Designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School = Thiết kế chương trình nói bổ trợ cho học sinh lớp 10

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG DESINGING A SUPPLEMENTARY ENGLISH SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NĨI BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HANOI - 2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG DESINGING A SUPPLEMENTARY ENGLISH SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NĨI BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Dr HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA HANOI - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION i ii iii iv I Rationale II The aim of the study III Research question IV Scope of the study V Methods of the study VI Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Syllabus design I.1.1 Definitions of syllabus: I.1.2 What is an effective syllabus? I.2 Speaking skills and speaking activities I.2.1 The nature of spoken language I.2.2 Speaking skills I.2.3 Speaking activities I 2.3.1 Successful speaking activities I.2.3.2 Some common speaking activities 10 I.2.3.2.1 Discussion 10 I.2.3.2.2 Interview 10 I.2.3.2.3 Information gaps 11 I.2.3.2.4 Surveys 11 I.2.3.2.5 Role - plays 11 Chapter II research methodology 12 II.1 Present situation 12 II.1 General background 12 II.1.2 The teachers 13 II.1 The students 14 II.1 The textbook 14 v II.2 Research Methodology 15 II.2.1 Research Subjects 15 II.2.2 Instruments 16 II 2.3 Procedures of data collection 17 II 2.4 Data Analysis 17 II.2 Summary 18 II.3 Data analysis and discussion 18 II.3.1 Survey questionnaire 18 II.3.2 Personal observations and interviews 24 II.3.3 Summary 25 Chapter III The proposed supplementary speaking syllabus 26 for 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School III.1 Introduction 26 III.2 Goals and Objectives 27 III.2.1.Goals of the syllabus 27 III.2.2 Objectives of the syllabus 27 III.3 Selection of content 28 III.3.1 Learning tasks 29 III.3.2 Materials selection 30 III.3.3 Organization of the syllabus 31 III.3.4 Suggested tasks 32 III.3.4.1 Listing: 32 III.3.4.2 Talk about routines 32 III.3.4.3 Gap- filling 34 III.3.4.4 Problem solving task 36 III.3.4.5 Sharing personal experiences 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 References 39 Appendix I PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale There is a saying „A man who knows two languages is worth than two men‟ this shows the importance and developing tendency of learning foreign languages Nowadays English becomes more popular than ever before It is spoken all over the world and appears in all spheres of human life It is considered a bridge connecting country with country, culture with culture It is language of economy, education, entertainment, sports, etc Although English is an international language, learning and teaching English is a complicated process In many countries, where English is learned as a second language, those responsible curriculum and examinations have, in recent years, four skills: speaking skill, listening skill, reading skill, and writing skill All of these skills are important, but speaking seems to be more important Like all language skills, speaking is also a crucial factor to second language acquisition From informal talks with English teachers and school students, it is found out that at first, all beginners have a desire to learn English and to speak English as fluently as native speakers do; however, as time passing by they find themselves facing many difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful interactions For 10th form students at Thai Nguyen high school, these problems have been detected as: (1) Students speaking abilities in Vietnamese are low and mixed as some of them come from mountainous areas and are ethnic people, some others not have good background education (2) Students are not motivated enough because some topics and situations are strange and not interesting to them, some tasks are not suitable with their speaking competence (3) The time allowance is not enough for them to practice using the target language and the language they have learnt in authentic situations, which prevents them from developing speaking skills in the real world (4) And some students find it difficult to make their talks lively and persuasive even when they think their vocabulary and grammar is not the question Therefore, the analysis of the abovementioned reality indicates that it is necessary to design a supplementary speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school to help them develop their speaking skill II The aim of the study The study is aimed at designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School In order to achieve that ultimate aim, the study has to obtain the following objectives: + investigating the situations of Thai Nguyen High School, the teachers of English, the students, the textbooks + analyzing the students‟ needs in terms of speaking skills + identifying the objectives of the supplementary speaking syllabus and then selecting the content of the syllabus for these students It is hoped that the proposed speaking syllabus will be useful and interesting, thus involving them practicing speaking and then developing their speaking skills III Research question In order to achieve these goals, the study is carried out to answer the following research question: - Can the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school develop their speaking skills through a supplementary English speaking syllabus? IV Scope of the study Due to the duration of time and the length as well as the references available, this thesis does focus on designing a supplementary speaking syllabus, which is suitable for the local situation of Thai Nguyen School It aims at only students in grade 10 V Methods of the study To this study, a number of references, books, and websites have been selected and helpful information have been collected The data of the study was mainly collected by means of material analysis, and a survey questionnaire Observations and interviews were also conducted to collect supplementary information for the study VI Design of the study This study consists of three parts, excluding the appendixes and the references Part A, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study Part B, Development, is the heart of the study which directly deals with speaking syllabus This part is divided into three chapters including chapter I: Literature review and theoretical background; chapter II: Presents methodology of the study including background situation, data analysis, findings and discussion; chapter III: Presents the proposed supplementary speaking syllabus with speaking topics, tasks and activities Part C, the last part presents the conclusion of the study and some acknowledgements of the limitations of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Syllabus design I.1.1 Definitions of syllabus: In the history of foreign-language teaching, a remarkable number of syllabus definitions have been given by acknowledged researchers, of which some are really worth noticing A syllabus is generally taken as an expression of opinion on the nature of language and learning; it acts as a guide for both teachers and learners by providing some goals to be achieved Widdowson (1984: 26) defines syllabus as " simply a framework within which activities can be carried out: a teaching device to facilitate learning " Analogically speaking, if learning process is seen as a journey, the syllabus can be viewed as a statement of a predicted routes with which teachers and learners not only have an idea of where they are going, but how they might get to the destination (Hutchinson and Water 1987: 84) They further simplify its nature: "At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a statement of what is to be learnt It reflects of language and linguistic performance." Unlike Yalden (1987:87) who defines a syllabus simply as " A summary of the content to which learners will be exposed", Dubin and Oshtain (2000:27-28) bring about another meaning: "For what we are calling 'syllabus' might have the title of 'curriculum ', 'plan', 'course outline, or any number of other names Whatever it is called, it is a document, which ideally describes: • What the learners are expected to know at the end of the course, or the course objectives in operational terms • What is to be taught or learned during the course, in the form of an inventory of items; • When it is to be taught, and at what rate of progress, relating the inventory of items to the different levels and stages as well as the time constraints of the course; • How it is to be taught, suggesting procedures, techniques, and materials; • How it is to be evaluated, suggesting testing and evaluating mechanisms; The stand point of Dubin and Oshtain is practically useful and detailed for any attempt to design a syllabus Therefore, it is used as a guideline for the researcher during the syllabus designing process of this study I.1.2 What is an effective syllabus? Le (2001:12) believes that there are a number of key concepts that need serious consideration of the syllabus designers The issue of affective factors in language learning can be put in the first place As in Le's explanation, students tend to learn more easily when they feel relaxed, and fun is considered an important factor in successful language learning Consequently, it is advisable that not only the teacher but also the syllabus designer should help to make the learning process as relaxing as possible In order to facilitate this, the syllabus designer should make the syllabus reflect the students' interests and motivation through a learners' needs analysis covering various factors, such as age, gender, interests, and motivation, as well as their short-term and long-term needs (ibid., 12) Secondly, the role for learners in syllabus design and generating materials or curriculum also needs to be taken into account since this "changes learners from passive receivers of information into active designers and users of syllabus content" (Hall, 1995 quoted in Le, 2001: 12) The last principle for an effective syllabus is concerned with the characteristics of good students, who are creative and experiment with language and have their own strategies for learning and practising language Hence, a syllabus should take this into serious consideration and encourage the effective development of such students According to Grunert (1997: 14-19), an effective course syllabus should be the integration of the following components An ideal syllabus is expected to: • Establish a contact and connection between students and instructors • Set the tone for the course • Describe your beliefs about learning, teaching and assessment • Acquaint students with the structure of the course • Include handouts or detailed assignment descriptions • Identify students' responsibilities for success • Help students determine their readiness for the course • State how the course fits into the curriculum and overall program • Provide available learning resources • Communicate technology requirements for the course • Contain difficult-to-obtain reading materials • Describe effective student study habits • Include materials that support learning outside the classroom • Serve as a learning contract (Grunert, 1997: 14-19) In addition, it is widely recognized that Bachman's model of communicative competence provides a potentially useful framework for the design of language syllabus Thus, as Phan (2005) states, these competences are suggested "as having to be equally combined in a teaching syllabus to offer learners a fuller understanding of the language" I.2 Speaking skills and speaking activities I.2.1 The nature of spoken language People use spoken language to express their ideas, opinions and feelings They also use it to make sense of and confirm their understandings, to question and test their assumptions and to explore meaning In other words, they use spoken language to interact with others for different purposes and to develop their understanding of different registers, tones, and the use of expression language To reach the purpose of communication, it is true that spoken language is helped by different means of non-verbal communication The speaker can vary his voice quality, adopting posture, gesture to express a great deal Another noticeable feature of spoken language is that it typically contains many incomplete sentences Byrne (1976: 95) says, "in contrast to written language where sentences are carefully structured and linked together, speech is characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances and frequently false starts and repetitions" Brown and Yule (1982:68) also discuss spoken language in comparison with written language that: "written language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into highly structured paragraph Spoken language, in contrast, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances in a range of a pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetitions and overlaps between one speaker and another, and speakers usually use nonspecific references In addition, the use of fillers such as "oh", "well" makes spoken language less conceptually dense than other types of language" With the nature of spoken language, the main goal of teaching and learning speaking skills is oral fluency Savignon (1991:77) reminds that "we are trying to get our learners to develop linguistic fluency not just the accuracy ( ) We are equipping our students with took for generating unrehearsed language performance "out there" when they leave the womb of our classroom" This can be regarded as the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without too much hesitation That means people can use language to express themselves with unfinished sentences, but finally the other can understand and get the necessary information As a result, the speaker focuses more on what he wants to say than ... for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school to help them develop their speaking skill 2 II The aim of the study The study is aimed at designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus. .. syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School In order to achieve that ultimate aim, the study has to obtain the following objectives: + investigating the situations of Thai Nguyen High. .. ENGLISH SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NĨI BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI NGUYÊN M .A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING