THESIS SUMMARY DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL OF YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES AT ATLANTIC LANGUAGES AND INFORMATICS SCHOOL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN THESIS SUMMARY DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL OF YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES AT ATLANTIC LANGUAGES AND INFORMATICS SCHOOL (PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC VIÊN NHỎ TUỔI THÔNG QUA QUAN ĐIỂM TRI NHẬN TẠI TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ TIN HỌC ĐẠI TÂY DƯƠNG) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN THESIS SUMMARY DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL OF YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES AT ATLANTIC LANGUAGES AND INFORMATICS SCHOOL (PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC VIÊN NHỎ TUỔI THÔNG QUA QUAN ĐIỂM TRI NHẬN TẠI TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ TIN HỌC ĐẠI TÂY DƯƠNG) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Phạm Hữu Đức Hanoi, 201 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN, declare that this graduation thesis is original and has not been submitted for assessment elsewhere. I declare that this assignment is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion. Date: … / … / 2014 Signature Đỗ Thị Huyền ACKNOWLEDMENTS This study has been completed with the help and support of many people. Therefore, I am grateful to all of them. First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Phạm Hữu Đức, PhD, my supervisor, for his instructive suggestions and valuable comments on the writings on this study. Without him, the present study would not been accomplished. At the same time, I also give my thanks to all students at Atlantic Languages & Informatics School (ALIS) who took part in the research for their active cooperation. Last but not least, I would like to give my sincere thanks to my family, who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study. ABTRACT This research aims to develop speaking skill of young learners through Cognitive perspectives at Atlantic Languages & Informatics School ( ALIS). The participants were 18 primary school students including 10 females and 8 males aged from 7 to 10 years old. They studied three lessons a week (each lesson lasts 90 minutes) and all the learners had been learning English at ALIS for eight months. This study focused on the development of young learners‟ speaking skill at ALIS by applying one of cognitive strategies in teaching process: imagery. The author hopes that this study will help students develop their English speaking skill in a natural way through the use of pictures. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration of authorship i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 1 2. The scope and subject of the study 2 3. Significance of the study 2 4. Purposes of the study 3 5. Research questions 3 6. Methods of the study 3 7. Organizations of the study 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Concepts of speaking 5 1.1.1 What is speaking skill? 5 1.1.2. Communicative competences 6 1.1.2.1. Grammatical competence 6 1.1.2.2. Sociolinguistic competence 7 1.1.2.3. Discourse competence 7 1.1.2.4. Strategic competence 8 1.2. Young learners 9 1.3. Cognitive perspectives 10 1.3.1 Definition of cognitive perspectives 10 1.3.2 Cognitive theory on learning 12 1.3.3. Kinds of cognitive strategies in language teaching 15 1.4. Pictures 16 1.4.1. Types of pictures 16 1.4.2. Why use picture in speaking class? 18 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1. Participants 20 2.2 Data collection 22 2.2.1. Data collection instrument 22 2.2.2. Data collection procedure 23 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1. The students‟ speaking ability development 25 3.2. Influences of using pictures in the teaching learning process 28 3.3. Summary 30 PART C: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 1. Overview 31 2. Limitations of the study 32 3. Suggestions for further study 32 REFERENCES 34 APPENDICES: pre-test and post-test LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Record of students‟ test scores 25 Table 2: t-test 26 Table 3: ranking scale 27 Table 4: The score frequency gained in both pre and post test of students‟ speaking ability 28 Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English is the international language. Almost all the people from many different countries around the world use it to communicate. “English is spoken as a first language by more than 300 million people throughout the world’s population speaks English with some degree of competence. It is an official or semi- official language in over 70 countries and it plays a significant role in many more” (A S Hornby, 2005: 91). It is also widely known as a tool for international communication in transportation, commerce, banking, tourism, technology, diplomacy, and scientific research. Therefore, teaching and learning English is very important and necessary because mastering it is the best and the shortest way for us to have many opportunities to reach the success of life. Realizing the significance of this language, more and more Vietnamese people at different ages start to learn it. A long time ago, English was learnt at secondary school and college. Today, in our country education system, students are introduced to English at elementary school. According to Vietnam‟s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), by 2020 all senior high school students will have to study English as a compulsory subject. Nguyen (2011, as cited in Le, 2013) pointed out that some private schools in the larger cities in Vietnam have taught English courses to the first grade (6 periods per week). Beside the lessons at primary school, the increasing number of parents let their kids attend English courses at the private language centers. There are many reasons that parents let their kids go to study at these centers. Some want their kids to be familiar with English while the other people simply expect their children to have higher marks at school. No matter what reasons are, this statement is very praiseworthy. As we know, listening and speaking are the two most important skills and related to each other in terms of communication, but “speaking seem intuitively the most important”. ( Ur,1996, p.120). During the process of teaching English to young learners at ALIS, I recognize that teaching speaking is not an easy job at all. Unlike the usual way of learning of teenagers or adults, the very young learners are unable to concentrate for an extended period time. Therefore, the teachers have to apply activities in class to make them less bored. To help students make better in speaking activity, I consulted some methods to increase their motivation and to improve their speaking ability. These above reasons gave me a desire to conduct the study: These above reasons gave me a desire to conduct the study: “Developing speaking Skill of Young Learners through Cognitive perspectives at Atlantic Languages & Informatics School (ALIS)”. I hoped this research will be a helpful contribution in teaching and learning English to enhance speaking ability for the young learners. 2. The scope and subject of the study This study investigated the effects of cognitive strategies in teaching and learning speaking at ALIS. Because of the limit of the study, I will focus on one of cognitive strategies: Imagery through using pictures in teaching progress; the study will carried be out in English classes for young learners at ALIS; The study involves the participation of 18 learners who are attending” LET‟S GO 2” class. 3. Significance of the study: Because the study was conducted on a small scale with a group of LET‟GO classes at a language and technology school, the researcher hopes to contribute to the teaching of speaking English at ALIS. The result of the study is considered helpful for teachers and learners at this school. This study will be a useful material for teachers of English at ALIS, especially for those who are in desire of developing and improving their students‟ speaking. [...]...4 Purposes of the study This study focused on the development of young learners speaking skill at ALIS by applying one of cognitive strategies in teaching process The writer hopes to help students develop their English speaking skill in a natural way using pictures Besides, she desires to contribute to the teaching and learning of English to enhance speaking ability for young learners To achieve... on background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect data, the procedure of data collection as well as the data analysis procedures Chapter 3, findings and discussions, presents a description of data analysis and discussions With the description of data analysis through two instruments: and the pretest and post-test, I explored some interpretations of the findings The... support and encouragement become creative, independent and adventurous learners Most experts agree that teaching a group of young learners is enormously rewarding, but also demanding Harmer highlights that teachers should be able to understand “how their students think and operate” (2007: 83) As young learners have a very keen sense of fairness, teachers should avoid playing favorites and they must treat... overview of the study This chapter also provides the limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for further study Part II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Concepts of speaking 1.1.1 What is speaking skill? In teaching English, there are four important skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing However, teaching and learning speaking skill is different from the way of learning and. .. communication, and secondly, to enhance the effectiveness of communication On this issue, further comments will be examined later in the section of the model assessment Communicative competence includes (a) knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language; (b) knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g.), knowing how to begin and end conversations, knowing what topic can be talked about in different types of. .. English class? 6 Methods of the study On one hand, the analysis is involved in the process of data collection and analysis The data collected will go through analysis and yield conclusion about the subjects of the study The instruments for this process include the pre- test and final speaking test score On the other hand, the students‟ attitude of cognitive strategies reflected through the teacher‟s observing... 1.3 Cognitive perspectives 1.3.1 Definition of cognitive perspectives There are a number of psychology perspectives These perspectives involve different explanations for human behavior One of these psychology perspectives is the cognitive perspective What is the cognitive perspective? The cognitive perspective is concerned with understanding mental processes such as memory, perception, thinking, and. .. phenomenon of consciousness rather than of behavior Cognitive theory maintains that how one thinks largely determines how one feels and behaves This relates to and incorporates to all forms of knowing, including memory, psycholinguistics, thinking, comprehension, motivation, and perception Memory is an important component of this theory Much of the material learned in school is dependent on rote memorization... both verbal and non-verbal means to reach their communicative goals Chaney‟s definition describes speaking in a similar way saying that speaking is “ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1988: 13) Bailey (2005) states that “ speaking is a process of interaction where speakers intent to build meaning through producing,... rationale, the aims, and the significance of the study, the research questions, the method, the scope and the design of the study are presented The next part provides the DEVELOPMENT of the thesis with three chapters Chapter 1 presents the literature review with some aspects of speaking such as definition of speaking, communicative components; what the cognition is, some kinds of cognitive strategies in learning . LANGUAGES AND INFORMATICS SCHOOL (PHÁT TRI N KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC VIÊN NHỎ TUỔI THÔNG QUA QUAN ĐIỂM TRI NHẬN TẠI TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ TIN HỌC ĐẠI TÂY DƯƠNG) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS. LANGUAGES AND INFORMATICS SCHOOL (PHÁT TRI N KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC VIÊN NHỎ TUỔI THÔNG QUA QUAN ĐIỂM TRI NHẬN TẠI TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ TIN HỌC ĐẠI TÂY DƯƠNG) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS. speaking, reading, and writing. However, teaching and learning speaking skill is different from the way of learning and teaching other skills. Whereas, teaching reading or writing related to the text,