USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng các hoạt động thảo luận nhằm nâng cao động lực và tr

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --- LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATIO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG

USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION

RESEARCH STUDY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THẢO LUẬN NHẰM NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC VÀ TRÌNH ĐỘ NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Dr

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work for the Degree of Master in TESOL at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications

Lã Thị Hường

Hà Nội 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor,

Dr Nguyen Duc Hoat for his helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study Without his guidance and help, this work would not have been completed

My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable knowledge

I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students of class KT1713, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable have been acknowledged Without their precious support, the thesis would not have taken shaped

I am also indebted to my colleagues at Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their enthusiastic assistance and co-operation

Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been immeasurable I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my husband for their wholehearted encouragement

Ha Noi, December 29th 2013

La Thi Huong

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out with an attempt to increase motivation and speaking proficiency of the second-year EFL students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology by using discussion activities The subjects participating in the research were 14 second-year EFL students in Economics Faculty at Hanoi University of Business and Technology To achieve the desired aims of the study, an action research was carried out Class observation and survey questionnaires for students were used to measure students' level of motivation before and after the implementation Besides, to clearly see the change in students' speaking proficiency after applying discussion activities in speaking lessons, oral tests were also used as data collection method

The results of the study showed that discussion activities helped increase motivation of almost all of the students in speaking lessons In addition, the results also revealed that after using discussion activities in speaking lessons, some of the students could improve their scores in the post-test Although there was not too much change, it was proved that discussion activities played a certain role in improving the students' speaking proficiency

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLES:

Table 1.1 Students' oral evaluation criteria 13

Table 2.1 The timetable of the action implementation 25

Table 3.1 Students' speaking opportunities during speaking lessons 32

Table 3.2 Students' comments on discussion activities 35

Table 3.3 Results of Pre-test 38

Table 3.4 Results of students' speaking performance in the pre-test 39

Table 3.5 Results of Post-test 40

Table 3.6 Results of students' speaking performance in the post-test 40

FIGURES: Figure 2.1 Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral 23

Figure 3.1 Students' levels of interest in English speaking lessons and discussion activities 31

Figure 3.2 Students' difficulties in learning speaking English 32

Figure 3.3 Students' preferences for types of discussion activities 33

Figure 3.4 Students' levels of motivation 34

Figure 3.5 Students' levels of interest when participating in discussion activities 35

Figure 3.6 Students' preferences for discussion activities 36

Figure 3.7 Overall class motivation scores for all students 37

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Research questions 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Speaking skill 4

1.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill 4

1.1.2 EFL speaking processes 4

1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 6

1.3 Discussion and students' speaking proficiency 7

1.3.1 The role of discussion in improving students' speaking proficiency 7

1.3.2 Types of Discussion Activities 8

1.3.2.1 Brainstorming activities 8

1.3.2.2 Organizing activities 9

1.3.2.3 Compounding activities 11

1.4 Assessing speaking skill 12

1.4.1 Oral tests 12

1.4.2 Speaking proficiency testing criteria 13

1.5 Motivation 15

1.5.1 Definitions 15

1.5.2 Types of Motivation in language learning 16

1.5.3 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning 16

1.5.4 Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speakinglessons 18

1.6 Previous research 20

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22

2.1 Research design 22

2.2 Setting and subjects of the study 23

2.3 Research procedures 24

2.3.1 Conducting preliminary investigation 25

2.3.2 Planning the action 26

2.3.2.1 Choosing discussion activities 26

2.3.2.2 Preparing the discussion activities 26

2.3.3 Implementing the action 26

2.3.4 Observing the action 27

2.3.5 Reflecting the action 27

2.4 Data collection instruments 28

2.4.1 Survey questionnaires 28

2.4.2 Class observation 28

2.4.3 Oral tests 28

2.4.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test 29

2.4.3.2 The reliability and validity of the tests 29

2.5 Data analysis 30

2.6 Summary 30

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31

3.1 Levels of students' motivation 31

3.1.1 Pre-action questionnaire results 31

3.1.2 After action findings 34

3.1.2.1 After action questionnaire findings 34

3.1.2.2 Class observation findings 37

3.2 Students' speaking proficiency 38

3.2.1 Pre-test results 38

3.2.2 Post-test results 39

3.3 Reflection 41

PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 44

1 Summary of major findings 44

2 Recommendations 44

3 Limitations of the study 45

4 Suggestions for further study 46

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I

1

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

One of the main purposes of studying English is to use it for communication

According to O'Malley and Pierce (1996), among the four skills, speaking seems to

be an important skill that learners should acquire Therefore, to teach learners of

English to be able to speak English well is said to be one of primary goals in

learning the target language

However, for non-native EFL speakers it is not easy to communicate effectively

in English because learners of English have to master many important elements of

English including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension

This requires teachers of English to apply creative teaching methods to the teaching

and learning speaking skill so that they can motivate their students to take part in

speaking activities and also increase their speaking proficiency

At Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT), the teachers of

English have used a lot of activities with the aim to increase motivation of their

students and their speaking proficiency as well Among the activities given in the

course book namely "Market Leader - Pre-intermediate", discussion activities such

as guessing, comparing, surveys or detecting differences are usually used in

speaking classes During the teaching and learning English speaking for the

second-year EFL students, however, many problems arising have challenged the

teachers and their students to their goal The most apparent problem is that some

students seem to have no or little interest in the discussion activities Some do not

find the activities interesting enough; therefore, they do not join in the activities at

all or just join them when they are asked to do Even for some others who are

willing to take part in the activities do not have enough vocabulary and background

knowledge, or sometimes cannot work with friends to do a certain task effectively;

therefore, they gradually lose interest in the discussion activities Another problem

is that some teachers use the same discussion activities in almost speaking classes

2

and do not change or create some more interesting ones, which may cause students'

low interest As a matter of fact, many of the students at the university are quite lazy

and do not spend enough time learning English, especially speaking skill at home

Besides, the students are always asked to do tasks in formal or informal cooperative

groups in class only without any preparation before class

Because of the problems arising when using these above discussion activities,

the researcher decided to choose two activities - debates and layout problems The

two activities were used with the aims to increase the students' self-study and their

cooperative learning The discussion activities may be more challenging than the

others which have ever been used, but they are quite useful if students spend more

time reading and searching for information before coming to class When taking

part in the two activities, students are supposed to work both in formal cooperative

groups and base groups It means that besides participating in different groups as

they are asked to do by the teacher in speaking class, they are often asked to join in

a certain group at the beginning of the first semester The students need to study by

themselves and work together at home to fulfill the given tasks In this way,

students will be provided with an opportunity to develop long-term, mutually

supportive relationships

To improve the current situation of teaching and learning English speaking at

the university, action research can be considered as more suitable because action

research solves practical problems, classroom problems and for development of

educational practices rather than experimental research which solves the practical

problems by putting those into social psychological laboratory and finds out the real

causes and remedies for those problems Furthermore, because of the limit of time,

by using action research the researcher could find out an immediate and quick

solution of the problems

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

study on "Using Discussion Activities to Increase Motivation and Speaking

Proficiency of Second-Year EFL Students at Hanoi University of Business and

3

Technology: An Action Research Study.”

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at finding out whether discussion activities are used effectively

in motivating the EFL second-year students at HUBT in learning speaking skill

Besides, the study also investigates how discussion activities can increase speaking

proficiency of the students

4 Significance of the study

It is hoped that the results of the study will provide the researcher as well as

English language teachers with the understanding of discussion activities, students'

motivation in speaking skill and their speaking proficiency Secondly, the results of

the study may be useful for teachers of English at Hanoi University of Business and

Technology in particular and those in Vietnam in general to improve their speaking

lessons, which in turn, may result in the improvement of their students' motivation

in speaking skill and their English speaking proficiency

5 Scope of the study

Discussion is one of the most effective speaking activities in speaking

classroom However, due to the limitation of time and human resources, this study

only attempts to do research on a certain group of 14 second-year EFL students

from the Faculty of Accounting at HUBT The study merely focuses on examining

the effectiveness of using discussion activities in increasing motivation in learning

speaking skill of the second-year EFL students at HUBT, and exploring how much

discussion activities can increase speaking proficiency of the students

4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking Skill

1.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill

Among the four skills in English (speaking, listening, writing, and reading),

speaking skill plays a crucial part in helping learners learn a language effectively

Pattison (1992) points out that when people mention knowing or learning a

language, they mean being able to speak the language And according to Flohr and

Paesler (2006), speaking skill is the most important one in learning a foreign

language Flohr and Paesler (2006) also emphasize that "the focus in learning a

foreign language is on communication activities and expressive abilities and the

goal is to become a fluent speaker." It cannot be denied that teaching and learning

speaking skill deserves as much attention as or even more attention that the others

1.1.2 EFL Speaking Processes

Considered as a major focus on language teaching, "speaking" catches much

attention of linguists In Oxford Advanced Dictionary, the definition of speaking is

"to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc., by or as talking and it

involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological

(articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages." Bygate (1987) defines speaking as oral

expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm

and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to

convey the right meaning He argues that speaking is a skill which deserves

attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second language The

learners are often expected to speak with their high confidence to implement their

most basic transactions Therefore, it is the vehicle of social relationships, ranking,

of professional advancement and of business It is also a medium through which

much language is learned, and which, for many, is particularly conductive for

learning

5

Speaking can be considered as one of the most important skills for EFL students

but quite difficult for them to master There are many problems that EFL students

may have such as lack of vocabulary, grammar or too little practice There are four

main problems in speaking as suggested by Ur (1996: 121) which are:

Inhibition

Unlike reading, writing or listening activities, speaking requires some degree of

real-time exposure to an audience EFL students are often inhibited about trying to

say things in a foreign language in the classroom: worried about mistakes or simply

shy of the attention that their speech attracts

Nothing to say

Even not being inhibited, students often complain that they cannot think of

anything to say

Low or uneven participation

Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in large

groups, this means that each one will have only little talking time This problem is

compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while other speaks very

little or not a tall

Mother tongue use

In classes where all, or a number of the learners share the mother tongue, it is

easier for them to use their mother tongue because it looks naturally, and because

they feel less 'exposed' if they are speaking their mother tongue Therefore, most of

the students are not disciplined in using the target language in the learning process

Like many other EFL students, the students at HUBT also face such problems

during the process of learning speaking skill The students' speaking proficiency is

quite low In addition, they are not motivated enough to learn English, and quite

reluctant to speak caused by linguistic factors, cultural factors and/ or psychological

factors Although the students have learned English for at least seven years, many of

them cannot communicate with the others or find themselves too lazy to learn

English skills well, particularly speaking skill

6

To sum up, speaking is believed to be one of the most challenging skills and

should be paid more attention in both learning and teaching As teachers, they need

to be aware of any problems that their students may face in speaking class

1.2 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Speaking is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life

situations It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first

impression of a person is based on his/her ability to speak fluently and

comprehensively There are four main characteristics of a successful speaking

activity, which are introduced by Ur (1996)

First of all, learners have to talk a lot As much as possible of the period time

allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk This may seem obvious,

but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses In other words

in successful speaking tasks, the students talk a lot in the foreign language One

common problem in speaking activities is that students often produce one or two

simple utterances in the foreign language and spend the rest of the time chatting in

their native language Another common problem is that the teacher talks too much

of the time, thus taking away valuable practice time from the students

Secondly, participation is even It is the fact that classroom discussion is not

dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and

contributions are fairly evenly distributed Whether the task takes place among the

whole class or in small groups, a successful task should encourage speaking from as

many different students as possible The task should be designed in a way so that

the outspoken students do not dominate discussions When necessary, the teacher

may interfere to guarantee equal opportunities for students of different levels

The third characteristic is that motivation is high It means 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 Research has

shown that motivation is one of the most important variables in successful language

learning Teachers can do a lot to increase and maintain the motivation of students

7

by the types of tasks that they organize in class Students are eager to speak, when

the topic is interesting or there is a clear objective that must be reached Again,

great care should be taken to make sure the task is in line with the students' ability

to deal with the task If the task is too easy, the students may think it is childish and

thus lose interest

Then the last characteristic is that 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 a successful speaking task,

the language is at the right level The task must be designed so that students can

complete the task successfully with language that they have If the students lack too

much vocabulary, the task will become frustrating and the students are likely to give

up or revert to the native language

In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the

criteria mentioned above Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to

employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned-above

criteria The two discussion activities applied in this study - debates and layout

problems, can help increase students' participation in speaking tasks, and language

used in these activities is of an acceptable level because it is based on what they

have learned in the lessons

1.3 Discussion and students' speaking proficiency

1.3.1 The role of discussion in improving students' speaking proficiency

It has been mentioned by many researchers that discussion plays an important

part in the process of learning English speaking According to Killen (1996: 27),

discussion is an appropriate technique for EFL teachers because it helps students to

think critically about the subject and develop their skills of analysis, synthesis and

evaluation, rather than just memorize facts Discussion also helps encourage

students to work together and share their ideas by talking about them publicly, and

develops students' communication skills such as stating their ideas clearly, listening

8

to others, or responding appropriately to others In addition, through discussion,

students can generate their own ideas, and discover new knowledge through sharing

ideas in groups Specifically, when being given a certain task to discuss after the

lessons, students are supposed to work in pairs or in groups analyzing the task

together Each member of the groups has to share his or her idea with the others,

learn to listen to his or her friends, and cooperate with friends so that they can fulfill

the given task In long term, students can develop their critical thinking and

cooperative learning skill; hence, students are able to improve their speaking

proficiency

Killen's concept above is in line with Brown's notion Brown (2001: 178)

affirms some essential advantages of group discussion in EFL teaching: students are

able to generate interactive language; students are embraced by an effective climate;

students are to promote learner responsibility and autonomy; and students are able

to understand toward individualizing instruction In other words, when discussing in

groups, students are free to share their ideas with friends with a friendly atmosphere

because they work with a small group of other students Through group discussion,

students are able to practice the target language and make contribution to their

group work It requires each of them to be more autonomous and responsible for

fulfilling the task given to their groups It can be summed up that the strong points

of discussion technique are students are able to promote their high-level thinking,

initiative learners, autonomous language users, caring students and high responsible

students

In short, there are many other researchers sharing similar points of view with

the two authors that discussion has great effect in improving students' speaking

proficiency

1.3.2 Types of discussion activities

There are a lot of activities used in discussion; however, focusing on

task-centred discussions Ur (1981: 25) suggests that the activities should be divided

into three sections - brainstorming, organizing, and compound

9

1.3.2.1 Brainstorming activities

Brainstorming is the techniques whereby members of the group let loose a hail

of possible solutions or suggestions, in random order as they occur to them There

are some common activities as the following ones:

● Guessing Games

Guessing is one of the simplest and most well-known brainstorming activities that

exist, and is very easily transformed into a group discussion game There are always

two sides, called here the 'knower(s)' and the 'guesser(s)' The guessing game lends

itself to use by classes whose English is comparatively limited, since it is based on

the simplest types of utterances: simple questions or statements, brief phrases,

single words

● Finding connections

The thinking basis here is the search for common denominators or links between

different items Unlike guessing games, these activities are unsuitable for the very

earliest stages language learning; they can be used only with students who have a

wide enough vocabulary to cope with the very extensive imaginative invention

required, and who have a reasonable mastery of the tense system

● Ideas from a central theme

This in a way is the converse of the process of finding connections Instead of the

students being given elements and looking for a common base, the base is given and

related elements sought The language needed may be very simple, hence some

variations of this exercise are suitable for elementary levels

● Implications and interpretation

It is really a slightly more sophisticated version of Ideas from a central theme It

consists of exploring the implications and interpretations of a more or less

ambiguous stimulus, which may take the form of an imaginary situation, a picture, a

noise, or a doodle The language may be relatively simple, but it is not limited to

specific structures or vocabulary

1.3.2.2 Organizing activities

10

● Comparing

These exercises are based on contrast and analogy: that is to say, they require

students to discuss and define differences and similarities between various elements

in order to carry out a task of classification As regards language input, advanced

students need no preparation for these activities whereas elementary ones should be

familiar with some certain expressions used in comparing

● Detecting differences

Also based on contrast and analogy, these exercises are, however, slightly different

from those just described The material does not consist of a collection of simple

discrete items, but of compound, sometimes complicated, stimuli: pictures,

descriptions, stories Two, or possibly three, such stimuli are given to the students in

such a way that not observe all of them simultaneously: they have to detect

differences by remembering what has been said before or by comparing someone

else's version with their own

● Putting in order

This task requires students to evaluate connected pieces of evidence and recognize

causal, temporal or professional relationships between them The group is given

several pictures, sentences or passages and asked to put them into some sort of

logical order The picture-sequence exercise is more appropriate for younger or

more elementary classes while the sentence-sequence for older or more advanced

ones

● Priorities

A specific application of the concept of ordering is that of defining priorities The

language used consists mostly of comparisons, and lower-level classes may benefit

from a little practice in comparative and superlative constructions beforehand

● Choosing candidates

This is another exercise which requires assessment and comparison, but here

participants are asked to choose only one item for a certain purpose Many different

language functions may be needed and the number of different structures needed is

11

correspondingly large

● Layout problems

These are exercises involving some preliminary reading, and are suitable for mature,

advanced students The basic procedure is similar to that of Choosing candidates

● Combined versions

This activity begins rather like picture differences, but here texts are used instead of

pictures, and the identification of differences is only the preliminary The main task

before students is to compare the different variations and decide which is right, on

the basis of common sense and consistency

1.3.2.3 Compounding activities

● Composing letters

The task is to compose appropriate responses to letters that are in some way

provocative: advising, insulting, appealing, complaining, threatening - anything, in

fact, which stimulates a reaction from the recipient Such letters are not hard to

prepare, no specific set of language items need preparation, and also the

organization of this exercise is very simple

● Debates

There are some limitations and disadvantages of the conventional class debate as a

vehicle for fluency practice: the limited scope of its subjects, and the relative lack of

participation However, many students particularly the more adult and intellectual,

enjoy this kind of discussion because the skills of oratory and dialectics are learner

and exercised in a debate better than anywhere else

● Publicity campaigns

The task is to plan a publicity campaign, consisting of a series of measures whose

objective is to convince the public of something Apart from choosing a subject and

thinking a little how she would tackle it, the teacher has virtually nothing to prepare

for this activity Nor are there any particular structures or lexical items which need

revising with the students

● Surveys

12

Most students are familiar with opinion polls or surveys, so they are easily adapted

for use in this type of discussion In order for this to be done in the classroom, the

sources of information or the population samples to be taken are limited to the

actual members of the class

● Planning projects

The activity combines elements from many of the other exercises, may run into

several sessions, and is suitable for mature students The discussions are

correspondingly long and complex, but also very absorbing and involving

Above the discussion activities, there are some that are often used in speaking

class at HUBT They are guessing games, comparing, surveys or detecting

differences However, the situation of teaching and learning English speaking has

proved that some of the activities are not challenging and interesting enough; some

cannot give students opportunities to practice their cooperative learning The two

discussion activities used in this study are debates and layout problems The

students were supposed to work in small groups and then discuss with the whole

class The first activity is debates which may have some disadvantages including the

relative lack of participation Therefore, to increase students' involvement in the

activities, the researcher - teacher divided that her class into three or four groups,

each of whom is given a motion for debates: two of these supporting different

points of view This activity is suitable for multi-level students The second activity

- layout problems may require students to have some preliminary reading before

working out the solution to the problems By giving students some tasks at home

requiring them to search for and read the materials in individuals and in groups at

home, students will have something to say and discuss in class

1.4 Assessing speaking skill

1.4.1 Oral tests

A question for a teacher is how students' speaking ability can be assessed in the

foreign language In some points, testing speaking is not as straightforward as

13

testing grammar or vocabulary So Sárosdy (2006, p.146) states:

"Testing speaking ability is an important aspect of language testing, but it is

very difficult to test, as it is a complex skill, moreover speaking skills cannot be

separated from the listening skills in many tests of oral production This

interdependence of the speaking and listening skills makes it difficult to analyze

precisely and reliably what is tested at any one time."

In the project oral testing, Asif (2011) says that there are three types of oral tests

which are: monologue speaking, dialogue speaking, and multilogue speaking

According to the author, a monologue (monolog) is implemented when the speaker

speaks his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character or speak to

the audience, especially the former The author also states that dialogue speaking is

the most common type of oral test which is used to test students' production dialog

material In this type of speaking, hearing recitation of memorized dialogues was

the most often used And the last types of oral test is multilogue speaking In this

type, there should be picture description or discussion on any topic

1.4.2 Speaking proficiency testing criteria

To test the oral proficiency of students, it could be concerned about criteria

levels of performance of students In this study, the researcher would mention the

scale of oral testing criteria written by some researchers According to Ur (1996:

113), students' oral speaking ability should be marked based on the two criteria:

fluency and accuracy as followings:

Little or no language produced 1 Little or no communication 1

Poor vocabulary, mistakes in basic

grammar, may have very strong

Adequate but not rich vocabulary,

makes obvious grammar mistakes,

3 Gets ideas across, but hesitantly and briefly

3

14

slight foreign accent

Good range of vocabulary,

occasional grammar slips, slight

foreign accent

4 Effective communication in short turns

4

Wide vocabulary appropriately used,

virtually no grammar errors,

native-like or slight foreign accent

5 Easy and effective communication, uses long turns

5

Total score out of 10:

Table 1.1 Students' oral evaluation criteria Furthermore, Kent (2001) points out some oral evaluation criteria which are:

Fluency of speech, Grammar use, Listening comprehension, Pronunciation and

Vocabulary appropriateness and complexity He also states that for each point of

evaluation, students are graded on a Likert-type scale (1: being poor, 2: below

average, 3: average, 4: above average, 5: excellent.)

It is also written in IELTS speaking band descriptors (published version) that

students' English speaking proficiency should be evaluated on four criteria such as:

fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy and

pronunciation

In short, there are many criteria to assess students' speaking proficiency

However, to choose a suitable technique to assess speaking proficiency is part of the

problem For the evaluation criteria, it should be evaluated by the examiner at

relevant points of students' conversation The scale of speaking proficiency testing

criteria at Hanoi University of Business and Technology which candidates are tested

is based on IELTS speaking band descriptors (public versions) but it has been made

suitable for the situation of teaching and learning English speaking there

Particularly, it also has four criteria which are fluency and coherence, vocabulary,

grammar and pronunciation To adapt the criteria and the speaking marking scheme

to the situation of teaching and learning English at HUBT, the teachers decided to

choose the maximum score for each criterion is 2.5 points Therefore, the maximum

15

score for the test is 10.0 points in accordance with marking scale required by the

University (Please see Appendix 4)

1.5 Motivation

1.5.1 Definitions

It is clearly seen that motivation plays an important part in the process of

learning a foreign language There are a lot of theories of motivation that have been

searched and discussed

The term "motivation" appears to be simple but difficult to define Motivation,

according to Ellis, R (1997:75), is "the efforts which learners put into learning an

L2 as a result of their own need or desire to learn" He also indicates that

"Motivation involves the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of

effort that learners make to learn an L2" Then, motivation to learn a second

language in Ellis' point of view refers to 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 the activity

Sharing the same viewpoint, Gardner (1985) defines motivation as a key factor

in determining the preparation of learners to communicate Gardner's motivation

involves four aspects: a goal, an effort, a desire to attain the goal and a favorable

attitude towards the activity

According to Crookes and Schmidt (1991), motivation is defined in terms of

learner's interest in and enthusiasm for the teaching method used in class, their

active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of

concentration and enjoyment Learning process can only make sense if students

enjoy activities and work hard From the researcher's point of view, this definition is

exactly right for the motivation in this study

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'

16

motivation in learning a foreign language, different aspects or stages of motivation

and factors affecting it should be concerned

1.5.2 Types of Motivation in language learning

Many kinds of motivation in foreign language learning have been studied by

researchers, however, this research only mentions to the main ones 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, according to Dornyei

(2001a, p.27) intrinsic motivation is to do with "behaviour performed for its own

sake in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction" Concerning learning, it can

be said that the drive or stimulation to learn comes from within the students, hence,

the teacher or instructor does not have to " manipulate" the student in any way in

order to make him learn It is an inner desire of the student to fulfill a positive

learning outcome Intrinsic motivation itself is goal related, therefore, it is

independent of any kind of external value

Extrinsic motivation, as Dornyei (2001a: 27) indicates, is about "performing a

behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward or to avoid

punishment" This motivation arises from the use of external rewards of bribes such

as food, praise, free time, money or points toward an activity These incentives are

all external, in that they are separate from the individual and the task

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

1.5.3 Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning

The learners

As Lightbown and Spada point out in their book "How languages are learned"

(1993), leaners' motivation can be influenced by some certain factors which are

intelligence, aptitude, personality, preferences, and age of acquisition Specifically,

intelligence is related to students' performance on certain kinds of tests Aptitude

involves the ability to identify and memorize new sounds, to understand the

17

function of particular words in sentences and to figure out grammatical rules from

language samples The next factor is personality which covers a number of personal

characteristics such as extroversion, inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance,

and responsiveness Another thing that affects learners' motivation is their

preferences in acquiring new knowledge Last but not least, age of acquisition also

influences learners' motivation It is a fact that children are believed to be better in

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

The teachers

To motivate students to learn a foreign language, teacher skills can be

considered as central to teaching effectiveness A teacher acts as the authority in the

classroom; he may provide learners with guidance and support in second/foreign

language learning, or weaken learners' motivation because of his inappropriate

response to learners' learning activities

As the authority in the class, whether a teacher supports autonomous study in

the class or not is very important A teacher who offers learners options and choices

of learning tasks and allows learners to have the right to make decisions in the

learning process will enhance learners' sense of self-determination and their

intrinsic learning motivation

The teaching and learning conditions

The teaching and learning conditions can be divided into two main parts which

are physical conditions and classroom atmosphere Physical conditions in the

classroom, including the classroom size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards and

even bulletin boards, affect learners' motivation either positively or negatively In

addition, it should be noticed that the classroom is not only a psychological but also

physical environment Therefore, posters, flowers or funny objects can have a

strong influence on the classroom atmosphere

Besides, classroom atmosphere also plays an important part in the process of

learning 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

18

classroom climate such as teacher's rapport with students, students' relationship with

each other and the norm of tolerance; which helps students feel safe and

comfortable to take risks

In short, learners' roles, teachers' duty, and teaching and learning conditions

have great influence on students' motivation in learning a foreign language in

general and in speaking skill in particular

1.5.4 Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speaking lessons

One of the biggest problems faced by teachers is that students have little or no

motivation in English speaking activities As Robert Harris (1991) and Zoltan

Dornyei (2001b) suggest, there are some motivational strategies that teachers

should follow

- The first one is that teachers should help their students set their own proximal

sub-goals Setting proximal sub-goals has a powerful motivating function by

providing advance organizers as well as immediate incentive and feedback

According to Oxford and Shearin (1994: 19), goal setting is very important because

it can stimulate foreign language learning motivation It' is necessary to spend time

and energy in the foreign language classroom on goal-setting

- Increasing learners' self-confidence is the second motivational strategies As

Dornyei (2001b: 130) emphasized, it is important to maintain and increase students'

self-confidence and self-esteem in the language classroom, because it is often

face-threatening for learners Dornyei also recommends 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

- The third one is promoting self-motivating learner strategies Teachers play an

important role in stimulating students' motivation; therefore, teachers should raise

their students' awareness of relevant strategies and remind students at appropriate

times of the usefulness of these

19

- Another motivational strategy is that teachers should use visual aids in

learning It has been proved that memory is often connected to visual images With

preparation of visual aids for the lectures such as pictures, drawings or

three-dimensional objects, teachers can help most of their students feel motivated

enough to take part in the lesson

- In addition, teachers should vary their teaching methods instead of using the

same strategies all the time A variety of teaching activities and methods such as

discussion, role plays, group work or pair work, etc should be applied during the

course to help increase students' motivation

- Last but not least, to motivate students in learning a foreign language, teachers

should consider the relevance of the curriculum for their learners Emphasizing the

significance of "relevance" in foreign language teaching, Chamber (1999: 37) points

out that "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"

It has been found that each researcher employs different instruments to measure

students' level of motivation before and after conducting a certain research

According to Dornyei (2001b), level of motivation can be measured through survey

questionnaires which address attitudinal/motivational issues and contain a scale

assessing the participants' willingness to communicate As Hopskin (1985) suggests,

observation can be employed to measure level of motivation among students He

also points out the observation sheets that focus on students' On-task behaviour and

overall class motivation Specifically, in this study the researcher decided to select

survey questionnaires for students and class observation to see the changes in her

students' level of motivation after implementing the action because these

instruments are quite easy to apply and suitable for the situation of teaching and

learning English speaking at the university

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1.6 Previous research

Because of the importance of speaking skill and motivation in learning a foreign

language, particularly English, there are varieties of researchers who do research on

improving motivation or speaking ability for EFL/ ESL students Related to

students' motivation to study English speaking skill, Dinh Thuy Linh (2011) did

research on "Improving 11th grade students' motivation in English speaking lessons

at Vietnam-Poland high school by using communicative activities." She also

adopted an action research in which questionnaires and class observation sheets

were employed during the process of data collection The action research was

carried out through five steps which follow Nunan's action research model (1992)

She revealed that after applying communicative activities in speaking class during 6

weeks her students' level of motivation was improved significantly Specifically,

100% of them had interest in speaking English lessons, and the effectiveness of

communicative activities was at expected level

According to Nguyen Thi Huyen (2012) who conducted an action research

study on improving speaking skills for first-year English major students at Hanoi

University of Industry, role-play activities could be a perfect choice After

implementing the action, she drew a conclusion that most of her students showed

their interest in the role-play activities and their speaking skill had been improved

significantly

In addition, Pham Thanh Mai (2007) did research on group discussion and its

impacts on speaking ability of the EFL students in Military Science Academy To

make the research study more reliable she divided the 16 selected students

randomly into four groups, all of whom are at the same language level Besides

distributing two questionnaires before and after the implementation of the study, the

researcher carefully recorded group work and individual presentations on a weekly

basis for a period of two-month study The results of the study show that group

discussion has great impact on speaking ability of the students Most of them found

that their speaking ability had been improved after working in group discussion

21

Besides, there are some other researchers who do research on the effect of

discussion on students' motivation and their speaking ability such as S Menggo,

Seken, Ketut, Ratminingsih & Made (2013) They study "the effect of discussion

technique and English learning motivation toward students' speaking ability"

However, there has never been any research on activities used in discussion with the

aim to improve students' motivation as well as their speaking proficiency

22

CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a review of methodology of the study It describes in detail the

research design, the setting and subjects, the procedures, and the instruments

2.1 Research design

In order to carry out this study, classroom action research was applied Action

research according to Dick (2002) is a natural way of acting and researching at the

same time It is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be utilized by teachers in

order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their

understanding of these practices, and the situations in which these practices are

carried out (Carr & Kemmis, 1983) It was effective to use this method because this

study dealt with classroom setting Furthermore, action research is proved to have a

lot of benefits to education According to Gay & Airasian (2003), when applying

this method, teachers can investigate their own practice in new ways, looking

deeper in what they and their students actually do and fail to do; teachers can

develop a deeper understanding of students, the teacher learning process and their

role in the education of both teachers and students; in most cases, solutions for

identified problems are arrived cooperatively among teachers; teachers are viewed

as equal partners in deciding what works best and what needs improvement in their

classroom or classrooms

Therefore, by using this design in implementing the discussion activities in

teaching speaking in the researcher's specific class, the researcher hopes to find out

solutions to the classroom problems namely low motivation and low speaking

proficiency of the students

The following figure illustrated an action research's cycles which were

suggested by Kemmis and McTaggart (2000:564)

23

Figure 2.1 Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral

According to these authors, each action research cycle should involve:

- planning a change

- acting and observing the process and consequences of the change

- reflecting on these processes and consequences and then replanning for the

next cycle

Particularly, this study underwent the following steps:

● Conducting preliminary investigation

● Planning the action

● Implementing the action

● Observing the action

● Reflecting the action

2.2 Setting and subjects of the study

This study was conducted at English Department I - HUBT, located in Vinh Tuy

Road, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi Being considered as a compulsory subject at the

university, English is taught during the first six semesters By the end of the course,

students are expected to be able to communicate in English at intermediate level In

order to serve the purposes of the study as well as to facilitate data collection and

data analysis, the researcher selected a class of 14 second - year students to take part

24

in the action research study All of the participated students are from 19 to 22 years

old, and have learned English for at least 7 years They do not have the same level

of English language proficiency; some are quite good at English whereas the others

know little about the language To most of them, of the four skills, mastering

speaking skill is the most challenging This explains why many of them do not feel

interested, confident, and motivated enough in speaking classes Besides, the

researcher also invited 2 teachers of English in English Department I to participate

in examining the students' speaking proficiency through the oral tests, and one of

them took part in overall class observation during the last three weeks of the

implementation Both of them have at least two-year teaching experience at the

university They have good knowledge of English as well as the knowledge the

subject matter, and have taken part in examining students' speaking proficiency

Hence, the researcher expected that she would get useful information about the real

situation of teaching and learning speaking of the EFL second-year students in order

to improve the students' motivation in speaking lessons and their speaking

proficiency

2.3 Research procedures

Before the action, the researcher carried out preliminary investigation to

identify level of the students' motivation and their speaking proficiency Then the

researcher implemented the action through the four steps - planning, implementing,

observation, and reflection, which follow Kemmis and McTaggart's model (2000:

564) Furthermore, due to the limited time, the researcher conducted the action

study after only one cycle instead of two or three cycles that would give better

results

The following is the timetable the researcher followed during six weeks of the

action implementation:

Topic Research program

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1 1st half of

Conflict

Discussion: Conflict management

Observation - the researcher

Prepare in base groups about how to deal with conflict

2 2nd half of

Conflict

Discussion: Negotiating - dealing with conflict

Observation - the researcher

Prepare in base groups about some conditions to set up new businesses

3 1st half of New

Business

Discussion: Starting new businesses

Observation - the researcher

Discuss the elements that a good team needs

to run a new business in base groups

4 2nd half of New

Business

Discussion: Choosing a new location for the new factory Observation - invited teacher

In base groups, search and prepare information about two products

5 1st half of

Products

Discussion: Describing products

Observation: invited teacher

Prepare a product to present in class in pairs

6 2nd half of

Products

Discussion: Presenting a a product

Observation: invited teacher Table 2.1 The timetable of the action implementation For each week, the pilot teaching lasted three periods (45 minutes per period)

Students worked in different groups as well as in their base groups to fulfill the

given tasks

2.3.1 Conducting preliminary investigation

In order to find out whether discussion activities are effectively used in

speaking to increase motivation as well as speaking proficiency of the students or

not, the researcher conducted a preliminary study one week before implementing

the action The data collected from the first questionnaire and the pre-test helped her

26

to design appropriate action plan to solve the students' problems in learning

speaking

2.3.2 Planning the action

Based on the findings of the first questionnaire, the researcher chose two

discussion activities to use during the pilot teaching The activities were prepared

before each of the speaking lessons by the researcher

2.3.2.1 Choosing discussion activities

As most of the discussion activities used in speaking class have been proved to

be not effective and stimulating enough, the researcher decided to choose two

activities - debates and layout problems which are quite new to the students The

two activities are generally suitable for the students' level as well as the knowledge

from the three units including Conflicts, New Business, and Products in the course

book "Market Leader - Pre-intermediate"

2.3.2.2 Preparing the discussion activities

At the stage, the researcher designed the discussion activities based on the

target knowledge in the three units Before applying the activities in speaking

lessons, the researcher tried to provide the students with useful language and

expressions which are relevant to the lessons

2.3.3 Implementing the action

The implementation was adjusted with the English class schedule at the

university where this study was conducted The implementation of the action lasted

six weeks, and there was a three-period speaking class for each week; it referred to

the manifestation of the designed plans covering the use of the two discussion

activities as mentioned above

During implementing the action, the researcher acted as a practitioner

conducting the teaching in the class, and also an observer observing changes in

students' motivation and their speaking proficiency At the first stage the researcher

tried to gather all possible materials, presented new language, equipped students

27

with new structures and vocabulary, drilled new forms, and corrected mistakes

immediately Next, during the discussion activities, the emphasis was on the

students' input The students worked in pairs, in groups, and in class, read the

instructions carefully and worked out what they had to do The researcher moved

round the classroom, monitored the activity to see the strengths and weaknesses of

the students, how students communicated with each other, how influent each of

them was, and noted down errors in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and

communicative problems After the activity, the researcher gave feedback to the

students

2.3.4 Observing the action

At this stage, the researcher observed the whole aspects of the implementation

of the action covering the students' participation in the classroom activities and

during the students' speaking performance in front of the class when performing

their discussion for each week of the implementation Besides noticing how the

students master language elements such as pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar,

the researcher also observed the students' level of motivation in speaking lessons

2.3.5 Reflecting the action

The data collected through the observation during implementing the action, the

survey questionnaire and the post-test after the action were analyzed The results of

the analysis were consulted to find out how much the students were motivated and

whether they could improve their speaking proficiency or not The criteria of

success of the action and the level of motivation of the students in the speaking

lessons reflected the area of concern the teacher wanted to emphasize in the

teaching and learning process

The reflection was done at the end of the cycle The results of the analysis after

implementing the action were evaluated to see whether the action was effective or

not Because of the limited time, the researcher would not continue the action in the

next cycle

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2.4 Data collection instruments

In order to collect information about the students' motivation during speaking

lessons and their speaking proficiency, the researcher used two survey

questionnaires, class observation, and two tests - pre-test and post-test

2.4.1 Survey questionnaires

The researcher conducted two survey questionnaires which were designed for

the 14 EFL second-year students The first survey questionnaire with 5 questions

was chosen to collect data for the preliminary study Questions 1, 2, and 3 were to

identify students' opinions on their speaking lessons and their difficulties in learning

speaking skill The last two questions were designed with the aim to ascertain

students' interest in the discussion activities applied in speaking class

The second survey questionnaire contained 5 questions in order to find out

students' attitude towards speaking lessons in general and the discussion activities in

particular after 6 weeks of implementation (Questions 1, 2, 3, and 5), and the

effectiveness of the discussion activities in improving their motivation (Questions

4)

2.4.2 Class observation

The class observation was carried out during six weeks of the pilot teaching

The observation in the speaking class per week lasted three periods, and it was

noted down thoroughly by the researcher and her colleague The observation sheet

used in this study was adapted from Matthew Peacock (1997) in order to check the

overall level of class motivation including students' interest, concentration,

enjoyment, enthusiasm and persistence with the learning task There were eight

items in the observation sheet; each item was scored on a scale of 1 (low) to 5

(high) The observer evaluated students' levels of motivation through the total score

of the eight items; the maximum score was 40

2.4.3 Oral tests

In this study, the use of pretest and posttest was seen as the main instrument to

29

collect data about the English speaking proficiency of the students at Hanoi

University of Business and Technology A pre and a post test were used to measure

the students' English speaking proficiency before and after the action Both of the

tests had three parts which are Introduction, Pronunciation, and Discussion The

contents of the two tests were relatively the same

2.4.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test

Pre-test

The pretest was given to the class KT1713 at the preliminary stage The test

was done on the same day with the supervision of the researcher and one of the

teacher at English Department I As mentioned above, the purpose of the pretest

was to measure the English speaking proficiency of the students in the class The

students had five minute to prepare for the test After that they had to present their

speaking performance in front of the examiner (the researcher's colleague) in ten

minutes

Post-test

The posttest was given to the students one week after the action finished The

purpose of the posttest was to measure the students' speaking proficiency after the

action, from which the researcher could see whether there were any significant

improvement after implementing the action In the posttest, the students also had

five minutes to prepare and ten minutes to present their speaking performance

However, in the test, the researcher invited another colleague to act as the examiner

2.4.3.2 The reliability and validity of the tests

Reliability

To make the test more reliable the researcher - teacher invited two teachers of

English in English Department I at the university to take part in examining the

students' speaking proficiency One tested the students' speaking proficiency before

the action, and the other one tested the students' speaking proficiency after

implementing the action The two teachers - examiners tested the students' speaking

proficiency separately based on the four oral testing criteria: fluency and coherence,

30

vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation with the maximum score for each one is

2.5 This makes sure that the results of the tests are really reliable

Validity

The knowledge required in the pre-test was based on the previous lessons that they

had just learned, while the post-test used the language knowledge in the three units

that they learned during the pilot teaching In other words, the tests are quite valid

because all the required knowledge and skills used in the tests were taken from what

the students learned in speaking lessons

2.5 Data analysis

To carry out this study, the researcher used both qualitative and quantitative data

Quantitative data were gathered from the two tests and the two survey

questionnaires, while the qualitative data was obtained from the classroom

observation For the results of the tests and the survey questionnaires, percentage

count was calculated For the class observation, the researcher noted down the

information carefully, and evaluated the level of the students' motivation in the

observation sheet in each speaking lesson

2.6 Summary

This chapter provides detailed information about the methods of data analysis,

and the steps to conduct the action researcher including preliminary investigation,

action plan, implementation, observation and reflection The major instruments used

for data collection are survey questionnaires, oral tests and classroom observation

The findings of the research will be presented in the next chapter

31

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Levels of students' motivation

3.1.1 Pre-action questionnaire results

This part will present the analysis of the data collected from the EFL

second-year students in class KT17.13 Survey questionnaire 1 was used to

investigate the levels of the students' motivation before the action as well as their

difficulties in learning speaking skill The following chart indicates the results of

question 1 and 4 in the survey questionnaire 1

Figure 3.1 Students' levels of interest in English speaking lessons

and discussion activities The above figure reveals that overall 64.29% of the students did not like

speaking lessons It is apparent from the chart that 35.71% of the respondents show

high interest in speaking lessons Specifically, 1 out of 14 students (7.14%) were

highly interested in speaking lessons, 7.14% of them liked speaking very much and

21.42% felt interested

Regarding students' interest in discussion activities, there were 5 students

(35.71%) not being interested, and the other 9 students (64.29%) liked taking part in

these activities It can be seen from figure 3.1 that the percentage of the students

liking or disliking speaking lessons and discussion activities were relatively the