Improving 11th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland High School by using communicative activities = Cải thiện động cơ học

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ĐINH THÙY LINH IMPROVING 11TH GRADE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

ĐINH THÙY LINH

IMPROVING 11TH GRADE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT VIETNAM – POLAND HIGH SCHOOL BY USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

(Cải thiện động cơ học trong giờ nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11

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M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Method of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Theoretical background of motivation 5

1.1 What is meant by motivation? 5

1.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning 6

1.3 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning 6

1.4 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning 7

1.5 Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking lessons 9

2 Overview of speaking 11

2.1 Conceptions of speaking 11

2.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 12

2.3 Stages in a speaking lesson 13

3 Motivation and English speaking learning 14

4 Communicative activities 15

5 Previous studies in motivation in foreign language learning and speaking skill 17

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 20

1 Research methodology 20

1.1 Action Research 20

1.2 Key elements of an action research 20

2 Subjects of the study 22

3 Data collection instruments 23

4 Data collection procedures 24

5 Brief description of the three lessons 24

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 26

1 Level of students’ motivation 26

2 Causes of students’ lack of motivation in English speaking lessons 28

3 Action Research procedure 30

3.1 Action Plan 30

3.2 Implementation 31

3.3 Discussion of the lessons’ effectiveness 32

3.4 Reporting results 37

PART III: CONCLUSION 38

1 Major findings 38

2 Implications 39

3 Limitations of the study 39

4 Suggestions for further researches 39

5 Recommendations and suggestions 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaires I Appendix 2: Class observations XIII Appendix 3: Lesson plans XVII

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2: Students’ comment on teachers’ communicative activities 35

Chart

Chart 1: Students’ appreciation of English speaking skill 26

Chart 3: Affecting factors of students’ interest in speaking class 29

Chart 5: Students’ feeling when participating speaking activities 33 Chart 6: Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities 34 Chart 7: Class observation results before and after intervention 36

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

In the era of global integration, when the ability to use English as means of communication has become so important, a really big concern of scholars, researchers, educators and learners all over the world is how to improve the quality of English teaching and learning In this context, Vietnam – Poland high school (Viet Ba high school) is putting the focus on enhancing the effectiveness of speaking lessons The reason is many students have voiced their worries about the slow improvements in their speaking ability Although they really like English, speaking skill is one of their most difficult ones to learn They face with so many obstacles (lack of motivation, vocabulary, activeness, enjoyment, etc.,) when making presentation or expressing their ideas Therefore, “What should they do

to speak English accurately and fluently?” is the question that all students would like to answer

Besides, most of teachers have been frustrated at their failure in helping the students communicate better in English As a teacher of Vietnam – Poland high school, from my observation and my own teaching experience, the researcher realizes that during speaking lesson classroom interaction is restricted Only some students get involve in the activities conducted by the teacher while others keep silence or do other things Thus, one

of the challenges to the teacher is to find out the answer to the question “Why don’t many students of English get involved actively in speaking lesson?”

There is a saying: “You can bring a horse to water, but you can not make him drink” refers to the reality that the effectiveness of a lesson depends at least as much as on the learners as on the teachers This is confirmed by the statement: “In language teaching, teachers can provide all the necessary circumstances and input, but learning can only happens if learners are willing to contribute” (Scharle, A and Szabo, A, 2000: 7) Hence, motivation is considered to be one of the key factors to success on the way of mastering

the foreign language Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long – term goals, and there are no appropriate curriculum and good teaching to ensure student achievements

All these conditions, henceforth, offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study

on “Improving 11 th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school by using communicative activities”

This study was an attempt to investigate the 11th grade students’ motivation levels

in speaking lesson at Vietnam- Poland high school to find out the causes of students’ low motivation and passiveness when speaking English In addition, through discovering the reasons why existing students’ laziness in speaking period, this paper also aimed at seeking better orientation for students at Vietnam- Poland high school to learn speaking skill more effectively We do hope that this study will help the teachers of speaking in some ways to find appropriate methods to motivate students more and more in oral periods

2 Aims and objectives of the study

This research was aimed to increase 11th grade students’ motivation in English speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school by using communicative activities To

be more specific, the research was carried out to find out 11th grade students’ level of motivation at Vietnam – Poland high school in the English speaking lessons The factors de-motivating 11th grade students in English speaking activities were also taken into investigation Then the study was expected to work out motivational techniques to increase students’ motivation level and test the effectiveness of the communicative activities in the form of an action research In brief, these objectives could be summarized into three

research questions as follow:

1 How motivated are the 11 th grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school?

2 What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?

3 How effective are communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?

3 Significance of the study

Once having been completed, the research would serve as one of the initial studies

on students’ motivation at Viet – Ba high school in speaking skill It is expected to have several contributions to not only research but also teaching and learning in speaking English as a foreign language Firstly, the research gives 11th grade students’ level of motivation in English speaking lesson at Vietnam – Poland high school As a result, the study enables students to raise students’ awareness in improving their speaking skill Secondly, it also proves the students’ difficulties and teachers’ drawbacks in teaching spoken periods In other words, the research pointed out students’ de - motivating factors

in speaking class Then the research provides teachers with some techniques for raising the

students’ motivation level in speaking lesson

4 Scope of the study

First, as could be seen from the title of the study, this paper placed strong emphasis

on the 11th grade students’ motivation at Vietnam – Poland high school and the techniques

to improve students’ motivation in speaking class

In addition, it is noteworthy that students’ motivation is easily affected by the content of lesson, textbooks, materials, teachers and teaching method In this study, the researcher focused on teaching method influence on motivation

Finally, speaking skill is another matter of the researcher’s concern but not reading,

writing and listening

5 Method of the study

As mentioned above, this research adopts an action research in an attempt to

improve the current situation of teaching speaking in the teacher – researcher’s own class

In so doing, the method including questionnaires and class observation sheets were employed during the process of data collection

6 Design of the study

Part I: Introduction provides a general introduction, introducing the background

for the research topic and its aims, significance, research questions and the design of the thesis

Part II: Development is the main part of the thesis It consists of three chapters

namely Literature Review, Methodology and Results and discussion

Chapter 1: Literature Review mentions to critically examine the theoretical

background for the thesis with the focus on the main points: different psychological views

on motivation in language learning; Types of motivation in foreign language learning; The importance of motivation in foreign language learning; Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning; Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking lessons; Motivation and English speaking learning; Previous studies of motivation in foreign language learning and speaking skill and communicative activities

Chapter 2: Methodology presents the methodology performed in the study,

including the background information of the subjects of the study; the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Along with this, the teaching and learning English at Vietnam – Poland high school is described Also, the study – its setting and methodology are displayed in this chapter

Chapter 3: Results and discussion presents analyses and discusses the findings

that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the three research questions The chapter also reflects a detailed description of data analysis which is shown based on the survey questionaires and class observation Some explanations, interpretations and discussion of the findings of the study are explored in this In addition, action research procedure was presented in the chapter

Part III: Conclusion is the conclusion of the study, summarizing the findings;

providing some implications, the limitation of the research, recommendations how to

motivate students in English speaking lessons Some suggestions for further research are

also discussed in this chapter

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the theories related to motivation in speaking lessons It also reviews current researches on motivations in foreign language in general and in speaking skill in particular that have been conducted so far All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into students’ motivation in English speaking lessons and solutions for their troubles

1 Theoretical background of motivation

1.1 What is meant by motivation?

Motivation in Gardner’s point of view (1985) is a key factor in determining the preparation of learners to communicate Motivation refers to the combination of effort and desire to achieve the goal, the connection of learning the language and favorable attitudes toward learning foreign language That is, motivation to learn a foreign language is considered in the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity

Rod Ellis defines motivation as referring to "the efforts which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn" (1994:715) He proved that learners’ performance resulted from their own need or desire when studying the language

The challenge of the activities or tasks conducted by the teachers is emphasized in Malone’s (1981) definition of motivation He viewed that challenge depends on activities must be suitable for students’ levels The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficult will decrease students’ motivation In contrast, if students are provided with the activities challenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) based on learners' interest in and enjoyment with the materials and activities used in class, their active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and interest Learning process can only makes sense if students enjoy activities and work hard

While the term motivation is often assumed to be a rather abstract concept, it could

be basically defined as “the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the effort you will devote to that pursuit” (Brown, 2001:72)

It could be inferred from the definitions above that motivation is the effort,

enjoyment, enthusiasm and constancy that learners devote to the learning tasks as well as the challenging activities conducted by the teachers to reach the setting – goals in foreign language learning Thus, when attempting to enhance learners’ motivation in learning a

foreign language, different aspects or stages of motivation and factors affecting it should

be concerned

1.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning

There are so many kinds of motivation in foreign language learning studied by the researchers but this research only mention to the main ones

In the literature on motivation, the concept has been classified in different ways The most well-known classification of motivation has been made in cognitive terms as

whether it is internal or external to the learner In this respect, intrinsic motivation is to do

with “behaviour performed for its own sake in order to experience pleasure and

satisfaction” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.27) while extrinsic motivation is about “performing a

behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward or to avoid punishment” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.27) A learner can be seen as intrinsically motivated when

he or she is boosted from within: Intrinsically motivated learner dynamically engage themselves in learning out of curiosity, interest or enjoyment or so as to reach their own intellectual and personal goals To the learner who can be regarded as extrinsically motivated when he or she keens on learning “purely for the sake of attaining a reward or for avoiding some punishment” (Dev, 1997) In other words, intrinsically motivated people accomplish a task for an internal interest whereas extrinsically motivated people perform

an activity because of an interest external to the activity

1.3 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning

Success or failure in language learning largely depends on the learners’ motivation

to learn the target language Up to now, many researchers have studied the role of motivation in the learning process and most of the findings share the view that positive attitude has close relationship with motivation in mastering foreign language Gardner (1985) emphasized that on motivation constructed the primary factor to influence students

on English learning He believed that motivation for language learning cannot only include

goal orientation but the combination of effort, desire to achieve the goal of learning the language and the favourable attitudes toward learning the language

Motivation for learning a second or foreign language is defined as the learner’s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991)

Finegan (1999: 568) sees the vital role of integrative motivation in L2 learning

“Integrative motivation typically underlines successful acquisition of a wide range

of register and a native – like pronunciation”

Nunan (1991) shared his point of view in supposing one of the most decisive factors of learners’ preparation in communication is motivation relating to the connection

of effort, wish to get achievement, supportive behaviours towards learning the language In other words, motivation is considered to be the limit, scale that learners try their best to learn the language resulted from their dreams and happiness in this process

Promotion in choosing strategies to learn a second or foreign language among learners is another role of motivation As Oxford (1994) proves “more motivated students tend to use more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to be more successful” It can be understood that if learners know how to apply learning strategies and techniques effectively when learning a second or a foreign language, they will be more successful

Motivation not only plays an important role in learning but it helps the teaching as well, Lite (2002) confirms “Motivation is the black-bone of any classroom When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/ her job the best”

In conclusion, the researcher would like to stress that people are moved to take action by a need to achieve or to be successful Hence, motivation is the key factor leading learners to achievements or failures It stimulates and enables students to keep their interest and excitement in the L2 learning class, which promotes teachers to make excellent performance in their teaching periods

1.4 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning

1.4.1 The learners

According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), learners’ motivation can be influenced

by the following factors The first one is intelligence, it related to students’ performance on certain kinds of tests The second one is aptitude which involves the ability to identify and

memorize new sounds, to understand the function of particular words in sentences, to

figure out grammatical rules from language samples The third one is personality which

covers a number of personally characteristics such as extroversion, inhibition, self-esteem,

empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness Learners' preferences are another

thing that affects learners’ motivation when describing the learning style It can be seen

that learners have their own preferences in acquiring new knowledge What learners

believe in the way to learn the language can have influence on learners’ motivation Age of acquisition is also influencing motivational element Children are believed to be better than

adults in acquiring a foreign language and in speaking the new language

With motivation being as important as a factor in learning success as argued above, teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness Teacher’s role in shaping pupils’ motivation is just as complex as that of the parents This

is because teachers also act as key figures or authorities, who affect the motivational quality of the learning process by providing mentoring, guidance, nurturance, support and limit setting

1.4.3 The teaching and learning conditions

 Physical conditions: Physical conditions in the classroom, including the classroom size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards and even bulletin boards, affect pupils' motivation either positively or negatively In addition, the L2 teachers should notice that the classroom is not only a psychological but also physical environment Posters, flowers, funny objects can have a strong influence on the classroom atmosphere

 Classroom atmosphere: Language learning is considered one of the most face–threatening school subjects Language anxiety has been found to be a powerful factor that hinders L2 learning achievement (Maclntyre, Young, 1999) Thus, it is

the teacher’s task to create a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere A

number of various components contribute to make up the ideal classroom climate such as the teacher’s rapport with the students, the students’ relationship with each other and the norm of tolerance; which helps students feel safe and comfortable taking risks It is very important to make students understood that mistakes are a

natural part of learning, and to ensure that they will not be criticized if they make mistakes

In short, learners’ roles, teachers’ duty and teaching – learning conditions have influence on students’ motivation in learning foreign language in general and in speaking skill in particular

1.5 Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking lessons

How to improve students’ motivation in English speaking activities is a question need to be answered by researchers and teachers in teaching spoken language There are some motivational strategies that researchers (Robert Harris, 1991 and Zoltan Dornyei, 2001) recommend for classroom teachers

 Help students set their own proximal sub-goals”: Individual goal setting is one of the most effective methods to enable students to experience a sense of control over their own learning and perceive themselves as mastering material while incorporating their own interest (Jones and Jones, 1995) It is particular relevant to language learning because the final aim of this process – to communicate with foreign speakers – is several years away, therefore, setting proximal sub-goals has a powerful motivating function by providing advance organizer as well as immediate incentive and feedback As Oxford and Shearin (1994:19) supposed, goal setting is very important because it can stimulate foreign language learning motivation, so it’s necessary to spend time and energy in the foreign language classroom on goal – setting

 Increase the learner’s self – confidence: Self – efficacy is generally seen as a key factor in determining the amount of effort exerted and the persistence displayed In other words, learners are able to make excellent performance when they feel really self – confident The important question, then, is how to maintain and increase the students’ self – confidence and self – esteem in the language classroom, which is inherently face – threatening for the learner (Dornyei, 2001: 130) Dornyei also emphasized that language teachers can foster students the belief that enables them

to avoid worrying about language competence Favourable self – conception of foreign language competence can be promoted by providing regular experiences of success and emphasizing what students can do more than can not do

 Promote self – motivating learner strategies: Most of the discussion so far has

concentrated on the teacher’s responsibility and role in stimulating student motivation It has been observed, however, that even under adverse conditions and without any teacher assistance, some learners are more successful in keeping up their goal commitment than some others Therefore, an important role of teachers is

to raise their students’ awareness of relevant strategies and to remind them at appropriate times of the usefulness of these

 Make the curriculum relevant for the learners: Students have high motivation in foreign language learning only when their materials are useful and practical Therefore, the duty of the curriculum designers is to find out their students’ goals and the topic they want to learn and build these into their curriculum as much as possible to make their curriculum desirable and valuable On the significance of

“relevance” in foreign language teaching Chamber believed “If the teacher is to

motivate pupils to learn, then relevance can be the red thread permeating activities

If pupils fail to see the relationship between the activities and the world in which they live, then the point of the activity is likely to be lost on them If pupils do not see the relevance of a subject, the teacher has from the outset a major challenge” (Chamber, 1999: 37)

 Use visual aids in learning: When teachers come to class with the preparation of visual aids for his/ her lectures, most of students will feel motivated enough to participate in the lesson It was said that memory is often connected to visual images Therefore, we can provide better learning by attaching images to the ideas

we want to convey Using drawings, diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, bullet lists, even three – dimensional objects help students anchor the ideas to the image and certainly make the learners more motivated

 Vary teaching methods: Teachers should not use the same strategies all the time because reawakening students’ involvement in the course and their motivation is the main purpose of teacher Teachers should apply a variety of teaching activities and methods in your course such as role plays, debates, brainstorming, discussion, demonstrations, audiovisual presentations, pair work or group work, etc to increase your students’ motivation

 Have students take part in the lesson: The active involvement of students in their own learning is considered to be one of the key factors of high motivation Standing

in front of them and lecturing to them is thus a relatively poor method of teaching

It is better to get students involved in activities, group problem solving exercises, helping to decide what to do and the best way to do it, working with each other, or

in some other ways getting physically involved in the lesson A lesson about nature, for example, would be more effectively walking outdoors than looking at pictures

By choosing several students to help the teacher (take role, grade objective exams, research bibliographies or biographies of important persons, etc.,) students’ self – esteem is boosted and as a result, their motivation increased Use every opportunity

to have students help you Assign them home work that involve helping the teacher such as finding learning materials from newspapers, drawing pictures, or preparing real objects for the next lesson

In summary, in this section, some theoretical background knowledge of motivation

in TEFL is reviewed, and various motivational strategies as well as great deal contribution

of motivation in language learning have been well – documented in the literature There is

no doubt that if they are used appropriately by teachers, they can bring about great effect

on increasing students’ motivation

2 Overview of speaking

2.1 Conceptions of speaking

Speaking plays an important role among the four language skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) points out that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language

There are a variety of definitions for the term “speaking” However, in this study, the researcher chose the one given by Bygate In a social context, social roles are likely to

be taken by those who learn and know how to speak, but not by those who do not have this skill There is no doubt that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention than written skill In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence Therefore, Bygate (1987) is reasonable when he argues that "speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills,

in both first and second language" Our learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions It is the skill by

which they are most frequently judged, and through which they may make or lose friends

It is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business It is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and is particularly conducive for learning Therefore, it is useful for learners to possess a good speaking skill

in foreign language

In brief, Bygate’s definition seems to be the most suitable for the researcher’s view point on speaking

2.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech are important components of a language course However, it is difficult to design and administer such activities In order to be successful in organizing speaking activities it

is essential to identify the characteristics of a good speaking activity

Ur (1996: 120) suggests four characteristics which help to define an effective speaking activity:

1 Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time alloted to the activity

is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

2 Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of

talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

3 Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the

topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

4 Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in utterances that

are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

In Friederike Klippel’s point of view, an effective speaking lesson is characterized

by the following features The first one is message oriented communication which indicates the moments in foreign language when target language is used as a vehicle of communication The second one is learner – centered activities in which students’ feelings, purposes and ideas are the focus The third is active learning, cooperation and empathy which emphasize the students’ active participation in the speaking process

Both Ur and Klippel share some points in common From their ideas, we can see that the most prominent features of a successful speaking activity are the maximization of learners’ speaking time and equal chance for everybody to speak Motivation is one of the crucial factors that is able to make the speaking lesson meaningful Teachers should bear these features in mind when designing speaking tasks for their students

2.3 Stages in a speaking lesson

So far many linguists have identified stages in teaching spoken language Byrne (1976: 22) in “Teaching Oral English” divides the process of teaching spoken language into four stages They are the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage Harmer (1983: 50) in “The practice of English Language Teaching” mentions three stages during this process: introducing new language, practice and communicative activities Matthews et.al (1985:17) in “At the Chalkface” argues that the process of teaching spoken language include three stages They are the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage

From these authors’ ideas, it is seen that teaching spoken language should be divided into three stages They are: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage Each stage has its own purpose and relevant activities An overview on these stages is introduced below:

 The presentation stage aims to give students the opportunity to realize the usefulness and relevance of a new language item In this stage, students have to concentrate not only on the meaning but also on the pronunciation, stress, intonation and spelling of the new language item Besides, grammar is paid attention to Students are passively receivers, they are only asked to practice (role – play) and dramatize a dialogue or to talk about what they have to learn from a prose based on the previous answers at the end of this phase The teacher’s role in this stage is to introduce to students the new knowledge, such as new words, new grammatical structures In other words, he plays the role of an informant

 The purpose of the practice stage is to give students “the opportunity to use the newly presented language in a controlled framework so as to allow them to memorize its form and assimilate its meaning more fully” (Matthews et.al 1991: 8) In addition, it aims at making students more confident in using new language In the controlled practice, the teacher acts as a conductor who conducts what the

learners should do and which kind of language they are expected to produce In the guided practice, the teacher is only the one who suggests situations, and sometimes corrects the learners’ mistakes The learners here are freer to work, discuss with their partners and to produce utterances prompted by visual or written cues At the end of the phase, Ur (1996) supposed what the teacher reaches is to better students’ fluency

 The production stage aims to provide the opportunity for learners to use new language in freer, more creative ways Its purpose is also to help learners integrate newly – learnt language with previous – learnt one in unpredictable situations In this stage, the teacher is no longer an instructor Instead, he acts as the monitor, advisor, mistake – hearer, and consultant who gives advice is necessary Generally, the teacher does not interfere much in the production stage Students seem to be more confident and motivated to take part in freer activities by working individually, in pairs or in groups

In the speaking lesson, learners’ speaking ability can be improved if teachers follow three stages orderly However, teachers should consider the time limitation, the levels of learners, the students’ motivation and material in use when they design the speaking activities

3 Motivation and English speaking learning

Many students suppose being able to speak a language means knowing the language and then they view learning the language as learning how to speak the language,

or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or

do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get motivated and lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the right activities are taught

de-in the right way, speakde-ing de-in class can be a lot of fun, raisde-ing general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place

Motivation, in the view of Ur (1996: 120), is one of affecting factors to make sure the speaking lesson effective or not Learners have high motivation when they are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

General speaking, motivation can be seen as one of keys that decides learners’ success or failure in speaking process

4 Communicative activities

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner

to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community Communicative activities have real purpose: to find out information, to break down barriers, talk about self and learn about culture

A variety of communicative activities can be used to develop speaking skills Below are some of the common ones

Role-play

Role-play is an activity that the class is usually divided into pairs or groups These pairs or groups are given situations and roles to act out and explore This acting is done for the sake of the language and imaginative activity, not for exhibition The various groups, therefore, are activated simultaneously Role-plays are simple to plan and easy to play and, along with games and other communicative activities, are recommended to be used in the English speaking classes

Information Gap Activity (IGA)

IGA is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the speaking class In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class into pairs or groups In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, let them discuss for a few minutes and they change the role

IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has

to find it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the other student; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other

Discussions

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things

Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas

Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes

Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class

Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity Students sit in a circle For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on

attention to the lesson with lower stress

Communicative activities allow students to practice using all of the language they know in situations that resemble real settings In these activities, students must work together to develop a plan, resolve a problem, or complete a task

In general, through well-prepared communicative output activities, we can encourage students to experiment and innovate with the language, and create a supportive atmosphere that allows them to make mistakes without fear of embarrassment This will contribute to their self-confidence as speakers and to their motivation to learn more

5 Previous studies in motivation in foreign language learning and speaking skill

The impact of motivation in foreign language learning has been recognized significantly by many educational researchers

Gardner (1985), Dornyei (2001), Brown (1994) etc., have generated the concept of motivation, its effects in foreign language learning and applicable strategies for improving learners’ motivation in class In the light of their researches, teachers are able to answer the question how to motivate learners for success and their findings encourage or support educational researchers to do more research in different aspects of language teaching

Everybody needs to have motivation and a reason for the action Second and foreign language learners should be offered the opportunity to be motivated and fulfill their learning orientations Thus, Sulaiman Hasan H Qashoa (2006) carried out a research

“Motivation among learners of English in the secondary Schools in the Eastern Coast of the 99UAE” One hundred students participated in completing a questionnaire reflecting

their orientations for learning English and what affects negatively their English learning motivation The data revealed that the UAE students have a higher degree of instrumentality than integrativeness The finding also shows that difficulties with English such as vocabulary, structures and spelling were de-motivating factors

Peacock (1997) conducted a study in the area of motivational techniques “The

effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners” Two beginner–level EFL

classes participated including 31 South Korean students, and both used authentic and artificial materials alternately Most of students stated that they needed English for future work or study requirements The research used on – task behaviour, overall class

motivation observation sheets and interview questions The finding in this study was that learners reported authentic materials to be significantly less interesting than artificial materials This confirmed the positive effect of the authentic material on the motivation of EFL learners Moreover, the result also indicated that at least for the learners who participated, interest in the materials in use is quite separate as a component of motivation from levels of attention or action and persistence with the learning task

Relating to students’ motivation to study English, Wen – chi Vivian Wu and Pin – hsiang Natalie Wu (2008) Chien – kuo Technology University, Taiwan did research on

“Creating an Authentic EFL Learning Environment to enhance student motivation to study English ”.They use quantitative methodology, explored the perceptions of students at a

Taiwanese technical university concerning its EFL learning environment in three aspects: the physical environment, instructional arrangements and social interaction The study also examined the relationship between the learning context and student motivation The data revealed that the EFL environment in the three aspects was considered by students to be an obstacle to their learning, and that student motivation positively correlated with the learning environment

In terms of action research on students’ motivation in speaking, He Lina in China

carried out “How can I help my students’ motivation in speaking?” He Lina is in charge

of 28 students - English majors but she found them only able to read and memorize a lot instead of speaking much So her question arouse as to how to improve their motivation in

speaking She applied three techniques to improve her students’ motivation: offering equal

and enough chance for students to speak, varying speaking activities and encouraging them to “show off” Based on three methods mentioned above, she has achieved her goal

of motivating speaking in some of her students and in the class Firstly, her students participated actively almost in class They formed an active learning atmosphere Secondly, those who had never volunteered made progress and began to participate in speaking class In her study, she didn’t use any study instrument to collect the data, her study seems to be less believable She got findings and summary only through her own observation of students’ performance

In Vietnam, Phan Van Hoa and Le Viet Ha (2009) studied upper secondary school students’ English learning motivation in Quangnam province They used a modified 8 – item survey adapted from Gardener and a 15 – possible de-motivating factor survey are

administered to 100 upper secondary EFL students in four upper secondary schools in Quangnam The researchers use a questionnaire of two parts and interview as the data collection The study revealed that the students have positive attitudes towards learning English and are highly motivated to study it, and that they are more instrumentally motivated Moreover, the students’ motivation is more de-motivated by some subject – related factors rather than by teacher – related ones

Another study conducted by Hoang Duc Doan (2009) to investigate motivation in learning English speaking of the second year tourism major students at tourism and foreign language department at Sao Do College of Industry The study employed questionnaire, interview and class observation as main data instruments The subjects were 67 students selected at random to take part in the research and 6 teachers who have taught there at least one year The findings from the study revealed teaching speaking skills have made great effort to motivate students in English speaking classes Furthermore, aptitude and lack of vocabulary of the students are main de-motivating factors

Overall, there have been number of studies in motivation in foreign language learning and English speaking lesson However, there has been little research into motivation of students in English speaking lessons at high school This is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge By doing research through questionnaires and class observations, this study hopes to add further evidence to the small but growing body of research on this topic

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, the literature related to the topic has been reviewed as a theoretical basis for the study In this chapter, the practical aspect of the study is described thoroughly with the participants, instruments, the data collection and data analysis procedures, which justify for the validity and reliability of the study

1 Research methodology

1.1 Action Research

A form of research which is becoming increasingly significant in language education is action research This research has been defined in a number of different ways Action research is the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Michael J Wallace, 1998, p.1 and Coles & Quirke, 2001, p.14) Cohen and Manion (1985) affirmed that action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context They emphasized that the aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out When other people read about their work, notice it, or make use of it, that is simply icing on the cake Action researchers undertake a study because they want to know whether they can do in a better way

Action research can help a researcher fill the gap from theory to practice (MacNiff, Lomax & Whithead, 1996, p.13 and Zuber – Skerritt, 1992, p.16) Therefore, in this study, action research was used to help the researcher improve her professional knowledge and skill, teaching and researching Moreover, doing action research helped her to become a systematic and critical thinker and to reflect on expected and unexpected situations that happened in and outside the class In addition, this method is beneficial for learners as Dr Moira Laidlaw defined “Action research is a program of self-directed learning about one’s own teaching It is a way of improving actions and reactions in the classroom and outside, for the benefit of the learners.”

1.2 Key elements of an action research

Action research should be used not only by the researcher but also by students The more students were familiar with action research, the more they could further develop into

autonomous learners Warrican (2006, p.2) argued that the core goal of action research was

to create sustainable learning capacities and give participants the option of increasing control over their own situation

Nunan (1992, p.19), Nunan (1993, pp.41 - 42) and Bailey, Curtis & Nunam (2001, p.137) described the process of action research as a series of steps

Figure 1: Steps in the action research cycle

Step 1: Problem identification The researcher identified the problems that had

occurred in the classroom from previous experience

Step 2: Preliminary Investigation The researcher further investigated students’

feelings towards their problems and consulted other classes about their problems

Step 3: Hypothesis The researcher formed the hypothesis that most students had

low motivation in speaking skill because they had developed negative attitudes towards speaking skill learning in previous classes and teacher’s normal teaching method

Step 4: Intervention After observing the class and forming the hypothesis, the

researcher planned the lessons and identified techniques which may solve the problem defined by the hypothesis

Step 5: Evaluation In this step, the researcher’s observer colleagues and her

worked through the stages of: act, observe, reflect and revise to evaluate the outcomes in terms of activities, materials, classroom atmosphere and teacher’s role

Step 7: Follow-up

(Revise for next cycle)

Step 1: Problem identification

Step 2: Preliminary investigation

Step 3: Hypothesis

Step 4: Intervention Step 5: Evaluation

Step 6: Dissemination

Step 6: Dissemination Reporting the results was the focus of this step

Step 7: Follow – up The researcher investigates the alternative methods of

motivating students

Although there are seven steps in an action research cycle, because of the limited

time of study, the researcher conducted her research within 6 steps: Problem Identification,

Preliminary Investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation and Dissemination

Step 1: Problem identification

Step 2: Preliminary investigation

Step 3: Hypothesis

Step 4: Intervention

Step 5: Evaluation

Step 6: Dissemination

Figure 2: Steps in the action research cycle in the current research

2 Subjects of the study

The study was conducted with the participants of 45 students in class 11A1 at Viet

Ba high school (where the researcher has been teaching) and 2 teachers acting as observers The 45 students were doing their second semester of 11th grade at Viet Ba high school They were at the same age of 17, 22 of them are boys and 23 are girls They have different proficiency in English They live in different areas like Linh Dam, Van Dien, Thanh Tri, Ngoc Hoi; most of them are living in Hoang Mai district They don’t have much opportunity to communicate with foreigners All of them have learnt English for 8

years (from grade 6 to grade 12) The observers have been teachers of English at Viet Ba high school for 10 years

3 Data collection instruments

This research adopts an action research Questionnaires and class observation sheets were employed during the process of data collection Specifically, questionnaires were distributed to 45 students in one class 11th grade at Vietnam – Poland high school

 Questionnaire 1: It was designed with two main parts and 15 questions The first part aimed at investigating the students’ level of motivation The second one is for gathering the students’ de - motivating factors in speaking lessons

 Questionnaire 2: It contained 8 questions in 4 parts in order to find out students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method after 6 weeks of implementation, the effectiveness of communicative activities in increasing their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill

To make sure that the students understood the questions, the researcher spent about

30 minutes guiding them to answer and explaining difficult terms when she delivered the questionnaires to the students

Class observation is another method to collect data for the study It was a non – participation observation in which the researcher watched, followed and recorded activities

as they were performed in the real classroom settings The observation was carried out in the second semester of the school year 2009 – 2010, the class performance was observed in class 11A1

This process is done with one class in speaking lesson Basing on the students’ activeness, students’ behaviour and teacher’s methods, class observation is implemented within one class in 11th grade during three periods of speaking The researcher’s two colleagues who have been teaching there for 10 years observed the students and teaching method

 Observation sheet 1: In order to check the overall level of class motivation including learners’ interest, concentration, enjoyment, enthusiasm and persistence with the learning task The researcher used the observation sheet which was adapted from Matthew Peacock (1997) Each item in this sheet was scored on a

scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high)

 Observation sheet 2: It was adapted from Matthew Peacock (1997) On – task behaviour of students is the focus of the observation sheet There are twelve columns and 45 rows (corresponding to 45 students in class 11A1) Two observers placed themselves in an unobtrusive position in the classroom and started observing when students had been working for two minutes The students were observed one

by one, consecutively, clockwise around the class Each of them was observed in five seconds The assessment was “1” if the observed student was on –task and “0”

if the observed student was off – task Then the observers passed on the next students They continued until all students had been observed and assessed 12 times

4 Data collection procedures

At the beginning, the collected data was classified according to the questions in the questionnaires The most important information from the questionnaires was presented in the discussion of the data

Three observations of the author’s colleagues at three periods of speaking in the researcher’s class to investigate how the students’ motivation and what the causes are The purpose of the class observation was to access teacher’s preparation, presentations, method, teacher and students’ interaction in the classroom The class was observed 6 times during 6 weeks (3 times at the preliminary stage and 3 times at the intervention stage)

Unit 9: The Post Office and Unit 10: Nature in Danger in Tieng Anh 11 textbook were

taught as usual; three 3 experimental lessons were taught with the use of communicative activities

5 Brief description of the three lessons

During the three lessons, the communicative activities were applied for students of 11A1 in order to raise their motivation in speaking periods because the focus was on the students’ interest

Prior to the three lessons, the researcher explained to the students that they were not yet active in learning speaking and this would negatively affect their learning outcomes She also put the stress that effective spoken lesson depended on students’ motivation and

contribution Her lesson composes of five stages: homework checking, pre – speaking, while – speaking, post – speaking and homework

The first stage was there to make sure that my students were responsible enough

for the lesson by doing the exercises given and preparing for the new lesson (vocabulary, background knowledge, etc.)

Pre – speaking stage was used to stimulate the students’ interests in the speaking

activities Besides, the pre – activities also served as preparation stage for the students before entering speaking activities as teacher provided useful language such as vocabulary, structures, etc

In while - speaking stage, students participated in the speaking tasks

(Individually, in pairs or in groups), the researcher would act as the facilitator (went around, took notes, provided help if necessary, encouraged too shy students) In case of group work, there was always a leader in each group, who coordinated the group activity and assigned one member to work as a secretary to take notes for the report of group work

to the teacher (if required) later To some extent, group leader could perform his/her group work or appointed other group members

Post speaking stage (or production) happened when the representatives of some

(or all if the time was available) groups reported to teacher how the activity went in their groups or made performance to me and the class Then, the researcher would give my comments on her students’ performance or give mark Because the activity aimed at helping the students become more motivated I also praised dynamic students, encouraged passive group members so that they would join in the lessons more actively next time Besides, as the experimental lessons were speaking lessons, fluency and accuracy were also mentioned as part of my feedback, with the emphasis on fluency

As for homework, all the students had to write about the topic they had learnt in

class because I intended to improve students’ writing skill Moreover, students had to prepare to talk at home about their assessments, feelings and remarks about the activities they had done in the classroom Their hand writings and their views were checked and given mark in the next lesson

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, all the collected data will be analyzed and discussed to answer the research questions The main results came from the answers of two survey questionnaires collected and from two class observation sheets carried out by two teachers

1 Level of students’ motivation

Research question 1: How motivated are the 11 th grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school?

Survey questionnaire 1 and class observations were used to investigate the level of students’ motivation in English speaking class The following charts indicates the results of questions 1,2,4 in the survey questionnaire 1

The above chart reveals that students did not highly appreciate the speaking skill Only 2.22% students agreed that the speaking skill is extremely important and 5 out of 45 (11.11%) students thought that speaking was very important 9 students (20%) accepted the importance of speaking skill in English The highest percentage of the students 66.67% belonged to not important option Clearly, the reason for this was that students did not pay

attention to learning English speaking skill

It is apparent from the chart 1 that 62.22% of the respondents had no interest in learning speaking lessons, 22.22% felt interested, 13.33% like speaking very much and only one student (2.22%) realize that the speaking skill was extremely interesting It can

be understood that they donot like speaking skill much

As can be seen from the chart 1, 22 (48.89%) and 13 (28.89%) of 45 students were asked to answer perceived that they often and sometimes felt reluctant to speak English in class There were 3 students being ready to speak in class when they felt interested enough This is mainly because they weren't interested in speaking lessons, so they were lazy to take part in the lessons

Regarding the frequency of speaking with classmates, 4.44% of students refused to use English frequently in class They never spoke English with their class mates in English lessons 60% of learners revealed that they rarely used English in class meanwhile 24.44%

of students agreed that they sometimes had discussion with their friends in class in spoken lessons Most of students (68.89%) claimed that they answered only easy questions 10 (22.22%) of 45 students know the answer but they were too shy to join in the lessons The lowest percentage of the students (8.89%) was found never say anything in the oral period and no one volunteered to share their ideas

According to the table below, 32 out of 45 subjects (71.11%) accepted that they speak English when teacher asked them and 11 out of 45 students (24.44%) used English when talking with their classmates The percentage of learners’ communication in English when they thought it was useful and they found speaking activities interesting were the

same (2.22%)

Table 1: Students’ time of speaking Speaking English when… Percentage

D You are interested in speaking activities 2.22

Together with questionnaire 1, class observations were also used to evaluate students’ motivation The class observation was conducted with the two teachers who

joined in the study They observed the class atmosphere in Unit 9: The Post Office and

Unit 10: Nature in Danger by using Class Observation sheet 1- Overall class motivation

and Class Observation sheet 2 – Students’ on-task behaviour (Appendix 2) The observers

were non-participants in the speaking lessons Teacher used all the tasks in the textbook She did not change anything or design extra activities (communicative activities) The comments showed that the teacher prepared the lesson very carefully The lessons went smoothly and logically because the teacher was keen on the subject she taught However, most of students were passive and seemed uninterested in the speaking activities It was proved by number 1 and 2 in the Class Observation sheet 1 In other words, they did not pay non – stop attention as the observers used number 1, 2 and 3 Some students could not understand the requirement of the tasks in the textbook (the observer circled number 1) even though teacher had explained Whenever the students were asked to speak, they became quiet or did some other things instead of getting involved in the activities

In Class Observation sheet 2 – Students’ on-task behaviour, 55.74% and 63.52%

of students were on-task in class It meant that nearly a half of students took part in speaking activities in class and students didn’t find speaking lessons interesting

In short, we can come to conclusion that the students’ level of motivation in speaking class is very low Most of the respondents did not value the importance of speaking skill In other words, they found it uninteresting The majority felt reluctant to speak English in class Students were passive in class, they speak English only when be asked by the teachers but not participate freely Thus, the question raised here is what teachers should do to improve students’ motivation

2 Causes of students’ lack of motivation in English speaking lessons

Research question 2: What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?

The answer to this question was found out in survey questions 9, 10, 11 The following charts revealed the factors de-motivating students’ speaking learning

A lot of students (71.74%) were reluctant to speak because they were not accustomed to speaking in class It means they were lazy in class, so when asked to exchange ideas in English they were afraid of talking Boring teaching techniques accounted for 23.91% Being afraid of losing face and learning goal is not to communicate were the same percentage (2.17 %)

Most of students’ low motivation in speaking lessons caused by their lack of vocabulary (93.33%) Students had to cope up with obstacles namely being unable to find ideas and not self - confident enough (44.44% and 48.89% respectively) Not enough time for preparation was also a disadvantage with 17.78% of students Others (unable to reorder their ideas in English, dislike speaking, etc.,) were given by 4 students only

As being asked about the affecting factors of students’ motivation, more than a half

of students (55.56%) claimed that the available games and activities had the greatest effect

on students’ motivation in speaking class The second and the third one was the attitude of teacher and the classroom atmosphere (17.78 % and 15.56%) The lowest percentage of students belonged to the level of difficulty of tasks (11.11%)

To sum up, de-motivating students’ speaking learning are many factors in which the main factors are not accustomed to speaking, lack of vocabulary, boring teaching techniques (no communicative activities), being unable to find ideas and not self – confident enough, not enough time for preparation It can be understood that teacher should improve her teaching method to increase students’ motivation and help students get over obstacles If teacher uses interesting and exciting teaching techniques more often, students will enthusiastically participate in the lessons then enrich their vocabulary, ideas and be more self-confident in speaking class

3 Action Research procedure

 Step 1: Problem identification (the first semester)

Observing the first semester, the researcher realized that her students didn’t seem interested or motivated in speaking lessons Therefore, she decided to identify the levels of students’ motivation and factors affecting student’s learning motivation in speaking lessons

and the first and the second research questions formed were: “How motivated are the 11 th

grade students in speaking lessons at Vietnam – Poland high school? What are major causes leading to these students’ lack of motivation in learning speaking?”

 Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (week 1,2)

The levels of students’ motivation and affecting factors of students’ motivation in English speaking skill were collected in week 3 order to confirm the problem stated in step

1 and find out the main causes of students’ lack of motivation (the researcher uses questionnaire 1, Appendix 1)

In two speaking lessons of Unit 9: The Post Office, Unit 10: Nature in Danger were

taught in an usual way, without any treatment and were observed by using Observation sheet 1 and Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 2), after lessons to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, enjoyment and excitement with learning tasks or speaking activities In other words, the researcher can assess students’ motivation exactly

 Step 3: Hypothesis

The analysis and discussion of the initial data above proved that most of students had low motivation in speaking skill and boring teaching techniques was one of the main causes of students’ lack of interest As a result, the researcher had to think of solution for the problems Then, the results led to the following hypothesis:

Communicative activities (Discussions, Role Play, Information Gap, Storytelling, Interviews, Brainstorming etc.,) would effectively improve students’ motivation in English speaking lessons

3.2 Implementation

 Step 4: Intervention (week 4, 5,6)

As for many techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking skill, the researcher only wants to focus on “make the curriculum relevant for the learners, use visual aids in learning, vary teaching methods, have students take part in the lesson” when designing activities to improve students’ motivation

Basing on the data analysis from the questionnaire, observation and on the literature review relating to motivation and speaking activities (as discussed in Chapter 2), lesson plans were designed including communicative activities to motivate students in speaking lessons

Plan implementation: The researcher designed the speaking lesson plans of three

units: Unit 11: Sources of Energy; Unit12: The Asian Games and Unit13: Hobbies

(Appendix 3).In these speaking lessons, communicative activities were used to motivate the students to speak The newly designed lesson plans were applied with the same group

of students During the 3 weeks of the intervention, the speaking lessons were handled in a different way, using communicative activities The lessons were observed using Observation sheet 1 and Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 2) right after every lesson to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with learning tasks After the plan implementation finished, another questionnaire 2 (Appendix 1) was conducted to gather

information about students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill

In this step, the third research question formed was: “How effective are

communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?”

3.3 Discussion of the lessons’ effectiveness

 Step 5: Evaluation

As information had been collected, the researcher carried out analyzing the data from the two observation sheets of the last three lessons and compared with the data of two observation sheets of the first two lessons in order to evaluate the suggested solutions in the action plan The comparison was then used as evidence to show how useful the changes used by the teacher were

Questionnaire 2 was also analyzed to gather information about students’ attitude towards speaking skill and their assessments of teaching method after 6 weeks of implementation, the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving their motivation, students’ desire of techniques to boost them to learn speaking skill Through students’ responses, the researcher could evaluate the effectiveness of the changes more exactly

3.3.1 Presentation and discussion of survey questionnaire 2 data

Research question 3: How effective are communicative activities in motivating students to learn the speaking skill?

As can be seen from the chart 4, students’ level of motivation increased after the

intervention The chart indicated that 66.67% of students approved they found speaking skill extremely interested The second percentage (26.67%) of students’ opinion belonged

to the option very interested The third percentage (6.67%) was of the choice interested None of students had the option uninterested

As teacher designed extra activities such as game, role – play, interview, discussion etc., more than a half of students (59.09%) felt extremely excited to participate in communicative activities The number of students felt very excited ranked the second with 27.27% Also, 11.36% of students are excited in speaking English lessons and only one student (2.27%) felt uninterested To sum up, students became more active, interested and

excited to get involve in English speaking class

After enjoying speaking lessons with communicative activities, 31.11% of student perceived it was easy while 40% of students admitted that they found it easy when they felt interested enough 11.11% of students approved that speaking skill was still difficult if they did not have idea or lack vocabulary 8.89% of students coped with difficulty when learning speaking skill As for students’ self - confidence, 75.56 % of students felt self – confident to share their point of views in class There’s existing 24.44% of students are afraid of saying English in speaking class

It is apparent from chart 4 and chart 5 that students’ level in speaking skill has been improved since teacher applied communicative activities in teaching Most of the activities were more interesting than these in the textbook Therefore, the learners took part in the speaking lessons more eagerly than before

In the area of students’ attitude towards and assessment of the changes in teaching

speaking, recent speaking lessons were rated very good by 57.78% of students, good by 31.11% and all right by 8.89% Thus, the number of students who were satisfied with the recent speaking lessons is 97.78% The teacher’s techniques saw the number of students who had extremely interesting opinion of 55%, very interesting option of 38% and interesting choice of 7% Obviously, 100% students thought teacher’s techniques had become more and more meaningful

As for the evaluation of the effectiveness of communicative activities in improving students’ motivation, an interesting fact can be seen from the chart 6 is that 11 out of 45 students (24.44%) had the level of effectiveness 3 – fair; 14 out of 45 (31.11%) students appreciated the usefulness of communicative activities at level 4 - good and 16 (35.56%) students chose level 5 - excellent In short, 91.11% of students agreed that communicative activities effectively improve students’ motivation in speaking lessons Only 8.89% of students did not think communicative activities make sense in increasing students’ motivation

Although there are a variety of communicative activities, the researcher applied seven main ones in teaching namely games, role-play, brainstorming, story-telling, information gap, discussion and interview

Table 2: Students’ comment on teachers’ communicative activities

As shown in the data of survey questionnaire 2, we can see that students’ motivation had been increased after six weeks of implementation resulted from communicative activities application in teaching speaking