topics 35

3.6.5.Options of correcting errors for students in speaking lesson 35

3.6.6 Overcome time constraint problem 35

3.6.7 Provide teaching facilities 36

3.6.8 Help students to be confident 36

3.6.9 Create opportunities for students to use English in real life 36

3.7 The teacher’s self-improvement of speaking skill 36

3.8 Monitor group work activities 37

4 Limitations of the study 37

5 Suggestions for further research 38 REFFERENCES 39 APPENDIX 1 I

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Statement and problem

Students‟ ability to speak English is one of the main goals of any English language teaching program from the perspective of communicative language teaching Without the ability to speak the language, students cannot learn the language successfully However, students seem to be weak at speaking, and this is true in the context of secondary schools in Vietnam where the teaching of speaking

is not given enough attention This is because speaking is not tested, and teachers claim that when speaking is not tested, students are not interested in learning to speak English

As a secondary school teacher, I think it is necessary to explore the reality of teaching and learning speaking English in an attempt to identify the reasons why students are not interested in learning to speak English This issue is very important but not many people have ever researched it This study was conducted in one secondary school in Thanh Hoa Province to serve this purpose

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Overall, the research aims at exploring the reality of classroom teaching and learning speaking English at a secondary school in Thanh Hoa pronvince The following objectives are set out for the study:

- To gain understanding of how speaking lessons were conducted in the classroom at the researched school

- To explore the common interaction patterns in the English-speaking lessons

3 What task types do teachers commonly use in the speaking lesson?

4 To what extent does teachers‟ teaching speaking helps students to develop their speaking skills as reflected in their performance of classroom speaking tasks?

4 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims of the study , an exploratory approach is used The data was collected by means of classroom observations and interviews The purpose of classroom observations were to gain the understanding of how the teachers taught and how the students learnt in the English-speaking lessons All the observed lessons were video-recorded and fully transcribed for analysis The post-observation interviews were conducted in an attempt to obtain additional information, which aids the understanding of what was unobservable in the classroom, i.e teachers‟s reasoning of their teaching behaviours

5 Scope of the study

The study is concerned with how English speaking lessons were taught and learned involved 3 teachers and 144 students in one secondary school Its focus is

on common classroom interaction patterns and the influence of these interactional patterns on students‟ learning to speak English

6 Organization of the thesis

The paper is developed into main three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion

Part A is Introduction the background to the study, states the aims, significance,

discusses the scope of the study, method and procedure and outlines the thesis

.Part B is Development

Chapter 1 Literature review presents the issues relating to speaking, the role of

speaking in second language acquisition, approaches to the teaching of speaking skill,, approaches to the learning of speaking skill, input,feedback and output in foreign language learning, speaking tasks, classroom interaction

Chapter 2: The study presents research , research approach, research

method

Chapter 3: Findings analysis and discussion and discussion, presents the

results from the classroom observation and interview The chapter ends with a discussion of the findings

Part C: Conclusion

1 Summary of major findings

2 Concluding remarks

3 Reflections

4 Limitations of the study

5 Suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of speaking in second language teaching and learning

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts"(Chaney,1998, p.13) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Florez (1991:1) defines speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (cited in Bailey, 2005:2)

From the above definitions, it can be concluded that speaking is the productive aural/ oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning

1.2 Role of speaking in second language acquisition

1.2.1.The input and output hypothesis

Krashen‟s (1985) Comprehensible Input Hypothesis claims that language input (listening and reading) is important in the language program and that fluency

in speaking or writing in a second language will naturally happen after learners have built up sufficient competence through comprehending input Many studies on the nature of input revealed that input facilitates the acquisition of words in the target language, but does not aid the acquisition of certain syntactic structures (Ellis, 1994)

Swain (1985) argues that comprehensible input is necessary but not sufficient in promoting second language acquisition She proposed the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis, according to which learners need be triggered

to produced intended meaning Swain points out that while trying to produce the intended meaning (speaking) learners may notice the gap in their interlanguage knowledge in an attempt to produce the target language to prompt them to solve their linguistic deficiency in ways that are appropriate in a given context

1.2.2 The interaction hypothesis

Long‟s Interaction Hypothesis (1996) posits that interaction focuses on the

„negotiation for meaning‟ The frequency of occurrence of the target form brings about salience, negative feedback, and input modifications to increase comprehensibility and content predictability These processes induce „noticing‟ of new forms, new form-meaning connections, gaps in interlanguage, and mismatch between input and output Long (1996) noted that interaction facilitates comprehension and acquisition of semantically contingent speech and negotiation for meaning Long stresses the importance of the interactional modifications that occur in negotiating meaning In other words, interactive input is more important than non-interactive input (Ellis, 1994)

Classroom interactional tasks that stimulate negotiation for meaning may turn out to be those among several useful language-learning activities, for they may

be the easiest ways to facilitate a learner‟s focus on form Classroom interactional tasks often contain learner classroom participation,group work, teacher talk, role plays, etc.The communicative language teaching theory reveals that communication and interaction are the purpose of language learning (Richards & Rodgers, 1986), and previous studies on communicative language teaching (Hymes, 1972; Nunan, 1991) show that interaction facilitates the learning of language functions as well as

of target language forms

1.3 Approaches to the teaching of speaking skill

1.3.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Communicative language teaching (CLT) refers to both processes and goals

in classroom learning The central theoretical concept in communicative language teaching is „„communicative competence,‟‟ a term introduced into discussions of language use and second or foreign language learning in the early 1970s Habermas 1970; Hymes 1971; Jakobovits 1970; Savignon 1971)

CLT puts the focus on the learner Learners‟ communicative needs provide a framework for elaborating program goals with regard to functional competence

Functional goals imply global, qualitative evaluation of learner achievement as opposed to quantitative assessment of discrete linguistic features At the same time, Brumfit and Johnson (1979) emphasized “the functional and communicative potential of language They saw the need to focus on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:153) CLT features more interaction- based activities such as role plays, information gaps, pair work and group work In summary, among some approaches of the language teaching methods, CLT is the most appropriate way for communication

Features of CLT

The fundamental principle of CLT is to enable learners to understand and use the target language for communication Two basic assumptions underlying this approach to language learning are that the core of language learning is the development of communicative competence and that the starting point for language learning is not grammatical rules but context, function, meaning and the appropriate use of the language

Richards and Rogers identify the distinct characteristics of communicative language teaching as (1986: P.71):

„Language is a system for the expression of meaning The primary function

of language is for interaction and communication function of language The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.’

This approach calls for radically different ideas of language teaching One major shift is that language learning has become student-centred Lessons are planned in such a way that all the students can engage in interactive activities

Authentic and meaningful communication should be goal of classroom act ivies Group work and pair work are employed to promote communication and getting the meaning across Authentic materials, such as newspaper articles, radio programmes, video-tapes, train-timetables etc., are used to bring the real world

elements into the classroom Situations are simulated but interaction and task complete within real-time are genuine Role-plays centre on communicative functions

Fluency is an important dimension of communication The objective of language learning is to communicate; attempts to communicate are encouraged at the very beginning Errors are unavoidable but accuracy is judged in context rather

in structures and forms Errors which are concerned with structures are not corrected openly and simultaneously because the main concern is fluency and getting meaning through communication Learning is a process of creative construction and involves errors

In brief, CLT is characterized with communicative competence, leaner‟s – centeredness and four skills integration These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques as well as activities in the classroom

to improve students‟ communicative competence

In fact, for each method, we are positive in teaching speaking by using different way.Language teachers have to be able to provide students with a better and more complete picture of what foreign language learning is about While teaching we have to change how to teach dramatically because the boring and mechanical types of structural drills have virtually been replaced by a variety of engaging activities

Breen & Candlin (1980) described CLT teacher as a facilitator; an interdependent participant and a researcher and learner Medgyes wrote (1986: P.107): „The communicative classroom requires a teacher of extraordinary abilities:

a multi-dimensional, high-tech, Wizard-of Oz like supper person - yet of flesh and blood In a CLT classroom, teachers keep a low profile in their functions, relax their control of the class, resort to gentle correction, organise activities and stand aside, prompt with discretion and offer help only when requested However, this withdrawal should not mean relinquishing control over the class, and it requires the

teacher an extremely high degree of professional sophistication They need very much more energy and adaptability ( Nunan: 1987)

The teacher was only provider of knowledge, the model for correct forms, and the controller of the class The textbooks contained sets of lessons to be learnt, and all classroom interaction was teacher and textbook dominated Lessons tended

to look similar to each other Nevertheless, this goal has been set – to develop the learner‟s communicative competence Learners want to be able to use the foreign language for personal need fulfilment Teachers must change not only in the extra skills required, but in the teacher‟s whole attitude to language, language learning and the role of the teacher

In the light of the CLT approach which takes the learners‟ communicative competence as the final goal, a T.E.F.L class is considered to be successful if the learners speak English as much as they can and the teacher speaks it as little as possible Larsen-Freeman (1986:132) states that “activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small groups” CLT favors interaction among small numbers of students in order to maximize the time allotted to each student for learning to negotiate meaning

Clearly, cooperative learning is stressed in CLT In the book “A Course in TEFL”, Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc list cooperative learning as one feature that CLT bears A classroom that is cooperative and therefore not competitive – usually involves the above learner-centered characteristics As students work together in pairs and groups, they share information and come to each other‟s aid They are a “team” whose players must work together in order to achieve goals successfully

These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques as well as activities in class to improve the students‟ communicative competence All learning activities should be selected according to how well they engage the students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than only mechanical practice of language patterns to achieve accuracy in language forms

1.3.2 The Grammar – Translation Method

Grammar- translation method is one of the most traditional methods It was originally used to teach “dead” languages (and literature) as Latin and Greek, involving little or no spoken communication or listening comprehension

The principle of this method requires students to translate the whole texts word by word and memorize numerous grammartical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabularies list The teacher‟s role is to be authority in the classroom The students‟role is to do what the teachers say Most

of the interaction is from the teacher to the students

1.3.3 Audio – lingualism

In this method, speaking skills are taught by having students repeat sentences and memorized textbook dialogues Repeatition drills are a hallmark of audilingual method, and are designed to familiarize students with the sound and structural patterns of the taught language A theory of behind the audio lingual method is behaviourism which views learning as a process of habit formation through the stimulus-response processes Under this method, “teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering the repeated oral production of structure…” ( Bygate, 2001,p.15)

1.4 Approaches to the learning of speaking skill

As stated in article “ Better English, better speaking skills” retrieved from

http://www.masterenglish.edu.my,1 English language learners are often anxious to learn the speaking skill quickly They define fluency as the ability to converse confidently with others, and regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they asses their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication

Students need to realize that speaking skill is progressively learnt by going through three areas knowledge:

∙ Learning the mechanics: Grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, the use of correct words in the right order with the correct pronunciation

∙ Functional use: Using the language to transact messages - the exchange of information- with clarity and to interact with understanding

∙ Social and cultural rules and norms: like taking turns to speak, the rate of speaking, the length of pauses between speakers and relative roles of participants Understanding the message (verbal and non-verbal), the circumstances, the reason and what the person is communicating

Students need an environment to practice authentic English that is used in real-life communication situations The English Club lesson periods are within Master English curriculum to afford the opportunity for students to learn and practice speaking real English

Goh and Burns (2012) after considering current practices in conducting speaking lessons, conclude,

“Although speaking activities occur frequently in their classrooms, learners seldom have the opportunity to learn the skills and strategies and the language to improve their speaking While learners do a lot of talking in class activities, there is often insufficient teaching of speaking as a language communication skill.” (p 2)

These authors point out that although the students in speaking lessons may manage to complete each activity given by the teacher by drawing on their existing language and cognitive resources, they do not learn anything new that they would

do without the teacher‟s help In addition, in many speaking lessons, students seem

to be very passive Although they participate in speaking activities, they are not encouraged to self-regulate their learning by planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own performances

1.5 Input, feedback, and output in foreign language learning

Hatch (1978) emphasizes the important role that speaking plays in second/foreign language learning Hatch and other scholars argue that by engaging

in talk with more competent speakers, language learners will derive two key benefits First, they will be helped by their interlocutors‟ input and feedback Besides being exposed to the input in interaction, learners also have a chance to hear a more accurate model of language being used Although comprehensible input

is necessary, it is not sufficient Language learners also need opportunities to produce comprehensible output (Swain, 1985) Besides language input, learners also need feedback in the form of questions, comments, repetitions, confirmation checks, requests for clarification, and reformulations (Goh & Burns, 2012)

The importance of input-feedback-output in oral interaction with competent speakers has led to the development of various hypotheses about the role of feedback in second language learning (Gass, 1997) Goh and Burns (2012) comment that ideally speaking activities should allow teachers to provide input and feedback to every language learner and to “push” each one to produce well-formed utterances However, they argue that in reality it is not possible for most teachers to

do so because of physical constraints such as large class size They advise teachers

to plan activities that draw their students‟ attention to linguistic forms, discourse structure, and vocabulary that can further develop the learners‟ ability to speak accurately Explicit instruction on language forms has been shown to contribute to learners‟ oral language development (Sheen, 2005)

1.6 Speaking tasks

Broadly categorized, there are two main speaking task types in terms of purposes: interpersonal tasks and interactional tasks Interpersonal tasks are aimed at establishing and maintaining social relationship while transactional tasks are aimed

at getting things done Thus, speaking tasks are designed to provide learners with opportunities to practice their speaking so that they can achieve greater fluency

Goh and Burns (2012) list three different speaking tasks that can be used in the classroom These are communication-gap tasks, discussion tasks, and monologic tasks

In communication-gap tasks, participants in interaction do not share the same information or background knowledge This creates the gap which encourages speakers to continue the interaction In information-gap tasks, learners are given different sets of information for a task They need to work together tin pairs or small groups to share the information in order to achieve a pre-defined goal For context-gap tasks, learners in both pairs or groups are given the same set of information, such as a set of pictures and a list of words They have to use the information to construct new content for their listeners These tasks are called context-gap tasks because they allow individual learners to create a context for the information that they are sharing, encouraging them to express their meaning by drawing on their knowledge of the language (see Goh & Burns, 2012: 202-204)

1.7 Classroom Interactions

The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines the verb „to interact‟ as „to communicate with or react to (each other)‟ The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines the noun „interaction‟ as a „reciprocal action or influence‟ Therefore interaction is more than action followed by reaction It includes acting reciprocally, acting upon each other Rivers (1987, 57) describes the word through its Latin roots: „agere‟ meaning „to do‟ and „inter‟ meaning „among‟

It shows us the active and social part of a human being that affects other people through interaction Brown (2001, 165) relates interaction to communication, saying, “…interaction is, in fact, the heart of communication: it is what communication is all about” Interaction has a similar meaning in the classroom

We might define classroom interaction as a two-way process between the participants in the learning process: the teacher influences the learners and vice versa

Teacher - Student

1.7.1 Participants in classroom interraction

These are the most frequent ways of organising classroom interaction, depending on who communicates with whom:

at the beginning of the lesson or for leading students into a less guided activity

The third type of interaction is called „pair work‟ Students get an assignment, which they have to finish in pairs The teacher holds the role of a consultant or adviser, helping when necessary After the activity, he puts the pairs into a whole group and each pair reports on their work te last type of classroom interaction is called „group work‟ As with pair work, the teacher‟s function here is that of a consultant and individual groups report on their work as a follow-up activity

The last two ways of organisation are particularly useful for encouraging interaction among students In large classes, they present the only possibility for as many students as possible to use the foreign language The research has shown (Long et al 1976 in Nunan 1991, 51) that students use more language functions in pair- and group-work than in other forms of interaction It has also been proven that

students perceive them as the most pleasant ways of learning, because they feel relaxed and subsequently communicate better (Phillips 1983 in Hatch 1992, 93) Such work encourages independent learning and gives some responsibility for learning to students It approaches real-life communication where students talk to their peers in small groups or pairs Nevertheless, whole-class organisation should not be completely neglected since it is still more appropriate for guided and controlled activities In a traditional classroom the teacher had the dominant role of

an all-knowing leader who „filled‟ students‟ empty heads with knowledge This role has changed and the teacher has now got many roles depending on diff erent classroom situations In a broad sense, he is a „facilitator of learning‟, which includes the following (Littlewood 1981, 92):

• A general overseer of learning, who coordinates the activities so that they form a coherent progression from lesser to greater communicative ability

• A classroom manager, who is responsible for grouping activities into lessons and for their overall organisation

• A language instructor, who presents new language, controls, evaluates and corrects learners‟ performance

• In free communicative activities he will act as a consultant or adviser, helping where

necessary He may move around the classroom and monitor student‟s progress, strengths and weaknesses

• Sometimes he will participate in an activity as a „co-communicator‟ with the learners He may encourage learners without taking their main role

These roles are frequently interrelated and some others (e.g assessor, observer as explained in Harmer 2001) could be added The roles of a consultant or co-communicator encourage classroom interaction most, but they need the support

of other roles (e.g for organising and controlling activities)

According to a review of studies on classroom interaction and language learning, Hall and Verplaetse (2000), interactive processes are not strictly individual

or equivalent across learners and situations; language learning is a social enterprise, jointly constructed, and intrinsically linked to learners‟ repeated and regular participation in classroom activities These authors state that the role of interaction

in second or foreign language learning ,

It is in their interactions with each other that teachers and students work together to create intellectual and practical activities that shape both the form and the content of the target language as well as the processes and outcomes of individual development (Hall & Verplaetse, 2000, p 10)

Later, Hall and Walsh (2002: 186-187) elaborate this view of the importance of classroom interaction,

“Classroom interaction is one of the primary means by which learning is accomplished in classroom In language classrooms, it takes on an especially significant role in that it is both the medium through which learning is realized and

an object of pedagogic attention Through their interactions with each other, teachers and students construct a common body of knowledge They also create mutual understandings of their roles and relationships, and the norms and expectations of their involvement as members in their classrooms The patterns of interaction also help define the norms by which individual student achievement is assessed Students draw upon these patterns and norms to participate in subsequent classroom activities and thus they are consequential in terms of not only what students ultimately learn, but also, more broadly, their participation in future educational events and the roles and group memberships that they hold within these events

Initiation-Reponse- Evaluation (IRE) Pattern

Findings from studies on teacher-student classroom interactions show that the most commonly observed classroom instruction pattern is the teacher-led-three-part-sequence of Initiation-Response-Evaluation (Hall & Walsh, 2002) The pattern involves the teacher posing a question to a student to which the teacher usually already knows the answer Students are expected to provide a brief but correct response to the question, which is then evaluated by the teacher with such phrases

as “Good,” “That‟s right” or “No, that‟s not right” “Each round of interaction typically involves one student at a time with the teacher moving on to ask a question

of another student once he or she has evaluated the prior student‟ response” (Hall & Walsh, 2002:188)

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter consists of two parts: the research setting and research methodology In the first part, an overview of Quảng Xương 1 Upper Secondary School, the teachers of English, the students and the materials are mentioned In the second part, there will be a description of the research questions, task types data collections, interviews and class observation as well as

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of the researched school

The school where this research was conducted is situated on the outskirt of Thanh Hóa city, was founded in 1961.With 53 years of establishment and development, the school is becoming a reliable address for students and their parents The school currently has 36 classes with over 1,500 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 The teaching staff composes of 80 teachers, of whom two – third are young and enthusiastic

∙ The teachers

There are nine teachers of English currently working at the school Both of them are female, and their age ranks from 28 to 40 All of them have the University Bachelor‟s Degree in English

∙ The students

Since the researched school is situated in a rural area , Most of students of are from farmers‟ families Therefore, the students had little exposure to English Although all of them started learning English from grade six, their English proficiency is not quite good They study English just to prepare for the tests and exams, so what they don‟t pay attention to learn English, in particular, Speaking and Listening skill They often takes notice of learning grammar lessons and doing exercises It seems that a lot of students can not communicate successfully despite they know a lot about English grammar patterns

2.2 Research approach

This is a piece of qualitative research Qualitative approach was employed because the researcher‟s attempt was to uncover the deep meaning of participants‟ behavior and gain a rich and complex understanding of their experience In other words, this research was “systematic inquiry into meaning” (Shank,2002) One remarkable feature of qualitative research is that researchers “ study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them” (Denzin & Lincoln,2000) This research as well did not separate the respondents from their real teaching/learning contexts,and it tried to develop a comprehensive picture of situation by looking for recurring patterns of meaning on the basis of the data With that purpose, the research ultilized two data collection instruments: classroom observation and in-depth interview

2.3 Research method

2.3.1 Data collection method

In this research, both classroom observation and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data This is aimed at establishing a triangualation to enhance data reliability and validity through multiple sources All the lessons observed and interviews were audiotape recorded for deeper understanding of the respondents, thus, gaining a deeper analysis (Burns,1994)

2.3.2.Classroom observation

The researcher observed several English speaking lessons at Quang Xuong School In each lesson, the information of teacher‟s activities, teaching techniques (giving instructions, encouragement, comment and feedback) and students‟ involvement, preferences and attitudes towards the applied techniques were mentioned in the checklist The researcher also observed students in each class to find out how they paid attention to the lesson as well as how they participated in classroom activities, for example, their ways of working in pairs or in groups

The researcher did the observation directly toward teaching speaking

learning-process in 12T1,12T2,12C6 classes at Quảng Xương 1 Upper Secondary School in the second semester 2013-2014 from 29 March 2013 to 16 April,2014 In this research, the researcher acted as an active observer The researcher interacted with the students as well as the teacher.In this case, the researcher of class recorded speaking lessons to find out the students‟ response, their attitude in participation and everything which is found during the teaching and learning process All the three lessons were audiotape recorded Then the researcher transcribed record taped speaking lessons (See from Appendixes 1 to 3)

2.3.3 Post observation Interviews

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 3 teachers and 4 students in search of additional ideas or clearer explanation Only three interviews were recorded as there was a power cut during the third interview Each interview was recorded on audiotapes and then transcribed for analysis During the process, notes were taken to stress some key points of attention (attitudes, psychological and emotional state, or repeated opinions)

The use of semi-structured interviews is reasonable for this study because a semi-structure interview, characterized by its flexibility, can help to promote an access to individual contributions A short interview is incredibly valuable for the pursuit of in-depth information around the topic ( Mertens, 2005) With only some questions formulated beforehand, the interview encouraged the flow of a two- way conversation and created friendly and relaxing atmosphere so that the respondents were stimulated and motivated to share and to speak With 6 questions prepared to the interviewed, the researcher could manage to keep the conversation in focus On average, 5 minutes for each interview sufficed to cover all of these six questions and allow discussions on the issues that were unanticipated or emerged on the spot The questions were designed to discover the students‟ favorite activities in English speaking skill lesson and the ways of attracting students‟attention from the teacher

2.4 Data analysis method

The qualitative data collected from classroom observation and interviews were read again as a whole and then demarcation of segments was made within it

Related items were coded and categorized into a thematic framework All the ideas were compiled and arranged into the outline of a narrative Significant and/or special statements in each category were highlighted to be used later as illustrative evidence for each perspective raised during the data collection process

With the aim of decoding the meaning of numerical data and discussing the data sets more generally, descriptive analysis was then employed The researcher summarized assertions of fact, described them, analyzed the content to find latent emphases, interpreted the implications, and finally discussed the relationship within related codes and among variables

2.5 Procedure of the study

- Decide on the classes to observe, teachers and students to interview

- Observe and audiotape the lessons

- Interview and record the inteviews

- Transcribe the tapes and records

- Analyse the data

- Display the results

Therefore, firstly, this chapter describes the context in which the study takes place The setting of a upper-secondary school and the participants with their goals, expectations and their English proficiency have been clarified Secondly, it deals with the research approach to conduct the research The data collection, namely, the classroom observation and interviews, the data collection procedure, and data analysis method have been clearly presented The next chapter presents the most significant part; that is, the results and discussions of the study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Procedure of speaking lessons at Quảng Xương 1 Upper-Secondary School

Observational data show that all the observed teachers followed a similar format of the speaking lessons They started the lessons with some greetings before asking few questions to lead the students into the lesson Following this lead-in activity, the teacher asked the students to do the speaking tasks in the textbook one

by one

Extract 1 (Grade 12, Unit 15)

T: Good morning!

Ss: [in chorus] Good morning, teacher!

T: Ok, thank you Sit down, please Now I have some questions for you Who can answer my questions?

How many people are there in your family?

Ss: [in chorus] There are six people

T: Who are they?

S1: They are parents, a sister, two brothers and me

T: Who usually do your housework in your family?

S1: My mother

T: Do you and your sister help your mother?

S1: Yes

T: What do you usually do ?

S1: Clean houses, cook dinner,

T: oh, yes What else? [T asks some others with the above questions]

T: Why do you do small house work?

S2: I don‟t have much time because I spend time doing homework

T: Do your father and brothers help your mother do housework/

S2: Sometimes

T What does your father do to help your mother?

S2: cooking

T: Your mother is a happy woman

T: Now, in our lesson today we are talking about the role of women and men in our family and in this lesson you‟ll give your opinion about your own the role of women and men in your family

Now let‟s start our lesson today

Another teacher who taught the same lesson in another group followed this teaching procedure

Extract 2 (Grade 12, Unit 15)

T: How many people in your family?

Ss: [in chorus] six people in my family

T: Who are they?

Ss: [in chorus] My parents,my brother, my young brother, my young sister and me

T: Who do all of the house work in your family

Ss: Good morning, teacher!

T: Ok, thank you Sit down, pleaseTask1:

T: Các em mở sách giáo khoa ra cho cô nhé! Các em đọc cho cô phần taks

1, các em đã nhìn thấy đoạn văn ni chưa nhà? And now work in pairs and

read the passage and then answer the questions you know I provide them some new words { T writes some new words and their meanings in Vietnamese by herself on the board: objectives ( hoặc aims), stand for, goals, research on,…v )

T: Now, read the passage and answer four questions below [T read the whole four questions first]

1.What does WHO stand for?

2.When was WHO established?

3 What is its major objective?

4.What are its main activities?

T: And now work in pairs (be quiet, ss discuss)… and now answer the first question “ what does WHO stand for?” what does “ stand for” in Vietnameses?

Ss: em thưa cô câu này có nghĩa là tổ chức Who được thành lập để làm gì a After this part, the teacher asked the students to complete the tasks in the textbook Once all the tasks were done, the lesson finished

3.2 Classroom interaction patterns in the speaking lessons

As the data revealed, the most common interaction patterns that were observed during the speaking lessons were between the teacher and the whole class The teacher asked the question, and the students answered the question in chorus Below is one example:

Extract 4

T: WHO viết tắt cho chữ gì nhỉ?

Ss: World Health Organization

T: (Cô chỉ định nhé) When was WHO established?

Ss: It was established on the seventh April in 1948

T: What is its major objective?

Ss: WHO‟s objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health