adapting speaking tasks in the text book tieng anh 11 to improve the 11th form students speaking achievement at dai mo upper secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ***** HÁN THỊ VĨNH HÀ ADAPTING SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXT BOOK TIENG ANH 11 TO IMPROVE THE 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ACHIEVEMENT AT DAI MO UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL Điều chỉnh nhiệm vụ nói sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 11 nhằm nâng cao khả nói cho học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Đại Mỗ M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof., PhD Nguyễn Văn Độ HA NOI, 2015 DECLARATION I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper-secondary school” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Signature Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have benefited a great deal of support from a number of people during the time carrying out this thesis I would like first and foremost to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Prof Nguyễn Văn Độ for his invaluable and insightful comments, his deliberate guidance and wholehearted supervision without which the thesis would not have been possible My thanks are offered to all my respected lecturers in the M.A course, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến, Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang, Dr Lê Văn Canh, Dr Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Dr, Lâm Quang Đông…., for their informative and valuable lectures that have enlightened my research path of the study I also take this opportunity to express my gratefulness to the administrative staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, CFL,VNU-Hanoi, for their help, guidance and support Special acknowledgement is also given to my students from classes 11A1 Dai Mo upper-secondary school for their participation in the lessons My appreciation is also extended to my colleagues in the English division of Dai Mo upper-secondary school for their assistance and work sharing so that I could concentrate on doing the research Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family and my close friends for their understanding, love, and support during the entire period of my study ii ABSTRACT In the teaching context of Dai Mo upper-secondary school in Nam Tu Liem, Ha Noi, the adaptation of speaking tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 is necessary because teaching and learning speaking is not usually efficient The students could hardly take part in speaking tasks seriously because they had difficulty expressing their ideas though they have the desire to speak English This mini action research was conducted in order to investigate how adapted tasks helped students of low level to get more involved in speaking, as well as improve their language accuracy, fluency and complexity Oral tests together with survey questionnaire and observations was the main instrument of data collection They were delivered to 40 grade-11 students to collect individual scores before and after each of the two cycles, their opinions about speaking tasks in the textbook and their behaviors while doing speaking tasks Based on the data, the speaking tasks were adapted and speaking activities were implemented then pilot teaching was employed to check their effectiveness The results indicated that most of the adapted tasks resulted in some clear improvement in the students’ participation and their language proficiency without omitting available textbook tasks or overloaded supplemented materials Finally, some suggestions and implications for teaching speaking, task adaptation were offered to support students’ speaking skills at Dai Mo upper-secondary school iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: The students’ motivation in learning English speaking Table 2+3: The students’ opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 Table 4: The students’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons Table 5: The students’ participation in speaking lessons Table 6: Factors prevent the students from participating in speaking in the class Table 7: The students’ opinion about the way their teacher taught English speaking Table 8: The students’ evaluation of their teacher’s task adaptation Table 9: The students’ scores in the Pre-test Table 10: The students’ opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking tasks Table 11+12: The students’ opinions about the topics of speaking tasks Table 13+14: The students’ opinions about the speaking tasks Table 15: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 15 Table 16: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16 Table 17: The students’ scores in Post-test in cycle Table 18: The students’ scores in Post-test in cycle Figure 1: The students’ motivation in learning English speaking Figure 2: The students’ opinions about the textbook’s topics in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 Figure 3: The students’ opinions about the textbook’s speaking activities in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 Figure 4: The students’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons Figure 5: The students’ participation in speaking lessons Figure 6: : Factors prevented the students from participating in speaking in the class Figure 7: The students’ opinion about the way their teachers taught speaking Figure 8: The students’ evaluation of their teacher’s adaptation Figure 9: The students’ scores in the Pre-test iv Figure 10: The students’ opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking tasks Figure 11: The students’ opinions about the topic’s familiarity of the speaking tasks Figure 13: The students’ opinions about the speaking tasks’ ease Figure 14: The students’ opinions about the speaking tasks’ interesting organization Figure 15: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 15 Figure 16: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16 Figure 17: The students’ scores in the Post-test in cycle Figure 18: The students’ scores in the Post-test in cycle v MỤC LỤC DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW .6 1.1 An overview on the teaching of speaking 1.1.1 The speaking 1.1.1.1 The role of spoken English .6 1.1.1.2 Nature of spoken discourse .6 1.1.1.3 Functions of speaking .7 1.1.1.4 Implications for teaching 1.1.2 Related factors affecting students’ speaking 1.1.2.1 Context .9 1.1.2.2 Teachers 10 1.1.2.3 Learners 10 1.1.2.4 Materials 10 1.2 Tasks and task adaptation 11 1.2.1 Tasks in FL/SL learning and teaching .11 1.2.2 Task adaptation in FL/SL learning and teaching 11 1.2.2.1 The need of task adaptation 11 1.2.2.2 What is adaptation? .11 1.2.2.3 Reasons for adaptation 12 1.2.2.4 Approaches to task adaptation 12 1.3 Summary 14 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .15 2.1 Situation analysis 15 2.1.1 Setting of the study .15 vi 2.1.2 The learners 15 2.1.3 Speaking materials .15 2.2 Instrumentation and Procedures 16 2.2.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary Survey 16 2.2.2 Instrument 2: Oral tests 16 2.2.3 Instrument 3: Survey Questionnaire .17 2.2.4 Instrument 4: Survey for Response to Adaptation .17 2.2.5 Instrument 5: Class Observation Sheets .17 2.3 The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 11 17 2.3.1 Unit 15 (Page 171, the textbook Tieng Anh 11) 18 2.3.2 Unit 16 (Page181, the textbook Tieng Anh 11) .19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 22 3.1 Data analysis of Preliminary Survey (See Appendix 1) 22 3.1.1 Personal information of the students’ taking part in the survey 22 3.1.2 The students’ awareness of studying English in general .22 3.1.3 The students’ opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 23 3.1.4 The students’ evaluation of their current speaking lessons 25 3.1.4.1 The udents’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons 25 3.1.4.2 The students’ participation in speaking lessons and the reasons 26 3.1.4.3 The students’ opinions about the way their teachers taught English speaking 28 3.2 Data analysis from initial observations (see appendix 5) 29 3.3 Data analysis of Pre-tests (see Appendix 2) 32 3.4 Data analysis of Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 3) 33 3.4.1 In terms of language (vocabulary) 33 3.4.2 In terms of topic 34 3.4.3 In terms of speaking tasks 36 3.4.4 The students’ suggestions for the teacher’s adaptation of speaking tasks 37 3.5 Data analysis of Survey for response to adaptation (see Appendix 4) 37 3.5.1 Data analysis of response to task adaptation of Unit 15, delivered on April 17th, 2014 (Number of participants: 40) 38 3.5.2 Data analysis of response to task adaptation of Unit 16, delivered on May 14th, 2012 (Number of participants: 41) 39 3.6 Data analysis from while-observation 40 3.6.1 While-observation ( See Appendix 5) 40 3.6.2 Reflection .40 3.6.2.1 Reflection on adaptation 41 3.6.2.2 Reflection on adaptation 42 vii 3.7 Data analysis from Post-tests 43 3.7.2 Cycle 44 PART III: CONCLUSION 46 Major findings and discussion 46 Suggestions for further study 47 Implications: 47 1.4.1 Problem-solving: 47 1.4.2 Re-written dialogues: 48 1.4.3 Games: 48 1.4.4 Pair interview: 48 REFERENCES .49 Appendix I Appendix IV Appendix VIII Appendix X Appendix XI Appendix XX Appendix XXIII viii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study In the past ten years, teaching English speaking at school has earned a lot of attention and investment from both experts and teachers as well as learners and their communities The three main reasons must be: first, the key practical role of English speaking has received the social awareness; second, tape-recording and the Internet has enabled learners to access to native speakers’ talks; third, many methodology courses sponsored by the government have helped teachers to approach some new teaching methods As a result, students’ speaking ability has improved much in general Despite all of the above advantages, I see no much progress in the case of Dai Mo upper-secondary school, class 11A1 in particular By observing, I notice most of the students hesitate to participate in English speaking tasks Even as the teachers have managed to engage them in, their talks show some problems of using accurate, fluent and complex language Some researchers have been particularly interested in the same situation in teaching English skills and tried to improve it by adaptation (Phùng Thị Hoa Mơ, 2010; Nguyễn Thị Trang, 2012) However, most of them concluded that poor textbooks and students’ low motivation were the main reasons Whereas the students in class 11A1 confirmed that they wanted to speak English much more than reading, writing, grammar, and they found almost all the topics interesting Especially, to grant comparatively equal achievements among students from different schools, a set of compulsory textbooks have been published The textbooks have several strong points, that is task-based contexts are available and communication practice is carefully guided Considering their English scores at the beginning of the course, the writer realized that most of them were of low level, some were better but no one was advanced Therefore, she did a preliminary research, searched the Internet and read ESL/EFL studies She found that spoken discourse has its own characteristics and, thus, the teaching must be distinctive She wondered if she could help them by providing them with more language input together with knowledge background, and by adapting some speaking tasks in the textbook Tiếng Anh 11 The writer did hope that these changes would help them to have such achievements as participating more in speaking activities and producing somewhat more accurate, fluent and complex language Teacher: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Students: class 11A1 Grade level: 11th Objective of observation: What is the students’ language level? Task Work in pairs Ask and answer questions about the Asian Games, using the information from the table below Games Host country Year No India 1951 Philippines 1954 Japan 1958 Indonesia 1962 Thailand 1966 Thailand 1970 Iran 1974 Thailand 1978 India 1982 10 Korea 1986 11 China 1990 12 Japan 1994 13 Thailand 1998 14 Korea 2002 15 Qatar 2006 Example: A: When and where were the 1st Asian Games held? B: (They were held) in 1951 in India A: How many countries took part in the Games? B: Eleven A: How many sports were there at the Games? B: Six Number of countries 11 18 20 17 18 18 25 25 33 27 37 42 41 44 45 Number of sports 13 13 14 13 16 19 21 25 27 34 36 38 39 “ After I gave the students some useful language, helped them practice pronunciation, almost all of them could ask and answer about Asian Games However, after several pairs reported, they got bored with the monotonousness No more volunteers for reporting.” XII Reflection: - The matter of participation is in the course - Suggested adaptation: + Context setting: The monitor is in a Big Snake Your duty now is to save him out of that severe snake Two groups are in the race, girls and boys + The rules: The snake has 15 portion each of which has an Asian Games No If you can ask and answer correctly about that Asian Games where the monitor is standing in at that moment, he can step up The number of steps depends on your lucky numbers on the board (ranging from one to 4) that you throw at Observation 2: Anecdotal record ( In Vietnamese) Name of observer: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Date and time of observation: at 11:10, on 2nd April Length of observation: approximately 45ms Teacher: Nguyễn Thị Lệ Thủy Students: class 11A1 Grade level: 11th Objective of observation: How the students participate in speaking activities? What is the students’ language level? XIII 11:12 Lớp trưởng: Stand up Cả lớp: Good morning, teacher Giáo viên(gv): How are you? Học sinh (hs): I am fine, thank you WARM UP Gv: Do you want to play a game? Hs: Yes! Sáu ảnh hobbies có sẵn sách giáo khoa hiển thị hình Hs làm việc theo đôi, nói cho bạn biết thích làm thời gian rỗi Gv đi lại lại, hỏi học sinh: “ What is your hobby?” Hs trả lời (rất bé): “I like… ” Gv gọi số hs trả lời câu hỏi Hs trả lời giống nhau: “I like… ” Thỉnh thoảng gv hỏi thêm: “Why?” Hs trả lời khó khăn Không khí học chìm xuống BEFORE YOU SPEAK Gv cho hs học từ mới: animals, famous people, mushrooms Có tranh ảnh, dạy phát âm kiểm tra phát âm hs ví dụ tập WHILE YOU SPEAK Task Hs xem đoạn hội thoại John Xuân Xuân: Tell me what music you like John: I like love songs Xuân: Tell me some songs you like best John: Well, I must say I’d rather like Endless Love My heart will go on Xuân: Is that the songs in the film Titanic? John: Right What about you? Xuân: I like pop… Hs làm việc theo đôi, đọc lại hội thoại Hs đôi, người cầm sách giáo khoa, đọc đoạn hội thoai Task 2, người vai Thỉnh thoảng gv gọi đôi đứng dậy đọc Đôi này, hai người đứng cạnh nhau, người sách giáo khoa, đọc phần ĐÔI NÀO CŨNG NHẤT QUYẾT KHÔNG NHÌN MẶT NHAU Reflection: - Điều chứng tỏ hs không chủ động tham gia vào hoạt động nói - Hs đọc Tiếng Anh, chứng tỏ trình độ ngôn ngữ Tiếng Anh thấp - Kỹ nói đoạn hội thoại, vấn đề ngôn ngữ yêu cầu giao tiếp mắt (eye-contact) tự nhiên Gv cần rèn luyện đặt yêu cầu với hs vấn đề XIV Gv: Do you want to play a game? Hs: Yes! GV: Ai có trí nhớ tốt? Who? Một vài gợi ý hiển thị hình: - What ………………………….? - music, love songs, Titanic, pop - Is that………………………….? - What about…………………….? Lớp chia thành nhiều nhóm Các nhóm có phút để chuẩn bị: số nhóm (gv định) nhớ toàn câu hỏi Xuân Các nhóm khác gợi nhớ câu trả lời John Cả lớp ồn Đôi ba hs nói thao thao, nhiều hs khác ngắc ngứ suốt trình nói Vài hs lơ đễnh không nhớ Sau phút, nhóm người đứng lên nói câu hỏi câu trả lời nhớ Hs gặp nhiều khó khăn Reflection: Có lẽ gv không bổ xung thêm bước dạy trước thực hành để đảm bảo hs hiểu đầy đủ đoạn hội thoại biết cách phát âm ngữ điệu Task Màn hình lại hiển thị sơ đồ, coi gợi ý Dựa vào sơ đồ hội thoại mẫu, hs làm việc theo nhóm tạo đoạn hội thoại tương tự chủ đề stamp collection Collection How to collect: from friends/ buy/ exchange Where to keep: album How to organize: classify into groups Plan for future: collect more, display, exchange Why to collect: broaden one’s general knowledge Reflection: Việc gv hạn chế chủ đề sưu tầm tem không gắn với sống thực người học không tạo hứng thú cho em Sau phút: Một số đôi lên tiến hành hội thoại vừa chuẩn bị xong Các nhóm làm sưu tầm tem: giống với gợi ý giáo viên hội thoại mẫu sách giáo khoa, Task Một nhóm làm sưu tầm mô hình ô tô, cụ thể: Hs 1: What you collect? Hs 2: I collect model cars Hs 1: How you collect them? Hs 2: I exchange them with my friend I buy them at Luong Van Can street Hs 1: How you organize them? Hs 2: I classify them into cars from Japan, from America, from Korea Reflection: Hs thường có xu hướng người hỏi, người trả lời từ đầu đến cuối Như giao tiếp thực Gv nên giúp hs chuyển vai AFTER YOU SPEAK XV Hs tiếp cận với số từ nhóm từ Màn hình hiển thị bảng sau đây: Ways of agreement I think so Me too Yes, I’d love to Yes, I’d be delighted Ways of disagreement I don’t think so I’m afraid I can’t I’d love to but… I’m sorry … (because…) Reflection: Đây từ nhóm từ dùng để giúp cho hội thoại tự nhiên Gv nên cung cấp liệu ngôn ngữ trước phần WHILE YOU SPEAK HOMEWORK Write a paragraph about your hobbies Gv hướng dẫn vài câu Trống hết Lớp trưởng: Stand up Hs: Goodbye teacher Gv: Goodbye While Observation Name of observer: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Date and time of observation: at 8:45, on 17nd April Length of observation: approximately 25ms Teacher: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Students: class 11A1 Grade level: 11th Aims and objectives of the observation: to maximize students’ listening and speaking time about the important events in space exploration Unit 15 (Page 171, the textbook Tieng Anh 11) (see appendix….) After finishing the pre-speaking task with the whole class, the teacher led to Task The teacher divided the class into groups, each of which has students The students formed groups quickly Then, the teacher cast the group roles + One student was appointed as the leader: to control the speaking turns + One student was the secretary: to take notes all expressions + The others corrected to have best expressions + All the members took notes Each group discussed one event Group work XVI The leaders did not have to stop others speaking because the group members usually produced short sentences They often had to appoint those who were not ready to speak Sometimes, the teacher’s presence helped The secretaries worked hard to take notes In most groups, other group members had to help the secretaries by repeating or explaining in clearer ways Also, all of them took notes without the teacher’s requirement After about minutes, most of the sentences were completed and the correction or modification was done during the discussion The groups’ final work was to practice the pronunciation of some unfamiliar words Group work The teacher gave each group a set of cards, e.g the group who were talking about Yuri Gagarin got cards with from Yuri to Yuri 5, which were delivered to the group members at random With the teacher’s instruction all students with cards number moved to form a new group of students with different events The same to the other groups The students formed the new groups quickly No group mistaking took place The teacher set the context: “ You are now in a Press Conference on important events in space exploration You are very famous journalists In turn, please, report your event Ask any questions about the events Try to be the best journalist of the Conference.” The students started to introduce their events No students refused to talk Some students just spoke with reluctance Some spoke smoothly In the most difficult cases, the students tended to just read the notes Most of them finished their duty Sometimes, the listeners asked the speakers to repeat some words, not the whole sentences Often, they asked the teacher for translation All of the students took notes Reporting The teacher asked “ Whose speaking is the best?” All the students raised their hands with “me, me” The teacher asked another question “ Who is interested in your friend’s event?” All of them raised their hands, too The teacher changed the question again “Whose speaking are you interested in?” Most of the students said aloud names, some raised their hands The teacher asked some students such questions as “ You said you liked/Tram’s event?”, “ Why you like it?” Most students answered in short “Because it is…” The teacher guided the students to the main point with “ What else?”, “ time?”, “who?” The task finished after 25 minutes The whole class had to stay to deal with homework XVII While Observation Name of observer: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Date and time of observation: at 7:55, on 14nd May Length of observation: approximately 20 ms Teacher: Hán Thị Vĩnh Hà Students: class 11A1 Grade level: 11th Aims and objectives: + Students can talk about possible theories involved the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza + Homework can help students to solidify their language and presentation skills Unit 16 (Page181, the textbook Tieng Anh 11) ( intervention 2) After finishing the pre-speaking task and while-speaking task with the whole class, the teacher led in Task The teacher set the context: “ This competition is organized to choose the most possible theory involved the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza The winner will be chosen basing on your votes and the prize will be all the treasure in the Great Pyramid of Giza.” The students showed excitement The teacher cast the roles: “Welcome to the competition teams, the team from…” The students of the team “Vietnam”, “ Cambodia”,etc Some groups could not make a decision, so the teacher chose the first name she had heard Group work The teacher appointed the group leaders The students in each group presented their ideas following guiding questions in the textbook Some students spoke in Vietnamese, the teacher and the leaders asked them to speak in English Then, they produced just some individual words The whole groups got the ideas and made full sentences All of the students took notes Most did by themselves, some copied out their partners’ New group work The teacher went round, providing the students with ideas, vocabulary and giving feedback on their notes After about minutes, the teacher gave each group a set of card which was delivered to group members XVIII With the teacher’s instruction all students with cards number moved to form a new group of students with different theories The same to the other groups Students acted as the team representatives to present their possible theories They reported in turn Some still look at their notes However, almost all of them spoke clearly with immediate translation of some new words Other took notes carefully Some asked for repetition Nevertheless, just some mistakes were corrected, usually the pronunciation ones The teacher moved from group to group, listening attentively and responded to encourage the students No debate among the students of different theories was observed Reporting The students remain in their current groups The teacher asked each group “ Which country you vote for?” After the students’ answers, she added “ Why?”, “ What’s it about?”, etc The winner group was the one from Cambodia with votes Homework The teacher asked each group to draw a picture describing their theory at home and then present their theory demonstrated by the picture in the next lesson The students’ excitement was clearly seen and they discussed immediately The teacher let them discuss freely until the end of the lesson This lasted about minutes XIX Appendix Example for contextualizing - Grade 12 Unit 4: School education system B Speaking Task Work in groups Talk about the similarities and differences between the school system in Vietnam and in England  - Context setting: Our Miss Class has a chance to study abroad in England Her Dad likes the school system in England so much, but her Mum prefers the one in Vietnam - Work in group of Let girls be the mums and boys be the dads, the other group members are daughters - Discuss the similarities and and differences between the school system in Vietnam and in England to come to a decision Example for personalizing - Grade 10 Unit 5: Technology and you B Speaking Task Work in pairs Ask and answer questions about the uses of modern inventions Example: A: Can/Could you tell me what a cell phone is used for? B: Well, it is used to talk to people when you are away from home Now make similar conversations, using the prompts below Radio listen (news/ music), learn (foreign languages) TV watch (news/ performances/ football matches), learn (foreign languages) Fax machine send/ receive (letter/ picture) quickly Electric cooker cook (rice/ meat/ fish/ vegetables), keep (food/ rice/ warm) Air conditioner keep (air cool or warm/ when it/ hot or cold)  Personalizing: Let’s imagine that the monitor got lost in the jungle (like Tarzan) in 10 years, then all of a sudden, he appeared in your house, and he didn’t know how to use the following modern inventions His continual question was: “Could you tell me what a ………used for?”  XX Example for group roles - Grade 12 Unit 11: Books B Speaking Task Work in pairs Ask and answer about the book you are reading or you have read Note down the answers - Adaptation: Work in groups  Group roles: (appointed by the teacher) - One student: asks - One student: answers (the leader) - One student: takes note - One student: reports (the spoke man) Example for role-play: - Grade 10 Unit 2: School talks B Speaking Task Complete the following conversation with suitable words, phrases or sentences in the box and then practice it with a partner What’s the matter with you Awful/ tired/ sick/ cold A headache/ a cold/ backache/ toothache You should/ You’d better go home and have a rest A: Hello, Hoa You don’t look very happy …………………………… ? B: Hi, Nam I feel……………… I’ve got……………………………… A: Sorry to hear that …………………………………………………… B: Yes That’s a great idea Goodbye, Nam A: See you later XXI Example for ‘gap’ activities - Grade 10 Unit 15: Cities B Speaking Task Work in pairs One reads the information about New York and the other about London Then ask and answer questions about the two cities New York London Founded: 1624 Founded: 43 AD Population: million Population: million Area: 946 square km Area: 1610 square km National holidays: days National holidays: 14 days Many high buildings Few high buildings One big park Five big parks People: friendly, open People: formal, reserved Transport: convenient Transport: convenient Example: A: When was New York founded? B: It was founded in 1624 And what about London? A: It was founded in 43 A.D XXII Appendix Unit 7: World Population B- SPEAKING IV: Task 4: A talk on the problems of overpopulation and solutions: * Suggested ideas: Problems not enough food Solutions  raise the people’s living standards  exercise/ implement reward and punishment policies  raise an awareness of the problems of overpopulation  carry out population education programmes  carry out family planning programmes Useful expressions - First of all, the problem is that… - The first solution is that… - The next solution is that… - Also/ besides/ moreover/ in addition * Example: Good morning, I come from… , an overpopulated country I’m talking about the problem of overpopulation in my country and offering some solutions to it First of all,… XXIII World Population Unit 7: B- SPEAKING IV: Task 4: A talk on the problems of overpopulation and solutions: * Suggested ideas: Problems Solutions  raise an awareness of the problems of overpopulation unemployment  exercise/ implement reward and punishment policies  carry out population education programmes Useful expressions - First of all, the problem is that… - The first solution is that… - The next solution is that… - Also/ besides/ moreover/ in addition  carry out family planning programmes * Example: Good morning, I come from… , an overpopulated country I’m talking about the problem of overpopulation in my country and offering some solutions to it First of all,… XXIV Unit 7: World Population B- SPEAKING IV: Task 4: A talk on the problems of overpopulation and solutions: * Suggested ideas: Problems Solutions  raise an awareness of the problems of social evils overpopulation  carry out population education programmes  carry out family planning programmes  exercise/ implement reward and punishment policies Useful expressions - First of all, the problem is that… - The first solution is that… - The next solution is that… - Also/ besides/ moreover/ in addition * Example: Good morning, I come from… , an overpopulated country I’m talking about the problem of overpopulation in my country and offering some solutions to it First of all,… XXV Unit 7: World Population B- SPEAKING IV: Task 4: A talk on the problems of overpopulation and solutions: * Suggested ideas: Problems Solutions  raise an awareness of the problems of shortage of schools/ hospitals/teachers/ doctors/nurses overpopulation  exercise/ implement reward and punishment policies  carry out population education programmes  carry out family planning programmes Useful expressions - First of all, the problem is that… - The first solution is that… - The next solution is that… - Also/ besides/ moreover/ in addition *Example: Good morning, I come from… , an overpopulated country I’m talking about the problem of overpopulation in my country and offering some solutions to it First of all,… XXVI [...]... activities to teach other speaking lessons basing on the textbook Tieng Anh 11 to the students 6 Design of the study The study titled Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper- secondary school. ” consists of three main parts namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion In the first part, Introduction, the reasons for the. ..All of these above have inspired the writer to conduct the study titled Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper- secondary school. ” 2 Aims of the study The study was designed to help the students of low levels in class 11A1 to participate more in speaking activities and produce more accurate, fluent and complex... central to the speaking tasks adaptation With the focus on speaking tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 (the basic textbook), the study was carried out to adapt them for the students The study focuses on one class of grade -11 students, so the results of the study are not generated to all students at Dai Mo upper- secondary school 5 Methods of the study The study in fact is an action research According to. .. The adaptation of speaking tasks in Tieng Anh 11 Basing on the findings from the students statement of the way they often do their speaking activities and from my pre-observations, together with the knowledge of some teaching approaches acquired through reading, some adaptation techniques were employed to involve the students in the English speaking and make the tasks more accessible to them The tasks. .. through the adaptation of the textbook Tieng Anh 11 The study is aimed: 1 To find out approaches to adapt speaking tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 for low-level students 2 To investigate whether the adaptation increases the students participation and improves the accuracy, fluency and complexity of their language performance 3 Research questions In order to achieve the mentioned aims, the following... research includes seven steps They are: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, 2 intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up The applied steps in details are as follows: Step 1- Initiation: In the process of teaching the textbook Tieng Anh 11, the writer observed that most of the students hesitated to participate in speaking tasks Even as the teachers had managed to engage them in, their... not relevant at all 1% 6 In your opinion, are speaking tasks in the textbook interesting? a very interesting 10% b not very interesting 58% c little interesting 23% d boring 9% Table 2+3: The students opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 The textbook's topics 1 12 13 very relevant some are relevant little relevant not relevant at all 74 The Textbook's speaking activities... With the teacher’s instruction, all of the students with cards number 1 moved to form a new group of eight students with eight different theories The same to the other 4 groups - The students act as the national representatives to present their possible theories 20 + The others listen to and try to debate the others’ theories whenever and wherever they can d Reporting - The students remain in their later... of their current speaking lessons ssons The students' evaluation of their current speaking lessons 14 12 boring interesting 74 normal The table reveals that the majority of the students (74%) found the speaking lessons were boring and they did not participate in speaking 14 % answered that their current speaking lessons were normal In addition, the 12 % left were interested ested in their speaking. .. with the awareness of factors affecting students participation and language performance together with two main approaches to adaptation, the writer adapted some activities in Tieng Anh 11 to make them more communicative, suitable to her students ability in class 11A1 at Dai Mo upper- secondary school Contextualizing, group roles, roleplay and personalizing were popular adaptation techniques used in the ...DECLARATION I hereby certify the thesis entitled Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper- secondary school ... of these above have inspired the writer to conduct the study titled Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper- secondary. .. activities to teach other speaking lessons basing on the textbook Tieng Anh 11 to the students Design of the study The study titled Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the