Các hoạt động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng trình bày tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Marie Curie, Hải Phòng

Đề tài về : Các hoạt động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng trình bày tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Marie Curie, Hải Phòng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES    BÙI THỊ ÁNH TUYẾT M.A. MINOR THESIS CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO STIMULATE 10-FORM STUDENTS’ PRESENTATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT MARIE CURIE HIGH SCHOOL, HAI PHONG (Các hoạt động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng trình bày tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Marie Curie, Hải Phòng) Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Cohort: MA 15 Supervisor: Lê Thế Nghiệp, M.A Hanoi, 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ii ABBREVIATIONS .iii INTRODUCTION 1 1. RATIONALE 1 2. OBJECTS OF STUDY .2 3. AIMS OF STUDY .2 4. SCOPE OF STUDY 2 5. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY .3 6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES .3 7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT .7 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 7 1.1. SOME DEFINITIONS 7 1.2. FACTORS PREVENT STUDENTS FROM PRESENTING A TOPIC 7 1.2.1. Factors of Foreign Language Anxiety 7 1.2.2. Factors associated with Learner’s own sense of ‘self’ and ‘language classroom environment’ .10 1.2.3. Classroom procedure 12 1.3. Socio-cultural factors .13 1.3.1. Social environment for L2/FL acquisition .13 1.3.2. Errors in social setting 14 1.4. COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 14 1.4.1. Purpose .14 1.4.2. Requirements 15 1.4.3. Types of communicative classroom activities .16 1.5. INTEGRATING SKILLS AND PRESENTATION 18 1.5.1. Important of integrating skills 18 1.5.2. Presentation through reading activities 19 1.5.3. Presentation through writing activities 19 1.5.4. Presentation through listening activities 19 CHAPTER II .21 THE STUDY .21 2.1. Aims .21 2.2. Informants 21 2.3. Hypotheses: Remarks on some problems of English learning and teaching at Marie Curie High school, Hai Phong city .21 2. 3.1. Materials 21 2.3.2. Teachers’ method .22 2.3.3. Students’ motivation .22 2.4. Methods 23 2.5. Data collection 24 2.6. Data analysis .24 2.6.1. Survey questionnaire for teachers .24 2.6.2. Survey questionnaire for students 27 2.7. Discussion of the findings .29 CHAPTER III: 31 3.1. Information sources .31 3.2. Activities in class .32 3.3. Practical tips for teachers .41 PART III .44 CONCLUSION .44 1. Summary of the study .44 2. Limitations of the study 45 3. Suggestions for further study 45 REFERENCES .46 APPENDIX 1 .I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 .V ABSTRACT This thesis is concerned with stimulating 10-form students’ presentation in English speaking classroom. Specifically, a survey will be taken on teachers of English and 10-form students at Marie Curie High school in Hai Phong city to consider how English speaking lessons are conducted and how students respond to English speaking lessons. The thesis also study students’ difficulties when participating in English speaking lessons. This thesis also recommends some practical tips and typical classroom activities which were applied by the author and suggested by teachers of English at Marie Curie High school to improve quality of teaching and learning presentation in English. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Le The Nghiep for his guidance and inspiration while I was working on this study. Research for this paper was supported by the Post-graduate Department - College of Foreign Languages – Hanoi National University with encouragements and permissions. I would also like to acknowledge the advice, comments I have received from my colleagues at Marie Curie High school in Haiphong. My thanks also go to 10 teachers and 100 students at Marie Curie High school in Haiphong who provided me with valuable data for the study so that I can have a better view of activities in presentation task in English speaking classes at Marie Curie High school in Haiphong. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their special care and support. ii ABBREVIATIONS CA: Communication Apprehension CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as Second Language FL: Foreign Language L1: First Language L2: Second Language iii PART I INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE As English has been an international language, the ability to present a topic is clearly valuable at every stage of students’ lives. Whatever the subjects they study, presentation will bring them success in English speaking classes, academic work, job interviews and their future work life – it is the most transferable of all their skills, and a critical part of their professional development. Presentation is also an important part in an English speaking class at high school, in which students are required to present their ideas in a short and simple way. This research is motivated by both subjective and objective reasons. Subjectively, doing a research on Methodology, especially on teaching speaking is very useful for a teacher of English. Objectively, the importance of English in communication is increasingly emphasized, while the present English teaching at Vietnam’s high schools seems to face with an obstacle in improving learners’ communicative competence. According to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language. Littlewood also states: “One of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language”. However, the traditional method applied at Vietnamese secondary schools does not comply with the textbook at all. Most teachers focus on teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing skills. They do not pay adequate attention to speaking and listening skills. As a result, this leads to some problems. Learners can be good at written English but they have difficulty in using it in oral communication. Besides, their English is not good enough to use in real communicating situations. Moreover, teaching and learning conditions at Vietnamese secondary schools are face with some drawbacks. A class of 45 to 50 learners is not appropriate for language teaching and learning. Therefore, a suggested solution is that 1 teachers should apply suitable classroom activities to stimulate learners’ speaking ability right from the beginning. Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the application of communicative language teaching approach in developing the 10 th form learners’ ability in presentation at Vietnamese secondary schools in general and at Marie Curie high school in Haiphong in particular. 2. OBJECTS OF STUDY Due to actual English teaching and learning conditions, so far the most widely used English textbooks at Vietnamese high schools have been applied to 7-year English course. Thus, the subjects of the study will be the high school students who use 7-year English textbooks. For the limitation of the study, it can only focus on the 10 th form Marie Curie high school students. 3. AIMS OF STUDY Fist of all, this study is conducted to emphasize the importance of presentation skill in learning English. Secondly, this study will suggest some classroom activities to stimulate the 10 th form Marie Curie High school students in presentation tasks in an English speaking class. Finally, it provides suggestions for teachers of English to prepare English lessons at Marie Curie High school. 4. SCOPE OF STUDY Due to the limit of the thesis, the study can not cover all techniques to stimulate students’ speaking ability in a language class. Therefore, it will focus on some typical classroom activities which may produce a stimulus for the 10 th form Marie Curie High school students’ presentation. 2 5. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY The theoretical background of the study is mainly based on the books and documents written by a number of scholars on foreign language teaching. This study is conducted based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusions are based on actual researches, experience, and discussions. Besides, books are used as reference. Situational survey will be conducted on the students’ learning style and motivation, their problems in English presentation tasks. The study will also be conducted on teachers’ techniques to raise students’ ability of presentation. Questionnaires will be given to analyze learners’ attitude towards presentation tasks as well as teachers’ techniques in speaking classes and needs in foreign language teaching and learning. 6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES Perhaps one of the obvious problems is the lack of students’ interest and active participation in learning activities. Traditional methods of teaching in English classrooms have focused on passive learning. This problem is probably caused by less exciting and practical activities of teachers. The questions to be dealt with are: How important is presentation to foreign language learning? What should be done to stimulate the 10 th form Marie Curie High school students in presentation tasks in an English speaking class? 7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY The study is intended to consist of three parts: 1. Part 1 – Introduction: give reasons for choosing the thesis, objects, aims and scope of the study as well as the methodology of the study. 2. Part 2 – Development: will be divided into three chapters: 3 [...]... 30 60 80 30 60 0 0 0 10 70 0 90 50 10 0 0 60 10 0 40 20 10 10 10 0 30 10 0 F (%) 10 0 10 10 90 100 (Questions 7 has more than one answer) Table 2: Data collected from survey questionnaire for students Choices (Percent) Questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A (%) B (%) C (%) D (%) E (%) F (%) G (%) 20 10 37 4 0 10 9 46 52 50 60 63 2 72 30 27 31 32 20 20 0 3 28 60 62 23 4 10 10 0 2 0 20 0 80 10 3 30 (Questions 4... reading, writing and listening Chapter 2: The study gives the data analysis from the survey of 10 teachers of English and 100 students at Marie Curie High school to make the foundation for the activities in chapter 3 Chapter 3: indicates some typical activities and practical tips for teacher to stimulate 10- form students’ presentation in an English speaking lesson and examples for illustration 3 Part... it will recommend some implications for applying classroom activities to motivate students to present their ideas 2.2 Informants The informants participating in the survey are 100 grade 10th students of two English classes at Marie Curie High school They almost come from Hai Phong city Most of them have been learning English for four years at lower secondary school However, only few students could express... students to present their ideas 2.4 Methods The survey questionnaires were used in the research as the main source of information It was conducted with two sets of survey questionnaires for 10 teachers and 100 students at Marie Curie High school The survey questionnaire for teachers consisting of nine questions was designed to elicit their views on the following aspects (Appendix 1): - The role of presentation... audience The same definition is also recognized by Longman Language Activator (1998: 101 7) – To present is to be the person who tells the people watching or listening about the different things what will happen or are happening For 10- form students, presentation is simplified and limited in a given topic In a typical 10form English speaking lesson, students are asked to make small presentations based... and teaching There are only 10% of the teachers think that it is not important at all For question 2 – “How often do you find yourself motivated enough to teach presentation in your speaking lessons?” 80% of the teachers say that they sometimes find themselves motivated enough to have presentation topics discussed in their lessons 10% of the teachers rarely do and the other 10% never do This data indicates... interested and comprehensively understand the topics, etc Consequently, the time they spend on presentation task is rather short: 70% of the teachers spend 10- 20 minutes for their students discussing and do presentation task, 20% spend 5 -10 minutes and the rest 10% spend no time for this task Perhaps, answers for question 4 – “In your opinion, does presentation teaching require spending a lot of time reading... these activities is not very high: 50% of the teachers find their students working well in groups, 20% in pairs, 10% individual work and there are still 10% of the teachers think that no activities can help their students in the speaking class This may be problems of the learning environment at Marie Curie High school where teachers have to deal with large English classes of 40 – 50 students while an ideal... believe that it is not interesting at all According to answers to questions 1 and 2, the time that students at Marie Curie High school need for discussion in presentation task is different Most of them want to spend from 10 to 20 minutes on this task (63%) while a few of them only spend from 5 to 10 minutes However, it can be concluded that almost students appreciate the important role of presentation... high school Few of them can talk about topics required in the English text book 2.3 Hypotheses: Remarks on some problems of English learning and teaching at Marie Curie High school, Hai Phong city 2 3.1 Materials The English materials used in Marie Curie High school language classes are very limited They are almost only the textbooks compiled by Vietnamese teachers It is hard for students to have authentic . động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng trình bày tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Marie Curie, Hải Phòng) . STIMULATE 10- FORM STUDENTS’ PRESENTATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT MARIE CURIE HIGH SCHOOL, HAI PHONG (Các hoạt động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng