Using mind map to improve 10th graders presentation skill in speaking class master thesis in education

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESTRAN ANH PHUONG USING MIND MAP TO IMPROVE IN SPEAKING CLASS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TESOL Code: 60.14.01.11

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN ANH PHUONG

USING MIND MAP TO IMPROVE

IN SPEAKING CLASS

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN ANH PHUONG

USING MIND MAP TO IMPROVE

IN SPEAKING CLASS

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D.

STATEMENTS OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and that it has not beensubmitted to any other universities and institution wholly and partially Allstatements of my thesis which are not my own are written in quotation and can beshown in the list of references

Nghe An, 2014Author

Tran Anh Phuong

This thesis would not have been completed without the support of manypeople

First, and foremost I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor

Dr Tran Ba Tien for his assistance, encouragement and guidance

I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers at the Post GraduateFaculty, Department of Foreign Languages, Vinh University whose fundamentalknowledge about langue teaching and learning is of great importance to theachievement of my academic study

Finally, I should like to express the warmest gratitude to my colleagues,friends, students, especially my beloved family I feel greatly indebted to them fortheir essential help and encouragement

It is the fact that speaking, as well as presenting skill, is an importantlanguage skill, however, the teaching and learning English speaking are farfrom satisfactory What are the reasons? This study aims to investigatestudents’ and teachers’ attitudes toward presenting skill as well as theirdifficulties in learning and teaching the skill in a speaking lesson The factorsthat cause those difficulties are also stated To achieve the aims of the study,survey questionnaires for 135 students were designed and used as the datacollection tools Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed toanalyze collected results and create a detailed description of the real teachingcontext Once the problems have been identified, some suggestions for teacherand students to improve presenting skill by using mind map would be given It

is shown that students have made higher gains in presentation The result wasrecognized by post-task questionnaires done by both students and teachers Theimprovements are also seen in the class observation collections which wererecorded and then tape-scripted Mind- mapping has been considered aneffective tool for both students and teachers in learning and teachingpresenting skill This study investigates how mind map can help to solve theproblems with learning and teaching presenting skill as well as teacher’s andlearner’s attitudes toward using mind map as a tool learning and teachingEnglish

CA : Communication ApprehensionCLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as Foreign Language

ESL : English as Second Language

L1 : First Language

TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages

STATEMENTS OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Methods of the study 2

1.6 Design of the Study 3

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 Previous studies related to the research……… 4

2.1 Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills 5

2.1.1 Definition of speaking 5

2.1.2 Characteristics of speaking 6

2.1.3 What makes speaking difficult? 7

2.1.4 Aspects of teaching speaking skills in language class 8

2.1.5 Principles of teaching speaking 9

2.1.6 Types of classroom Speaking performance 10

2.1.7 Three stages in a speaking lesson 11

2.2 Presentation 13

2.2.1 What is presentation? 13

2.2.2 Factors affecting students’ presentation 14

2.3 Mind map 20

2.3.1 What is a mind map? 20

2.3.2 Characteristics of mind map 21

2.3.3 Advantages of mind maps 21

2.3.4 How to draw a mind map 22

2.3.5 Applying mind maps to teaching and learning 22

2.3.6 Activities in teaching with mind map 23

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 The research context 25

3.1.1 The participants 25

3.1.2 Textbook 26

3.2 Research methods 27

3.3 Research instruments 28

3.3.1 Questionnaires 28

3.3.2 Interviews 29

3.3.3 Data collection procedure 29

3.4 Data analysis 30

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION 31

4.1 Pre-task questionnaire for students 31

4.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward presenting skill 31

4.1.2 Learners’ interest in presenting 32

4.1.3 Learners’ reluctance in presenting 32

4.1.4 Students’ participation in presenting lessons 33

4.1.5 Factors making students reluctant to present 35

4.1.6 Factors deter students’ presenting 36

4.2 Pre-task questionnaire for teachers 37

4.2.2 Factors making teaching presenting difficult 38

4.2.3 Time limitation 39

4.2.4 Students’ unwillingness 40

4.2.5 Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 41

4.2.6 Factors preventing students from presenting 43

4.3 Post-task questionnaire for students 45

4.3.2 Question 2: Do you feel mind map easy to use? 46

4.3.4 Question 4: How can mind map help you to feel more confident when presenting? 48

4.3.5 Question 5: How often do you want to use mind map to present? 49

4.4 Post-task questionnaire for teachers 50

4.4.1 Teachers’ interest in using mind map 50

4.4.2 Question 2: What can mind map help your students in their presenting? 51

4.4.3 Question 3: How can mind map help your student to overcome their anxiety in their presentation? 52

4.4.4 Question 4: How often do you want to use mind map to teach presenting skill? 53

4.5 Some suggestions for using mind map to teach presenting skill 56

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 60

5.1 Conclusion 60

5.2 Implications 60

5.3 Limitation and suggestions for further research 62

REFERENCES 63 APPENDIX

LIST OF TABLES

Pages

Table 4.1 Students’ attitudes toward presenting skill 31

Table 4.2: Students’ reluctance to present 32

Table 4.3: Students’ opportunity to present 34

Table 4.4 Factors deterring students’ presenting 36

Table 4.5 Teachers’ frequency in teaching presenting 37

Table 4.6 Teacher’s difficulties in teaching presenting 38

Table: 4.7 Limitation of time for presenting task 39

Table: 4.8: Students’ chance to present in class 40

Table 4.9 Students’ unwillingness to present 40

Table 4.10 Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 41

Table 4.11 Factors preventing students presenting 43

Table 4.12 What mind map helps student 47

Table 4.13 How mind map help you to feel more confident when presenting 48

Table 4.14 Teachers’ interest in using mind map 50

Table 4.15 What mind map helps your students in their presenting? 51

Table 4.16 What mind map helps your students to overcome their anxiety 52

Table 4.17 How often do you want to use mind map to teach presenting skill? 53

LIST OF CHARTS

Pages

Chart 4.1: Students’ interest in presenting 32

Chart 4.2: Students’ participation in presenting lesson 33

Chart 4.3: Factors making students reluctant to present 35

Chart 4.4 Factors deterring students’ presenting 37

Chart 4.5 Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 42

Chart 4.6 Factors prevent students presenting 43

Chart 4.7 Students’ interest in mind map 45

Chart 4.8 Students’ feeling of easiness to use mind map 46

Chart 4.9 What mind map helps student 46

Chart 4.10 How mind map help you to feel more confident when presenting 48

Chart 4.11.How often do you want to use mind map to present 48

Chart 4.12 What mind map helps your students in their presenting 51

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

The English text books which are being used in many high schools now are designed

in 16 units Reading, speaking, listening and writing skills are equally focused in all units.However, teaching English by integrating four skills causes many difficulties to teachersdue to shortages of teaching aids such as speakers, video player, teaching methods…Productive skills like speaking and writing are perhaps the most difficult to teach due tosome certain reasons

The importance of English in communication is increasingly emphasizedwhile the traditional teaching method at Vietnam’s high schools focused much

on grammar and vocabulary Teachers do not pay adequate attention tospeaking and listening skills They seem to face with an obstacle in improvinglearners’ communicative competence This leads to some problems Students,

in fact, can be good at grammar, but they have difficulty in speaking TheirEnglish is not good enough to use in real communicating situations

Moreover, in speaking lessons, the students are afraid of speaking, theyfind difficult to express their ideas, discuss and exchange their thoughts withtheir friends Especially when being asked to make a speech or a presentation,they often feel confusing as they don’t how to organize and present their ideasalthough the ability to present is clearly valuable at every stage of students’lives Meanwhile presentation tasks, in which students are required to presenttheir ideas is an important part in an English speaking class at high school That is the reason why tasks aiming to develop presenting skill for studentsare designed in all 16 speaking lessons textbook in Tieng Anh 10 Presentingtasks often introduced in the post-speaking stages where free or less controltasks are offered

Actually, speaking lessons cause many difficulties to both teachers andlearners, presenting skill is even much more difficult to achieve due to ashortages of teaching and learning tools

Mind map which was invented by Tony Buzan is now widely applied inmany fields, including teaching and learning language It may help students totake note, learn vocabulary, review the lessons, and logically organizeideas… Being aware if the advantages of this tool for students to prepare apresentation, or a speed, the author do the research with the hope to supply auseful tool to teachers and studnets

1.2 Aims of the study

The aim of the study are as follow:

- to emphasize the importance of presenting skill in learning English

- to suggest ways to use mind-map to stimulate the 10th form students in NghenHigh School in presentation tasks in an English speaking class

- to provide a tool for teachers of English to prepare English speaking lessons

at Nghen High school

1.3 Research questions

The study is to answer the following research questions:

1 What are teacher’s and students’ difficulties in teaching and learningpresenting skill?

2 What are students' and teachers’ attitudes in using mind-map in Englishspeaking class?

3 What are suggestions for using mind-map in English speaking class?

1.4 Scope of the study

The research is focuses on using mind-map to help 10th form graders at NghenHigh School to present in speaking lessons

1.5 Methods of the study

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

Procedure:

- Conducting survey on the students’ learning style, and their problems in

- Giving questionnaires to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towardsmind map as well as teachers’ comments on using mind map to teach presenting inspeaking classes

1.6 Design of the Study.

The thesis consists of the following main parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale and the scope of the thesis,defines the aim and objectives of the study The research questions, methods andorganization are also mentioned in this part

Chapter 2: Literature Review covers the concepts relevant to the study:theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills, definition of presentation,difficulties of presenting skill and theory of mind map

Chapter 3: Methodology In this chapter the methodology of the study isdescribed The informants such as teacher, students in Nghen high school andresearch context are also mentioned

Chapter 4: Finding and Discussions presents and discusses findings of thedifficulties in teaching and learning presenting skill in Nghen High school and somesuggestions to using mind map to solve these problems

Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the findings and addresses theshortcomings of the study It also gives suggestions for further researches andstudies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter focuses on the literature review and theoretical background ofthe study It includes a number of important theoretical terms related to speaking,presenting, mind map and previous studies related to the research will also bementioned

2.1 Previous studies related to the research

In high school, speaking is so popular and important skills that there are anumber of researches on how to develop this skill for students A lot of technique,activities and tools are investigated and applied Huong (2013) did a research onusing story telling to develop oral skill for the 8th graders in speaking lesson Yen(2013) explored the way to use short stories ti improve speaking skill of students atpe-intermediate level In her thesis, using role play to enhance English speakingskills for the 10th graders at Nghi Loc IV high school, Hang (2011) proposesuggestions to develop speaking skill for students at high school Trang (2013)suggested the ways to use group work activities in teaching speaking for the firstyear accounting students at the western Nghe An vocational school Huong (2011)stated the Major factors affecting speaking skill of first year English major students

at Vinh University and some suggested solutions improve their communicativecompetence However, there are not many study on presenting skill which is ahigher level of speaking and a type of speaking performance despite the fact thatpresenting is one of important and essential skills to learners of a foreign language.Tuyet (2009) proposed classroom activities to stimulate 10th graders presentation.Mind map have been applied for some years in Vietnam meanwhile there are notmany thesis on this term Ngan (2013) suggest how to use mind-mapping to checkstudents’ reading comprehension There are many researches on speaking, on how

to develop speaking skills to students That is reason why there are so manyactivities and techniques used to improve speaking skill However, there is not

higher level Mind map has been applied to teaching and learning many subjects inVietnam, however, many teachers of English have not made the use of this usefultool in teaching English Mind map which may be very helpful to teaching andlearning such difficult skill as presenting, but up to now there no investigation onthis

2.2 Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills

2.2.1 Definition of speaking.

It is clear that speaking is the main and the most popular means ofcommunication of human There are many definitions of speaking: According to

Byrne (1976), “speaking is a two-way process between the speaker(s) and the

listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding.” (p.8). In this two-way process, both the listener and the speakerhave a positive function to perform: the speaker has to encode the messageconveyed in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message.And at the same time, the speakers’ prosodic features such as stress and intonationwhich accompany the spoken utterances and form part of its meaning and his facialand body movements help the listener

In Brown’s view (1983, p.19) “speaking is an interactive process of

constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” The form and meaning of this process depend on the context where it

occurs, including the participants, their collective experiences, the environment, andthe purposes of speaking Speaking involves not only learners’ability to producespecific points of language, such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary (linguisticcompetence), but also their understanding of when, why and in what way to producelanguage (sociolinguistic competence)

Chaney (1988, p.13) defines that “speaking is the process of building and

sharing meaning through the use verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”

Scott (1978, p.18) states that “speaking can be typified as an activity involving

two or more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having

to react to what they hear and make their contribution.” Speaking requires the

participating of both hearers and listeners so that they can achieve in the interactionand interpret what is said to them

Different researchers have different concepts of speaking, however, they allagree with one very important feature of speaking, that is a two way processbetween the speaker and listener

2.2.2 Characteristics of speaking

Martin Bygate (1997) point out that when we are speaking to the person who is

in front of us, he or she can put us right when mistakes are made He or she can alsogenerally show agreement or disagreement and understanding or incomprehension.While talking, speakers need to take notice of the other and allow listeners chance tospeak It means that we take turns to speak

Brown (1983) and her colleagues show that a listener helps a speaker toimprove his/her performance because being a listener gives learners models toutilize when acting a speaker In addition, being a hearer first helps the learnerappreciate the difficulties inherent in the task It is clear that giving a speakerexperience in a hearer’s role is more helpful than simple practice in tasks in which aspeaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task required.Martin Bygate (1997: p.24,25) suggested that conversation can be analyzed interm of routines, which are conventional ways of presenting information As far as

we have known, there are two kinds of routine: “ information routines” and “interaction routines”

Information routines frequently recur information structures, including stories;descriptions of places and people; presentation of facts, comparisons, instructions.Interaction routines are the ones based not so much on sequences of kinds ofterms occurring in typical kinds of interactions These routines thus can be

characterized in broad terms including the kinds of terms typically occurring ingiven situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur.

By and large, the students can be much more confident in speaking Englishwith clear understanding and governing these skills The oral skills, however, aredependent on the knowledge of language they learn such as grammar, pronunciationand vocabulary In addition, students rely on common conventional expressions forcommunicating specific meanings, particularly on the language environment It isunedited that practice in classroom might not be similar to oral communicationoutside classroom In a foreign language classroom, practice is rather simple and farfrom real life

For instance, contents of communication topics in class are decided by teacher,whereas outside classroom speakers can express freely what they want The exactcontent is unpredictable Regarding the reason for communicating in classroom,learners speak to practice speaking, to get good marks, but in real life speakers havetheir own reasons for their speech Hence, the teacher should reckon the differences

of the two situations to help learners speak English naturally and make theirspeeches sound native

2.2.3 What makes speaking difficult?

According to Brown (2001, p.270) the following features of spoken languagemay make a speaking lesson difficult

Clustering is the first difficulty Fluent speech is phrase not word by word.Learners can organize output both cognitively and physically through such clustering.There are several ways to express or to transfer an idea, information to the hearer; this

is because of the redundancy of language, which gives the speaker an opportunity tomake meaning clearer Learner can capitalize on this feature of spoken language

Reduced form, which includes contraction, elisions, reduced vowel, etc…,forms special problems in teaching spoken English Students don not learncolloquial contraction can sometimes develop a stilted, bookish quality of speakingthat in turn stigmatize them

Colloquialism, which is often used in everyday conversation in very informalsituations, appears both in monologues and dialogues If learners are only exposed

to standard English and / or “ text book” language, they sometimes have difficulty

in understanding and producing words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language

Stress, rhythm and intonation are different from language to language This

is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation because the timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey importantmassages But the fact that learners of English often find it difficult to pronounceEnglish words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress- timed rhythm andintonation patterns of spoken English

stress-The greatest difficulty that the students face in learning to speak originatesfrom the interactive nature of most communication Engaged in the process ofnegotiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do thecomplex task of choosing what to say, how to say, when to say, etc Learners arealso affected by their interlocutors’ performance

2.2.4 Aspects of teaching speaking skills in language class.

2.1.4.1 Teaching interactional skills

It is certain that the ultimate objective of language learning is the ability tocommunicate competently in that language Richard, Platt and Weber (1985), (cited inNuna., 1999) characterized four dimensions of communicative competences as follows:

- Knowledge of the Grammar and Vocabulary of the language

- Knowledge of the rules of speaking (e.g knowing how to begin and endconversations…)

- Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such asrequests, apologies, thanks, and invitations;

- Knowing how to use language appropriately

Accordingly, in the speaking class, teachers need provide their students withinteractional skill, for example, how to open and close conversations, how to make

2.2.4.2 Accuracy and fluency

Accuracy: When we say someone speaks English with accuracy, we meanthey speak English without or with few errors in grammar, vocabulary andpronunciation

Fluency: Fluently speaking means being able to communicate one's ideaswithout having to stop and think too much about what one is saying

Scrivener (2005, p.160-162) notes that accuracy is the ability to speakcorrectly without making serious mistakes and therefore a greater use of instantteacher's correction within a speaking activity is appropriate On the contrary,fluency is the ability to speak confidently without irrelevant pauses or hesitation,however, often with making major mistakes In this case, instant correction may beinappropriate and could interfere with the aims of the speaking activity According

to Hadfied (2008, p.107), learners learn to speak by speaking, which means theyneed to be given plenty of opportunities for communicating in different situationsand on different topics “To develop fluency, learners need as much practice aspossible”, which means organizing speaking lesson to give them as muchopportunity to speak as possible and getting students learners to work in pair orgroups rather than teachers-student interactions

2.2.5 Principles of teaching speaking

Output and input: when students produce a piece of language, feedback from

their interlocutor will act as input based on that they modify their output Such inputcan come from the teacher as feedback or prompters

Texts: texts offer students a model to follow, especially when they are working

on specific functions of language like agreeing, apologizing, refusing, and so on.Texts can also act as stimuli as a lot of language production grows out of texts that

we see or hear A controversial reading passage may be the springboard for adiscussion (Listening to a tape in which speakers tell a story or opinion mayprovide necessary I stimuli for students to respond based on their own experience)

Reception as part of production: in many situations, production can only

continue in combination with the practice of receptive skills Thus conversationbetween two people is a blend of listening and speaking; comprehension of what issaid is necessary for what the participant says next

Production enables reception: when students try to speak in certain situations

or within certain genres, they are better attuned to understanding other peoplespeaking in the same context In this case, oral production works in a way that helpsstudents with their listening comprehension (Harmer, 2001)

To motivate students in English speaking lessons, it is suggested that thebelow principles should be apllied

- Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy:

- Plan communicative tasks that are based on the concept of information gap

- Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work,and limiting teacher talk

- Plan tasks that involve negotiation of meaning

- Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in bothtransactional and interactional speaking

2.2.6 Types of classroom Speaking performance

Brown (1994, p.271-274) proposes six categories applied to the kinds of oralproduction that students are expected to carry out in the classroom:

- Imitative: takes a very limited portion of classroom speaking time when

learners are practicing an intonation contour or trying to pinpoint a certain vowelsound, etc

- Intensive: includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice

some phonological or grammatical aspect of language

- Responsive: is short replies to teachers or student initiated questions or

comments These replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues

- Transactional (dialogue): is carried out for the purpose of conveying or

negotiative nature to them than merely responsive speech Such conversations couldreadily be part of group work activity.

- Interpersonal (dialogue): carries out more for the purpose of maintaining

social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information Theseconversations are a little trickier for learners because they can involve some or allthe following factors: a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally changedlanguage, and slang, etc

- Extensive (monologue): students at intermediate or advanced levels are

called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, orperhaps short speeches Here the register is more formal and deliberative This type

of speaking is considered as presenting performance in the textbook Tieng Anh 10and it often focused at the post-speaking stage of a speaking lesson

These above six categories of Brown are highly valuable in offering a guide inworking out the types of classroom speaking performance The teachers shouldconsider these points when teaching speaking skill

2.2.7 Three stages in a speaking lesson

2.2.7.1 The pre-speaking

In this stage, teachers play a the central role They provide students withinformation because they know English, select materials to teach and present thematerial so that the meaning of the new language items as intelligible andmemorable as possible as while the learners are motionless So far, oral materialsare written mainly in two forms in every course book They are dialogue and prose.And obviously these two forms must be presented in defend ways

According to Byrne (1991, p.22) introduction of the procedure in which the tendifferent steps are used to present a dialogue They are:

Establish setting by using pictures At this phrase English should be used asmuch as possible,

Draw out learners’ experience related to situation

Explain some key words

Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue.

Ask learners to listen without looking at the books

Allow learners to have a look at their books when necessary

Ask the learners to listen and repeat

Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for learners to soak) andexplain difficulties

Ask them to practice( Role- play)

Ask learners to dramatize the dialogue

It has been known that this procedure is perfectly and logically arranged.However, it is dependent on the learner’s competence so some steps can be left out

It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to conduct the step ten because they aregenerally shy and time is limited Nine other steps are used to present a prose

2.2.7.2 The while-speaking

Unlike the presentation phase, in this stage learners have to do most of thetalking Teacher provides maximum amount of practice Practice is usually in theform of activities or exercises to improve fluency of speaking Pair work or groupwork are used in this phase According to Hadfield (2008, p.108) in the during-stage(also while-speaking), for preparation, speaking tasks should be set up with clearinstructions Learners work in pair a alone to brainstorm ideas and plan what to say.Learners may work in pair or groups to carry out the task While doing this teachershould circulate, listening to the learners to see how they are doing Teacher canmake note of errors and area of difficulty for feedback later

2.2.7.3 The post-speaking

Learners need to be let to speak English freely at this phase A real chance tospeak English takes place when the learners are able to use English naturally forthemselves, not for their teacher Group work plays an important part in makinglearners practice speaking By doing group work, all learners can have chance toparticipate in task Time can be saved and learners seem more confident

Byrne (1988, p.2) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability oflearners, three phases above should be followed orderly But in fact, they might not

be applied as expected due to time limitation, types of learners and materials in use.The phases can be overlapped or run into one another provided that we keep ouraim to get the learners to communicate However, teachers ought to pay attention towhat has been spoken by the students during the Practice and Production phases sothat they can see how far students have improved their speaking ability and whatmistakes they might produce

As what is mentioned by Hoang Van Van et al (2006, p.64), there are three

stages in a speaking lesson: presentation, practice, and production During the

lesson, teacher gives tasks, drills from controlled practice and then less controlledpractice and free practice In text book 10, a speaking lesson is often designed anddivided into three sections: Pre-speaking, while-speaking, post-speaking In eachspeaking lesson of a unit, the tasks are set up basing on these three processes In thethird stage – post speaking (production) tasks are constructed in order that studentsmay have free practice in speaking And the tasks often require learners to presentthe topic that they have talked in the previous stages

2.3 Presentation

2.3.1 What is presentation?

Present, as generally defined in Advanced Learner’s Dictionary by JonathanCrowther (1995, p.912), is to show and to explain the content of a topic to anaudience or to audiences According to Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia,presentation is the process of showing and explaining the content of a topic to anaudience The same definition is also shown by Maingay, S & Tribble, Ch (1998,p.1017) – To present is to be the person who tells the people watching or listeningabout the different things what will happen or are happening

For 10th form students, presentation is simplified and limited in a given topic

In a typical 10-form English speaking lesson, students are asked to make small

presentations on a given topic The speaking lesson is normally designed with threetasks:

- Task 1: Students practice sample dialogues to have a general understandingabout the topic;

- Task 2: Students participate in group discussion, in which students expresstheir ideas and get to know the others’ ideas on the given topic

- Task 3: From the ideas collected from discussion task, students integrate theideas to make a presentation This presentation will be presented by a student onbehalf of his/her group

2.3.2 Factors affecting students’ presentation

2.3.2.1 Factors of Foreign Language Anxiety

It is widely admitted by many teachers of English that language anxiety is one

of biggest challenges to learners of English especially in a presenting lesson whenstudents are required to practice making a speech or a report in front of class “Theconstruct of language anxiety plays a major affective role in second languageacquisition” (Brown, 2007, p.161)

Anxiety has been found to interfere with many types of learning but when it isassociated with learning a second or foreign language, it is termed as ‘second/foreignlanguage anxiety’ It is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon (Young, 1991)and can be defined as a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, andworry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system Is has been found thatthe feeling of tension and nervousness center on two basic task requirement of foreignlanguage learning: listening and speaking because both the skills can not be separated According to Horwitz et al (1986, p.127), there are three related performanceanxieties: (1) communication apprehension (CA); (2) test anxiety; (3) fear ofnegative evaluation Due to its emphasis on interaction, the construct ofcommunication apprehension is also relevant to the conceptualization of foreignlanguage anxiety The description of these components will lay the foundations for

the concept of second/foreign language anxiety, providing an insight to comprehendthe sources or causes it can originate from

Communicative Apprehension (CA)

The speaking skill is so central to our thinking about language learning that

when we refer to speaking a language we often mean knowing a language

MacIntyre and Garder (1991) points out that speaking skill produces most anxiety.This anxiety derives from a lack of confidence in our general linguistic knowledgebut if only this factor were involved, all skills would be affected equally Whatdistinguishes speaking is the public nature of the skill, the embarrassment sufferedfrom exposing our language imperfections in front of others

Communicating orally is one of the most studied topics in the field of speechcommunication which is the tendency on the part of some people to avoid, and even,fear Horwitz et al (1986, p.128) describe communication apprehension (CA) as “a type

of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with people”

According to Friedman (1980), communication anxiety may be specific to just afew settings (e.g., public speaking) or may exist in most everyday communicationsituations, or may even be part of a general anxiety trait that arises in many facets of anindividual’s life Learners’ personal characteristics such as shyness, quietness, andreticence are considered to be frequent reason to CA These feelings of shyness varygreatly from individual to individual, and from situation to situation McCroskey andBond (1980) found seven factors that could result in a quiet child (this can equally offerexplanation of adult CA); (1) low intellectual skills, (2) speech skill deficiencies, (3)voluntary social introversion, (4) social alienation, (5) communication anxiety, (6) lowsocial self-esteem, (7) ethnic/cultural divergence in communication norms

Communication apprehension obviously plays a large role in second/foreignlanguage anxiety People who are apprehensive speaking groups are likely to be in moretrouble when doing so in a second/foreign language class where in addition to feelingless in control of the communicative situation, they also may feel that their attempts atoral work are constantly being monitored This apprehension is explained in relation tothe learner’s negative self-perceptions caused by the inability to understand others and

make himself understood McCroskey (in Apaibanditkul, 2006: 4) labels this kind ofapprehension – which Neer refers to as “apprehension about classroom participation” –

as classroom communication apprehension

Test anxiety

Horwitz et al (1986) explain that test anxiety refers to a type of anxietystemming from a fear of failure Test anxiety is quite common in languageclassroom at all levels

It is unlucky that second/foreign languages require more teachers’ continualevaluation for highly anxious students than any other academic subject It is alsoimportant to note that oral testing has the potential to incite both test and oralcommunication anxiety

Fear of Negative Evaluation

As test anxiety is not limited to test-taking situations; rather, it may occur inany social, evaluative situation, such as interviewing for a job or speaking insecond/foreign language class the extension of test anxiety of second/foreignlanguage anxiety is seen as fear of negative evaluation It is also broader in thesense that it pertains not only to the teacher’s evaluation of the students but also tothe perceived reaction of other students as well Besides, students, when makingpresentations, may be anxious due to their insufficient background knowledge onthe topic discussed

Communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluationprovide useful conceptual building blocks for a description of second/foreign languageanxiety We also conceive foreign language anxiety as a distinct complex of self-perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learningarising from the uniqueness of the language learning process What makes languagelearning a distinct and unique process is its interaction with the concept of ‘self’

2.3.2.2 Factors associated with Learner’s own sense of ‘self’ and ‘language classroom environment’

Self perceptions

According to Horwitz et al (1986, p.128), perhaps it is language study whichcauses more of threat to self concept than any other other field of study Theybelieve that any performance in L2 is likely to challenge an individual’s self-concept as a competent communicator, which may lead to embarrassment Laine(1987, p.15) indicates that self-concept is the totality of an individual’s thoughts,perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and values having reference to himself as object Thisself-concept forms the basis of the distinction between language anxiety and otherforms of academic anxieties The importance of the disparity between the ‘true’ or

‘actual’ self as known to the language learner and the more limited self as can bepresented at any given moment in the foreign language would seem to distinguishforeign language anxiety from other academic anxieties such as those associatedwith mathematics or science

Learners’ belief about language learning

Students' beliefs about language learning may have an impact on theirperformance in class Certain beliefs about language learning also contribute to thestudent’s tension and frustration in the class Such beliefs have considerablyinfluenced on the ultimate achievement and performance in the target language Anumber of beliefs derived from learner’s irrational and unrealistic conceptions aboutlanguage learning are stated in Ohata (2005, p.138):

1) Some students believe that accuracy must be sought before saying anything

in the foreign language,

2) Some attach great importance to speaking with excellent native (L1)-likeaccent,

3) Others believe that it is not ok to guess an unfamiliar second/foreignlanguage word,

4) Some hold that language learning is basically an act of translating fromEnglish or any second/foreign language,

5) Some view that two years are sufficient in order to gain fluency in the targetlanguage,

6) Some believe that language learning is a special gift not possessed by all These unrealistic perceptions or beliefs on language learning and achievementcan lead to frustration or anger towards students’ own poor performance in asecond/foreign language

Instructors’ beliefs about language teaching

Just like learners’ beliefs about language learning, some instructor’s beliefsabout language learning and teaching have also been found to be a source ofanxiety Onwuegbuzie (1999, p.220) asserted instructors’ belief that their role is tocorrect rather than to facilitate students when they make mistakes He also statedthat the majority of instructors considered their role to be less a counselor and friendand objected to a too friendly and inauthoritative student-teacher relationship Theresearcher also reported that students realize that some error corrections arenecessary but they consistently report anxiety over responding incorrectly andlooking or sounding ‘dumb’ or ‘inept’ Young (1991, p.429) mentioned the viewthat the problem for the student is not necessarily error correction but the manner oferror correction – when, how often, and most importantly, how errors are corrected

In addition to error correction, some instructors have been reported not topromote pair or group work in fear that the class may get out of control, and thinkthat a teacher should be doing most of the talking and teaching, and that their role ismore like a drill sergeant’s than a facilitator’s These beliefs have been found tocontribute to learner’s language anxiety (Young, 1991, p.428) Recognition orawareness of these beliefs by both the learners, as well as the teachers, is essentialfor effective reduce of language anxiety in learners

In conclusion, presenting, as a kind of oral communication, is a difficult skill

to both teachers and learners of foreign language due to some certain objectivefactors lying in the language itself such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary… orother such as anxiety, social environments, classroom, procedure Speaking requiresthat learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such asgrammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that theyunderstand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguisticcompetence") It has its own skills, structures, and conventions different fromwritten language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996).Presentation, extensive type of speaking performance, requires learners’ higherskills For instance, to make a presentation, students need to not only grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation but also the knowledge about the topics and the way toorganize ideas, the way to make it coherent, logic… Thus in learning and teaching

process learners and teachers should involve appropriate activities and apply tool forthe presentation task Mind map, a tool which is widely used in personal,family, educational and business situations, including brainstorming, summarizing, or

to sort out a complicated idea, can be useful to teaching and learning presenting skill

2.4 Mind map

2.4.1 What is a mind map?

Mind mapping is a way of linking key concepts using images, lines and links Acentral concept is linked via lines to other concepts which in turn are linked with otherassociated ideas It is similar as a technique to concept mapping and spider diagrams, thedifference being that true mind mapping involves constructing a hierarchy of ideasinstead of pure random association Mind mapping uses the concept of "radiant thinking"– that is, thoughts radiate out from a single idea, often expressed as an image Branchesflow backwards and forwards from and to the central idea

Mind mapping is not a particularly new concept; the idea of using a visual

“web” of sorts to help organize thoughts, ideas, and actions has been risen for quite

a while The “radial tree” mind map as we know it was commonly used insemantics exercises long before the wide awareness of it in the 20th century It wasTony Buzan, however, that popularized the term “mind map” and introduced it tothe mainstream According to him, a “Mind Map” is an associative network ofimages and words which “harnesses the full range of cortical skills: word, image,number, logic, rhythm, colour and spatial awareness in a single, uniquely powerfultechnique”.(Buzan & Buzan 1996, p.81) He claims that a “Mind Map” can unleashthe mind’s potential because it mirrors the associative functioning of the brainwhich is radiant and holistic On his 1974 BBC show Use Your Head, he often usedmind mapping examples to illustrate how the practice could be used for problemsolving and self-improvement He then developed mind mapping software,iMindMap which has been considered as a great way to improve recall and increasethe ability to speed read Now, many people use mind mapping to enhance their

An example of mind map made by the author’s students

2.4.2 Characteristics of mind map

Four main characteristics of a mind map:

- There is one key concept, often expressed graphically as an image

- From the key concept/image radiate out branches each of which contains another key concept which is a subset of the main concept

- Attached to these main branches are other branches which represent less

important concepts

- Together, the branches and central image form a nodal structure

2.4.3 Advantages of mind maps

Like other diagramming tools, mind maps can be used to generate,visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying andorganizing information, solving problems, making decisions and writing.According to Tran Dinh Chau (2012, p.21), mind map can show the wayshuman’s brain works Mind map focuses on images, colors, using a net ofassociating It has some good points

- Being logic and clear

- Being intuitive, easy to look, understand and remember

- Being able to have both an overview and detail

- Attracting students’ attentions

- Stimulate students’ creation

- Helping user systematizing and reviewing knowledge

- Helping presenters organize ideas

Mind maps can be used in many situations such as: from brainstorming, sorting out family problems, business meetings, making notes from books or lectures… Most useful to teachers and students can be:

- Making notes from books and other secondary sources

- Making notes from lectures

- Making notes for essays or presentations

2.4.4 How to draw a mind map

Buzan (1996) suggests the following guidelines for creating mind maps:

1 Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors

2 Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map

3 Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters

4 Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line

5 The lines should be connected, starting from the central image The centrallines are thicker, organic and thinner as they radiate out from the centre

6 Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support

7 Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation andalso to encode or group

8 Develop your own personal style of mind mapping

2.4.5 Applying mind maps to teaching and learning

To use mind map in teaching and learning, students, first of all, need to get toknow mind map, its roles, and necessary in their learning and then studentsthemselves know how to design a mind map and use it effectively

Tran Dinh Chau (2012, p.23) suggests the following steps to make a mind map

Step2: practice drawing a mind map by completing a given one with missingbranches, contents

Step 3: Create a mind map (on a sheet of paper, board, poster…)

Mind mapping is an effective way to remember ideas, concepts, details, andtheir relation to each other in a quick, easy way This method can be used as aregular note taking system as a kind of big picture “bird’s eye” view of the mainconcepts of a lesson, an article, chapter, or segment of reading material

Mind maps can be used to sort out information visually They are essentiallythought bubbles linked together in relation to each other which create self-organized, relational, nested sub-topic trees They are regular in almost all businessand science books Think of mind maps as detailed relational flow charts

Mind maps can be applied in many fields, situations such as: in personal,family, educational, and business situations, including note taking, brainstorming,summarizing, revising, and general clarifying of thoughts One could listen to alecture, for example, and take down notes using mind maps for the most importantpoints or keywords One can also use mind maps as to sort out a complicated idea.Mind maps are also promoted as a way to collaborate in color pen creativitysessions A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information thatincludes a central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics MindMaps also help students brainstorm and explore any idea, concept, or problem Theycan be used f to facilitate better understanding of relationships and connectionsbetween ideas and concepts Mind maps allow students to easily recall information

2.4.6 Activities in teaching with mind map

Activity 1: Students make mind map (in group or individuals…)

With the help of teacher learners study documents and discuss and then createmind map about a topic or a certain content of the lesson In this activity studentsare encouraged to self-study and achieve the knowledge or information of thelesson, then use mind map to summary

Activity 2: Students report and present in group and then preventatives ofgroups report and present their work in front of class With the mind map they havemade, student will be more self-confident to present the topic

Activity 3: Students discuss to edit the mind map and then complete it (in thisactivity teacher may give some feedback, or correction to students if necessary.)Activity 4: Students consolidate knowledge using the completed one

Mind map can be applied in teaching and learning many different subjects.Students learn more actively and creatively with mind map In presentation, mindmap help students to organize their thinking into right and clear categories in order

to express their idea logically Mind map also helps presenters to have both holisticand detailed look on their topic as Tran Dinh Chau (2012, p.22) points out that mindmap is both an overview and detailed picture about the topic As it communicated agreat deal of information very quickly and very visually, Mind map not only alwayssupplies the information to the speakers in a logical order and help presenters showall the ideas they have intended but also helps them to feel more self-confident asthey are presenting without or less anxiety and the fear of forgetting informationand the order of the opinions to present

There is now software to create mind map as it is applied in many fields, somind map can be drawn by hand or with a computer

Whether they draw them by hand, or create them on a computer, learnersgenerally grasp the concept of mapping very quickly They can make the mapscolorful and bright almost like works of art The structure of the maps helps themthink in terms of concepts and associations, to build hierarchies of information.Since the entire subject can be captured in one map, they learn to think holistically.And the combination of words, colors, images or drawings, and spatial orientationreally gets the brains humming

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 The research context

to them before they entered Nghen High school, but the others had never been.Therefore, teacher, also the researcher, explains carefully to them about mind mapbefore applying it in teaching speaking lesson

3.1.1.2 The teacher

The English Group of Nghen High school includes 12 teachers The fiveEnglish teachers are teaching English for grade 10 are invited to participate in thesurvey All of them have been teaching English for more than 5 years, the oldestone has been an English Teacher for 10 years The 5 teachers have also worked withEnglish 10 text book several times In June 2013, all English teachers in NghenHigh School are introduced and get to know the mind map They have got to knowthe term mind map, how to use it, how to draw a mind map

3.1.2 Textbook

English is a basic compulsory subject in the Secondary General Educationsystem It aims to provide learners with a language tool to achieve knowledge ofscience, technology and to comprehend many different culture of human to make iteasier to join the international group It also helps to develop the language thinking.Further more, English can also helps to improve the teaching method, transmit thecontent of many other subjects at school English, Together with many othereducation activities, forms and develop the personality of pupils

According to Hoang Van Van et al (2006), English Text Book for secondarylevel is formed on the communicative view in which the skills: reading, listening,speaking, writing are equally focused Communicative competence of learners is theultimate goal of the process of teaching and learning Language elements such asphonetic, vocabulary, grammar are considered to be the tool to form and developthe communicative skills

The content of the English Text Book is designed on the them-based view inwhich the theme is the basement to choose and organize the content and thematerials

According to this view, student is considered as the central and the majorsubject of the learning process They may actively and creatively participate in theactivities, the tasks, which helps learners to form and improve communicativeskills Teacher, as what is mentioned in the CLT, is the controller, counselor andorganizer of the teaching and learning process

In the Syllabus for Secondary General Education, the systems of progressivemethods of teaching language are fully made use of In this, teaching materials such astext book, work book, references…are the main teaching aids Some others such as:cassette, computer, overhead projectors…are parts of teaching content The syllabus isnot only the bases to textbook editing, teaching and learning management but it alsoplay as a tool to assign the learning process, and the quality if teaching

In the book Tieng Anh 10, there are 16 units, in each of which a topic is

language focus Text books are designed with the aims that all the skills are equallyfocused and learners can practice communicative skills as much as possible.Learners communicative competences are the ultimate goal of the curriculum

A Reading: Reading lesson is often the first to be taught in order to developreading skills for learners such as scanning, skimming This also helps students toget to know with the topic and provides them with knowledge, vocabulary,information… to speak, listen or write A reading passage is often from 190-230words in length Teaching and learning process are divided into three stages: Beforereading, while reading and post reading

B Speaking: is the second to be taught, topic relating to the topic of the unitwill be presented for students to talk It is also divided into three stages:Preparation, practice, and product

C Listening Similarly with reading lesson, it is also divided into three stages:before listening, while listening, post listening Listening skills such as intensivelistening, extensive listening, listening for specific information, listening for gist…

D Writing: As being a productive skill, writing lesson is also divided intothree stages which are the same as speaking lesson A model of writing like: letter,narrative, a report, or a paragraph is often presented so that learner can see themodel, the structure and other language items to be used for their writing

E Language focus: Learners’ language competences are consolidated in this lesson

There are two main parts in this: Pronunciation and grammar and vocabulary

There are three lessons a week for each class After three or two units there is atest yourself lesson There are 6 test-yourself lesson The school year is divided intotwo terms, there are three written tests which take 45 minutes in each Meanwhilethere are 117 classes in a school year

3.2 Research methods

Nowadays, it is increasingly common for researchers to report the study onboth quantitative and qualitative findings, especially, in studies on English asSecond Language (Adams, Fujii and Mackey, 2005) Thus, in consideration of theresearch’s purposes, this study was done in the light of both qualitative and

quantitative research in which the data is collected by means of questionnaires,classroom observations and interviews of both teachers and students

Survey questionnaire is one of the most effective instruments for collectingdata in social science Advantages of using questionnaires that Gillham (2000)highlights are: less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of bias, and analysis

of answers is straightforward Classroom observation is a useful way to investigateexternal factors in L2 learning Through classroom observations, researchers cancapture a wholistic picture of the natural setting And classroom observations areoften used to supplement data obtained from interviews and questionnaires.(Adams, Fujii and Mackey, 2005) Like questionnaire, interviews can allowresearchers to investigate cognitive processes such as awareness or constructs such

as perceptions or attitudes that are not directly observable

The purpose of using questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews asresearch materials to collect data in this study is to triangulate the data and toovercome the limitations or drawbacks of other methods because one can wellsupport another which helps strengthen the research findings

The Questionnaire 2 was delivered before applying mind map into teachingpresenting process It includes 4 questions The aim of the question 6 and 7 revealteacher’s attitudes towards, speaking and presenting skill Question 8 and 9 are toinvestigate the difficulties that teachers have experienced when teaching presentingskill in speaking class

Questionnaire 4 consists of 3 questions Among them, question 14 is aimed to